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    Category Astronomy/Space

    ATLASGAL Survey of Milky Way completed

    February 24, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This part image of the Milky Way has been released to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). The APEX telescope in Chile has mapped the full area of the Galactic Plane visible from the southern hemisphere for the first time at submillimeter wavelengths -- between infrared light and radio waves -- and in finer detail than recent space-based surveys. The APEX data, at a wavelength of 0.87 millimeters, shows up in red and the background blue image was imaged at shorter infrared wavelengths by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope as part of the GLIMPSE survey. The fainter extended red structures come from complementary observations made by ESA's Planck satellite. The full-resolution image is available on the ESO web page: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1606a/ Credit: ESO/APEX/ATLASGAL consortium/NASA/GLIMPSE consortium/ESA/Planck

    This part image of the Milky Way has been released to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). The APEX telescope in Chile has mapped the full area of the Galactic Plane visible from the southern hemisphere for the first time at submillimeter wavelengths — between infrared light and radio waves — and in finer detail than recent space-based surveys. The APEX data, at a wavelength of 0.87 millimeters, shows up in red and the background blue image was imaged at shorter infrared wavelengths by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope as part of the GLIMPSE survey. The fainter extended red structures come from complementary observations made by ESA’s Planck satellite. The full-resolution image is available on the ESO web page: https://www.eso...

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    Cassini Captures Group Photo of Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas

    February 23, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Image: Cassini captures group photo of Tethys, Enceladus and Mimas

    Three of Saturn’s moons, Tethys, Enceladus and Mimas, taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on December 3, 2015 is shown in this NASA image released on February 22, 2016. © NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute / Reuters

    Tethys (660 miles or 1,062 kilometers across) appears above the rings, while Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across) sits just below center. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across) hangs below and to the left of Enceladus. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 0.4 degrees above the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 3, 2015.

    The view was acquired at a distance of ~837,000 miles from Enceladus, with an image scale of 5 miles per ...

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    Multiple Cosmic Impacts 790,000 Years Ago

    February 23, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Tektites of different shapes from Australia. The force of the impact hurled the glass bodies thousands of kilometres. Some left the earth's atmosphere and acquired their flanged edge on re-entry into the atmosphere (bottom left). Credit: © Institute of Earth Sciences, Heidelberg University

    Tektites of different shapes from Australia. The force of the impact hurled the glass bodies thousands of kilometres. Some left the earth’s atmosphere and acquired their flanged edge on re-entry into the atmosphere (bottom left). Credit: © Institute of Earth Sciences, Heidelberg University

    ~790,000 years ago there were multiple cosmic impacts on Earth with global consequences. Geoscientists from Heidelberg University reached this conclusion after dating tektites from various parts of the world and studied several of such rock glasses, which originated during impacts of asteroids or comets. The dating method is based on naturally occurring isotopes that allowed them to date tektites more accurately than ever...

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    Scientists measure Methyl Alcohol emission from Comet C/2012 K1 (PanSTARRS)

    February 22, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Scientists measure methyl alcohol emission from comet C/2012 K1 (PanSTARRS)

    NEOWISE series of infrared images of comet C/2012 K1 (PanSTARRS) on May 20, 2014. Credit: NASA/JPL

    An international team of researchers led by Martin Cordiner of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has conducted measurements of H3OH (methanol) emission from comet C/2012 K1 (PanSTARRS) that could yield invaluable information about cometary compositions and provide insights on the formation of our solar system.

    ALMA, thanks to its unprecedented resolution and sensitivity, was previously used to study the distributions of HCN (hydrogen cyanide), HNC (hydrogen isocyanide) and H2CO (formaldehyde) in the inner comae of comets C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) and C/2012 S1 (ISON)...

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