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Kepler, NASA's first mission designed specifically to find Earth-size exo-planets, is scheduled to launch in February 2009. Kepler will monitor the brightness of stars to find planets that pass in front of them during the planets' orbits. During such passes or 'transits,' the planets will slightly decrease the star's brightness. Measuring this brief dimming will help scientists detect Earth-size and larger planets in or near the habitable zone, where liquid water can exist on the planet's surface.
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How do you weigh the biggest black holes in the universe? Astronomers have been seeking different, independent ways of precisely weighing the largest supermassive black holes -- those that are billions of times more massive than the sun. Until now, methods based on observing the motions of stars or of gas in a disk near such large black holes have been used.
An alternative method now comes from a completely new and independent technique that astronomers at the University of California - Irvine have developed using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
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Following a detailed assessment, NASA has selected target launch dates for the remaining eight space shuttle missions in 2009 and 2010. The agency is committed to retiring the shuttle fleet as transition continues to a new family of launch vehicles, including Ares and Orion.
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By studying the distribution of chemical elements in planetary nebulae in the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies, astronomers at Williams College, the University of Washington, and the University of Oklahoma are uncovering patterns of chemical enrichment that yield clues to how spiral galaxies form and how they develop. Spectral lines from the light emitted by planetary nebulae can be analyzed to determine properties such as chemical composition, temperature, and density.
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McGill University Astronomers have measured an effect, predicted by Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, in the extremely strong gravity of a pair of superdense Pulsars. Essentially, the famed physicist's 93-year-old theory has passed yet another test.
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It exploded over Siberia – this object from space – and leveled 2,000 square kilometers of forest, flattening pine trees like matchsticks. June 30, 2008 marked the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska event, the day in 1908 when an asteroid or comet entered Earth’s atmosphere and, in effect, fired an astronomical warning shot across our bow. The fireball that laid waste a vast swath of forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Russia was most likely exploded before it reached the ground. Such an explosion today over New York, Paris, or Beijing could level the entire city, killing millions. How prepared is Earth today to avoid disaster from the skies?
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Astronomers recently announced that they have found a novel explanation for a rare type of super-luminous stellar explosion that may have produced a new type of object known as a quark star. A quark star is a hypothetical type of star composed of ultra dense quark matter. Quarks are the fundamental components of protons and neutrons, which make up the nucleus of atoms. The most dense objects known to exist today are neutron stars -- stars composed entirely of tightly packed neutrons. Quark stars would be produced when neutron stars collapse even further.
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In what's beginning to look like a case of planetary measles, a third red spot has appeared alongside its cousins — the Great Red Spot and Red Spot Jr. — in the turbulent Jovian atmosphere. This third red spot, which is a fraction of the size of the two other features, lies to the west of the Great Red Spot in the same latitude band of clouds. The visible-light images were taken with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.
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An idea created with good "spirits"! Once we started spreading the word about Julian Starfest, the excitement grew. We’ve gotten a lot of enthusiasm from the astronomical community, and guest speakers are lining up to speak during the day. At this time, our speaker line-up includes Scott Kardel of Palomar, Lisa Bruhn of the IDA, Dr. Paul Etzel of Mount Laguna Observtory, and many more.
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Scientists confirm the presence of water ice near the surface near NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander and anticipate even bigger discoveries from the robotic mission in the weeks ahead. Is it possible that the Martian ice caps that we have been observing all these years from our backyards is really ice? Apparently so.
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