| | 10 new stories for 2016/02/16
Carnival of Space #444 
Welcome, come in to the 444th Carnival of Space! The carnival is a community of space science and astronomy writers and bloggers, who submit their best work each week for your benefit. I'm Susie Murph, part of the team at Universe Today and now, on to this week's stories! Our first stop is over at Aartscope, where Astroswanny continues a series of articles on Asteroid Astrometry, virtual impactors and the uncertainty parameter pending the close approach of 2013 TX68 on March 5th.Next, at Planetaria, they explore the 'Cauliflower' silica formations on Mars: are they evidence of ancient life?Then Ryan Marciniak tells us that seeing an aurora means the Sun isn't killing you. The harmful radiation from our life giving star could destroy all surface life, but Earth protects us and gives us a lovely glow to keep us entertained in the process.Next, we jump over to an unusual place for a timely topic - we head over to the Daily Beast for Kimberly Arcand's and Megan Watzke's An op-ed on women in STEM.Then we head over to the Venus Transit, to read about the The Winter Hexagon shines in the sky.Finally, we come back to my home, Universe Today, to read about Rosetta's Philae Lander permanently going to sleep after it finished it's mission to the Comet 67-P.That's it for this week's Carnival! See you all next time!And if you're interested in looking back, here's an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you've got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to carnivalofspace@gmail.com, and the next host will link to it. It will help get awareness out there about your writing, help you meet others in the space community – and community is what blogging is all about. And if you really want to help out, sign up to be a host. Send an email to the above address. The post Carnival of Space #444 appeared first on Universe Today.
Messier 3 (M3) – The NGC 5272 Globular Cluster 
During the late 18th century, Charles Messier began to notice a series of "nebulous" objects in the night sky which he originally mistook for comets. With the hope of preventing other astronomers from making the same mistake, he began compiling a list of these in what would come to be known as the Messier Catalog. Consisting of 100 objects, the catalog became an important milestone in the discovery and research of Deep Sky objects.One such object is Messier Object 3 (aka. M3 or NGC 5272) globular cluster that is located in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. Since it was first observed, this globular star cluster has gone on to become one of the best-studied objects in the night sky, and is considered by many amateur astronomers to be one of the finest visible clusters. Description: M3 is one of the largest and brightest star clusters, and is made up of around 500,000 stars. It is located at a distance of about 33,900 light-years from Earth, the cluster spans about 220 light-years. It is estimated to be 8 billion years old, making M3 one of the oldest formations in our galaxy. To put that in perspective, this nebula was already half its current age when our own Sun was formed.Despite the fact that it is farther from us than the center of our own galaxy, M3 is visible with just the slightest of optical aid. This is largely because it contains 274 known variable stars, which is by far the highest number found in any globular cluster. It contains at least 133 RR Lyrae variables - along with a surprising number of Blue Straggler Stars - blue main-sequence stars which appear youthful.Since all stars in globular clusters are believed to be about the same age, it is possible these stars have had their outer layers stripped away while passing through the dense core region of M3. Messier 3 also commands about 760 light years of space - meaning that it keeps all stars within that distance tied to its rich core. The overall abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium, Messier also has a relatively high abundance of heavier elements - making it "metal-rich". History of Observation: Oddly enough, when Charles Messier first noticed this object - on May 3rd, 1764 - it was only the 76th Deep Sky Object ever seen by human eyes (with the assistance of telescopes, that is). Although Charles had logged his previous two discoveries (the M1 "Crab Nebula" and the globular cluster M2) it was this third object that prompted him to begin his now famous catalog of 'objects that are not comets'.As Messier recorded at the time in in his notes: "On May 3, 1764, when working on a catalog of the nebulae, I have discovered one between Bootes and one of the Hunting Dogs [Canes Venatici] of Hevelius, the southernmore of the two, exactly between the tail and the paws of this Dog, according to the charts of Flamsteed. I have observed that nebula on the meridian, and I compared with Mu Bootis; its right ascension has been found as 202d 51' 19", and its declination as 29d 32' 57" north. That nebula which I have examined with a Gregorian telescope of 30 pouces focal length, which magnifies 104 times, doesn't contain any star; the center is brilliant, and the light gets lost fading [outward]; it is round, and could have 3 minutes of arc in diameter. One can see it in a good sky with an ordinary [nonachromatic] refractor of one foot [FL] , it doesn't contain any star, its center is brilliant, and its light is gradually fading away, it is round; in a beautiful [dark] sky." And as with other objects recorded by Messier, it was Sir William Herschel who first resolved the M3 into stars. As he recorded in his own observational notes: "To these may added the 1st, 3d [M3], 27, 33, 57, 79, 81, 82, 101 [of Messier's catalog], which in my 7, 10, and 20-feet reflectors shewed a mottled kind of nebulosity, which I shall call resolvable; so that I expect my present telescope will, perhaps, render the stars visible of which I suppose them to be composed..." But none described it more eloquently than Admiral William Henry Smyth - an English astronomer and naval officer. As he wrote: "A brilliant and beautiful globular congregation of not less than 1000 small stars, between the southern Hound and the knee of Bootes; it blazes splendidly towards the centre, and has outliers in all directions, except the sf [south following; SE], where it is so compressed that, with its stragglers, it has something of the figure of the luminous oceanic creature called Medusa pellucens. This noble object is situated in a triangle formed by three small stars in the np [north preceding; NW], nf [north following; NE], and sf [south following, SE] quadrabts, which, by their comparative brightness, add to the beauty of the field. It is nearly in mid-distance between the Arcturus star and Cor Caroli, at 11deg north-west of the former star. This mass is one of those balls of compact and wedged stars, whose laws of aggregation it is so impossible to assign; but the rotundity of figure gives full indication of some general attractive bond of union." Locating Messier 3: For binoculars, the easiest way to discover this ancient beauty is to look about halfway between the pair of Arcturus and Cor Caroli, just east of Beta Comae. Many times, just starting at Arcturus and sweeping slowly up towards Cor Caroli is enough! If you still have trouble, locate the Coma Berenices star cluster (Melotte 111) and look east about a fist width.You'll find it 6 degrees north-northeast of Beta Comae and it will show very easily in the finderscope. In binoculars of all sizes and even under urban lighting conditions, Messier 3 is very bright and will begin to show some signs of resolution with larger models, such as 10X50. Even small telescopes will see individual stars come to life and it will explode into a fine, pinpoint mass in telescopes as small as 6".And for your convenience, here are the vital statistics on M3, aka NGC 5272: Object Name: Messier 3 Alternative Designations: NGC 5272 Object Type: Class VI Globular Cluster Constellation: Canes Venatici Right Ascension: 13 : 42.2 (h:m) Declination: +28 : 23 (deg:m) Distance: 33.9 (kly) Visual Brightness: 6.2 (mag) Apparent Dimension: 18.0 (arc min)As always, good luck with your search, and may your observations be rich!We have written many interesting articles on Messier Objects here at Universe Today. For instance, here's Tammy Plotner's Introduction to the Messier Objects, M1 – The Crab Nebula, and David Dickison's articles on the 2013 and 2014 Messier Marathons.Be to sure to check out our complete Messier Catalog.For more information, check out the SEDS Messier Database. The post Messier 3 (M3) – The NGC 5272 Globular Cluster appeared first on Universe Today.
Rosetta's Philae Lander in Permanent Sleep 
ESA's Philae lander, the first spacecraft to successfully soft-land on the surface of a comet and former piggyback partner to Rosetta, has not been in communication since July of 2015 and, with 67P now six months past perihelion and heading deeper out into the Solar System, it's not likely it will ever be heard from again. On Nov. 12, 2014, after over ten years traveling across the Solar System, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft successfully sent the Philae lander down onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, at the time located 316 million miles (508 million km) from Earth.While Philae's mission was deemed a success—80% of its primary science data were returned—its historic landing didn't go without a few hitches. Philae did touch down on 67P almost exactly on target but its comet-gripping harpoons failed to fire, causing the washing machine-sized robot to bounce off the comet's surface...twice.Philae's actual landing spot ended up being over 1,200 meters away on a slope in a heavily-shadowed location, limiting the amount of sunlight that could reach its solar panels. After a flurry of scientific activity following touchdown, the lander's main battery was depleted and it entered a hibernation mode for several months.Warming up in June 2015 as the comet neared the Sun, Philae was able to once again communicate with Rosetta in orbit, but only intermittently. Very little data from Philae was received and, since July 9, 2015, the lander has remained silent.Repeated attempts to signal Philae via Rosetta have produced no results."The chances for Philae to contact our team at our lander control center are unfortunately getting close to zero," said Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager at the German Aerospace Center, DLR, in a Feb. 12 news release. "We are not sending commands any more and it would be very surprising if we were to receive a signal again."Mission engineers suspect Philae's transmitters and receivers may have failed, and the lander could also have been shifted to an even darker, dustier location by increased activity on the comet during perihelion. "The chances for Philae to contact our team at our lander control center are unfortunately getting close to zero." — Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager, DLR "We would be very surprised to hear from Philae again after so long, but we will keep Rosetta's listening channel on until it is no longer possible due to power constraints as we move ever further from the Sun towards the end of the mission," said Patrick Martin, ESA's Rosetta mission manager. Find out where Rosetta and 67P are right now.In August 2016 Rosetta will be moved into highly elliptical orbits around comet 67P, bringing it very close to the surface where it can gather high-resolution images and data from close proximity before making a controlled "Grand Finale" impact on Sept. 30.Even if we never hear from Philae again, it and Rosetta's mission will always be remembered as an incredible success."The combined achievements of Rosetta and Philae, rendezvousing with and landing on a comet, are historic high points in space exploration," said Martin. Source: ESAThe post Rosetta’s Philae Lander in Permanent Sleep appeared first on Universe Today.
Watch the Moon Beat a Path Across the Hyades Tonight 
"Once more, unto the breech..." Ready to brave the February cold and the ongoing arctic polar express? Tonight, North American skywatchers will witness an encore event, as the waxing gibbous Moon crosses the Hyades star cluster and – for a lucky few — occults the bright star Aldebaran.This occultation is number 15 in a current series of 36 of Aldebaran by the Moon, running from January 29th, 2015 to September 12th, 2017. The Moon occults the bright star once for every lunation in 2016, though the event is only visible across a narrow footprint along the surface of the Earth. Tonight's occultation sees the 'shadow of the Moon' cast by +0.9 magnitude Aldebaran cross a wide arc of the northern Pacific. In the United States, the graze line runs from around Seattle Washington to Salt Lake City Utah, down to around Phoenix Arizona. The western U.S. will witness the occultation in the early morning hours centered around 8:00 UT/1:00 AM MST, while Japan and the Far East will catch the event before sunset. The Aleutian Islands will see a spectacular graze of Aldebaran along the limb of the 61% illuminated Moon, low towards the southern horizon.The rest of North America will see the Moon closing in on Aldebaran this evening just before moonset around 1 AM local. But don't despair, the Moon occults lots of fainter stars as it traverses the Hyades, including +4th magnitude Gamma Tauri and the +3rd magnitude stars Theta Tauri^1 and ^2. Though Aldebaran lies in the direction of the Hyades star cluster, it's actually 42% closer to the Earth at 65 light years distant. You can find a listing of timings for the ingress and egress for tonight's event for selected major cities along the U.S. West Coast on the International Occultation Timing Association's (IOTA) site for the event. IOTA North American coordinator Brad Timerson just released a video compilation for the January 20th occultation of Aldebaran by the Moon:In the current epoch, four bright stars lie in the path of the Moon: Regulus, Spica, Antares and Aldebaran. About two centuries ago, the Moon could also occult Pollux in the constellation Gemini as well. Lying about five degrees south of the ecliptic, the Moon frequently visits Aldebaran and the Hyades on 'shallow years' such as 2015 into 2016. This is also known as a minor lunar standstill. Hillier years, such as 2025, will see the orbit of the Moon steeply inclined versus the ecliptic, allowing it to visit the Pleiades star cluster once again. Sometime thousands of years in the far future, the 26,000 year cycle known as the Precession of the Equinoxes will carry the Moon's path away from Aldebaran, and farther in time still, back towards it again.Aldebaran is most prominent during the ingress phase along the Moon's leading dark limb. We even managed to see the star near the Moon with binoculars last month ten minutes before local sunset from Ormond Beach, Florida. The 'wink out' of a star during ingress is surprisingly swift, a rarity in astronomical observing, a pursuit where many events exceed mere human life spans. Recording an occultation of a bright star by the Moon is as simple as coupling a video recorder to a telescope and recording the event at the appointed time. Aldebaran is bright enough to show up along the dark limb of the Moon even in a smartphone capture. Be sure to start setting up an hour or so early to get your tracking, focus and exposure settings right... just don't drain those batteries out in the frigid air before showtime! The swiftness of an occultation also makes it a very appropriate event for that hip new short attention span platform, Vine.As well as being the closest open cluster to our solar system, the Hyades also have another important distinction: the large common proper motion of its members allowed astronomer Lewis Boss to trace their relative motion back to a converging point in space, a key early measurement of local galactic motion made just over a century ago in 1908. Tonight's sky provides a good study in the motion of all things, near and far. A good reason to brave the chill! The post Watch the Moon Beat a Path Across the Hyades Tonight appeared first on Universe Today.
Was The Big Bang Just A Black Hole? Fraser “Asks a Spaceman” Dr. Paul Matt Sutter – why do we call the Big Bang a singularity, when we also call black holes singularities?
The Universe is filled with coincidences. Like the size of the Moon and the Sun in the sky, even though they're so far apart. Or the shape of the Pac Man Nebula or the Wizard Nebula. Or like the plot of Force Awakens and every other Star Wars movie, the coincidences are everywhere. But here's a pretty strange coincidence, and it has to do with the nature of the Universe itself. Follow along with me here. Let's consider black holes, a topic we've covered many times on this channel. If you've watched enough of our videos, you know a black hole is a region of space where matter and energy have been mashed so densely that the gravitational escape velocity exceeds the speed of light.  Black Hole We don't know how big black holes are, but it's possible that they've crushed down into an infinitely dense region, known as a singularity. Singularity, singularity… where have we heard that word before? Apart from Ray Kurzweil and his crew of technological singularitarians. That word comes up when we discuss the formation of the Universe; the Big Bang. Back at the beginning, 13.8 billion years ago, everything in the entire Universe was crushed down into a region of infinite density. And then, in a fraction of a second, everything expanded outward. Astronomers call this region of infinite density the Big Bang singularity. This can't just be a coincidence, right? It's the same word. It's the SAME WORD! Was the Big Bang singularity just a really big black hole singularity? A black hole with all the mass of the Universe inside it? I'm going to admit, this question is a little beyond my paygrade. To fully explain the science, I thought I'd bring in a ringer. Dr. Paul Matt Sutter is an astrophysicist with Ohio State University and the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste.  Galactic Black Hole with Optical Jet Paul specializes in cosmic voids, he also knows plenty about both the Big Bang and black holes. I've reached Paul on the set of his Ask a Spaceman podcast, and thrown this zinger right at him. Hey Paul, what's the difference between the singularity that formed the Big Bang and a black hole singularity? 1. Did the whole Universe start off from a really massive black hole?
Paul: Thanks, Fraser. So, when we’re looking at singularities, it’s important to keep in mind what a singularity is. A singularity is a place of infinite density, and that’s not really a thing. It just means that the mathematics that we’re using to describe the thing have broken down. Like we get infinities in our answers when we try to calculate what’s going on. In as far as we know, these kinds of things, these breakdowns in the mathematics, happen in two places. One is at the center of a black hole, where stuff is compressed down so much that we can’t follow the math anymore, and the other time is in the very early universe, when the entire universe is crunched down into such a tiny volume at such high densities that we can’t follow the math any more. So that’s the only thing that they have in common – that there’s a singularity, which means that we can’t do the math any more.  A black hole. Image credit: NASA Paul: And so even though they’re the same, they’re very, very different. A black hole singularity is a point in spacetime – like you live in the universe and you can point – there’s a singularity like right over there, or over there or over there. It’s a piece of the universe that’s embedded in the larger universe, whereas the Big Bang singularity is the whole entire universe. It’s a different thing where the entire universe is compacted down at such incredibly high densities that our mathematics can’t keep track of it any more. 2. Why didn't the early universe just collapse back into a black hole?
Paul: Oh, that’s a very good question, Fraser. You’re thinking about these incredibly high densities in the early universe, and it’s natural to wonder why it didn’t just behave like a black hole behaves and crunch down into an infinitely dense point – why even bother expanding? And it’s important to remember here just how different black holes are from the early universe. In both cases, we’re using general relativity – these are the laws of gravity – they govern the laws of these systems. But we’re using the same set of equations in different scenarios. We’re using them to describe different things. A black hole is a particular solution to Einstein’s equations of general relativity, and that solution comes about from asking the question “If I take a bunch of stuff over there and compact it down to incredibly high densities, what happens?” The answer is that you get a singularity surrounded by an event horizon. That’s one particular set of solutions to the mathematics of that scenario.  Black Hole Grabs Starry Snack Paul: But in the early universe, we have a different solution – we have a different thing going on. It’s a different universe. The black hole solution is static – it’s fixed, it’s unchanging with time. That’s an assumption in the mathematics. But in the early universe, things are changing. It’s a different set of questions we’re trying to answer when we apply general relativity to the early universe is “If I fill the whole universe evenly with a whole bunch of stuff, what does the whole universe do?” That’s a different question than the question we’re asking about black holes, and so we get a different answer. So even though we have that incredibly high density, the mathematical solution describing it, because we’re describing the time evolution of the universe, we get different answers than we get for the black hole bits. And when it comes to the early universe – when you fill it up evenly with a bunch of stuff and ask what the heck happens to the universe, there’s only two answers. Either the stuff in the universe causes the stuff to collapse and contract, or the stuff in the universe causes the universe to expand. And it depends on what the universe is made of, and it turns out, handily enough, that the universe is made of the kind of stuff that makes it expand. It’s that time evolution component here that’s important – that sets the difference between what’s happening in the early universe and what’s happening in a black hole.  This artist’s conception illustrates one of the most primitive supermassive black holes known (central black dot) at the core of a young, star-rich galaxy. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 3. Could Black holes have formed in the Early Universe because it has such high densities?
Paul: Oh yeah, very clever, Fraser. I see where you’re going with that. With incredibly high densities, you’re wondering maybe a little piece of the universe pinched off and made a black hole. Maybe in those early microseconds. And why couldn’t that black hole have expanded to consume the rest of the universe? And the key here isn’t about density, it’s about differences in density. What separates a black hole from me is that it’s way more dense than me, or at least I hope so. That’s what makes it a black hole. It’s much more dense than it’s surroundings. But in order to make that black hole form, you had to have a little bit of extra stuff like in a pocket, like an extra gas cloud or a star, a little bit higher density than normal. Then gravity can work, and start pulling in more stuff, and more stuff, and more, building and building until you get the gravitational collapse that leads to a black hole. 
Paul: But in the early universe, everything was uniform. There were no differences in gravity. Yeah, it was incredibly high density, but if you could be transported back there and actually survive, you wouldn’t feel any gravitational pull anywhere because every direction is the same density. You’re surrounded by the same amount of stuff in every direction – there’s no gravity. It all cancels each other out. So there’s no opportunity for a black hole to form because any one spot in the universe is no more dense than any other, so all the gravity cancels out and you get nothing. No black hole – they don’t come onto the scene until much, much later in the evolution of the universe, and by that time, the universe is so big, the black holes can’t affect the overall evolution.  Top-down illustration of a black hole 4. Right now the universe is expanding – will it someday collapse? Paul: Yeah, a lot of astrophysicists and cosmologists worry about this decades ago – we thought that yeah, maybe the universe is expanding now, but maybe there’s a little bit too much stuff in it – maybe that expansion will slow down, stop and then reverse, and then we’d end up in this massive big crunch scenario, the opposite of the Big Bang. Paul: But it turns out, dark energy is here, and dark energy makes the expansion of the universe accelerate, so not only is the universe getting bigger and bigger every day, it’s getting faster and faster every single day. And that, well, that kinda sucks. That sounds pretty open and shut, but there's more to this journey. If you took the mass and energy of the entire Universe and turned it into a black hole, it would have almost the exact same density as the Universe itself, and an event horizon larger than the observable Universe. So does that mean that we are, in fact, living inside a black hole? Could we tell the difference? The post Was The Big Bang Just A Black Hole? appeared first on Universe Today.
Chinese Fusion Test Reportedly Reaches New Milestone 
Fusion power has long been considered to be the holy grail of alternative energy. Clean, abundant power, created through a self-sustaining process where atomic nuclei are fused at extremely high temperatures. Achieving this has been the goal of atomic researchers and physicists for over half a century, but progress has been slow. While the science behind fusion power is solid, the process has not exactly been practical.In short, fusion can only be considered a viable form of power if the amount of energy used to initiate the reaction is less than the energy produced. Luckily, in recent years, a number of positive steps have been taken towards this goal. The latest comes from China, where researchers at the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) recently report that they have achieved a fusion milestone. Many different fusion concepts have been proposed and tested over the years. Currently, the two most popular designs are the inertial confinement approach, and the tokamak reactor. In the former case, lasers are used to fuse pellets of deuterium fuel to create a fusion reaction. In the latter, the process involves a torus-shaped confinement chamber that uses magnetic fields and an internal current to confine high-energy plasma.Using a tokamak that has three distinct features - a non-circular cross-section, fully superconducting magnets, and fully actively water cooled plasma facing components (PFCs) - scientists at the EAST facility announced last week that they were able to produce hydrogen gas that was three times hotter than the core of the Sun (approx. 50 million °C; 90 million °F), and were able to maintain this temperature for a record-breaking 102 seconds.This is no small accomplishment, as confinement and sustained temperatures are essential to creating fusion power. Once initiated, fusion reactors need to be able to keep the reaction going for a long period of time, mainly because the amount of energy required to initiate it is considerable. But of course, sustaining and confining such high-energy plasma is quite difficult, and potentially dangerous.Being able to sustain high-energy plasma for over a minute and a half places the EAST facility, which is part of the Institute of Physical Science in Hefei in Jiangshu, a step ahead in the global fusion race. By recreating the stable conditions under which fusion naturally occurs - i.e. in the Sun's interior - humanity could be one step closer to the dream of clean and virtually limitless energy.But of course, there is some skepticism towards this claim. So far, there has only been the announcement made by the Institute of Physical Science to go on. And until such time as peer-reviewed results are provided, the claim will remain unconfirmed. However, should their results be confirmed, it will mean that there is likely to be some competition to see who can get increasingly good results. And that competition may already be on!Just a few days before the EAST facility announced this milestone, researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany made an announcement of their own. Here, researchers claimed that the Wendelstein 7-X (W7X) stellarator - the largest fusion reactor of its kind - had successfully managed to produce and sustain hydrogen plasma for the first time.Similar in design to a tokamak, a stellerator employs twisted rings and external magnets to confine plasma. As one of the best known as examples of a stellarator, the Wendelstein 7-X was able to heat hydrogen gas to a temperature of 80 million degrees Celsius, and sustain that plasma cloud for a quarter of a second. In short, they achieved a reaction that produced more energy, but for much less time.In the coming years, more news is expected on the fusion front as projects like the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) go online. Located in the south of France, ITER will employ the world's largest experimental tokamak reactor and will be the biggest experiment in fusion to date. The EAST facility has indicated that it intends to be directly involved in ITER and will lend their experience and expertise.Though we are still many years away from fusion reactors solving all of our energy concerns, it is good to know that we are taking the appropriate steps towards making it a reality. Who knows? Someday, our children (or grandchildren) may look back at the early 21st century as the "pre-fusion era" and wonder how it is we ever managed to get by! Further Reading: Tech Insider, South China Morning PostThe post Chinese Fusion Test Reportedly Reaches New Milestone appeared first on Universe Today.
Send Your Sweetie An Out-Of-This-World Valentine 
Still looking for the right card for your sweetheart this Valentine's Day? Why not do it in cosmic proportion by getting NASA on your side? The tender-hearted folks at agency may have just what you're looking for.The staff at the New Horizons mission headquarters offers two valentines this season that play off Pluto's heart-shaped, icy plain Tombaugh Regio. While the temperature there hovers around 400 below, you're guaranteed a 98.6° smile when your sweetie opens the card and sees your love reflected in glittering nitrogen ice.Pluto not your thing? Select from 12 different Mars e-card love greetings at this NASA site and blow your partner away in a Martian dust devil of love. Many of the heart-shaped features depicted on the cards are genuine features and include collapse pits, craters and mesas.Even the asteroids send their saucy wishes. Check out the delightful series of valentines from the upcoming OSIRIS-Rex sample return mission to 101955 Bennu, slated to launch in September this year and return a sample of the carbonaceous asteroid to Earth in 2023. If you go this route, I'd complement the card with a meal heavy on edible carbonaceous material at your partner's favorite restaurant.Happy Valentine's Day! Spread the love for a happier planet. The post Send Your Sweetie An Out-Of-This-World Valentine appeared first on Universe Today.
Obama Administration Proposes Smaller 2017 NASA Budget of $19 Billion with Big Exploration Cuts 
The Obama Administration has announced its new Federal budget and is proposing to cut NASA's Fiscal Year 2017 Budget to $19 billion by carving away significant funding for deep space exploration, whereas the overall US Federal budget actually increases to over $4.1 trillion.This 2017 budget request amounts to almost $300 million less than the recently enacted NASA budget for 2016 and specifically stipulates deep funding cuts for deep space exploration programs involving both humans and robots, during President Obama's final year in office.The 2017 budget proposal would slash funding to the very programs designed to expand the frontiers of human knowledge and aimed at propelling humans outward to the Red Planet and robots to a Jovian moon that might be conducive to the formation of life.Absent sufficient and reliable funding to keep NASA's exploration endeavors on track, further launch delays are almost certainly inevitable - thereby fraying American leadership in space and science.The administration is specifying big funding cuts to the ongoing development of NASA's mammoth Space Launch System (SLS) heavy lift rocket and the state of the art Orion deep space crew capsule. They are the essential first ingredients to carry out NASA's ambitious plans to send astronauts on deep space 'Journey to Mars' expeditions during the 2030s.The overall Exploration Systems Development account for human deep space missions would be slashed about 18 percent from the 2016 funding level; from $4.0 Billion to only $3.3 Billion, or nearly $700 million. SLS alone is reduced the most by $700 million from $2.0 billion to $1,31 billion, or a whopping 35 percent loss. Orion is reduced from $1.27 billion to $1.12 billion for a loss of some $150 million.Make no mistake. These programs are already starved for funding and the Obama administration tried to force similar cuts to these programs in 2016, until Congress intervened.Likewise, the Obama administration is proposing a draconian cut to the proposed robotic mission to Jupiter's moon Europa that would surely delay the launch by at least another half a decade or more - to the late 2020s.The Europa mission budget proposal is cut to only $49 million and the launch is postponed until the late 2020s. The mission received $175 million in funding in 2016 - amounting to a 72 percent reduction.Furthermore there is no funding for a proposed lander and the launch vehicle changes from SLS to a far less powerful EELV - causing a year's long increased travel time.In order to maintain an SLS launch in approximately 2022, NASA would require a budget of about $150 million in 2017, said David Radzanowski, NASA's chief financial officer, during a Feb. 9 teleconference with reporters.Why is Europa worth exploring? Because Europa likely possesses a subsurface ocean of water and is a prime target in the search for life!Overall, NASA's hugely successful Planetary Sciences division suffers a huge and nearly 10 percent cut of $141 million to $1.51 billion - despite undeniably groundbreaking scientific successes this past year at Pluto, Ceres, Mars and more!Altogether NASA would receive $19.025 billion in FY 2017. This totals $260 million less than the $19.285 billion appropriated in FY 2016, and thus corresponds to a reduction of 1.5 percent.By contrast, the overall US Federal Budget will increase nearly 5 percent to approximately $4.1 trillion. Simple math demonstrates that NASA is clearly not a high priority for the administration. NASA's share of the Federal budget comes in at less than half a cent on the dollar.NASA's Fiscal Year 2017 budget proposal was announced by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden during a televised 'State of NASA' address at the agency's Langley Research Center in Virginia on Feb. 9.Bolden did not dwell at all on the significant funding reductions for exploration."We are hitting our benchmarks with new exploration systems like the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion Crew Vehicle. A new consensus is emerging in the scientific and policy communities around our vision, timetable and plan for sending American astronauts to Mars in the 2030s."And he outlined some milestones ahead."We'll continue to make great progress on the Space Launch System – SLS–rocket and we're preparing for a second series of engine tests," said Bolden."At the Kennedy Space Center, our teams will outfit Orion's crew module with the spacecraft's heat-shielding thermal protection systems, avionics and subsystems like electrical power storage, cabin pressure control and flight software –to name just a few."NASA plans to launch the first combined SLS/Orion on the uncrewed Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) in November 2018.Indeed the Orion EM-1 pressure vessel just arrived at the Kennedy Space Center last week to completely install all the systems required for flight.The launch date for the first crewed flight on EM-2 was targeted for 2021. But EM-2 is likely to slip to the right to 2023, due to insufficient funding.Lack of funding will also force NASA to delay development of the far more capable and powerful Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) to propel Orion on deep space missions. It will now not be available for the SLS/EM-2 launch as hoped.The proposed huge budget cuts to SLS, Orion and Europa are certain to arose the ire of multiple members of Congress and space interest groups, who just successfully fought to increase NASA's FY 2016 budget for these same programs in the recently passed 2016 omnibus spending bill."This administration cannot continue to tout plans to send astronauts to Mars while strangling the programs that will take us there," said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, in a statement in response to the president's budget proposal."President Obama's FY17 budget proposal shrinks our deep space exploration programs by more than $800 million. And the administration once more proposes cuts of more than $100 million to the Planetary Science accounts, which have previously funded missions like this past year's Pluto flyby.""This imbalanced proposal continues to tie our astronauts' feet to the ground and makes a Mars mission all but impossible. This is not the proposal of an administration that is serious about maintaining America's leadership in space.""The Coalition for Deep Space Exploration … had hoped the request would reflect the priorities laid out for NASA in the FY16 Omnibus, for which there was broad support," said Mary Lynne Dittmar, executive director of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, in a statement."Unfortunately this was not the case. The Coalition is disappointed with the proposed reduction in funding below the FY16 Omnibus for NASA's exploration programs. We are deeply concerned about the Administration's proposed cut to NASA's human exploration development programs.""This proposed budget falls well short of the investment needed to support NASA's exploration missions, and would have detrimental impacts on cornerstone, game-changing programs such as the super-heavy lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), and the Orion spacecraft – the first spacecraft designed to reach multiple destinations in the human exploration of deep space."Funding for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was maintained at planned levels to keep it on track for launch in 2018.On Dec. 18, 2015, the US Congress passed and the president signed the 2016 omnibus spending bill which funds the US government through the remainder of the 2016 Fiscal Year.As part of the omnibus bill, NASA's approved budget amounted to nearly $19.3 Billion. That was an outstanding result and a remarkable turnaround to some long awaited good news from the decidedly negative outlook earlier in 2015.The 2016 budget represented an increase of some $750 million above the Obama Administration's proposed NASA budget allocation of $18.5 Billion for Fiscal Year 2016, and an increase of more than $1.2 Billion over the enacted budget for FY 2015.Under the proposed NASA budget for Fiscal Year 2017, the fictional exploits of 'The Martian' will never become reality.And the hunt for extraterrestrial life on the icy moons of the outer solar system is postponed yet again.Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news. Ken KremerThe post Obama Administration Proposes Smaller 2017 NASA Budget of $19 Billion with Big Exploration Cuts appeared first on Universe Today.
The Andromeda Constellation 
In the 2nd century CE, Greek-Egyptian astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus (aka. Ptolemy) compiled a list of the then-known 48 constellations. His treatise, known as the Almagest, would be used by medieval European and Islamic scholars for over a thousand years to come. Thanks to the development of modern telescopes and astronomy, this list was amended by the early 20th century to include the 88 constellation that are recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) today.Of these, Andromeda is one of the oldest and most widely recognized. Located north of the celestial equator, this constellation is part of the family of Perseus, Cassiopeia, and Cepheus. Like many constellation that have come down to us from classical antiquity, the Andromeda constellation has deep roots, which may go all the way back to ancient Babylonian astronomy. Name and Meaning: Derived from Greek mythology, Andromeda was the daughter of Cassiopeia and Cepheus - the king and queen of ancient Aethopia (modern day Ethopia). Unfortunately, her mother was so vain that she thought herself to be more beautiful than the daughters of Nereus, a god of the sea, which angered the sea god Poseidon. To punish the mother, Andromeda was chained to a rock of the coast as a sacrifice for a sea monster, Cetus (another southern constellation).Andromeda escaped this fate, thanks to the intervention of Perseus - the greatest Greek hero and slayer of monsters before Heracles. For rescuing her, he demanded Andromeda become his wife, which her parents happily consented to. The two married, had nine children together, and founded the kingdom of Mycenae and its Persideae dynasty. After Andromeda's death, Athena placed her in the sky as a constellation, to honor her. History of Observation: The celestial mapping (aka. uranography) of Andromeda comes to us from the Greek tradition, though a female figure in Andromeda's location had appeared earlier in Babylonian astronomy. The stars that make up Pisces and the middle portion of modern Andromeda formed a constellation representing the fertility goddess "Anunitum" (or the "Lady of the Heavens"), who was also the patron goddess of the city of Akkad. Andromeda is also associated with the Mesopotamian creation story of Tiamat, the goddess of Chaos. According to the legend, Tiamat bore many demons for her husband, Apsu, the god of freshwater. However, she eventually decided to destroy them as part of a war between the older and youner gods. Eventually, Marduk - a younger-generation god and the patron deity of the city of Babylon - killed her. He then used her body to create the constellations as markers of time for humans.In Latin, Andromeda was known as the Mulier Catenata ("chained woman"), and as the al-Mar'at al Musalsalah in Arabic. Other names include Persea ("Perseus' wife") or Cepheis ("Cepheus' daughter"), all of which allude to the constellation's place in classical mythology. Several of the neighboring constellations (Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cetus, and Cepheus) also represent characters in the Perseus myth.In traditional Chinese astronomy, nine stars from Andromeda and seven stars from Pisces formed an elliptical constellation called "Legs". This constellation either represented the foot of a walking person or a wild boar. Gamma Andromedae and its neighbors were called "Teen Ta Tseang Keun" ("heaven's great general"), representing honor in astrology and a great general in mythology.Alpha Andromedae and Gamma Pegasi together were designated as the "Wall", representing the eastern wall of the imperial palace and/or the emperor's personal library. The northern swath of Andromeda was also seen as a representation of a horse stable ( tianjiu, or "stable on sky") and the far western part, along with most of the constellation Lacerta, was known as "Tengshe" - a flying snake.Hindu legends surrounding Andromeda are similar to the Greek myths, with ancient Sanskrit texts depicting Antarmada chained to a rock. This, along with the fact that the names sound quite similar, has led many scholars to conclude that the astronomical systems are linked.In the Marshall Islands, the constellations of Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Triangulum, and Aries are incorporated into a single constellation representing a porpoise. Andromeda's bright stars are mostly in the body of the porpoise, while Cassiopeia represents its tail and Aries its head.Andromeda was one of the original 48 constellations formulated by Ptolemy in his 2nd-century work, Almagest. Arab astronomers made use of Ptolemy's constellations, but included a second constellation representing a fish at Andromeda's feet. Since the time of Ptolemy, Andromeda has remained a constellation and is officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union.But like all modern constellations, it is now defined as a specific region of the sky that includes both Ptolemy's pattern and the surrounding stars. The official boundaries of Andromeda were defined in 1930 by Eugène Delporte. Its right ascension is between 22 h 57.5 m and 2 h 39.3 m, and its declination is between 53.19° and 21.68° in the equatorial coordinate system. Notable Features: Andromeda's primary (or Alpha star) is Sirrah (or Alpheratz), a binary star with a visual magnitude of 2.1 and a luminosity of 96. It is the brightest star in the constellation and is located 97 light-years from Earth. In western mythology, it represents Andromeda's head. However, its traditional Arabic meaning - which comes from the phrase surrat al-faras - roughly translates to "navel of the steed".Beta Andromedae is another major feature, a red-hued giant star located 198 light years away. It's name comes from the Arabic phrase al-Maraqq, which means "the loins" or "the loincloth", which is taken from Ptolemy's Almagest. To medieval Arab astronomers, Beta Andromedae was actually considered to be part of al-Hut, a constellation representing a larger fish than Pisces at Andromeda's feet.Gamma Andromedae, which also goes by its traditional Arabic name (Almach) is an orange-hued giant star found at the southern tip of the constellation. Located 358 light-years away, Almach is named for the Arabic phrase ?Anaq al-Ard, which means "the earth-kid" - a reference to an animal that aids a lion in finding prey. Almach is a multiple star with a yellow primary and a blue-green secondary - which is itself a double star.According to British astronomer William Herschel, who published his observations of the star as past of " Continuation of an Account of the Changes that have happened in the relative situation of Double Stars"(1804): "[the] striking difference in the colour of the two stars, suggests the idea of a sun and its planet, to which the contrast of their unequal size contributes not a little."Andromeda is also home to a number of Deep Sky Objects. Since Andromeda lies well away from the galactic plane, it does not contain any of the open clusters or bright nebulae of the Milky Way. However, owing to its distance in the sky from the band of obscuring dust, gas, and abundant stars of galaxy, Andromeda's borders contain many other visible distant galaxies.The most famous of these is the Andromeda Galaxy (aka. M31, NGC 224), which takes its name from this constellation. Located at an estimated 2.2 million light-years from Earth, this galaxy is one of the most distant objects that is visible to the naked eye. It is also the largest neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way and the largest member of the Local Group of galaxies.Like the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy is barred spiral galaxy, but is over the twice the size (approx. 200,000 light-years in diameter). Despite being visible to the naked eye, it was not recorded until 964 CE by the Arab astronomer al-Sufi. In his Book of Fixed Stars, he recorded it as being a "little cloud", and later astronomers believed it to be a distant nebula.It was not until the 20th century that M31 was recognized for being a neighboring galaxy. And since then, astronomers have also realized that it is one of the few objects in our universe that is blueshifted (i.e. moving towards us). At its current rate of approach - 110 kilometres per second (68 mi/s) - it will collide with the Milky Way Galaxy in about 4 billion years.https://youtu.be/ghEqtVrWhnYThe Andromeda Galaxy has two main companions, the faint elliptical galaxies of M32 and M110 (also known as NGC 221 and NGC 205, respectively). Located in close proximity to M31, M32 lies 1° northwest of the constellation's core, while M110 is located o.5° south. M32 was discovered in 1749 by French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil and has since been found to lie closer to Earth than the Andromeda Galaxy itself. M110 is far fainter than M31 or M32, and is classified as either a dwarf spheroidal galaxy or simply a generic elliptical galaxy.The Andromeda Galaxy has 15 satellite galaxies in total, nine of these lie in a plane, which has caused astronomers to infer that they have a common origin. Andromeda also has two open star clusters associated with it, the most famous of which is the open cluster NGC 752 (Caldwell 28). NGC 752 features approximately 12 bright stars, although more than 60 stars are visible at low magnifications in a telescope. The other is NGC 7686, which has a similar magnitude (5.6) and contains approximately 20 stars in a diameter of 15 arcminutes, making it a tighter cluster than NGC 752.There is one prominent planetary nebula in Andromeda: NGC 7662 (Caldwell 22). Also known as the "Blue Snowball Nebula", NGC 7662 lies approximately three degrees southwest of Iota Andromedae and is about 4,000 light-years from Earth. It earned its popular name because it appears as a faint, round, blue-green object in a telescope, with an overall magnitude of 9.2.Andromeda also has a meteor shower associated with it, known as the Adromedids, which appear every November. his meteor shower peaks in the mid-to-late area of the month, but has a low peak rate of fewer than two meteors an hour. These meteors sometimes appear as red fireballs with trails, and have often associated with Biela's Comet, a comet destroyed in the 19th century that some believe is responsible for the meteoroid stream.Andromedid meteors are known for being very slow and the shower itself is considered to be diffuse, as meteors can be seen coming from nearby constellations as well as from Andromeda itself. Its radiant is near Cassiopeia, and Occasionally this shower is known spectacular - though the fall rate is usually about 20 per hour. Finding Andromeda: The constellation of Andromeda is best known for the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, one of the most famous objects in the sky, which can most easily be found (it can be seen even with the unaided eye once you get away from a light polluted city) and gives an outstanding view in binoculars and small telescopes.As it is the nearest spiral galaxy to to our Milky Way, it has given scientists ample opportunity to study spiral galaxy structure and evolution. Larger telescopes can easily see two satellite galaxies of M31 as well, elliptical galaxies M32 (half a degree south) and M110 ( located one degree northwest). Both are well within range of 4" telescopes.For binoculars, the stars of the open star cluster NGC 752 is also an easy target in Andromeda. Containing about 100 member stars scattered over a large area and ranging between magnitudes between 9 and 10, NGC 752 is located near star 56 Andromeda. Other interesting and easy telescopic targets include planetary nebula NGC 7662 and colorful binary star, Gamma Andromeda - Almach.We have written many interesting articles about on the Andromeda Constellation and its objects. For example, here is What Are The Constellations, Messier 31, The Andromeda Galaxy, and Why is Andromeda Coming Towards Us?For more information, check out and the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space page on the Andromeda constellation. Andromeda Chart Courtesy of Your SkyThe post The Andromeda Constellation appeared first on Universe Today.
|
| | Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 365 Boston Post Rd, Suite 123, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. |
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.