In this short video ScienceAtNasa takes an informative look at the surprisingly robust sun-grazing Comet Lovejoy. And here’s the stunning video from the crew of the International Space Station again. [Video courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center] Pete Baker
As Curiosity heads to Mars, and Voyager continues to go boldly further than ever, the BBC reports on some speculative assessments of potentially habitable locations elsewhere in the galaxy. A timely reminder, then, from the Guardian’s GrrlScientist of our pale blue dot in this short video tribute to Carl Sagan. Carl Sagan (1934-1996), Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space [1997: Amazon UK; Amazon US]. From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any …
As the BBC report, and see here also, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have released the first image obtained by their new telescope, the Atacama Large Millimetre/Sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) – even though the array isn’t expected to be completed until 2013. It’s the focus of the latest ESOcast 36 – ALMA opens its eyes. And here’s that image, of the colliding spiral Antennae Galaxies (also known as NGC 4038 and 4039). [Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)] A side-by-side comparison with a Very Large Telescope (VLT) image of …
The Royal Observatory Greenwich has announced the winners of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011 – and they have a free exhibition of the winning shots. Personally my favourites are among the Deep Space category [There’s a surprise… – Ed]. All the entries can be viewed on the Flickr Astrophoto group. And it’s worth taking the time [6min 17sec] to watch the, unfortunately unembeddable, BBC audio slideshow of some of the winning images. Wondrous. Pete Baker
As the BBC reports, and the Guardian notes, Nasa’s Juno Mission to our friend and lord, Jupiter, is scheduled to launch this afternoon on an Atlas V rocket. There’s an impressive Juno mission website too. Lift-off at 15:34 UT [4.34pm BST]. Here’s a short overview of the mission. Video credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. And, if you have time, here’s the full science briefing via NasaTV. You can also watch the launch live via NasaTV. Or, indeed, here! Update2 I’ve replaced the live Ustream video with …
As the BBC spaceman, Jonathon Amos, notes Nasa’s Dawn spacecraft has taken a close look at the 530 km wide giant asteroid Vesta’s northern hemisphere– to add to all those earlier images. This image was taken on 23 July, at a distance of about 3,200 miles (5,200 kilometers) away from the proto planet Vesta. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA. And in a short while, 1700 UT [6pm BST], Nasa will be holding a press conference to present the latest findings. Which may include some colour …
Nasa have released more stunning footage from the Solar Dynamics Observatory of the spectacular solar eruption on June 7. As LittleSDOHMI notes – “This video uses the full-resolution 4096 x 4096 pixel images at a one minute time cadence to provide the highest quality, finest detail version possible.” With music! Pete Baker
As spotted by SpaceWeather. At about 1700 UT (6pm BST) today Asteroid 2011MD will fly past only 12,300 kilometers (7,600 miles) above the Earth’s surface. [Image credit NASA/JPL] As the diagram shows, that’s close enough to be affected by Earth’s gravity. This small asteroid, only 5-20 meters in diameter, is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun, but an orbital analysis indicates there is no chance it will actually strike Earth on Monday. The incoming trajectory leg passes several thousand kilometers …
Wondrous images from Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory of the spectacular eruption that accompanied an M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare on June 7. [Image/video credit: NASA SDO] And, via the Professor, Geeked on Goddard provides further video courtesy Helioviewer.org and a narration by The Sun Today. As LittleSDOHMI notes This Earth-directed CME [Coronal Mass Ejection] is moving at 1400 km/s according to NASA models. Due to its angle, however, effects on Earth should be fairly small. Nevertheless, it may generate space weather effects …
[Image credit: ESO/Y. Beletsky] Clear skies are everything in visible-light astronomy, and they don’t come much clearer that the skies above the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope [VLT] array on top of Cerro Paranal in Chile’s Atacama Desert. As this amazing time-lapse video of the VLT in operation, by Stephane Guisard and Jose Francisco Salgado, shows. There’s little I can say to prepare you for these wondrous images. Simply stunning. Via the Professor. And via Popsci’s Clay Dillow, who warns “it …
The Guardian’s tame particle physicist, Jon Butterworth, is “playing truant” from the LHC at Cern to attend the Boost 2011 meeting at Princeton. But he’s left a link-tastic post on the results so far. Meanwhile, the Big G’s GrrlScientist points to director of the Hayden Planetarium, New York, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, explaining one of his “disturbing thoughts”. As an aside, the paper, “The Origin of Chemical Elements”, was published in the 1 April 1948 issue of the Physical Review. The …
Nasa’s Chandra X-ray observatory has been in orbit since 1999 and it’s still producing results. Like this stunning image of the remnant of the Type Ia supernova first observed by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1572. The data for the images was collected in 283 hours of observation from 2 pointings between April 29, 2003 and May 3, 2009. (Credit: NASA/CXC/Chinese Academy of Sciences/F. Lu et al) From the text accompanying Chandra’s Tycho photo album This new image of Tycho’s supernova remnant, …
With Cassini exploring Saturn’s moons, and Messenger finally at Mercury, the BBC’s Spaceman, Jonathan Amos, takes an interesting look at the future prospects for interstellar travel. And he starts with this observation of Voyager’s 33-year-long journey. I’ve been troubled of late by the scale of things, by the vastness of space. It’s been brought into focus by two things, I think. The first is the Voyager 1 probe – the most distant man-made object from Earth. I’ve written a couple of …
Nasa’s Messenger spacecraft may have finally arrived in orbit around Mercury, but the Cassini probe has been exploring Saturn’s system of moons since 2004 – some archived posts here. [Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI] The latest images show seasonal weather patterns, and apparently associated surface changes. From the Nasa/JPL press release Extensive rain from large cloud systems, spotted by Cassini’s cameras in late 2010, has apparently darkened the surface of the moon. The best explanation is these areas remained wet after methane rainstorms. …
Tonight at 12.45am [GMT] Nasa’s Messenger spacecraft will begin a 15 minute engine burn timed to take it into orbit around Mercury – the first spacecraft to do so. (All images credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington) Launched on 3 August 2004, Messenger’s taken a circuitous route to the innermost planet. It’s second, and final, look at the Earth was in August 2005. Twice past Venus, the second time in June 2007 Before not one, not two fly-bys, but …
I have, from time to time, mentioned the potentially lethal, if spectacular, phenomenon known as a Gamma-Ray Burst in my occasional science posts. By coincidence, the BBC have online digestible clips of past Horizon programmes. Including this informative clip from 2001 explaining Gamma-Ray Bursts in stellar nurseries, with a suitably ominous narration. Enjoy! And, let’s be careful out there… Pete Baker
The farthest man-made object from Earth, at some 17.4 billion kilometres, Nasa’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is still performing acrobatics 30-odd years after it was launched. From the BBC report Voyager is executing a series of roll manoeuvres to get one of its instruments into the optimum position to measure particles sweeping away from the Sun. Controllers at the US space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, report a perfect response from the probe. “I liken Voyager to an old car,” …
After a number of postponements due to technical problems, the Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to lift-off for the last time from the Kennedy Space Centre tonight at 9.50pm [GMT]. After 38 missions to date and more than 5,600 trips around the Earth, it’s the final flight of Discovery – on Mission STS-133. They’re heading to the International Space Station where ESA’s ATV Johannes Kepler has just docked. Discovery will become the first shuttle to be retired. Only two Space Shuttle missions remain scheduled – Endeavour on …
A wondrous composite image of our nearest galactic neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy, as unveiled on the BBC’s Stargazing Live programme tonight. Combining an infrared view from ESA’s Herschel observatory with an X-ray view by the similarly orbiting XMM-Newton observatory, it shows at least five concentric rings of star-forming dust [infrared in orange] along with X-ray sources [in blue] where collapsed stars – white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes – are located. It’s a similar composite view to that taken of the Whirlpool …
If no-one picks up the phone at Gliese 581d, perhaps someone will be at home on the newly discovered Gliese 581g… aka the “Goldilocks” planet. Or, indeed, one of the other exo-planets in the, apparently, increasingly populated Gliese 581 system. But I tend to agree with the quotes in the level-headed Tom Chivers blog at the Daily Telegraph Dr Lewis Dartnell, a UCL astrobiologist who specialises in the possibility of microbial life on Mars, says that it’s “undeniably very, very exciting”, but it’s …
