Space and Astronomy Megathread (MERGED)

[Asteroid-Man]

AHAHAHAHA some girl was trying to convince me that the Big Bang killed the Dinosaurs hahahaha. Also when I tried to explain using Einsteins equation, she went "What the hell does Einstein have to do with any of this!?" and she had no idea about the famous equation. She still thinks it's what killed the Dinosaurs, even after I gave her five sources.

 

[FaT_tONle]

Everyone has heard of Einstein yet few don't even understand his most simplistic work or why he is famous... they just know what the theory is called. I'd say at least 80% of the random population though I hope I am dead wrong on that.

 

[Mike_D202]

Mysterious "Dark Flow" Discovered in Space

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080923/sc_space/mysteriousnewdarkflowdiscoveredinspace

As if the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy weren't vexing enough, another baffling cosmic puzzle has been discovered.

Patches of matter in the universe seem to be moving at very high speeds and in a uniform direction that can't be explained by any of the known gravitational forces in the observable universe. Astronomers are calling the phenomenon "dark flow."

The stuff that's pulling this matter must be outside the observable universe, researchers conclude.

When scientists talk about the observable universe, they don't just mean as far out as the eye, or even the most powerful telescope, can see. In fact there's a fundamental limit to how much of the universe we could ever observe, no matter how advanced our visual instruments. The universe is thought to have formed about 13.7 billion years ago. So even if light started travelling toward us immediately after the Big Bang, the farthest it could ever get is 13.7 billion light-years in distance. There may be parts of the universe that are farther away (we can't know how big the whole universe is), but we can't see farther than light could travel over the entire age of the universe.


Mysterious motions


Scientists discovered the flow by studying some of the largest structures in the cosmos: giant clusters of galaxies. These clusters are conglomerations of about a thousand galaxies, as well as very hot gas which emits X-rays. By observing the interaction of the X-rays with the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which is leftover radiation from the Big Bang, scientists can study the movement of clusters. The X-rays scatter photons in the CMB, shifting its temperature in an effect known as the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. This effect had not been observed as a result of galaxy clusters before, but a team of researchers led by Alexander Kashlinsky, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., found it when they studied a huge catalogue of 700 clusters, reaching out up to 6 billion light-years, or half the universe away. They compared this catalogue to the map of the CMB taken by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite. They discovered that the clusters were moving nearly 2 million mph (3.2 million kph) toward a region in the sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela. This motion is different from the outward expansion of the universe (which is accelerated by the force called dark energy). "We found a very significant velocity, and furthermore, this velocity does not decrease with distance, as far as we can measure," Kashlinsky told SPACE.com. "The matter in the observable universe just cannot produce the flow we measure."


Inflationary bubble


The scientists deduced that whatever is driving the movements of the clusters must lie beyond the known universe. A theory called inflation posits that the universe we see is just a small bubble of space-time that got rapidly expanded after the Big Bang. There could be other parts of the cosmos beyond this bubble that we cannot see. In these regions, space-time might be very different, and likely doesn't contain stars and galaxies (which only formed because of the particular density pattern of mass in our bubble). It could include giant, massive structures much larger than anything in our own observable universe. These structures are what researchers suspect are tugging on the galaxy clusters, causing the dark flow.

"The structures responsible for this motion have been pushed so far away by inflation, I would guesstimate they may be hundreds of billions of light years away, that we cannot see even with the deepest telescopes because the light emitted there could not have reached us in the age of the universe," Kashlinsky said in a telephone interview. "Most likely to create such a coherent flow they would have to be some very strange structures, maybe some warped space time. But this is just pure speculation."


Surprising find


Though inflation theory forecasts many odd facets of the distant universe, not many scientists predicted the dark flow. "It was greatly surprising to us and I suspect to everyone else," Kashlinsky said. "For some particular models of inflation you would expect these kinds of structures, and there were some suggestions in the literature that were not taken seriously I think until now."

The discovery could help scientists probe what happened to the universe before inflation, and what's going on in those inaccessible realms we cannot see. The researchers detail their findings in the Oct. 20 issue of the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

 

[Galactus]

Hottest Planet Ever Discovered
By Clara Moskowitz, Staff Writer

posted: 16 October 2008 02:23 pm ET




A planet called WASP-12b is the hottest planet ever discovered (about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2,200 degrees Celsius), and orbits its star faster and closer in than any other known world.

This sizzling monster whips its way around its parent star about once a day (for comparison, the fastest-circling planet in the solar system, Mercury, orbits the sun once every 88 days).

To make such swift progress, the planet circles extremely close-in to its star — about 2 percent of the distance from the Earth to the sun, in fact, or 2 million miles (3.4 million kilometers).

"WASP-12b is incredibly interesting, because we're at a stage in the study of exoplanets where we're finding new examples all the time," said Don Pollacco of Queen's University in Northern Ireland, who is a project scientist for the SuperWASP (Super Wide Angle Search for Planets) project that discovered WASp-12b. "It was exciting because it was the shortest period and the hottest planet, but I suspect there are even shorter period planets, and hotter planets to come."

WASP-12b is a gaseous planet, about 1.5 times the mass of Jupiter, and almost twice the size.

The planet, which orbits a star 870 light years from Earth, is especially notable because it pushes the bounds of how close planets can ever come to their stars without being destroyed.

"There is a limit because as a planet gets closer to its star, the radiation field gets more and more intense, and at some point that whole planet will be evaporated by its star," Pollacco told SPACE.com. "Before, some people thought it was impossible to find planets that had 1-day periods. I think it's so early in the whole subject, and it takes a number of objects before you can start setting limits."

The planet is also so hot that its temperature matches that of some stars. This planet, however, is definitely not a star because its mass isn't nearly large enough for the internal thermonuclear reactions that define stars.

WASP-12b is one of only about 50 extrasolar planets that have been detected through the transit method, meaning they were found by measuring the dip in brightness of their parent star as they pass in front of it and block part of its light.

"It's an incredibly hard way to detect planets, because the size of this dip when it moves across the star is very small," Pollacco said. "These objects are difficulty to find, but they're incredibly valuable when you do find them because they tell you so much."

The transit method allows astronomers to not only note the presence of a planet, but estimate its size, mass and density. And by estimating its distance from its star, researchers can deduce its rough temperature, because the closer in an object is, the hotter it gets.

All the information scientists have so far about WASP-12b indicates that this fiery ball cozily circling its star is an odd case. Yet discoveries like this raise the question, are planets like this in fact more common in the universe than planets like Earth?

"Is our solar system the freak, or are these other solar systems the freaks?" Pollacco said. "Who knows? I suspect that for life to evolve as we know it, you have to have a special set of circumstances come together to produce very specific conditions."

The SuperWASP project, based in the UK, uses telescopes in Spain's Canary Islands and in South Africa to scan the sky searching for distant planets that cross in front of their stars.

The discovery of WASP-12b was first announced in April 2008, though its distinction as the hottest and fastest-orbiting exoplanet was confirmed Oct. 11 at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences by co-discoverer Leslie Hebb of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

 

[Docker2.0]

I find the dark flow article interesting. I wonder what do scientist theorize(excuse my spelling)is the dark flow going to.

 

[Docker2.0]

I find the dark flow article interesting. I wonder what do scientist theorize(excuse my spelling)is the dark flow going to.

 

[Obi-Ron]

They need to start coming up with more imaginative names for these planets, like Tatooine or Krypton.

 

[Galactus]

NASA's newest lunar rover prototype has now gone farther than it ever has before.

A collection of engineers, astronauts and geologists have spent the past week testing out the Small Pressurized Rover in the 11th annual Desert RATS – or Research and Technology Studies -- field tests. Two teams of one astronaut and one geologist each have been driving the rover through the Arizona desert, trying it out in two different configurations.



One configuration leaves the crew members free to get on and off the rover whenever they like, but they must wear spacesuits at all times to protect them from the lunar environment. The second configuration -- called the Small Pressurized Rover, or SPR -- adds a module on top of the rover’s chassis that the crew can sit inside as they drive the vehicle, donning spacesuits whenever they want to get out.

For the first week of tests, the rover has been driven on day-long trips to determine how each configuration performed. These have been some of the longest drives the prototype has ever made, but next week the group will step it up another notch or two, by going on a three-day drive through the desert in the SPR to determine how it performs and whether it's comfortable enough for long-duration trips


http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/esmd/home/black_point.html

 

[SuperZer0]

Old news but worth the post:

First Habitable Earthlike Planet Found, Experts Say

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070424-new-planet.html[/URL]

First Habitable Earthlike Planet Found, Experts Say

James Owen
for National Geographic News[/URL]
April 24, 2007

The first known planet beyond the solar system that could harbor life as we know it has been discovered, scientists report.

The most Earthlike planet yet found, it orbits a red dwarf star and likely contains liquid water, said the European astronomers who made the discovery.

The planet is estimated to be only 50 percent larger than Earth, making it the smallest planet yet found outside the solar system, according to a team led by Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.

Known as Gliese 581 c, the newfound world is located in the constellation Libra, some 20.5 light-years away.

The planet is named after the red dwarf star it orbits, Gliese 581, which is among the hundred closest stars to Earth.

Because the planet is 14 times nearer to its star than Earth is to the sun, a year there lasts just 13 days. Gravity on the planet's surface, though, may be twice as strong as Earth's gravity.

Despite the close proximity to its parent star, however, Gliese 581 c lies within the relatively cool habitable zone of its solar system. That's because red dwarfs are relatively small and dim, and are cooler than our sun, the team explained.

The scientists estimated the planet's surface temperature at between 32 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit (0 and 40 degrees Celsius).

"This means water can exist in liquid form," Udry said. "If you want life like our own, then you need water."

The team reports its findings in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Rock or Oceans
The new world could feature familiar, rocky terrains or be completely covered with oceans, the researchers said.

In either case, Gliese 581 c will likely become a target for missions in search of extraterrestrial life, they added.

"We still have a long way to go before reaching that point. But for sure it's the best candidate we know of right now," Udry commented.

"The planet is really close to us," he said. Still, it would take 20 years to get there if traveling at the speed of light, and another 20 to return.

Gliese 581 c is better suited to life than larger planets like Jupiter, which tend to be dense masses of gas, Udry explained.

"You need a rocky planet to find life—the big giants are not the best places for that," he said.

More precise instruments have recently enabled astronomers to detect small "exoplanets"—worlds found outside our solar system.

"We started to find them two or three years ago," Udry said. Thirteen exoplanets that have less than 20 times the weight of Earth have been discovered so far, he noted.

"We found them very easily, so it looks like they are much more numerous than the giant planets we were finding before," the astronomer said.

Planet Hunter

The new planet was detected using an instrument called a spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory at La Silla, Chile.

Known as the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planetary Searcher (HARPS), the device is described by the team as a "unique planet-hunting machine."

It works by detecting the pull of an unseen exoplanet on the star it orbits. An orbiting planet causes its star to wobble slightly, and this effect can be measured by instruments such as HARPS.

Advanced spectrographs are enabling astronomers to detect ever smaller planets, said Michael Perryman of the European Space Agency's Astrophysics Missions Division in the Netherlands.

"The wobble for these planets that they are detecting now is very, very tiny—about three meters [nine feet] per second, which is about the speed you run at," Perryman said.

"New planets are being discovered every few weeks or so," he added. "The interesting development is when you start getting these lower-mass planets closer to [the weight] of the Earth."

The newfound planet is especially noteworthy, Perryman said.

"As soon as you find a planet at the right distance [from its star] such that liquid water might exist, then you're saying this is the kind of environment in which one might start looking for life," he added.
Udry, of the Geneva Observatory, said the goal of future programs is to find a planet and star pairing to match that of Earth and the sun.

"We are now developing instruments which will allow us to find those," Udry said
"We hope, and even expect, to have these habitable planets all over the place."

 

[TNC9852002]

Ugh....So sad...I won't be alive to actually see photos of these planets up close.

-TNC

 

[Mike_D202]

Cant they pin-point the hubble at the planet and zoom in?

 

[[A]]

^ They should use all these FBI, CIA software you see in the movies--they zoom 1000 times and it looks crystal clear.. and without using a mouse!

Spoiler

 

[Galactus]

Strange Portal Connects Earth to Sun
By Jeanna Bryner, Senior Writer

posted: 03 November 2008 08:22 am ET

Like giant, cosmic chutes between the Earth and sun, magnetic portals open up every eight minutes or so to connect our planet with its host star.

Once the portals open, loads of high-energy particles can travel the 93 million miles (150 million km) through the conduit during its brief opening, space scientists say.

Called a flux transfer event, or FTE, such cosmic connections not only exist but are possibly twice as common as anyone ever imagined, according to space scientists who attended the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Ala., last week.

"Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn't exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible," said David Sibeck, an astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Dynamic bursts

Researchers have long known that the Earth and sun must be connected. For instance, particles from the sun are constantly whisked away via the solar wind and often follow magnetic field lines that connect the sun's atmosphere with terra firma. The field lines allow particles to penetrate Earth's magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble that surrounds our planet.

"We used to think the connection was permanent and that solar wind could trickle into the near-Earth environment anytime the wind was active," Sibeck said. "We were wrong. The connections are not steady at all. They are often brief, bursty and very dynamic."

Several speakers at the workshop outlined the formation of a flux transfer event. One idea is that on the side of Earth facing the sun, our magnetic field presses against the sun's magnetic field. And about every eight minutes, the two fields briefly reconnect, forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth.

Sibeck said to think of the FTE as a giant rolling pin that lies flat along the boundary between the Earth's and sun's magnetic fields. (He noted the rolling pin would have to be malleable so it could pierce through both magnetic fields while lying flat.)

"These FTEs kind of look like roller pins, and they form as little blob roller pins at the tip of the magnetosphere facing the sun," Sibeck told SPACE.com. "They can't decide which way they're going to slide around the Earth, so they grow there into big roller pins and then they take off and sort of spirally roll along [Earth's magnetosphere] like you're pounding out dough."

More than one FTE can form at once, he said, and they stay open for about 15 to 20 minutes.

More to learn

In order to measure such FTEs, spacecraft must not only catch them forming but also be on either end of the magnetic structures (either lengthwise or widthwise). In fact, the European Space Agency's fleet of four Cluster spacecraft and NASA's five THEMIS probes have flown through and surrounded these cylinders, measuring their dimensions and sensing the particles that shoot through, Sibeck said. While these measurements have nailed down the width of an FTE, the length is still uncertain though one measurement put it at up to five Earth radii. One Earth radius is about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers).

Astrophysicist Jimmy Raeder of the University of New Hampshire used those measurements to develop computer simulations of the portals. He found the cylindrical portals tend to form above Earth's equator and then in December, the FTEs would roll over the North Pole. In July, they roll over the South Pole.

Sibeck thinks the events occur twice as often as previously thought, proposing two types of flux transfer events — active and passive.

When the magnetic cylinders are active, they allow particles to flow through rather easily, forming important conduits of energy for Earth's magnetosphere, Sibeck said. When passive, the cylinders have more resistance to transiting particles. The internal structure of a passive cylinder makes it tougher for particles and magnetic fields to flow through. Sibeck has calculated the properties of passive FTEs and hopes he and his colleagues will hunt for signs of them in data collected with THEMIS and Cluster.

The space scientists at the workshop still want to figure out why the portals form every eight minutes and how magnetic fields inside the cylinders twist and coil.

 

[SuperZer0]

I just want to post this marvelous picture of the planet we live in that we call EARTH.

 

[SuperZer0]

Astronomers capture first images of planets outside our solar system

The first-ever pictures of planets outside the solar system have been released in two studies Friday.

Using the latest techniques in space technology, astronomers at NASA and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used direct-imaging techniques to capture pictures of four newly discovered planets orbiting stars outside our solar system.

"After all these years, it's amazing to have a picture showing not one but three planets," said physicist Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.

"The discovery of the HR 8799 system is a crucial step on the road to the ultimate detection of another Earth," he said.

None of the planets is remotely habitable, scientists said.

Both sets of research findings were published Thursday in Science Express, a journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

A team of American and British astronomers and physicists, using the Gemini North and Keck telescopes on the Mauna Kea mountaintop in Hawaii, observed host star HR8799 to find three of the new planets.

Scientists estimate that HR8799, roughly 1.5 times the size of the sun, is 130 light years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. The individual planets in this planetary family are estimated to be seven to 10 times the mass of Jupiter.

Astronomers say the star is too faint to detect with the human eye, but observers could probably see it through binoculars or small telescopes.

"This discovery is the first time we have directly imaged a family of planets around a normal star outside of our solar system," said Christian Marois, the lead astronomer in the Lawrence Livermore lab study.

About the same time, NASA astronomers using the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope surprised the space community by locating a fourth planet.

NASA's newly discovered planet, Fomalhaut b, is estimated to be roughly three times Jupiter's mass and 10.7 billion miles from its host star, Fomalhaut. NASA's images show Fomalhaut b orbiting the bright southern star Fomalhaut, which is said to be 16 times brighter than our sun and 25 light years away in the constellation Piscis Australis (Southern Fish).

"Our Hubble observations were incredibly demanding. Fomalhaut b is 1 billion times fainter than the star," Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas said. "We began this program in 2001, and our persistence finally paid off."

Previous planet-hunting efforts have relied on the traditional Doppler, or "wobble," technique, which works by measuring the gravitational influence a planet exerts on its host, or parent, star. By studying these gravitational "tug-of-wars," astronomers have been able to study a star's velocity or brightness to infer the presence of a planet.

To determine whether the faint objects orbiting HF8799 were indeed planets and not other stars, astronomers studying the three newly discovered planets (HF8799b, HF8799c and HF8799d) compared images from studies conducted in different years.

In all the documented pictures, the three objects were found to be orbiting in a counter-clockwise direction around HF8799, proving that they were planets and not just background objects coincidentally aligned in the image.

According to the the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia, there have been 322 planets found outside our solar system. The latest findings bring that total to 326.

The extrasolar planets found have mostly been gaseous in their composition. Both studies indicate that direct-imaging techniques can only aid our efforts in one day finding an Earth-like planet.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/11/13/new.planets/index.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081113-planet-pictures.html?source=rss

 

[Obi-Ron]

None of the planets is remotely habitable, scientists said.

How can they possibly know this?

 

[FaT_tONle]

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/sugar-molecule.html?npu=1&mbid=yhp

Key Molecule for Life Found in Habitable Region of the Galaxy
By Clara Moskowitz November 26, 2008 | 12:35:29 PMCategories: Astrobiology

A sugar molecule linked to the origin of life was discovered in a potentially habitable region of our galaxy.


The molecule, called glycolaldehyde, was spotted in a large star-forming area of space around 26,000 light-years from Earth in the less-chaotic outer regions of the Milky Way. This suggests the sugar could be common across the universe, which is good news for extraterrestrial-life seekers.

"This is an important discovery as it is the first time glycolaldehyde, a basic sugar, has been detected towards a star-forming region where planets that could potentially harbor life may exist," Serena Viti of University College London said in a press release.

Previously, glycolaldehyde had only been observed toward the center of the galaxy, where conditions are thought to be too extreme to host habitable planets.

Glycolaldehyde is a key ingredient for life. It helps to build Ribonucleic acid (RNA), which is thought to be the central molecule involved in the origin of life on Earth. Glycolaldehyde is a monosaccharide sugar, the basic unit of carbohydrates. It can react with the chemical propenal to form ribose, the building block of RNA.

"The discovery of an organic sugar molecule in a star forming region of space is very exciting and will provide incredibly useful information in our search for alien life,” said Keith Mason, chief executive of the England’s Science and Technology Facilities Council.

The finding, made with the IRAM radio telescope in France, was announced Tuesday and will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

As a biochem student... this caught my eye.

 

[Venom'sDad]

Europa & Ganymede

The Tri-fecta

Water... maybe

 

[Docker2.0]

I'll be so glad when we really get a view of Titan. Isn't that the moon in our solar system with the best chance of supporting life, or what scientist think will be?
It also amazes me with the discovery of new planets almost daily that mankind will only find ways to make new bombs and weapons to kill each other while they should be finding ways to travel to other planets and meet new life forms in case this planet falls apart...........like its doing now.

 

[Docker2.0]

double postilicious!

 

[Venom'sDad]

^ At this moment, NO! However, they do believe that when Sun(Sol) expand to the size of Venus' orbit, Titan maybe begin to blossom with life, only to beshort lived once the Sun expand to about the size of Earth's orbit than flicka out.

At the moment, Europa has that distinction.



BTW, a little off topic; but I'm mesmerized by your avatar.

 

[Docker2.0]

VD you sound like a fellow astronomy scientist like myself! I thought the top 5 possibilities in our solar system that were thought to be able to sustain life were: 1) Titan 2) Europa 3)Mars 4 & 5) more Saturn moons.......one that they found which they think has water and possibly alien creatures swimming under water.....though far fetched I'm in the minority that thinks that all alien life forms won't be exactly like the ones on Earth. Its possible that they may thrive in cold temperatures and even have different biological make ups than anything we seen on Earth.


As for my avy, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to appreciate some nice eye candy.

 

[Alex The Great]

How can they possibly know this?

Other than the Moon, Mars Europa and maybe Titan....Not many other worlds are habitable. Venus is too hot, Mercury has no atmosphere, the gas giants are well....gas and there moons, other than Europa and Titan are nott really Habitable...

And they know it because there really smart...Einstein Smart........They do all the math, telescope calculattions crap and BOOM! they got it.....Don't doubt a scientist

never, or thay'll put some acid in your food

 

[FaT_tONle]

I don't see how life forms with just pure water... I mean what the hell else is down there??? It's probably just a ball of ice. Not like sunlight can even get down there anyhow... Europa isn't very promising IMO. But what I like about Titan is that it is a pre-biotic soup with all the hydrocarbons. Atmosphere mostly made up of nitrogen... similar to Earth. Who knows what's down there.

 

[Alex The Great]

I don't see how life forms with just pure water... I mean what the hell else is down there??? It's probably just a ball of ice. Not like sunlight can even get down there anyhow... Europa isn't very promising IMO. But what I like about Titan is that it is a pre-biotic soup with all the hydrocarbons. Atmosphere mostly made up of nitrogen... similar to Earth. Who knows what's down there.

Actually, there is a large possibility of water under the ice. Sea Here my friend. Jupiter actually gives off heat via Gravitatational forces. The force is so great that Europa actually moves around in it's core. That creates frriction, makes heat and it COULD keep animals alive. and plus there is actually some Oxygen in Europas Atmosphere. Titans ''water'' is just Methane really. Though it is a cool Moon.