A Hubble Space Telescope image of the typical globular cluster Messier 80, an object made up of hundreds of thousands of stars and located in the direction of the constellation of Scorpius. The Milky Way galaxy has an estimated 160 globular clusters of which one quarter are thought to be ‘alien’. Image: NASA / The Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA. Click for hi-resolution version.

The math is simple: Star + Other star = Bigger star.

While conceptually this works well, it fails to take into account the extremely vast distances between stars. Even in clusters, where the density of stars is significantly higher than in the main disk, the number of stars per unit volume is so low that collisions are scarcely considered by astronomers. Of course, at some point the stellar density must reach a point at which the chance for a collision does become statistically significant. Where is that tipping point and are there any locations that might actually make the cut?(...)
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Shedding Light on Dark Gamma Ray Bursts

Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are among the most energetic phenomena astronomers regularly observe. These events are triggered by massive explosions and a large amount of the energy if focused into narrow beams that sweep across the universe. These beams are so tightly concentrated that they can be seen across the visible universe and allow astronomers to probe the universe's history. If such an event happened in our galaxy and we stood in the path of the beam, the effects would be pronounced and may lead to large extinctions. Yet one of the most energetic GRBs on record (GRB 080607) was shrouded in cloud of gas and dust dimming the blast by a factor of 20 – 200, depending on the wavelength.  Despite this strong veil, the GRB was still bright enough to be detected by small optical telescopes for over an hour. So what can this hidden monster tell astronomers about ancient galaxies and GRBs in general?(...)
Read the rest of Ultraluminous Gamma Ray Burst 080607 – A "Monster in the Dark" (459 words)

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Post tags: Gamma Ray Bursts, interstellar medium

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The asteroid Eros, as seen by the NEAR mission. Credit: NASA

From the Spitzer website:

New research from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals that asteroids somewhat near Earth, termed near-Earth objects, are a mixed bunch, with a surprisingly wide array of compositions. Like a piñata filled with everything from chocolates to fruity candies, these asteroids come in assorted colors and compositions. Some are dark and dull; others are shiny and bright. The Spitzer observations of 100 known near-Earth asteroids demonstrate that the objects' diversity is greater than previously thought.

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The recently refurbished Hubble Space Telescope has taken a new look at Supernova 1987A and its famous "String of Pearls," a glowing ring 6 trillion miles in diameter encircling the supernova remnant. The sharper and clearer images are allowing astronomers to see the “innards” of the star being ejected into space following the explosion, and comparing the new images with ones taken previously provides a unique glimpse of a young supernova remnant as it evolves. They found significant brightening of the object over time, and also evident is how the shock wave from the star’s explosion has expanded and rebounded.
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Read the rest of Supernova Spews Its Guts Across Space (635 words)

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Post tags: Hubble, Supernova 1987A, Supernovae

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Atlantis tribute poster. Credit: NASA

NASA has put out a collection of tribute posters to the Space Shuttle fleet that celebrates the contributions to human space flight of Columbia, Atlantis, Discovery, Challenger and Endeavour. Large versions of these posters now hang in Firing Room 4 of the Launch Control Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Click on each image for a larger version that you can download.

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Congratulations to one of our favorite astronauts, Chris Hadfield from Canada. Today NASA and the Canadian Space Agency announced Hadfield will be heading to the International Space Station in 2012, serving as Flight Engineer for Expedition 34, and then transitioning to Commander midway through his 6-month stay when Expedition 35 begins. Hadfield will be the first Canadian to serve as Commander for the ISS. His ebullient style and passion for space exploration — evident in the video above from today's announcement (Hadfield speaks in both French and English, so don't worry if you're not fluent in one or the other) should make for a lively and enlightening time on the ISS.

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Read the rest of Oh Canada! Hadfield Named First Canadian Commander of ISS (360 words)

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Post tags: Canada, Chris Hadfield, international space station, Tom Marshburn

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Physicist Stephen Hawking has written a new book called "The Grand Design." While the title might seem like Hawking could be delving more into the “mind of God” that he alluded to in his earlier book, “A Brief History of Time,” Hawking actually says that the universe’s beginnings – or the "Big Bang" was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics and that God wasn’t needed to “light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."
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Read the rest of Hawking: God Not Needed for Universe to be Created (310 words)

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The deserts of Promontory, Utah came alive with fire as NASA and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) tested the Development Motor-2 (DM-2). The five-segment, first-stage of the Ares rocket was activated at 9:27 a.m. MDT on Aug. 31. The still morning air surrendered its silence to the sound of unleashed technological thunder. The surrounding countryside was bathed in the colors of flame as a huge plume of hot exhaust and smoke shot out the back of the solid motor. However, ATK was racking up another successful test – to a system with a future in doubt.(...)
Read the rest of NASA & ATK Turn Sand to Glass With DM-2 Test (831 words)

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Post tags: Alliant Techsystems, ATK, Development Motor-2, DM-2, NASA

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I'm just doing some final packing and then the wife and I will be flying out to Atlanta to participate in Dragon*Con 2010. This is a gigantic science fiction convention, and we try to represent Astronomy Cast there every year. We're going to be doing the first ever live show of Astronomy Cast where Pamela and I will actually be together in the same room. Epic!

So if you're going to be attending Dragon*Con and want to hang out, I should be lurking around the science/skeptic area.

Here's my schedule so far, but I suspect I'll be strong-armed into several other panels.

Title: Mystery of Hanny's Voorwerp
Time: Fri 10:00 pm Location: Crystal Ballroom – Hilton (Length: 1)
Description: Who's Hanny? What's a Voorwerp? How's Hubble involved? See the World Release of the webcomic that explains it all & the 1st Hubble images.

Title: The 2010 Parsec Awards
Time: Sat 04:00 pm Location: Regency V – Hyatt (Length: 2.5)
Description: The Parsec Award is available for original Sci-Fi & Fantasy & Speculative Fiction within the new frontiers of Portable Media.

Title: Astronomy Cast Live!
Time: Sun 01:00 pm Location: 204 – Hilton (Length: 1)
Description: Take a facts-based journey through the cosmos with Dr. Pamela Gay and Fraser Cain

© Fraser for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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It’s time once again for another Where In The Universe Challenge. Name where in the Universe this image was taken and give yourself extra points if you can name the telescope or spacecraft responsible for the image. Post your guesses in the comments section, and check back on later at this same post to find the answer. To make this challenge fun for everyone, please don’t include links or extensive explanations with your answer. Good luck!

© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Where In the Universe?

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Image of the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) by Joseph Brimacombe.

Racing is rarely the term that comes to mind when one considers astronomy. However, many events are a race to reach stability before a system flies apart or implodes. The formation of stars from gigantic interstellar clouds is just such a race in which stars struggle to form before the cloud is dispersed. Although a rough estimation of the requirements for collapse are discussed in introductory astrophysics classes (See: Jeans Mass Criterion) this formulation leaves out several elements that come into play in the real universe. Unfortunately for astronomers, these effects can be subtle but significant but untangling them is the subject of a recent paper uploaded to the arXiv preprint server.(...)
Read the rest of The Race to Stellar Formation (468 words)

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UPDATE: Three hostages have been released unharmed, and the suspect, James J. Lee, was shot at about 4:50 p.m. EDT by police. The latest reports say he was killed.

Lee, armed with a gun and an explosive device entered the Discovery Communications building in Silver Spring on Wednesday afternoon and took several people hostage including a security guard, Montgomery County Police said.

Some breaking news via former UT writer Ian O'Neill who now works for Discovery Space News: A protester has taken at least one hostage at the Discovery Channel building in Silver Spring, Maryland. Reportedly a man entered the lobby and may have fired a weapon and declared, "Nobody is going anywhere," according to Montgomery County police. Other reports said the gunman may have had explosives attached to his chest. The building has been evacuated, including an in-house daycare center, but a live news feed on TBD recently showed medical personnel bringing in a stretcher. Via Twitter, there is link to a list of demands to the Discovery Channel by someone named "Lee." NBC just reported that the alleged gunman is James Jay Lee, who has a history of protesting outside the Discovery Channel building.

We'll provide an update when it becomes available. Thankfully, Ian is not at the building.

© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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If you didn’t have the chance to see Brian Cox’s series “Wonders of the Solar System” which aired on the BBC earlier this year and the Science Channel in August, we’ve got some good news for you: it comes out on DVD and Blu-ray in the US on September 7. But there’s even better news for readers of Universe Today: We have five – count ‘em – five copies to give away, courtesy of the BBC and Bender Helper Impact marketing agency. “Wonders” is an extraordinary look at our world and solar system, and is rich with breathtaking images beamed back from the fleet of probes, rovers and telescopes currently in space, and is a “must-see” for any space and astronomy enthusiast.

To enter the contest, send an email to info@universetoday.com with “Wonders DVD” in the subject line. Deadline for entry is Wednesday, September 8 at 12 pm PDT. Winners will have their choice of “Wonders” on DVD or Blu-ray.
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Read the rest of Contest: Win "Wonders of the Solar System" DVD (156 words)

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Post tags: Contests, Giveaways

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The idea of the “Theory of Everything” is enticing – that we could somehow explain all that is. String theory has been proposed since the 1960’s as a way to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity into such an explanation. However, the biggest criticism of String Theory is that it isn't testable. But now, a research team led by scientists from the Imperial College London unexpectedly discovered that that string theory also seems to predict the behavior of entangled quantum particles. As this prediction can be tested in the laboratory, the researchers say they can now test string theory.
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Read the rest of Scientists Say They Can Now Test String Theory (609 words)

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ICESat. Image courtesy Ball Aerospace.

NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation (ICESat) mission is now on ice, so to speak, or perhaps we should say, it ultimately became an inferno. The satellite was intentionally deorbited and burned up in the atmosphere on August 30, after completing a very productive seven-year scientific stint in orbit. And talk about the ultimate high-stakes, high-adventure, hands-on student project: students at the University of Colorado Boulder conducted the final maneuvers to send the spacecraft to its fiery death.
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Read the rest of Students Send ICESat to a Fiery Deorbit Death (509 words)

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Post tags: Earth Observation, ICESat, Satellites

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The six SJ-06 series satellites in Earth orbit. Credit: The Space Review

Data from the US military shows that two Chinese satellites likely performed multiple rendezvous 600 kilometers above Earth this summer, and may have even bumped into each other. The rendezvous have taken place over the past several months, between two Chinese "Shi Jian" (Practice) spacecraft, SJ-06F and SJ-12, that are officially listed as science satellites.
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Read the rest of Two Chinese Satellites Rendezvous in Orbit (261 words)

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Hurricane Earl (lower left), Tropical Storm Fiona located to Earl's east, and Tropical Storm Danielle far in the Northern Atlantic. Credit: NASA/GOES Project

My father had a favorite adage when life was hectic: "There's lots of commotion in the ocean." That saying was never more true than the current situation in the busy Atlantic Ocean. The GOES-13 satellite captured this image earlier today (Tuesday Aug. 31) and visible are three areas of tropical commotion. The large and powerful Hurricane Earl (lower left) is passing Puerto Rico, Tropical Storm Fiona located to Earl's east, and Tropical Storm Danielle far in the Northern Atlantic. Below is footage taken by the International Space Station of the action.
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Read the rest of Satellite Captures Three Tropical Cyclones in One Image (369 words)

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Keck II image of the young extrasolar planet HR 8799 b, seen as the point source in center of image.Credit: Brendan Bowler and Michael Liu, IfA/Hawaii

Back in 2008, the first multi-planet system of extrasolar planets was imaged, and further study of the planets in this very young system is yielding some puzzling results. Astronomers using the Keck Observatory have been able to obtain the spectrum of one planet, HR 8799 b, revealing the temperature, chemical composition, and atmospheric properties of the planet. The planet’s atmosphere is unlike that of any previously studied extrasolar planet, and it appears the planet is extremely cloudy, and also quite hot, even though it is very far from its host star.

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Read the rest of Young Exoplanet is Cloudy With a Chance of Heat Waves (534 words)

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We've hinted that it was going to be made, and then we warned you that a sneak preview would be aired on August 29th. Well, now I've seen the first episode of Phil Plait's Bad Universe, and I'm here to solemnly judge it.
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Read the rest of Bad Universe Review (549 words)

© Fraser for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bad Astronomy, Bad Universe, Phil Plait

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Armadillo Aerospace's SuperMod vehicle. Credit: William Pomerantz, Google Lunar X PRIZE

Commercial space companies Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space Systems have been awarded a total of $475,000 to perform test flights of their experimental vehicles near the edge of space. The award is part of NASA's Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program (CRuSR), which seeks to develop commercial reusable transportation to near space for frequent, low-cost trips to near-space for small payloads.
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Read the rest of NASA Funds Experimental “Near Space” Vehicles (230 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: commercial spaceflight, CRuSR

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