A camera aboard NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has helped develop the most accurate global Martian map ever. Researchers and the public can access the map via several websites and explore and survey the entire surface of the Red Planet. The map was constructed using nearly 21,000 images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, [...]
Archive for the ‘Solar System’ Category
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New Technique for Studying Dark Energy
July 22nd, 2010 Pioneering observations with the National Science Foundation’s giant Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have given astronomers a new tool for mapping large cosmic structures. The new tool promises to provide valuable clues about the nature of the mysterious “dark energy” believed to constitute nearly three-fourths of the mass and energy of the Universe. [...]
Unravelling the Mystery of Massive Star Birth: All Stars Are Born the Same Way
July 15th, 2010 “Our observations show a disc surrounding an embryonic young, massive star, which is now fully formed,” says Stefan Kraus, who led the study. “One can say that the baby is about to hatch!” The team of astronomers looked at an object known by the cryptic name of IRAS 13481-6124. About twenty times the mass of [...]
Watch While an Asteroid Eats a Star
July 6th, 2010 In a rare event on July 8, 2010, skywatchers will be able to see an asteroid briefly block out the light from a star as it passes in front. It may be the only asteroid ‘occultation’ this century observable with the naked eye. Everybody is familiar with a solar eclipse, when our Moon passes in [...]
Planck Unveils the Universe – Now and Then
July 3rd, 2010 ESA’s Planck mission has delivered its first all-sky image. It not only provides new insight into the way stars and galaxies form but also tells us how the Universe itself came to life after the Big Bang. “This is the moment that Planck was conceived for,” says ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, David [...]
Coolest Stars Come out of the Dark: Spitzer Spies Frigid Brown Dwarfs
July 2nd, 2010 Astronomers have uncovered what appear to be 14 of the coldest stars known in our universe. These failed stars, called brown dwarfs, are so cold and faint that they’d be impossible to see with current visible-light telescopes. Spitzer’s infrared vision was able to pick out their feeble glow, much as a firefighter uses infrared goggles [...]
Whole Earth Telescope Watching ‘Dancing’ Stars
May 21st, 2010 After billions of years of twinkling and shining, some stars in the heavens appear to “dance” as they wind down. Maybe not like Elvis or Michael Jackson, but they definitely have a rhythmic beat, and some may even spin like a top. For the next two weeks, the Whole Earth Telescope, an international network of [...]
Most Distant Galaxy Cluster Revealed by Invisible Light
May 20th, 2010 An international team of astronomers from Germany and Japan has discovered the most distant cluster of galaxies known so far — 9.6 billion light years away. The X-ray and infrared observations showed that the cluster hosts predominantly old, massive galaxies, demonstrating that the galaxies formed when the universe was still very young. These and similar [...]
Mars Rover Spirit May Have Begun Months-Long Hibernation
April 8th, 2010 NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit skipped a planned communication session on March 30 and, as anticipated from recent power-supply projections, has probably entered a low-power hibernation mode. In this mode, the rover’s clock keeps running, but communications and other activities are suspended in order to put all available energy into heating and battery recharging. When [...]
Neptune’s Moon Triton: Summer Sky of Methane and Carbon Monoxide
April 7th, 2010 According to the first ever infrared analysis of the atmosphere of Neptune’s moon Triton, summer is in full swing in its southern hemisphere. The European observing team used ESO’s Very Large Telescope and discovered carbon monoxide and made the first ground-based detection of methane in Triton’s thin atmosphere. These observations revealed that the thin atmosphere [...]