Supernova explosions stay in shape. At a very early age, children learn how to classify objects according to their shape. Now, new research suggests studying the shape of the aftermath of supernovas may allow astronomers to do the same. A new study of images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory on supernova remnants--the debris from exploded stars--shows that the symmetry of the remnants, or lack thereof, reveals how the star exploded. This is an important discovery because it shows that the remnants retain information about how the star exploded, even though hundreds or thousands of years have passed.
"It's almost like the supernova remnants have a 'memory' of the original explosion," said Laura Lopez, a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who led the study. "This is the first time anyone has systematically compared the shape of these remnants in X-rays in this way. " Astronomers sort supernovas into several categories, or "types," based on properties observed days after the explosion. Stellarium. 12 Must-See Skywatching Events in 2012 | 2012 Skywatching Events Guide & 2012 Venus Transit | Amateur Astronomy. This story was updated on Jan. 2. As the year 2011 comes to a close, some might wonder what is looming sky-wise for 2012?
What celestial events might we look forward to seeing? I've selected what I consider to be the top 12 "skylights" for this coming year, and list them here in chronological order. Not all these events will be visible from any one locality … for the eclipses, for instance, you'll probably have to do some traveling … but many can be observed from the comfort of your backyard. Hopefully your local weather will cooperate on most, if not all, of these dates. Clear skies! Jan. 4: Quadrantid meteor shower peaks This meteor shower reaches its peak in the predawn hours of Jan. 4 for eastern North America.
From the eastern half of North America, a single observer might count on seeing as many as 50-to-100 "Quads" in a single hour. The first major meteor shower of 2012 takes place on the night of Tuesday, Jan. 3 and the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 4. May 5: Biggest full moon of 2012. Space toilet. Dark alien planet discovered by NASA. An alien world blacker than coal, the darkest planet known, has been discovered in the galaxy. The world in question is a giant the size of Jupiter known as TrES-2b. NASA's Kepler spacecraft detected it lurking around the yellow sun-like star GSC 03549-02811 some 750 lightyears away in the direction of the constellation Draco. The researchers found this gas giant reflects less than 1 percent of the sunlight falling on it, making it darker than any planet or moon seen up to now.
[The Strangest Alien Planets] "It's just ridiculous how dark this planet is, how alien it is compared to anything we have in our solar system," study lead-author David Kipping, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told SPACE.com. "It's darker than the blackest lump of coal, than dark acrylic paint you might paint with. "However, it's not completely pitch black," co-author David Spiegel of Princeton University said in a statement. Related on SPACE.com: Scientists Find Evidence for “Great Lake” on Europa and Potential New Habitat for Life | JSG News. Europa's "Great Lake. " Researchers predict many more such lakes are scattered throughout the moon's icy shell.
Credit: Britney Schmidt/Dead Pixel VFX/Univ. of Texas at Austin. Watch animation of how lakes form inside Europa’s icy shell. In a significant finding in the search for life beyond Earth, scientists from The University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere have discovered what appears to be a body of liquid water the volume of the North American Great Lakes locked inside the icy shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa. The water could represent a potential habitat for life, and many more such lakes might exist throughout the shallow regions of Europa’s shell, lead author Britney Schmidt, a postdoctoral fellow at The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics, writes in the journal Nature.
The scientists focused on Galileo spacecraft images of two roughly circular, bumpy features on Europa’s surface called chaos terrains. Videos. Lawrence Krauss: Life, the Universe and Nothing Video. Log in Get Smart Cynthia Yildirim Lawrence Krauss: Life, the Universe and Nothing Lawrence Krauss is a professor in the Department of Physics at Arizona State University. Posted 3 years ago wmayeaux liked this N30Sniip3r liked this lecnt liked this Mycroft liked this ccromp liked this Tyler Terrell liked this Mick Rogers liked this Iliya Dgidgi liked this Janet Bloem liked this MP Oddity liked this bigdaddy1225 liked this © 2014 Redux, Inc.
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