Astronomy
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
June 14th, 2010 § What’s wrong with the sun? Where are all the sun spots? Is it shrinking?
What’s wrong with the sun? « PJZen's The Big Picture
July 9th, 2010 § You know how much I love bubbles. This is the coolest one I have seen in a while. The universe is such an amazing place. I wouldn’t live anywhere else.
Humungous bubbles blown from small black hole « PJZen's The Big Picture
Beginning and End of the Universe « PJZen's The Big Picture
* The diagram below outlines the major Eras of the Universe according to the Big Bang Theory. Click the picture for many more details and a larger image. The one line in the article that caught my attention the most was at the end. “One important point is that since everything that we learn about the Universe comes from light (photons), if there are no photons there is no information.
Big Bang Abandoned in New Model of the Universe « PJZen's The Big Picture
This is one of the most exciting theories I have heard in a long time. I am going to tell you why and you are going to think I am even nuttier than you already do. But, as you know, I don’t care. One night after watching some documentary about Stephen Hawking and the black hole wars, I was lying in bed just contemplating the Universe.
Depending on the level of involvement, participants may need a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera, image analysis software, a computer, and a telescope. Astronomical software package options can be found on the Global Telescope Network website at http://gtn.sonoma.edu/data_reduction/index.php#software. Using small telescopes around the world, Global Telescope Network members observe and analyze astronomical objects related to the NASA Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST), Swift, and XMM-Newton missions.
Global Telescope Network | Science for Citizens
GRAVITY may have the power to create quantum monsters. A strong gravitational field can induce a runaway effect in quantum fluctuations in apparently empty space, resulting in a burgeoning concentration of energy that may explode stars or create black holes. So say Daniel Vanzella and William Lima at the University of São Paulo in Brazil.
Quantum space monster leaps from a gravity well - space - 17 May
How to See the Best Meteor Showers of 2010: Tools, Tips and 'Sav
NASA JPL Home California Institute of Technology
The Webb Space Telescope, Hubble's successor, will see in infrared, the light emitted by the farthest objects we can detect. Learn about Webb, its technology, and the science it will reveal.
HubbleSite -- Out of the ordinary...out of this world.
A strange and mysterious new object in space may the brightest and long-lasting "micro-quasar" seen thus far, a miniature version of the brightest objects in the universe. The object suddenly began pumping out radio waves last year in the relatively nearby galaxy M82, some 10 million light-years away. Its discovery was announced Tuesday. "The new object, which appeared in May 2009, has left us scratching our heads — we've never seen anything quite like this before," said researcher Tom Muxlow, a radio astronomer at the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory in England. M82 is a "starburst galaxy," one that churns out new stars at a prodigious rate.
Mysterious New Object Discovered in Space
Coolest new Free toy from NASA « PJZen's The Big Picture
Eyes on the Earth Is a 3D plug-in from NASA, JPL and California Institute of Technology. It provides Real Time tracking of NASA satellites and the 3D maps that they generate! I have been looking for an easier way of seeing this information for months. I cannot express my excitement.
Swift Catches 500th Gamma-ray Burst | VizWorld.com
A Gamma-ray burst (GRB) is a flash a gamma rays that are thought to be either the merging of two neutron stars, or the death of a massive star into a black hole. Long gamma-ray bursts, which are those that last over 2 seconds, are thought to be the result of a core-collapse supernova . Short gamma-ray bursts, which are those that last less than 2 seconds, are hypothesized to be the result of a binary neutron stars merging. NASA’s Swift spacecraft was launched on November 20 th , 2004. Its mission was to observe 200 gamma ray bursts.This artist's illustration (left) shows a close-up view of the Sculptor Wall, which is comprised of galaxies along with the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). Credit: Illustration: NASA /CXC/M.Weiss; Spectrum: NASA/CXC/Univ. of California Irvine/T. Fang et al. From a Chandra press release: Scientists have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton to detect a vast reservoir of gas lying along a wall-shaped structure of galaxies about 400 million light years from Earth . In this artist’s impression, a close-up view of the so-called Sculptor Wall is depicted.
X-Ray Observations Find Evidence for "Missing Matter" in the Uni
100 epic images from Hubble Space Telescope - Coolvibe
The Hubble Space Telescope, named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and launched into space in 1990, has since taken almost 200,000 pictures of the Universe which have been released to the public. Read more about Hubble Space telescope (HST) on Wikipedia here . Read on for a gallery of 100 epic images, compiled from NASA , The Hubble Heritage Project , Space Telescope Science Institute , HubbleSite.org and NASA APOD .The unfurling of a Japanese solar sail, the first demonstration of a new space propulsion technology, went exactly according to plan. According to JAXA’s blog posts and photos from the event, the IKAROS spacecraft’s sail appears to be in place. It’s a big step in its attempt to travel driven only by sunlight. “This is the first sail ever deployed in space, and if they succeed in using it for solar-sail flight — it’ll still be a few weeks before we know that — it’ll be a milestone,” said Louis Friedman , executive director of the Planetary Society, an organization dedicated to promoting space exploration, which is readying its own solar-sailing mission . A solar sail uses the pressure from photons striking its surface to push the spacecraft through space. Materially, the 650 square-foot sail is made of incredibly thin, aluminized plastic that’s only 0.0003 inches thick , a little thicker than spider silk, or about the diameter of a red blood cell.