NASA finds planet like Earth just right for life

NASA has found a new planet outside Earth's solar system that is eerily similar to Earth in important aspects.
Scientists say the temperature on the surface of the planet is about 22 Celsius (Just like Earth). Its star is also extremely similar to our Sun, and appears to be nearly identical. It probably has water and land,
and was found in the middle of the habitable zone, making it the best potential target for life.
The discovery was made by NASA's Kepler planet-hunting telescope. This is the first time Kepler confirmed a planet outside Earth's solar system in the habitable zone (not too hot, not too cold).
Twice before astronomers have announced planets found in that zone, but neither was as promising. One was disputed; the other is on the hot edge of the zone. A catalogue of habitable worlds is being compiled by scientists as increasing numbers of "exoplanets" are detected among the stars.

Bibliography:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

In the Heart of Cygnus, NASA's Fermi Reveals a Cosmic-Ray Cocoon

The constellation Cygnus, now visible in the western sky during twilight, hosts one of our galaxy's richest-known stellar construction zones. Astronomers viewing the region at visible wavelengths see only hints of this activity thanks to a veil of dust clouds forming "the Great Rift," a dark lane that splits the Milky Way.
Located in the vicinity of the second-magnitude star Gamma Cygni, the star-forming region was named Cygnus X when it was discovered as a diffuse radio source in the 1950s. Now, a study using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope found that the tumult of star birth and death in Cygnus X has managed to corral fast-moving particles called cosmic rays.
Cosmic rays are subatomic particles (mostly protons) flying through the galaxy at nearly the speed of light, bouncing off electromagnetic fields in their path. However, when cosmic rays collide with interstellar gas, they produce gamma rays (the most energetic and penetrating form of light) that travel to us straight from the source. By tracing gamma-ray signals throughout the galaxy, Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT) is helping astronomers understand the sources of cosmic rays and how they're accelerated to such high speeds.
Cygnus X is estimated to have the raw materials to produce up to 2 million sun-like stars. This environment holds onto its cosmic rays despite their high energies by entangling them in turbulent magnetic fields created by the combined outflows of the region's numerous high-mass stars. This is providing astronomers with a new look at the early life of cosmic rays, before they long before they diffuse into the galaxy at large.

Bibliography:
www.sciencedaily.com

Magnetic Fields Set Stage for Birth of New Stars

Astronomers have measured the alignment of magnetic fields in gigantic clouds of gas and dust in a distant galaxy. Their results suggest that such magnetic fields play a key role in channeling matter to form denser clouds, and thus in setting the stage for the birth of new stars.
Stars and their planets are born when giant clouds of interstellar gas and dust collapse.Astronomers know quite a bit about these so-called molecular clouds: They consist mainly of hydrogen molecules, which is unusual since conditions are rarely right for hydrogen atoms to bond in the cosmos. Astronomers then wondered how these clouds could come into being, and what makes matter congregate in regions a hundred or even a thousand times more dense than the surrounding interstellar gas? One theory suggests that galaxies' magnetic fields guide and direct the condensation of interstellar matter to form denser clouds and facilitate their further collapse. Astronomers Hua-bai Li and Thomas Henning from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy chose the Triangulum galaxy, 3 million light-years from Earth and also known as M 33 to study to try and gain evidence of magnetic field influence. Li and Henning measured specific properties of radiation received from different regions of the galaxy which are correlated with the orientation of these region's magnetic fields. They found that the magnetic fields associated with the galaxy's six most massive giant molecular clouds were orderly, and well aligned with the galaxy's spiral arms. Their findings are a strong indication that magnetic fields do actually play an important role when it comes to the formation of dense molecular clouds; and to setting the stage for the birth of stars and planetary systems like our own.

Bibliography:
www.sciencedaily.com

Galaxies Are the Ultimate Recyclers, NASA's Hubble Confirms

Galaxies have been "green" since the universe existed. They continuously recycle immense volumes of hydrogen gas and heavy elements to build successive generations of stars that stretch over billions of years. Their recycling allows them to maintain their star-forming abillity for over 10 billion years. However, galaxies that ignite a rapid firestorm of star birth can blow away their remaining "fuel," essentially turning off further star-creating activity.
This conclusion is based on a series of Hubble Space Telescope observations that flexed the special capabilities of its comparatively new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) to detect otherwise invisible mass in the halo of our Milky Way and a sample of more than 40 other galaxies. Data from large ground-based telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, and Chile also contributed to the studies by measuring the properties of the galaxies.

Bibliography:
www.sciencedaily.com

Blue Supergiant Stars

Blue supergiants are supergiant stars (class I) of spectral type O. They are extremely hot and bright, with surface temperatures of between 20,000 - 50,000 degrees Celsius. The best known example is Rigel, the brightest star in the constellation of Orion. It has a mass of around 20 times that of the Sun and gives out more light than 60,000 suns added together.
Despite their rarity and short lives, blue supergiant stars are heavily represented among the stars visible to the naked eye due to their inherent brightness that trumps their scarcity. Due to core nuclear reactions being slightly slower, the star contracts and since very similar energy is coming from a much smaller area (photosphere) then the star's surface becomes much hotter.

Bibliography:
http://www.sciencedaily.com

Three New Planets and a Mystery Object Discovered Outside Our Solar System

Three planets each orbiting its own giant, dying star have been discovered by an international research team led by a Penn State University astronomer. Using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, astronomers observed the planets' parent stars (called HD 240237, BD +48 738, and HD 96127) tens of light years away from our solar system. One of the massive, dying stars has an additional mystery object orbiting it, which according to the team, could be another planet, a low-mass star, or possibly even a brown dwarf, (a star-like body that is intermediate in mass between the coolest stars and giant planets).
The new research is expected to shed light on the evolution of planetary systems around dying stars. It also will help astronomers to understand how metal content influences the behavior of dying stars.

Bibliography:
www.sciencedaily.com

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go on a camping trip, set up their tent, and fall asleep. Some hours later, Holmes wakes his faithful friend.  "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."  Watson replies, "I see millions of stars."  "What does that tell you?"  Watson ponders a minute. "Astronomically speaking, it tells me that  there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Time wise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?"  Holmes is silent for a moment, then speaks. "Watson, you idiot, someone has stolen our tent."

'Pacman' Nebula Gets Some Teeth

To visible-light telescopes, this star-forming cloud appears to be chomping through the cosmos, earning it the nickname the "Pacman" nebula. When viewed in infrared light by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, the Pacman takes on a new appearance. In place of its typical, triangle-shaped mouth is a new set of lower, sharp-looking teeth.
The teeth are actually pillars where new stars may be forming. These structures were formed when radiation and winds from massive stars in a central cluster blew gas and dust away, leaving only the densest of material. The red dots sprinkled throughout the picture are thought to be the youngest stars, still forming in cocoons of dust.
The Pacman nebula, also called NGC 281, is located 9,200 light years away in the constellation Cassiopeia.

Bibliography:
www.sciencedaily.com

Have you heard about the new restaurant on the moon?
The food is good, but there's just no atmosphere!

Asteroid Lutetia: Primitive Body from Solar System's Planet-Forming Period

The European Space Agency's Rosetta flew past Lutetia on 10 July 2010 at a speed of 54 000 km/hr and at a close distance of 3170 km. At the time, the 130 km-long asteroid was the largest encountered by a spacecraft. Since then, scientists have been analysing the data taken during the brief encounter.
All previous "flybys" went past objects, which were fragments of once-larger bodies. However, during the encounter, scientists thought that Lutetia might be an older, more primitive 'mini-world'.
Now they are much more certain. Images from the OSIRIS camera reveal that parts of Lutetia's surface are around 3.6 billion years old. Other parts are young by astronomical standards, at around 50-80 million years old.
Astronomers estimate the age of airless planets, moons, and asteroids by counting craters. Each bowl-shaped depression on the surface is made by an impact. The older the surface, the more impacts it will have accumulated. Some parts of Lutetia are heavily cratered, implying that it is very old. Some impacts must have been so large that they broke off whole chunks of Lutetia, gradually shaping it into the battered wreck we see today.

 Bibliography:
www.sciencedaily.com

Planets Smashed Into Dust Near Supermassive Black Holes

Supermassive black holes reside in the central parts of most galaxies. Observations indicate that about 50% of them are hidden from view by mysterious clouds of dust, the origin of which is not completely understood. The new theory is inspired by our own Solar System, where the so-called zodiacal dust is known to originate from collisions between solid bodies such as asteroids and comets. The scientists propose that the central regions of galaxies contain not only black holes and stars but also planets and asteroids.
Collisions between these rocky objects would occur at colossal speeds as large as 1000 km per second, continuously shattering and fragmenting the objects, until eventually they end up as microscopic dust.  This is unfortunate for life on those planets, but the dust created by these collisions blocks the radiation emitted from the black hole, making life possible for other planets near the center of the galaxy.

Bibliography:
www.sciencedaily.com

NASA Space Telescope Finds Fewer Asteroids Near Earth

New observations by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), show there are significantly fewer asteroids near Earth in the mid-size range than previously thought. These new findings also indicate NASA has found more than 90 percent of the largest near-Earth asteroids. Astronomers now estimate there are roughly 19,500 (not 35,000 as previously thought) mid-size near-Earth asteroids. Scientists say this improved understanding of the population could mean the hazard to Earth could be somewhat less than previously thought. However, the majority of these mid-size asteroids remain to be discovered. More research also is needed to determine if fewer mid-size objects (objects between 330 and 3,300-feet wide) also mean fewer potentially hazardous asteroids, those that come closest to Earth. Near-Earth asteroids fall under the category of any space rock that orbits within 195 million kilometers of the sun into Earth's orbital vicinity. Though the WISE data reveal only a small decline in the estimated numbers for the largest near-Earth asteroids, which are 1 kilometer and larger, they show 93 percent of the estimated population have been found. This fulfills the initial "Spaceguard" goal agreed to with Congress in 1998.

Bibliography:
 www.sciencedaily.com
It is reported that Copernicus' parents said the following to him at the age of twelve: "Copernicus, young man, when are you going to come to terms with the fact that the world does not revolve around you." 

Blog 2 - Jupiter's Little Red Spot

Scientists have recently discovered a change in Jupiter's makeup. The "Red Eye" of Jupiter (a steadily shrinking red coloured storm) now has some competition. A smaller "Little Red Spot" has now shown up due to increased wind speeds which scientists believe stirred up material that was exposed to ultraviolet radiation, causing a chemical change to make it look red. The "Little Red Spot" storm was formed by the merger of three separate storms observed since the 1930's. In 1998 two of them came together and were joined in 2000 by a third to form a storm roughly the size of Earth. Both The "Red Eye" and "Little Red Spot" are anti-cyclones, meaning they spin in a counterclockwise motion. Unlike hurricanes, which rotate around a center of low pressure, anti-cyclones rotate around centers of high pressure. That means that air at lower elevations is forced away from the center, creating an opening that pulls cold air down from above. That leads to low humidity and few clouds. Their wind speeds have been recorded to reach up to 385 miles per hour, far exceeding the 156 mph mark that would make it a category five storm on Earth.

Bibliography

Milky Way's Spiral Arms Are the Product of an Intergalactic Collision Course; Models Show Dark Matter Packs a Punch

A dwarf galaxy called Sagittarius has collided twice with our Milky Way Galaxy, according to telescope data and detailed simulations, and is lined up to run into us again. When these galaxies collide, it sends stars shooting out in long loops which eventually build up to form a familiar ringed arm. Each time this collision has occured though, Sagittarius has been torn to pieces by about 80 to 90 percent and loses much of it's dark matter to form new arms for the milky way and its greater gravity. Although this may seem alarming, we do not have to worry at the moment, as scientists predict that the next collision will occur in about 10 million years.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110914131338.htm