Mayur's Posterous http://agentm.posterous.com Most recent posts at Mayur's Posterous posterous.com Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:29:46 -0700 Time-lapse video of the planet as seen from the International Space Station. http://agentm.posterous.com/time-lapse-video-of-the-planet-as-seen-from-t http://agentm.posterous.com/time-lapse-video-of-the-planet-as-seen-from-t

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Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:33:00 -0700 Fifty New Exoplanets Discovered by HARPS http://agentm.posterous.com/fifty-new-exoplanets-discovered-by-harps http://agentm.posterous.com/fifty-new-exoplanets-discovered-by-harps
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Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:25:00 -0700 AstroAlert: Type Ia supernova in M101! | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine http://agentm.posterous.com/astroalert-type-ia-supernova-in-m101-bad-astr http://agentm.posterous.com/astroalert-type-ia-supernova-in-m101-bad-astr

Attention all astronomers! There is a new Type Ia supernova that has been seen in the nearby spiral galaxy M101, and it’s very young — currently only about a day old! This is very exciting news; getting as much data on this event as possible is critical.

Most likely professional astronomers are already aware of the supernova, since observations have already been taken by Swift (no X-rays have yet been seen, but it’s early yet) and Hubble observations have been scheduled. Still, I would urge amateur astronomers to take careful observations of the galaxy.

[As an aside, I'll note that this supernova won't get bright enough to see naked eye and poses no threat at all to us here on Earth. It may be visible in decent-sized telescopes, though, and as you'll see this may be a very important event in the annals of astronomy.]

So why is this a big deal?

First of all, a supernova is an exploding star — one of the most violent events in the Universe. There are different kinds of supernovae, but a Type Ia occurs, it’s thought, when a superdense white dwarf — the remnant core of a dead star — siphons material off a companion star. If enough material piles on top of the white dwarf, it can suddenly start to fuse hydrogen into helium. This starts a runaway effect, and the entire star explodes. This supernova can release so much energy it can actually outshine its host galaxy! If you want more details, I’ve written about Type Ia supernovae before: Astronomers spot ticking supernova time bomb and Dwarf merging makes for an explosive combo.

So this kind of supernova is incredibly bright, making them easy to spot over vast distances. These events are very important, because we think that each Type Ia supernova is very similar in the way it explodes, making them useful as benchmarks in gauging distances to very distant galaxies. In fact, it is the study of these explosions that has helped us nail down how fast the Universe is expanding, and also led to the discovery of dark energy. Clearly, the more we know about them, the better.

M101 is a spiral galaxy only about 25 million light years away, making it one of the closest big spirals in the sky. It’s also huge, boasting a trillions stars, ten times the mass of our Milky Way. You can read all about it in an earlier post featuring the image at the top of this article.

Given M101′s close distance, this new supernova will be relatively easy to study. And the best part is that the exploding star was caught young: most of the ones we see are far away, and too faint to be seen until they start to reach their maximum brightness after a few days. Getting data on them early is absolutely critical for understanding them, and it’s the hardest part of all this. I am not exaggerating to say this new supernova could be a linchpin in our understanding of these events.

Interestingly, Hubble took images of this galaxy in 2002, and astronomers dug up the archived images and looked at the spot of the supernova to see if anything was there back then. Nothing shows up in the blue filter, but in the red (shown here) there are two stars very close to the position of the future supernova (the circle is centered on the best measurement of the supernova’s position). From their brightness and color, both of these stars are red giants, stars like the Sun but near the ends of their lives. That would fit with the Type Ia supernova: red giants are so big that if there’s a white dwarf nearby, it could suck up their matter and start the chain of events that led to its doom. Further observations may pin this down. If one of these stars is what fed the supernova, that’s seriously cool; there are only a handful of supernova progenitor stars that have ever been seen*.

All in all, this is pretty much a big deal. The galaxy is close, pretty, a bit odd, and is hosting the nearest Type Ia supernova seen in decades which was caught when it was less than a day old. I’m excited! I know a lot of telescopes will be aimed at the northern skies over the next few days, and I’ll be very interested to find out what they see.

Image credits: Hubble M101 image: NASA, ESA, K. Kuntz (JHU), F. Bresolin (University of Hawaii), J. Trauger (Jet Propulsion Lab), J. Mould (NOAO), Y.-H. Chu (University of Illinois, Urbana), and STScI; Type Ia art: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss; Hubble image: NASA/ESA/Hubble. Tip o’ the dew shield to paulwarren73.

 

* Technically, if one of the red giants was behind this event, it wasn’t the star that actually exploded — the white dwarf which actually blew up was far, far too faint to be seen here. Still, very cool.

via blogs.discovermagazine.com

 

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Sun, 21 Aug 2011 14:01:00 -0700 The Riddle of AntiMatter - SpaceRip http://agentm.posterous.com/the-riddle-of-antimatter-spacerip http://agentm.posterous.com/the-riddle-of-antimatter-spacerip

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Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:34:00 -0700 Neil Degrasse Tyson on Bill Maher http://agentm.posterous.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-on-bill-maher http://agentm.posterous.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-on-bill-maher

There he is, the Carl Sagan of my generation.

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Thu, 11 Aug 2011 02:53:00 -0700 Heat concentrations in a cold universe. http://agentm.posterous.com/heat-concentrations-in-a-cold-universe http://agentm.posterous.com/heat-concentrations-in-a-cold-universe

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via flickr

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Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:17:00 -0700 ‪Largest star ever discovered, compared to our Sun‬‏ http://agentm.posterous.com/largest-star-ever-discovered-compared-to-our http://agentm.posterous.com/largest-star-ever-discovered-compared-to-our

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Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:49:00 -0700 BBC News - Boeing pilots to make space trip http://agentm.posterous.com/bbc-news-boeing-pilots-to-make-space-trip http://agentm.posterous.com/bbc-news-boeing-pilots-to-make-space-trip

Boeing ship

The CST-100 is Boeing's answer to Nasa's call for a commercial crew transport service

Boeing says two of its own employees will crew the first manned mission of its new astronaut capsule.

The US company has confirmed it will use the Atlas 5 rocket to test its CST-100 ship on three flights in 2015.

An unmanned capsule will be used on the first and second launches. On the third, Boeing test pilots will take the vessel to the space station.

The plan is dependent on a successful development programme and the availability of sufficient funding.

Boeing is one of a number of companies being encouraged by the US space agency (Nasa) to develop a commercially operated crew transport service to and from low-Earth orbit.

The idea is that Nasa and other space agencies around the world would buy seats in these vehicles to get their people to the international orbiting platform and other destinations that might one day include privately run space labs and hotels.

Last month, Nasa retired its space shuttles, partly on the grounds of cost - they were hugely expensive to maintain.

The agency believes that by handing operational responsibility to the commercial sector, the price of getting into low-Earth orbit can be reduced substantially.

It is giving Boeing financial support to help it develop the CST-100 ship.

The conical design will be capable of carrying up to seven individuals.

The choice of the Atlas 5 as the CST-100's launcher is not a major surprise. It has an excellent record - 27 flights with a 100% success rate.

It also happens to be operated by a company that is part-owned by Boeing called United Launch Alliance (ULA). However, Boeing says that relationship played no part in the decision to use Atlas; it was simply that Atlas was deemed the best rocket for the task.

"Our approach is to produce a reliable spacecraft built on existing simple systems and then integrate that with a proven launch vehicle, all focussed on putting in place a very safe system, one that will be reliable and that can be operational as soon as practical so that we can start flying US crew from US launch sites post the shuttle era," said John Elbon, vice president and programme manager of Boeing's Commercial Crew Programs.

Atlas 5

The Atlas 5 has a 100% record of launch success

The year 2015 will see the Atlas launch the capsule three times.

The first flight will put the ship in orbit. The second will take the CST-100 part-way towards space before practising an abort.

In this procedure, the capsule will push itself away from the rocket mid-flight as if there were some problem on the rocket. This will be a critical test of astronaut safety features built into the capsule in the event of an emergency.

Assuming these demonstration flights go well, the third mission will see Boeing test pilots take the CST-100 all the way to the International Space Station.

The CST-100 would then be ready for commercial service starting in 2016.

Boeing says the two pilots it plans to use on the manned mission in 2015 will emerge from a selection process that is already under way.

"We're actually interviewing now for the first one," said Mr Elbon. "I would like to get one on board so that they can be part of the design process and influence it from an operator's perspective."

The decision of Boeing to use the Atlas 5 follows hard on the heels of a recent agreement signed between Nasa and ULA to prepare the Atlas rocket for astronaut launch duties.

This work will determine which components on the Atlas already meet Nasa's stringent requirements for human spaceflight and which elements might need to be upgraded.

ULA is also developing an emergency detection system that would be placed inside the Atlas to give warning of a major malfunction. In addition, ULA needs to prepare a gantry structure that would allow astronauts to get in and out of a capsule when it is mounted on top of an Atlas at its launch pad.

"ULA will provide launch services from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station," explained George Sowers, ULA's vice president of business development.

"We will use the Atlas 412 configuration, which means it has a single solid rocket booster [attached to its liquid-fuelled core stage] and a dual engine Centaur upper stage.

"We believe the Atlas 5 provides the earliest possible initial launch capability for commercial crew and we'll be ready to support Boeing with both un-crewed and crewed test flights in 2015."

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

 

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Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:17:00 -0700 NASA's Juno Spacecraft Launches on Journey to Jupiter http://agentm.posterous.com/nasas-juno-spacecraft-launches-on-journey-to http://agentm.posterous.com/nasas-juno-spacecraft-launches-on-journey-to
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Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:48:22 -0700 Untitled http://agentm.posterous.com/63764741 http://agentm.posterous.com/63764741
Skeleton_astronauts

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Wed, 03 Aug 2011 04:06:00 -0700 Nilgiri South - Nepal ... millions and billions of stars. http://agentm.posterous.com/nilgiri-south-nepal-millions-and-billions-of http://agentm.posterous.com/nilgiri-south-nepal-millions-and-billions-of
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Nepal, ACAP, view of Kali Gandaki Valley with Nilgiri South (6839 m) from Tatopani (1190 m), 2011 | 20 sec, f/1.6, ISO 2000, FL 50 mm.

I have to go back to Nepal to see this for myself.

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Sat, 30 Jul 2011 05:57:36 -0700 ‪Theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku - From Universe to Multiverse‬‏ http://agentm.posterous.com/from-universe-to-multiverse-youtube http://agentm.posterous.com/from-universe-to-multiverse-youtube

"However, on April 8th 2011, NASA announced that it would likely be unable to continue its LISA partnership with the European Space Agency, due to funding limitations. ESA is planning to begin a full revision of the mission's concept commencing in February 2012."

- From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Interferometer_Space_Antenna

 

 

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Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:29:00 -0700 Huge Reservoir of Water Discovered in Space 30 Billion Trillion Miles Away http://agentm.posterous.com/huge-reservoir-of-water-discovered-in-space-3 http://agentm.posterous.com/huge-reservoir-of-water-discovered-in-space-3

This artist's concept illustrates a quasar, or feeding black hole, similar to APM 08279+5255, where astronomers discovered huge amounts of water vapor. Gas and dust likely form a torus around the central black hole, with clouds of charged gas above and below. Image credit: NASA/ESA

From a Caltech Press Release:

Water really is everywhere. Two teams of astronomers, each led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe. Looking from a distance of 30 billion trillion miles away into a quasar—one of the brightest and most violent objects in the cosmos—the researchers have found a mass of water vapor that’s at least 140 trillion times that of all the water in the world’s oceans combined, and 100,000 times more massive than the sun.

Because the quasar is so far away, its light has taken 12 billion years to reach Earth. The observations therefore reveal a time when the universe was just 1.6 billion years old. “The environment around this quasar is unique in that it’s producing this huge mass of water,” says Matt Bradford, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and a visiting associate at Caltech. “It’s another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times.” Bradford leads one of two international teams of astronomers that have described their quasar findings in separate papers that have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Read Bradford & team’s paper here.

A quasar is powered by an enormous black hole that is steadily consuming a surrounding disk of gas and dust; as it eats, the quasar spews out huge amounts of energy. Both groups of astronomers studied a particular quasar called APM 08279+5255, which harbors a black hole 20 billion times more massive than the sun and produces as much energy as a thousand trillion suns.

Since astronomers expected water vapor to be present even in the early universe, the discovery of water is not itself a surprise, Bradford says. There’s water vapor in the Milky Way, although the total amount is 4,000 times less massive than in the quasar, as most of the Milky Way’s water is frozen in the form of ice.

Nevertheless, water vapor is an important trace gas that reveals the nature of the quasar. In this particular quasar, the water vapor is distributed around the black hole in a gaseous region spanning hundreds of light-years (a light-year is about six trillion miles), and its presence indicates that the gas is unusually warm and dense by astronomical standards. Although the gas is a chilly –53 degrees Celsius (–63 degrees Fahrenheit) and is 300 trillion times less dense than Earth’s atmosphere, it’s still five times hotter and 10 to 100 times denser than what’s typical in galaxies like the Milky Way.

The water vapor is just one of many kinds of gas that surround the quasar, and its presence indicates that the quasar is bathing the gas in both X-rays and infrared radiation. The interaction between the radiation and water vapor reveals properties of the gas and how the quasar influences it. For example, analyzing the water vapor shows how the radiation heats the rest of the gas. Furthermore, measurements of the water vapor and of other molecules, such as carbon monoxide, suggest that there is enough gas to feed the black hole until it grows to about six times its size. Whether this will happen is not clear, the astronomers say, since some of the gas may end up condensing into stars or may be ejected from the quasar.

Bradford’s team made their observations starting in 2008, using an instrument called Z-Spec at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO), a 10-meter telescope near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Z-Spec is an extremely sensitive spectrograph, requiring temperatures cooled to within 0.06 degrees Celsius above absolute zero. The instrument measures light in a region of the electromagnetic spectrum called the millimeter band, which lies between infrared and microwave wavelengths. The researchers’ discovery of water was possible only because Z-Spec’s spectral coverage is 10 times larger than that of previous spectrometers operating at these wavelengths. The astronomers made follow-up observations with the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA), an array of radio dishes in the Inyo Mountains of Southern California.

This discovery highlights the benefits of observing in the millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, the astronomers say. The field has developed rapidly over the last two to three decades, and to reach the full potential of this line of research, the astronomers—including the study authors—are now designing CCAT, a 25-meter telescope to be built in the Atacama Desert in Chile. CCAT will allow astronomers to discover some of the earliest galaxies in the universe. By measuring the presence of water and other important trace gases, astronomers can study the composition of these primordial galaxies.

The second group, led by Dariusz Lis, senior research associate in physics at Caltech and deputy director of the CSO, used the Plateau de Bure Interferometer in the French Alps to find water. In 2010, Lis’s team was looking for traces of hydrogen fluoride in the spectrum of APM 08279+5255, but serendipitously detected a signal in the quasar’s spectrum that indicated the presence of water. The signal was at a frequency corresponding to radiation that is emitted when water transitions from a higher energy state to a lower one. While Lis’s team found just one signal at a single frequency, the wide bandwidth of Z-Spec enabled Bradford and his colleagues to discover water emission at many frequencies. These multiple water transitions allowed Bradford’s team to determine the physical characteristics of the quasar’s gas and the water’s mass.

Read Lis & team’s paper here.

Tagged as: milky way, quasar, water

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Sun, 24 Jul 2011 09:16:00 -0700 My new wallpaper. http://agentm.posterous.com/my-new-wallpaper-61788 http://agentm.posterous.com/my-new-wallpaper-61788

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This artist’s impression shows how ULAS J1120+0641, a very distant quasar powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, may have looked. This quasar is the most distant yet found and is seen as it was just 770 million years after the Big Bang. This object is by far the brightest object yet discovered in the early Universe.

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Wed, 06 Jul 2011 05:51:00 -0700 Astronomers snap black hole murder in graphic detail (video) http://agentm.posterous.com/astronomers-snap-black-hole-murder-in-graphic http://agentm.posterous.com/astronomers-snap-black-hole-murder-in-graphic
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We tend to imagine a black hole sucking everything around it straight into oblivion. The truth, however, is even more gruesome. Astronomers have just captured an ultra hi-res image of our neighbouring galaxy, Centaurus A, and it helps to reveal what actually happens. Matter is yanked helplessly towards a black hole at the galaxy's core, but it refuses to die quietly. For some unknown reason, it erupts as it falls, spewing out vast plumes of particles -- like blood from celestial murder. These death throes emit radio waves, allowing us to witness them using radio telescopes even though we are 12 million light-years away. If only we were closer; if only we could intervene. Alas, all we can do is watch the video after the break and hit the source links for a fuller explanation -- though, admittedly, none of those sound like awful options. 

 

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Fri, 10 Jun 2011 04:37:00 -0700 NASA: Voyager 1 at the edge of the solar system. http://agentm.posterous.com/nasa-voyager-1-at-the-edge-of-the-solar-syste http://agentm.posterous.com/nasa-voyager-1-at-the-edge-of-the-solar-syste

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Fri, 27 May 2011 05:44:00 -0700 VLT (Very Large Telescope) HD Timelapse Footage http://agentm.posterous.com/vlt-very-large-telescope-hd-timelapse-footage http://agentm.posterous.com/vlt-very-large-telescope-hd-timelapse-footage

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Fri, 27 May 2011 00:55:00 -0700 Habitable exoplanet confirmed? Warm and wet, scientists say | DVICE http://agentm.posterous.com/habitable-exoplanet-confirmed-warm-and-wet-sc http://agentm.posterous.com/habitable-exoplanet-confirmed-warm-and-wet-sc

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French scientists have confirmed with computer models that Gliese 581d, a planet orbiting a red dwarf star about 20 light years from here, has a stable atmosphere, comfortable temperatures, and a surface covered in liquid water. It's the first planet orbiting another star that could definitely support life, and it's basically next door.

While Gliese 581d is too small and far away to observe directly, we can infer some things about it from the gravitational effects that it has on its parent star and fellow planets. We know that Gliese 581d is about twice the size of Earth (and six times the mass), we know that it's rocky (not a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn). This means that it's large enough and dense enough to be able to hold on to a substantial atmosphere. We can also estimate about how much energy Gliese 581d receives from its red dwarf star, and based on all of this information, French scientists have been able to model a range of potential climates showing that "GJ581d will have a stable atmosphere and surface liquid water for a wide range of plausible cases."

"Will have" is a pretty strong language when you're talking about a planet some 117,569,996 million miles away, but based on the models, it sounds like it's a sure thing. That's not to say it would necessarily be a pleasant place to live, though. Gliese 581d probably depends on a significant greenhouse effect to keep itself warm since it gets relatively little energy from its star. The atmosphere is mostly CO2, and while you'd get clouds and warm rain and oceans and stuff, the surface itself would be "in a perpetual murky red twilight." The planet also may be tidally locked (meaning that one side perpetually faces its sun), and at double Earth's gravity, it's not exactly a vacation spot.

Despite all this, it would be an ideal place to find some extraterrestrial plant life, and where there are plants there might be animals, specifically animals which have adapted to high gravity, low light, low oxygen environment. So think small and low to the ground with big eyes. And of course, there's lots of potential for animal life in warm oceans, too.

While 20 light years is extremely close on the galactic scale, using current technology it would still take us humans about 300,000 years to reach the Gliese system. A better bet, at least for now, might be to just send an interstellar probe, which might be able to reach Gliese 581d in just a century or two.

Paper (PDF), via Cosmos

(The original headline as assigned by me read: "Habitable exoplanet CONFIRMED! Warm and wet, scientists say." It has been changed to better reflect the tone of the post. -Ed)


 

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Wed, 25 May 2011 09:07:00 -0700 Neil deGrasse Tyson - Called by the Universe http://agentm.posterous.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-called-by-the-universe http://agentm.posterous.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-called-by-the-universe

Fantastic interview, NDT is the Carl Sagan of my generation.

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Sun, 22 May 2011 09:16:00 -0700 APOD: 2011 May 22 - Io: The Prometheus Plume http://agentm.posterous.com/apod-2011-may-22-io-the-prometheus-plume http://agentm.posterous.com/apod-2011-may-22-io-the-prometheus-plume
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