Astronasty

Weighing Black Hole In A Spiral Galaxy Confirms: We Are Tiny

2015-06-18T15:19:00.002-04:00

ALMA's at it again. I'm blown away, yet again.
Crunching the numbers, ALMA has weighed the mass of the supermassive black hole at the center of this spiral barred galaxy called "NGC 1097."
It's pretty awesome progress. This is a combo image of the galaxy using multiple real photos of different light freq. ranges, which is called a composite image, and very real.

Image Credit: ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ), K. Onishi; NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, E. Sturdivant; NRAO/AUI/NSF

Turns out this black hole has a mass of...

over 140 million times that of our sun

(which called Sol, btw.)

Woosah... Deep breaths... It'll be ok. Don't worry, none of us can really, fully grasp this enormity.

Our sun is 99.8% the mass of OUR solar system. Sol, our sun, is about 330,000 times the weight of the Earth.
And we're pretty tiny, walking around on Earth trying to do stuff.
Remember as you go around doing oh so very important stuff, that this black hole in the center of the picture above is
Earth's Mass times, oh, about 46,200,000,000,000

enjoy your latte.

EDIT:ALMA JAPAN just uploaded this fantastic youtube video featuring this galaxy, NGC 1097.
Hereyago.

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Quick Layman Explanation of New "Einstein Ring" and "Gravitational Lensing"

2015-06-13T17:54:00.002-04:00

Circles like this are a product of a concept called Gravitational Lensing; and it's pretty easy to grasp.
If you visualize the distorted reflection we see in a droplet of water, and then realize that something big and dark with a field of gravity acts like the droplet and curves the pathways of light just like the drop of water does, then you "get" Gravitational Lensing. These "Einstein Rings" like the one below are really one basic light source where, instead of coming straight at us without anything in it's way (looking like dot), it encounters a gravitational field on it's way (looking like a circle instead).

ALMA has a new image they released recently of a pretty badass Einstein Ring!

This is why I'm all excited!

Credit: ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ)/Y. Tamura (The University of Tokyo)

Here's a quick visual diagram showing how gravitational lensing works:

ALMA rocks. Their work is fantastic; and their media releases are often outrageously beautiful.
Here's the Rundown of the new Einstein Ring release by ALMA:
ALMA’s Long Baseline Campaign has produced a spectacularly detailed image of a distant galaxy being gravitationally lensed, revealing star-forming regions — something that has never been seen before at this level of detail in a galaxy so remote. The gravitationally lensed galaxy SDP.81, which appears as an almost perfect Einstein Ring, is seen here.

Want To Learn More About Einstein Rings?

Let Me Google That For You :)

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New from ALMA: 3-Light-Year-Long Gas Arms

2015-05-19T21:01:00.000-04:00

Absolutely stunning to see new images of such intense happenings in this kind of scale. New today from ALMA, off of NRAO

"...a cluster of massive stars is forming. ALMA revealed, in unprecedented detail, the fine structure of the molecular gas structures at the center of the region, where two surprisingly large molecular gas arms about 3 light-years across, appear to be spiraling around two massive molecular cores.

These results show that the large molecular arms are indeed the cradles of dense cores, which are current or future birthplaces of massive stars. These results represent a crucial step forward in the understanding of how mass distributes to form both massive cores and massive stars."
Image Credit:ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), H. B. Liu, J. Dale.

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Orion's Fingers: New from Gemini Observatory

2015-03-19T19:41:00.000-04:00

New from Gemini's newsletter, JUST came in my inbox. "The outflow of the 'Orion Fingers' is evident in this high-resolution image from Bally et al. (2015). The leading fingertips appear in [Fe II] (cyan), and the trailing fingers are evident in molecular hydrogen emission (orange). Comparison with earlier observations shows the motion and morphological changes of the emitting knots."

Image Credit: Gemini / arXiv

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Fiery, Dusty Sky Map (Astronasty Pic o' the Day)

2015-02-21T13:30:00.000-05:00

You know how a paper map of the Earth handles mapping the whole 3d sphere? This shape shown below covers the whole of our view of the sky.
Max Planck puts out some amazing sky maps, like this that they released recently of
Polarized Dust
"Our Milky Way galaxy is ablaze with dust..."

Image Credit:ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Beautifully Processed Sunspot (Astronasty Pic o' the Day)

2015-02-20T13:00:00.000-05:00

Awesome processing on this sunspot. "a speckle reconstruction based on 25 images selected from a burst of 50 at an exposure time of 20 ms. The filter is a Fabry-Perot with a bandpass of 0.08A and the camera is a PCOedge 2kx2k"

Credit:Big Bear Solar Observatory, NJ Institute of Technology, USA. Found via Spaceweather: Extra processing - Gabriel Corban

Want More Awesome Sunspot Images and Articles? Let Me Google That For You :)

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Colored Smoke? Nope. The Veil Nebula! (Astronasty Pic o' the Day)

2015-02-19T13:00:00.000-05:00

GORGEOUS shot of this, the aftermath of a supernova released recently from NASA/Hubble:
Veil Nebula - Segment #3

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

Want more of this Veil Nebula Stuffs? Let Me Google That For You :)

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Wanderers

2015-02-18T21:53:00.000-05:00

Wanderers
A seriously emotionally moving short film with Carl Sagan narrating. I absolutely love it!
By Erik Wernquist

Wanderers - a short film by Erik Wernquist from Erik Wernquist on Vimeo.

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Astronasty Pic o' the Day! TACIT BLUE

2015-02-17T12:58:00.000-05:00

Astronasty Pic o' the Day!

TACIT BLUE

Stealth tech, developed by Northrop. Screenshotted from DARPA's in a pdf on stealth, website is: "50 Years of Bridging the Gap"

Want to find more on Tacit Blue? Let Me Google That For You :)

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Two Latest Hubble Vids

2014-12-23T17:32:00.001-05:00

Just uploaded a couple new hi-res vid versions from HUBBLE

...to my YouTube for your viewing pleasure :)

Hubble Zooms in on the Constellation Fornax

Vid Credits: NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay and G. Bacon (STScI)

NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope

Vid Credits: NASA, C. Meaney (HTSI), R. Kaehler (KIPAC/Standford), S. Wiessinger (USRA), and N. Gehrels (Goddard Space Flight Center)

Want to learn more about The Hubble Space Telescope? Let Me Google That For You :)

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Photo Evidence: Phoenix Found In The Sky ;) Ahem...

2014-12-21T11:12:00.000-05:00

Sorta... ;)

In the center of the Flame Nebula, 1,400 light years away, what a gorgeous shot here, so reminiscent of the fabled Phoenix.

This is a picture of the clusters of NGC 2024. (An astro database, basically. NGC stands for The New General Catalogue, and lists 7,840 objects.)

This being listed as NGC 2024...

Maybe the PHOENIX IS COMING... In 2024??

QUICK, GROW GILLS AGAIN EVERYONE!! ;)

At least we'd have a decade to enjoy ourselves before the bird of flames' reign!

Composite Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/K.Getman, E.Feigelson, M.Kuhn & the MYStIX team; Infrared:NASA/JPL-Caltech found at NASA

Not to be outdone by mythological jokes,

the optical spectrum capture of this area in the sky is also BREATHTAKING:

Image Credit: DSS (Digitized Sky Survey, image found off of Chandra's site)

Want to learn more about the Flame Nebula? Let Me Google That For You :)

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New Japanese ALMA Video Is Breathtaking

2014-12-15T13:31:00.001-05:00

Topically transcending cultures, the reasons the new Japanese ALMA video below might not get be as widely shared in America would be insignificant reasons.
ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) is one of my favorite projects in astronomy, yielding some of the most freaking ridiculously beautiful data humans have yet to discover and render. The most well known ALMA related image is probably this one, the Antennae Galaxies composite of ALMA and Hubble observations:

Composite Image Credit:ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Visible light image: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. For more resolutions go straight to
http://www.almaobservatory.org/en/visuals/images/astronomy/?g2_itemId=3441
Japan is one of many countries involved with ALMA, an astronomy array that may remind you visually of the movie Contact.

Image: Contact (1997) Theatrical Release Poster

The new video is a phenomenal and touching audiovisual experience spanning all languages. That's one of the best things about science; none of this stuff has anything to do with me arbitrarily speaking English.
So obviously without any reservations, I'd excitedly share this new video, simultaneously urging that people of all cultures to try to shed their societal connotations when experiencing something beyond our puny differences! :)
Video:ALMAJapanChannel

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Printing A Salvador Dali Xmas Card

2014-12-14T12:36:00.002-05:00

"There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction."

-Salvador Dali

Not a bad way to be

...if you ask me!

This is my kinda Xmas card:

Noel, 1946, Salvador Dali

(1076x1600 pixels, click to embiggen+print)

Image: Wikiart

Originally I discovered it on Openculture.com "Salvador Dalí’s Avant-Garde Christmas Cards"

[UPDATE: These are the printable version I made that I made for meself. Click to enlarge, Print the first, re-insert the same paper, click to enlarge the 2nd pic and print on the other side. Enjoy!]
Front:

Back:

The "shiny" factor*[1], notable in jewelry:

The only LOOSE connection of this to astronomy is

LOOK! STARS THERE! SHINY! SEE? YAY!!! :)

*1:may require girlfriend/wife to understand :) Happy Holidays! And no, a card is not enough for them.

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BEHOLD! Earth From Space! ...Wait, it's the holidays. Be held :)

2014-12-14T11:24:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite recently released NASA pics, this taken (Dec. 4th 2014) from the International Space Station (ISS), as common with similar ones you may have seen with views like this.

Image Credit:NASA/Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore

Want to check out more on the International Space Station? (ISS for short)

Let Me Google That For You :)

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ALMA + Japan: Hi-Def Imaging of Spiral Gas Arms from Twin Baby Stars (w/video)

2014-12-04T14:21:00.002-05:00

New out of Japan, this high def imaging was possible from the "ATERUI” supercomputer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).

This data is from "L1551 NE" in the Taurus Constellation.

Quoting NAOJ: "These observational results unveil, for the first time, the mechanism of the birth and growth of binary stars, which are ubiquitous throughout the universe."
Fig.10 from the paper:

[1]

We know that about half the the stars out there (with sizes close to that of our sun) are binary systems. However, for a long time we've been lacking information on how they develop, since it's not been easy to get a whole lot of data from surrounding scattered mass that's so damned far away! Congrats to all involved!

Video Credits: Tomoaki Matsumoto (Hosei University) from ALMAJapanChannel's YouTube

This next pic was posted on both NAOJ and ALMA.

ALMA's imaging is to the left, and Japan's processing results are to the right.

[2]

Want to learn more about the supercomputer imaging here? Let Me Google That For You :)

Image Credits:
1:Shigehisa Takakuwa, Masao Saito, Kazuya Saigo, Tomoaki Matsumoto, Jeremy Lim, Tomoyuki Hanawa, Paul T. P. Ho. Published November 20 in The Astrophysical Journal. Takakuwa et al. "Angular Momentum Exchange by Gravitational Torques and Infall in the Circumbinary Disk of the Protostellar System L1551 NE" ArXiv preprint link: here.
2:found at NAOJ: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Takakuwa et al.
Shigehisa Takakuwa, Masao Saito, Kazuya Saigo, Tomoaki Matsumoto, Jeremy Lim, Tomoyuki Hanawa, & Paul T. P. Ho (2014). Angular Momentum Exchange by Gravitational Torques and Infall in the Circumbinary Disk of the Protostellar System L1551 NE The Astrophysical Journal arXiv: 1409.4903v1

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New Hubble Pic? Break Out Da Bubbly! (Bubbly Nebula from NASA that is)

2014-12-03T23:47:00.001-05:00

This pic was just released last month from Hubble (its Wide Field Planetary Camera-2) This thing's about 5,000 light years away. A big gassy cloud, The Bubbly Nebula is seen here in pretty blue.

Most times a color in a NASA picture has a significant meaning to it (especially the sun's freq. color codes of the Solar Dynamics Observatory aka the SDO), but the colors assigned in this pic are simply for the prettiness factor :) ESA said "It is important to note that the colors in this image are arbitrary."

NGC 1501 - The Bubbly Nebula

aka The Oyster Nebula

Image Credit:ESA/Hubble & NASA; acknowledgement: Marc Canale

Want to learn more about The Bubbly Nebula? Here, Let Me Google that For You :)

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Make It A "Black (Hole) Friday," NASA Style!

2014-11-28T15:16:00.003-05:00

NASA's positive take on Black Friday: Black Hole Friday!

In general, I agree with the sentiment; let's shift our focus!

...Shift gears from thinking "out of the red and into the black" on Black Friday...

...To focus more on appreciating the awe inspiring things in this amazing universe of ours!

RED SHIFT! BLUE SHIFT! BLACK HOLES!

Yeah, I'm in!

Let's make it a Black Hole Friday instead!

Artwork Credit: NASA, and M. Weiss (Chandra X -ray Center)
from NASA.gov:
"In this artist's illustration, turbulent winds of gas swirl around a black hole. Some of the gas is spiraling inward toward the black hole, but another part is blown away.
A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying.
Because no light can get out, people can't see black holes. They are invisible. Space telescopes with special tools can help find black holes. The special tools can see how stars that are very close to black holes act differently than other stars.
How Big Are Black Holes?
Black holes can be big or small. Scientists think the smallest black holes are as small as just one atom. These black holes are very tiny but have the mass of a large mountain. Mass is the amount of matter, or "stuff," in an object."

Want to learn more about Black Holes? Let Me Google That For You :)

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Saturn's Moon Titan Has Lakes... That Aren't Really Water... And One Is Named Kraken...

2014-11-24T16:43:00.002-05:00

Titan's the name of a moon of Saturn, so it's pretty "titanic," if you get my drift.
It's also ice cold and would kill you, just like the boat.
BUT!! you'll have a great chance of enjoying watching THIS "titanic" video whether you're male OR female!

Video Credit: Cassini Radar Mapper, JPL, USGS, ESA, NASA
Explanation via NASA APOD: What would it look like to fly over Titan? Radar images from NASA's robotic Cassini satellite in orbit around Saturn have been digitally compiled to simulate such a flight. Cassini has swooped past Saturn's cloudiest moon several times since it arrived at the ringed planet in 2004. The virtual flight featured here shows numerous lakes colored black and mountainous terrain colored tan. Surface regions without detailed vertical information appear more flat, while sufficiently mapped regions have their heights digitally stretched. Among the basins visualized is Kraken Mare, Titan's largest lake which spans over 1,000 kilometers long.
Titan's lakes are different from Earth's lakes in that they are composed of hydrocarbons with similarities to liquid natural gas. How Titan's lakes were created and why they survive continues to be a topic of research.

Want to learn more about Titan? Let Me Google That For You :)

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The Fibonacci Spiral AKA The Golden Spiral In Sunflowers

2014-11-24T15:54:00.000-05:00

[Update 12-10-14: Just found this amazing youtube vid expressing the beauty of these numbers. It feels like it belongs in this post :)]

Vid Credit:Math on Youtube

My girlfriend and I took these pictures of gorgeous sunflowers near Lurray Caverns in VA.

Image Credits: my girlfriend and I. And the sunflower gets a bit of credit too. And math... gonna give math a bit of credit for once.

The Fibonacci Spiral, aka the "Golden Spiral,"

is a mirrored duplication rotated around the center to create the

pattern found in sunflowers.

Image:Wikimedia Commons-freely usable

Above, you see the Fibonacci Spiral: an approximation of the golden spiral created by drawing circular arcs connecting the opposite corners of squares in the Fibonacci tiling; this one uses squares of sizes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and 34.

And to illustrate proportions within, here's a tiling with squares whose side lengths are successive Fibonacci numbers.

Image:Wikimedia Commons-freely usable

Fibonacci wasssss...?

...a math guru around 1200CE(AD) born right near the leaning tower of Pisa. His efforts helped proved the Pythagorean Theorem (obviously pretty useful,) but he also offered the world some illumination on the topic of spiral patterns found in nature.[1] WHICH IS FASCINATING on top of being absolutely beautiful; and he's a lucky bugger to have his name forever connected to this. Math found by nature... gotta love it.

[1 cite:http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/humanities/docs/curriculum/12%20Optical%20Illusions.pdf]

Want to learn more on Fibonacci Numbers? Let Me Google That For You :)

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Hurricane Gonzalo Pic From NASA's Precipitation Tracking Equipment

2014-11-19T15:58:00.001-05:00

Atmospheric science yield some pretty awesome visuals. Here is a still-frame image from NASA's scanning output tracking precipitation in Hurricane Gonzalo, during Oct. 16th, 2014.

Image Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio. Data provided by the joint NASA/JAXA GPM mission.

Here's a video of their software in action. Futuristic, to say the least. It's amazing how this kind of thing can so simply convey the data that otherwise would possibly be too full of jargon for the layman.

On Astronasty's YouTube. Video Credit as Requested: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio. Data provided by the joint NASA/JAXA GPM mission.
Video Permission: "You may use NASA imagery, video, audio, and data files used for the rendition of 3-dimensional models for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages. This general permission extends to personal Web pages."

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Art More Beautiful Than Fiction

2014-11-17T16:57:00.000-05:00

"Poof!" goes a star, leaving its new dust to interact as it will. Ever wonder what solar systems may look like before those clouds of dust coalesce to form the clumps we call planets?

Sometimes those who know the science + data can visualize things in a special way.
[Enter astronomers.]

Here's NASA's new artistic visualization of the actual planetary system austerely named "HD 95086."

Image Illustration Credit: Spitzer Space Telescope, JPL, NASA
Source page: NASA's APOD

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Milky Way View From Japanese Observatory

2014-11-16T16:05:00.001-05:00

Taken on Sept. 16th 2014, found it today via NAOJ

"This panorama combines 7 pictures taken with a diagonal fisheye lens.The conditions inside Mizusawa VLBI Observatory are good and it is possible to see the Milky Way, but if you travel 30 minutes by car to the city outskirts, the city lights decrease and it is even easier to see.Objects like the Great Summer Triangle and the Andromeda Galaxy are pictured around the rainbow shaped Milky Way."

Image Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Further Photographer Credit: Makoto Shizugami (NAOJ Mizusawa VLBI Observatory)

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Magnetars! Explosions Occuring On Neutron Stars Due To Magnetic And Seismic Violence

2014-11-15T12:42:00.000-05:00

Magnetars are neutron stars that have EXTREME magnetic activity, as well as intense seismic rippling. These two attributes cause explosions on the surface of them, which is quite awe inspiring. Below is a new (late oct.) artist rendition of a magnetar, straight out of NASA's Goddard Studio.

Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger - from "Fermi Finds Hints of Starquakes in Magnetar 'Storm'"
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Brand New NASA Pic of Sagittarius A from Chandra Space Telescope May Shed Light On High Energy Neutrino Source

2014-11-13T21:53:00.000-05:00

Today's release is of note due to it giving us some clues on where the higher energy neutrinos are coming from. Where is this hint leading us? The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy may be involved!

Quoting NASA:
"While the Sun produces neutrinos that constantly bombard the Earth, there are also other neutrinos with much higher energies that are only rarely detected. Scientists have proposed that these higher-energy neutrinos are created in the most powerful events in the Universe like galaxy mergers, material falling onto supermassive black holes, and the winds around dense rotating stars called pulsars."

Newly released from NASA's CHANDRA x-ray observatory, this is new spiffy pic of Sagittarius A:

Credit: NASA (NASA/CXC/Univ. of Wisconsin/Y.Bai. et al.)
From "Sagittarius A*: NASA X-ray Telescopes Find Black Hole May Be a Neutrino Factory"

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Capturing the "Green Flash" At Sunset

2013-08-31T08:09:00.000-04:00

When the sun sets on the horizon, color is such that a green rim appears on the upper part of our star, with red counterbalancing on the bottom. If you catch a glimpse of this green top-glow right when the sun dips below the horizon, the green seems isolated, producing this "green flash."

Photog buffs ought to find this a pretty nifty challenge.

Vid Credit: Sixty Symbols - U. of Nottingham
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