Astronomy Wise

Astronomers have discovered an alien solar system whose planets are arranged much like those in our own solar system, a find that suggests most planetary systems start out looking the same, scientists say.

Researchers studying the star system Kepler-30, which is 10,000 light-years from Earth, found that its three known worlds all orbit in the same plane, lined up with the rotation of the star — just like the planets in our own solar system do. The result supports the leading theory of planet formation, which posits that planets take shape from a disk of dust and gas that spins around newborn stars.

"In agreement with the theory, we have found the star's spin to be aligned with the planets," said study co-author Dan Fabrycky, of the University of California, Santa Cruz. "So this result is profound because it is basic data testing the standard planet formation theory."

Interactions among planets can later throw such ordered arrangements out of whack, researchers added, creating the skewed orbits seen in many alien systems today

http://news.yahoo.com/alien-solar-system-looks-lot-own-170412936.html

How Life Turned Left: Meteorite Fragments Help Explain Why Living Things Only Use Molecules With Specific Orientations

2012-07-25T14:06:00.002-07:00

ScienceDaily (July 25, 2012) — Researchers analyzing meteorite fragments that fell on a frozen lake in Canada have developed an explanation for the origin of life's handedness -- why living things only use molecules with specific orientations. The work also gave the strongest evidence to date that liquid water inside an asteroid leads to a strong preference of left-handed over right-handed forms of some common protein amino acids in meteorites. The result makes the search for extraterrestrial life more challenging.

more at : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120725120706.htm

Occultation of Jupiter (15/7/12)

2012-07-15T02:12:00.000-07:00

England is especially well-suited for this event, with a spectacular partial occultation (graze) of Jupiter and its satellites at the dark northern edge of the thin crescent Moon before sunrise. Jean Meeus published predictions for that event in the February issue of the Journal of the British Astronomical Association.

http://www.dangl.at/2012/occult_m/oc120715e.htm

http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/iotandx.htm

information supplied by John Harper

more information in the Astronomy Wise EZine sky notes

www.astronomy-wise.com

Wishing the Zooniverse a Happy 5th Birthday!

2012-07-07T01:17:00.001-07:00

Wishing the Zooniverse a Happy 5th Birthday!

New Light Shed On Explosive Solar Activity

2012-07-02T11:53:00.001-07:00

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120702134748.htm

ScienceDaily (July 2, 2012) — The first images of an upward surge of the Sun's gases into quiescent coronal loops have been identified by an international team of scientists. The discovery is one more step towards understanding the origins of extreme space storms, which can destroy satellite communications and damage power grids on Earth.

Sun's active region loops. (Credit: SDO/AIA (NASA))

The study published July 2 by University of Cambridge scientists working with colleagues in India and the USA is the first to visualise the movement of gases at one million degrees in coronal loops -- solar structures that are rooted at both ends and extend out from active regions of the Sun. Active regions are the 'cradle' for explosive energy releases such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

The observation will help scientists understand what is considered to be one of the most challenging issues in astrophysics -- how solar structures are heated and maintained in the upper solar atmosphere. Extreme solar activity can lead to severe space storms that interfere with satellite communications and damage electric power transmission grids on Earth. Solar activity is cyclical, with the next maximum forecast to occur around May 2013, and severe space weather is now listed very high on the UK's 2012 National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies.

Based on observations from the Hinode satellite (a joint Japanese, NASA, European Space Agency and UK project), the new findings provide the first evidence of plasma upflows travelling at around 20 km per second in the one million degree active region loops. The scientists suggest that the upflow of gases is probably the result of "impulsive heating" close to the footpoint regions of the loops.

"Active regions are now occurring frequently across the Sun. We have a really great opportunity to study them with solar spacecraft, such as Hinode and the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)," said co-author Dr Helen Mason from the University of Cambridge's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. "Probing the heating of the Sun's active region loops can help us to better understand the physical mechanisms for more energetic events which can impinge on the Earth's environment."

Previous ultraviolet images of the Sun taken by NASA's SDO have shown large loops of hot gas guided by the Sun's magnetic field and rooted near sunspots. Despite such remarkable developments in the observations and theory of active regions over the past few decades, the question remained as to how solar plasma is heated and rises up into the loops in the first place.

Now, the new research provides the first visualisation of plasma flow by showing the movement of gases within the loop as 'blueshifts' in diagnostic images using the extreme ultraviolet imaging spectrometer (EIS) on the Hinode satellite. Spectral lines produced by the spectrometer act like 'fingerprints' or the 'bar code' in a supermarket -- the lines identify the multitude of elements and ions within the loop and shifts in the position of the lines provide information on the motion of the plasma. Although the Sun is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, there are also other trace elements, such as oxygen and iron, in the hot ionised gas within the loops.

The scientists suggest that the gas movement is caused by a process of "chromospheric evaporation" in which "impulsive heating" on a small scale can result in the heating of the solar active regions but on a larger scale can lead to huge explosions, such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections.

"It is believed that magnetic energy builds up in an active region as the magnetic field becomes distorted, for example by motions below the surface of the Sun dragging the magnetic fields around," explained Mason, whose research is partially funded by the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). "Sometimes magnetic flux can emerge or submerge and affect the overlying magnetic field. We believe that solar plasma surges upwards when impulsive heating results from magnetic reconnection which occurs either in the loops or close to the Sun's surface. These disruptions are sometimes relatively gentle but can also be catastrophic."

Commenting on the newly published study, Professor Richard Harrison MBE, Head of Space Physics and Chief Scientist at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, said: "The Sun governs the environment in which we live and it is the so-called solar active regions that drive extreme conditions leading to the explosive flares and the huge eruptions; understanding these active regions is absolutely critical for the study of what we now call space weather. The work published by in this paper is a key element of that work, applying innovative analyses to the observations from the UK-led Hinode/EIS instrument."

The researchers hope that a better understanding of active regions might one day help scientists to identify the magnetic field structures that lead to explosive solar energy releases and use this as a means for predicting when such events will occur.

July Night Sky

2012-07-01T02:24:00.004-07:00

This month in the Astronomy Wise Ezine we have the Night Sky By John Harper. You can view online or download onto your PC, Laptop, I pad , Android tablet, or smartphone. And forget it FREE

http://www.astronomy-wise.com

ASTRONOMY WISE E-ZINE IS OUT NOW (JULY)

2012-07-01T02:12:00.000-07:00

Astronomy Wise July Ezine

Forgotten Star Cluster Now Found Useful in Studies of Sun and Hunt for Earth-Like Planets

2012-06-24T02:29:00.001-07:00

ScienceDaily (June 23, 2012) — A loose group of stars, known for over 180 years but never before studied in detail, has been revealed to be an important new tool in the quest to understand the evolution of stars like the Sun, and in the search for planets like Earth. "We have discovered that a previously unappreciated open star cluster, which is a little younger than our Sun, holds great promise for use as a standard gauge in fundamental stellar astrophysics," said Jason T. Wright, an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, who conceived and initiated the research.

Penn State University astronomers have determined that 80 of the stars in this photo are members of the long-known but underappreciated star cluster Ruprecht 147. In this image, the brightest of these stars are circled in green, and the less-bright ones are circled in red. These stars were born out of the same cloud of gas and dust approximately 2-billion years ago, and now are traveling together through space, bound by the force gravity. The astronomers have identified this cluster as a potentially important new reference gauge for fundamental stellar astrophysics. (Credit: Chris Beckett and Stefano Meneguolo, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Annotations by Jason Curtis, Penn State Univers

Wright's research team's first paper on the cluster, known as Ruprecht 147 or NGC 6774, has been submitted to the Astronomical Journal for publication. Team member Jason Curtis, a graduate student in Wright's lab, led the work for this paper and will present the team's project in Barcelona, Spain, later this month at the 17th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun.
When searching for planets with an Earth-like mass and an orbit that allows liquid water to exist on the surface, astronomers often search around stars the mass of the Sun and smaller. "The Ruprecht 147 cluster is very unusual and very important astrophysically because it is close to Earth and its stars are closer to the Sun's age than those in all the other nearby clusters," Wright said. "For the first time, we now have a useful laboratory in which to search for and study bright stars that are of similar mass and also of similar age as the Sun. When we discover planets around Sun-like and lower-mass stars, we will be able to interpret how old those stars are by comparing them to the stars in this cluster."
Penn State University astronomers have determined that 80 of the stars in this photo are members of the long-known but underappreciated star cluster Ruprecht 147. In this image, the brightest of these stars are circled in green, and the less-bright ones are circled in red. These stars were born out of the same cloud of gas and dust approximately 2-billion years ago, and now are traveling together through space, bound by the force gravity. The astronomers have identified this cluster as a potentially important new reference gauge for fundamental stellar astrophysics. Credit: Chris Beckett and Stefano Meneguolo, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Annotations by Jason Curtis, Penn State University.
Wright's team has shown that Ruprecht 147 is 800 to 1,000 light years from Earth, which is so close that it is bright enough to be seen with binoculars in late-summertime skies in the constellation Sagittarius. "All of the other nearby clusters astronomers study contain stars much younger than the Sun, and all of the older stars are more than 3,000 light years away. So this cluster, being both old and close, provides a unique opportunity," Wright said. Although it appears to be relatively large on the sky, the cluster can be difficult to spot because it is not very compact and it is located in the densest, brightest region between Earth and the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
To study the Ruprecht 147 cluster, which is much larger on the sky than most objects astronomers study, the Wright's team had to use some specialized, wide-field cameras -- including those on the MMT telescope in Arizona and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii -- in order to get its many stars within the frame of view. "Even with these wide-field cameras, we've had to build mosaics of images to cover the whole cluster and to take very quick snapshots so that we don't overexpose the brightest stars, Wright said. "Most modern telescopes weren't designed for clusters so bright and close."
When the object was first discovered in 1830 by British astronomer John Herschel, he described it as "a very large straggling space full of loose stars." He subsequently included it in the General Catalog of astronomical objects, which he compiled based on the observations of his father William Herschel. "The cluster was rediscovered in the 1960s by Jaroslav Ruprecht, which is how it got its current name, but until now no astronomers paid it any special attention, probably because many presumed it was an asterism -- a chance alignment of unrelated stars," Wright said.
Wright's team's work has proven, for the first time, that the Ruprecht 147 cluster is only a bit younger than the Sun on the astronomical time scale. The stars in Ruprecht 147 are about 2.5-billion years old, or about half the age of the Sun, and about the age the Sun was when the first multicellular life emerged on Earth.
The team's initial observations also have measured the distance to Ruprecht 147, as well as the directions and velocities of its stars to verify that they are moving together through space in three dimensions, both across the sky and in the same angle away from Earth. These observations confirm that these stars are members of a true cluster, not just a random pattern on the sky. Wright's team already has identified 100 stars as members of the cluster, and is working to find more.
Wright said that most of the work for this initial paper was done by Jason Curtis as part of his dissertation research. Curtis's work includes observations with the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and the Keck telescope in Hawaii, the Lick Observatory in California, and the MMT Observatory in Arizona. "This project is exciting for me as a graduate student because it gives me the opportunity to use the latest astronomy techniques and instrumentation to explore a star cluster that has never before been investigated to this extent," Curtis said. "While this project has given me training in well-established, fundamental methods of astronomy observation and analysis, it also is opening up new doors to cutting-edge astrophysics research." For further studies, Curtis is participating in observations with the Magellan telescope in Chile and NASA's orbiting Chandra X-Ray Telescope.
In addition to Wright and Curtis, other co-authors of the team's first scientific paper include Angie Wolfgang, of the University of California, Santa Cruz; John Brewer, of Yale University; and John Asher Johnson of the California Institute of Technology. The U. S. National Science Foundation provided financial support for this research.
"Our project with this important cluster is just beginning," Wright said "Eventually, it is going to let us find and study nearby stars with a mass like the Sun's, to help in the hunt for Earth-like planets, and to test and improve the models astronomers use to understand the evolution of stars including our own Sun."

Lichen Can Survive in Space: Space Station Research Sheds Light On Origin of Life; Potential for Better Sunscreen

2012-06-24T02:15:00.001-07:00

ScienceDaily (June 23, 2012) — You can freeze it, thaw it, vacuum dry it and expose it to radiation, but still life survives. ESA's research on the International Space Station is giving credibility to theories that life came from outer space -- as well as helping to create better sunscreens.
n 2008 scientists sent the suitcase-sized Expose-E experiment package to the Space Station filled with organic compounds and living organisms to test their reaction to outer space.
When astronauts venture on a spacewalk, hours are spent preparing protective suits to survive the hostile conditions. No effort was made to protect the bacteria, seeds, lichen and algae attached to the outside of the Space Station, however.
"We are exploring the limits of life," explains ESA's René Demets.
Our atmosphere does a wonderful job of protecting life on Earth by absorbing harmful UV rays and keeping temperatures relatively stable.
In contrast, the space samples endured the full power of the Sun's rays. The samples were insulated somewhat by the Space Station but still had to cope with temperatures changing from -12ºC to +40ºC over 200 times as they orbited Earth.
The samples returned to Earth in 2009 and the results have now been published in a special issue of the journal Astrobiology.
Lichen have proven to be tough cookies -- back on Earth, some species continue to grow normally.
René explains, "These organisms go into a dormant state waiting for better conditions to arrive."
The lichen have attracted interest from cosmetic companies. They can survive the full power of the Sun for 18 months, so knowing more could lead to new ingredients for sunscreen.
Living organisms surviving in open space supports the idea of 'panspermia' -- life spreading from one planet to another, or even between solar systems.
It seems possible that organisms could colonize planets by hitching rides on asteroids. ESA is probing this intriguing theory further on future Station missions with different samples.

Expose allows long exposures to space conditions and solar UV-radiation on the International Space Station. Several trays filled with organisms were installed on the outside of the European Columbus laboratory as one of the nine payloads of the European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF). Further Expose units are continuing to study the effects of outer space on organisms and organic chemicals. (Credit: ESA)

Black Holes as Particle Detectors

2012-06-18T13:58:00.001-07:00

ScienceDaily (June 18, 2012) — Finding new particles usually requires high energies -- that is why huge accelerators have been built, which can accelerate particles to almost the speed of light. But there are other creative ways of finding new particles: At the Vienna University of Technology, scientists presented a method to prove the existence of hypothetical "axions." These axions could accumulate around a black hole and extract energy from it. This process could emit gravity waves, which could then be measured.

Artist's impression of a black hole, surrounded by axions. (Credit: Image courtesy of Vienna University of Technology)

more athttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120618102826.htm

Interactive Sky Map

2012-06-16T13:09:00.002-07:00

Please enable JAVA^TM to use the Mini-AstroViewer night sky map.

The oldest look at the universe: Astronomers spy on galaxy as it was 12.5bn years ago (when the universe was only a billion years old)

2012-06-16T13:03:00.001-07:00

Source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2159841/The-oldest-look-universe-Astronomers-spy-galaxy-12-5bn-years-ago-universe-billion-years-old.html#ixzz1xzLAsK4B

An international team of astronomers have been studying galaxy HDF850.1.
While that name might not mean much to you or me, it is well known among astronomers, for it is one of the oldest galaxies we have ever seen.
The galaxy is 12.5billion light years away - and it is a primordial galaxy, meaning it came into formation when the entire universe was less than a billion years old.
Because the light from HDF850.1 takes 12.5billion years to get here, the astronomers, led by Fabian Walter of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, are looking almost through a time-machine to study the galaxy.

An international team of astronomers have been studying galaxy HDF850.1.
While that name might not mean much to you or me, it is well known among astronomers, for it is one of the oldest galaxies we have ever seen.
The galaxy is 12.5billion light years away - and it is a primordial galaxy, meaning it came into formation when the entire universe was less than a billion years old.
Because the light from HDF850.1 takes 12.5billion years to get here, the astronomers, led by Fabian Walter of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, are looking almost through a time-machine to study the galaxy.

Peering through the lens of time: The Hubble Telescope looked through a tiny window to peer back 12.5billion years

China Shenzhou 9 rocket launch

2012-06-16T12:59:00.004-07:00

China has launched its latest manned space mission - whose crew includes its first female astronaut, Liu Yang.
The Shenzhou-9 capsule rode to orbit atop a Long March rocket from the Jiuquan spaceport on the edge of the Gobi desert.
Ms Liu and her two male colleagues are heading to the Tiangong space lab.
They will spend over a week living and working on the 335km-high vessel, testing new systems and conducting a number of scientific experiments.

Images: Live screen prints from Russia Today

Live Venus Transit Via New Zealand

2012-06-05T11:07:00.002-07:00

Live broadcast by Ustream

Link to Live Venus Transit

2012-06-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

LIVE WEBCAST OF THE 2012 Transit

http://bcove.me/o9ik2iaa

Mauna Loa Observatory

VENUS TRANSITS ACROSS THE FACE OF THE SUN AT SUNRISE

2012-06-05T11:02:00.004-07:00

VENUS TRANSITS ACROSS THE FACE OF THE SUN AT SUNRISE

Transit of Venus – Wednesday, June 6th 2012.

John Harper, F.R.A.S., Founder of Scarborough & Ryedale Astronomical Society (1976), and the Society’s Honorary President.

Astronomy Wise is pleased and honoured to have John Harper writing an interesting and informative piece on the Transit of Venus. John is well known in North Yorkshire and perhaps all of Yorkshire for his work on local radio stations, running events and giving keynote talks. So I give you Venus transits across the face of the sun at sunrise by Mr John Harper....

During the first half of this year, most people will have noticed that two brilliant star-like objects have dominated the western sky, as twilight began to fade. These are the two brightest celestial objects we can see in the sky from Earth, with the exception of the sun of course, and the moon. They were the planets Venus and Jupiter, and during the last few months, it has been interesting to watch as the two changed positioned in relation to each other. Now, Jupiter has disappeared into the sun’s glare, but Venus has shone more brilliantly in the late evening sky. However, it also is moving in towards the sun, and on Tuesday, June 5^th at just after 11pm that night, it lines up exactly between earth and sun and begins a transit across the sun’s disc as seen from our planet. Obviously the start of the event cannot be seen from the UK, because the sun is below the horizon; but because the event lasts for over six hours in all, we get to see the last hour and twenty minutes of the transit, after sunrise in northern England. Transits of Venus, when the planet can be seen as a substantial black spot against the disc of the sun, are very rare, and at the moment occur in pairs. The first transit to be observed was in December 1639 by a young, 20 year old astronomer called Jeremiah Horrocks from Much Hoole in Lancashire, and also by William Crabtree, a colleague, who lived in Manchester. It is known that Transits of Venus occur in pairs, but only after long intervals. During the following ‘transit pair’ after the observations of Horrocks and Crabtree, we have local interest; for in the year1769, Capt. James Cook of Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, in His Majesty’s Bark ‘Endeavour’, was commissioned by the Royal Society to observe a transit of Venus from Tahiti. This was part of an expedition of scientific investigation and discovery in that part of the world.

Transits of Venus can occur only in June and December, with gaps of 105.5 and 121.5 between consecutive pairs. The separation between each transit within a pair is eight years, so the last transit visible was on June 8^th 2004. I remember well the thunderstorm and deluge, which took place as the transit began, on Oliver’s Mount where telescopes had been set up near the War Memorial to allow people to observe Venus silhouetted against the sun’s disc. Later we were able to witness a substantial part of the event. For this year’s transit, I, and several of my colleagues intend to be at the Holbeck Clock Tower at the southern end of Scarborough’s Esplanade, and I invite you to attend if you can get up for sunrise at 4h 38am on Wednesday morning, the 6th.

Obviously it is dangerous to look directly at the sun without the proper filters and equipment, so we will have available special eclipse filters that you can borrow to look at the sun safely. Also the technique of projecting the sun’s image onto a screen will be used. This is by far the safest method, and if you have your own binoculars or a telescope, this is the only method to use. Under no circumstance should you look directly through telescopes, binoculars or finder scopes at the sun, because doing so will inevitably lead to serious eye damage, and often blindness! To view the event safely, simply hold a sheet of paper behind the optical instrument and look at the shadow on the paper screen. Then, using the shadow, align the instrument so that the shadow is as small as it can be. You will then see the sun’s disc and Venus projected onto the screen, which you can look at safely.

I do hope you will be able to join us to observe this rare event; there won’t be another Venusian transit visible from England until December 2125, in the 22^nd century!

The two illustrations show the appearance of the sun as it rises from a zero horizon on June 6^th, and also the moment when the planet touches the edge of the solar disc at 5h 37 am, when the transit comes to its conclusion. Venus leaves the upper right edge of the Sun completely at 5h 54m BST and will never do a repeat performance for anyone alive on the earth today!