WELCOME
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An image of the central region of the starburst galaxy M82. Image
credit: NASA
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Jan 6, 2006 - Astronomers have found evidence of
monstrous black holes at the heart of galaxies with the mass of millions
of stars, or ones with just the mass of a single star. But not much in
between (100 to 10,000 stellar masses). One of the newest pieces of
evidence for a medium-sized black hole was captured by NASA's Chandra
X-Ray Observatory. It measured the orbit of a star trapped in a death
spiral around one of these medium-mass black holes.
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Haze layers in the atmosphere encircling Saturn. Image credit:
NASA/JPL/SSI
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Jan 6, 2006 - This moody image of Saturn was taken by
Cassini on December 5, 2005. It was taken using a special combination of
the spacecraft's spectral filters to reveal delicate haze in its upper
atmosphere. A methane-sensitive filter makes the high altitude features
stand out, while a polarizing filter makes the small haze particles
bright. The small white dot at the right side of the rings is Saturn's
moon Dione.
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An artist's illustration of Stardust approaching Earth. Image credit:
NASA/JPL
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Jan 6, 2006 - NASA's Stardust spacecraft performed its
18th and second-to-last flight maneuver on January 5th, perfecting its
aim for Earth. On January 15, 2006, the spacecraft will release its
sample return capsule, which will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. The
capsule is carrying particles collected by Stardust as it passed through
the tail of Comet Wild 2. NASA will then fly the capsule back to the
Stardust Lab at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
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An artist's conception of Pluto and its moon Charon. Image credit: NASA
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Jan 5, 2006 - Astronomers from MIT and Williams College
were fortunate enough to be watching Pluto's moon Charon at the moment
that it passed in front of a very dim star. By measuring how the light
from this star dimmed as it passed behind the tiny, distant moon, they
were able to come up with a very accurate measurement of Charon's size
(606 km or 377 miles). They also determined that the moon doesn't have
any appreciable atmosphere, lending evidence that it was formed when
something smashed into a proto-Pluto millions of years ago.
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Color view of 'butterfly'-shaped crater at Hesperia Planum. Image
credit: ESA
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Jan 5, 2006 - This image, taken by ESA's Mars Express
spacecraft, shows an unusually shaped impact crater Hesperia Planum
region of Mars. The crater is approximately 11 x 24 km (7 x 15 miles)
across and has ejecta surrounding it where molten rock splashed around
when a meteor carved it out. While most impact craters are circular,
this elongated shape means that the space rock hit Mars at an extremely
low angle (less than 10 degrees). Similar craters have been seen on the
Moon.
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Superbubble complex N44 as imaged with GMOS. Image credit: University of
Alaska Anchorage.
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Jan 5, 2006 - The powerful Gemini telescope produced
this amazing photograph of the N44 superbubble complex (also known to
astronomers as NGC 1929). A cluster of hot, young stars have pushed out
a cavernous bubble in this nebula 325 by 250 light-years across.
Additional smaller bubbles can be seen inside the nebula, which could
have been formed by collapsing gas and dust.
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An artist's illustartion of the sequence of radioactive decay that gives
out gamma rays. Image credit: MPE
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Jan 5, 2006 - A team of European astronomers has
calculated the rate that supernovas are exploding in the Milky Way:
approximately one goes off every 50 years. They came to this calculation
by measuring the amount of gamma rays coming from radioactive aluminum
at the centre of the Milky Way. They were able to estimate that there's
a total of approximately three solar masses of radioactive aluminum in
the galaxy - produced by supernova exploding every 50 years or so.
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Jan 5, 2006 - I'm sure some of you noticed we missed
this week's What's Up, and I apologize, my whole family was a little
sick this week, so I wasn't able to put much work into the website.
However, I have a big surprise for all of you. Tammy has been hard at
work for the last 4 months writing a book... for you.
What's Up 2006 - 365 Days of Skywatching This is a FREE 407-page downloadable book containing What's Up material for every day in 2006. You can download the book to your local computer, go to the day you like and print off the page to take outside with you nicely formatted. It's also got tons of other material including general skywatching advice, equipment selection, and hundreds of beautiful photographs. We've been working pretty hard on this. :-) And yes, this book is absolutely free. Download it, send it to your friends, print it off. Oh, and if you could tell everyone you know, we'd really appreciate it. :-) We'll still be having the same old web content as well, and some additional material to support the book. I'm still getting that all together, but I didn't want to delay the release any longer. Also, this is an experiment, so give me any feedback you have, suggestions for improvements, etc. Fraser Cain Publisher Universe Today |
Image credit: Gregory Cranwell.
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Jan 5, 2006 -
Gregory Cranwell took this picture of Great Orion Nebula on November
24, 2005 from Tucson, Arizona. Gregory used a LXD 75 Schmidt Newtonian
8" with a Canon Rebel XT 8.0 megapixel digital SLR.
Do you have photos you'd like to share? Post them to the Universe Today astrophotography forum or email them to me directly, and I might feature one in Universe Today. |
Computer illustration of the CEV in orbit around the Moon. Image credit:
NASA.
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Jan 4, 2006 - The centerpiece of NASA's Vision for
Space Exploration is the new spacecraft that will carry astronauts to
the moon, Mars and beyond. Jeff Hanley, appointed as Constellation
Program manager in October, discusses the development of the new Crew
Exploration Vehicle, the role of the International Space Station, and
the path of the 'Vision.'
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