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| ©NASA |
| SN 2006gy and the core of it's home galaxy NGC 1260 |
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Explosions are almost always cool, and supernovae are some of the most spectacular and violent explosions in the Universe. In 2006, the supernova SN 2006gy wowed scientists with a light show that was 10 times as luminous as the average supernova, challenging the traditional model of exactly how an exploding star creates a supernova. Astronomers suspect that the cause is the repeated production of antimatter in the core of the star.
Russian scientists have completed the first stage of preparations for an experimental Mars mission simulation, Mars-500, a medical research institute announced on Thursday. The purpose of the main experiment, expected to begin in late 2008, is to simulate a space flight to Mars taking into account all ramifications, including a 250-day "trip" to the Red Planet, a 30-day period on its surface, and a 240-day return flight.
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| ©Unkown |
| Illustration only. |
Venus is a hostile world, with high temperatures, intense pressures, and an atmosphere with sulphuric acid. The Russian spacecraft sent to explore it succumbed in mere hours. Well, now it appears that Venus is even more dangerous than previously imagined, with lightning flashing in the atmosphere.
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| ©ESA |
| Artist impression of lightening storms on Venus |
During many holidays, the folks working on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope try and find an image that captures the essence of the celebration. We've seen Christmas Tree clusters and spooky nebulae. To show their holiday spirit, the Hubble folks have released this beautiful image of the spiral galaxy M74. It's a stretch, I guess, but wow, what a picture.
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| ©NASA |
| M74 galaxy as viewed by the Hubble telescope |
NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft is about to cross another milestone on its long journey leaving the Solar System. According to researchers at the University of California, Riverside, the plucky spacecraft is about to pass through the "termination shock"; the point at which the Sun's solar wind slows down to subsonic speed.
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| ©NASA/JPL |
| Artist impression of Voyager 2 at the edge of the solar system |
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| ©NASA |
| Spitzer Space Telescope image a new star |
Like a baseball struck by a bat, there's a neutron star out there that's going, going, gone. Discovered using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the neutron star appears to be the result of a lopsided supernova explosion. It's now hurtling away from the Milky Way faster than 4.8 million km/h (3 million mph). And it's never coming back.
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| ©NASA |
| Chandra image of neutron star and telltale oxygen |
Right in time for the festive season, ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has discovered a huge cloud of high-temperature gas resting in a spectacular nearby star-forming region, shaped somewhat like the silhouette of Santa Claus.
An early present for astronomers, the cloud suggests that hot gas from many star-forming regions leaks into the interstellar medium.
The Orion nebula is the nearest dense star-forming region to Earth that contains stars much more massive than the Sun. XMM-Newton's newly-discovered gas cloud is composed of winds blowing from these high-mass stars that are heated to millions of degrees as they slam into the surrounding gas.
An early present for astronomers, the cloud suggests that hot gas from many star-forming regions leaks into the interstellar medium.
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| ©Panel A: XMM-Newton EPIC (Guedel et al.), Panel B: AAAS/Science (ESA XMM-Newton and NASA Spitzer data) |
| The images show the Orion nebula with its hot gas cloud. The left panel is an image obtained with XMM-Newton data from its European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) in X-rays. The right panel shows XMM-Newton data, compared to Spitzer observations of the same region. The Spitzer image is a composite image of data obtained in the infrared. The Orion nebula is the nearest dense star-forming region to Earth that contains stars much more massive than the Sun. XMM-Newton's newly-discovered gas cloud is composed of winds blowing from these high-mass stars that are heated to millions of degrees as they slam into the surrounding gas. |
The Orion nebula is the nearest dense star-forming region to Earth that contains stars much more massive than the Sun. XMM-Newton's newly-discovered gas cloud is composed of winds blowing from these high-mass stars that are heated to millions of degrees as they slam into the surrounding gas.
As the world warms, the interaction between the Atlantic Ocean and atmosphere may be the recipe for stronger, more frequent hurricanes.
University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have found that the Atlantic organizes the ingredients for a powerful hurricane season to create a situation where either everything is conducive to hurricane activity or nothing is-potentially making the Atlantic more vulnerable to climate change than the world's other hurricane hot spots.
After the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, many worry what Atlantic hurricane seasons will look like in a warmer world. Evidence indicates that higher ocean temperatures add a lot of fuel to these devastating storms. In a paper published today in the "Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society," co-authors Jim Kossin and Dan Vimont caution against only looking at one piece of the puzzle. "Sea surface temperature is a bit overrated," says Kossin, an atmospheric scientist at UW-Madison's Cooperative Institute of Meteorological Satellite Studies. "It's part of a larger pattern."
University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have found that the Atlantic organizes the ingredients for a powerful hurricane season to create a situation where either everything is conducive to hurricane activity or nothing is-potentially making the Atlantic more vulnerable to climate change than the world's other hurricane hot spots.
After the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, many worry what Atlantic hurricane seasons will look like in a warmer world. Evidence indicates that higher ocean temperatures add a lot of fuel to these devastating storms. In a paper published today in the "Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society," co-authors Jim Kossin and Dan Vimont caution against only looking at one piece of the puzzle. "Sea surface temperature is a bit overrated," says Kossin, an atmospheric scientist at UW-Madison's Cooperative Institute of Meteorological Satellite Studies. "It's part of a larger pattern."
Humans somehow made their way into the Americas from distant lands, but knowing precisely when and from where they made the journey are matters of heated scientific debate.
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| ©NOAA |
| A view of the Bering Strait land bridge, as it would have appeared about 21,000 years ago. Humans probably migrated across the temporary link to the New World, recent genetic evidence suggests. |
