Tag Archives: Chile

NASA’s Spitzer Finds Galaxy with Split Personality

By Guest PostApril 27, 2012Sciencearchetypal galaxy, centaurus, Chile, constellation virgo, dimitri gadotti, earth, elliptical galaxy, ellipticals, Galaxy, galaxy evolution, globular cluster, NASA, ngc 4594, ruben sanchez janssen, sean carey, sombrero galaxy, spiral disk, spiral milky way, spitzer space telescope, split personality

PASADENA, Calif. — While some galaxies are rotund and others are slender disks like our spiral Milky Way, new observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope show that the Sombrero galaxy is both. The galaxy, which is a round elliptical galaxy with a thin disk embedded inside, is one of the first known to exhibit characteristics of the two different types. The findings will lead to a better understanding of galaxy evolution, a topic still poorly understood.

“The Sombrero is more complex than previously thought,” said Dimitri Gadotti of the European Southern Observatory in Chile and lead author of a new paper on the findings appearing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. “The only way to understand all we know about this galaxy is to think of it as two galaxies, one inside the other.” (more…)

Social Networking Eclipses Portals as the Most Engaging Web Activity in Latin America

By Guest PostMarch 21, 2012Technologyalejandro fosk, apple, Argentina, brazil, Chile, Colombia, Comscore, digital advertising, digital traffic, Google, ipad, iPhone, latin america, Mexico, mobile, mobile phone, online video, peru, puerto rico, search, social media, webinar

Google Sites Reigns as Most-Visited Destination in Region, Facebook Leads in Engagement Accounting for 1 in Every 4 Minutes Spent Online

comScore Presents Complimentary Webinar on the 2012 Latin America Digital Future in Focus

Santiago, Chile, March 21, 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its annual report on Latin America’s key digital trends of the past year and what they mean for the year ahead. The 2012 Latin America Digital Future in Focus examines how the prevailing trends in social media, online video, digital advertising, mobile and search are defining the current marketplace and how they are likely to shape the coming year. The results of the study will be presented via a complimentary, live webinar on Thursday, March 22. For more information and to register, please visit: https://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Events_Webinars/Webinar/2012/Futuro_Digital_-_Latinoamerica_2012 (more…)

Sailing in a Sea of Microbes

By Guest PostMarch 4, 2012Sciencealgae, Arctic, atmospheric chemistry, bacteria, biogeochemical cycles, biomass, carbon dioxide, Chile, climate, daniel stolte, easter island, Environment, food production, genome, Germany, global warming, grassroots initiative, greenhouse gas, matt sullivan, melissa duhaime, microbe, ocean water, oceans, oxygen production, pacific ocean, research vessel, saguaro cacti, sequence, tara oceans, ua, university of arizona, wolves, world of viruses, world of webs

Researchers led by Matt Sullivan at the UA are among the first to dive into the world of viruses drifting through the world’s oceans.

Surrounded by the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean stretching from horizon to horizon, a lonely dot is glinting in the sun. It is the aluminum hull of a sailboat, a 118-foot schooner with white sails billowing from two masts.

On the deck, crewmembers and scientists are milling about. Commands are flying back and forth, and soon a strange contraption consisting of tubes clustered around an array of sensors dangling from a crane is lowered into the water, until it disappears in the clear blue depths. (more…)

Scientists Prepare to Take First-Ever Picture of a Black Hole

By Guest PostJanuary 16, 2012Scienceabyss of space, albert einstein, alma, arizona, astrophysicists, atacama large millimeter array, atmosphere, black hole, black void, center of milky way, Chile, cosmic traffic jam, dan marrone, daniel stolte, dimitrios psaltis, earth, einstein, event horizon, event horizon telescope, extreme environment, field of gravity, game changer, general relativity, global array, hawaii, haystack observatory, maelstroms, mass, massachusetts institute of technology, mauna kea, mercury, Mexico, MIT, mt graham, nothingness, optical telescopes, plasma, radio telescopes, radio waves, shadow, sheperd doeleman, south pole, space and time, steward observatory, sun, supermassive black hole, theory of general relativity, tucson, ultra precise timing, universe, university of arizona, virtual telescope, water vapor, wavelengths

*The Event Horizon Telescope is an Earth-sized virtual telescope powerful enough to see all the way to the center of our Milky Way, where a supermassive black hole will allow astrophysicists to put Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to the test.*

Astronomers, physicists and scientists from related fields across the world will convene in Tucson, Ariz. on Jan. 18 to discuss an endeavor that only a few years ago would have been regarded as nothing less than outrageous.

The conference is organized by Dimitrios Psaltis, an associate professor of astrophysics at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory, and Dan Marrone, an assistant professor of astronomy at Steward Observatory. (more…)

Dictators in The Dock

By Guest PostDecember 23, 2011Politicsabdullah al senoussi, al capone, arab spring, Argentina, augusto pinochet, Chile, dictatorial regimes, dictators, dictatorship, egyptian president, embezzlemen, ex dictators, exile, hosni mubarak, human rights, hypothesis, intelligence chief, international criminal court, juan maria bordaberry, justice cascade, kangaroo courts, kathryn sikkink, latin america, libya, malefactors, military junta, moammar gadhafi, prosecution, sadam hussein, saif al islam, slobodan milosevic, trial, university of minnesota, uruguay, violations, yugoslavia and serbia

*Human rights trials for ex-dictators speed healing*

If dictators who torture, kill, or otherwise abuse their citizens’ human rights are overthrown, should they be brought to trial?

On one hand, convicting and punishing an ex-dictator and his minions would strike a welcome blow for justice in countries where it has been denied. (more…)

Yale Discovery of ‘Young’ Supermassive Black Holes Challenges Current Theory

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2011Scienceastronomers, big bang, black hole, brooke simmons, Chile, current theory, data, earth time, eilat glikman, ezequiel treister, fast growing, Galaxy, host galaxies, Hubble Space Telescope, kevin schawinski, mass range, Milky Way, priyamvada natarajan, supermassive black holes, universidad de concepcion, yale discovery, yale university

Astronomers at Yale University have discovered what appear to be three fast-growing supermassive black holes in a relatively young, still-forming galaxy.

The discovery raises the possibility that this type of black hole continues to form billions of years after the Big Bang, challenging current theory. Astronomers previously thought all supermassive black holes emerged soon after the birth of the universe 13.7 billion years ago. (more…)

In The Dragonfish’s Mouth: The Next Generation of Superstars to Stir Up Our Galaxy

By Guest PostDecember 5, 2011Scienceastronomers, astronomical terms, celestial gas shell, Chile, christopher matzner, dae sik moon, deep sea creature, dragonfish, european southern observatory, Galaxy, gravity, infrared, light years, mouth, mubdi rahman, new technology telescope, peter shearer, radio waves, spitzer satellite, sun, supermassive stars, telescopes, ultraviolet, university of toronto, visible light, wmap satellite

TORONTO, ON – Three astronomers at the University of Toronto have found the most numerous batch of young, supermassive stars yet observed in our galaxy: hundreds of thousands of stars, including several hundreds of the most massive kind –blue stars dozens of times heavier than our Sun. The light these newborn stars emit is so intense it has pushed out and heated the gas that gave them birth, carving out a glowing hollow shell about a hundred light-years across.

These findings will be published in the December 20 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters. For the researchers, the next step is already clear: “By studying these supermassive stars and the shell surrounding them, we hope to learn more about how energy is transmitted in such extreme environments,” says Mubdi Rahman, a PhD candidate in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, who led the work with his supervisors, Professors Dae-Sik Moon and Christopher Matzner. (more…)