Tag Archives: Galaxy

NASA’s NuSTAR Helps Solve Riddle of Black Hole Spin

By Guest PostFebruary 28, 2013Scienceblack hole, black hole spin, einstein, european space agency, fiona harrison, Galaxy, guido risaliti, host galaxy, lou kaluzienski, NASA, nasa headquarters, ngc 1365, norbert schartel, nuclear spectroscopic, nustar, space time, spin rate, strong gravity, supermassive black hole, telescope array, theory of gravity, tremendous gravity, universe, Washington, xmm newton, xray space observatories

PASADENA, Calif. — Two X-ray space observatories, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton, have teamed up to measure definitively, for the first time, the spin rate of a black hole with a mass 2 million times that of our sun.

The supermassive black hole lies at the dust- and gas-filled heart of a galaxy called NGC 1365, and it is spinning almost as fast as Einstein’s theory of gravity will allow. The findings, which appear in a new study in the journal Nature, resolve a long-standing debate about similar measurements in other black holes and will lead to a better understanding of how black holes and galaxies evolve. (more…)

The Universe in the Middle of Nowhere

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2013Culture, General, Scienceastronomy, atomic nuclei, big bang theory, buddhist monastics, buddhist philosophy, chris impey, conflict, cosmology, dalai lama, dharamsala, early universe, earth, ed prather, einstein, finite, forms of religion, fundamental buddhist precepts, gail burd, Galaxy, geological happenings, geshe lhakdor, geshe yeshi choephel, harmonious meeting, hubble expansion, human history, India, infinite, jime gyatso, john templeton foundation, knowledge, mathematics, mexican wrestling masks, middle, model atomic nuclei, modern science, monks program, neuroscience, ngawang lobsang, nowhere, quantum physics, relativity, Science, science and technology, science religion conflict, scientific inquiry, sonam choephel, space and time, spiritual leader, steward observatory, thabke lodoe, tibetan buddhist monastics, tibetan people, tibetan works, universe, university of arizona, weak nuclear force, western educators, zoob

The UA’s Chris Impey has taught cosmology to Tibetan Buddhist monastics in remote parts of India each summer for the past five years. With a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, he detailed his experiences in a book, “Humble Before the Void,” which likely will publish in 2014.

Chris Impey thinks back to the time he spent living on the edge of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, teaching modern cosmology to Buddhist monastics in India: “On a typical day, they would be up at 5 a.m. and have prayed for a few hours or done meditation before you even see them. And their attention is just as good at the end of a long day as at the beginning.” (more…)

Within ‘Habitable Zone,’ More Planets than We Knew

By Guest PostJanuary 8, 2013Scienceamerican astronomical society, apollo moon, avatar, debra fischer, eric gershon, Galaxy, gas giant, giant planet, greenhouse atmosphere, habitable moon, habitable world, habitable zone, hospitable, ji wang, jupiter, kepler spacecraft, kian jek, life, liquid water, long beach, NASA, pandora, ph2 b, planet hunters, polyphemus, rocky planet, san francisco, solar star, star trek, sun, yale university

The number of known places in our galaxy theoretically hospitable to life may be significantly greater than previously thought, according to new research.

Researchers with Planet Hunters are reporting the discovery of a Jupiter-sized planet in the so-called “habitable zone” of a star similar to Earth’s sun, as well as the identification of 15 new candidate planets also orbiting within their star’s habitable zone. (more…)

Billions and Billions of Planets

By Guest PostJanuary 4, 2013Scienceastronomers, astronomical unit, billions, california, caltech group, cosmic norm, Galaxy, institute of technology, john johnson, jonathan swift, kepler 32, kepler space telescope, m dwarf systems, mind boggling, NASA, pasadena, planetary systems, planets, population of planets, radius of mercury, stars

Look up at the night sky and you’ll see stars, sure. But the sky is also filled with planets — billions and billions of them at least.

That’s the conclusion of a new study by astronomers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which provides yet more evidence that planetary systems are the cosmic norm. The team made their estimate while analyzing planets orbiting a star called Kepler-32 — planets that are representative, they say, of the vast majority of planets in our galaxy and thus serve as a perfect case study for understanding how most of these worlds form. (more…)

Bright Stars to Black Holes: UA Astronomer Awarded for Her Research

By Guest PostDecember 17, 2012Scienceabsorbs material, astronomy, astrophysical phenomena, black holes, cloud, collapsed stars, collision, dense remnants, energetic, feryal ozel, Galaxy, hydrogen gas, mass, nasa hubble fellow, neutron stars, neutrons, radiation, radio astronomers, radio telescopes, subatomic particles, sun, super, university of arizona

In addition to being selected as one of 50 scholars awarded fellowships each year at the prestigious Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, the UA’s Feryal Ozel has won the 2013 American Physical Society’s Maria Goeppert Mayer Award for her cutting-edge research on neutron stars.

Feryal Ozel studies two things most people don’t think about everyday: neutron stars and black holes.

An associate professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, Ozel has won the 2013 American Physical Society’s Maria Goeppert Mayer Award for her work on neutron stars and her dedication to public outreach and education in science and astronomy. In addition, this year she is completing a prestigious fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. Ozel came to the UA in 2003 as a NASA Hubble fellow and began a faculty position in 2005. (more…)

Search for Life Suggests Solar Systems More Habitable than Ours

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2012Sciencecayman unterborn, Chile, dataset, dynamic, earth, european southern observatory, Galaxy, geologically active, habitable, habitable zone, heat source, jennifer johnson, microbial form, Milky Way, ohio state university, planet, plate tectonics, potassium, radioactive decay, radioactive element, san francisco, search for life, solar systems, solar twin, subsurface heat, terrestrial planet, thorium, uranium, wendy panero

SAN FRANCISCO — Scattered around the Milky Way are stars that resemble our own sun—but a new study is finding that any planets orbiting those stars may very well be hotter and more dynamic than Earth.

That’s because the interiors of any terrestrial planets in these systems are likely warmer than Earth—up to 25 percent warmer, which would make them more geologically active and more likely to retain enough liquid water to support life, at least in its microbial form.

The preliminary finding comes from geologists and astronomers at Ohio State University who have teamed up to search for alien life in a new way. (more…)

Texas Astronomers Measure Most Massive, Most Unusual Black Hole Using Hobby-Eberly Telescope

By Guest PostNovember 29, 2012Scienceastronomer, austin, bosch, constellation perseus, elliptical, Galaxy, galaxy mass, het data, hobby eberly telescope, karl gebhardt, lenticular galaxy, mass, massive black hole, massive galaxy survey, mcdonald observatory, Milky Way, neptune, ngc 1277, oddball galaxy, pennsylvania state university, remco, sun mass, texas, university, van den

FORT DAVIS, Texas — Astronomers have used the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory to measure the mass of what may be the most massive black hole yet — 17 billion times our sun’s mass — in galaxy NGC 1277. The unusual black hole makes up 14 percent of its galaxy’s mass, rather than the usual 0.1 percent. This galaxy and several more in the same study could change theories about how black holes and galaxies form and evolve. The work will appear in the journal Nature on Nov. 29.

NGC 1277 lies 220 million light-years away in the constellation Perseus. The galaxy is only 10 percent the size and mass of our Milky Way. Despite NGC 1277’s diminutive size, the black hole at its heart is more than 11 times as wide as Neptune’s orbit around the sun. (more…)

Hungry Black Hole

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2012Sciencea star, asteroid, astronomers, astronomical observatory, australia, billion year, black hole, celestial fireworks, center, chow down, comet, dark gray, delaware, double star, dust, dust cloud, emission, explosion, g2, galactic, Galaxy, gas, gravitational pull, harry shipman, hungry, infrared, keck observatory, light year, mark morris, microwave, Milky Way, mount cuba, optics, sagittarius a, slumbering giant, so 16, spatial fluctuation, telescope, turbulent atmosphere, university, x ray, xray data, YouTube

Astronomers poised for galactic chow-down

The super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy has a healthy appetite, frequently snacking on asteroids and comets. Now, a cloud of gas and dust called G2 is on a dangerous course to become its next meal.

Even though Sagittarius A* (pronounced “Sagittarius A-star”) hasn’t been easy to see through the cosmic dust, sitting 25,000 light years away at galaxy central, scientists know it is a black hole — and a hungry one at that. Its weight has been estimated to be more than that of 4 million suns. (more…)