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Cloud modeling expands estimate of life-supporting planets

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2013Sciencebrazil, cloud cover, cloud modeling, dark side, dorian abbot, dwarf stars, earth like planets, earth size planet, global climate simulation, indonesia, james webb, jun yang, kepler mission, larger habitable zone, life supporting planets, milky way galaxy, NASA, nicolas cowan, northwestern university, one dimensional, space telescope, sub stellar region, thermostat, university of chicago

Larger habitable zone suggests 60 billion planets could sustain water, life

A new study that calculates the influence of cloud behavior on climate doubles the number of potentially habitable planets orbiting red dwarfs, the most common type of star in the universe. This finding means that in the Milky Way galaxy alone, 60 billion planets may be orbiting red dwarf stars in the habitable zone.

Researchers at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University based their study, which appears in Astrophysical Journal Letters, on rigorous computer simulations of cloud behavior on alien planets. This cloud behavior dramatically expanded the estimated habitable zone of red dwarfs, which are much smaller and fainter than stars like the sun. (more…)

NASA’s Galex Reveals the Largest-Known Spiral Galaxy

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2013Scienceall sky survey, baerbel koribalski, barred spiral galaxy, biggest stellar system, brazil, california, catholic university, cathy horellou, Chile, claudia mendes, constellation pavo, de, dimitri gadotti, disk galaxy, duilia de mello, dwarf galaxy, eli dwek, european southern observatory, fernanda urrutia viscarra, fossil record, galactic encounter, galaxy evolution explorer, galex, goddard, gravitational interaction, greenbelt, ic 4970, institute of technology, largest, milky way galaxy, mission, NASA, ngc 6872, oliveira, onsala space observatory, pasadena, rafael eufrasio, sao paulo, space flight center, spiral arms, star formation, stellar population, Sweden, two micron, united states, university, very large telescope

PASADENA, Calif. — The spectacular barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 has ranked among the biggest stellar systems for decades. Now a team of astronomers from the United States, Chile and Brazil has crowned it the largest known spiral, based on archival data from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) mission, which has since been loaned to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Measuring tip-to-tip across its two outsized spiral arms, NGC 6872 spans more than 522,000 light-years, making it more than five times the size of our Milky Way galaxy. (more…)

UCLA Astronomers Discover Star Racing Around Black Hole at Center of Our Galaxy

By Guest PostOctober 6, 2012Scienceandrea ghez, black hole, collapse of matter, galactic center group, gravitational pull, high density, keck observatory, leo meyer, milky way galaxy, sagittarius, supermassive black hole, taft armandroff, ucla

Discovery crucial to revealing fabric of space and time around black hole

UCLA astronomers report the discovery of a remarkable star that orbits the enormous black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy in a blistering 11-and-a-half years — the shortest known orbit of any star near this black hole. (more…)

Supernovae of the Same Brightness, Cut From Vastly Different Cosmic Cloth

By Guest PostSeptember 1, 2012Sciencealex filippenko, andy howell, ben dilday, berkeley lab, constellation lynx, cosmic distance, discovery, esnet, exploding stars, hawaii, jeffrey silverman, joshua bloom, keck telescope, las cumbres observatory, lcogt, lick observatory, light year, milky way galaxy, NASA, origin, palomar transient factory, peter nugent, progenitor systems, ptf, ptf 11kx, red giant star, rs ophiuchi, samuel oschin, shane telescope, sky, sn 2011fe, southern california, spectroscopy, supernova, target of opportunity, telescope, too, type 1a, universe, university of california

Berkeley Lab researchers make historic observation of rare Type 1a Supernova

Exploding stars called Type 1a supernova are ideal for measuring cosmic distance because they are bright enough to spot across the Universe and have relatively the same luminosity everywhere. Although astronomers have many theories about the kinds of star systems involved in these explosions (or progenitor systems), no one has ever directly observed one—until now.

In the August 24 issue of Science, the multi-institutional Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) team presents the first-ever direct observations of a Type 1a supernova progenitor system. Astronomers have collected evidence indicating that the progenitor system of a Type 1a supernova, called PTF 11kx, contains a red giant star. They also show that the system previously underwent at least one much smaller nova eruption before it ended its life in a destructive supernova. The system is located 600 million light years away in the constellation Lynx. (more…)

Black Hole Caught Red-Handed in a Stellar Homicide

By Guest PostMay 2, 2012Sciencearmin rest, astronomer, Baltimore, billion light years, black hole, chandra, demise, Galaxy, galaxy evolution explorer, haleakala, hawaii, helium gas, johns hopkins university, milky way galaxy, NASA, pan starrs1 telescope, supermassive, suvi gezari

PASADENA, Calif. – Astronomers have gathered the most direct evidence yet of a supermassive black hole shredding a star that wandered too close. NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer, a space-based observatory, and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on the summit of Haleakala in Hawaii were among the first to help identify the stellar remains.

Supermassive black holes, weighing millions to billions times more than the sun, lurk in the centers of most galaxies. These hefty monsters lie quietly until an unsuspecting victim, such as a star, wanders close enough to get ripped apart by their powerful gravitational clutches. (more…)

‘Time Machine’ Will Study the Early Universe

By Guest PostApril 14, 2012Scienceastronomer, big bang, black hole, brown dwarfs, caltech, charles steidel, cosmic dust, dark matter, david clarke, electromagnetic spectrum, era, families of galaxies, formation, Galaxy, gamma ray, gregory mace, harland epps, hawaii, ian s mclean, infrared camera, infrared wavelength, jupiter, keck i telescope, keith matthews, kristin kulas, lee a dubridge, mauna kea, milky way galaxy, missing link, mosfire, nirspec, radio wave, redshifted, sean adkins, spectrometer, time machine, ucla, universe, w m keck observatory

UCLA’s Ian McLean, colleagues build most advanced instrument of its kind

A new scientific instrument, a “time machine” of sorts, built by UCLA astronomers and colleagues, will allow scientists to study the earliest galaxies in the universe, which could never be studied before.

The five-ton instrument, the most advanced and sophisticated of its kind in the world, goes by the name MOSFIRE (Multi-Object Spectrometer for Infra-Red Exploration) and has been installed in the Keck I Telescope at the W.M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. (more…)

Fastest Wind From Stellar Mass Black Hole Discovered

By Guest PostFebruary 25, 2012Scienceashley king, astronomer, binary system, black hole, chandra, chandra spectrum, chandra xray observatory, cosmic equivalent, earth, gas, hurricane, igr j17091, igr j17091 3624, iron molecules, jon miller, light years, magnetic fields, material flow, milky way galaxy, molecule, NASA, orbiting telescope, spectrum, speed of light, stars collapse, stellar mass black hole, super wind, supermassive black holes, university of michigan, wind, xrays

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— The fastest wind ever discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole has been observed by a team of astronomers that includes a University of Michigan doctoral student.

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, an orbiting telescope, they clocked the record-breaking super wind at about 20 million mph, or about 3 percent of the speed of light. This is nearly 10 times faster than astronomers had previously observed from a stellar-mass black hole. (more…)

Echoes From an Exploding Star

By Guest PostFebruary 16, 2012Sciencearmin rest, astronomers, astronomical equivalent, brightness, british astronomer, canyon, double star system, earth, erupting stars, eta carinae, fahrenheit, great eruption, hubble images, Hubble Space Telescope, kelvin, light, light echo, luminous blue variables, milky way galaxy, nathan smith, nebula, peak, physical models, sir john herschel, sky, spectroscopic observations, stellar class, supernova

*Astronomers watch a delayed broadcast of a powerful stellar eruption.*

Astronomers are watching the astronomical equivalent of streaming live video of a spectacular outburst from the unstable, behemoth double-star system Eta Carinae, which initially was seen on Earth nearly 170 years ago.

Dubbed the “Great Eruption,” the outburst lasted from 1837 to 1858 and caught the attention of sky-watchers at the time, including the British astronomer Sir John Herschel. He did not have the benefit of the imaging cameras and spectrographs that modern astronomers use to learn about stars, so we only have a historical record of the star’s visual brightness. (more…)

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