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A Half-Billion Stars And Galaxies From NASA’s WISE Mission Revealed — Many For First Time

By Guest PostMarch 17, 2012Scienceall sky catalog, asteroids, atlas, catalog, comets, cosmos, david saxon, distant galaxies, echo, edward l wright, exploded star, galaxies, goggles, great sky, infrared detectors, infrared sky, infrared wavelength, jet propulsion laboratory, jupiter, light, mars, mission, NASA, planet, principal investigator, roc cutri, saturn, stars, supernova explosion, wise, y dwarfs

A new atlas and catalog of the entire infrared sky with more than a half-billion stars, galaxies and other objects captured by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission was unveiled by NASA Wednesday.

“Today WISE delivers the fruit of 14 years of effort to the astronomical community,” said Edward L. (Ned) Wright, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and the mission’s principal investigator, who began working on the mission in 1998. (more…)

Gaseous Ring Around Young Star Raises Questions

By Guest PostJanuary 21, 2012Scienceastronomers, carbon monoxide, centaurus, charles cowley, co ring, diversity, european southern observatory, gas, Germany, light years, magnetic fields, magnetic herbig ae, moon, mysterious ring, nicole casal moore, planet forming disk, planetary rings, planetary systems, saturn, shepherding planets, solar system, southern constellation, star hd 101412, swetlana hubrig, v1052 cen, very large telescope, young star

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Astronomers have detected a mysterious ring of carbon monoxide gas around the young star V1052 Cen, which is about 700 light years away in the southern constellation Centaurus.

The ring is part of the star’s planet-forming disk, and it’s as far from V1052 Cen as Earth is from the sun. Discovered with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, its edges are uniquely crisp. (more…)

NASA Develops New Game-Changing Technology

By Guest PostNovember 19, 2011Science, Technologyadvanced compound semiconductor materials, ames research center at moffett field, commercial product lines, cryogenically cooled infrared sensors, ethiraj venkatapathy, extreme environments, game changers, game changing technology, high operating temperature infrared sensor, humans, infrared detector, jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena, lightweight aircraft, missions to mars, nasa california centers, next generation of human missions, planets, sarath gunapala, saturn, Space, space aged technologies, spacecraft heatshield applications, transport robots, us textile industry, venus, woven thermal protection system, woven tps

Two NASA California centers have been selected to develop new space-aged technologies that could be game-changers in the way we look at planets from above and how we safely transport robots or humans through space and bring them safely back to Earth.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will use advanced compound semiconductor materials to develop new technologies for the High Operating Temperature Infrared Sensor Demonstration. The higher the temperature at which an infrared detector can operate, the less power is required to cool it. Reduced power needs can translate into operational cost and system weight savings. If successful, this sensor technology could be used in many future NASA Earth and planetary science instruments, as well as for U.S. commercial and defense applications. (more…)

NASA’s Kepler Discovery Confirms First Planet Orbiting Two Stars

By Guest PostSeptember 16, 2011Sciencebinary system, double sunset, Galaxy, gravitational pull, gravitational tug on stars, habitable zone, john knoll, kepler 16b, kepler mission, kepler space telescope, laurance doyle, NASA, planet orbiting two stars, san francisco, saturn, star wars, tatooine, visual effects, william borucki

PASADENA, Calif. — The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA’s Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet — a planet orbiting two stars — 200 light-years from Earth.

Unlike Star Wars’ Tatooine, the planet is cold, gaseous and not thought to harbor life, but its discovery demonstrates the diversity of planets in our galaxy. Previous research has hinted at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Kepler detected such a planet, known as Kepler-16b, by observing transits, where the brightness of a parent star dims from the planet crossing in front of it. (more…)

Astronomer Tom Gehrels, 1925-2011

By Guest PostJuly 14, 2011Scienceasteroids and comets, astronomer, astronomy, Britain, Chicago, dutch resistance, earth, England, gerard p kuiper, haarlemmermeer, harold masursky award, imaging photopolarimetry, jupiter, kitt peak, leiden university, nobel astrophysicist, saturn, saturn mysterious f ring, special operations executive, study of wavelength dependence of polarization of stars and planets, subrahmanyan chandrasekhar, the netherlands, tom gehrels, universal evolution, university of arizona, university of chicago

*In a career that spanned more than half a century, Gehrels fostered new research on asteroids and comets, including those that pose a threat to Earth.*

Tom Gehrels, an internationally noted planetary scientist and astronomer at the University of Arizona, as well as a hero of the Dutch Resistance during WWII, died Monday. He was 86.

Gehrels was among the first members of the fledgling Lunar and Planetary Laboratory when he joined the UA in 1961. During a long and distinguished career Gehrels pioneered new research on asteroids and comets, especially those that pose a collision threat to Earth. He also developed and taught introductory astronomy courses that were popular with non-science undergraduates. (more…)

Clocking Neptune’s Spin

By Guest PostJune 29, 2011Scienceamerican astronomical society, astronomer giovanni cassini, clocking neptune's spin, earth and mars, erich karkoschka, giant gas planets, Icarus, jupiter, jupiter's red spot, lighthouse in space, magnetic field, mercury, NASA, neptune, neptune’s atmosphere, planet's inner core, radio telescopes, rocky planets, saturn, swirling and roiling, tracking atmospheric features on neptune, ua planetary scientist, ua's lunar and planetary laboratory, university of arizona, uranus, venus

*By tracking atmospheric features on Neptune, a UA planetary scientist has accurately determined the planet’s rotation, a feat that had not been previously achieved for any of the gas planets in our solar system except Jupiter.

A day on Neptune lasts precisely 15 hours, 57 minutes and 59 seconds, according to the first accurate measurement of its rotational period made by University of Arizona planetary scientist Erich Karkoschka.

His result is one of the largest improvements in determining the rotational period of a gas planet in almost 350 years since Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini made the first observations of Jupiter’s Red Spot. (more…)

NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft

By Guest PostJanuary 23, 2011Scienceairborne telescopes, atmosphere, crater, earth, ed stone, icy rings, magnetic north, Miranda, mysterious seventh planet, NASA, neptune, saturn, south poles, Space, stars, suzanne dodd, uranian equator, uranus, voyager 2 spacecraft, voyager spacecraft

As NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft made the only close approach to date of our mysterious seventh planet Uranus 25 years ago, Project Scientist Ed Stone and the Voyager team gathered at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to pore over the data coming in.

Images of the small, icy Uranus moon Miranda were particularly surprising. Since small moons tend to cool and freeze over rapidly after their formation, scientists had expected a boring, ancient surface, pockmarked by crater-upon-weathered-crater. Instead they saw grooved terrain with linear valleys and ridges cutting through the older terrain and sometimes coming together in chevron shapes. They also saw dramatic fault scarps, or cliffs. All of this indicated that periods of tectonic and thermal activity had rocked Miranda’s surface in the past. (more…)

Cassini Spots Potential Ice Volcano on Saturn Moon

By Guest PostDecember 15, 20101 commentScience3 d map, cassini, cassini huygens mission, cassini radar images, cassini spacecraft, cryovolcanoes, earth, enceladus, erupts, flagstaff, ice, ice volcanoes, Iceland, italy, jeffrey kargel, laki, molten rock, moon, mt etna, NASA, randolph kirk, saturn, solar system, sotra facula, subterranean geological activity, titan, topography, volcanic topography

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has found possible ice volcanoes on Saturn’s moon Titan that are similar in shape to those on Earth that spew molten rock.

Topography and surface composition data have enabled scientists to make the best case yet in the outer solar system for an Earth-like volcano landform that erupts in ice. The results were presented on December 14 at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. (more…)

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*By tracking atmospheric features on Neptune, a UA planetary scientist has accurately determined the planet’s rotation, a feat that had not been previously achieved for any of the gas planets in our solar system except Jupiter.