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NASA’s WISE Findings Poke Hole in Black Hole ‘Doughnut’ Theory

By Guest PostJune 5, 2014Scienceblack hole, city of kagoshima, daniel stern, elif tekin, eugene ludwig, financial group, haruhisa nakamichi, james hickeymagma, magma storage zone, NASA, promontory, three drug combinations, wise

A survey of more than 170,000 supermassive black holes, using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), has astronomers reexamining a decades-old theory about the varying appearances of these interstellar objects.

The unified theory of active, supermassive black holes, first developed in the late 1970s, was created to explain why black holes, though similar in nature, can look completely different. Some appear to be shrouded in dust, while others are exposed and easy to see. (more…)

Die verräterische Strahlung von metallischen Asteroiden

By Guest PostApril 3, 2014Scienceallacma fusca, andreas exenberger, asteroid, das kapital, der schirmherr, die verteilung, dlr, dlr institut, jonathan mcintosh, NASA, oekonom, osmium, palladium, popular measure, strahlung, thomas piketty, thomas scholten, tnt, usa, vermoegen, Wei Qin, wise

Tausende von Datensätzen des NASA-Weltraumteleskops WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) haben die Planetenforscher des Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) ausgewertet – und kamen dabei den metallischen Asteroiden auf die Spur: Die Schwergewichte unter den Asteroiden bleiben erstaunlich kühl und geben anscheinend weniger Wärmestrahlung als die Gesteinsasteroiden ab, wenn man sie mit einem Infrarot-Teleskop beobachtet. “Das war für mich eine große Überraschung”, betont Prof. Alan Harris. “Unsere Ergebnisse deuten auf eine höhere Anzahl von metallischen Objekten im Sonnensystem hin, als wir bisher vermutet haben.” Das Aufspüren von metallreichen Asteroiden ist aus mehreren Gründen wichtig: Sie sind besonders gefährlich, wenn sie auf die Erde einschlagen würden, und sind zugleich potenzielle Rohstofflieferanten für die Industrie in der Zukunft. Die Forschungsarbeit ist in der aktuellen Ausgabe der Zeitschrift “Astrophysical Journal Letters” erschienen. (more…)

The Search for Seeds of Black Holes

By Guest PostMarch 26, 2014Scienceastronomers, daniel stern, dwarf galaxies, evolution, fahrradkuriere, fortbewegungsmittel, galaxies, george mason university, kultur, lifestyle produkt, mystery, NASA, nerd brillen, philipp wegerer, supermassive black hole, wise

How do you grow a supermassive black hole that is a million to a billion times the mass of our sun? Astronomers do not know the answer, but a new study using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has turned up what might be the cosmic seeds from which a black hole will sprout. The results are helping scientists piece together the evolution of supermassive black holes — powerful objects that dominate the hearts of all galaxies.

Growing a black hole is not as easy as planting a seed in soil and adding water. The massive objects are dense collections of matter that are literally bottomless pits; anything that falls in will never come out. They come in a range of sizes. The smallest, only a few times greater in mass than our sun, form from exploding stars. The biggest of these dark beasts, billions of times the mass of our sun, grow together with their host galaxies over time, deep in the interiors. But how this process works is an ongoing mystery. (more…)

Where the Wild Stars Are

By Guest PostFebruary 1, 2014Sciencegas, generations of stars, micron light, NASA, neowise, trifid nebula, visible light views, wild stars, wise, young stars

A storm of stars is brewing in the Trifid nebula, as seen in this view from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The stellar nursery, where baby stars are bursting into being, is the yellow-and-orange object dominating the picture. Yellow bars in the nebula appear to cut a cavity into three sections, hence the name Trifid nebula.

Colors in this image represent different wavelengths of infrared light detected by WISE. The main green cloud is made up of hydrogen gas. Within this cloud is the Trifid nebula, where radiation and winds from massive stars have blown a cavity into the surrounding dust and gas, and presumably triggered the birth of new generations of stars. Dust glows in infrared light, so the three lines that make up the Trifid, while appearing dark in visible-light views, are bright when seen by WISE. (more…)

‘Witch Head’ Brews Baby Stars

By Guest PostNovember 2, 2013Scienceastronomer, infrared survey explorer, NASA, neowise, wide field, wise, witch head, witch head nebula, with infrared light

A witch appears to be screaming out into space in this new image from NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The infrared portrait shows the Witch Head nebula, named after its resemblance to the profile of a wicked witch. Astronomers say the billowy clouds of the nebula, where baby stars are brewing, are being lit up by massive stars. Dust in the cloud is being hit with starlight, causing it to glow with infrared light, which was picked up by WISE’s detectors.

The Witch Head nebula is estimated to be hundreds of light-years away in the Orion constellation, just off the famous hunter’s knee. (more…)

Catching Black Holes on the Fly

By Guest PostSeptember 7, 2013Scienceblack hole, black hole hunter, david alexander, durham university, England, fiona harrison, gargantuan structures, Kenya, malindi, NASA, nuclear spectroscopic, nustar, sky, spacecraft, supermassive black holes, telescope array, universe, wise, xmm newton satellite

NASA’s black-hole-hunter spacecraft, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has “bagged” its first 10 supermassive black holes. The mission, which has a mast the length of a school bus, is the first telescope capable of focusing the highest-energy X-ray light into detailed pictures.

The new black-hole finds are the first of hundreds expected from the mission over the next two years. These gargantuan structures — black holes surrounded by thick disks of gas — lie at the hearts of distant galaxies between 0.3 and 11.4 billion light-years from Earth. (more…)

NASA’s WISE Finds Mysterious Centaurs May Be Comets

By Guest PostJuly 28, 2013Scienceasteroids, charcoal, cometary origin, comets, dual nature, gravity, greek mythology, james bauer, jupiter, moon, mysteries of astrophysics, mysterious centaurs, NASA, neowise, neptune, objects, solar system, tommy grav, wise

PASADENA, Calf. — The true identity of centaurs, the small celestial bodies orbiting the sun between Jupiter and Neptune, is one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics. Are they asteroids or comets? A new study of observations from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) finds most centaurs are comets.

Until now, astronomers were not certain whether centaurs are asteroids flung out from the inner solar system or comets traveling in toward the sun from afar. Because of their dual nature, they take their name from the creature in Greek mythology whose head and torso are human and legs are those of a horse. (more…)

Shot Away from its Companion, Giant Star Makes Waves

By Guest PostDecember 23, 2012Sciencebow shock, caltech, giant star, infrared light, infrared portrait, jet propulsion laboratory, NASA, pasadena, sonic boom, Space, spitzer space telescope, survey explorer, visible colors, wise, zeta ophiuchi

Like a ship plowing through still waters, the giant star Zeta Ophiuchi is speeding through space, making waves in the dust ahead. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has captured a dramatic, infrared portrait of these glowing waves, also known as a bow shock.

Astronomers theorize that this star was once sitting pretty next to a companion star even heftier than itself. But when that star exploded, Zeta Ophiuchi was kicked away and sent flying. Zeta Ophiuchi, which is 20 times more massive and 80,000 times brighter than our sun, is racing along at about 54,000 mph (24 kilometers per second). (more…)

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