CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-16 23:23:58 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

Galactic Wheels within Wheels Messier 94

How many rings do you see in this new image of the galaxy Messier 94, also known as NGC 4736? While at first glance one might see a number of them, astronomers believe there is just one. This image was captured in infrared light by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17011

Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

#science   #spitzer   #NGC4736   #messier94   #astronomy  

2013-05-11 16:26:17 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Hubble Tells a Tale of Galactic Collisions

This Hubble picture registers several, but the galaxy catalogued as 2MASX J05210136-2521450 stands out at a glance due to its interesting shape.
This object is an ultraluminous infrared galaxy which emits a tremendous amount of light at infrared wavelengths. 

Full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/2masx-j0521.html

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA. Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola 

#science   #astronomy   #hubble  

2013-05-05 12:57:01 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

NASA's Fermi, Swift See 'Shockingly Bright' Burst

A record-setting blast of gamma rays from a dying star in a distant galaxy has wowed astronomers around the world. The eruption, which is classified as a gamma-ray burst, or GRB, and designated GRB 130427A, produced the highest-energy light ever detected from such an event.

Full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/shocking-burst.html

Image Credit:NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

#science #grb #grb130427A   #fermi   #swift  

2013-05-02 15:15:27 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

NGC 6240: Colossal Hot Cloud Envelops Colliding Galaxies

Scientists have used Chandra to make a detailed study of an enormous cloud of hot gas enveloping two large, colliding galaxies. This unusually large reservoir of gas contains as much mass as 10 billion Suns, spans about 300,000 light years, and radiates at a temperature of more than 7 million degrees Kelvin.

Full story here: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/ngc6240/

Image Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/SAO/E.Nardini et al); Optical (NASA/STScI)

#science   #chandra   #astronomy   #ngc6240  

2013-04-26 22:03:27 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

SN 1006: X-Ray View of A Thousand-Year-Old Cosmic Tapestry

This year, astronomers around the world have been celebrating the 50th anniversary of X-ray astronomy. Few objects better illustrate the progress of the field in the past half-century than the supernova remnant known as SN 1006. When the object we now call SN 1006 first appeared on May 1, 1006 A.D., it was far brighter than Venus and visible during the daytime for weeks. Astronomers in China, Japan, Europe, and the Arab world all documented this spectacular sight. 

Full story here: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/sn1006/

More info on SN 1006 here in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN1006 and here http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2006/06/06/14926-astronomers-hohokam-stargazer-may-have-recorded-1006-supernova/

Image Credit: NASA/CXC/Middlebury College/F.Winkler

#science  #s... more »

2013-04-26 15:20:51 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Distribution of Water in Jupiter's Stratosphere

This map shows the distribution of water in the stratosphere of Jupiter as measured with the Herschel space observatory. White and cyan indicate highest concentration of water, and blue indicates lesser amounts. The map has been superimposed over an image of Jupiter taken at visible wavelengths with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17006

Image Credit: Water map: ESA/Herschel/T. Cavalié et al.; Jupiter image: NASA/ESA/Reta Beebe (New Mexico State University) 

#science   #jupiter   #herschelspacetelescope  

2013-04-22 17:01:57 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

NASA's Hubble Sees a Horsehead of a Different Color

Astronomers have used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to photograph the iconic Horsehead Nebula in a new, infrared light to mark the 23rd anniversary of the famous observatory's launch aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Looking like an apparition rising from whitecaps of interstellar foam, the iconic Horsehead Nebula has graced astronomy books ever since its discovery more than a century ago.

Full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/horsehead-different.html

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

#science   #astronomy   #hubblespacetelescope   #horseheadnebula  

2013-04-18 09:34:23 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Interesting!

Dying Supergiant Stars Implicated in Hours-long Gamma-Ray Bursts

Three unusually long-lasting stellar explosions discovered by NASA’s Swift satellite represent a previously unrecognized class of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Two international teams of astronomers studying these events conclude that they likely arose from the catastrophic death of supergiant stars hundreds of times larger than the sun. 

Full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/supergiant-stars.html

Image Credit: NASA/Swift/B. Gendre (ASDC/INAF-OAR/ARTEMIS)

#science   #grb   #swift   #GRB111209A  

2013-04-18 09:28:05 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Astronomers Discover Massive Star Factory in Early Universe

Astronomers, including Matt Bradford, Jamie Bock, Darren Dowell, Hien Nguyen and Jonas Zmuidzinas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., have discovered a dust-filled, massive galaxy churning out stars when the cosmos was a mere 880 million years old. This is the earliest starburst galaxy ever observed. 

#science #astronomy #starformation #hfls3 #herschelspacetelescope  

2013-04-13 06:52:02 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

Süace history

Could This Be the Mars Soviet 3 Lander?

This set of images (1) shows what might be hardware from the Soviet Union's 1971 Mars 3 lander, seen in a pair of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The possible Mars 3 lander hardware was found by an Internet group of Russian citizen enthusiasts (http://vk.com/curiosity_live) who follow news about Mars and NASA's Curiosity rover.

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16920

On December 2, 1971 Mars 3 (2) was the first probe ever to transmit a picture from the martian surface (3). It stopped transmitting data after just 14.5 seconds of operation, a coronal discharge caused by a powerful martian dust storm damaging the communications system is one of the possibleexpla... more »

2013-04-09 08:55:20 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 15 +1s)

A fishhook in space

Hubble Sees Light and Dust in a Nearby Starburst Galaxy

Visible as a small, sparkling hook in the dark sky, this beautiful object is known as J082354.96+280621.6, or J082354.96 for short. It is a starburst galaxy, so named because of the incredibly (and unusually) high rate of star formation occurring within it.

Full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/starburst-galaxy.html

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA

2013-04-03 20:10:38 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

A Confetti-Like Collection of Stars (NGC 602)

It's like a disco wonderland for stars. The tip of the "wing" of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is dazzling in pink and purples in a new view from NASA's Great Observatories. The Small Magellanic Cloud is a small galaxy about 200,000 light-years away from own Milky Way spiral galaxy. 

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-122 and here http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/ngc602/

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ.Potsdam/L.Oskinova et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

#science   #astronomy   #smc   #ngc602a   #starformation  

2013-03-31 16:44:10 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

Nice idea!

NASA trailer reaches crowdfunding goal, will be shown before 'Star Trek: Into Darkness'

Full story here: http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/30/4164126/we-are-the-explorers-nasa-trailer-crowdfunding-goal-star-trek

#startrek   #startrekintodarkness   #nasa   #education  

2013-03-29 23:20:50 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

Hunting Massive Stars with Herschel

In this new view of a vast star-forming cloud called W3, the Herschel space observatory tells the story of how massive stars are born. Herschel is a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions. W3 is a giant gas cloud containing an enormous stellar nursery, some 6,200 light-years away in the Perseus Arm, one of our Milky Way galaxy's main spiral arms.

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-118

Image credits: ESA/PACS & SPIRE consortia, A. Rivera-Ingraham & P.G. Martin, Univ. Toronto, HOBYS Key Programme (F. Motte)

#science   #astronomy   #herschel   #herschelspacetelescope  

2013-03-26 01:46:55 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 20 +1s)

Spiral Beauty Graced by Fading Supernova

About 35 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Eridanus (The River), lies the spiral galaxy NGC 1637. Back in 1999 the serene appearance of this galaxy was shattered by the appearance of a very bright supernova.

Full story here: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1315/

More on Supernovae here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova

Image Credit: ESO

#science   #astronomy   #supernova   #ngc1637   #SN1999em  

2013-03-21 03:03:14 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

Moon rocket engines recovered from bottom of Atlantic ocean

A year ago, Amazon.com founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos blogged on his Bezos Expeditions venture fund site that an undersea exploration (financed and directed by Bezos himself) had located some of the enormous F-1 rocket engines used by Apollo 11.

#apollo   #apollo11  

2013-03-16 18:30:08 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

G306.3-0.9: NASA's Swift, Chandra Explore a Youthful 'Star Wreck'

While performing an extensive X-ray survey of our galaxy's central regions, NASA's Swift satellite has uncovered the previously unknown remains of a shattered star. Designated G306.3-0.9 after the coordinates of its sky position, the new object ranks among the youngest-known supernova remnants in our Milky Way galaxy.

Full story here: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/g306/

Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Michigan/M.Reynolds et al; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA

#science   #swift   #chandra   #supernova   #astronomy  

2013-03-13 04:37:08 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

World's largest telescope will finally be turned on today

It looks like it belongs in a science fiction film but this ‘time machine’ could provide us with the facts about where we came from.
To be switched on today, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, is the world’s most powerful telescope.It is also the highest on the planet and, at almost £1billion, the most expensive of its kind.

#science   #alma   #chile   #radiotelescope  

2013-03-09 02:51:53 (3 comments, 4 reshares, 9 +1s)

Has Russia found 14MILLION-year-old bacteria sealed in an underground Antarctic lake?

Russian scientists believe they may have discovered new life forms sealed off for 14 million years in a subglacial lake deep under the Antarctic ice.
Scientists say the icy darkness of Lake Vostok, under 3,700 metres of ice, may provide a glimpse of the planet before the Ice Age and clues to life on other planets.

#science   #biology   #antarctica   #lakevostok  

2013-03-08 01:14:20 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

Cassini Makes Last Close Flyby of Saturnian Moon Rhea

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be swooping close to Saturn's moon Rhea on Saturday, March 9, the last close flyby of Rhea in Cassini's mission. The primary purpose will be to probe the internal structure of the moon by measuring the gravitational pull of Rhea and to determine whether the moon is homogeneous all the way through.

Full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130307.html

More on Cassini here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html

More info on Rhea, the second-largest moon of Saturn here in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_(moon)

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute 

#science   #cassini   #rhea   #saturn  

2013-03-07 14:26:21 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

Herschel to Complete Its Mission Soon

The Herschel space observatory is expected to exhaust its supply of liquid helium coolant in the coming weeks, after spending more than three years studying the cool universe and surpassing the expectations of the international team of scientists involved. 

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-083

Image credit: ESA - C. Carreau

#science   #herschel   #herschelspacetelescope   #infrared  

2013-03-03 13:42:49 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Space station crew brings SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft in for a hookup

Astronauts used the International Space Station's robotic arm to grab SpaceX's Dragon capsule on Sunday after the unmanned spacecraft made a dramatic recovery in orbit. The grapple operation reached its successful climax an hour ahead of schedule, proving that the unmanned capsule had fully recovered from a post-launch glitch that affected its propulsion system.

#science   #iss   #spacex   #spacexdragon  

2013-03-02 12:41:55 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

The Birth of a Giant Planet?

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have obtained what is likely the first direct observation of a forming planet still embedded in a thick disc of gas and dust. If confirmed, this discovery will greatly improve our understanding of how planets form and allow astronomers to test the current theories against an observable target.

Full story here: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1310/

Image Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

#science   #astronomy   #planetformation   #HD100546  

2013-03-01 22:34:49 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 7 +1s)

What Lies Beneath: NASA Antarctic Sub Goes Subglacial

When researcher Alberto Behar from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., joined an international Antarctic expedition last month on a trek to investigate a subglacial lake, he brought with him a unique instrument designed and funded by NASA to help the researchers study one of the last unexplored aquatic environments on Earth.

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-077

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

#science  #wissard #lakewhillans   #antarctica  

2013-03-01 22:21:56 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Computer Swap on Curiosity Rover

The ground team for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has switched the rover to a redundant onboard computer in response to a memory issue on the computer that had been active.

Full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20130228.html

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

#science   #mars   #msl   #curiosity  

2013-02-28 17:30:54 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Fascinating

Brain-to-brain interface transmits information from one rat to another

Electronically-linked brains could facilitate rehabilitation and revolutionize computing ... the same group of researchers has taken this technology in an entirely new direction – they have developed a brain-to-brain interface that can transmit information from one rat directly to another, enabling the animal on the receiving end to perform behavioural tasks without training. 

Full story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neurophilosophy/2013/feb/28/brain-to-brain-interface

#science   #biology   #neuroscience  

2013-02-28 03:28:39 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Interesting!

NASA's NuSTAR Helps Solve Riddle of Black Hole Spin

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.

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-075#1

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

#science   #nustar   #xmmnewton   #blackhole   #ngc1635  

2013-02-27 13:47:51 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

NASA Announces New CubeSat Space Mission Candidates

NASA has selected 24 small satellites, including three from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The proposed CubeSats come from universities across the country, a Florida high school, several non-profit organizations and NASA field centers.

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-073

#science   #cubesat  

2013-02-25 15:40:12 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Fragments of ancient continent buried under Indian Ocean

Fragments of an ancient continent are buried beneath the floor of the Indian Ocean, a study suggests.
Researchers have found evidence for a landmass that would have existed between 2,000 and 85 million years ago.

#science   #geology   #mauritia  

2013-02-23 15:26:55 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 12 +1s)

Hubble Sees a Glowing Jet From A Young Star

This image shows an object known as HH 151, a bright jet of glowing material trailed by an intricate, orange-hued plume of gas and dust. It is located some 460 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull), near to the young, tumultuous star HL Tau.

Full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/hh151.html

Herbig–Haro objects in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbig-Haro_object

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

#science   #astronomy   #hubble   #hh151   #herbigharo   #taurus   #starformation  

2013-02-22 02:29:56 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 11 +1s)

Cassini Sheds Light on Cosmic Particle Accelerators

During a chance encounter with what appears to be an unusually strong blast of solar wind at Saturn, NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected particles being accelerated to ultra-high energies. This is similar to the acceleration that takes place around distant supernovas.

Full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130219.html

Image credit: ESA

#science   #cassini   #nasa   #esa  

2013-02-21 16:21:49 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 3 +1s)

NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Tiny Planet System

NASA's Kepler mission scientists have discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star similar to our sun. The planets are located in a system called Kepler-37, about 210 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra.

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-066

Image Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech 

#science   #kepler   #kepler37   #exoplanets  

2013-02-21 16:14:02 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Six Years in Space for THEMIS: Understanding the Magnetosphere Better Than Ever

Earth is surrounded by a giant magnetic bubble, called the magnetosphere. Over six years in space, five spacecraft from the THEMIS mission have helped map out this area and improve our ability to predict dynamic space weather events – events that at their worst can impact satellites in space.

Full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/news/six-years.html

THEMIS website: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/main/index.html

Image Credit: NASA

#science   #themis   #magnetosphere  

2013-02-19 14:35:07 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Cosmos may be 'inherently unstable'

Scientists say they may be able to determine the eventual fate of the cosmos as they probe the properties of the Higgs boson. A concept known as vacuum instability could result, billions of years from now, in a new universe opening up in the present one and replacing it.

Full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21499765

More info on the LHC and its "Long Shutdown 1" here: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2013/02/long-shutdown-1-exciting-times-ahead

#science   #cern   #lhc   #ls1   #longshutdown1   #higgsboson   #particlephysics  

2013-02-19 14:31:19 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Amazing to see what's possible...400x59x15.5 meter...

How much bigger can container ships get?

The world's cargo ships are getting big, really big. No surprise, perhaps, given the volume of goods produced in Asia and consumed in Europe and the US. But are these giant symbols of the world's trade imbalance growing beyond all reason?

#shipbuilding   #cargoship  

2013-02-16 10:17:26 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 10 +1s)

Russia Meteor Not Linked to Asteroid 2012 DA14 Flyby

New information provided by a worldwide network of sensors has allowed scientists to refine their estimates for the size of the object that entered that atmosphere and disintegrated in the skies over Chelyabinsk, Russia, at 7:20:26 p.m. PST, or 10:20:26 p.m. EST on Feb. 14 (3:20:26 UTC on Feb. 15). 

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-061

Image credit: Google Earth, NASA/JPL-Caltech 

#science   #russia   #chelyabinsk   #meteor   #asteroid   #2012da14  

2013-02-15 11:51:27 (2 comments, 5 reshares, 8 +1s)

Asteroid 2012 DA14: how to spot it - Live Streams

On Friday evening asteroid 2012 DA14 skims closer to our planet than any other known asteroid. Although invisible to the naked eye, binoculars can bring the space rock into focus. Full story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/across-the-universe/2013/feb/15/asteroid-2012-da14

2012 DA14 has an estimated diameter of 51 meters and an estimated mass of 180,000 metric tons. It was discovered on February 23, 2012 by the Observatorio Astronómico de La Sagra, Granada in Spain.

Nasa Television will broadcast a live webcast starting at 19:00 GMT (19:00 UT, 14:00 EST, 11:00 PST) which can be found here: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

SLOOH SpaceCamera will also feature the event: http://events.slooh.com/

2012 DA14 in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_DA14 and in the Near Earth ObjectProgram ... more »

2013-02-15 11:02:36 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

More Meteorite Videos from Russia

Here is some more footage of the Meteorite hitting the Russian Oblast Chelyabinsk (1,500 kilometers east of Moscow).

If you are wondering why there are so many videos made from the inside of a car: Many people in Russia use dashboard cams to have solid evidence in case of an accident.

Метеорит над Костанаем летит в Челябинск

Падение метеорита!

Взрыв Челябинскe (very loud boom)

Армагеддон в Челябинске! (съемка камеры наблюдения) (look at the bright lights starting 30 seconds into the video)

Dramatic CCTV: Meteorite blast wave blows out doors, windows in Russia

More info here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/15/meteorite-explosion-shakes-russian

#russia  #meteorite   #meteorshower   #Chelyabinsk   #video  ... more »

2013-02-15 10:35:47 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 5 +1s)

Meteorite hits Russian Urals: Fireball explosion wreaks havoc, up to 500 injured

Russia’s Urals region has been rocked by a meteorite explosion in the stratosphere. The impact wave damaged several buildings, and blew out thousands of windows amid frigid winter weather. Hundreds are seeking medical attention for minor injuries.

Full story here: http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-urals-chelyabinsk-283/

More info and footage here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/15/meteorite-explosion-shakes-russian

#russia   #meteorite   #meteorshower   #Chelyabinsk  

2013-02-14 11:36:39 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Study Sheds New Light on Arctic Sea Ice Volume Losses

New research using combined records of ice measurements from NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite, airborne surveys and ocean-based sensors shows Arctic sea ice volume declined 36 percent in the autumn and nine percent in the winter over the last decade. 

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-057

Image Credit: NASA

#science   #arctic   #arcticseaice   #cryosat2   #icesat  

2013-02-13 20:31:19 (1 comments, 5 reshares, 14 +1s)

Quite interesting!

W49B: Rare Explosion May Have Created Our Galaxy's Youngest Black Hole

The highly distorted supernova remnant shown in this image may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. The image combines X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in blue and green, radio data from the NSF's Very Large Array in pink, and infrared data from Caltech's Palomar Observatory in yellow.

Full story here and more images here: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/w49b/

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/L.Lopez et al.; Infrared: Palomar; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA

#science   #blackhole   #chandra   #supernova   #wb49b  

2013-02-12 10:42:57 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

North Korea confirms 'successful' nuclear test

North Korea has confirmed that it has carried out its third nuclear test, after international monitors detected seismic activity close to the nation's nuclear test site.

Full story here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9864069/North-Korea-confirms-successful-nuclear-test.html

More info on the North Korean nuclear program: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_nuclear_program

#northkorea   #nucleartest   #Punggyeri  

2013-02-11 15:41:15 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Russia Launches Six Globalstar-2 Satellites

A Russian Soyuz-2.1a rocket with six Globalstar-2 low-orbit communication satellites lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Wednesday, Russia's Federal Space Agency, known as Roscosmos, said after the launch.

More info here: http://en.ria.ru/science/20130206/179265417.html

#science   #space   #soyuz   #roscosmos  

2013-02-11 15:29:16 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

A fascinating 'new' planet

NASA has recently discovered a very strange planet.  Its days are twice as long as its years.  It has a tail like a comet. It is hot enough to melt lead, yet capped by deposits of ice. And to top it all off ... it appears to be pink.

Full story here: http://phys.org/news/2013-02-fascinating-planet.html

More about Messenger: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/index.html

#science   #mercury   #messenger  

2013-02-11 15:26:05 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Help scientists name Pluto's moons

The discoverers of Pluto's fourth and fifth moons are letting Internet users have a say in what they should be named, by throwing the question open for a non-binding advisory vote. The "Pluto Rocks" project, organized by the SETI Institute, is part of a trend pointing toward getting the public involved in the outer-space naming process. 

#science   #pluto   #plutomoons   #plutorocks  

2013-02-07 21:49:46 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 7 +1s)

WISE Feels the Heat from Orion's Sword

The Orion nebula is featured in this sweeping image from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. 

Full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20130205.html

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

#science   #astronomy   #wise   #orion   #starformation   #infrared  

2013-02-07 20:38:46 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

NASA Telescopes Discover Strobe-Like Flashes in Young Stars

Two of NASA's great observatories, the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes, have teamed up to uncover a mysterious infant star that behaves like a strobe light. Every 25.34 days, the object, designated LRLL 54361, unleashes a burst of light.

Full story here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-050 and more info here http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2013/04

Image credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech 

#science   #astronomy   #hubble   #spitzer  #LRLL54361 #starformation   #ic348  

2013-02-07 15:45:43 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 7 +1s)

Earth-like Planets Are Right Next Door

Using publicly available data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have found that six percent of red dwarf stars have habitable, Earth-sized planets. Since red dwarfs are the most common stars in our galaxy, the closest Earth-like planet could be just 13 light-years away.

Full story here: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2013/pr201305.html

Image Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)

#science   #astronomy   #keplerspacetelescope   #earthlikeplanets  

2013-02-07 12:14:29 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Spectroscopy sheds new light on mysteries of spider silk

Researcher and team are the first to measure all of the elastic properties of an intact spider's web, drawing a remarkable picture of the behavior of one of nature's most intriguing structures. The work could lead to new "bio-inspired" materials that improve upon nature.

#science   #biology   #spidersilk   #spectroscopy  

2013-02-04 13:26:52 (1 comments, 6 reshares, 7 +1s)

Richard III dig: DNA confirms bones are king's

A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park has been confirmed as that of English king Richard III. Experts from the University of Leicester said DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.

#science   #history   #dna   #richardiii   #england   #monarchy