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Gravitational
Waves Discovered
New era for the study of the Universe.
Rosetta
Puts Its Philae on Comet 67P
The European Space Agency Probe, Rosetta, takes photos and
finds dust, nitrogen, and ice.
Mersini-Houghton
Calculates Black Holes Can't Be
Under certain assumptions that invoke Hawking radiation, then
the class of singularities that includes both black holes and
the Big Bang aren't there.
Our
Water Older Than the Sun
Not all of it, but about 30-40% came from a protoplanetary disk.
It was still around after the Sun started.
10,000
Years Ago: Astro Calendar in Scotland
Twelve pits in Warren Field are related to phases of the Moon.
Oldest
Star in Universe is Near the Sun
HD 140283 is about 13.2 billion years old but is only 190 light
years from us.
Water
Detected on Dwarf Planet Ceres
Ceres, of the asteroid belt, has water vapor from heated ice
volcanoes. The Herschel Space Observatory's far-infrared
detectors recorded the vapor.
Amateur
Astronomer Does Albedo Map of Ganymede
Emmanuel I. Kardasis, using a regular scope, camera, software
and superior observing skills, obtained a significant
contribution.
Amateurs
Observe Impact Flare on Jupiter
Jupiter can now be monitored nearly continuously by amateurs.
Hubble
Telescope Does Another Deep Field View
This time it is an eXtremely deep view. It shows 5,500 galaxies
in a very small area of Fornax. It took 2 million seconds of
exposure to show galaxies only 450 million years after the Big
Bang.
Big
Meteor Blast Above Russia
Shock wave smashes windows. Over one
thousand people injured, mostly by flying glass. The meteor
was 54 ft. across and weighed 10,000 tons.
Ultrabright
Supernovae
The usual type Ia and type II supernovae
are superceded by those found by the Palomar Transient
Factory. They are six in number.
Can
a Lunar Orbiter Find Evidence of Aliens?
It has been suggested that the Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter's photographs be studied to find
leftovers from alien lunar occupation.
Absent
Dark Matter
No dark matter found in Sun's region.
Largest Ring of the Solar System
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope discovered this enormous ring
in the fall of 2009. It is tilted away from the main rings.
Ordinary telescopes can not reveal such a diffuse ring.
Enough
Water on the Moon
Oases of water for
astronauts could be on the Moon. From no water possible to
5.6% water-ice perhaps in a 10 km region is a vast change.
LCROSS
Crashed Moon - Water Plume Resulted
NASA's LCROSS spacecraft deliberately hit the moon in its Cabeus
crater. About 25 gallons of water were tossed up
HM
Cancri's Components Orbit Each Other in 5.4 Minutes
Two white dwarfs are so close as they revolve so fast that they
say be generating more gravity than electromagnetic waves.
Largest
Photo Map of the Moon
Eleven British amateur astronomers stitched together their
photos of a 9 day Moon. There are 288 panes and they have detail
at 0.6 miles wide.
Strange
Hyperactive Galaxies of Long Ago
These are small galaxies but with stars moving very fast. So
they are massive galazies. They don't fit well with astronomical
generalizations about the early universe. Such galaxies aren't
seen in our more recent and local universe.
Comet
or Asteroid Hits Jupiter
Australian Anthony Wesley discovered an impact site on Jupiter. He
found it on the anniversary of the Shoemaker-Levy comet smash.
Bright
Spot on Venus
Amateur astronomer, Frank Melillo of Holtsville, NY, first found
the spot. The spot may have come from extremely powerful
eruptions. It may, instead, be from solar particles interacting
with the Venusian atmosphere. Then, too, it could be bright
concentrations of turbulence
Methane
From Mars
Is it from Martian bacteria, dead or alive? Is it from
volcanoes? In any case it came from Terra Sabae, Nili Fossae,
and Syrtis Major.
New
Cosmic Background Radiation
This background is a radio hiss. It is a
relatively loud hiss.
Milky
Way Galaxy : Has 4 Arms, More Mass, and Spins Faster
New observations give the Milky Way more arms. The mass and the
spin have also increased. It is now thought to be more massive
than the well known galaxy in Andromeda though the latter has
more stars.
Fermi
Spacecraft : More Gamma Ray Pulsars
Ordinary pulsars are detected by means of their narrow beam
radio signals or x-ray emissions. Some pulsars have remained
hidden because they are oriented such that the beams miss Earth.
They do, however, emit more broadly in gamma rays. Fermi finds
these.
An
Organic Molecule Discovered on an Exoplanet
The Hubble telescope has been used to find methane and
water on a distant planet the size of Jupiter.
Comet
Holmes Has Been A Stunning Sight
The comet brightened by a factor of one million. Suddenly it
went from mag 17 to mag 2.5. Naked eye observations or
binoculars gave fascinating views. It had erupted before in
November 1892.
Altair
Revealed
The close star, Altair, has had its surface seen. Four linked
telescopes (CHARA) on Mt. Wilson,CA, use image correction to
gain 25X resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. They see a
flattened Altair due to a rotation in under 10 hours.
First
Discovery of a Comet Via Digital Camera
Terry Lovejoy found Comet C/2007 E2 with his trusty Canons. He
shared this year's Edgar Wilson Award for amateur comet
finding with John Broughton and David H. Levy.
A
Massive Star Duo
One star is 37X the mass of the Sun.The other is 62X the mass of
the Sun. They are close and orbit each other in slightly over
two days.
Utah
Has First International Dark-Sky Site
Natural Bridges National Monument is the first international
dark sky site as designated by the International Dark-Sky
Association.
Brightest,
Most Powerful Stellar Explosion
It was 100X a typical sypernova.
South
Pole of Mars Has a Great Amount of Water
Polar
region has enough water to cover all of Mars to 36 feet deep
Comet
McNaught
A great comet it was, visible in the daytime, with a majestic
sweeping tail.
Sub-Surface
Craters on Mars
Radar reveals craters under the Martian surface.
On
Earth, Comet Dust Analyzed
Samples from Comet Wild 2 brought to Earth
show the early Solar System was violent. The comet has high
and low temperature materials stored in it for billions of
years.
The
Impossible Supernova
Too bright? Too massive? A new kind of Type Ia supernovae?
Some
Galaxies Don't Show Enough Big Bang Afterglow
Massive clusters of galaxies should have
more of a "shadow" from blocked cosmic microwave backgound
emission.
Shadow
Transit on Uranus
The Hubble Space Telescope shows, for first time, the shadow of
one of Uranus's moons, Ariel, against the clouds of Uranus.
Ice
Geysers on Mars
They toss sand and dust hundreds of feet
into the Martian air. They are at the South Pole of Mars.
The
Faintest Stars
The Hubble scope took in the light of cluster NGC 6397 for 5
days. The dimmest must be 8.3% of the Sun's mass.
Largest
Structure of the Universe
Linked galaxies across 200 million light-years.
Lucky
Imaging is LowCost, Sharp as Hubble
Ground-based scope takes millions of images very quickly.
Software sorts the ones without atmospheric blur.
The
Auroras of Mars
They arise from magnetic fields of the crust and are ultraviolet
flashes.
Ancient
Supernovae From Echoes of Their Light
It is like an archeology of the supernovae.
NASA
Recorded A Lunar Hit
NASA video shows the hit. Most probably the impact was from a
taurid. It landed near the edge of Mare Imbrium.
Mystery
of Galactic X-ray Glow is Solved
White dwarfs and coronae of other more ordinary stars give the
glow.
No,
Most Stars in Our Galaxy are Solo
Most galactic stars are red dwarfs. Most of them are not
binaries.
Fastest
Spin in the Solar System
In the Kuiper Belt, 2003 EL61 rotates every 3.9 hours.
Giant
Galaxies in the Very Early Universe
It was thought galaxies would be small early on.
Melting
Lunar Dust
Lunar soil melts (sinters) fast in a microwave. Put the
microwave on wheels and go to the moon?
Asteroid
Dust Could Affect Local Weather
Warm and high clouds of asteroid remains can be of 1,000 metric
tons appearing in a few seconds.
Mystery
of Gamma Ray Bursts is Solved
The theory of a collision between two neutron stars or a black
hole and a neutron star is confirmed.
First
Planet With Three Suns
Planet has a year of only three and a half days.
The
Smallest Star
A star, OGLE-TR-122B, is only 16% larger than Jupiter.
Mars
Could Have Life
The Mars Express finds possible evidence for life on Mars from
measures of methane. Also, geologically recent volcanism and
glacial activity have been proposed.
Distant
Quasar in Nearby Galaxy?
A high red-shift object lies within NCG 7319.
The
Sun Was Not Alone
It could be that the Sun came from a crowd of stars. It then
wandered to its present lonely position.
Amateur
Astronomer Photographs Surface of Venus
Christophe Pellier of Bruz, France, used a 14 inch
Schmidt-Cassegrain scope.
Comet
Wild 2 is Astoundingly Irregular
The comet's nucleus has tall projections, steep craters, and
dozens of jets from inside.
Eternal
Light on the Moon
A lunar mountain is never dark.
Diamond
Star, 10 Billion Trillion Trillion Carats
It is 50 light years away in the constellation Centaurus.
Lunar
Prospecting By Means of X-rays
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory detects chemical elements of the
lunar surface from fluorescence caused by solar x-rays.
Gas
Telescope for Focus of Black Holes, Quasars
Earth-Orbit Synthesis is Put to Use to Make Scintillations from
Radio Sources
No
Quantum Cosmological Blur
No support for quantum time, space, and gravity.
Flat
Lens Could Enhance Resolution
The new physics of metamaterials confers optical advantages.
A
Diverse Big Bang Echo?
Cosmic microwave background radiation has an unexplained
structure, not the same in all directions.
Gamma
Ray Bursts: Those Less Than 2 Seconds; More Than 2
Seconds
2,000 bursts have been checked. Fantastic explosions may account
for the longer bursts.
Huge
Ring of Stars Around Our Galaxy
A newly
discovered gigantic feature of our galaxy has been found.
Several hundred million stars surround our galaxy
No
Standard for Quasar Velocity
A recent survey of 200,000 galaxies and 25,000 quasars doesn't
support the notion of quasars near some galaxies close to us as
all being at 59% the velocity of light.
Amateurs
Find Asteroids and Other Things
The 3 telescopes of
Roy Tucker in a Tucson backyard are so arranged that they
provide images in triplicate - to detect celestial movement.
Amateurs
Find Supernovas
A large American telescope built in 9 years
from scrap by Tim Puckett is used by Puckett and volunteers to
discover 54 supernovas. They searched through 500,000 photos
made with the telescope that is located in Georgia.
Vast
Amounts of Water on Mars
Water-ice on Mars is immediately below surface. Melt it all
and you have an ocean covering the planet. NASA and people to
Mars, finally?
Sunlight
Produces Deadly Asteroids?
The Sun's radiative force via The Yarkovsky Effect could push
asteroids out of stable orbits.
A
First : Exoplanet's Atmosphere Revealed
HD209458, a star in Pegasus, has a planet that, as seen from the
Earth, passes in front of it.
The
Mystery of the Milky Way's X-ray Glow is Solved
The source for this glow is diffuse gas, not discrete objects.
A Drop in
Cosmic Rays Correlates With an Increase in Sunspots
There is a delay of a year in a drop of cosmic ray intensity vs. a
rise in sunspot numbers for alternate sun cycles.
Milankovitch
Cycles Cooled Earth
Millions of years ago an unusual association of low values for
Earth's orbital eccentricity and the tilt of the Earth's axis led
to a huge expansion of Antarctica's ice.
Reducing
Moonlight Glare with Polarizing Filters
Scattered moonlight blots out optical astronomy work for many
nights of the month.
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