Astronomy posts
- August 16, 2011
- 01:45 PM
- 1,003 views
More evidence that we’re all a little Extra-terrestrial
by Brooke N in Smaller Questions
Where did nucleic acids come from?
What do you start looking at first? Nucleobases – A’s, T’s, C’s and G’s.
Where do you start looking first? Outer-space! More specifically carbonaceous meteorites. “Meteorites provide a record of the chemical processes that occurred in the solar system before life began on Earth”, Dun DUH: ... Read more »
Callahan MP, Smith KE, Cleaves HJ 2nd, Ruzicka J, Stern JC, Glavin DP, House CH, & Dworkin JP. (2011) Carbonaceous meteorites contain a wide range of extraterrestrial nucleobases. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 21836052
- August 15, 2011
- 12:00 PM
- 658 views
Oxygen might be hiding behind grains of cosmic dust
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
We often think of outer space, the bit between stars, as a complete vacuum. The reality is that, while it is a better vacuum than any we can create on Earth, it is far from empty. The interstellar medium (ISM) fills the space between stars in a galaxy. ... Read more »
Paul F. Goldsmith, Rene Liseau, Tom A. Bell, John H. Black, Jo-Hsin Chen, David Hollenbach, Michael J. Kaufman, Di Li, Dariusz C. Lis, Gary Melnick.... (2011) Herschel Measurements of Molecular Oxygen in Orion. Astrophysical Journal. arXiv: 1108.0441v1
- August 15, 2011
- 09:39 AM
- 849 views
The PAPER Project
by Brooke N in Smaller Questions
The science behind the Precision Array to Probe the Epoch of Reionization, a 128-antenna radio telescope, located in Karoo, South Africa, that images the sky's highly redshifted hydrogen from the early universe.... Read more »
Parsons, A., Backer, D., Foster, G., Wright, M., Bradley, R., Gugliucci, N., Parashare, C., Benoit, E., Aguirre, J., Jacobs, D.... (2010) THE PRECISION ARRAY FOR PROBING THE EPOCH OF RE-IONIZATION: EIGHT STATION RESULTS. The Astronomical Journal, 139(4), 1468-1480. DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/139/4/1468
Jacobs, D., Aguirre, J., Parsons, A., Pober, J., Bradley, R., Carilli, C., Gugliucci, N., Manley, J., van der Merwe, C., Moore, D.... (2011) NEW 145 MHz SOURCE MEASUREMENTS BY PAPER IN THE SOUTHERN SKY. The Astrophysical Journal, 734(2). DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/734/2/L34
- August 5, 2011
- 02:52 PM
- 845 views
Evidence of flowing water on Mars?
by Arunn in nOnoScience (a.k.a. Unruled Notebook)
Nasa reports first evidence of flowing water on Mars says Times of India. NASA better report the evidence now. They actually do report it, but with a good amount of reservation — so unlike of them, if you ask their Arsenic Bacteria – with a title reading, NASA Spacecraft Data Suggest Water Flowing On Mars. [...]... Read more »
McEwen, A., Ojha, L., Dundas, C., Mattson, S., Byrne, S., Wray, J., Cull, S., Murchie, S., Thomas, N., & Gulick, V. (2011) Seasonal Flows on Warm Martian Slopes. Science, 333(6043), 740-743. DOI: 10.1126/science.1204816
- August 2, 2011
- 10:00 AM
- 704 views
On the origin of chemical elements
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
We take it for granted that there exists a periodic table with numerous elements (at last count, 118) from which we can construct the world around us. But when the universe began with a big bang, it started out with no elements at all.... Read more »
Alpher, R., Bethe, H., & Gamow, G. (1948) The Origin of Chemical Elements. Physical Review, 73(7), 803-804. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRev.73.803
- August 1, 2011
- 07:47 AM
- 756 views
Waving solar seaweed
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
Spicules shooting up from the Sun as seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory in April. The full disk image is also worth a look. Image credit: NASA/SDO/AIA One of the many mysteries about our Sun is how its outer atmosphere (corona) gets heated to more than 20 times its surface temperature. Well, it looks like [...]... Read more »
McIntosh SW, De Pontieu B, Carlsson M, Hansteen V, Boerner P, & Goossens M. (2011) Alfvénic waves with sufficient energy to power the quiet solar corona and fast solar wind. Nature, 475(7357), 477-80. PMID: 21796206
De Pontieu B, McIntosh SW, Carlsson M, Hansteen VH, Tarbell TD, Schrijver CJ, Title AM, Shine RA, Tsuneta S, Katsukawa Y.... (2007) Chromospheric alfvenic waves strong enough to power the solar wind. Science (New York, N.Y.), 318(5856), 1574-7. PMID: 18063784
- July 26, 2011
- 02:00 PM
- 567 views
Jupiter sneaked up on asteroid belt, then ran away
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Mars has always been the toddler of the rocky planet family. With a radius half that of Earth’s and a mass just over one tenth of that of our planet, it is bigger than baby Mercury but not quite as grown up as Earth and Venus.... Read more »
Walsh KJ, Morbidelli A, Raymond SN, O'Brien DP, & Mandell AM. (2011) A low mass for Mars from Jupiter's early gas-driven migration. Nature, 475(7355), 206-9. PMID: 21642961
- July 24, 2011
- 11:59 AM
- 1,006 views
Seeing double in galaxy mergers
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
How do galaxies grow? One of the most common ways seems to be by merging with other nearby galaxies (a hot research topic that Rita’s talked about in more detail). Seems simple enough, but to really understand how this happens you need to look at a large number of them, at various stages of the [...]... Read more »
R.C. McGurk, C.E. Max, D.J. Rosario, G.A. Shields, K.L. Smith, S.A. Wright. (2011) Spatially-Resolved Spectroscopy of SDSS J0952 2552: a confirmed Dual AGN. Submitted to ApJL. DOI: arXiv:1107.2651
- July 21, 2011
- 02:00 PM
- 520 views
We’re cosmic dust but you’re everything to me
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
On February 23rd 1987, the journey of some light that had been travelling for 168,000 years came to an end. Astronomer Ian Shelton at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile was observing the night sky as usual when he saw something out of the ordinary.... Read more »
Matsuura M, Dwek E, Meixner M, Otsuka M, Babler B, Barlow MJ, Roman-Duval J, Engelbracht C, Sandstrom K, Lakicevic M.... (2011) Herschel Detects a Massive Dust Reservoir in Supernova 1987A. Science (New York, N.Y.). PMID: 21737700
- July 19, 2011
- 07:02 AM
- 778 views
Highlight: Space Dust
by Brooke N in Smaller Questions
New observations of a supernova that exploded in 1987, inexplicably named Supernova 1987A, has added evidence to the idea that much of the galactic gas originates from supernovae.... Read more »
Matsuura M, Dwek E, Meixner M, Otsuka M, Babler B, Barlow MJ, Roman-Duval J, Engelbracht C, Sandstrom K, Lakicevic M.... (2011) Herschel Detects a Massive Dust Reservoir in Supernova 1987A. Science (New York, N.Y.). PMID: 21737700
- July 7, 2011
- 03:00 PM
- 566 views
Cassini helps us peek underneath the surface of Enceladus
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
The Cassini spacecraft is zooming around Saturn as I type, currently in between two flybys of Saturn’s moon Titan – one was in June, the next will be September. It was supposed to explore Saturn and its moons for only four years between 2004 and 2008.... Read more »
Postberg F, Schmidt J, Hillier J, Kempf S, & Srama R. (2011) A salt-water reservoir as the source of a compositionally stratified plume on Enceladus. Nature, 474(7353), 620-2. PMID: 21697830
- July 5, 2011
- 08:52 AM
- 1,001 views
After Years of Belief, Confirmation: It IS a Black Hole
by Brooke N in Smaller Questions
One of the most famous black holes (for a ranked list of all famous black holes and details of their exploits, visit TMZ) is 1/2 of Cygnus X-1, a binary system in which only one companion emits light.
Astronomers have long hypothesized that the "dark star" in this binary was a black hole, but true proof did not come until last week, with the publication of three papers in the Astrophysical Journal--one precisely measuring the distance, one precisely measuring the mass, and one preci........ Read more »
Lijun Gou, Jeffrey E. McClintock, Mark J. Reid, Jerome A. Orosz, James F. Steiner, Ramesh Narayan, Jingen Xiang, Ronald A. Remillard, Keith A. Arnaud, & Shane W. Davis. (2011) The Extreme Spin of the Black Hole in Cygnus X-1. Astropyhsical Journal. arXiv: 1106.3690v1
Jerome A. Orosz, Jeffrey E. McClintock, Jason P. Aufdenberg, Ronald A. Remillard, Mark J. Reid, Ramesh Narayan, & Lijun Gou. (2011) The Mass of the Black Hole in Cygnus X-1. Astropyhsical Journal. arXiv: 1106.3689v1
Mark J. Reid, Jeffrey E. McClintock, Ramesh Narayan, Lijun Gou, Ronald A. Remillard, & Jerome A. Orosz. (2011) The Trigonometric Parallax of Cygnus X-1. Astropyhsical Journal. arXiv: 1106.3688v1
- July 5, 2011
- 03:55 AM
- 600 views
Throwing Rocks From the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean
by Eric Michael Johnson in The Primate Diaries
I’m teaching my son to think like a scientist. He is two years old. We frequently go for walks together through the woods and along the coastlines of British Columbia where I allow his curiosity to run free. His current research project is throwing rocks into the ocean (this is just the exploratory phase mind [...]... Read more »
Michael Elazar. (2011) Projectile Motion and the Rejection of Superposition. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 169-187. info:/10.1007/978-94-007-1605-6_16
- July 1, 2011
- 08:50 PM
- 1,041 views
Q&A's with a Science Journalist: 'It's All Relativity'
by Paige Brown in From The Lab Bench
This week I am interviewing Louise Ogden, a science blogger on our own community blog Student Voices, which is hosted on Scitable by Nature Education. Louise also has her own science blog, It’s All Relativity, where she talks about space missions, climate change, exoplanets, solar eclipses, and much more! Louise is currently finishing up her Masters project at City University in London, which will earn her an (exciting!) degree in science journalism.... Read more »
Alison Wright. (2010) High-energy physics: Top of the class . Nature Physics, 6(644). info:/10.1038/nphys1783
- June 27, 2011
- 05:33 PM
- 1,109 views
Lemaître: Lost in Translation
by sarah in One Small Step
The name of Edwin Hubble is ubiquitous in modern astronomy. Telescopes, constants, laws, galaxy classification schemes are named after the famed astronomer, considered to be the godfather of modern astronomy. If he were alive today, he would have appeared on The Simpsons, Southpark and Saturday Night Live. But a number of recent papers posted to [...]... Read more »
Hubble E. (1929) A RELATION BETWEEN DISTANCE AND RADIAL VELOCITY AMONG EXTRA-GALACTIC NEBULAE. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 15(3), 168-73. PMID: 16577160
Georges Lemaître. (1931) Expansion of the universe, A homogeneous universe of constant mass and increasing radius accounting for the radial velocity of extra-galactic nebulae. MNRAS, 483-490. info:/
Sidney van den Bergh. (2011) The Curious Case of Lemaitre's Equation No. 24. arxiv. arXiv: 1106.1195v1
David L. Block. (2011) A Hubble Eclipse: Lemaitre and Censorship. arxiv. arXiv: 1106.3928v1
- June 23, 2011
- 08:40 PM
- 1,203 views
Betelgeuse Blows
by sarah in One Small Step
Take a look at Betelgeuse like you’ve never seen it before. Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in the sky and the red jewel in the crown of Orion. It’s the prototypical red supergiant star – a cool, bloated star that’s approaching the end of its lifetime. As it runs out of fuels to [...]
... Read more »
Kervella, P., Perrin, G., Chiavassa, A., Ridgway, S., Cami, J., Haubois, X., & Verhoelst, T. (2011) The close circumstellar environment of Betelgeuse. II. Diffraction-limited spectro-imaging from 7.76 to 19.50 microns with VLT/VISIR. Astronomy . DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201116962
Kervella, P., Verhoelst, T., Ridgway, S., Perrin, G., Lacour, S., Cami, J., & Haubois, X. (2009) The close circumstellar environment of Betelgeuse. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 504(1), 115-125. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200912521
- June 3, 2011
- 03:15 PM
- 915 views
Towards Preventing Detrimental Physiological Changes in Space
by Michael Long in Phased
Short-term spaceflight does not hinder RNA interference efficacy in roundworms, and may be a means of preventing protein muscle degradation in humans during long-term space missions.... Read more »
Timothy Etheridge, Kanako Nemoto, Toko Hashizume, Chihiro Mori, Tomoko Sugimoto, Hiromi Suzuki, Keiji Fukui, Takashi Yamazaki, Akira Higashibata, Nathaniel J. Szewczyk.... (2011) The Effectiveness of RNAi in Caenorhabditis elegans Is Maintained during Spaceflight. PLoS ONE, 6(6). info:/10.1371/journal.pone.0020459
- May 28, 2011
- 12:11 AM
- 1,117 views
Observing Sgr A*
by Olga V. Vovk in Universe at a glance
Our image of Sgr A* is constrained by what we see and what we do not see (the later is even more important).In 1974, two American radio astronomers Bruce Balick and Robert Brown, while conducted the observations of the center of Milky Way, discovered a compact and variable radio source that looked like a faint quasar. Because it appeared to be inside a large, extended radio source already known as Sagittarius A, they named it Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A*). Here I should make ........ Read more »
Bower, G. (2004) Detection of the Intrinsic Size of Sagittarius A* Through Closure Amplitude Imaging. Science, 304(5671), 704-708. DOI: 10.1126/science.1094023
Doeleman, S., Weintroub, J., Rogers, A., Plambeck, R., Freund, R., Tilanus, R., Friberg, P., Ziurys, L., Moran, J., Corey, B.... (2008) Event-horizon-scale structure in the supermassive black hole candidate at the Galactic Centre. Nature, 455(7209), 78-80. DOI: 10.1038/nature07245
F. Yusef-Zadeh, H. Bushouse, C. D. Dowell, M. Wardle, D. Roberts, C. Heinke, G. C. Bower, B. Vila Vilaro, S. Shapiro, A. Goldwurm.... (2005) A Multi-Wavelength Study of Sgr A*: The Role of Near-IR Flares in Production of X-ray, Soft $\gamma$-ray and Sub-millimeter Emission. Astrophys.J.644:198-213,2006. arXiv: astro-ph/0510787v2
- May 27, 2011
- 04:49 AM
- 1,225 views
A supermassive star, all by its lonesome
by sarah in One Small Step
The Tarantula Nebula is a gift that keeps on giving – if you’re into really massive stars, that is. It makes for a pretty picture, sure, but Tarantula, in our little galactic sibling the Large Magellanic Cloud at a distance of 170,000 lightyears (50 kpc), is the largest region of ionised hydrogen (HII) in [...]
... Read more »
Joachim M. Bestenlehner, Jorick S. Vink, G. Gräfener, F. Najarro, C. J. Evans, N. Bastian, A. Z. Bonanos, E. Bressert, P. A. Crowther, E. Doran.... (2011) The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey III: A very massive star in apparent isolation from the massive cluster R136. A. arXiv: 1105.1775v1
- May 23, 2011
- 11:17 AM
- 631 views
Why Life is like Lego
by Lucas in thoughtomics
A Lego brick on its own is nothing special. But link some of them together, and you could end up with anything from a medieval castle, to a pirate hideout or a space ship. Since 1947, the Lego company has released thousands of sets under the banner of a variety of different themes. Every one [...]... Read more »
McKay CP. (2004) What is life--and how do we search for it in other worlds?. PLoS biology, 2(9). PMID: 15367939
Evan D. Dorn, Kenneth H. Nealson, & Christoph Adami. (2011) Monomer abundance distribution patterns as a universal biosignature: Examples from terrestrial and digital life. J. Mol. Evol. 72 (2011) 283-295. arXiv: 1101.1013v1
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