Cosmology and Astronomy

waltky · Jan 12, 2013

Milky Way's backbone & deep space exocomets...

Scientists Find Milky Ways Spine
January 12, 2013 - The Milky Ways 'backbone' structure contains about 100,000 stars' worth of gas and dust.

Scientists have announced the discovery of a spine-like structure within the Milky Way that might help explain the dynamics of galactic formation. The Milky Way is the spiral galaxy we live in and is one of billions of such vast pinwheel-like formations scattered throughout the universe, each containing hundreds of billions of stars. Harvard University astronomy professor Alyssa Goodman is an expert on star formation. Not long ago, she and her colleagues at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics were reviewing data of a dense cosmic cloud nicknamed Nessie by the scientist who first described it. Goodmans team saw a new feature, a long tendril of dust and gas, eight times longer, about 1,000 light years longer, than it was thought to be before.

Since we live inside the Milky Way, it can be difficult for us to determine its exact structure. Goodman says this is the first time that scientists have seen such a delicate piece of the galactic skeleton. What weve added to this is the idea that there might be these very sharp, dense features that we can pick out of the data and that that will just add another tool to the arsenal of trying to figure out the structure of the galaxy we live in. Computer simulations of galaxy formation show webs of filaments within spiral disks. It is very likely that the newly discovered Milky Way feature is one of these skeletal filaments. If we combine this information in a statistical way, we can probably build a pretty good 3-dimentional model of the galaxy, Goodman says. The new filament is likely made from high density gas, the type that forms stars.

The discovery is an interesting demonstration of whats called open science. Goodman and nine collaborators are writing the paper on the find, which the public can review as it evolves online at authorea.com. That means that as we work on the paper, which is about 90 percent done at this point, the whole world can see it. They can watch us work on it. Goodman presented her work at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, California.

Source
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See also:

Comets Discovered Around Distant Solar Systems
January 11, 2013 - A team of scientists has discovered six exocomets outside our solar system.

Research astronomer Barry Welsh at the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory looks for these comets spinning in elliptical orbits around distant stars, leaving their trademark trails of star-lit gas and debris. The icy dirt balls - between just five kilometers and 20 kilometers across - emerge from massive discs of gas and dust around the stars, the raw material for new planets. Welsh said the exocomets are formed from these scraps left over from planet formation. This is like the missing link, the missing piece in the puzzle. And it reinforces all the planetary formation theories because all the planetary formation theories say you should end up with left-over comets and left-over big hunks of rock, asteroids, and that sort of thing, he said.

This view of comet Hartley 2 was taken by NASA's EPOXI mission during its flyby of the comet and was captured by the spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument, November 4, 2010.

At the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Long Beach, California, Welsh reported that he and his colleagues found spectrographic signatures of the six new exocomets orbiting six very young type-A stars, which are only about 5 million years old. Although not all the stars harbor exoplanets, the debris disk means they could be present. Welsh said it suggests that across the universe, exoplanets and exocomets co-exist, as they do in our own solar system. It looks as though they are quite common things.

Welsh said that if, as experts theorize, comets could have seeded the primordial earth with organic carbon material and water, then comets also may be the key to life elsewhere in the universe. If comets are universally distributed around, then you could say that the incidence of life could be higher on other planets than we ever thought. Back in our own solar system, comets continue to put on celestial shows for Earth-bound observers. People in the northern hemisphere will be able to see an unusual comet in late November of this year, with the highly anticipated appearance of Comet ISON. The newly-discovered comet is predicted to shine as brightly in the night sky as the full moon.

Source
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waltky · Jan 25, 2013

Granny says dey got dey's own lil' GPS system...

Dung beetles guided by Milky Way
24 January 2013 - They may be down in the dirt but it seems dung beetles also have their eyes on the stars.

Scientists have shown how the insects will use the Milky Way to orientate themselves as they roll their balls of muck along the ground. Humans, birds and seals are all known to navigate by the stars. But this could be the first example of an insect doing so. The study by Marie Dacke is reported in the journal Current Biology. "The dung beetles are not necessarily rolling with the Milky Way or 90 degrees to it; they can go at any angle to this band of light in the sky. They use it as a reference," the Lund University, Sweden, researcher told BBC News. Dung beetles like to run in straight lines. When they find a pile of droppings, they shape a small ball and start pushing it away to a safe distance where they can eat it, usually underground.

Getting a good bearing is important because unless the insect rolls a direct course, it risks turning back towards the dung pile where another beetle will almost certainly try to steal its prized ball. Dr Dacke had previously shown that dung beetles were able to keep a straight line by taking cues from the Sun, the Moon, and even the pattern of polarised light formed around these light sources. But it was the animals' capacity to maintain course even on clear Moonless nights that intrigued the researcher. So the native South African took the insects (Scarabaeus satyrus) into the Johannesburg planetarium where she could control the type of star fields a beetle might see overhead.

Dung beetles manage to maintain straight roll paths even on moonless nights

Importantly, she put the beetles in a container with blackened walls to be sure the animals were not using information from landmarks on the horizon, which in the wild might be trees, for example. The beetles performed best when confronted with a perfect starry sky projected on to the planetarium dome, but coped just as well when shown only the diffuse bar of light that is the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Dr Dacke thinks it is the bar more than the points of light that is important. "These beetles have compound eyes," she told the BBC. "It's known that crabs, which also have compound eyes, can see a few of the brightest stars in the sky. Maybe the beetles can do this as well, but we don't know that yet; it's something we're looking at. However, when we show them just the bright stars in the sky, they get lost. So it's not them that the beetles are using to orientate themselves."

And indeed, in the field, Dr Dacke has seen beetles run in to trouble when the Milky Way briefly lies flat on the horizon at particular times of the year. The question is how many other animals might use similar night-time navigation. It has been suggested some frogs and even spiders are using stars for orientation. The Lund researcher is sure there will be many more creatures out there doing it; scientists just need to go look. "I think night-flying moths and night-flying locusts could benefit from using a star compass similar to the one that the dung beetles are using," she said. But for the time being, Dr Dacke is concentrating on the dung beetle. She is investigating the strange dance the creature does on top of its ball of muck. The hypothesis is that this behaviour marks the moment the beetle takes its bearings.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21150721
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waltky · Feb 7, 2013

Granny says, "Dat's right - the gubmint gettin' ready to tell the truth dat dey really is lil' green men...

Study: Earth-Like Planets Closer Than Expected
February 06, 2013 - Astronomers say there could be as many as 4.5 billion Earth-like planets orbiting stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and the nearest of them could be practically next door, in cosmic terms.

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, after analyzing data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, calculated that six percent of the galaxy's 75 billion red dwarf stars have potentially habitable, Earth-sized planets. Red dwarfs -- which are smaller, cooler and much dimmer than our own Sun - are the most common stars in the galaxy, so the closest Earth-like planet could be just 13 light years away, the astronomers conclude in their new study. "We thought we would have to search vast distances to find an Earth-like planet," said Harvard astronomer and lead author Courtney Dressing at a Cambridge, Massachusetts, news briefing. "Now we realize another Earth is probably in our own backyard, waiting to be spotted."

Working from Kepler's 158,000-star catalog, Dressing culled all the red dwarfs and profiled their sizes and temperatures, as well as the number of planet candidates in orbit around them. She narrowed this planet list down to those of just the right size, temperature and distance from their host star to harbor liquid water and, possibly, life as we know it. Dressing's analysis found just three planetary candidates that were both warm and approximately Earth-sized. Statistically, that meant that six percent of all red dwarf stars throughout the galaxy should have an Earth-like planet.

"We now know the rate of occurrence of habitable planets around the most common stars in our galaxy," co-author David Charbonneau, also with the Center for Astrophysics, told reporters. "That rate implies that it will be significantly easier to search for life beyond the solar system than we previously thought." Our sun is surrounded by a swarm of red dwarf stars. In fact, about 75 percent of the closest stars are red dwarfs. They are good places to look for Earth-like planets not only because they are so numerous. Their smaller size also makes it easier for astronomers to spot a relatively large Earth-size planet as it transits across the star's disk.

The Harvard astronomers say locating nearby, Earth-like worlds will require a dedicated small space telescope, or a large network of ground-based telescopes. And they are hopeful that follow-up studies with instruments like the soon-to-be-operational Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile and the James Webb Space Telescope -- due to be launched in 2018 - could eventually tell us whether any warm, transiting planets have an atmosphere and life-friendly chemistry. Since red dwarf stars last much longer than Sun-like stars, the astronomers say their analysis raises the possibility that life on one of their Earth-like planets would be much older and more evolved than life on Earth. The results of the study are published in The Astrophysical Journal.

http://www.voanews.com/content/science-earthlike-planets-nearby/1598607.html
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waltky · Apr 20, 2013

Herschel space telescope does the Horsehead Nebula...

Horsehead Nebula: Herschel telescope images astronomical classic
19 April 2013 - One of the classics of astronomy, the Horsehead Nebula, has been re-imaged by Europe's soon-to-retire Herschel space telescope.

Europe's Herschel space telescope has imaged one of the most popular subjects in the sky - the Horsehead Nebula - and its environs. The distinctively shaped molecular gas cloud is sited some 1,300 light-years from Earth in the Constellation Orion. It is in a region of space undergoing active star formation - something Herschel has been most keen to study. The Hubble space observatory has also returned to the Horsehead scene, to celebrate 23 years in orbit.

Herschel sees the sky at far-infrared wavelengths, revealing the vigorous star-forming activity taking place in the Constellation Orion

Together, these two great facilities give scientists a much broader insight into what is taking place in this familiar patch of the heavens. "You need images at all scales and at all wavelengths in astronomy in order to understand the big picture and the small detail," said Prof Matt Griffin, the principal investigator on Herschel's SPIRE instrument. "In this new Herschel view, the Horsehead looks like a little feature - a pimple. In reality, of course, it is a very large entity in its own right, but in this great sweep of a picture from Herschel you can see that the nebula is set within an even larger, molecular-cloud complex where there is a huge amount of material and a great range of conditions," the Cardiff University, UK, researcher told BBC News.

To provide a sense of scale, the Horsehead Nebula, also known in the catalogues as "Barnard 33", is about five light-years "tall". Hubble sees the Horsehead in near-infrared light. Herschel, on the other hand, goes to much longer wavelengths. This allows it to see the glow coming directly from cold gas and dust - the material that will eventually collapse under gravity to form the next generation of stars. Scientists are particularly keen to understand the mechanisms that drive the production of the biggest stars - objects much more massive than our own Sun that form relatively fast, burn bright but brief lives, and interact strongly with their environment, influencing the next round of star formation.

Hubble's new view of the Horsehead Nebula, a large cloud of hydrogen laced with dust

The Orion Molecular Cloud Complex is one of the best and nearest regions in space to study this activity. Prof Griffin explained: "You can see all the things we look for in Herschel images - the filaments, the bubbles; the wispy material, the reddish material that hasn't yet actually started to form stars. "You can also see nebulosity where material has been lit up from inside by stars; and features like the Horsehead Nebula where that star formation has yet to really get going." Hubble's new view was acquired by its Wide Field Camera-3 instrument, which was installed by astronauts on the last shuttle servicing mission in 2009. The image was taken to celebrate its 23rd birthday in orbit. It was launched on 24 April 1990. The much shorter wavelengths at which Hubble works means it can produce finer, sharper detail than Herschel.

More http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22217334
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waltky · Apr 29, 2013

End of the European Herschel space telescope mission...

Herschel space telescope finishes mission
29 April 2013 - Europe's billion-euro Herschel space observatory has ended its mission to image the far-infrared Universe.

Europe's flagship space telescope has stopped working. The billion-euro Herschel observatory has run out of the liquid helium needed to keep its instruments and detectors at their ultra-low functioning temperature. This equipment has now warmed, meaning the telescope cannot see the sky. Herschel, which was sensitive to far-infrared and sub-millimetre light, was launched in 2009 to study the birth of stars and the evolution of galaxies. Its 3.5m mirror and three state-of-the-art instruments made it the most powerful observatory of its kind ever put in space. The end of operations is not a surprise. Astronomers always knew the helium store onboard would be a time-limiting factor.

Herschel pictured the "cold cosmos" - places where gas and dust are coming together to form stars. Here, in the Rosette Nebula, in the constellation of Monoceros, a mass of new stars (bright spots) are just firing into life

The "blind" satellite is currently located about 1.5 million km from Earth on the planet's "night side". Controllers at the European Space Agency's (Esa) operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, will run some final tests on the spacecraft in the coming weeks before putting it in a slow drift around the Sun. "We will push it out into a heliocentric orbit and passivate it," said Micha Schmidt, the Herschel spacecraft operations manager. "We will switch off the transponder and the spacecraft will go silent." Herschel should not come anywhere near the Earth again for several hundred years.

Data legacy

The telescope will be remembered for its great vistas of gas and dust; the billowing clouds and threading filaments that trace the locations where future stars will form. Over the course of the mission, it gathered thousands of such images. It also acquired detailed spectrographic data on many of its subjects, revealing their chemistry. All of the information is now being assembled into a public archive. This will become an important resource for future study and a starting point to plan follow-up observations with other astronomical facilities. This is already happening with the recently opened, ground-based Alma telescope in Chile, which views the sky at frequencies that overlap those pursued by Herschel.

A US-German telescope called Sofia, which is mounted on a converted Boeing 747, can also see some of Herschel's frequencies. "But the amazing thing about Herschel is that its maximum productivity in science terms probably won't be reached for another five years yet," said Prof Matt Griffin, the principal investigator on Herschel's Spire instrument. "The telescope gathered images and information in such volume that astronomers have barely scratched the database," the Cardiff University, UK, scientist told BBC News.

More http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21934520
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waltky · Jun 18, 2013

That's all she wrote, folks...

Herschel telescope switched off
17 June 2013 > The billion-euro Herschel space telescope has been switched off.

Controllers on Monday emptied the satellite's fuel tanks and commanded the observatory to sever all communications. The "passivated" spacecraft is now in a slow drift around the Sun, about 2.14 million km from Earth. With its 3.5m mirror and three state-of-the-art instruments, Herschel was the most powerful observatory of its kind ever put in space. In its four years of operations, it gathered pictures and other data at far-infrared wavelengths that have transformed our understanding of star formation and galaxy evolution. The final command to turn off the communications transponder was sent from the European Space Operations Centre (Esoc) in Darmstadt, Germany, at 12:25 GMT.

Although the observation phase has ended, the science will continue for many years to come

The great distance to Herschel meant it took six seconds for the radio message to reach the observatory and a further six seconds for ground stations on Earth to confirm the loss of signal. "It really was a beautiful spacecraft," said Micha Schmidt, the European Space Agency's (Esa) Herschel spacecraft operations manager. "It never gave us too much trouble. And that allowed us to streamline things; to learn a lot about pointing the spacecraft, for example. This meant we could maximise the science," he told BBC News.

Empty tanks

Decommissioning became necessary when Herschel used up the last of its superfluid helium coolant. This had maintained the efficient working of the instruments and their detectors, which needed to be kept just fractions of a degree above absolute zero. When the helium ran dry, Herschel was effectively blind to the objects it wanted to see on the sky. End-of-life actions involved moving the satellite from its observation station, a gravitational "sweetspot" about 1.5 million km on the "nightside" of the Earth known as the second Lagrangian point (L2). This will keep the 7m-long spacecraft well clear of other astronomy missions that want to use L2's very stable temperature and light conditions.

Controllers also emptied Herschel's hydrazine propellant tanks to reduce the risk of future explosion. This involved commanding the satellite to fire its thrusters to exhaustion. As Herschel drifts, probably in a slow tumble, it will continue to charge its batteries and provide power to the onboard computer. "In normal circumstances, there is an automatic recovery function whereby Herschel would try to switch on the transponder, but we have overridden this," said Mr Schmidt. "It will never contact Earth again. We could re-command it. This mode is hardwired and we can't overcome this. But we have no intention of doing that."

Next up
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RevAnarchist · Jun 18, 2013

waltky said: ↑

Comets Discovered Around Distant Solar Systems
January 11, 2013 - A team of scientists has discovered six exocomets outside our solar system.
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Comets found in extrasolar systems etc goes the article, then the author states ; "Welsh said that if, as experts theorize, comets could have seeded the primordial earth with organic carbon material and water, then comets also may be the key to life elsewhere in the universe. If comets are universally distributed around, then you could say that the incidence of life could be higher on other planets than we ever thought. Not too long ago the science community would have scoffed at the idea that comets could have seeded life. I think its possible with all the carbon and organics in space, vast clouds of the precursers needed for life are common. However even though I beleive life exists elsewere in the universe the problems associated with how life began are just pushed farther back in time. I feel life was created of course. DNA is simply too complex, too structrued, and most importantly DNA contains 'code' which does not happen in nature, Or if the did there is not enough time since the universe began (if our universe is only around 14b years old) to create a simple code much less someting like the code in DNA. By Codes I don't mean patterns like snowflakes and other fractals, but rather symbolic codes such as music, blueprints, languages, computer programs, and DNA. So where is the desinger. In the case of life arising in the universe an intelligent designer or 'god did it' is a credible idea.

reva

Aleksander Ulyanov · Jun 18, 2013

Seems sad about Herschel, but all the orbiting observatories have limited lives, don't they?

They should maybe have a contest for someone to come up with a practical use for it.

Bishadi · Jun 19, 2013

Aleksander Ulyanov said: ↑

Seems sad about Herschel, but all the orbiting observatories have limited lives, don't they?

They should maybe have a contest for someone to come up with a practical use for it.
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learning

for example, H, O, C (elements) are all throughout the solar wind

that means, the basis of life is all throughout the universe.

Learning with basic common sense, makes them claims.... "stupid easy"

waltky · Jul 30, 2013

Much ado `bout nuthin'...

Comet of the Century' Already May Have Fizzled Out
July 29, 2013 Astronomers slated to meet this week to discuss observing plans for Comet ISON may not have much to talk about. The so-called Comet of the Century may already have fizzled out.

The future of comet ISON does not look bright, astronomer Ignacio Ferrin, with the University of Antioquia in Colombia, said in a statement on Monday. Ferrin's calculations show the comet, which is currently moving toward the sun at 16 miles (26 km) per second, has not brightened since mid-January. That may be because the comet is already out of ice particles in its body, which melt as the comet moves closer to the sun, creating a long, bright tail.

Another theory is that the comet is covered in a layer of silicate dust that snuffs out water vapor and other gasses that brighten the comet. Comet ISON has been on a standstill for more than 132 days ... a rather puzzling feat, Ferrin wrote in a paper submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and posted online at the archival site arXiv.org.

Comet ISON is shown in this NASA handout photographed by the Hubble telescope

The comet, named ISON for the International Scientific Optical Network that made its discovery, was found in September 2012 by two amateur Russian astronomers. It is due to pass about 724,000 miles (1.2 million km) from the sun on Nov. 28. The relatively close pass was expected to create a massive tail that some scientists predict will be visible even in daylight.

If it survives, that is. At that distance, the comet would reach temperatures of about 4,900 degrees Fahrenheit (2,700 degrees Celsius) - hot enough to melt lead. It may also be pulled apart by the sun's gravity. Scientists believe the comet hails from the Oort Cloud, a cluster of icy rocks that circle the sun about 50,000 times farther away than Earth's orbit. Calculations show Comet ISON is making its first - and possibly last - voyage into the inner solar system.

http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-comet-of-the-century/1712644.html
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waltky · Feb 11, 2014

Granny says God created the universe...

Ancient star helps scientists understand universe's origins
February 9, 2014 - Australian astronomers have found the oldest known star in the universe, a discovery that may help to resolve a long-standing discrepancy between observations and predictions of the Big Bang billions of years ago.

Dr Stefan Keller, lead researcher at the Australian National University Research School, told Reuters his team had seen the chemical fingerprint of the "first star". After 11 years of searching, the star was discovered using the SkyMapper telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory. "This star was formed shortly after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago," Keller said. "It's giving us insight into our fundamental place in the universe. What we're seeing is the origin of where all the material around us that we need to survive came from."

Simply put, the Big Bang was the inception of the universe, he said, with nothing before that event. The ancient star is about 6,000 light years from Earth - relatively close in astronomical terms. It was one of 60 million stars photographed by SkyMapper in its first year. "This is the first time we've unambiguously been able to say we've got material from the first generation of stars," Keller said. "We're now going to be able to put that piece of the jigsaw puzzle in its right place." The composition of the newly discovered star shows it formed in the wake of a primordial star, which had a mass 60 times that of our Sun.

Keller said it was previously thought primordial stars died in extremely violent explosions that polluted huge volumes of space with iron. But the ancient star shows signs of pollution with lighter elements such as carbon and magnesium - with no sign of iron. "What that means is we had a long-held theory that the first stars to form would be extremely massive because they are formed out of pure hydrogen and helium," he said. "A star is like an onion - it has all these layers and the heaviest material like iron is right down in the core. The only thing to come out of it was the carbon and a little bit of magnesium from that supernova and that's what we're seeing today in the star that we've discovered." The discovery was published in the latest edition of the journal Nature.

http://news.yahoo.com/ancient-star-helps-scientists-understand-universe-39-origins-041628818.html
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OldManOnFire · Feb 13, 2014

waltky said: ↑

Granny says dey got dey's own lil' GPS system...

Dung beetles guided by Milky Way
24 January 2013 - They may be down in the dirt but it seems dung beetles also have their eyes on the stars.
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Our outhouse is aligned with the Milky Way...seems to provide some much needed tranquility...

OldManOnFire · Feb 13, 2014

waltky said: ↑

Granny says God created the universe...

Ancient star helps scientists understand universe's origins
February 9, 2014 - Australian astronomers have found the oldest known star in the universe, a discovery that may help to resolve a long-standing discrepancy between observations and predictions of the Big Bang billions of years ago.
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I'm thinking 'our' universe needs a proper name since we probably cannot exist in nothingness...perhaps hundreds/thousands? more universes share infinite space with us? I vote for Hal...

taikoo · Feb 13, 2014

OldManOnFire said: ↑

Our outhouse is aligned with the Milky Way...seems to provide some much needed tranquility...
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Does it sharpen razor blades?

RPA1 · Feb 13, 2014

taikoo said: ↑

Does it sharpen razor blades?
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Tip: Clean those 'throw aways' and put a thin film of oil on them, they'll last a long time.

- - - Updated - - -

taikoo said: ↑

Does it sharpen razor blades?
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Tip: Clean those 'throw aways' and put a thin film of oil on them, they'll last a long time.

taikoo · Feb 13, 2014

RPA1 said: ↑

Tip: Clean those 'throw aways' and put a thin film of oil on them, they'll last a long time.
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Ok, but I dont have any body hair to shave, so I dont have razor blades.

I heard tho that at one time people thought pyramids would sharpen razor blades, that is why I mentioned it.

Thanks anyway!

But how would oil sharpen it..?http://emtrix.dbs.umt.edu/virtual-microscopy/razor-used/razor-used-02.jpg

RPA1 · Feb 13, 2014

taikoo said: ↑

Ok, but I dont have any body hair to shave, so I dont have razor blades.

I heard tho that at one time people thought pyramids would sharpen razor blades, that is why I mentioned it.

Thanks anyway!

But how would oil sharpen it..?http://emtrix.dbs.umt.edu/virtual-microscopy/razor-used/razor-used-02.jpg
Click to expand...

Doesn't sharpen it, keeps it from corroding (which dulls the edge) after use.

waltky · May 2, 2014

possum quit lookin' for it after he found the Higg's boson an' Granny made him give it back...

Astronomers Capture 3D Images of Mysterious Intergalactic Matter
April 30th, 2014 ~ For the first time, 3D images have been captured of a cosmological entity called the intergalactic medium (IGM). Until now, the structure of IGM had been theoretical. The discovery could provide astronomers with a new understanding of galactic and intergalactic dynamics.

The images were captured with an instrument built at the California Institute of Technology called the Cosmic Web Imager. The device was installed on the Hale 200-inch telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California. IGM is a network or web of thread-like formations of diffuse gases left over from the Big Bang that links all the galaxies in the universe together. Christopher Martin, professor of physics at Caltech, created and developed the device. Ive been thinking about the intergalactic medium since I was a graduate student, he said. Not only does it comprise most of the normal matter in the universe, it is also the medium in which galaxies form and grow. The first intergalactic filaments of IGM imaged by Martins team were within an area of space occupied by a quasar and something known as a Lyman alpha blob considered to be one of the largest objects in the universe which was found within a developing galaxy cluster.

Lyman alpha blob in emerging galaxy cluster SSA22 imaged with Caltechs Cosmic Web Imager. The arrows show the gas filaments of the IGM flowing into blob.

Martin and his colleagues observed one narrow filament that flowed into the quasar. The astronomers determined that it was about one million light-years long and might be powering the growth of the galaxy that contains the quasar. The team also found three filaments surrounding the Lyman alpha blob. Measurements indicated the diffuse gas from the filaments was pouring into the blob and affecting its dynamics. The scientists associated with the Cosmic Web Imager say the device has already spotted one possible spiral-galaxy, three times the size of our Milky Way galaxy, that is still developing.

Planet Outside Solar System Spins Itself Into 8-hour Days

For the first time, astronomers have been able to measure the rotational speed of an exoplanet. They found that a day on Beta Pictoris b, a young planet discovered about six years ago, is just eight hours long. A team of astronomers from Leiden University in the Netherlands used the European Southern Observatorys Very Large Telescope to make the measurement. The team found that the planet, which is more than 16 times larger and has 3,000 times the mass of Earth, orbits its sun at a speed of about 100,000 km per hour at its equator.

Artist rendering of Beta Pictoris b orbiting its star. The exoplanet is the first to have its rotation rate measured.

Compare that to Earth, which rotates at an equatorial velocity of 1,700 km per hour, resulting in 24-hour days. It is not known why some planets spin fast and others more slowly, says Remco de Kok, co-author of a paper outlining the discovery. But this first measurement of an exoplanets rotation shows that the trend seen in the Solar System, where the more massive planets spin faster, also holds true for exoplanets. This must be some universal consequence of the way planets form. Beta Pictoris b orbits Beta Pictoris, a star visible to the naked eye, which is about 63 light-years from Earth. The star and its planet are within the southern constellation of Pictor, which means the painters easel in Latin. Beta Pictoris b was also one of the first exoplanets to be directly imaged. Orbiting its star at a distance of about 1,196,782,968 km or 8 times the distance of the Earth from the Sun, its also the closest extrasolar planet to its star to be directly imaged.

Astronomers Capture 3D Images of Mysterious Intergalactic Matter Science World
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OldManOnFire · May 2, 2014

waltky said: ↑

possum quit lookin' for it after he found the Higg's boson an' Granny made him give it back...

Astronomers Capture 3D Images of Mysterious Intergalactic Matter
April 30th, 2014 ~ For the first time, 3D images have been captured of a cosmological entity called the intergalactic medium (IGM). Until now, the structure of IGM had been theoretical. The discovery could provide astronomers with a new understanding of galactic and intergalactic dynamics.
Click to expand...

The rotational speed of planets will be different for every planet in every galaxy...on Earth it is ~24 hours and on Beta Pictoris b it is ~8 hours. Further, Earth's trip around it's star takes ~365 days or what we refer to as 'one year'. It's interesting to me that our concept of 24 hour days and 365 days per year is a metric that only works on Earth. Time as we know it on Earth will be completely meaningless on Beta Pictoris b and all other planets. So is 'time' just a fabrication/creation of society...like a language? Or is there a more 'universal' time measurement that we should adopt...

RevAnarchist · May 26, 2014

taikoo said: ↑

Ok, but I dont have any body hair to shave, so I dont have razor blades.

I heard tho that at one time people thought pyramids would sharpen razor blades, that is why I mentioned it.

Thanks anyway!

But how would oil sharpen it..?http://emtrix.dbs.umt.edu/virtual-microscopy/razor-used/razor-used-02.jpg
Click to expand...

You teaser! Do you know one of the biggest downsides of being a Christian? To practice what I preach i.e. doing our best to live by the teachings of Jesus I cant care if I must anger one of the few females that post here at PF. Hey where are all the christian girls? I know they are everywhere in the real world but are rare on these message boards.

reva

RevAnarchist · May 26, 2014

waltky said: ↑

possum quit lookin' for it after he found the Higg's boson an' Granny made him give it back...

Astronomers Capture 3D Images of Mysterious Intergalactic Matter
April 30th, 2014 ~ For the first time, 3D images have been captured of a cosmological entity called the intergalactic medium (IGM). Until now, the structure of IGM had been theoretical. The discovery could provide astronomers with a new understanding of galactic and intergalactic dynamics.
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Now is exciting ! I am referencing the IGM has actually been photographed. One of the very most interesting cosmology and astronomy related subjects is not the IGM so much but rather the issue of dark matter and dark energy that so far has eluded providing empirical evidence for its existence. To think that we can not see or really know if over 90% of the mass of the universe is invisible and may not exist in a form that we understand is captivating and beyond intriguing.

reva

RevAnarchist · May 26, 2014

OldManOnFire said: ↑

The rotational speed of planets will be different for every planet in every galaxy...on Earth it is ~24 hours and on Beta Pictoris b it is ~8 hours. Further, Earth's trip around it's star takes ~365 days or what we refer to as 'one year'. It's interesting to me that our concept of 24 hour days and 365 days per year is a metric that only works on Earth. Time as we know it on Earth will be completely meaningless on Beta Pictoris b and all other planets. So is 'time' just a fabrication/creation of society...like a language? Or is there a more 'universal' time measurement that we should adopt...
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Correct. Really time according to big E (and common sense) is 'different' for everyone other than the person defining it. One of the best small books I have read about the subject (the unreality and illusion of intuitive time) is Einstein and Gödel is "A World Without Time,". The only downside is the author disrespect of Gödel’s theism and his 'UK quirky' way he writes. He writes like many of we transplanted people, their native language structure transposing onto their new language and grammar. I am French and therefore I often write things in English 'backwards' etc. Its from being self taught and being too lazy to complete a formal course in both language.

reva

waltky · May 26, 2014

Granny says, "Dat's right...

...The reason God invented time...

... is so's ever'thin' wouldn't happen at once.

RevAnarchist · May 26, 2014

Sorry for the many cuts and edits, this damn IE browser and whacky WP is driving me to drink again! Forget that girley light weight pinko tequila, make this a 12 oz shot of moonshine!

The way we experience and define time is ‘relative’ to the observer and is dependent on the same. Things get interesting if there is only one sentient observer attempting to describe/define time. In physics 101 one of the first things I learned was that the notations for time are ‘T’ and ‘t’. The uppercase T represents time the way physicists and cosmologists etc would define it. They say its like a loaf of sliced rye bread. The slices are the years days etc and the seeds are the events, however they all exist at once! When speaking about intuitive time or the way we the ‘lay person’ would describe it i.e. saying time ‘flows’ or thinking of time as ‘linear see above’ etc. It' is expressed as a lower case ‘t’.

~RevA~

NEVER AGAIN...Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau

If the myth of Arab Palestine is the fuse for WW3 (it is), the two state Israel is the END of humanity. Only God, and adhering to the teachings of Jesus Christ can help us now.

RevAnarchist · May 26, 2014

waltky said: ↑

Granny says, "Dat's right...

...The reason God invented time...

... is so's ever'thin' wouldn't happen at once.
Click to expand...

If we can believe the newest emerging science God did allow everything to happen at once. The past present future are all happing right ‘now’. The future isn’t real, the past isn’t real only now is real and really even the now that we experience is not real because by the time we realize or experience it the universe has already moved on and what we experience as the now is the past! Really! Profound huh Takioo?

reva

NEVER AGAIN

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