The Astronomy Thread

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - dems the space aliens dats been flingin' dem meteors at us...

Mini planet found far beyond Earth's solar system
21 Feb.`13 -- Astronomers have found a mini planet beyond our solar system that is the smallest of more than 800 extra-solar planets discovered, scientists said on Wednesday.

The planet, known as Kepler-37b, is one of three circling a yellow star similar to the sun that is located in the constellation Lyra, about 210 light years away. One light year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km). "We see very large planets and they're uncommon. Earth-sized planets seen to be pretty common, so our guess is that small planets must be even more common," said Thomas Barclay, with NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. The smaller the planet, the more difficult it is to find. Kepler-37b, as well as two sibling planets, were discovered with a NASA space telescope of the same name, which studies light from about 150,000 sun-like stars. The Kepler telescope works by detecting slight dips in the amount of light coming from target stars caused by orbiting planets passing by, or transiting, relative to the observatory's line of sight. The smaller the planet, the less pronounced the dip.

Of the 833 confirmed planets found beyond the solar system, 114 were discovered by the Kepler science team, according to the project's website. Nearly 3,000 more Kepler candidate planets are being analyzed. Planets located in "habitable zones" around their host stars, where water can exist on their surfaces, are of particular interest. Water is believed to be necessary for life. A planet positioned about where Earth orbits the sun would take a year to fly around its parent star. At least two, and preferably three or more, orbits are needed to confirm that a transit spotted by the Kepler telescope is indeed a planet and not a star flare or some other phenomenon.

Kepler-37b flies about 10 times closer to its star than Earth circles the sun, which gives it a surface temperature of about 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius). "This particular one is nowhere near habitable," University of Florida astronomer Eric Ford said. Mercury is the closet planet to the sun in our solar system, so scientists compared Kepler-37b to a mini Mercury. The little planet, which is slightly larger than Earth's moon, has two somewhat larger siblings. Kepler-37c, which is slightly smaller than Venus, circles the trio's parent star in 21 days and Kepler-37d, about twice the size of Earth, orbits in 40 days.

The whole system would fit within the orbit of Mercury, which circles the sun in 88 days. "When we first found exo-planets, they were all much larger than anything we have in the inner solar system. We didn't know of anything that was smaller. This is the first time we've been able to probe the smallest range, smaller than anything we have in our solar system," Barclay said. The research was published in this week's Nature.

http://news.yahoo.com/mini-planet-found-far-beyond-earths-solar-system-222303598.html

 

[Mr. H.]

Cool video of the asteroid fly-by last Fri-day...

APOD: 2013 February 17 - Asteroid 2012 DA14 Passes the Earth

 

[Mr. H.]

'Comet of the Century': Comet ISON Stars in Mother's Day Webcast Today

30 minute webcast begins in a half hour from now...

You can watch the Mother's Day Comet ISON webcast live on SPACE.com, courtesy of Slooh Space Camera. [See the latest amazing photos of Comet ISON]

Happy Day, mothers.

 

[Mr. H.]

Big-ass asteroid in the neighborhood.

Live telescope webcast today at 12:30 pm Central time.

Huge Asteroid 1998 QE2 Sails By Earth on Friday

 

[Mr. H.]

Too cloudy for live broadcast, so they're replaying recorded video from yesterday...

 

[Mr. H.]

First image from Gaia star surveyor looks into the starry depths of the Milky Way | The Verge

The European Space Agency's star surveyor Gaia has finally sent some photos home from its trip. It captured a gorgeous image of a cluster of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, on its journey to create the most accurate map of our galaxy.

 

[jamesdeny]

Nice Post

 

[Mr. H.]

Stunning Hubble Telescope View Reveals Deep View of Universe (Video, Image)

 

[Mr. H.]

Milky Way's Structure Mapped in Unprecedented Detail

Milky Way's Structure Mapped in Unprecedented Detail

 

[waltky]

Mebbe its a possum sized black hole...

NASA says they found smallest known galaxy with a black hole
Sept. 18, 2014 | NASA said the Hubble Space Telescope has helped them find a monster black hole.

NASA made a big announcement on Wednesday: the Hubble Space Telescope has found the smallest galaxy ever known. But that wasn't the big news. It was what astronomers found inside of the galaxy that has them excited: a monster black hole right in the middle of the galaxy.

In a news release, NASA said the black hole is "five times the mass of the one at the center of our Milky Way galaxy." The black hole was found inside the dwarf galaxy M60-UCD1. That galaxy is what's called a dwarf galaxy -- 140 million stars are crammed within a diameter of about 300 light-years.

NASA said if we lived inside of a dwarf galaxy you could see one million stars with the naked eye. We can see about 4,000 stars in our nighttime sky.

Latest News - Science News Environment Space Exploration - UPI.com

 

[waltky]

That far from it's sun, I wonder why it hasn't gravitated toward another solar system?...

Astronomers Discover ‘Widest’ Solar System
January 27, 2016 - Astronomers have discovered the largest solar system found so far.

A team of American, British and Australian astronomers says a planet known as 2MASS J212, once thought to be a “free-floating” or “lonely" planet, is actually in orbit about 1 trillion kilometers from its star. That is about 7,000 times farther than the Earth is from the sun, and 140 times larger than the orbit of dwarf planet Pluto. "The planet is not quite as lonely as we first thought, but it's certainly in a very long-distance relationship," said lead author Niall Deacon of the University of Hertfordshire in England.

An artist's impression of 2MASS J2126.​

At that distance, the planet orbits its star about once every 900,000 years, according to the astronomers. While it’s highly doubtful the planet hosts life, if it did, the residents would see their sun as just a “bright star” and “might not even imagine they were connected to it at all,” Deacon said.

First impression

2MASS J2126 was found eight years ago by U.S. researchers in an infrared sky survey, which caused them to classify it as young and likely of a relatively low mass. Later, Canadian researchers discovered the planet was “a possible member of a 45 million-year-old group of stars and brown dwarfs known as the Tucana Horologium Association.”

With this information, the astronomers were able to calculate that the planet had a mass of between 12 and 15 times that of Jupiter. “This is the widest planet system found so far, and both the members of it have been known for eight years,” Deacon said. “But nobody had made the link between the objects before.” While 2MASS J212 is not a lonely planet, several have been found in recent years. Most of them are gas giants like Jupiter that are just not massive enough to have ignited into shiny stars. The paper appears in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Astronomers Discover ‘Widest’ Solar System

 

[SixFoot]

Objects in space like planets are much more likely to collide if they orbit each other or orbit a common primary object. In our own solar system Venus doesn’t deserve to smash into anything, since it’s orbit is so perfectly circular.
But Mercury is not so well behaved. Its orbit – already the most lopsided – wildly changes shape. Influences from faraway Jupiter will eventually make its path so elliptical that it will swing out to Venus. Then those two worlds MAY collide.

interesting..what the timeline on that?

It's indefinite because Mercury's orbital plane wobbles taking it both N & S of the orbital plane of Venus. It could even miss Venus and approach a collision with Earth instead. If that path is followed and there's near-hit versus a direct hit with Earth, it could even be ejected by the slingshot effect from the solar system, that being the remotest likelihood.

Edit: I can see how Earth's diameter can be determined by those tools by taking measurements in two locations a known distance apart if they lay on a north/south line but I don't see the need for digging a hole in the ground unless it be to produce a leveling method for measuring a shadow on a plane.

well done you're close. they dug a measured hole, put a measured height at the lip,some think a truncated obelisk ( Mastaba?), the translation I saw surmised that anyway, they marked the time the hole swallowed its shadow, marked time, then marked the moment it swallowed its shadow again. The extrapolation from there is relatively simple.

I'd like to meet the man or woman who thought of the method. Sounds trivial now, but, then? It was genius.

I am something of a pyramidiot ( lol) I have been to I think 18. I happen to agree with the theory that the Great Pyramid was an all in one marker that encompasses or that is encompassed measurements that expressed everything they knew of the heavens the earth and mathematics incl. the closest they could get to the value of pi etc. The Greeks merely rediscovered what they already knew.

What are your thoughts regarding the theory of the pyramids being used as water pumps to irrigate the desert?

I'm told ancient texts describe Egypt as being much much greener back then.

 

[American Horse]

That far from it's sun, I wonder why it hasn't gravitated toward another solar system?...

Astronomers Discover ‘Widest’ Solar System
January 27, 2016 - Astronomers have discovered the largest solar system found so far.

A team of American, British and Australian astronomers says a planet known as 2MASS J212, once thought to be a “free-floating” or “lonely" planet, is actually in orbit about 1 trillion kilometers from its star. That is about 7,000 times farther than the Earth is from the sun, and 140 times larger than the orbit of dwarf planet Pluto. "The planet is not quite as lonely as we first thought, but it's certainly in a very long-distance relationship," said lead author Niall Deacon of the University of Hertfordshire in England.

An artist's impression of 2MASS J2126.​

At that distance, the planet orbits its star about once every 900,000 years, according to the astronomers. While it’s highly doubtful the planet hosts life, if it did, the residents would see their sun as just a “bright star” and “might not even imagine they were connected to it at all,” Deacon said.

First impression

2MASS J2126 was found eight years ago by U.S. researchers in an infrared sky survey, which caused them to classify it as young and likely of a relatively low mass. Later, Canadian researchers discovered the planet was “a possible member of a 45 million-year-old group of stars and brown dwarfs known as the Tucana Horologium Association.”

With this information, the astronomers were able to calculate that the planet had a mass of between 12 and 15 times that of Jupiter. “This is the widest planet system found so far, and both the members of it have been known for eight years,” Deacon said. “But nobody had made the link between the objects before.” While 2MASS J212 is not a lonely planet, several have been found in recent years. Most of them are gas giants like Jupiter that are just not massive enough to have ignited into shiny stars. The paper appears in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Astronomers Discover ‘Widest’ Solar System

Some quick calculations show that its speed in orbital velocity is about 1,160 fps or only 790 mph. By comparison earth's orbital velocity is 97,240 fps (18.4 mps) or 66,300 mph.

Which refers back to your comment: Its surprising that a passing star hasn't, in it's lifetime, perturbed it out of orbit around it's primary object.

The answer may lie in the relative youth of it's primary object out-lined in the following quote:
"The team then looked at the spectrum – the dispersed light – of the star to measure the strength of a feature caused by the element lithium. This is destroyed early on in a star's life so the more lithium it has, the younger it is. TYC 9486-927-1 has stronger signatures of lithium than a group of 45 million-year-old stars (the Tucana Horologium Association) but weaker signatures than a group of 10 million-year-old stars, implying an age between the two."

One could assume that in its case, a probable lifetime of less than 45 million years has been insufficient for that to have taken place.

 

[waltky]

So whacha sayin'?

Dey's lithium battery is keepin' it in place?

 

[beautress]

​

For the past two weeks NASA scientists and satellite data analysts have been working every day producing maps and damage assessments that can be used by disaster managers battling the Woolsey Fire near Los Angeles and the Camp Fire in Northern California. The agency-wide effort also deployed a research aircraft over the Woolsey Fire on Nov. 15 to identify burned areas at risk of mudslides in advance of winter rains expected in the area.

Spearheaded by NASA's Disasters Program in the Earth Science Division, the team produces a variety of data products largely derived from satellite observations, including maps showing the locations of active fires, damage caused by fires, and burned areas that are susceptible to landslides and mudslides.

These products are distributed to agencies working on the ground in California, including the state National Guard, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, the California Earthquake Clearinghouse and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

More pictures of the story: NASA Mobilizes to Aid California Fires Response​

 

[beautress]

Here's an updated map:

And there's a lot more to the story here: Updated NASA Damage Map of Camp Fire from Space​

 

[beautress]

There will be a report on Sunday, November 25, 2018 about the landing on Mars scheduled for Monday, November 26. More information here: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

 

[frigidweirdo]

That far from it's sun, I wonder why it hasn't gravitated toward another solar system?...

Astronomers Discover ‘Widest’ Solar System
January 27, 2016 - Astronomers have discovered the largest solar system found so far.

A team of American, British and Australian astronomers says a planet known as 2MASS J212, once thought to be a “free-floating” or “lonely" planet, is actually in orbit about 1 trillion kilometers from its star. That is about 7,000 times farther than the Earth is from the sun, and 140 times larger than the orbit of dwarf planet Pluto. "The planet is not quite as lonely as we first thought, but it's certainly in a very long-distance relationship," said lead author Niall Deacon of the University of Hertfordshire in England.

An artist's impression of 2MASS J2126.​

At that distance, the planet orbits its star about once every 900,000 years, according to the astronomers. While it’s highly doubtful the planet hosts life, if it did, the residents would see their sun as just a “bright star” and “might not even imagine they were connected to it at all,” Deacon said.

First impression

2MASS J2126 was found eight years ago by U.S. researchers in an infrared sky survey, which caused them to classify it as young and likely of a relatively low mass. Later, Canadian researchers discovered the planet was “a possible member of a 45 million-year-old group of stars and brown dwarfs known as the Tucana Horologium Association.”

With this information, the astronomers were able to calculate that the planet had a mass of between 12 and 15 times that of Jupiter. “This is the widest planet system found so far, and both the members of it have been known for eight years,” Deacon said. “But nobody had made the link between the objects before.” While 2MASS J212 is not a lonely planet, several have been found in recent years. Most of them are gas giants like Jupiter that are just not massive enough to have ignited into shiny stars. The paper appears in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Astronomers Discover ‘Widest’ Solar System

Maybe there isn't anything else there. Also the power of the sun it revolves around might have something to do with it.

It orbits TYC 9486-927-1 TYC 9486-927-1 - Wikipedia

I don't really understand the mass and velocity at these high figures. Here's the sun if you want to see whether this Red Dwarf is much stronger than the sun or not.

Sun - Wikipedia

 

[frigidweirdo]

Objects in space like planets are much more likely to collide if they orbit each other or orbit a common primary object. In our own solar system Venus doesn’t deserve to smash into anything, since it’s orbit is so perfectly circular.
But Mercury is not so well behaved. Its orbit – already the most lopsided – wildly changes shape. Influences from faraway Jupiter will eventually make its path so elliptical that it will swing out to Venus. Then those two worlds MAY collide.

interesting..what the timeline on that?

It's indefinite because Mercury's orbital plane wobbles taking it both N & S of the orbital plane of Venus. It could even miss Venus and approach a collision with Earth instead. If that path is followed and there's near-hit versus a direct hit with Earth, it could even be ejected by the slingshot effect from the solar system, that being the remotest likelihood.

Edit: I can see how Earth's diameter can be determined by those tools by taking measurements in two locations a known distance apart if they lay on a north/south line but I don't see the need for digging a hole in the ground unless it be to produce a leveling method for measuring a shadow on a plane.

well done you're close. they dug a measured hole, put a measured height at the lip,some think a truncated obelisk ( Mastaba?), the translation I saw surmised that anyway, they marked the time the hole swallowed its shadow, marked time, then marked the moment it swallowed its shadow again. The extrapolation from there is relatively simple.

I'd like to meet the man or woman who thought of the method. Sounds trivial now, but, then? It was genius.

I am something of a pyramidiot ( lol) I have been to I think 18. I happen to agree with the theory that the Great Pyramid was an all in one marker that encompasses or that is encompassed measurements that expressed everything they knew of the heavens the earth and mathematics incl. the closest they could get to the value of pi etc. The Greeks merely rediscovered what they already knew.

What are your thoughts regarding the theory of the pyramids being used as water pumps to irrigate the desert?

I'm told ancient texts describe Egypt as being much much greener back then.

Well, the Earth was probably colder back then, so more water would have stayed in the ground rather than burning up. I went to Egypt in April one year and threw up one morning from dehydration. Simply it's so hot even at night that you can dehydrate without enough water. (To put this into context I didn't throw up again for 17 years until I went to India and ate something bad).

That the most powerful countries on the planet now are more or less on a level with northern Europe, is hardly surprising. Back then northern Europe was cold and miserable. Spain, Portugal, before that the Romans, before that the Greeks and Egyptians. Going further south with time.