[neilep]

Moon Rays over Byurakan Observatory
Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN)


aaImage1.jpg (51.56 kB . 918x349 - viewed 8815 times) 7th, the first quarter Moon and passing clouds contributed to a dramatic night sky over the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory. This panoramic view begins at the left looking toward the eastern horizon and the rising stars of the constellation Perseus. Sweeping your gaze to the right (south), you'll find the large observatory dome, housing a 2.6 meter diameter telescope, backlit by lights from nearby Yerevan, capital city of Armenia. Fittingly poised above the observatory dome is the bright, giant star Enif in the high-flying constellation Pegasus. Farther to the right, the brightest celestial beacon just above the clouds is our Solar System's ruling gas giant Jupiter. At the far right, the Moon is nearly hidden by an approaching cloudbank, but the clouds themselves actually cast shadows in the bright moonlight, creating the effect of Moon rays across the evening sky.

[neilep]

Bright Bolide
Credit & Copyright: Howard Edin (Oklahoma City Astronomy Club)

Imae5r454ge1.jpg (42.89 kB . 730x549 - viewed 9380 times) a spectacular bolide or fireball meteor surprised a group of amateur astronomers enjoying dark night skies over the Oklahoma panhandle's Black Mesa State Park in the Midwestern US. Flashing past familiar constellations Taurus (top) and Orion, the extremely bright meteor was captured by a hillside camera overlooking the 2008 Okie-Tex Star Party. Astronomy enthusiast Howard Edin reports that he was looking in the opposite direction at the time, but saw the whole observing field light up and at first thought someone had turned on their car headlights. So far the sighting of a such a bright bolide meteor, produced as a space rock is vaporized hurtling through Earth's atmosphere, really is a matter of luck. But that could change. Earlier this week the discovery and follow-up tracking of tiny asteroid 2008 TC3 allowed astronomers to predict the time and location of its impact with the atmosphere. While no ground-based sightings of the fireball seem to have been reported, this first ever impact prediction was confirmed by at least some detections of an air burst and bright flash on October 7th over northern Sudan.

[neilep]

Irregular Galaxy NGC 55
Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler

Ima346536ge2.jpg (41.27 kB . 775x527 - viewed 8787 times)y NGC 55 is thought to be similar to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). But while the LMC is about 180,000 light-years away and is a well known satellite of our own Milky Way Galaxy, NGC 55 is more like 6 million light-years distant and is a member of the Sculptor Galaxy Group. Classified as an irregular galaxy, in deep exposures the LMC itself resembles a barred disk galaxy. However, spanning about 50,000 light-years, NGC 55 is seen nearly edge-on, presenting a flattened, narrow profile in contrast with our face-on view of the LMC. Just as large star forming regions create emission nebulae in the LMC, NGC 55 is also seen to be producing new stars. This gorgeous galaxy portrait highlights a bright core, telltale pinkish emission regions, and young blue star clusters in NGC 55.

[neilep]

 In the Center of the Lagoon Nebula


m8_sherick_big.jpg (720.31 kB . 1200x749 - viewed 5959 times)
e]Credit: A. Caulet (ST-ECF, ESA), NASA[/color][/b]

 The center of the Lagoon Nebula is a whirlwind of spectacular star formation. Visible on the upper left, at least two long funnel-shaped clouds, each roughly half a light-year long, have been formed by extreme stellar winds and intense energetic starlight. The tremendously bright nearby star, Hershel 36, lights the area. Vast walls of dust hide and redden other hot young stars. As energy from these stars pours into the cool dust and gas, large temperature differences in adjoining regions can be created generating shearing winds which may cause the funnels. This picture, spanning about 5 light years, was taken in 1995 by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. The Lagoon Nebula, also known as M8, lies about 5000 light years distant toward the constellation of Sagittarius.

[neilep]

 Great Orion Nebulae
Credit & Copyright: Tony Hallas


Im45544yage1.jpg (77.13 kB . 746x522 - viewed 9342 times)ula in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the most famous nebulae in the sky. The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars are on the right in this sharp and colorful two frame mosaic that includes the smaller nebula M43 near center and dusty, bluish reflection nebulae NGC 1977 and friends on the left. Located at the edge of an otherwise invisible giant molecular cloud complex, these eye-catching nebulae represent only a small fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of interstellar material. Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous infant solar systems. The gorgeous skyscape spans nearly two degrees or about 45 light-years at the Orion Nebula's estimated distance of 1,500 light-years.

[neilep]

NGC 602 and Beyond
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA) - ESA/Hubble Collaboration


I345353mage1.jpg (81.58 kB . 704x529 - viewed 14041 times)irts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young star cluster NGC 602. Surrounded by natal gas and dust, NGC 602 is featured in this stunning Hubble image of the region. Fantastic ridges and swept back shapes strongly suggest that energetic radiation and shock waves from NGC 602's massive young stars have eroded the dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation moving away from the cluster's center. At the estimated distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the picture spans about 200 light-years, but a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in the sharp Hubble view. The background galaxies are hundreds of millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602.

[neilep]

Massive Stars in Open Cluster Pismis 24
Credit:NASA, ESA and J. M. Apellániz (IAA, Spain)



ngc6357a_hst_big.jpg (111.67 kB . 640x1030 - viewed 8756 times)

How massive can a normal star be? Estimates made from distance, brightness and standard solar models had given one star in the open cluster Pismis 24 over 200 times the mass of our Sun, making it a record holder. This star is the brightest object located just above the gas front in the above image. Close inspection of images taken recently with the Hubble Space Telescope, however, have shown that Pismis 24-1 derives its brilliant luminosity not from a single star but from three at least. Component stars would still remain near 100 solar masses, making them among the more massive stars currently on record. Toward the bottom of the image, stars are still forming in the associated emission nebula NGC 6357, including several that appear to be breaking out and illuminating a spectacular cocoon.

[neilep]

A Witch by Starlight
Credit & Copyright: Star Shadows Remote Observatory
(Steve Mazlin, Jack Harvey, Rick Gilbert, Teri Smoot, Daniel Verschatse)



whichImage1.jpg (102.05 kB . 793x528 - viewed 9151 times)his eerie visage shines in the dark, a crooked profile evoking its popular name, the Witch Head Nebula. In fact, this entrancing telescopic portrait gives the impression the witch has fixed her gaze on Orion's bright supergiant star Rigel. Spanning over 50 light-years, the dusty cosmic cloud strongly reflects nearby Rigel's blue light, giving it the characteristic color of a reflection nebula. Cataloged as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula is about 1,000 light-years away. Of course, you might see a witch this scary tonight, but don't panic. Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

[neilep]

A Working Brain Model




blue_brain.jpg (104.1 kB . 384x544 - viewed 8591 times)A representation of a mammalian neocortical column,
 the basic building block of the cortex. The representation
 shows the complexity of this part of the brain, which has
 now been modeled using a supercomputer. Credit: BBP/EPFL[/b][/color]
 
Blue Brain could soon let us do neuroscience in silico

By Duncan Graham-Rowe
MIT Technology Review,

Here for more http://www.andyross.net/blue_brain.htm



An ambitious project to create an accurate computer model of the brain has reached an impressive milestone. Scientists in Switzerland working with IBM researchers have shown that their computer simulation of the neocortical column, arguably the most complex part of a mammal's brain, appears to behave like its biological counterpart.

The project began with the initial goal of modeling the 10,000 neurons and 30 million synaptic connections that make up a rat's neocortical column, the main building block of a mammal's cortex. The neocortical column was chosen as a starting point because it is widely recognized as being particularly complex.

The model itself is based on 15 years' worth of experimental data on neuronal morphology, gene expression, ion channels, synaptic connectivity, and electrophysiological recordings of the neocortical columns of rats. Software tools were developed to reconstruct accurate 3D models of neurons and their interconnections.

The neuronal circuits were tested by simulating specific input stimuli and seeing how the circuits behaved, compared with those in biological experiments. Where gaps in knowledge appeared about how parts of the model were supposed to behave, the scientists went back to the lab and performed experiments.

The level of detail of the model can be taken further. It is still at a cellular level, but the scientists want to look at the molecular level. Doing so would enable simulation-based drug testing to be carried out by showing how specific molecules affect proteins, receptors, and enzymes.
 

[neilep]

Radar Indicates Buried Glaciers on Mars
Data Reconstruction Credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech/UTA/UA/MSSS/ESA/DLR/JPL Solar System Visualization Project




glacialcraters_mro.jpg (93.77 kB . 800x600 - viewed 8818 times)d this unusual terrain on Mars? The floors of several mid-latitude craters in Hellas Basin on Mars appear unusually grooved, flat, and shallow. New radar images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter bolster an exciting hypothesis: huge glaciers of buried ice. Evidence indicates that such glaciers cover an area larger than a city and extend as much as a kilometer deep. The ice would have been kept from evaporating into the thin Martian air by a covering of dirt. If true, this would indicate the largest volume of water ice outside of the Martian poles, much larger than the frozen puddles recently discovered by the Phoenix lander. Such lake-sized ice blocks located so close to the Martian equator might make a good drinking reservoir for future astronauts exploring Mars. How the glaciers originally formed remains a mystery. In the meantime, before packing up to explore Mars, please take a moment to suggest a name for NASA's next Martian rover.

[neilep]

In the Vicinity of the Cone Nebula
Credit & Copyright: T. A. Rector (NRAO), NOAO, AURA, NSF



coneregion_noao.jpg (96.61 kB . 792x528 - viewed 8431 times)es and textures can be found in neighborhood of the Cone Nebula. The unusual shapes originate from fine interstellar dust reacting in complex ways with the energetic light and hot gas being expelled by the young stars. The brightest star on the right of the above picture is S Mon, while the region just above it has been nicknamed the Fox Fur Nebula for its color and structure. The blue glow directly surrounding S Mon results from reflection, where neighboring dust reflects light from the bright star. The orange glow that encompasses the whole region results not only from dust reflection but also emission from hydrogen gas ionized by starlight. S Mon is part of a young open cluster of stars named NGC 2264, located about 2500 light years away toward the constellation of Monoceros. The origin of the mysterious geometric Cone Nebula, visible on the far left, remains a mystery.

[Bikerman]

Some quality pics of the Antarctic here
http://www.leenks.com/link132921.html

[neilep]

Some quality pics of the Antarctic here
http://www.leenks.com/link132921.html

I just looked at every single one !

Imposing and Sensational Photos !...I'd love to go there.

[rosalind dna]

Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar 2008, the Astronomical Photos are beautiful. I think.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/hubble_space_telescope_advent.html

[neilep]

18 Billion Suns -Biggest Black Hole in Universe Discovered—and it’s BIG! A Galaxy Classic


black_hole_big_2_3.jpg (81.99 kB . 800x800 - viewed 8749 times)



Whatever gave birth to this monster can be real proud. The biggest black hole in the universe weighs in with a respectable mass of 18 billion Suns, and is about the size of an entire galaxy. Just like in the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito flick “Twins”, the massive black hole has a puny twin hovering nearby. By observing the orbit of the smaller black hole, astronomers are able to test Einstein's theory of general relativity with stronger gravitational fields than ever before.

The biggest black hole beats out its nearest competitor by six times. Fortunately, it’s 3.5 billion light years away, forming the heart of a quasar called OJ287. Quasars are extremely bright objects in which matter spiraling into a giant black hole emits large amounts of radiation.

The smaller black hole, which weighs about 100 million Suns, orbits the larger one on an oval-shaped path every 12 years. It comes close enough to punch through the disc of matter surrounding the larger black hole twice each orbit, causing a pair of outbursts that make OJ287 suddenly brighten.

General relativity predicts that the smaller hole's orbit itself should rotate over time, so that the point at which it comes nearest its neighbor moves around in space. This effect  is seen in Mercury's orbit around the Sun, on a much smaller scale.

In the case of OJ287, the tremendous gravitational field of the larger black hole causes the smaller black hole's orbit to precess at an impressive 39° each orbit. The precession changes where and when the smaller hole crashes through the disc surrounding its larger sibling.

About a dozen of the resulting bright outbursts have been observed to date, and astronomers led by Mauri Valtonen of Tuorla Observatory in Finland have analysed them to measure the precession rate of the smaller hole's orbit. That, along with the period of the orbit, suggests the larger black hole weighs a record 18 billion Suns.

So just how big can these bad boys get? Craig Wheeler of the University of Texas in Austin, US, says it depends only on how long a black hole has been around and how fast it has swallowed matter in order to grow. "There is no theoretical upper limit," he says.

The most recent outburst occurred on 13 September 2007, as predicted by general relativity. "If there was no orbital decay, the outburst would have been 20 days later than when it actually happened," Valtonen told New Scientist, adding that the black holes are on track to merge within 10,000 years.

Wheeler says the observations of the outbursts fit closely with the expectations from general relativity. "The fact that you can fit Einstein's theory [so well] ... is telling you that that's working," he says.


SOURCE:http://www.dailygalaxy.com

[neilep]

Dark energy’s galactic stranglehold seen


BY KULVINDER SINGH CHADHA

ASTRONOMY NOW


Posted: 19 December, 2008

It dominates the Universe, accounting for 74 percent of its energy density. The mysterious, space-stretching force known as dark energy, which is accelerating the expansion of the Universe, could also be inhibiting the development of galaxies.


In a study that has taken years to complete, astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory have seen that something is stifling the growth of galaxy clusters. The crucial thing about Chandra’s data is that it is independent of previous dark energy studies that have made use of supernovae. It means that there is a real phenomenon occurring that isn’t an artefact of observational techniques. Research team leader Dr Alexey Vikhlinin of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory likens the effect to an ‘arrested development’ of the Universe.



081219dm1.jpg (33.12 kB . 398x286 - viewed 8416 times)
Snapshots from a simulation representing the
growth of cosmic structure when the Universe
was 0.9, 3.2 and 13.7 billion years old (now)
, from a smooth state to one with structure.
 Image: MPE/V.Springel.


Dark energy is in competition with the gravitational force, because unlike gravity, dark energy is repulsive. Invisible dark matter, which is known to constitute around 95 percent of the Universe’s mass, is responsible for much of this gravity. But on the largest scales dark energy appears to win out, hence the observed acceleration of an already expanding Universe (something which was well-known). But why should this repulsion inhibit the growth of galaxy clusters, the most massive collapsed objects in the Universe?


At a NASA press conference on 16 December, Vikhlinin’s colleague Dr William Forman says, “Structures [galaxy clusters] grow from very weak fluctuations present in the beginning of the Universe, and which can be seen in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. Gravity slows the expansion of the Universe and amplifies these very small fluctuations so that they grow to form the galaxy clusters we see so prominently in the X-ray images.” Forman adds that the scale of the new observations is around 100 million light years. This is the scale where the effect of dark energy becomes important. When the Universe entered and accelerated expansion phase eight billion years ago, the dominance of dark energy slowed structure growth significantly.



081219dm2.jpg (45.08 kB . 398x390 - viewed 8414 times)
Galaxy cluster Abell 85 is one of 86 clusters
 observed by Chandra to trace how dark energy
has stifled the growth of massive structures
over the last 7 billion years. Image:
 SDSS/NASA/CXC/SAO/A.Vikhlinin et al.


The reason that X-ray observations are used is because the bulk of the normal mass (i.e. not dark matter) of the cluster is in the form of high-temperature, diffuse, intergalactic gas. This is straightforward to see in X-rays and has the advantage of being bright, thus observable at great distances. And this property was particularly helpful to Vikhlinin’s team. By looking at galactic clusters at different distances, Vikhlin’s team were able to observe structure growth at different epochs of the Universe’s development. What they found corroborated well with accelerating and decelerating phases in the Universe’s history.


But this is just a tentative first step towards unravelling the mystery of dark energy. Its exact nature is still a matter of speculation. Could it be the famed cosmological constant predicted by Einstein (the inherent energy of space itself)? Or, does Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, which describes gravitation, need to be revised on these large scales? Could it be something else entirely? Will we ever truly know?


Forman ends on an upbeat note, quoting American physicist John Wheeler: “Mass tells space how to curve, and space tells mass how to behave. With supernovae data, we’ve seen how mass curves space, and with our results, we can now see how space tells matter to behave.”

SOURCE:SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM

[neilep]

Jupiter's largest moon caught going to 'dark side'
SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE NEWS RELEASE


NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught Jupiter's moon Ganymede playing a game of "peek-a-boo." In this crisp Hubble image, Ganymede is shown just before it ducks behind the giant planet.


hs-2008-42-a-large_web.jpg (102.41 kB . 800x549 - viewed 8477 times)
Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Karkoschka (University of Arizona)

 
 
Ganymede completes an orbit around Jupiter every seven days. Because Ganymede's orbit is tilted nearly edge-on to Earth, it routinely can be seen passing in front of and disappearing behind its giant host, only to reemerge later.

Composed of rock and ice, Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system. It is even larger than the planet Mercury. But Ganymede looks like a dirty snowball next to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiter is so big that only part of its Southern Hemisphere can be seen in this image.

Hubble's view is so sharp that astronomers can see features on Ganymede's surface, most notably the white impact crater, Tros, and its system of rays, bright streaks of material blasted from the crater. Tros and its ray system are roughly the width of Arizona.

The image also shows Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the large eye-shaped feature at upper left. A storm the size of two Earths, the Great Red Spot has been raging for more than 300 years. Hubble's sharp view of the gas giant planet also reveals the texture of the clouds in the Jovian atmosphere as well as various other storms and vortices.

Source:spaceflightnow.com

[neilep]

The Galactic Core in Infrared
Credit: Hubble: NASA, ESA, & D. Q. Wang (U. Mass, Amherst); Spitzer: NASA, JPL, & S. Stolovy (SSC/Caltech)



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WOW !!..awesome big pig piccy right here !!



 What's happening at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy? To help find out, the orbiting Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have combined their efforts to survey the region in unprecedented detail in infrared light. Infrared light is particularly useful for probing the Milky Way's center because visible light is more greatly obscured by dust. The above image encompasses over 2,000 images from the Hubble Space Telescope's NICMOS taken last year. The image spans 300 by 115 light years with such high resolution that structures only 20 times the size of our own Solar System are discernable. Clouds of glowing gas and dark dust as well as three large star clusters are visible. Magnetic fields may be channeling plasma along the upper left near the Arches Cluster, while energetic stellar winds are carving pillars near the Quintuplet Cluster on the lower left. The massive Central Cluster of stars surrounding Sagittarius A* is visible on the lower right. Why several central, bright, massive stars appear to be unassociated with these star clusters is not yet understood.

[neilep]

Orion's Belt
Credit & Copyright: Martin Mutti, Astronomical Image Data Archive



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BIGGY PICCY HERE

Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, are the bright bluish stars from east to west (left to right) along the diagonal in this gorgeous cosmic vista. Otherwise known as the Belt of Orion, these three blue supergiant stars are hotter and much more massive than the Sun. They lie about 1,500 light-years away, born of Orion's well-studied interstellar clouds. In fact, clouds of gas and dust adrift in this region have intriguing and some surprisingly familiar shapes, including the dark Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula near Alnitak at the lower left. The famous Orion Nebula itself lies off the bottom of this star field that covers about 4.5x3.5 degrees on the sky. This image was taken last month with a digital camera attached to a small telescope in Switzerland, and better matches human color perception than a more detailed composite taken over 15 years ago.

[neilep]

Planck Probe To Record the Very Echoes of Creation



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Blue Lagoon Nebula !




Probing the very earliest available evidence of the universe as we know it has already netted a Nobel Prize, but if you understand science at all you know that that's just the beginning.  In April the Planck satellite will start recording the very echoes of creation, and that's such a big picture the teams have spent ten years just getting ready to look at the data.

Huge statistical analysis at two data centers (one in Paris and one one in Trieste) are needed to extract information from the data the Planck will receive, and when they practice the take it seriously.  As in "The Max Planck institute spending a decade developing software to simulate virtual universes as test cases" serious, which is more seriously than a heart surgeon operating on his firstborn son.

These test cases are versions of the cosmic microwave background, the earliest available information in existence.  The universe is thought to have been around for a few hundred thousand years before that, but as it was opaque to radiation nothing survived to echo. Accurate information from the instant it all became transparent, expanding rapidly into the reality we now know (as far as we know now) could make or break many theories of how it all got going.

As well as studying the effects of inflation (or not) on the beginning of the universe, Plank will also gather data on "secondary anisotropies" - or as you might know them, galactic clusters.  This thing looks at a question so big, a trillion suns is a side-effect.