[neilep]

 
Atlas 5 launches Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

The first interplanetary Atlas 5 rocket launches August 12 at 7:43
a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 to propel NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter on its seven-month voyage to the Red Planet.

 


Photo: Patrick H. Corkery & Adam Mattivi/Lockheed Martin
 


Photo: Patrick H. Corkery & Adam Mattivi/Lockheed Martin
 



Photo: Patrick H. Corkery & Adam Mattivi/Lockheed Martin



Photo: Ben Cooper/Spaceflight Now




SOURCE: SPACFLIGHTNOW.com

[neilep]

Hubble pinpoints doomed star that exploded
SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE NEWS RELEASE


Amidst the glitter of billions of stars in the majestic spiral galaxy called the Whirlpool
 (M51), a massive star abruptly ends its life in a brilliant flash of light. NASA's Hubble
Space Telescope snapped images of the exploding star, called supernova (SN) 2005cs, 12
days after its discovery. Astronomers then compared those photos with Hubble images of the
same region before the supernova blast to pinpoint the progenitor star (the star that exploded).
 

Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Li and A. Filippenko (University
 of California, Berkeley), S. Van Dyk (Spitzer Science Center,
Caltech), S. Beckwith (STScI), and The Hubble Heritage Team
(STScI/AURA)
Download a larger image here

The color image at left shows a section of M51 taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera
for Surveys. The small green square marks the region where the progenitor star resides.
 The lower-right image shows a picture of SN 2005cs (the central bright object), taken
July 11, 2005, by Hubble. By comparing the lower-right image with the color image at left,
astronomers identified the supernova's progenitor star [marked by the arrow in the (pre-explosion)
upper-right image]. The star was found to be a red supergiant whose mass is about seven to 10 times
that of the Sun.

Every second, a star somewhere in the universe explodes as a supernova. Astronomers
 cannot see every supernova. Of the supernovas astronomers have seen, only six progenitor
stars have been identified. Since Hubble can easily resolve stars in nearby galaxies, such as
the Whirlpool, it allowed astronomers to track down the exploding star's identity in archival pictures.


SOURCE: SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM

[neilep]

Galactic survey reveals a new look for the Milky Way

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON NEWS RELEASE


With the help of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have conducted the most comprehensive
 structural analysis of our galaxy and have found tantalizing new evidence that the Milky Way is
much different from your ordinary spiral galaxy.







The Milky Way, it turns out, is no ordinary spiral
 galaxy. According to a massive new survey of stars at the heart of
the galaxy by Wisconsin astronomers the Milky Way has a definitive
bar feature -- some 27,000 light years in length -- that
distinguishes it from pedestrian spiral galaxies, as shown in this
artist's rendering. Illustration courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt
(SSC/Caltech)


The survey using the orbiting infrared telescope provides the fine details of a long central bar
 feature that distinguishes the Milky Way from more pedestrian spiral galaxies.


"This is the best evidence ever for this long central bar in our galaxy," says Ed Churchwell,
a UW-Madison professor of astronomy and a senior author of a paper describing the new work in an
upcoming edition of Astrophysical Journal Letters, a leading astronomy journal.


Using the orbiting infrared telescope, the group of astronomers surveyed some 30 million stars
 in the plane of the galaxy in an effort to build a detailed portrait of the inner regions
of the Milky Way. The task, according to Churchwell, is like trying to describe the boundaries of
a forest from a vantage point deep within the woods: "This is hard to do from within the galaxy."

Spitzer's capabilities, however, helped the astronomers cut through obscuring clouds of interstellar
 dust to gather infrared starlight from tens of millions of stars at the center of the galaxy.
The new survey gives the most detailed picture to date of the inner regions of the Milky Way.


SOURCE: SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM

[neilep]

Meteor dust could affect climate, study suggests


This November 2000 NASA image shows a meteor streaking
across the sky. A space boulder that disintegrated in a fiery
descent over Antarctica last year has sparked a theory that meteor
dust may play a hidden role in our climate system.(AFP/NASA/File)

PARIS (AFP) - A space boulder that disintegrated in a fiery descent over Antarctica last year has sparked
 a theory that meteor dust may play a hidden role in our climate system.

 
The rock, estimated at 1,000 tonnes, entered the upper atmosphere above Antarctica last September 3,
 becoming a fireball spotted by the infrared eyes of US defence satellites, a study published on
 Thursday says.

Friction with air molecules stripped away the rock, transforming it into a cloud of dust that
 trailed from 56 to 18 kilometers (35 to 11 miles) in altitude. The rock was consumed in the plunge.

Closer inspection of the lingering cloud, using instruments at an Antarctic ground station, suggests
its particles were as large as 20 microns (20 millionths of a metre) -- around a thousand
times bigger than previous estimates for the size of meteor debris.

The finding is significant, because large quantities of dust are dumped in Earth's atmosphere
 from tiny pieces of asteroid rubble or debris left by passing comets, although no-one
knows for sure how much is deposited.

Previous research has already shown that particles which are larger than one micron, spewed out
by volcanoes, can play a crucial role in affecting weather.

Their relatively large size helps them to reflect the Sun's rays, thus creating a local
 cooling effect, and also provides a nucleus for attracting atmospheric moisture
 -- they encourage clouds to form.

In addition, large particles tend to linger longest in the atmosphere, sometimes
taking months to reach the planet's surface.

Space dust is mostly deposited by rubble that is consumed in the fiery descent.
 To the human eye, the event is visible as a reddish-golden streak, a meteor, that may
also leave a smoke-like trail.


SOURCE: AFP Via YAHOO NEWS

[neilep]

A Chinese dragon and a knotted galactic embrace
GEMINI OBSERVATORY NEWS RELEASE


The Gemini Observatory has released a pair of images that capture the dynamics of two very
different interactions in space. One is a cold, dark dust cloud that resembles an ethereal-looking
Chinese dragon. The other shows a distant duo of galaxies locked in a knot-like embrace that
could portend the long-term future of our own Milky Way galaxy.




NGC 6559 is part of a larger star-forming region in the southern
constellation Sagittarius. The dark structure that resembles a
Chinese dragon is caused by cool dust that absorbs background
radiation from hydrogen gas that glows in red light due to
ionization from nearby stars. This region lies less than one degree
away from the popular Lagoon Nebula (M8), and is located some 5,000
light-years away toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. At this
distance the length of the cloud (diagonally across the image) is
about 7 light-years. Credit: Gemini Observatory
Download larger image version here

The processes shown in these views occur on a tremendous range of size scales. NGC 6559 is a
relatively small, nearby dust cloud in our Milky Way galaxy that measures about seven light-years across,
while NGC 520 features two completely entwined galaxies that stretch across 150,000 light-years.
While both images hint at how dynamic and active these objects can be, their evolution occurs on
astronomical timescales. According to Ian Robson, Director of the UK's Astronomy Technology Center,
"If we could see either of these objects as an extreme time-lapse movie made over millions of years,
 the galaxy pair would dance in a graceful orbital embrace that is likely similar to the fate between
 our Milky Way and the great Andromeda Galaxy, while the dusty cloud would probably resemble waving
 smoke from an extinguished candle."







NGC 520 has a unique shape that is the result of two galaxies
colliding with each other. One galaxy's dust lane can be seen easily
 in the foreground and a distinct tail is visible at bottom center.
 These features are a result of the gravitational interactions that
have robbed both of the galaxies of their original shapes. Some
astronomers speculate that each member of the pair was originally
similar to the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy. This collision could
 be providing us a glimpse at what might happen to our own galaxy in
 about five billion years as the Andromeda Galaxy collides with our
 Milky Way. Credit: Gemini Observatory
Download larger image version here

SOURCE: SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM



Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[neilep]

Instant River Outside My House !





This is what happens when I finally cleared my loo blockage

When I came home earlier today this is what I found !..I had the
kids in the car with me and I of course just had to drive through it
[][]....I didn't need to but I wanted to.....Yea !! []....my
neighbours were standing on the opposite side and were worried that
 it was going to reach their house....when I drove through it I made
a really big splash and soaked their driveway [][]....it was
embarassing because I had to turn around and go through it again to
get back to my house !!![][][]......for some reason they
weren't in their driveway when I came back !!!


SOURCE: ME !

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[neilep]

quote:Originally posted by neilep

Instant River Outside My House !





This is what happens when I finally cleared my loo blockage

When I came home earlier today this is what I found !..I had the
kids in the car with me and I of course just had to drive through it
[][]....I didn't need to but I wanted to.....Yea !! []....my
neighbours were standing on the opposite side and were worried that
 it was going to reach their house....when I drove through it I made
a really big splash and soaked their driveway [][]....it was
embarassing because I had to turn around and go through it again to
get back to my house !!![][][]......for some reason they
weren't in their driveway when I came back !!!


SOURCE: ME !

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

CAT SAYS  " YOU WILL NOT USE ME TO SPONGE UP RIVER "


Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[neilep]

Probe begins daring close encounter with asteroid
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW


A $100 million Japanese space explorer parked in the vicinity of an
enigmatic asteroid this week, allowing scientists to get a first
 glimpse of the mid-sized rock that will become the source of the
first samples of such an object to ever be returned to Earth.






WOOSH !!
An artist's concept shows the Hayabusa
nearing its asteroid target.
Credit: JAXA

After methodically tweaking its course - first by electrical ion
propulsion, then by conventional chemical thrusters - toward its
target over the past few months, the Hayabusa probe finally arrived
at its station keeping position some 12 miles from the asteroid
early Monday




Hmmmm !!...Looks like a cheesy Wotsit !!
 Images from
Hayabusa are revealing what the asteroid Itokawa looks like.
 Credit: JAXA

Hayabusa will deploy a tiny 1.3-pound rover known as MINERVA, which
will leap, hop, and jump across the surface in the extreme low-
gravity environment. MINERVA carries three stereo cameras for
pictures, and a suite of six thermometers to measure temperatures

Ahhhhhh !!..aint that cute !!


SOURCE: SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM
 



Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[neilep]

Treadmill Arrives for Alaska's Elephant



In this photo released by the Alaska Zoo, workers at the Alaska Zoo
in Anchorage, Alaska, install what is believed to be the world's
first elephant treadmill, Monday, Sept. 12, 2005. John Seawell,
elephant house project manager, says the conveyer belt reaches
speeds of up to eight miles-per-hour. Zoo officials hope to get
Maggie, the zoo's elephant, walking on the treadmill at least two
hours a day. Seawell says he and the other trainers have not worked
out how they will persuade the elephant to usethe treadmill.

(AP Photo/Courtesy of The Alaska Zoo, John Gomes)

SOURCE: AP Via YAHOO NEWS

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[ukmicky]

Blackhole with no home




Astronomers have observed what appears to be a quasar floating all by its lonesome in space. If confirmed, it would be the first instance of a quasar – and therefore a black hole – without a surrounding galaxy.

Quasars are extremely bright light emissions from super-massive black holes, caused when gas is drawn in by a hole’s enormous gravity. The process heats the gas to extreme temperatures, creating brilliance observable from Earth.

The new discovery raises questions about whether super-massive black holes could form before galaxies and whether a halo of dark matter around a black hole could spark a quasar.

Using the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, an international team examined 20 quasars and found that quasar HE0450-2958 did not appear to have a galaxy surrounding it.



Massive collision
Magain's team did find a distorted galaxy nearby that was rapidly forming stars. They also saw a "blob" of gas floating nearby. This gas is probably feeding the black hole, enabling it to become a quasar, they believe.

The existence of these two unusual objects near the quasar could have been associated with a massive collision 100 million years ago. The black hole could have captured the blob of gas from the neighbouring galaxy as it was slowly passing by, resulting in the ignition of the quasar. But that fails to explain what happened to the quasar’s original host galaxy.

One of Magain's favoured explanations for the appearance of the lone quasar is that it may actually be surrounded by a halo of dark matter, invisible to telescopes.

"It's a logical possibility – you could have a dark object made only of dark matter," says Abraham Loeb, an astronomer at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, who was not involved with the observations. "It could be that for some reason the black hole was created at the middle of such an object. But it’s very unlikely."
FULL ARTICLE
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn7997-orphaned-quasar-seeks-galaxy-to-call-home.html
original article from
the Newscientistspace.com

[neilep]

<font size="5">Cassini radar shows dramatic shoreline on Titan</font id="size5">

NASA/JPL NEWS RELEASE


Images returned during Cassini's recent flyby of Titan show
captivating evidence of what appears to be a large shoreline cutting
across the smoggy moon's southern hemisphere. Hints that this area
was once wet, or currently has liquid present, are evident




<font color="blue"><font size="1">Radar image of Titan showing that the boundary of the
 bright (rough) region and the dark (smooth) region appears to be a
shoreline. Credit: NASA/JPL
Download larger image version here</font id="size1"></font id="blue">




<font color="blue"><font size="1">This bright terrain is cut by channels that are variable in
width; they form both radial and branching networks. Such patterns are reminiscent
 of networks formed by rainfall on Earth. Credit:
 NASA/JPL
Download larger image version here</font id="size1"></font id="blue">

<font size="4">SOURCE:SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM</font id="size4">




Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[neilep]

<font size="4">Mysterious disk of blue stars found around a black hole</font id="size4">

HUBBLE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY INFORMATION CENTRE RELEASE

Posted: September 20, 2005

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have
identified the source of a mysterious blue light surrounding a
supermassive black hole in our neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy (M31).
 Though the light has puzzled astronomers for more than a decade,
the new discovery makes the story even more mysterious



Photo Credit for image at left: ©2002, R. Gendler, Photo by Robert
Gendler; Credits for image at upper, right: NASA, ESA and T. Lauer
(NOAO/AURA/NSF); Credits for illustration at lower, right: NASA, ESA
 and A. Feild (STScI)

Download larger image version[url=http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2005/26/images/a/formats/print.jpg] here]

Photo Credit for image at left: ©2002, R. Gendler, Photo by Robert
Gendler; Credits for image at upper, right: NASA, ESA and T. Lauer
(NOAO/AURA/NSF); Credits for illustration at lower, right: NASA, ESA
 and A. Feild (STScI)

Download larger image version here
 
The blue light is coming from a disk of hot, young stars. These
 stars are whipping around the black hole in much the same way as
planets in our solar system are revolving around the Sun.
Astronomers are perplexed about how the pancake-shaped disk of stars
 could form so close to a giant black hole. In such a hostile
environment, the black hole's tidal forces should tear matter apart,
making it difficult for gas and dust to collapse and form stars. The
observations, astronomers say, may provide clues to the activities
in the cores of more distant galaxies.


By finding the disk of stars, astronomers also have collected what
they say is ironclad evidence for the existence of the monster black
hole. The evidence has helped astronomers rule out all alternative
theories for the dark mass in the Andromeda Galaxy's core, which
scientists have long suspected was a black hole.


<font size="5">
Hubble Probes Strange Blue Light</font id="size5">

Astronomer Ivan King of the University of Washington and colleagues
first spotted the strange blue light in 1995 with the Hubble Space
Telescope. He thought the light might have come from a single,
bright blue star or perhaps from a more exotic energetic process.
Three years later, Lauer and Sandra Faber of the University of
California at Santa Cruz used Hubble again to study the blue light.
Their observations indicated that the blue light was a cluster of
blue stars.


Now, new spectroscopic observations by Hubble's Space Telescope
Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) reveal that the blue light consists of
more than 400 stars that formed in a burst of activity about 200
million years ago. The stars are tightly packed in a disk that is
only a light-year across. The disk is nested inside an elliptical
ring of older, cooler, redder stars, which was seen in previous
Hubble observations.


<font color="blue"><font size="4">SOURCE: SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM</font id="size4"></font id="blue">

[neilep]

<font size="4">Washington Plans Exhibit for Baby Panda </font id="size4">



<font size="1">The 10-week-old male giant panda cub at the Smithsonian's National
 Zoo sits in a container after he received his sixth health exam at
 the Washington Zoo, September 19, 2005. The cub, born on July 9,
 now weighs 9.57 pounds (4.3 kg) and is 22.51 inches long. The cub
 and his parents live at the zoo's Giant Panda Habitat</font id="size1">
PHOTO: REUTERS

WASHINGTON - The National Zoo hopes to put its giant panda cub on
exhibit sometime in November.

 
The Panda House was closed shortly before first-time mother Mei
Xiang gave birth to the male cub on July 9. The public can still see
her mate, Tian Tian, in his yard, and Mei Xiang sometimes ventures
outside as well.


Zoo officials will set a date for reopening the exhibit after
keepers determine how Mei Xiang adjusts to the additional noise and
traffic, zoo spokeswoman Peper Long said in a story in Thursday's
 Washington Post.


Zoo officials plan to deal with the expected crush of visitors by
giving out timed admission tickets.


The cub will be named before it meets the public. Visitors to the
zoo's Web site have cast about 143,000 votes in a naming contest
that ends Sept. 30. Officials will announce the winning name Oct. 17.


The giant panda cub is the first at the zoo to survive more than a
few days. He now weighs about 10 pounds, measures nearly two feet
from head to tail and is beginning to crawl in circles but hasn't
started to walk.

SOURCE: REUTERS VIA YAHOO NEWS

[neilep]

<font size="4">Scientists find mature galaxy eight times larger than Milky Way </font id="size4">


<font size="1">Composite of visible-light (Hubble) and infraed (Spitzer)
images of the distant galaxy HUDF-JD2 in the Hubble Deep Ultra Field.
(AFP/NASA/ESA) </font id="size1">


WASHINGTON (AFP) - US astronomers said they had found a vast, mature
 galaxy using     NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes.

They were particularly impressed by the fact stars seemed to have
been formed in the galaxy.

"This is truly a significant object," says Richard Ellis, of the
California Institute of Technology and a member of the discovery
team.


"Although we are looking back to when the universe was only six
percent of its present age, this galaxy has already built up a mass
 in stars eight times that of the Milky Way."

He said the fact such a galaxy had already completed its star
formation "implies a yet earlier period of intense activity."


"It's like crossing the ocean and meeting a lone seagull, a
forerunner of land ahead. There is now every reason to search beyond
 this object for the cosmic dawn when the first such systems
switched on," he said.

Though astronomers generally believe most galaxies were built up by
 mergers of smaller galaxies, the new discovery suggests that at
least a few galaxies formed quickly and wholly long ago. For such a
 large galaxy, this would have been a vastly explosive star birth
event.

SOURCE: AFP via YAHOO NEWS.

[neilep]

<font size="5">Amazing pictures of Saturn's spongy moon Hyperion</font id="size5">
CASSINI PHOTO RELEASE





<font size="1"><font color="blue">Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Download larger image version here</font id="blue"></font id="size1">

This stunning false-color view of Saturn's moon Hyperion reveals
crisp details across the strange, tumbling moon's surface.
Differences in color could represent differences in the composition
of surface materials. The view was obtained during Cassini's close
flyby on Sept. 26, 2005.


Hyperion has a notably reddish tint when viewed in natural color.
 The red color was toned down in this false-color view, and the
other hues were enhanced, in order to make more subtle color
variations across Hyperion's surface more apparent.


Images taken using infrared, green and ultraviolet spectral filters
were combined to create this view. The images were taken with the
Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera at a distance of
approximately 62,000 kilometers (38,500 miles) from Hyperion and at
a Sun-Hyperion-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 52 degrees. The image
scale is 362 meters (1,200 feet) per pixel.





Well big piccy
here

This high-resolution Cassini mosaic shows that Hyperion truly has a
surface different from any other in the Saturn system.




The mosaic is composed of five clear filter images taken during
Cassini's close flyby of Hyperion on Sept. 26, 2005. The spacecraft
 passed approximately 500 kilometers (310 miles) above the moon's
surface. Hyperion is 266 kilometers (165 miles) in diameter.

Scientists are extremely curious to learn what the dark material is
that fills many craters on this oddball moon. Features within the
dark terrain, including a 200-meter-wide (650-foot) impact crater
surrounded by rays to the right of center and numerous bright-rimmed
craters, indicate that the dark material may be only tens of meters
(hundreds of feet) thick with brighter material beneath.


SOURCE: SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM

[neilep]

<font size="5">New optics produce ultrasharp images of sunspot</font id="size5">

NATIONAL SOLAR OBSERVATORY NEWS RELEASE
Posted: October 5, 2005

Advanced technologies now available at the National Science
Foundation's Dunn Solar Telescope at Sunspot, New Mexico, are
revealing striking details inside sunspots and hint at features
remaining to be discovered in solar activity.
 




<font size="1"><font color="blue">High-resolution image of sunspot produced with the new
camera attached to the Dunn's adaptive optics system. Credit:
Friedrich Woeger, KIS, and Chris Berst and Mark Komsa, NSO/AURA/NSF
</font id="blue"></font id="size1">

 
 
This image, spanning an area more than three times wider than Earth,
was made possible by the Dunn's recently completed AO76 advanced
adaptive optics image correction system and a new high-resolution
CCD camera.


The Dunn is the nation's premier high-resolution solar telescope.
The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy operates
the Dunn as part of the National Solar Observatory under a
cooperative agreement with the NSF.
 

This ultrasharp image of sunspot AR 10805 shows several objects of
current scientific interest. G-band bright points, which indicate
 the presence of small-scale magnetic flux tubes, are seen near the
sunspot and between several granules (columns of hot gas circulating
upward).


source:spaceflightnow.com

[Andrew K Fletcher]

Some great pics my son sent me from this site.
http://www.anothersite.co.uk/gallery/index.php?action=showpic&cat=3&pic=536


http://www.anothersite.co.uk/gallery/index.php?action=showpic&cat=3&pic=1926

http://www.anothersite.co.uk/gallery/index.php?action=showpic&cat=3&pic=1515

[neilep]

<font size="4">It takes three to decipher one mystery object</font id="size4">

HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN CENTER FOR ASTROPHYSICS NEWS RELEASE

In an exercise that demonstrates the power of a multiwavelength
investigation using diverse facilities, astronomers at the Harvard-
Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have deciphered the true
nature of a mysterious object hiding inside a dark cosmic cloud.
They found that the cloud, once thought to be featureless, contains
 a baby star, or possibly a failed star known as a "brown dwarf,"
that is still forming within its dusty cocoon.







<font color="blue"><font size="1">At top left is the optical image of L1014, with
contours of 1.2 mm dust emission, and the field-of-view of the
Spitzer images indicated by the box. The position of young brown
dwarf or protostar (dubbed L1014-IRS) is indicated. At top right is
a 3-color image using the Spitzer data, color-coded by wavelength.
At bottom left is the 8-micron-only image, at bottom middle is a
near-infrared image from the MMT revealing a scattered light nebula
typically seen around young stellar objects, thought to be due to a
cavity evacuated by an outflow. At bottom right is the confirmation
that L1014-IRS drives a bipolar outflow, seen with the Submillimeter
Array. The outflow velocities associate the infrared source with
starless core L1014 at a distance of 200 parsecs, thus confirming
its low luminosity and mass. Credit: Tyler Bourke & Tracy Huard
(CfA) </font id="size1"></font id="blue">

 
 
Observations indicate that the mystery object has a mass about 25
times that of Jupiter, which would place it squarely in the realm of
brown dwarfs. However, its mass may eventually grow large enough to
qualify it as a small star. The object also is cool and faint,
shining with less than 1/20 the sun's luminosity.

The combined capabilities of Spitzer, the SMA and the MMT were
essential for finding and examining this object. Those facilities
undoubtedly will prove useful in studying similar very dim, very
young objects - objects so young that they are still growing.
 


SOURCE: SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM

[neilep]

Light seen from possibly first objects in universe

NASA-GODDARD NEWS RELEASE


Scientists using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope say they have
detected light that may be from the earliest objects in the
universe. If confirmed, the observation provides a glimpse of an era
 more than 13 billion years ago when, after the fading embers of the
theorized Big Bang gave way to millions of years of pervasive
darkness, the universe came alive.







The top panel is an image from NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope of stars and galaxies in the constellation Draco, covering
 about 50 by 100 million light-years (6 to 12 arcminutes). This is
an infrared image showing wavelengths of 3.6 microns, below what the
human eye can detect. The bottom panel is the resulting image after
all the stars, galaxies and artifacts were masked out. The remaining
background has been enhanced to reveal a glow that is not attributed
 to galaxies or stars. This might be the glow of the first stars in
the universe. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/A. Kashlinsky (GSFC)
Download larger image version here

This light could be from the very first stars or perhaps from hot
gas falling into the first black holes. The science team, based at
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., describes the
observation as seeing the glow of a distant city at night from an
airplane. The light is too distant and feeble to resolve individual
objects.


"We think we are seeing the collective light from millions of the
first objects to form in the universe," said Dr. Alexander
Kashlinsky, Science Systems and Applications scientist and lead
author on the Nature article that appears in the Nov. 3 issue. "The
objects disappeared eons ago, yet their light is still traveling
across the universe."


SOURCE:SPACEFLIGHTNOw.COM





Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[neilep]

NASA Telescope Gets Image of Young Stars

This undated infrared image captured by NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope, released by NASA on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005, shows
colossal pillars of cool gas and dust that provide scientists with
an intimate look at the star-forming process. The image reflects a
region in space known as W5, in the constellation Cassiopeia 7,000
light years away, which is dominated by a single massive star. (AP
 Photo/NASA, JPL, CalTech)




SOURCE: Associated Press via Yahoo News



Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!