Tuesday, June 24, 2014

ScienceDaily: Astronomy News

ScienceDaily: Astronomy News

Webb telescope microshutters journey into NASA clean room

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 10:17 AM PDT

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope microshutters have taken a short jaunt in preparation of its million mile journey in four years. The microshutters were moved into a NASA Goddard cleanroom for testing to verify they work correctly before being installed in the Webb's Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument.

Earth-size 'diamond' in space: Remarkable white dwarf star possibly coldest, dimmest ever detected

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 10:13 AM PDT

Astronomers have identified possibly the coldest, faintest white dwarf star ever detected. This ancient stellar remnant is so cool that its carbon has crystallized, forming -- in effect -- an Earth-size diamond in space. The object in this new study is likely the same age as the Milky Way, approximately 11 billion years old.

Organic conundrum in Large Magellanic Cloud

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 06:23 AM PDT

A group of organic chemicals that are considered carcinogens and pollutants today on Earth, but are also thought to be the building blocks for the origins of life, may hold clues to how carbon-rich chemicals created in stars are processed and recycled in space.

3-D map shows dusty structure of the Milky Way

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 06:23 AM PDT

Astronomers have created a detailed three-dimensional map of the dusty structure of the Milky Way – the star-studded bright disc of our own galaxy – as seen from Earth's northern hemisphere.

Puffing sun gives birth to reluctant eruption

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 06:23 AM PDT

A suite of Sun-gazing spacecraft, SOHO, STEREO and Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), have spotted an unusual series of eruptions in which a series of fast 'puffs' force the slow ejection of a massive burst of plasma from the Sun's corona.  The eruptions took place over a period of three days, starting on 17 January 2013. 

All the sky, all the time: UK astronomers debate involvement in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 06:23 AM PDT

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will be sited at Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes and will have a primary mirror 8.4 metres in diameter, making it one of the largest single telescopes in the world, as well as the world's largest digital camera, comprising 3.2 billion pixels. It will achieve first light in 2020 and its main sky survey will begin in 2022.

Big solar blowouts hold clue to space weather

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 06:23 AM PDT

Solar jets are ejections from the surface of the Sun, where 1-10 tons of hot material are expelled at speeds of up to 1000 kilometers per second. Using space based observatories like Hinode and STEREO, solar physicists have recently discovered a new type of jet known as 'blowout' jets, which seem to be like the Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) that can disrupt the magnetic field of the Earth, but on a much smaller scale. Now a scientist has created a 3-D model of these events for the first time, with compelling computer-generated simulations that match the jets' appearance from space.

Mysterious 'magic island' appears on Saturn's moon Titan

Posted: 22 Jun 2014 11:21 AM PDT

Astronomers have discovered a bright, mysterious geologic object – where one never existed – on Cassini mission radar images of Ligeia Mare, the second-largest sea on Saturn's moon Titan. Scientifically speaking, this spot is considered a "transient feature," but the astronomers have playfully dubbed it "Magic Island."
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