Astronomy - Articles - Zimbio

Giant telescope opens both eyes

Thu, 7 Mar 2008 16:43:00 GMT

posted by sarfun

Giant telescope opens both eyes
The world's most powerful optical telescope has opened both of its eyes.
Astronomers at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona have released the first images taken using its two giant 8m diameter mirrors.

The detailed pictures show a spiral galaxy located 102 million light-years away from the Milky Way.

LBT has been 20 years in the making but promises to allow astronomers to probe the Universe further back in time and in more detail than ever before.

"The amount of time and work that was put into this project to reach the point where we are today is immense," said LBT Director Richard Green. "To see the telescope operational with both mirrors is a great feeling."

The $120m (£60m) telescope uses two mirrors in tandem to maximise the amount of light it gathers, which allows astronomers to look deep into the Universe.

Using two 8.4 m (27ft) mirrors will give LBT the equivalent light-gathering capacity of a single 11.8m (39ft) instrument and the resolution of a 22.8m (75ft) telescope.

Impressive detail

The resolution is 10 times greater than the space-based Hubble telescope, which has a 2.4m (8ft) mirror.

"The images that this telescope will produce will be like none seen before," said Professor Peter Strittmatter of the University of Arizona.

The first pictures are false-colour images of the spiral galaxy NGC 2770. The pictures show what is a flat disc of stars and glowing gas.

The images - which take advantage of the telescope's ability to view the same point in space with multiple wavelengths of light - emphasise different features of the galaxy.

Combining ultraviolet and green light shows up clumpy regions of newly formed hot stars in the spiral arms, whilst a combination of red wavelengths highlights older, cooler stars.

The images were taken on 11 and 12 January but have only just now been released.

The LBT is located on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona. It achieved "first light" with one mirror on 12 October 2005 when it imaged a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Andromeda.

The Emperor's New Matter

Tue, 13 Feb 2008 08:07:00 GMT

posted by starling

Dark matter is the modern fairy dust that makes everything (cosmologically) better. Upon observing that the universe would need to have several hundred times more mass than we can see to be consistent with modern theories, many scientists apparently thought "Fair enough, there must be several universes worth of invisible magic stuff hiding throughout the entirety of existence". Rather than the crazy heresy of "Maybe our theories need a little work".

Lots of very smart people have come up with a huge variety of explanations for this absentee material, from ultrarelativistic non-baryonic matter (yes those are real words, even though it sounds like they just smashed together some sciencey sounding stuff), to effects from other universes. The latter is supported by brane theory, but when you're combining both dark matter and superstring theory you might as well throw in "A wizard did it" to explain all the flaws.

Normally people who constantly look for fictional things are labeled as crazy, and this scientific search may have reached psychosis point with spiral galaxy NGC 4736. A team from the Polish Academy of Science have observed a spiral galaxy that doesn't need the dark stuff. This galaxy can be entirely explained in terms of the matter we see and the theories we have, and in a shocking reversal of the whole "Scientific Method" process other researchers are criticizing the find - because the observations don't support the invisible thing they believe in. That's not science, that's religion.

Another suspect for this maybe-missing-matter is the neutralino, and we'll have to ask you to believe us that we're not just making up words at this point. As a heavy, stable, weakly interacting particle it has all the right properties to hang back and just "be there" in the invisible way dark matter is expected to be, with only the usual slight flaw of being an utterly hypothetical string symmetric construction - but maybe not for long. NASA's gamma gazing GLAST satellite is planning to survey a radiation map of the sky for comparison with neutralino predictions, meaning it will be testing for dark matter, string theory and supersymmetry. No word yet on whether it's fitted with a unicorn detector too.

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Not seeing what isn't there http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13280-galaxy-without-dark-matter-puzzles-astronomers.html

GLAST going for gamma rays http://space.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11743&feedId=space_rss20

Nearby Barred Spiral Galaxy Shows Off Its Warped Disc

Sun, 12 Nov 2007 10:45:00 GMT

posted by spaceman0

Known until now as a simple number in a catalogue, NGC 134, the 'Island in the Universe' is replete with remarkable attributes, and the VLT has clapped its eyes on them. Just like our own Galaxy, NGC 134 is a barred spiral with its spiral arms loosely wrapped around a bright, bar-shaped central region.

One feature that stands out is its warped disc. While a galaxy's disc is often pictured as a flat structure of gas and stars surrounding the galaxy's centre, a warped disc is a structure that, when viewed sideways, resembles a bent record album left out too long in the burning Sun.

Warps are actually not atypical. More than half of the spiral galaxies do show warps one way or another, and our own Milky Way also has a small warp.

Many theories exist to explain warps. One possibility is that warps are the aftermath of interactions or collisions between galaxies. These can also produce tails of material being pulled out from the galaxy. The VLT image reveals that NGC 134 also appears to have a tail of gas stripped from the top edge of the disc.

So did NGC 134 have a striking encounter with another galaxy in the past? Or is some other galaxy out there exerting a gravitational pull on it? This is a riddle astronomers need to solve.

The superb VLT image also shows that the galaxy has its fair share of ionised hydrogen regions (HII regions) lounging along its spiral arms. Seen in the image as red features, these are glowing clouds of hot gas in which stars are forming. The galaxy also shows prominent dark lanes of dust across the disc, obscuring part of the galaxy's starlight.

Studying galaxies like NGC 134 is an excellent way to learn more about our own Galaxy.

NGC 134 was discovered by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope and is located in the Sculptor southern constellation. The galaxy is located about 60 million light-years away - when the light that was captured by the VLT originally left the galaxy, a dramatic episode of mass extinction had led to the disappearance of dinosaurs on Earth, paving the way for the appearance of mammals and later specifically of humans, who have built unique high-tech installations in the Atacama desert to satisfy their curiosity about the workings of the Universe. Still, NGC 134 is not very far away, by cosmological standards. It is the dominant member of a small group of galaxies that belongs to the Virgo or Local Supercluster and is one of the 200 brightest galaxies in our skies.

During his visit to ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal, the European Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potočnik, participated in an observing sequence and took images of this beautiful spiral galaxy.

Third Red Spot Erupts on Jupiter

Thu, 23 May 2008 20:15:00 GMT

posted by Towleroad

« Towleroad Guide to the Tube #294 | Main | Towletech v.105 »

05/23/2008

A third red spot has been observed on Jupiter, joining two others:

"Jupiter's Great Red Spot is an ancient, hurricane-like storm that may have been raging for 340 years or more, based on early observations with telescopes. At three times the width of Earth, it is the largest storm in the solar system. It was recently joined by a similar, but smaller storm called Red Spot Junior. Red Spot Junior grew out of the merger of three smaller, white storms between 1998 and 2000 and turned red in 2006. It is about the size of Earth...No one knows for sure what gives the three spots their red colour. But one theory is that especially violent storms dredge up material from deeper in Jupiter's atmosphere, such as phosphorus-containing molecules, which undergo chemical reactions that turn them red when exposed to sunlight."

Nah, it's the monoliths!

Sphere: Related Content

Posted 4:15 PM EST by Andy in News, Space | Permalink

Comments

It is the aliens

LOL

Cool :-) red spot jr is the size of earth, Yowza

Posted by: Jimmyboyo | May 23, 2008 4:30:39 PM

this is what happens when storms have unprotected intercourse with other storms....let that be a warning to you.

Posted by: rich | May 23, 2008 4:34:14 PM

I was going to do a monolith joke, damn it!

Anyway, check out the HiRes project for cool desktop wallpaper images. SFW!

Posted by: anon | May 23, 2008 4:46:07 PM

I'm sure Rev. John Hagee will find a way to blame this on the gays too.

Posted by: JerzeeMike | May 23, 2008 4:53:19 PM

A very nice piece of space porn to start the weekend...

Posted by: Anonymous | May 23, 2008 5:26:18 PM

These red spots are believed to be associated with the warming that is occurring on Jupiter presently -- the same warming that is taking place on Mars, Pluto and Neptune's moon. But as leading scientist Al Gore will tell you, possible warming on Earth is caused by humans, so go out and buy some carbon credits to offset your mansion and private jet this weekend.

Posted by: Paul | May 23, 2008 6:28:16 PM

Paul

BULL SHIT!

http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-on-jupiter.htm

The heat changes on Jupiter are INTERNAL!

Posted by: Jimmyboyo | May 23, 2008 6:45:23 PM

Someone on Jupiter is watching BSG. The Eye of Jupiter...

Posted by: Mitch | May 23, 2008 8:52:14 PM

Nothing a little Proactiv can't cure.

Posted by: soulbrotha | May 24, 2008 1:43:52 AM

You know it's probably all our fault for advancing beyond the stone age

Posted by: ousslander | May 24, 2008 10:01:08 AM

Leave Jupiter alone, so it likes the occasional fisting, big deal!

Posted by: Blake | May 24, 2008 7:30:15 PM

Jupiter Moves Into Sagittarius

Wed, 30 Nov 2006 00:06:58 GMT

posted by kuanyin
Art Courtesy of Love Peace Happiness

Yipppeeee...Jupiter moves into Sagittarius tonight! I am grateful for this sign shift on Thanksgiving!

"When the moon chases away the sun
and cause my day to run
i will not fear the darkest night
for i know upon the other side is light." Lyrics by Ben Harper

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