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Venice News Updates

News of Venice, CA and Marina del Rey CA

NASA Missions Harvest a Passel of ‘Pumpkin’ Stars

Posted by :reta On : November 3, 2016
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Bob Eklund
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Note: This is a press release from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Astronomers using observations from NASA’s Kepler and Swift missions have discovered a batch of rapidly spinning stars that produce X-rays at more than 100 times the peak levels ever seen from the Sun. The stars, which spin so fast they’ve been squashed into pumpkin-like shapes, are thought to be the result of close binary systems where two Sun-like stars merge.

“These 18 stars rotate in just a few days on average, while the Sun takes nearly a month,” said Steve Howell, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, and leader of the team. “The rapid rotation amplifies the same kind of activity we see on the Sun, such as sunspots and solar flares, and essentially sends it into overdrive.”

The most extreme member of the group, a K-type orange giant dubbed KSw 71, is more than 10 times larger than the Sun, rotates in just 5.5 days, and produces X-ray emission 4,000 times greater than the Sun does at solar maximum.

Going Out in a Blaze of Glory: Cassini’s Grand Finale

Posted by :reta On : October 29, 2016
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Bob Eklund
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With the conclusion of the international Cassini mission orbiting Saturn and its moons set for Sept. 15, 2017, the spacecraft is poised to soon begin a thrilling two-part endgame.

Cassini will enter the first part of this denouement on Nov. 30, 2016, when the spacecraft begins a series of 20 passes just beyond the outer edge of the main rings. These weekly loops around Saturn are called the F ring orbits, and they send the spacecraft high above and below the planet’s poles.

Cassini’s final phase—called the Grand Finale—begins in earnest in April 2017. A close flyby of Saturn’s giant moon Titan will reshape the spacecraft’s orbit so that, instead of passing outside the rings, it passes through the gap between the rings and the planet. The spacecraft is expected to make 22 plunges through this gap—an unexplored space only about 1,500 miles wide—beginning with its first dive on April 27.

The mission will come to a dramatic end on Sept. 15, 2017, after more than 13 years studying Saturn, its rings and its moons. On that day, Cassini will dive into Saturn itself, returning data about the chemical composition of the planet’s upper atmosphere until its signal is lost, after which the spacecraft is expected to burn up like a meteor.

Proxima Centauri: More Sun-Like Than We Thought?

Posted by :reta On : October 14, 2016
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Note:  Press release from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

 

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Bob Eklund
Looking Up

In August, astronomers announced that the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, hosts an Earth-sized planet (called Proxima b) in its habitable zone. At first glance, Proxima Centauri seems nothing like our Sun. It’s a small, cool, red dwarf star that’s only one-tenth as massive and one-thousandth as luminous as the Sun. However, new research by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows that it is Sun-like in one surprising way: It has a regular cycle of starspots.

Starspots (like sunspots) are dark blotches on a star’s surface where the temperature is a little cooler than the surrounding area. They are driven by magnetic fields. A star is made of ionized gases called plasma. Magnetic fields can restrict the plasma’s flow and create spots. Changes to a star’s magnetic field can affect the number and distribution of starspots.

Our Sun experiences an 11-year sunspot activity cycle. At the solar minimum, the Sun is nearly spot-free. At solar maximum, typically more than 100 sunspots cover less than one percent of the Sun’s surface.

The new study finds that Proxima Centauri undergoes a similar cycle lasting seven years from peak to peak. However, its cycle is much more dramatic. At least a full one-fifth of the star’s surface is covered in spots at once.

Daily Minor Planet Delivers the Latest Asteroid News

Posted by :reta On : October 11, 2016
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Note: This is a press release from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, not the Clark Kent Daily Planet.

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Bob Eklund
Looking Up

Have you ever wondered what piece of cosmic debris is whizzing past the Earth right now? Do you crave up-to-the-minute information about asteroids large and small? Well you’re in luck because today you can subscribe to a new service: the Daily Minor Planet.

Developed through a partnership between scientists at the Minor Planet Center and volunteers from the Oracle Corporation, the Daily Minor Planet will deliver reports on the latest asteroid happenings straight to your inbox.

“Most people don’t realize how common asteroid flybys are,” said Matt Holman, director of the Minor Planet Center and astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). “We want the Daily Minor Planet to educate readers in an entertaining way, so the next time they see a doom-and-gloom asteroid headline, they’ll know where to go to find the facts.”

The Daily Minor Planet’s name cleverly combines the title of the fictional newspaper home of Superman’s Clark Kent, the Daily Planet, with the historical name of asteroids, or minor planets. In a nod to the real-life newspaper world, it will be available in two HTML formats: classic and modern.

Almost every day, a known asteroid passes within a few million miles of Earth. On those dates, the Daily Minor Planet will list the flyby asteroid along with the time and distance of its closest approach. On days without a cosmic flyby, the report will feature a newly discovered asteroid. It will also highlight an article from the popular press.

To subscribe to the Daily Minor Planet, go to http://minorplanetcenter.net/daily-minor-planet.

Hubble Telescope Spots Possible Water Plumes Erupting on Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Posted by :reta On : October 2, 2016
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Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have imaged what may be water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. This finding bolsters other Hubble observations suggesting the icy moon erupts with high-altitude water vapor plumes.

The observation increases the possibility that missions to Europa may be able to sample Europa’s ocean without having to drill through miles of ice.

“Europa’s ocean is considered to be one of the most promising places that could potentially harbor life in the solar system,” said Geoff Yoder, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. “These plumes, if they do indeed exist, may provide another way to sample Europa’s subsurface.”

water

The plumes are estimated to rise about 125 miles before, presumably, raining material back down onto Europa’s surface. Europa has a huge global ocean containing twice as much water as Earth’s oceans, but it is protected by a layer of extremely cold and hard ice of unknown thickness.

The team, led by William Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, observed these finger-like projections while viewing Europa’s edge as it passed in front of Jupiter.

Kepler Watches Stellar Dancers in the Pleiades Cluster

Posted by :reta On : September 4, 2016
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This image shows the Pleiades cluster of stars as seen through the eyes of WISE, or NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

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Bob Eklund
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Like cosmic ballet dancers, the stars of the Pleiades cluster are spinning. But these celestial dancers are all twirling at different speeds. Astronomers have long wondered what determines the rotation rates of these stars.

By watching these stellar dancers, NASA’s Kepler space telescope has helped amass the most complete catalog of rotation periods for stars in a cluster. This information can help astronomers gain insight into where and how planets form around these stars, and how such stars evolve.

The Pleiades is one of the closest and most easily seen star clusters, residing just 445 light-years away from Earth, on average. At about 125 million years old, these stars—known individually as Pleiads—have reached stellar “young adulthood.

During the Kepler observations of the Pleiades, a clear pattern emerged: More massive stars rotate slowly, while less massive stars rotate rapidly.

FUN FACT. The Japanese word for Pleiades is “Subaru.” Sound familiar? That six-star emblem on all Subaru cars is none other than a stylized version of the Pleiades cluster, as seen with the naked eye, binoculars, or a low-power telescope.

Two Pair of Planets Perform in the August Twilight

Posted by :reta On : August 18, 2016
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Bob Eklund
Looking Up

 Step outside as the stars come out, look southwest, and you’ll see an eye-catching pattern. For the next few days, bright orange Mars shines to the right of Saturn and the reddish supergiant star Antares. The three form a tall triangle that changes every night.

Note: This story is from Sky and Telescope

Mars is moving leftward on its way toward passing between the other two. On August 23 and 24, the triangle shrinks down to a nearly vertical line of three shining points.

The three have nothing to do with each other. Mars is the nearest of them, 7 light-minutes from Earth (79 million miles). Saturn is almost a dozen times farther away: 82 light-minutes (914 million miles). Antares, the lowest of the three in the sky, is about 550 light-years in the background, or 3.3 quadrillion miles into deep space.

Meanwhile, the two brightest planets—Venus and Jupiter—are going through a dance of their own. They’re very low in the sky, due west after sunset. Look for them close to the horizon, somewhat left of where the Sun went down, 20 or 30 minutes after sunset. If you have a very low view and clear air, you’ll see that Venus and Jupiter are drawing closer together every evening. Venus is the lower one. On August 27th, they’ll have such a close conjunction that you may need binoculars to see that they’re two objects, not one!

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Venus-Jupiter

Rover Celebrates Fourth Year on Mars

Posted by :reta On : August 11, 2016
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Bob Eklund
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This month, NASA’s Curiosity rover celebrates four years on the Red Planet. The rover, with the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) aboard, hit the dusty Martian surface on August 6, 2012, and began its mission of finding evidence about whether ancient Mars offered environmental conditions conducive to microbial life. By March 2013, NASA reported that MSL had achieved its primary objective after scientists found evidence of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur, phosphorous and carbon—all essential chemical elements for supporting living organisms. Now the mission, which was scheduled to end this year, has been given a two-year extension.

As part of the fourth-year celebration, NASA has released a smartphone game, which lets users navigate their own MSL across the rugged terrain of Mars searching for water. On their mobile devices, players challenge themselves to navigate and balance the rover while earning points along the way. For more information about the Mars Rover game, visit: mars.nasa.gov/gamee-rover

Here at home, we have good views of Mars in our southern sky, along with four other bright planets. Venus, now appearing as the “evening star,” is just above the southwest horizon after sunset. To the upper left of Venus, look for Mercury, Jupiter, orange Mars, and golden Saturn (in that order).

“August Moon” Star Party in Westchester

Posted by :reta On : August 6, 2016
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On Saturday, August 13, 7-10 p.m., Westchester Amateur Astronomers will provide telescopes for public viewing of the August Moon and planets Saturn, Mars, and Venus—plus stars and nebulae at 7855 Alversone Ave, one block west of Sepulveda at 79th (in church parking lot).

Bob Eklund Looking Up

Bob Eklund
Looking Up

Bring the kids and learn astronomy basics together. The event is free and all are welcome to look through the telescopes, but you may bring your own telescope if you wish.

This is a good time to view much of our Solar System lined up across southern sky: yellow Saturn with its bright moon Titan; red Mars, now in gibbous phase; our own August Moon, also in gibbous phase; and Venus, returning to the evening sky in the west just above the sunset glow.

For information about the star party—or if you are interested in helping form a local astronomy club—call star party host Bob Eklund at (310) 216-5947 or email Bob at beklund@sprynet.com.

“All moons beautiful, but August moon most beautiful.” (From the movie “Teahouse of the August Moon”)

“X” Discovered In Center of Milky Way

Posted by :reta On : July 23, 2016
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An enhanced, close-up view centred on the Galaxy’s bulge and the blue-tinted “X.” Credit: D. Lang/Dunlap Institute

An enhanced, close-up view centred on the Galaxy’s bulge and the blue-tinted “X.” Credit: D. Lang/Dunlap Institute

 

Note: This is a press release from Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto.

Astronomers have uncovered the strongest evidence yet that an enormous X-shaped structure made of stars lies within the central bulge of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Previous computer models, observations of other galaxies, and observations of our own galaxy have suggested that the X-shaped structure existed. But no one had observed it directly; and some astronomers argued that previous research that pointed indirectly to the existence of the X could be explained in other ways.

“There was controversy about whether the X-shaped structure existed,” says Dustin Lang, a Research Associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto, and co-author of the paper describing the discovery, published this month in the Astrophysical Journal. “But our paper gives a good view of the core of our own galaxy. I think it has provided pretty good evidence for the existence of the X-shaped structure.”

The Milky Way Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy: a disk-shaped collection of dust, gas and billions of stars, 100,000 light-years in diameter. It is far from a simple disk structure, being comprised of two spiral arms, a bar-shaped feature that runs through its center, and a central bulge of stars. The X-shaped structure is a part of the bulge.