Random moments and random discoveries

Sometimes, it's hard to find anything meaningful when you are bored out of death and have nothing productive to do but for me, usually, in those moments, I strike silver if not gold. This blog post is going to be related to some of these moments that I have had in the last two weeks or so.

Considering that my last three posts have been about Astronomy and NASA, its appropriate that I mention the following discovery first. Its about finding a blog post by Hamish Johnston on Jan 11, 2011 concerned with the results of the 217th meeting of the American Astronomical society. Two of the results that really grabbed my attention were the following:

1.     Thunderstorms hurl antimatter into space (http://physicsworld.com/blog/2011/01/thunderstorms_hurl_antimatter.html)

2.     Dwarf Galaxy solves super massive mystery (http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/44743)

Then something else that I found interesting and stumbled upon was this fascinating simulation of "The Cosmic Web" or how does the universe looks like on a large scale? For me the thought of putting myself in perspective according to this simulation was just too fascinating to miss and I needed to record it for future reference whenever I became foolishly full of myself.

Assuming that I have enough of scientific geeky moments of glory and that it's always good to end a post on a more 'optimistic' note, I want to share one other moment of discovery which is nothing more than a video and song 'Firework' by Katy Perry. Though I have not listened to a lot of her music but this is one of the few songs that I like and I though the video was quite well done. Just to contextualize, I stumbled on this video after my class met with an amazing person who is CEO of a wonderfully futuristic media company.

I hope people like this video and even take some inspiration from it if they can because I myself believe in taking inspiration from movies and songs once in a while. Enjoy!

Astronomy, Me and NASA (2)

Jan 11, 2011
Space Oddity





Image Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Keel (University of Alabama) and the Galaxy Zoo Team

In this image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, an unusual, ghostly green blob of gas appears to float near a neighboring spiral galaxy. The bizarre object, dubbed Hanny's Voorwerp (Hanny's Object in Dutch), is the only visible part of a 300,000-light-year-long streamer of gas stretching around the galaxy, called IC 2947. The greenish Voorwerp is visible because a beam of light from the galaxy's core illuminated it. This beam came from a quasar--a bright, energetic object powered by a black hole. The quasar may have turned off about 200,000 years ago. This Hubble view uncovers a pocket of star clusters, the yellowish-orange area at the tip of Hanny's Voorwerp. The star clusters are confined to an area that is a few thousand light- years wide. The youngest stars are a couple of million years old. The Voorwerp is the size of our Milky Way galaxy, and its bright green color is from glowing oxygen. An interaction between IC 2947 and another galaxy about a billion years ago may have created Hanny's Voorwerp and fueled the quasar. The Hubble image shows that IC 2947 has been disturbed, with complex dust patches, warped spiral arms, and regions of star formation around its core. These features suggest the aftermath of a galaxy merger. The bright spots in the central part of the galaxy are star-forming regions. The small, pinkish object to the lower right of IC 2397 is an edge-on spiral galaxy in the background. The image was made by combining data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3. The ACS exposures were taken April 12, 2010; the WFC3 data, April 4, 2010. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Keel (University of Alabama) and the Galaxy Zoo Team

Jan 13, 2011
Princess Rhea and Her Ladies in Waiting

Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

Princess Rhea and Her Entourage

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this image showing Saturn's icy moon Rhea taking center stage, with cameo appearances by Saturn's rings and three clearly visible moons. In this image, Dione appears just above Rhea. Tethys is the larger circle toward the upper left and Epimetheus is the smaller dot to the left of Rhea. Prometheus is to the left of Dione, but barely distinguishable as a speck embedded in the rings. This wide-angle image was taken on Jan. 11, 2011 from a distance of approximately 60,000 kilometers away (37,000 miles). 

Jan 14, 2011

Henize 2-10, a Dwarf Starburst Galaxy

The combined observations from multiple telescopes of Henize 2-10, a dwarf starburst galaxy located about 30 million light years from Earth, has provided astronomers with a detailed new look at how galaxy and black hole formation may have occurred in the early Universe. This image shows optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope in red, green and blue, X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in purple, and radio data from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array in yellow. A compact X-ray source at the center of the galaxy coincides with a radio source, giving evidence for an actively growing super massive black hole with a mass of about one million times that of the sun. 

Stars are forming in Henize 2-10 at a prodigious rate, giving the star clusters in this galaxy their blue appearance. This combination of a burst of star formation and a massive black hole is analogous to conditions in the early Universe. Since Henize 2-10 does not contain a significant bulge of stars in its center, these results show that super massive black hole growth may precede the growth of bulges in galaxies. This differs from the relatively nearby Universe where the growth of galaxy bulges and super massive black holes appears to occur in parallel. 

A paper describing these results was published online in Nature on January 9th, 2011 by Amy Reines and Gregory Sivakoff of the University of Virginia, Kelsey Johnson of the University of Virginia and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Virginia and Crystal Brogan also of NRAO in Virgina. 

Credits: X-ray (NASA/CXC/Virginia/A.Reines et al); Radio (NRAO/AUI/NSF); Optical (NASA/STScI) 

A Torrent of Star Formation

Credits: NASA/CXC/Wesleyan Univ./R. Kilgard et al 

A new Chandra X-ray Observatory image of Messier 82, or M82, shows the result of star formation on overdrive.  M82 is located about 12 million light years from Earth and is the nearest place to us where the conditions are similar to those when the Universe was much younger with lots of stars forming. M82 is a so-called starburst galaxy, where stars are forming at rates that are tens or even hundreds of times higher than in a normal galaxy.

Important News Updates

Jan 4, 2011

By the CNN Wire Staff

Governor of Pakistan's Punjab province Salman Taseer assassinated

Jan 6, 2011
RELEASE : 11-004

 

 

NASA Research Team Reveals Moon Has Earth-Like Core


For more information about NASA science exploration missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars

Jan 10, 2011
RELEASE : 11-007

 

 

NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Its First Rocky Planet


WASHINGTON -- NASA's Kepler mission confirmed the discovery of its first rocky planet, named Kepler-10b. Measuring 1.4 times the size of Earth, it is the smallest planet ever discovered outside our solar system. 


RELEASE : 11-008

 

 

NASA'S Fermi Catches Thunderstorms Hurling Antimatter Into Space

 

 

WASHINGTON -- Scientists using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have detected beams of antimatter produced above thunderstorms on Earth, a phenomenon never seen before. 

Jan 12, 2011

RELEASE : 11-013

 

 

NASA Telescopes Help Identify Most Distant Galaxy Cluster

 

 

WASHINGTON -- Astronomers have uncovered a burgeoning galactic metropolis, the most distant known in the early universe. This ancient collection of galaxies presumably grew into a modern galaxy cluster similar to the massive ones seen today. 


RELEASE : 11-014

 

 

NASA Research Finds 2010 Tied For Warmest Year On Record

 

 

WASHINGTON -- Global surface temperatures in 2010 tied 2005 as the warmest on record, according to an analysis released Wednesday by researchers at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York

 

Astronomy, Me and NASA

Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2011 11:17:13 -0600 (CST)
Subject: The Road Less Traveled

The Road Less Traveled
Sun, 02 Jan 2011 23:00:00 -0600

On Jan. 4, 2004, Spirit--the first of two NASA Mars Exploration Rovers--landed on the Red Planet for what was to be a 90-day mission. This image, acquired on sol 127 (May 12, 2004), shows the path the rover traveled on its way to the base of the "Columbia Hills." The hills can be seen silhouetted against the horizon on the far left side . Since sol 2210 (March 22, 2010), Spirit has been silent, and the project's scientists continue to listen for Spirit with the Deep Space Network and Mars Odyssey orbiter. The project is also conducting a paging technique called "Sweep & Beep" to stimulate the rover. Since the period of peak solar activity occurs in mid-March 2011, leaving Spirit plenty of occasion to respond. Spirit's sister spacecraft Opportunity continues to explore Mars, arriving in December 2010 at the 80-meter (262-foot) diameter Santa Maria crater on its journey to Endeavour crater. Image Credit: NASA

More Cool Pictures from NASA...

503569main_PIA13614_full(1)

503762main_image_1815_Saturn ring

507193main_m82_hst_big_full(Messeir M82 galaxy)

507669main_pia13448-full_full

507865main_iss026e013123_full (florida peninsula on 28 dec 2010)



This hemispheric view of Venus was created using more than a decade of radar investigations culminating in the 1990-1994 Magellan mission, and is centered on the planet's North Pole. The Magellan spacecraft imaged more than 98 percent of the planet Venus and a mosaic of the Magellan images (most with illumination from the west) forms the image base. Gaps in the Magellan coverage were filled with images from the Earth-based Arecibo radar in a region centered roughly on 0 degree latitude and longitude, and with a neutral tone elsewhere (primarily near the south pole). This composite image was processed to improve contrast and to emphasize small features, and was color-coded to represent elevation. Gaps in the elevation data from the Magellan radar altimeter were filled with altimetry from the Venera spacecraft and the Pioneer Venus missions. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS


Two European Space Agency observatories combined forces to show the Andromeda Galaxy in a new light. Herschel sees rings of star formation in this, the most detailed image of the Andromeda Galaxy ever taken at infrared wavelengths, and XMM-Newton shows dying stars shining X-rays into space. ESA’s Herschel and XMM-Newton space observatories targeted the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest large spiral galaxy, which like our own Milky Way contains several hundred billion stars. This is the most detailed far-infrared image of the Andromeda Galaxy ever taken and clearly shows that more stars are on their way. In this image, Herschel’s infrared image of the Andromeda Galaxy shows rings of dust that trace gaseous reservoirs where new stars are forming and XMM-Newton’s X-ray image shows stars approaching the ends of their lives. Both infrared and X-ray images convey information impossible to collect from the ground because these wavelengths are absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere. For more information and images, visit the ESA site. Image Credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/J.Fritz, U.Gent/XMM-Newton/EPIC/W. Pietsch, MPECourtesy NASA News Services and Image of the Day Gallery. For more details, please visit the official NASA website.