A ghostly blue cloud seems to form an outstretched thumb and fingers grasping a ball of fire.
The amazing image was taken by Nasa’s X-ray observatory, which is orbiting 580km above the Earth.
It recalls pictures of the Helix planetary nebula, with its blue centre surrounded by white clouds which earned it the nickname “the eye of God”.
Its been 400 years since Galileo first peered through a telescope in 1609 but astronomy and the universe remains as mysterious as ever. And it’s been 400 years since Galileo brought about basic astronomy. In this, the International Year of Astronomy, the centuries-old discovery will be celebrated.
Science provides resources to schools to help encourage a less intimidating, more interesting approach to learning science for elementary and secondary school students. However, there’s a lot more to talk about these days, especially considering the discovery of “dark energy” in 1998, when it was determined there was 75 per cent of the universe we didn’t even know existed.
A concatenation of puzzling results from an alphabet soup of satellites and experiments has led a growing number of astronomers and physicists to suspect that they are getting signals from a shadow universe of dark matter that makes up a quarter of creation but has eluded direct detection until now.
Physicists caution that there could still be a relatively simple astronomical explanation for the recent observations. But the nature of this dark matter is one of the burning issues of science. Identifying it would point the way to a deeper understanding of the laws of nature and the Einsteinian dream of a unified theory of physics.
On Thursday, a team of astrophysicists working on one of the experiments reported in the journal Nature that a cosmic ray detector onboard a balloon flying around the South Pole had recorded an excess number of high-energy electrons and their antimatter opposites, positrons, sailing through local space.
The particles, they conceded, could have been created by a previously undiscovered pulsar, the magnetized spinning remnant of a supernova explosion, blasting nearby space with electric and magnetic fields. But, they say, a better and more enticing explanation for the excess is that the particles are being spit out of the fireballs created by dark matter particles colliding and annihilating one another in space.
The stakes for dark matter go beyond cosmology. The most favored candidates for its identity come from a theory called supersymmetry, which unifies three of the four known forces of nature mathematically and posits the existence of a realm of as-yet-undiscovered particles.
If a Solar Superstorm were to occure today, like the historic one of 1859, the electrical infrastructure of the Earth would completely collaspe – scienstists say. Not only would it damage the Earth’s atmosphere it would destroy most of the world’s artificial satellites, possibly even the ISS or international space station if it is in the wrong place, sending it hurtling towards Earth. All up it poses a massive risk to human life and the economy. With no satellites that means no Mobile phones and TV would also be effected. The implications could be devastating.
The Phoenix Lander has discovered that Martian soil is rich in nutrients that could have once supported life. The nutrients are just one of many indicators gleaned from the Phoenix Lander since it began collecting and testing soil samples a few weeks ago. The early findings show the presence of ice crystals and nutrients, which point towards the presence of water – the basis for life. Its clear that the soil has clearly interacted with water in the past but its unknown if the interaction occurred at this area or whether it might have happened elsewhere and blown around Mars as dust. While NASA has said that some work remained before the first wet-chemical analysis was fully complete, it is similar to that found in Antarctica’s upper valleys and the salts it contains are another strong indication of the presence of water.
The last time a large asteroid hit the Earth it killed off 70-80 per cent of all life on the planet. To meet this threat the Canadian Space Agency is developing a $12-million Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite called NEOSSat.
To be launched in 2010 the Satellite will track some of the tens of thousands of large asteroids in danger of striking the Earth. The CSA also hopes It will detect space junk in danger of colliding with orbiting satellites. NEOSSat, fitted with a baffle to block the sunlight, will be positioned far above the Earth where its 15-centimetre diameter telescope will beam back images from deep space. Scientists hope that NEOSSat will be able to detect space junk that is up to 50,000 kilometres away, predict collision paths with commercial satellites, or foresee if any will fall to Earth.
NEOSSat is part of the next generation of Satellites to fill a niche in space exploration. It will be the size of a large suitcase, weigh less than 75 kilograms and be designed and built in three years.
NASA image of M81
Big blackholes are just like small ones according to the latest data from NASA’s Observatory and ground-based telescopes. The discovery supports Einstein’s theory of relativity that black holes of all sizes have similar properties. The conclusion comes from results of the galaxy M81 – 11 million light-years away. The M81 blackhole is millions of times bigger than Sol. One of the implications of Einstein’s theory is that black holes are simple objects and only their masses and spins determine their effect on space-time. This research suggests that this simplicity manifests itself regardless of environmental factors.
Stellar mass black holes have a different source of food and acquire material by pulling gas from an orbiting companion star. But the results show that either big or little, black holes appear to feed similarly and produce a similar distribution of x-rays and radio light. Among the active blackholes the one in M81 is one of the dimmest but also one of the brightest as seen from Earth due to its proximity.
The Homunculus Nebula
European astronomers have discovered three Earth-like planets which circle a star and another two solar systems, along with several other small orbiting planets. The results strengthen the argument that the Earth (and possibly life) is not unique. Each single star could have its planets. The star is 42 light-years away from the Doroto and Pictor constellations. The planets are bigger than Earth (respectively 4.2, 6.7 and 9.4 times) and they orbit their sun in respectively 4, 10 and 20 days, against the 365 days of our planet. Over 270 planets have been discovered outside our own solar system and in most cases they are giant planets, the size of Jupiter and Saturn. The smaller planets, like Earth, are harder to find. These planets are just the tip of the iceberg. The data of all star systems show that around a third of the stars are similar to Sol and have super-Earths or satellites with a revolution of less than 50 days.
Ice exposed by the Mars lander
The Phoenix lander bakes a soil sample as it digs deeper into the martian surface.
One of the ovens on NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander continued baking its first sample of martian soil over the weekend, while the Robotic Arm dug deeper into the soil to learn more about white material first revealed on June 3.