Using the near infrared integral field spectrograph CIRPASS at Gemini South, Ruben Diaz and an international team of astronomers have discovered a previously unknown hidden mass concentration that looks like a second nucleus in the starburst galaxy M83.
Solscape
Europe’s next-generation weather satellite is in orbit !
The European Space Agency’s first polar-orbiting weather satellite, MetOp-A, launched into space today after numerous delays. A Soyuz-Fregat rocket carrying the 4.1-tonne satellite lifted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, at 16:28 GMT. The satellite is now placed in an 850-kilometer orbit around the poles. Since July, five previous attempts to launch the new-generation satellite had been scrubbed by technical hitches and poor weather. MetOp-A is the most sophisticated Earth-observation satellite ever built, with 12 instruments to record temperature, humidity, wind speed and ozone cover across the globe, monitor the environment in space and listen out for signals from ships and aircraft in distress.
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Meteorological_missions/MetOp
The Complete Work of Charles Darwin – Online!
This website loads a bit slow, but you will be able to access the entire text of „The Origin of Species“…
https://darwin-online.org.uk/
New Pictures from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Now firmly in its final science mapping orbit, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is releasing a torrent of science data back to Earth. The latest photo release shows dozens of sites visited by the spacecraft in the first week of October 2006. A breathtaking image shows gullies in an unnamed crater in the Terra Sirenum region of Mars. Scientists believe the gullies were formed during a time when liquid water flowed across the surface of the Red Planet.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia01923.html
Head-on collision explains Andromeda’s strange shape
A two-decade-long riddle about the bizarre shape of the Milky Way’s nearest spiral-shaped galaxy, Andromeda, has been solved, suggests a new study. Instead of having the flat plane and outflung arms that are the hallmarks of a mature spiral galaxy, Andromeda has a warped plane and several rather chaotic, overlapping outer rings. The reason, according to an international team of astronomers, is that Andromeda suffered a head-on collision with a smaller galaxy some 210 million years ago. The evidence comes from infrared images taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. They show a previously hidden, tilted second ring that protrudes from the heart of the galaxy. This ring is likely to be the shockwave of gas and dust from a colossal collision. The theory has been put to the test in a computer simulation. It suggests a dwarf galaxy called M32 probably drove straight into the heart of Andromeda.
Hawaii earthquakes shake up the world’s largest optical telescopes
The largest earthquake there in 20 years, plus at least a dozen aftershocks, shook Hawaii Island’s west coast on Sunday morning. Strong shaking from the magnitude 6.7 temblor, and the 5.8-magnitude aftershock that followed it minutes later, triggered landslides, caused power and communication outages, and damaged structures across the Big Island. No fatalities, however, have been reported. The observatories atop Mauna Kea didn’t escape entirely unscathed. The W. M. Keck Observatory, whose twin 10-meter telescopes are one of the world’s largest, cancelled all observing. Some guiding and pointing systems were affected and must be repaired before observing resumes. The Gemini North Observatory, which houses an 8m telescope near Keck, reports on its website that the telescope clearly shook hard during this event. The telescope appears to have moved with respect to its azimuth track, which rotates the scope along the horizon, but the elevation axis appears OK. The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), also sited on Mauna Kea, hosts a 3.6m optical and infrared telescope. On Monday, the observatory’s website reported that the dome has moved on its track and cannot be rotated at the moment. It is likely that the CFHT might be out of commission for some time.
http://www.keckobservatory.org/recent/entry/earthquake_update_from_w._m._keck_observatory/
Scientists discover element 118
Scientists from California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia, have discovered element 118. The three atoms that they found have an average lifetime of 0.9 milliseconds. That’s too short to study the new element’s chemical properties, but the superheavy atom sits directly beneath radon on the periodic table. It’s in the same family as helium and neon.
In 1999 and 2001, the LLNL scientists announced the discovery of elements 114 and 116, respectively. In 2004, the Livermore-Dubna team observed elements 113 and 115. Also in 1999, researchers at LLNL reported synthesizing element 118, but, in 2001, they retracted their claim when subsequent experiments failed to confirm the discovery.
Livermore scientists team with Russia to discover element 118
Antennae galaxies‘ fertile marriage
A new Hubble image of the Antennae galaxies is the sharpest yet of this merging pair of galaxies. As the two galaxies smash together, thousand of millions of stars are born, mostly in groups and clusters of stars.
https://science.nasa.gov/asset/hubble/the-antennae-galaxiesngc-4038-4039/
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Antennae_galaxies_fertile_marriage
Mars Express Sees Water’s History on the Red Planet
Most of humanity’s Mars-bound fleet of spacecraft is searching the Red Planet for evidence of its watery past. New evidence gathered by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft is helping scientists fine tune their theories. A radar instrument on the spacecraft has turned up water ice in Mars‘ upper layers; a mineral mapping instrument has discovered chemicals formed in a wet environment; and its powerful camera has picked out obvious features on the surface of Mars formed by running water. Here’s a breakdown of what Mars Express has found so far:
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Mars_Express_and_the_story_of_water_on_Mars
The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken
This video may change your life…