Hubble Ultra Deep Field 3D

This is a pretty incredible four minute video. It starts off a bit slowly, but sticking with it is worth it. It's the final minute that is the best.

http://www.flixxy.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-3d.htm

Life in the Universe

There is definitely life in the universe. It is us! Is there other life in the universe, though? And if so, are "they" like "us"? The Drake Equation allows us to consider some of the variables that would influence the development of advanced, technological, intelligent life around the galaxy. Some others, including Dr. Michio Kaku of City University of New York, have speculated about the nature of advanced life based on the idea that the laws of physics are universal, and they place limits on the development of life. Some of his speculation focuses on the need for advanced civilizations to harness vast amounts of energy just to avoid being wiped out by natural disasters. And of course the biggest natural disaster of them all is the end of the universe- current theories suggest that the universe has an open structure, which means that the ultimate fate of the universe is ever accelerating expansion and cooling, a "Big Chill". If civilizations become advanced enough, they may be more interested in escaping this universe by manipulating space and time itself rather than contacting their neighbors...

But enough about physics. From what we k now about the evolution of advanced civilization on earth, which of the following statements would you think is most likely to be as universal as gravity itself? Write your answer as a blog comment below.

· Life will inevitably emerge when conditions are suitable

· When life emerges, it will lead to advanced intelligent civilizations

· When life emerges, it will be based on cells

· When life emerges, it will be subject to natural selection

For more information about Dr. Kaku visit http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=939&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

New Clue to Extrasolar Planetary Systems- Lithium!

Astronomers have known for some time that sunlike stars with high iron content are more likely to harbor planetary systems than other stars. Now they have a new clue- the amount of lithium. As we know from class, using spectroscopy we can determine the composition of faraway stars. So now we know that if a star has high iron and low lithium it is very likely to have planets. But why low lithium?

Garek Israelian, with the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in Spain have analysed data from 133 sunlike stars. The leading explanation is that having planets around a newly forming star slows the rotation- and allows the lithium to sink lower into the core of the star where it can be consumed by fusion as part of the star's energy source. Without the drag of the planets, the star spins faster and the lithium stays near the surface, where temperatures are too low for lithium fusion to occur.

This is only true of sunlike stars near the middle of the main sequence on the H-R diagram. Small red stars always burn up their lithium quickly regardless of whether there are planets or not; large blue stars experience layering that prevents the mixing of the elements.

Even more planets discovered via "wobble" method

An international group of astronomers using the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) have announced the discovery of 32 new planets, with many more announcements on the way. They had already announced the discovery of 43 other planets, bringing the total so far to 75. This is the result of a five year program of the European Southern Observatory that used a telescope in Chile.

Among the 75 planets discovered are 24 so-called super-Earths; planets with a mass just a few times that of Earth (not gas giants.) Only 28 super-Earths in total have been discovered by researchers around the world. This radial velocity method which looks for wobble is very good at finding these smaller planets.

The following link will show you an animation that demonstrates how the Radial Velocity Method works.

Radial Velocity Method

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Planet_reflex_sm.gif

Probe to crash into the moon on Parents Day!

A final location has been decided for the two-part lunar crash probe, part of the mission known as LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite), "On 9 October, at around 11:30 GMT, LCROSS will send its Atlas V's Centaur rocket upper stage towards the lunar surface (see pic). Four minutes after impact, LCROSS will descend through the plume using two "two near-infrared spectrometers, a visible light spectrometer, two mid-infrared cameras, two near-infrared cameras, a visible camera and a visible radiometer" to sniff the resulting chemical mix." (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/29/lcross_retargeted/ )

The LCROSS probe itself will then crash into the moon. The hope is that it will find evidence of water.

Well it all went as planned, and information about the event from NASA can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/index.html

A great video simulation can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/mov/391565main_LCROSS-MediaPreview.mov

A new, giant, massive ring has been discovered around Saturn- so large that a BILLION earths could fit in it! It is more than 300 Saturns wide! How could astronomers have missed it?

Well, it turns out the ring is almost invisible, that's how. While it is about 40 million kilometers across it is exceedingly thin. It is made of dust-like ice and rock particles that barely reflect any of the feeble sunlight that reaches Saturn- but the sun does heat them up. So it was the Spitzer infrared telescope that finally noticed the giant ring.

Remember the Rovers?

The Mars Rovers are the robots that were sent to Mars when today's juniors and seniors in high school were still in middle school. They had a three month mission. They've been at it about five years. In fact, just a month ago the rover Spirit celebrated its 2000th "sol", or Martian day. It's been experiencing some rough weather recently- dust storms.

Thr rover Opportunity, on the other hand, has been plodding away. In fact, in the photo below, you can see a photo of Opportunity taken by an orbiting satellite. If you look carefully, you can even see the wheel tracks it has left behind. Opportunity has travelled over 100 meters in a day. It is headed toward an interesting crater named Endeavor. At this rate, it will be thee in about two Earth years.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona