Astronomy posts
- July 20, 2012
- 08:00 PM
- 239 views
Spiral Galaxy...Is Old
by Brooke N in Smaller Questions
Grand design spiral galaxies are the most ordered collections of stars in the universe. One would assume that those galaxies--with their organized orbits, central core, and twisting arms--didn't just pop into existence right away. One would think that they took some time after the Big Bang to compose themselves. However, astronomers have recently found that the formation of spiral galaxies--or at least one spiral galaxy--doesn't have to take very long at all.... Read more »
David R. Law, Alice E. Shapley, Charles C. Steidel, Naveen A. Reddy, Charlotte R. Christensen, & Dawn K. Erb. (2012) High velocity dispersion in a rare grand-design spiral galaxy at redshift z . Nature, 338-340. DOI: 10.1038/nature11256
- July 19, 2012
- 12:59 PM
- 366 views
The Soot Line: Between fire and ice
by Invader Xan in Supernova Condensate
The question of precisely what happens as stars and planets condense from vast clouds of gas is still very much an unanswered one. We have some good ideas of how things work, but really it’s difficult to be certain. Newly … Continue reading →... Read more »
Kress, Monika E., Tielens, Alexander G. G. M., & Frenklach, Michael. (2010) The ‘soot line’: Destruction of presolar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the terrestrial planet-forming region of disks. Advances in Space Research, 46(1), 44-49. DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2010.02.004
- July 17, 2012
- 04:42 PM
- 662 views
Black hole nucleosynthesis
by Invader Xan in Supernova Condensate
If I had to pick a handful of favourite things in all of physics, black holes and nuclear fusion would be among them. Hands down. This interesting little paper which I stumbled across earlier (via a link to the APS … Continue reading →... Read more »
Fabio Iocco, & Miguel Pato. (2012) Lithium Synthesis in Microquasar Accretion. Phys. Rev. Lett., 109(2), 21102. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.021102
- June 28, 2012
- 05:45 AM
- 488 views
Cosmic Mystery Solved?
by gunnardw in The Beast, the Bard and the Bot
Remember that mysterious cosmic event, hinted at in tree rings? Brief recap: Upon studying the tree rings in Japanese cedar trees, researchers found evidence for a sudden increase in 14C in the atmosphere. What, oh what, could have caused this? … Continue reading →... Read more »
Allen, J. (2012) Astronomy: Clue to an ancient cosmic-ray event?. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/486473e
Lovett, R.A. (2012) Ancient text gives clue to mysterious radiation spike. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature.2012.10898
- June 19, 2012
- 01:23 AM
- 442 views
Do I Look Like an Alien to You?
by Jason Carr in Wired Cosmos
I finally got a chance to see Prometheus this weekend and it reminded me why I love both technology and space so much. Without giving too much away for those of you that haven’t yet watched it, one of the more prominent ideas put forth in the movie is that we were created by alien [...]... Read more »
Ehrenfreund P, Spaans M, & Holm NG. (2011) The evolution of organic matter in space. Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences, 369(1936), 538-54. PMID: 21220279
Ziurys LM. (2006) The chemistry in circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars: following the origin of the elements to the origin of life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103(33), 12274-9. PMID: 16894164
Kerr RA. (2012) Planetary science. Homegrown organic matter found on Mars, but no life. Science (New York, N.Y.), 336(6084), 970. PMID: 22628628
Davies PC. (2003) Does life's rapid appearance imply a Martian origin?. Astrobiology, 3(4), 673-9. PMID: 14987473
Frederick Su. (1996) Extraterrestrial life forms examined. SPIE. DOI: 10.1117/2.6199612.0001
- June 17, 2012
- 05:31 PM
- 493 views
Totally Tropical Titan
by Invader Xan in Supernova Condensate
Our solar system is full of mysteries, and it seems the more we look, the more we find, and the less we can explain. Most recently, the puzzles of the martian methane and the beautifully lethal venusian clouds have been … Continue reading →... Read more »
C.P. McKay, & H.D. Smith. (2005) Possibilities for methanogenic life in liquid methane on the surface of Titan. Icarus, 274-276. DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2005.05.018
Giuseppe Mitri, Adam P. Showman, Jonathan I. Lunine, & Ralph D. Lorenz. (2007) Hydrocarbon lakes on Titan. Icarus, 385-394. DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2006.09.004
Francois Raulin. (2008) Astrobiology and Habitability of Titan. Space Sci Rev, 37-48. DOI: 10.1007/s11214-006-9133-7
Darrell F. Strobel. (2010) Molecular hydrogen in Titan's atmosphere: Implications of the measured tropospheric and thermospheric mole fractions. Icarus, 878-886. DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2010.03.003
- June 6, 2012
- 09:35 AM
- 539 views
Interstellar Sleuths
by Invader Xan in Supernova Condensate
“Of course, this identification is simply wrong.” That one remark caused a subdued but audible commotion in the audience, and a handful of shocked responses to be posted on twitter. The remark in question had been made by Jacek Krełowski, … Continue reading →... Read more »
Harvey Liszt, Paule Sonnentrucker, Martin Cordiner, & Maryvonne Gerin. (2012) The abundance of C3H2 and other small hydrocarbons in the diffuse interstellar medium. ApJL. arXiv: 1206.0342v1
- June 4, 2012
- 10:25 AM
- 454 views
Tree Rings and A Cosmic Mystery
by gunnardw in The Beast, the Bard and the Bot
Between AD 774 and 775 something weird happened. And that something weird resulted in a 12% increase of 14C (a radioactive form of carbon) in the atmosphere. How do we even know this? Tree rings. Earlier work had enabled the … Continue reading →... Read more »
Miyake, F., Nagaya, K., Masuda, K., & Nakamura, T. (2012) A signature of cosmic-ray increase in ad 774–775 from tree rings in Japan. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature11123
- May 29, 2012
- 11:59 AM
- 426 views
Transcriptomes in space. Sweet.
I know a lot of sci-geeks were lured into the field by space. Rockets, space travel, great science fiction–I understand the appeal. But as it seemed much more physics oriented, space wasn’t my primary fascination. But the effects of space travel on organisms (humans, of course, but others as well)–that’s something I can find pretty [...]... Read more »
Paul, A., Zupanska, A., Ostrow, D., Zhang, Y., Sun, Y., Li, J., Shanker, S., Farmerie, W., Amalfitano, C., & Ferl, R. (2012) Spaceflight Transcriptomes: Unique Responses to a Novel Environment. Astrobiology, 12(1), 40-56. DOI: 10.1089/ast.2011.0696
- May 25, 2012
- 03:14 PM
- 659 views
Once upon a time there was a star
by Olga Vovk in Milchstraße
Once upon a time there was a star. It was big, hot, luminous, and very proud of itself. It was the First Star. It had already devoured all the gas around, so no other stars could be born nearby. No neighbor stars were visible in vicinity either. It was lonely. The First Star spent its life in grief burning H and He and died shortly in pair-instability supernova. Or maybe it died quietly in a black hole. Or maybe I should tell another story. . .
Why do we think that Population III stars exist?........ Read more »
ResearchBlogging.org, & Bromm V. and Larson R. (2009) The First Stars in the Universe . Scientific American. info:/
Bromm, V. (2010) The Very First Stars: Formation and Reionization of the Universe. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 5(S265), 27. DOI: 10.1017/S1743921310000116
Stacy, A., Greif, T., & Bromm, V. (2010) The first stars: formation of binaries and small multiple systems. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 403(1), 45-60. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.16113.x
- May 8, 2012
- 01:03 PM
- 564 views
Looking for Earths by Looking for Jupiters
by Jason Carr in Wired Cosmos
In the search for Earth-like planets, it is helpful to look for clues and patterns that can help scientist narrow down the types of systems where potentially habitable planets are likely to be discovered. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Alan Boss narrows down the search for Earth-like planets near Jupiter-like planets. Their work [...]... Read more »
Steffen, J., Ragozzine, D., Fabrycky, D., Carter, J., Ford, E., Holman, M., Rowe, J., Welsh, W., Borucki, W., Boss, A.... (2012) Kepler constraints on planets near hot Jupiters. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1120970109
- May 7, 2012
- 12:23 PM
- 853 views
What PhD's Want To Be When They Grow Up
by Nick Nelson in The Eternal Universe
Almost everyone who goes to grad school in physics does so thinking that they will one become a tenured professor at a large university. And anyone who has been around a physics graduate program for a while knows that for most of us that is simply not going to happen. A recent book by Paula Stephan entitled "How Economics Shapes Science" shows that 23% of physics PhD's hold tenure-track appointments 6 years after their PhD, which means that less than one-quarter of those that survive........ Read more »
Sauermann, H., & Roach, M. (2012) Science PhD Career Preferences: Levels, Changes, and Advisor Encouragement. PLoS ONE, 7(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036307
- April 23, 2012
- 07:27 AM
- 583 views
Robotic Telesurgery in Space
by Jason Carr in Wired Cosmos
Telemedicine is a field that uses telecommunications technology to provide healthcare at a distance. Certain computer systems can be linked to a physician’s office for diagnostic purposes. Different clinics and hospitals can be linked together. In the future, telemedicine could be used to perform robotic surgeries in space. Some forms of telemedicine have been in [...]... Read more »
Himpens J. (2012) Surgery in space: the future of robotic telesurgery (Haidegger T, Szandor J, Benyo Z. Surg Endosc 2011; 25(3):681-690). Surgical Endoscopy, 26(1), 286. PMID: 21858579
- April 20, 2012
- 01:41 PM
- 481 views
"Fireballs" Snuffed
by nuclear.kelly in Miss Atomic Bomb
So the story begins thusly: somewhere out there in the universe, something is producing really high energy cosmic rays. I mean, really high energy. Energies above 10^18 electronvolts (that's a one followed by eighteen zeros). That's nearly a million times more energetic than the LHC upgrade. Boggles-the-mind high energy.... Read more »
Abbasi, R., Abdou, Y., Abu-Zayyad, T., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J., Ahlers, M., Altmann, D., Andeen, K., Auffenberg, J.... (2012) An absence of neutrinos associated with cosmic-ray acceleration in γ-ray bursts. Nature, 484(7394), 351-354. DOI: 10.1038/nature11068
- April 19, 2012
- 12:10 PM
- 511 views
The Merging of Biology and Electronics [Research]
by Jason Carr in Wired Cosmos
The boundary between electronics and biology is blurring with the first detection by researchers at Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory of ferroelectric properties in an amino acid called glycine. A multi-institutional research team led by Andrei Kholkin of the University of Aveiro, Portugal, used a combination of experiments and modeling to identify and [...]... Read more »
Heredia, A., Meunier, V., Bdikin, I., Gracio, J., Balke, N., Jesse, S., Tselev, A., Agarwal, P., Sumpter, B., Kalinin, S.... (2012) Nanoscale Ferroelectricity in Crystalline γ-Glycine. Advanced Functional Materials. DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201103011
- April 19, 2012
- 12:25 AM
- 738 views
Explosions in the dark...?
by Invader Xan in Supernova Condensate
Picture the scene. You’re drifting in intergalactic space. There are no stars punctuating the darkness, like there are here on Earth. Instead of stars, the points of light you can see are fuzzier looking. Far fewer points of light than you’d see from home here in the Milky Way, those lights you’re seeing are whole galaxies. Indescribably distant. You’re all alone, lost in the inky blackness of intergalactic space. There’s nothing out here but silent drifting clouds ........ Read more »
P. -C. Zinn, M. Stritzinger, J. Braithwaite, A. Gallazzi, P. Grunden, D. J. Bomans, N. I. Morrell, & U. Bach. (2011) Supernovae without host galaxies? The low surface brightness host of SN 2009Z. Astronomy . arXiv: 1111.1833v1
- April 17, 2012
- 09:59 AM
- 617 views
Magnetic Fields Can Send Particles to Infinity
by Jason Carr in Wired Cosmos
I’ve always thought that if we’re ever to achieve long-range intersteller space travel, magnetics will play a fairly large role in the process. This is especially true if we’re going to get away from the dependence of currently used rocket fuel in the process. I’m not quite certain of the physics/mechanics involved (yet) but surely [...]... Read more »
Díaz-Cano, A., & González-Gascón, F. (2012) Escape to infinity in the presence of magnetic fields. Quarterly of Applied Mathematics, 70(1), 45-51. DOI: 10.1090/S0033-569X-2011-01248-4
- April 13, 2012
- 12:39 PM
- 615 views
A New First – Uranus Auroras Glimpsed from Earth
by Jason Carr in Wired Cosmos
For the first time, scientists have captured images of auroras above the giant ice planet Uranus, finding further evidence of just how peculiar a world that distant planet is. Detected by means of carefully scheduled observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, the newly witnessed Uranian light show consisted of short-lived, faint, glowing dots – a [...]... Read more »
Lamy, L., Gladstone, G., Barthelemy, M., Achilleos, N., Guio, P., Dougherty, M., Melin, H., Cowley, S., Stallard, T., Nichols, J.... (2012) Earth-based detection of Uranus' aurorae. Geophysical Research Letters. DOI: 10.1029/2012GL051312
- April 13, 2012
- 02:46 AM
- 589 views
The Universe at the Speed of Light [Infographic]
by Jason Carr in Wired Cosmos
I try to stay active on Twitter so that I can keep up with what’s happening in the world of #astronomy and #science. I actually learn a great deal from many of those that I follow (one of the reasons I love Twitter). One astronomer that I learn from regularly is Dr. Michael Brown (@plutokiller). [...]... Read more »
Richard Davies, Hauke Engel, Erin Hicks, Natascha Foerster Schreiber, Reinhard Genzel, Linda Tacconi, Frank Eisenhauer, & Sebastian Rabien. (2010) Dissecting Galaxies with Adaptive Optics. Conference Proceedings. arXiv: 1005.5010v1
- April 12, 2012
- 09:49 PM
- 941 views
Disassociate Galaxy Clusters
by The Astronomist in The Astronomist.
A dissociative galaxy cluster is a cluster of galaxies that just can't keep it together any longer. This may sound like an unnecessary anthropomorphication of galaxies, but it is actually a description of galaxy clusters which have collided and experienced stratification of their constituent parts. In the standard and successful model of cosmology the largest scale structures in the universe, like super clusters of thousands of galaxies, form via the merger of filamentary structures compose........ Read more »
Dawson, W., Wittman, D., Jee, M., Gee, P., Hughes, J., Tyson, J., Schmidt, S., Thorman, P., Bradač, M., Miyazaki, S.... (2012) DISCOVERY OF A DISSOCIATIVE GALAXY CLUSTER MERGER WITH LARGE PHYSICAL SEPARATION. The Astrophysical Journal, 747(2). DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/747/2/L42
Jee, M., Mahdavi, A., Hoekstra, H., Babul, A., Dalcanton, J., Carroll, P., & Capak, P. (2012) A STUDY OF THE DARK CORE IN A520 WITH THE : THE MYSTERY DEEPENS . The Astrophysical Journal, 747(2), 96. DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/747/2/96
Markevitch, M., Gonzalez, A., Clowe, D., Vikhlinin, A., Forman, W., Jones, C., Murray, S., & Tucker, W. (2004) Direct Constraints on the Dark Matter Self‐Interaction Cross Section from the Merging Galaxy Cluster 1E 0657−56. The Astrophysical Journal, 606(2), 819-824. DOI: 10.1086/383178
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