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POPSTelescope spots monster galactic cluster They theorize that the fact that it's 7.7 billion light years away (as far as they know) meant that it was before the acceleration due to dark energy made it impossible for galactic clusters that large to hold together. It reminded me of a poem by Hughes Mearns. 'Antigonish' As I was going up the stair, I saw a star that wasn’t there. It wasn’t there again today, I wish, that star would stay away. (I thought I'd adjust it to cover Light years, and dark matter.)
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POPSDozens of 'Super Earths' Found The recent batch of exoplanets were all spotted with the High-Accuracy Radial-Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), a 3.6-meter telescope and spectograph perched atop La Scilla mountain at the southern edge of Chile's Atacama Desert.
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POPSFound ! 'Missing link' brown dwarf Scientists have often wondered how big a gas cloud had to be, before the collapse due to it's own gravity would turn it from a large planet into a small star. They have found gas giants, and brown dwarfs either side, but this is the closest to the line. There will probably be a few 'missing links', because beside the mass, the flash point could depend on what the clouds are made of. Scientists always love it when they find something that needs a new category.
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POPSThe Ancient Mechanics and How They Thought He also majored in astronomy as an undergraduate, and about nine years ago, feeling science-deprived, he joined a multinational research endeavor called the Archimedes Project, based at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. The Archimedes team studies the history of mechanics, how people thought about simple machines like the lever, the wheel and axle, the balance, the pulley, the wedge and the screw and how they turned their thoughts into theories and principles. The textual record begins with “Mechanical Problems,” moves to Rome and then through the medieval Islamic world to the Renaissance. It ends, finally, with Newton, who described many of the basic laws of mechanics in the 18th century. By following the historical record, the Archimedes researchers have discovered that the evolution of physics — or, at least, mechanics — is based on an interplay between practice and theory.
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POPSPlot of the Innermost Solar System, March 29, 2008 The plot below shows the current location of the major planets (Mercury through Mars) and the minor planets that are in the innermost region of the solar system. Just in case you thought it's lonely out there in the space ;-)
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POPSAurora Borealis in Marquette, Michigan Spaceweather says: "...Last night a gust of solar wind sent auroras rippling down from Canada into the United States. Shawn Malone sends this picture from Marquette, Michigan... "There was a nice burst of aurora activity right after sunset," says Malone who captured the scene using his Canon 5D. "The thawing snowbanks in the foreground were not the most scenic, but I had to act quickly to catch the auroras." The solar wind continues to blow and more geomagnetic storms are possible tonight. Northern (and not-so-northern) sky watchers should be alert for auroras."
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POPSThe Largest known Star But as they say in the Astronomy business: "The bigger they are the harder they collapse due to their own gravitational pull" (Or something like that.) Our Sun will be around for a long time after this one has gone Supernova and become a Black hole.- disappeared into it's own existance
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POPSStormy Jupiter reveals more secrets. Jupiter has a metallic Hydrogen core that creates a Magnetosphere similar to the one created by Earth's Iron core. Scientists have known that Jupiter generates more energy than it receives from the Sun, but how it affectes the Atmosphere below the surface layer of clouds was unclear. They are still trying to work out the way the Atmosphere is affected by the combination of these energy sources, but they are learning to make a distinction between the two effects. This data shows effects that to be a result of Energy generated by Jupiter. They are thought to be below any possible influence of the sun. (Of course the scientists could always be surprised again. That seems to happen fairly often.)
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POPSAstronomers Describe Violent Universe We have to change the way we see the universe, as we see the universe changing. While we can try and work out where it is going to go by looking at where it has been it might be a mistake to think that the universe only one way. When you think about the distribution of mass, time is going to be pretty gnarly.
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POPSSpitzer Space Telescope I saw a story where scientists thought they'd found out where cosmic dust came from. There were no pictures, so I followed the link to the telescope. There was much more to see, so I clipped the telescope. I think it's more of an infra red
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POPSBully galaxy zaps neighbour They say the particle beam would have bad effects on 'Earth-like planets.' I would say they were just turning them into something that wasn't Earth-like. The beam smashing into gas clouds can cause them to contract and form new stars. You lose some, you win some
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POPSWeird dark stars dotted early universe Quasars usually need the mass of a galaxy to form, and astronomers have been unable to explain how some quasars seemed to appear before galaxies had formed to make them. These 'dark stars' provide a means by which this may have happened.
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POPSShock Discovery of Ancient Space Invader This rock sample contains fragments of the first asteroid ever discovered intact. The brown 'nuggets' in the sample once orbited the Sun, and are probably older than the planets in our Solar System.
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POPSDistant solar system has five planets So far Earth size planets are difficult to detect, but Gas Giants have the mass to cause movement in the star that can be detected. There are no doubt smaller planets and moons, in many of the solar systems where large planets have been detected, that will be found as our methods of detection are improved.
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