AAVSO Alert Notice 452Dr. Hans Moritz Guenther, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has requested bracketing and simultaneous observations in support of XMM-Newton x-ray observations of the classical T Tauri star SU Aur and the close-by Herbig Ae star AB Aur scheduled for February 15 – 17, … Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found bright veins of a mineral, apparently gypsum, deposited by water. Analysis of the vein will help improve understanding of the history of wet environments on Mars.
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The vein is about the width of a thumb and about 18 inches long. Opportunity examined it and found it rich in calcium and sulphur, possibly the …
The sun rotates at a respectable 2 kilometers per second, which may sound pretty fast. But according to a study to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters (arXiv:1111.0157v1), a star has been detected in 30 Doradus (a.k.a. the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 160,000 light-years away) spinning at the breakneck speed of 600 kilometers per … Read the rest of this article
A fleet of spacecraft including ESA’s XMM-Newton and Integral have shown unprecedented details close to a supermassive black hole. They reveal huge ‘bullets’ of gas being driven away from the ‘gravitational monster’.
Active galaxy Markarian 509 as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope’s WFPC2. Credits: NASA, ESA, J. Kriss (STScI) and J. de Plaa (SRON)
The black hole that the … Read the rest of this article
The cataclysmic variable NSV 1436 has been discovered in outburst. This is the first bright outburst of this star observed since 1948, and followup observations are strongly encouraged. Little is known about the nature of NSV 1436, and observations may help shed light on whether the star is an … Read the rest of this article
Two ESA observatories have combined forces to show the Andromeda Galaxy in a new light. Herschel sees rings of star formation in this, the most detailed image of the Andromeda Galaxy ever taken at infrared wavelengths, and XMM-Newton shows dying stars shining X-rays into space.
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During Christmas 2010, ESA’s Herschel and XMM-Newton space observatories targeted … Read the rest of this article
Dr. Jerome Orosz (SDSU) has requested the assistance of southern bright star observers in observing the high-mass X-ray binary star V884 Sco (== 4U 1700-377). Orosz and collaborators are attempting to measure the mass of the compact object to clarify … Read the rest of this article
Astronomers using NASA’s Swift satellite and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope are seeing frequent blasts from a stellar remnant 30,000 light-years away. The high-energy fireworks arise from a rare type of neutron star known as a soft-gamma-ray repeater. Such objects unpredictably send out a series of X-ray and gamma-ray flares.
“At times, this remarkable object has erupted with more than a … Read the rest of this article
The Sun Now (Visible light)
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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Aurora Oval
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