Guest Post by Melinda Wilson
Whether you are an amateur or veteran astronomer you are probably all too familiar with the difficulties inherent in observing the stars. The big problem is that delicate equipment cannot be kept outside without protection from the elements, but dragging it in and out of the house every night is too much hassle. What you … Read the rest of this article
Researchers anticipate that asteroid 2011 AG5, discovered in January 2011, will fly safely past and not impact Earth in 2040.
Current findings and analysis data were reported at a May 29 workshop at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., attended by scientists and engineers from around the world. Discussions focused on observations of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs).
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Orbit …
I recently received an email about a movie of the Venus transit that had been recorded down in Crete. The video was shot with a 6″ Maksutov f/12 telescope and a Canon D40 dSLR in South Crete at the Sasteria public observatory:
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has spied long-standing methane lakes, or puddles, in the “tropics” of Saturn’s moon Titan. One of the tropical lakes appears to be about half the size of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, with a depth of at least 3 feet (1 meter).
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Saturn’s rings lie in the distance as the Cassini spacecraft looks toward Titan and its dark …
The formation of small worlds like Earth previously was thought to occur mostly around stars rich in heavy elements such as iron and silicon. However, new ground-based observations, combined with data collected by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, show small planets form around stars with a wide range of heavy element content and suggest they may be widespread in our galaxy.… Read the rest of this article
New evidence from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory challenges prevailing ideas about how black holes grow in the centers of galaxies. Astronomers long have thought that a supermassive black hole and the bulge of stars at the center of its host galaxy grow at the same rate — the bigger the bulge, the bigger the black hole. However, a new study … Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) launched into the morning skies over the central Pacific Ocean at noon EDT (9 a.m. PDT) Wednesday, beginning its mission to unveil secrets of buried black holes and other exotic objects.
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NuSTAR has a 30-foot mast that deploys after launch to separate the optics modules (right) from the detectors in the focal plane (left). …
During a powerful solar blast on March 7, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected the highest-energy light ever associated with an eruption on the sun. The discovery heralds Fermi’s new role as a solar observatory, a powerful new tool for understanding solar outbursts during the sun’s maximum period of activity.
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During a powerful solar blast in March, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray …
NASA has narrowed the target for its most advanced Mars rover, Curiosity, which will land on the Red Planet in August. The car-sized rover will arrive closer to its ultimate destination for science operations, but also closer to the foot of a mountain slope that poses a landing hazard.
“We’re trimming the distance we’ll have to drive after landing by … Read the rest of this article
AAVSO Alert Notice 460The AAVSO have been asked to help disseminate the news of a possible occultation of Pluto visible to observers on the US East coast. Although the AAVSO does not ordinarily issue announcements of upcoming occultations, in this case the object is Pluto and the NASA … 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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