Friday Night Eye Candy (Stressed? Chill with the stars....)

[n2doc]

Friday Night Eye Candy
Stressful times require some time to relax.


First, a little music:

Team records 'music' from stars
By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News


HD49933 was one of the stars observed using the Corot telescope
Scientists have recorded the sound of three stars similar to our Sun using France's Corot space telescope.
A team writing in Science journal says the sounds have enabled them to get information about processes deep within stars for the first time.
If you listen closely to the sounds of each star - by clicking on the media in this page - you'll hear a regular repeating pattern.
Music at link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7687286.stm

Now, some pictures…




A claret-coloured cloud with a massive heart
A new image released by ESO shows the amazing intricacies of a vast stellar nursery, which goes by the name of Gum 29. In the centre, a small cluster of stars — called Westerlund 2 — has been found to be the home of one of the most massive double star systems known to astronomers.

Gum 29 is a huge region of hydrogen gas that has been stripped of its electrons (ionised) by the intense radiation of the hot young stars located at its centre. Astronomers call this an HII (pronounced "H-two") region, and this particularly stunning example stretches out across space for over 200 light-years. The name stems from the fact that it is the 29th entry in the catalogue published by Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum in 1955.
Embedded deep within the huge, nebulous expanse of Gum 29, the relatively little known cluster of Westerlund 2 is clearly seen in the centre of this image. The latest measurements indicate that it lies at a distance of some 26 000 light-years from Earth, placing it towards the outside edge of the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way. The cluster's distance has been the subject of intense scrutiny in the past, as it is one of the parameters needed to understand this intriguing object. Westerlund 2 is very young too, with an age of only 1—2 million years.
Previous observations have shown that two stars to the bottom right of the cluster are true leviathans. Together they form what is known as a double system. The two stars have masses of 82 and 83 times that of our Sun and rotate around each other in approximately 3.7 days. They are amongst the most massive stars known to astronomers.







Great Orion Nebulae
Credit & Copyright: Tony Hallas
Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the most famous nebulae in the sky. The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars are on the right in this sharp and colorful two frame mosaic that includes the smaller nebula M43 near center and dusty, bluish reflection nebulae NGC 1977 and friends on the left. Located at the edge of an otherwise invisible giant molecular cloud complex, these eye-catching nebulae represent only a small fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of interstellar material. Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous infant solar systems. The gorgeous skyscape spans nearly two degrees or about 45 light-years at the Orion Nebula's estimated distance of 1,500 light-years.



In the Center of the Lagoon Nebula
Credit: A. Caulet (ST-ECF, ESA), NASA
Explanation: The center of the Lagoon Nebula is a whirlwind of spectacular star formation. Visible on the upper left, at least two long funnel-shaped clouds, each roughly half a light-year long, have been formed by extreme stellar winds and intense energetic starlight. The tremendously bright nearby star, Hershel 36, lights the area. Vast walls of dust hide and redden other hot young stars. As energy from these stars pours into the cool dust and gas, large temperature differences in adjoining regions can be created generating shearing winds which may cause the funnels. This picture, spanning about 5 light years, was taken in 1995 by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. The Lagoon Nebula, also known as M8, lies about 5000 light years distant toward the constellation of Sagittarius.



Sharpless 171
Credit & Copyright: Antonio Fernandez
Explanation: Cosmic pillars of cold molecular gas and clouds of dark dust lie within Sharpless 171, a star-forming region some 3,000 light-years away in the royal constellation Cepheus. This tantalizing false-color skyscape spans about 20 light-years across the nebula's bright central region. It also highlights the pervasive glow of emission from atomic gas using narrowband filters and a color palette made popular in Hubble Space Telescope images. Powering the nebular glow are the young, hot stars of a newly formed cluster, Berkeley 59. Of course, this star-forming region is entry number 171 in the famous 1959 catalog of emission nebulae compiled by astronomer Stewart Sharpless.





Saturn



Plumewatch
October 23, 2008

The active surface jets on Enceladus collectively form a brilliant, extended plume that is made visible as sunlight scatters among the microscopic particles of ice. The plume is more easily seen with the Sun directly, or almost directly, behind Enceladus, as is the case here.
The moon's surface is lit here by reflected light from Saturn




Icy Profile
October 20, 2008 Full-Res: PIA10494

The Cassini spacecraft looks toward Rhea's cratered, icy landscape with the dark line of Saturn's ringplane and the planet's murky atmosphere as a background.
Rhea is Saturn's second-largest moon, at 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from less than a degree above the ringplane.



This is a side-by-side view of large cyclones at both poles of Saturn obtained by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer onboard the Cassini spacecraft.
These high-spatial-resolution polar orthographic projections of the north (left) and south (right) polar regions show rings of clouds and hazes circling the poles, as observed in the near-infrared at a wavelength of 5 micron, some seven times the reddest wavelength observed by the human eye. The resolution is 200 kilometers (149 miles) per pixel.
The left image is the first detailed image of Saturn's entire north polar region ever obtained. The movie covers a six-hour period at close range, as close as 240,000 kilometers (149,000 miles) above the clouds from a nearly-overhead viewpoint. Winds reach over 150 meters per second (325 miles per hour) at 88.3 degrees south latitude, just outside the first bright ring nearest the pole. The pole itself is covered by a small cloud some 600 kilometers (about 375 miles) wide. The cyclone reaches out some 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) from the pole, bordered by the hexagon. This hexagon is populated by fast-moving clouds which also reach speeds of over 500 kilometers per hour (300 miles per hour).
The south pole image (right), acquired just a few hours after the north polar image also shows a polar cyclone, complete with a central eye clear of clouds. This cyclone extends out some 15,000 kilometers (9,000 miles) from the pole.




Titan: Saturn's Plugged In Moon Host to Electrical Storms

Spanish physicists at the University of Granada and the University of Valencia have used data sent back by the Cassini-Huygens probe from Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Already unique in that it is the only other body within our solar system that has an atmosphere, researchers also found that it is home to electric storms within its atmosphere.
"In this moon there are clouds with convective movements and therefore there can be static electric fields and stormy conditions," explains Juan Antonio Morente, from the Department of Applied Physics of the University of Granada. "It significantly increases the chance that organic and prebiotic molecules get formed, according to the theory of Russian biochemist Alexander I. Oparín and Stanley L. Miller's experiment.”
Oparín and Miller's experiment was the first to form organic compounds from inorganic compounds using only electric shocks.



Comet



NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captured the picture on the left of comet Holmes in February 2008, four months after the comet suddenly erupted and brightened a millionfold overnight. The contrast of the picture has been enhanced on the right to show the anatomy of the comet.

Every six years, comet 17P/Holmes speeds away from Jupiter and heads inward toward the sun, traveling the same route typically without incident. However, twice in the last 116 years, in November 1892 and October 2007, comet Holmes mysteriously exploded as it approached the asteroid belt. Astronomers still do not know the cause of these eruptions.

Spitzer's infrared picture at left reveals fine dust particles that make up the outer shell, or coma, of the comet. The nucleus of the comet is within the bright whitish spot in the center, while the yellow area shows solid particles that were blown from the comet in the explosion. The comet is headed away from the sun, which lies beyond the right-hand side of the picture.

The contrast-enhanced picture on the right shows the comet's outer shell, and strange filaments, or streamers, of dust. The streamers and shell are a yet another mystery surrounding comet Holmes. Scientists had initially suspected that the streamers were small dust particles ejected from fragments of the nucleus, or from hyerpactive jets on the nucleus, during the October 2007 explosion. If so, both the streamers and the shell should have shifted their orientation as the comet followed its orbit around the sun. Radiation pressure from the sun should have swept the material back and away from it. But pictures of comet Holmes taken by Spitzer over time show the streamers and shell in the same configuration, and not pointing away from the sun. The observations have left astronomers stumped.

The horizontal line seen in the contrast-enhanced picture is a trail of debris that travels along with the comet in its orbit.



Mars



Doomed Moon of Mars
This moon is doomed. Mars, named for the Roman god of war, has two tiny moons--Phobos and Deimos--whose names are derived from the Greek for fear and panic. These Martian moons may well be captured asteroids originating in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or perhaps from even more distant reaches of the solar system.
The larger moon, Phobos, is a cratered, asteroid-like object in this stunning color image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Phobos orbits so close to Mars that gravitational tidal forces are dragging it down. In 100 million years or so, Phobos likely will be shattered by stress caused by the relentless tidal forces, the debris forming a decaying ring around Mars.




Layered
This striking image of a mound within the area of a trough cutting into Mars' north polar layered deposits was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Sept. 2, 2008.

The north polar layered deposits are a stack of discernible layers that are rich in water-ice. The stack is up to several miles thick.


This image shows a beautifully preserved alluvial fan located on the southern interior wall of Holden Crater. The ridges on the fan surface radiate from the apex and are “inverted channels” that once supplied the fan with sediment. The scalloped distal edges show an impressive cross-section through a layered sequence providing scientists with insight into the geologic history of this crater and climate conditions on early Mars.



Earth:


Several locations in the Northern and Southern hemispheres are being studied as possible sites for the future European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). One is Cordón Macon, located in the Province of Salta (Argentina) at the same latitude as Paranal Observatory. The E-ELT candidate site is 4650 metres above sea level, far from turbulence generated by westerly winds from Cordillera de Los Andes thanks to the presence of the Salar de Arizaro in between. Tolar Grande (3600 metres above sea level) is the nearest village to Macon and is used as a base camp for site testing operations. A final decision about the future home of the E-ELT is expected at the end of 2009. We will of course also feature the other candidates sites on this web page whenever possible.



Rub' al Khali, Arabia
The Rub' al Khali is one of the largest sand deserts in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. It includes parts of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The desert covers an area larger than France. Largely unexplored until recently, the first documented journeys made by Westerners were those of Bertram Thomas in 1931 and St. John Philby in 1932.

[daninthemoon]

1. Thank you so much. i love these posts, and they really help one

keep perspective in these frightening times.

[chaplainM]

2. Amazing!

When will you start sharing GLAST images?

[byronius]

3. Can't tell you how much I enjoy these posts.

Thanks.

[FatDave]

4. There is such beauty everywhere in the universe.

Doesn't matter if it's in my back yard, thousands of light years away, or under a microscope, I'm always glad to see it.

[Occulus]

6. Have you heard of the Microsoft Worldwide Telescope?

It's awesome. It's like one of these threads, but you can zoom in to anywhere. Think of it like what you would imagine a "Google Sky" to be.

You can get it free here.

You don't just get pictures, either; there's a wealth of raw data available as well, commentary from working scientists in the form of tours, and the ability to "dive" into any point in the sky, to the highest available resolution. Known individual objects are described in depth, and the application can even talk to telescopes that have a USB connection (it can take control of them and focus the telescope on objects being displayed on the screen).

I highly recommend it, but be warned: the worldwide telescope will eat your hard drive space like nobody's business due to the high-resolution images (yes, you can clear the cache if you like), and you'll need a high-speed internet connection just as you would with Google Earth.

[Lucian]

5. I absolutely love this!

Thank you so much for sharing! I especially love the music of the stars. It's so...euphoric.

Edit: I found an online show of various sounds of space, called The Jodcast, which is, according to its website, A twice-monthly podcast covering all aspects of astronomy from The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (UK). It includes the latest news, what you can see in the current night sky, interviews with astronomers and other things we liked the sound of. It is created by a bunch of astronomers for anyone who is interested in things out of this world. Here it is: http://www.jodcast.net/archive/200808Extra/20080817-jodcast-soundsofspace.mp3 If you listen to the sounds of Jupiter, it kind of sounds like the phazon from Metroid Prime.