Archive for November, 2007

“A grand design in a galactic festoon”

Published Thursday, 29 November, 2007 galaxies Leave a Comment
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The latest Hubblecast is now out! In this episode we present a new stunning Hubble image. M74 is a beautiful spiral galaxy located 32 million light years away. Hubble imaged the galaxy with its Advanced Camera for Surveys between 2003 and 2005.

“Messier 74, also called NGC 628, is a stunning example of a ‘grand-design’ spiral galaxy that is viewed by Earth observers nearly face-on. Its perfectly symmetrical spiral arms emanate from the central nucleus and are dotted with clusters of young blue stars. In the new Hubble image we can also see a smattering of bright pink regions decorating the spiral arms.

These are huge, relatively short-lived, clouds of hydrogen gas which glow due to the strong radiation from hot, young stars embedded within them; glowing pink regions of ionized hydrogen (hydrogen that has lost its electrons).”
You can watch the Hubblecast here.

Image credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

UK astronomy under threat

Published Thursday, 22 November, 2007 astronomy Leave a Comment
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Well this story is nearly a week old and I’ve been busy working so I haven’t had chance to blog about it; but I think it’s too important not to mention something about it here. It’s the news of a very worrying announcement made by the Science & Technology Facilities Council.

In order to save money the STFC plans to withdraw the UK from the Gemini Observatory leaving UK astronomers without access to one of (if not the) best optical observatories in the Northern Hemisphere.
The UK has already contributed £23 million to the Gemini project, with a 23% share in the project since 1992. This surprising development becomes even more concerning when we consider this quote from the RAS news release:”The decision to withdraw from the project appears to have been made without any consultation with the astronomical community.”

Chris Lintott has an interesting post about the developments on his blog as does Stuart at Astronomy Blog. According to ‘The e-Astronomer’ (Prof. Andy Lawrence) this is just the beginning of worse things to come after budget cuts by the UK government. Let’s hope the STFC reconsiders this decision and as Stuart and Andy say, in the meantime, you can write to your local MP!

Behind the scenes at Hubble

Published Thursday, 8 November, 2007 ESA , Hubble Space Telescope Leave a Comment
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The latest Hubblecast is out! Episode number 10 explores behind the scenes of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

“We live in a Universe of unimaginable scale and almost incomprehensible beauty. How is the light from the Universe transformed into the images that have inspired generations by making the Universe come to life?”

If you have ever wondered how the incredible images from Hubble are made then this Hubblecast is for you!

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgement: B. Whitmore ( Space Telescope Science Institute) and James Long (ESA/Hubble).

ESO Catch a Star

Published Thursday, 8 November, 2007 ESO , astronomy Leave a Comment
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The European Southern Observatory is running an international competition for students (in primary or secondary education) called ‘Catch a Star’. Entrants can either submit reports or artwork on an astronomical topic of their choice.

The deadline is Friday 29th February 2008. Prizes include T-shirts, DVDs, posters as well as (for the top prizes) trips to various worldwide observatories including ESO’s Paranal site in Chile!

For more information and the full rules, details and requirements visit the ESO ‘Catch A Star’ site here.

Comet Holmes

Published Tuesday, 6 November, 2007 astronomy Leave a Comment
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If you haven’t tried to observe outbursting Comet Holmes (17P) yet, you really should! This comet is putting on an unusual show in the northern hemisphere’s night sky. Northern hemisphere observers will be able to spot it as a bright fuzzy star (now growing to almost half the apparent diameter of the Full Moon) in Perseus. A good pair of binoculars will show its bright round fuzzy nucleus best.

To locate it, scour along a line between the bright star Capella in Auriga and Mirfak in Perseus. Through a pair of 10×50 binoculars it is quite possible to find the fuzzy white orb of Holmes amongst the background stars.

Over the past few weeks the comet has dramatically risen to naked eye visibility with a million fold increase in brightness. What’s odd about this comet though is that it is brightening as it moves away from the Sun. Normally comets brighten as they approach it! Astronomers are not sure what might have caused the incredible outburst. It may have been caused by a collision with a small rocky object (a meteoroid) or a sudden collapse and subsequent exposure of parts of the comet’s icy surface.

Current estimates have the comet at roughly magnitude 2.5, well within naked-eye visibility. So weather permitting you will be able catch a glimpse of this intriguing celestial visitor as it heads away from the Sun.

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