Touchdown at NAM
It’s great to be visiting Belfast for this year’s National Astronomy Meeting. It’s my first visit to the city and having arrived only half an hour ago I’ve already seen many old friends. More importantly it looks as if there are going to be some really interesting science results coming out of this year’s meeting. Chris has a post up on the new Hubble result which astronomers here at Queen’s University (who are hosting NAM this year) worked on. There’s an interesting lecture session on galaxy formation and evolution on in just over ten minutes so more soon…
Hubble finds methane on an exoplanet
The Hubble Space Telescope has recently found the organic molecule methane on the extrasolar planet HD 189733b. Here’s a section of the ESA press release below.
“Under the right circumstances methane can play a key role in prebiotic chemistry – the chemical reactions considered necessary to form life as we know it. Although methane has been detected on most of the planets in our Solar System, this is the first time any organic molecule has been detected on a world orbiting another star”
With an atmospheric temperature of around 900 degrees there certainly isn’t going to be life (at least as we know it) on HD 189733b. The importance of this observation is more that it is “proof that spectroscopy can eventually be done on a cooler and potentially habitable Earth-sized planet orbiting a dimmer red dwarf-type star” says Mark Swain who led the team that made the discovery at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
I saw this exciting news come in when I was working with the Hubble group in Germany and I began scripting a Hubblecast to cover the result. To see the finished piece visit the ESA Hubblecast no.14 page here.
Above: An artist’s impression of HD 189733b around its parent star.
Credit: Credit: ESA, NASA and G. Tinetti (University College London, UK & ESA)
Lecture reminder
Just a reminder to those of you in the south-west UK that on Thursday evening ( 20.03.08 ) I will be giving a lecture to the Torbay Astronomical Society. The title of the talk is “Not just pretty pictures – the science behind Hubble’s greatest images”.
All are welcome and the talk starts at around 7:30pm at Torquay Boys’ Grammar School. For information on how to get there and visitor fees see the TAS website.
44th Carnival of Space
The 44th Carnival of Space is being hosted by Phil on the Bad Astronomy blog, with a distinctly Martian theme.
Carnival of Space no. 43
The latest Carnival of Space (no.43!) is up and running (with a special Oscars® theme) over at Starts With A Bang. I promised not to cry…sniffle…
Odyssey’s end in sight for Ulysses
After just over seventeen years in space the Ulysses space probe looks as if its mission is drawing to a close. According to the European Space Agency Ulysses is beginning to show the signs of age, after nearly two decades touring the Solar System in orbit around its main interest – the Sun. The spacecraft is in a somewhat peculiar six year orbit around the Sun which takes it at one extreme flying right out to Jupiter and at the other extreme whirling over the Sun’s polar regions.
Ulysses has scrutinized the Sun in great detail over its seventeen or so years, telling us about the solar wind (the stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun), the Sun’s powerful magnetic field as well as how the Sun’s chromosphere and corona interact. One of Ulysses’ most interesting finds was that the solar wind at the poles of the Sun is emerging much faster than at the equator (with speeds of 750km/s and 350km/s respectively); and that the polar winds dominate about 2/3 of the heliosphere (the vast ‘shield’ around the Sun created by the solar wind). The probe, which was launched from the Space Shuttle’s cargo bay in 1990 has also studied Jupiter’s magnetic fields and the plasma environment around the giant planet.
So why is Ulysses dying after all these years? Well the probe itself is powered by the radioactive decay of a special isotope of plutonium. This decay slowly releases heat which the probe’s on-board technology converts into electricity. This in turn powers heaters, the science instruments and the communication antennae that are needed to send data back to Earth. However over time the radioactive isotope decay levels drop meaning that so to do the amounts of electricity produced.
This poses a problem for the craft because as it ventures out into space it needs its on-board heaters to keep the spacecraft at the right temperature. If they don’t and the craft’s temperature drops below 2°C then the probe’s fuel hydrazine (where have you heard that before) will freeze solid. It reminds me a bit of the lizards on David Attenborough’s incredible new BBC series ‘Life in Cold Blood’. They either need the Sun to warm them or find some heat of their own, otherwise they will freeze and die.
The scientists working with the Ulysses probe realised that if they didn’t do something the power levels would drop so much that the heaters and the science instruments would stop working – freezing the all important fuel. So in January they turned off the main transmitter that was sending data back to Earth in the hope that the re-routed power would go to the heaters and the science packages; keeping the hydrazine liquid. Unfortunately when they wanted to turn the transmitter back on to see if it had worked nothing happened. Now it seems Ulysses’ fuel will freeze as the probe cools in the vacuum of space to that crucial 2°C, bringing with it the end of an illustrious mission. Thankfully though there are many missions which are taking up Ulysses’ baton like SOHO, Stereo, Trace and Hinode. So solar science will be continuing into solar cycle 24, long after little Ulysses ends.
Above: An artist’s impression of the Ulysses probe
Credit: ESA
Carnival of Space no. 42
Chris is hosting the 42nd Carnival of Space over on his blog where you can read about moons, missiles and the ‘meatball’.
Carnival of Space no. 41
The new Carnival of Space is in town over on the New Frontiers blog.
A glimmer of hope for UK astronomy?
UK research astronomy, space science and physics is currently going through a pretty rough time. This is due to an anticipated £80m worth of cuts in the budget of the Science & Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) who fund much of the UK’s astronomy and physics research facilities both here and abroad. One repercussion (one of many) of the cuts was that the UK was forced to cancel its subscription to the Gemini Observatory (one of the finest research observatories in the Northern Hemisphere). Subsequently UK professional astronomers and postdoctoral researchers lost access to their use of the telescopes meaning many will not be able to carry out their vitally important astronomical research.
However there may be a chance to resolve the Gemini issue. Stuart is reporting that the Gemini Board and the UK STFC have announced that they are going to sit down and discuss the future of the UK’s involvement in Gemini whilst at the same time reinstating the observing time (for the first part of 2008 at the moment at least) that the UK astronomers had lost. I’m not a research astronomer but Chris is. He has a post on what this means to those who have spent time and effort in formulating the observing proposals that were initially cut. Finally – If you want great inside view and commentary on the academic side of astronomy then I recommend you have a browse of Prof. Andy Lawrence’s blog (the e-astronomer); he also has some really interesting posts on the funding cuts issue.
Galaxy eating monster reveals its secrets
A monster so huge it is capable of slowly devouring whole galaxies at a time. Sounds incredible doesn’t it? But that is what astronomers working on the Hubble Space Telescope think that the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1132 is – a cosmic cannibal if you will. In this stunning new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble mission astronomers are seeing the vast hulk of a galaxy, 320 million light years distant, whose past is much darker than it might at first seem. That’s because whilst the stunning elliptical in Hubble’s new image looks serene and peaceful, it is in fact the aftermath of gravitational dance which saw the death of many smaller galaxies; and it all clinches on how astronomers think galaxies form.
One of the most popular current theories is that giant galaxies like NGC 1132 are made from the merger and assimilation of lots of smaller galaxies. Over time these vast elliptical giants like NGC 1132 emerge as enormous conglomerations of stars. Sounds all very vicious but in fact this galactic cannibalism is probably quite commonplace in the Universe if our theories of galaxy evolution are correct. Indeed Hubble scientists believe that our own Milky Way may have been partial to devouring the odd dwarf galaxy which strayed too close to it.
Yet the one question that we are bound to ask is how do we know? Well the answer comes from two main lines of evidence. The first is globular clusters. Galaxies like the Milky Way are home to globular clusters which reside above and below the disc of the galaxy. These are extremely ancient (and fairly compact) balls of stars and are useful tools for studying the evolution of stars. If you know where to look you can spot them through a small telescope on a clear night.
When Hubble scientists looked at NGC 1132 they noticed something interesting. A vast collection of globular clusters around the massive galaxy. They believe that what they are seeing are the globular clusters of NGC 1132′s victims – whole globular clusters that have been cast away as NGC 1132 merges with their parent galaxies. Since the stars in globulars are packed much more densely than the normal stars in the unfortunate galaxies their collective gravity holds the globular together. This means they can survive the huge gravitational disruptions involved in the merger and breakup of their parent galaxy.
The second piece of evidence comes from material we can’t see in this image – dark matter. Observations have shown that NGC 1132 is surrounded by a truly enormous cloud of dark matter. The dark matter cloud is thought to hold quantities of dark matter that are normally found residing in whole galaxy clusters of between ten and a few hundred galaxies – not one galaxy as seen with NGC 1132! NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory was able to show that the galaxy is also surrounded by a glow from X-rays emitted from hot gas – about 120,000 light years in diameter – roughly the size of a galaxy cluster, giving yet more support to the idea that NGC 1132 is the result of the merging of one entire galaxy cluster.
If you want to find about more about this fascinating new result visit the Hubble website and whilst you’re there check out the latest Hubblecast.
Above: NGC 1132 from the HST
Image credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgment: M. West (ESO, Chile)
Book news (part I)
I achieved a milestone today in that I have finally got all the necessary image permissions for my book. The images are really cool and I can’t wait to submit my manuscript later in the year. Now I just have to finish the text…so it’s back to the word processor for me! In the mean time check out this incredible new image from Hubble and if you want to find out more about what’s going on in the image download the Hubblecast!
How did Mercury get so dense?
I’ve done several radio interviews in the past few weeks on the NASA Messenger mission to Mercury. One question that keeps popping up is – ‘How did Mercury get so dense?”. It’s a great question and one that is sometimes difficult to answer, fully, in a few seconds on air so I thought I would take some time to explore it in a post on the site.
Mercury is a tiny planet, some 4879km across, not much bigger than our own Moon. Its density of 5.3 grams for every cubic centimetre makes it the densest of all the terrestrial planets (those are Venus, Earth, Mercury and Mars) but also one of the most intriguing. The Mariner 10 probe which studied Mercury during the mid seventies mapped not quite half of the planet but it did give us an insight into a peculiar little world with some fascinating geology. Fascination that runs much deeper than the cratered, volcanic and battered surface that we see in the latest Messenger images. Measurements of Mercury’s density infer that much of the planet must be made of a iron-rich core that accounts for 60% of the planet’s mass and an incredible 75% of its radius! But why is it so dense? At the moment scientists just aren’t sure, which is just one reason why Messenger and other missions are going to be scrutinizing Mercury over the next few years. But we do have some ideas.
One theory argues that the bright, extremely hot young Sun played a role in vaporising away rocky material on the surface of Mercury as it was in the process of forming. This would mean that Mercury would be predominantly made of metallic material that had (by then) formed a substantial core; any elements and chemicals that could be easily vaporised and blown away would be notably absent or depleted in the Mercurial geology.
Another suggestion, according to NASA scientists, says that when the Sun and all the planets were forming in the solar nebula (the great cloud of dust and gas around the young Sun), tremendous amounts of gas could have had an important role in deciding what materials Mercury formed out of. To understand this let’s look at a simplified view. Rocky particles (silicates) in the solar nebula, when the planets were forming, were much lighter than their metallic counterparts. As such the gas around our star was able to whisk the lighter particles away and into the Sun, effectively sieving out the lighter silicates in the material from which Mercury went onto form. What was left was a metal rich cloud from which Mercury formed.
Lastly then and perhaps the most exciting idea is that Mercury was smashed into by a large body after its formation. This scenario requires Mercury to have already formed in much the same was as the normal terrestrial planets. The layers in Mercury’s internal structure would be fairly well defined by this stage rather than a mix of all sorts of material. It would have a metallic core with a rocky (silicate) crust and mantle (similar to the Earth’s structure). The theory says that a large body (like a rogue proto-planet) might have collided with the young Mercury blasting away its crust (and much of its mantle) leaving the mostly metallic material at its centre. (Think of it as smashing a boiled egg so that the shell and the white fly away leaving a little yellow core.)
So the answer to the question of ‘How did Mercury get so dense?’ is…we just don’t know yet. Nevertheless Messenger and the handful of other European and Japanese missions to Mercury will be more than equipped with their instruments to try and find out by studying Mercury’s magnetic field, its surface geology and composition.
To find more about the Messenger mission go to the NASA website.
Above: Mercury in colour imaged by Messenger
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
2008 so far…
Well it’s been a long time since a post due to an extraordinarily busy time (without-Internet) over the festive season, but I am finally back from Germany and connected to the blogosphere again. A lot has happened in the astronomy world in the past month and a bit, not least the AAS astronomy meeting in Austin, Texas; the announcement of Virgin Galactic’s new SpaceShipTwo; the continuing threat of cuts to UK astronomy and physics and loads of absolutely awesome space stuff like the Messenger probe to Mercury!
Apparently also Bigfoot’s been hiding on Mars!? Well not really. It’s actually a small rock only a few metres from Spirit. Just a little rock that has been victim of a media hyping frenzy – nothing else. If you don’t believe me then I refer you to the many great explanations by Chris, Emily and the master himself Phil. What I found most disappointing about this story, is something which Emily at the Planetary Society touches on. Everyone is concentrating on the little pixellated corner of the image that might or might not look vaguely like something that it really isn’t.
But to everyone who’s mesmerized by the little rock; Open up the full size panorama on Emily’s blog. Take a look at Spirit and Opportunity’s other images. Aren’t those views so much cooler? Look – dust devils, meteorites and volcanoes! Those rovers are on the surface of Mars trundling around and exploring; carrying out amazing new science on Mars showing us what Mars is like and what it might have been like in its past. That’s a fact! My jaw dropped when I read one news outlet’s coverage of this story that said that scientists had been originally disappointed with the views from the Rovers! What? I don’t know of anyone who was disappointed with this!
Anyway, back to Earth! I’ve just started in my new job with BBC Sky At Night magazine so look out for my first feature in the March issue of the magazine! I’ve been talking to lots of nice people on the radio over the past couple of weeks about various missions and what we can look forward to in the night sky, so hello to everyone who was listening to BBC radio stations in Oxford, Jersey, Three Counties and Kent. Also tune in to BBC Radio Oxford tomorrow morning where you can hear Phil Mercer and I chatting about the Messenger mission to Mercury. Stay tuned for more.
“A grand design in a galactic festoon”
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
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
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
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
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.
Not just pretty pictures – The science behind Hubble’s greatest images’.
The more observant of you reading the website may have noticed a new page at the top called ‘talks’. This is where I will advertise any forthcoming talks, lectures etc. that I am doing.
When I get back from Germany one of my first talks will be to the Torbay Astronomical Society in Torquay. I will be speaking on the Hubble Space Telescope – the title of the talk is ‘Not just pretty pictures – The science behind Hubble’s greatest images’.
I’m very much looking forward to speaking there as I know the society is particularly friendly and active and it is a while since I have given a talk there.
“Hubble shows ‘baby’ galaxy is not so young after all”
The latest news release from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is out now on the ESA Hubble website – www.spacetelescope.org. It’s the story of how a galaxy we thought (for quite a long time as it happens) was really young is in fact very old.
“The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has found out the true nature of a dwarf galaxy that astronomers had for a long time identified as one of the youngest galaxies in the Universe. Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have made observations of the galaxy I Zwicky 18 which seem to indicate that it is in fact much older and much farther away than previously thought.”
Image credit: NASA, ESA and A. Aloisi (ESA/STScI)
I Tune, You Tube, We Rule
One of the projects which the ESA/Hubble group here in Germany is involved with is the International Astronomical Union’s commission on Communicating Astronomy With The Public.
Part of this project involves the publication of a journal for science communicators (with a focus on astronomy communicators). The journal hopes to be a repository of ideas and information as well as tips on communicating astronomy with the public.
The first issue has now been released online to coincide with the 2007 Communicating Astronomy With The Public conference held in Athens. I have an article (co-authored with Raquel Yumi Shida) on the use of new media in communicating astronomy. Entitled ‘I Tune, You Tube, We Rule’ you can download it to read for free online here.
NGC3603 – An extreme star cluster bursting into life!
Finally it’s here! – News from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope “NGC3603 – An extreme star cluster bursting into life!”
This is the release & Hubblecast I have been working on for the last few weeks. It is now online and you can read the full amazing story here. Also why not view the latest Hubblecast (no.9) here.
Image credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
Hubblecast filming
On Tuesday morning a small team from the ESA/Hubble office here traveled to a studio to film the next episode of the Hubblecast (no.9). The studio is located about 70km south of ESO headquarters, in the foothills of the Alps on the shore of Tegernsee a perfect place for the creative juices to flow!
We began work at about 9am with the shooting of Dr J’s introduction scenes as well as some more regular pieces to camera. In this episode we have pushed the boat out with some of the graphic effects too, the results of which you will see soon! After a couple of hours work the filming was complete and it was back to the office where the video could be added to the images and animations made by the graphic designer.
Image credit: Will Gater
I’ve just watched a preliminary cut of one scene and it is looking really very cool! Hopefully this will be one of the best Hubblecasts yet!
Touchdown in Germany
A few days ago I arrived in Germany to begin three months working on a science communication internship for the ESO/ESA/ST-ECF Hubble Europe Information Centre (HEIC) in Garching near Munich. The centre is located about 2km from Garching and is about an hour and a half from the Bavarian Alps. HEIC is part of the ESO headquarters here (alongside the Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics) and is the central production hub for all media/press information and science communication literature and media, from Europe, about Hubble.
Each month our group sends out news and photo releases, vodcasts and much more about Hubble’s latest discoveries. They also manage outreach and public affairs for a number of other astronomical organizations and projects such as the IYA 2009.
Yesterday was my first day working in the offices here and I enjoyed it hugely! My job here is as a science writer so my main responsibilities lie in writing news and photo releases for the press, editing other releases and scripting the Hubblecast, ESA’s vodcast about recent Hubble results. I am also editing part of the Hubble website www.spacetelescope.org, helping to update sections with the latest science results. The pace of the work makes for a really exciting day. I started work at 9am and by 10am was doing my first teleconference with a scientist in Spain whose research I was writing a photo release on. The image we are working on is incredible and I will show everyone on this site once it is released (and the embargo is lifted) sometime in the coming weeks.
Within our offices there are graphic designers, science writers, web developers and others working on cool projects that the HEIC teams are related to. The team also consists of many other people who work on Hubble outreach and science communication projects, these include the people who turn data into amazing images. One of the coolest things to see is how the image you see on the news or in astronomy magazines goes from the raw Hubble data to these stunning pictures we’ve come to know and love. I think I’ll devote another whole post to that process later. It is quite something to see a fresh image which only the scientists working on and the people in the HEIC office have seen!
For now though why not go and watch the latest version of the Hubblecast here?
