Astronomy Radar

NGC 4438 & NGC 4435 - The Eyes of Virgo (Arp 120)

2011-09-29T09:45:00.002-05:00

More about Arp 120 on Wikipedia.

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An Ancient Star that should not exist

2011-09-29T09:39:00.003-05:00

More about the ancient star SDSS J102915+172927 on ESO's Website.

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A giant blob in Aquarius glowing from within

2011-09-29T09:22:00.010-05:00

More about Lyman-alpha blobs on Wikipedia.

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NASA's Juno Spacecraft Launch

2011-09-29T09:11:00.002-05:00

More about NASA's Juno Mission on Wikipedia.

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Omega Nebula (M17) as seen by the VST

2011-09-29T09:08:00.004-05:00

More about M17 on Wikipedia.

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Omega Centauri as seen by the VST

2011-09-29T09:02:00.003-05:00

More about the globular cluster Omega Centauri on Wikipedia.

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"The Mice" galactic pair (NGC 4676)

2011-09-29T07:43:00.004-05:00

More about NGC 4676 on Wikipedia.

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A superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud (NGC 1929)

2011-09-29T07:34:00.004-05:00

More about NGC 1929 on ESO's Website.

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The trails left by the Apollo Missions on the Moon as seen by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

2011-09-27T12:02:00.002-05:00

Find out more about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on Wikipedia.

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Exoplanet HD85512b - A rocky super-Earth that could harbor life

2011-09-27T11:57:00.001-05:00

Find out more about HD85512b on Wikipedia.

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Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) Mission Launch to the Moon

2011-09-27T11:53:00.003-05:00

Find out more about NASA's GRAIL-Mission on Wikipedia.

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ULAS J1120+0641 - The most distant quasar found yet (As of 2011)

2011-09-27T11:48:00.002-05:00

Find out more about the quasar ULAS J1120+0641 on Wikipedia.

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NGC 6744 - An intermediate spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Pavo

2011-09-27T11:43:00.002-05:00

Find out more about NGC 6744 on Wikipedia.

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Planet Mercury as seen by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft

2011-09-27T11:39:00.002-05:00

Find out more about NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft on Wikipedia.

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NGC 5128 (Galaxy Centaurus A)

2011-09-27T11:34:00.002-05:00

Find out more about NGC 5128 on Wikipedia.

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Pandora's Galactic Cluster (Abell 2744)

2011-09-27T11:29:00.003-05:00

Find out more about Abell 2744 on Wikipedia.

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NGC 3169 & 3166 - A galactic pair in the constellation Sextans

2011-08-24T09:12:00.006-05:00

More about NGC 3169 on Wikipedia.

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NGC 2442 - The lopsided shape of the "Meathook Galaxy"

2011-08-23T11:28:00.003-05:00

More about NGC 2442 on Wikipedia.

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VFTS 682 - A very bright star in the Large Magellanic Cloud

2011-08-22T13:24:00.008-05:00

More about VFTS 682 on ESO's Web.

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NGC 4214 - A dwarf galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici

2011-08-22T13:07:00.006-05:00

More about NGC 4214 on Wikipedia.

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Arp 273 - Interacting galaxies in the Andromeda Constellation

2011-08-19T14:32:00.005-05:00

More about Arp 273 on Wikipedia.

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NGC 3582 - A nebula with giant loops of gas

2011-08-19T14:19:00.003-05:00

NOTE: The NGC 3582 nebula has been also classified as RCW 57, part of the RCW Catalogue (Rodgers, Campbell, Whiteoak), which is an astronomical catalogue of Hα-emission regions in the southern Milky Way. More about the RCW catalogue on Wikipedia.

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Abell 383 - A cluster of galaxies that acts as a cosmic gravitational lens

2011-08-18T11:38:00.005-05:00

More about Abell 383 on the NASA/Spitzer Website.
More about gravitational lensing on Wikipedia.

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NGC 2060 - A supernova remnant inside the Tarantula Nebula

2011-08-18T11:21:00.008-05:00

More about NGC 2060 on ESO's Web.
More about NGC 2070 (Tarantula Nebula) on Wikipedia.

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NGC 371 - A dwarf galaxy inside the Small Magellanic Cloud

2011-08-18T10:59:00.008-05:00

More about NGC 371 on Wikipedia.

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CFBDSIR 1458+10 - A brown dwarf as hot as boiling water

2011-08-18T10:16:00.008-05:00

NOTE: The bigger brown darf is the "A" part of this binary system, and the smaller is "B". It's the last one which is nearly as hot as boiling water, which actually means it is very cool, and we almost could touch this failed star with our own hands. THL
More about this binary brown dwarf system on Wikipedia.

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NGC 6729 - A very close stellar nursery

2011-08-17T12:10:00.003-05:00

More about NGC 6729 on Wikipedia.
More about Herbig-Haro objects on Wikipedia.

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CL J1449+0856 - A very distant but mature galaxy cluster

2011-08-17T11:51:00.003-05:00

More about this galaxy cluster on ESO's Web.

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NGC 247 - A member of the Sculptor Group of galaxies

2011-08-16T13:06:00.003-05:00

More about NGC 247 on Wikipedia.
More about the Sculptor Group on the Atlas of the Universe.

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T-Cha and its mysterious companion

2011-08-16T12:57:00.004-05:00

More about T-Cha and its companion on ESO's Web.

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HUDF in near-infrared (2009)

2011-08-16T12:53:00.002-05:00

More about the HUDF (Hubble Ultra Deep Field) on Wikipedia.

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Andromeda Galaxy (M31) In-Depth Views

2011-08-16T11:54:00.001-05:00

More about M31 on Wikipedia.

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Neptune's First Birthday

2011-08-16T11:49:00.003-05:00

These new images of planet Neptune were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in June 2011 to celebrate the first anniversary of Neptune's discovery. One complete orbit of Neptune takes more than 165 Earth years, therefore a "Neptunian year" is much longer than ours. The video shows the movement of Neptune's moons around their planet and the rotation of the planet itself, based on the observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. THL

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NGC 1976 (M42) - The Orion Nebula through five different filters

2011-08-16T11:45:00.004-05:00

Description of M42 on Wikipedia.

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NGC 2623 (Arp 243) - A very bright and bizarre galaxy

2011-08-16T11:33:00.004-05:00

Description of NGC 2623 provided by NASA.

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Endeavour (STS-134) docked to the ISS

2011-08-16T11:28:00.002-05:00

Mission profile of the STS-134 Mission on Wikipedia.

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NGC 3621 - A pure-disc galaxy in the constellation of Hydra

2011-08-16T11:23:00.007-05:00

Description of NGC 3621 on Wikipedia.

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Last launch and landing of a space shuttle ever (STS-135)

2011-07-27T10:18:00.006-05:00

Nostalgia, gratitude and maybe anger. Those are the words that define the feelings of many of the longtime fans of NASA's space shuttles that flew for the last time this month on July of 2011. The situation for those directly involved in the space program may be even more dramatic. Nevertheless, these are the last images ever of a space shuttle launching and landing after a succesfull mission: Atlantis STS-135. THL

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Atlantis: NASA's last active Space Shuttle

2011-06-21T09:18:00.014-05:00

Right now Space Shuttle Atlantis is the last active spacecraft of its kind, but it won't be for long, since the final liftoff (STS-135) is programmed for July 8. This time Atlantis will only carry a crew of four: Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim. The reason for such a small crew is that there is no sufficient backup anymore in case of an emergency, so NASA began relying on the capabilities of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft which don't carry more than three astronauts at a time, and since Space Shuttle Endeavour was decommissioned last month, there are no spacecrafts with greater capacity available anymore. The penultimate liftoff of Atlantis was on May 16th of 2010.

On its penultimate mission (STS-132), the spacecraft stayed for 10 days docked to the International Space Station, and returned to Earth on May 26 of 2010.

No doubt that the last launch and landing of this legendary spacecraft will be bittersweet moments, although more bitter than sweet, since we won't watch this beautiful machine flying again, ever... THL

PHOTO CREDIT: NASA/Kim Shiflett - June 1, 2011

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NGC 4522 and NGC 4402: a pair of galaxies being torn apart by "ram pressure stripping"

2011-06-20T07:49:00.015-05:00

The images above were released on September 30th of 2009. They portay the galaxies NGC 4522 and NGC 4402, which according to ESA & NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) team are being torn apart by an "important phenomenon called ram pressure stripping that is so powerful, it is capable of mangling galaxies and even halting their star formation." According to the Wikipedia: "In physics, ram pressure is a pressure exerted on a body which is moving through a fluid medium. (..) In the case of a galaxy moving through the intergalactic gas, the ram pressure is capable of stripping the galaxy of much of its interstellar gas." The two videos that follow on this post show these galaxies in more detail:

The astronomers team of the HST also explained that these nearby galaxies emit extremely hot gas in the X-ray spectrum, filling the intra-cluster medium lurks between galaxies within clusters, and that while they move through this intra-cluster medium full of strong winds, these galaxies may become distorted in their shape and may even halt its star formation. THL

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NGC 1365 - "The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy": A galaxy like our own?

2011-05-27T07:37:00.006-05:00

NGC 1365 is known as "The Great Barred Spiral Galaxy". Located 56 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax, this galaxy is supposed to resemble our own galaxy according to many scientists, who claim that the Milky Way also has only two spiral arms and should look similar to NGC 1365 if we were able to see it from an equivalent distance. The following video shows a few images taken by the European Southern Observatory of NGC 1365, both in visible and infrared light. The dust that normally covers up the visible light coming from the bar-like structure of this galaxy becomes clear when seen in infrared, as it shall be seen here. THL

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Endeavour´s Last Launch

2011-05-21T14:29:00.004-05:00

Another bittersweet moment we're living..., the very last launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour on its Mission STS-134, headed to the International Space Station. Thank you Endeavour! THL

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NGC 300 - An active star-forming galaxy in the Sculptor Constellation

2011-05-06T19:55:00.016-05:00

NGC 300 (also known as Caldwell 70) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Sculptor, and which according to astronomers of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is very similar to our own Galaxy (the Milky Way). NGC 300 also is one of the closest galaxies to the Local Group, a group of galaxies that have a strong gravitational interaction between each other, and from which the Milky Way also is part of. Besides being a galaxy with many active star-forming regions, NGC 300 also harbors a very interesting binary system consisting of a black hole and a giant star orbiting around it. This black hole is literally "sucking up" gas and matter from its stellar companion, and was shown on a previous article published on this blog named: "The black hole of the Galaxy NGC 300". The images that follow were taken through a special set of color filters to enhance the light from ionised hydrogen or oxygen gas and highlight the glowing clouds in the galaxy's spiral arms. THL

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The pale blue dot called Earth

2011-05-04T13:22:00.008-05:00

Just an hour ago I made a question about everyone's favorite planet (Solar System), and which answer seemed to be obvious for half of the responders: the Earth. The question was published on the Facebook Fan Page of Astronomy Radar (4 May 2011). Maybe I should have asked which the favorite planet was besides Earth... Nevertheless, 50% of the readers chose Earth. Naturally, the question isn't closed and the outcome could change, but I think that's a tendency... Anyway, Carl Sagan once said about the famous photograph known as "Pale Blue Dot" of planet Earth that was taken in 1990 by Voyager 1: "all of human history has happened on that tiny pixel, which is our only home". So, let's take a much closer look at that wonderful blue planet from orbit... THL

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NGC 4666 - A starburst galaxy

2011-05-02T07:17:00.006-05:00

NGC 4666, located in the Virgo Constellation, is known as the "Superwind Galaxy". This “superwind” consists of massive quantities of out-flowing gas from many star-forming regions inside this galaxy. However, the gas is not as visible at optical wavelengths as it is at the X-ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum, where it is actually prominent, since these gases tend to be very hot, ionized and energetic. Such places where stars are formed massively are also refered to as "starburst regions", therefore NGC 4666 is also known as a "starburst galaxy". THL

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Halos of dark matter

2011-04-27T08:05:00.015-05:00

So far dark matter still is a hypothetical substance, although most scientists actually "believe" in its existence. Dark matter was inferred to exist when astronomers and astrophysicists began to realize that there were important discrepancies in the measurements of the mass of the visible "luminous matter" spread out through the universe. Fritz Zwicky in 1934 discovered evidence of "missing mass" in the orbital velocities of galaxies in clusters. Later on, other discrepencies were found in the measurements of the rotational speeds of galaxies, gravitational lensing of background objects by galaxy clusters and the overall temperature distribution of hot gas in the known Universe.

Since then many dark matter related structures have been proposed, such as the so called dark matter halos, which are hypothetical components of a galaxy that extend beyond the edges of the visible galaxies and are supposed to dominate the total mass of these galaxies. Since neither dark matter nor dark matter halos can be observed directly, scientist try to infere their existence from their hypothetical influence on the motions of stars and gas in these galaxies. Among the indirect evidence collected so far about dark matter halos, we have the case of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster observed two years ago. The images show halos of dark matter around four small galaxies, and were provided by the Hubble Space Telescope team. THL

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UDFj-39546284 - A very distant galaxy...

2011-04-13T09:35:00.005-05:00

You are watching UDFj-39546284, a galaxy whose light took 13.2 billion years to reach us. It might have formed just 480 million years after the Big Bang. It was the oldest galaxy ever found as of 26 January 2011. I'm amazed we're able to look into the past at this depth. THL

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The asteroid that looked like a comet

2011-04-11T07:05:00.013-05:00

There is no clear delimitation between asteroids and comets. While both may contain rocks and ices, it's the comets that are supposed to produce long tails of melted water-ices when in the vecinity of our Sun. Comets also tend to come from the Kuiper belt when they are of short-period, and from distant places such as the Oort Cloud when they are long-period comets. P/2010 A2 however, is a small Solar System body that belongs to the main-belt asteroid field located in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter.

But when it was discovered on January 6 of 2010, the object displayed characteristics of both an asteroid and a comet, and thus, was initially given a cometary designation. It had a tail indeed, but it turned out to be made of dust and gravel, and within a month of its discovery, images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and posterior analysis of the trajectory of its dust confirmed that the asteroid probably formed after an impact with a small meter-sized object around February or March 2009. Neverheless, the frontier between comets and asteroids still is narrow... THL

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M81 (NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy)

2011-04-09T11:43:00.006-05:00

M81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Big Bear in the northern hemisphere). It was discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774, yet its name. M81 harbors a supermassive black hole with a mass equivalent to 70 million Sun's. It's so massive that it has dramatically deformed the nearby galaxy M82 by its gravitational interaction. A few years ago the Hubble Space Telescope took incredible images of this yellowish-blue giant. I hope you'll like them.

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NGC 4921 - An anemic galaxy in the Coma Cluster

2011-04-03T10:16:00.007-05:00

NGC 4921 is a barred spiral galaxy about 320 million light-years from Earth, located in the Coma Cluster, part of the Coma Berenices constellation. The cluster, also known as Abell 1656, was photographed in great detail by the Hubble Space Telescope, and revealed numerous interesting features. Among them, the fact that this galaxy is supposed to be "anemic", due to its low rate of star formation. Nevertheless, it is the brightest spiral galaxy of the Coma Cluster, and I think it's very beautiful too. THL

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Soyuz: a strong surviver of the Cold War

2011-03-24T15:33:00.014-05:00

Soyuz will soon be the name of the only manned-spacecraft available for any mission involving NASA, ESA and the Russian Space Agency. With the forseen Space Shuttle retirement in just a pair of months, the once Soviet machineries may be the most succesful rocket and spacecraft ever designed, although it has got a few improvements since the sixties. But with more than 1700 missions with Soyuz rocket design -and more than 100 manned missions with the spacecraft design-, it has set a record that no one will be able to brake for a good while. Since China and South Korea are still improving their own spacecraft -and will continue doing so for a good while-, reality is that the whole world will depend on this Russian design, that may not be as flattering as a Space shuttle -no doubt-, but which has proven to be more cost-effective. Personnaly I find the Soyuz to be an amazing machine, and also beautiful, and what's more important: reliable. But you don't have to take my word for it, just watch the following video. THL

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NGC 7049 - An oddball looking galaxy

2011-03-22T11:05:00.008-05:00

Imagine a galaxy so odd, that you can't tell if it's a spiral or an ellipitical galaxy. Now imagine that the diameter of this galaxy is one and half times the Milky Way's, that is, about 150 000 light-years, and that such galaxy lies at a distance of about 100 million light-years away from Earth. Well, in fact such a galaxy exists in the southern constellation of Indus, and it's known as NGC 7049. THL

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The Iris Nebula (NGC 7023)

2011-03-16T07:42:00.010-05:00

The Iris Nebula (also known as NGC 7023 or Caldwell 4) is a bright reflection nebula in the constellation of Cepheus. NGC 7023 actually refers specifically to the cluster within the nebula, and the nebula itself is lit by a magnitude +7 star known as SAO 19158 or HD 200775. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the blue illuminated dust resembles thick mounds of billowing cotton, but it is composed of tiny particles of solid matter, with sizes ranging from ten to a hundred times smaller than those of the dust grains we find at home.

The name Caldwell 4 on the other hand comes from the Caldwell Catalogue, created by Patrick Moore in 1995 as a complement to the Messier Catalogue. This catalogue includes bright deep-sky objects visible in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere and is frequently used by amateur astronomers. THL

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Fomalhaut b - A gas-giant in Piscis Austrinus

2011-03-12T11:26:00.007-05:00

Fomalhaut (α Piscis Austrini), which is 25 light-years away in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus, not only is the brightest star of this constellation, it also has a Jupiter-like gas-giant orbiting around it, the exoplanet Fomalhaut b, part of the Fomalhaut system. According to the astronomers of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Fomalhaut b has carved a path along the inner edge of a vast dusty debris ring that encircles the system which is 34.5 billion kilometres across, and it takes 872 years for this exoplanet to complete just one orbit around its star. THL

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Space Shuttle Discovery flying around of International Space Station (STS-119)

2011-03-10T22:48:00.004-05:00

As a tribute to the recently retired Space Shuttle Discovery, and as a tribute to the International Space Station (ISS), Astronomy Radar presents this video showing images of the ISS taken by the STS-119 crew while the Discovery flew around the orbiting complex after undocking. THL

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Mechanical poetry: VLT's in action

2011-03-05T18:11:00.008-05:00

Which are the most romantic places to be? When it comes to architectural buildings, the Eiffel Tower is probably part of one of the most appreciated human-designed landscapes, or maybe the Empire State skyscraper, or maybe the Taj Mahal. If we are talking about natural landscapes, no doubt that the first collective image is some sort of Caribbean beach with white sand, slightly illuminated by either a sunrise or a sunset. A few perhaps might choose some sort of landscapes with mountains like the Swiss Alps. Should it be a night scene we are talking about, no matter where we are, the stars and the Moon would be a must. I can also think of a landscape where technology might be an inspiration for romance, and that's thanks to the magnificent machinery underneath the clear horizons of Cerro Paranal in Chile (Southamerica), where the Very Large Telescope's (VLT's) of ESO are. But you don´t have to take my word for it. Just watch the pictures on this post, and if you wish, the following video. Full mechanic poetry, in my humble opinion. THL

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The final liftoff of the Discovery Space Shuttle (STS-133)

2011-03-03T22:37:00.007-05:00

For many of us a great era in space exploration is ending, with the final flight ever of the Discovery Space Shuttle (STS-133), which was launched on February 24, 2011. If everything works according to the plan, Discovery will make its last landing in three days. Then we will have still two more missions to enjoy, the last mission of space shuttles Endeavour (April 19, 2011) and Atlantis (June 28, 2011), respectively. And then my friends, beyond any political considerations or ideological opinions, a golden era of manned missions for NASA will be over. THL

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M78 (NGC 2068) - A fine example of a reflection nebula

2011-02-28T11:34:00.007-05:00

Besides being the most popular constellation, Orion's best known nebula is M42 (also known as NGC 1976 or the Orion nebula). But very near to this one, resides another beautiful nebula known as M78 (NGC 2068). According to the European Southern Observatory (ESO), M78 is a fine example of a reflection nebula:

"The ultraviolet radiation from the stars that illuminate it is not intense enough to ionise the gas to make it glow — its dust particles simply reflect the starlight that falls on them. Despite this, Messier 78 can easily be observed with a small telescope, being one of the brightest reflection nebulae in the sky."

I hope you enjoy this video. THL

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Arp 87 - A peculiar galactic couple

2011-02-25T14:31:00.012-05:00

I must admit it. I heard the term "Arp" many times in relation to galaxies, but I had no idea what it meant. But watching at this magnificent pair of merging galaxies named Arp 87 (which otherwise are known as NGC 3808a and NGC 3808b respectively), I became more curious about the "Arp" thing. The explanation is quite simple: Arp is the last name of Halton Arp, an American astronomer who made a catalogue of strange looking and peculiar galaxies, most of them consisting of a pair of merging or interacting galaxies. The catalogue itself has the title of "The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies". Back to Arp 87, astronomers observed that the tidal material floating between these galaxies has a corkscrew shape, and this could mean that some stars and gas of the larger galaxy have been caught by the gravitational pull of the smaller galaxy. And this feature alone really makes them peculiar already. THL

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The Proplyds of M42 - Protoplanetary discs of the Orion Nebula

2011-02-23T13:04:00.014-05:00

Protoplanetary disks (or proplyds) are rotating circumstellar disks of dense gas surrounding a young newly formed star. But more importantly, they may constitute raw preliminary versions of future solar systems, like the one we live in. Almost two years ago the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA achieved the direct visualization of at least 42 proplyds in the Orion Nebula (M42) alone, using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

According to ESA / Hubble it is relatively rare to see visible images of proplyds, but the high resolution and sensitivity of the HST, plus the relative proximity of the Orion Nebula’s to our Earth, allowed the HST to obtain these precise views of these potential planetary systems. The video that follows shows 30 astroimages of proplyds taken by the HST. THL

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NGC 2841 - A flocculent spiral type of galaxy

2011-02-22T07:57:00.005-05:00

Right at this moment, the images of the spiral galaxy NGC 2841, classified as a "flocculent type" of galaxy, are a sensation among the mass media sections related with science. Acccording to ESA / Hubble the rate at which stars are being formed here is relatively low, and this fact is a mistery by itself:

"The driving force behind star formation is particularly unclear for a type of galaxy called a flocculent spiral, such as NGC 2841 shown here, which features short spiral arms rather than prominent and well-defined galactic limbs."

Anyway, this video will try to show us what a flocculent spiral galaxy really looks like. Enjoy... THL

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TOP 100 Hubble pictures (As of 2009)

2011-02-19T16:19:00.003-05:00

Here are the TOP 100 pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) according to ESA & NASA, put into one single video. The pictures were chosen by the teams managing the HST in the year of 2009 to celebrate the International Year of astronomy (IYA2009). If you prefer to watch picture by picture showing the corresponding titles and credits, you may click the following link: Astronomy Radar's Facebook Website. Enjoy! THL

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Cat's Eye Nebula - Evolution of NGC 6543

2011-02-17T07:17:00.007-05:00

The Cat's Eye Nebula (also known as NGC 6543 or Caldwell 6) is a planetary nebula in the Constellation of Draco, about 3300 light-years away from Earth. According to NASA & ESA, these amazing patterns could possibly have been sculpted by the magnetic field of a companion star that funnelled the emitted gas into a jet, as illustrated in the last part of the animation on the following video. Although most astronomers believe that the complex structure of this nebula is due to material ejected from a binary central star, no direct evidence has been found yet that the central star has a companion. Anyway, this video will show us real images of the nebula, and a possible animated explanation of how it could have evolved. Enjoy. THL ABOVE IMAGE FROM NASA / CHANDRA X-RAY

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ATLASGAL - A blue Milky Way

2011-02-16T08:57:00.005-05:00

ATLASGAL is an acronym which stands for APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy. It's an observing investigation using ESO's APEX telescope (Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment), located at 5100 m altitude on Chajnantor, Chile. The goal of this survey is to map the 360 square degrees at 870 microns in the inner part of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. The project is a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Universidad de Chile. Here we can watch a few preliminary results... THL

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M107 (NGC 6171) - Globular Cluster

2011-02-15T08:42:00.006-05:00

Besides its beauty, the globular cluster M107 (also known as NGC6171) was a late addition to the famous Messier Catalogue. It was added by the astronomer Helen Sawyer Hogg in 1947, and not by Charles Messier. She earned her many degrees in the field of astronomy and astrophysics from many prestigious universities in Northamerica. A true role model for today's women that engage in the beautiful but also complex science of astronomy. THL ABOVE IMAGE BY NASA (HST)

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Venus - The sister planet of the Earth

2011-02-10T09:23:00.005-05:00

There is a lot we have to thank to Venus, the sister planet of the Earth. First of all, this planet taught us what the famous greenhouse effect is capable of. While "the second planet from the Sun" is obviously much more far away from the Sun than "the first planet from the Sun" is, that is Mercury, its average temperature on the surface is almost the double. The atmospheric pressure is nearly one hundred times higher than on our Earth, therefore described as a real "hell" for any kind of living organism that would try to survive there, humans included. The planet also has a very anomalous tilt that makes it rotate counterclockwise, and it lacks a magnetosphere. And all this, despite being otherwise so similar to our Earth in terms of composition, size and mass. Only the radar spacecraft like the Magellan probe were able to penetrate its dense clouds of sulfuric acid to reveal us its major topographic features. And that's exactly what the following video will try to show us. THL

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The Magnetar of Westerlund 1 (Artist's impression)

2011-02-01T17:36:00.007-05:00

Westerlund 1 (also known as Wd1) is a very massive and compact young star cluster located in the local group of galaxies. Among its many interesting and rare stars, you may find a star which is a special subclass of neutron star, known as a magnetar. These strange stellar creatures of the universe posess extremely powerful magnetic fields, which are huge sources of high-energy electromagnetic radiation, but particularly X-rays and gamma rays. This video shows an artist's impression of the powerful magnetar of Wd1 (also known as CXO J164710.2-455216). THL

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Hubble's look into the future of the globular cluster Omega Centauri (NGC 5139)

2011-01-28T08:05:00.012-05:00

While astronomers usually look into the past while watching the light that comes from distances of several light-years (usually millions of light-years), sometimes these data may be used to look thousands of years into the future. This is exactly what the scientists of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) did while looking at the heart of Omega Centauri (NGC 5139), a globular cluster of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Observing the motions of the stars within this cluster they have calculated how these stars will move over the next 10,000 years.

The data obtained by the HST was also used to plot the intrinsic brightness (vertical axis) of these stars against their average temperatures (horizontal axis), which in scientifical terms is nothing more than a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a scatter graph of stars showing the relationship between the star's absolute magnitudes or luminosities (intrinsic brightness) versus their spectral types or classifications and effective temperatures. The temperature directly correlates to its apparent colour, with cooler stars being red and hotter ones being blue. THL

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The Stellar Nursery of NGC 2467

2011-01-19T07:26:00.008-05:00

NGC 2467 is a very interesting and beautiful nebula in the Constellation of Puppis. The image above shows us a panorama full of very hot young stars (blue), and below we'll watch a video that zooms into the constellation until reaching the nebula, and then shows us NGC 2467 in more detail. These images were captured by the Hubble Space Telescope*, which after more than twenty years of service continues showing us the marvels of our universe. THL

*The initial images of this video are of the ESO

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Speed of Light - About the relativity of relativity

2011-01-14T08:56:00.007-05:00

Albert Einstein changed human's perspective about physical mechanics forever. His Theory of Relativity is still a mistery for many of us, though. While humanity has confirmed almost all consequences of his theories, to me it is still a puzzle how a theory that tells us that the three-dimensional space and the time are relative respect to each other, the Speed of Light in vaccuum is an absolute number. In a pure philosophical sense, a theory that tells us that speed is almost always a relative thing, with the only exception when we talk about the speed of light, might be a fundamental contradiction. But since Einstein's theories about relativity have been confirmed in many ways, one can only wonder how to deal with this reality of nature. Afterall, we're only humans...

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Betelgeuse - Orion's red supergiant

2011-01-14T07:50:00.009-05:00

Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star in the constellation of Orion. It is one of a few stars among thousands of millions stars with its own name, and no doubt, a very well known oldie among astronomy amateurs. It's the ninth brightest star in the heaven. Strangely enough, it has been catalogued as the α star of Orion, while "alpha" is a classification normally reserved for the most bright star in a given constellation, which in this case should be the star Rigel (β Orionis). However, Betelgeuse still is the most bright star in the red visible and near-infrared wavelenghts.

Like any red supergiant, Betelgeuse is a "short life" star, since it won't last more than a few million years, compared to the five billion years that our Sun has already lived. That's the destiny of all megalomaniacs I suppose, not only on Earth, but among the stars as well. Its diameter may reach a thousand times that of our Sun. I say it may, because Betelgeuse is a variable star, which means that it "inflates" and "deflates" in a cyclic manner, having a diameter that varies between 480 and 1290 millons of km. The experts say that it may reach its end very soon, to become a supernova in the near future. We'll see, perhaps...

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M66 - An unusual spiral galaxy (HAPPY CHRISTMAS)

2010-12-24T15:21:00.002-05:00

Messier 66 (also classified as NGC 3627) is an unusual galaxy. According to ESA it displays asymmetric spiral arms and an apparently displaced core, which is probably caused by the gravitational interaction with other two galaxies that lie very near to M66, and which are Messier 65 and NGC 3628. These three galaxies together form the so called Leo Triplet. Besides these scientifical facts, M66 displays a beautiful galactic landscape, like the one that can be seen on the next video. Merry Christmas!

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GJ1214b: An exoplanet in our neighborhood

2010-12-16T09:35:00.007-05:00

Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to our Earth, besides our Sun of course. It is a red-dwarf star about 4.2 light-years away, and should we try to visit this star, it would take us 10,000 years for each light-year to be traveled (supposing that the average speed of a today's spacecraft will lie between 17 to 20 km/s). Therefore it would take us 40,000 years to arrive there. Unfortunately no exoplanets have been discovered oribiting Proxima Centauri yet...

Now let's talk about one of the nearest exoplanets discovered yet, such as GJ 1214b, an extrasolar super-Earth discovered in December 2009 orbiting the red-dwarf star GJ 1214, at a distance of 40 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Ophiuchus. That's ten times the distance from the Earth to Proxima Centauri. Therefore a hypothethical voyage to GJ 1214b would take us 400,000 years with our today's technology. Are we slow, or what? So, I guess we should increase our capabilities to travel faster al least a thousand times, in other words we should be able to travel at a speed of 20.000 km/s if we are going to explore an exoplanet in our own lifetime. I wonder if we will... Thilo

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Extrasolar System HD10180 - An analog of our own Solar System

2010-12-14T12:25:00.012-05:00

While we are still wondering the new discoveries of exoplanets, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) managed to discover a whole Extrasolar System. We are talking about the HD10180 extrasolar system, which harbors at least five planets, although evidence may confirm the existence of a total of seven planets. Since HD10180 lies 127 light-years away from us, I suppose that the detection of smaller planets, let's say extrasolar "dwarf planets", is too difficult at these distances. I'm telling this because I suppose that the real amount of planets inside this system could be even greater.

More interestingly, HD10180 possibly harbors a planet with a mass equivalent to 1.4 Earth's mass. This latter planet is supposed to be orbiting at a distance of only 0.02 AU from its sun (the so called "b" planet), which is supposed to be similar in mass to our own Sun, thereby I don't think it may harbor life since at that distance it must be too hot. But it's refreshing to know that our own Solar System is probably one of too many, as probably is Earth's "dominant" species... THL

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First anniversary of Astronomy Radar - Journey through the Milky Way

2010-12-01T00:00:00.002-05:00

"What was observed by us is the nature or matter of the Milky Way itself, which, with the aid of the spyglass, may be observed so well that all the disputes that for so many generations have vexed philosophers are destroyed by visible certainty, and we are liberated from wordy arguments." Galileo Galilei - Sidereus Nuncius (Venice, 1610)

This blog started posting exactly on december first of 2009, which means that today is its first anniversary. I had previously reserved the following video to celebrate it, and of course, to thank all of you who have followed it with a genuine interest. Thilo

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The exoplanet that came from another galaxy

2010-11-30T14:08:00.006-05:00

So far a little more than 500 extrasolar planets have been discovered. While the chances of detecting new worlds increase with the development of technology, what could be the likelihood of finding an exoplanet that actually did not develop in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, but in any other? I don't know the mathematical answer. But just a few days ago, a team of astronomers found an exoplanet that has an extragalactic origin. I'm talking about the Jupiter-like gas-giant Exoplanet HIP 13044 b. Incredible, isn't it?

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600 million years after the Big Bang

2010-11-28T14:19:00.006-05:00

One month ago a European team of astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) measured what is supposed to be the distance to the most remote galaxy so far. These images show a very faint glow of a galaxy when the Universe was only about 600 million years old. The odd image above shows the opaque hydrogen fog that filled the cosmos at this early time.

I believe that this achievement of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is absolutely incredible. We're watching almost thirteen million years back in time, or just 600 million years after the Big Bang, like the following video shows in more detail. THL

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The Georgian Star

2010-11-19T12:09:00.011-05:00

Uranus is a very interesting and enigmatic planet, as the video below will try to demonstrate. Also interesting is the way it was discovered. A german musician of the XVIIIth century, who decided to move out to England and became a british citizen. Once Wilhelm, then renamed William; the musician discovered he was interested not only in music, but in astronomy as well, once he was accepted by King George III as his official musician and composer. I don't know much about history, but I know this: William Herschel was given the chance of improving his arts as musician, and to discover his new fascination for astronomy. No wonder he named the newly discovered gas-giant the "Georgian Star", although later it became "Uranus".

He also was sponsored in his hobby with lots of money, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to construct his giant (for its time) telescopes. Interestingly Uranus seemed to be a "boring planet" the first time it was photographed by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986. Maybe that's exactly what people thought in Germany about the arts of Herschel, and maybe that's one of many reasons he became an immigrant in the first place. But a time after his arrival, he became the discoverer of a planet. Uranus also regained the interest of today's public, when many of the infrared and near-infrared pictures of the Hubble Space Telescope became available. And then came its moons, named after fictional characters of the work of William Shakespeare. The Georgian Star is a huge inspiration for many... Thilo.

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"Atoms for Peace" - A galactic collision in action

2010-11-16T18:31:00.008-05:00

I must admit that the nickname of these colliding galaxies, which are otherwise known as NGC 7252 or Arp 226, is pretty strange. But I further read two very different explanations about where this name comes from. One explanation for the "Atoms for Peace" is that its name was inspired in its loop-like structure thay may resemble a diagram of an electron orbiting an atomic nucleus. The other says that "Atoms for Peace" is the title of a speech that the former US president Dwight Eisenhower gave in December of 1953, promoting the use of nuclear power for peaceful purposes. Anyway, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) released spectacular images about this beautiful collision of galaxies in action, which are included in the following video. I hope you'll like it. Thilo

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Faster-than-light travel?

2010-11-12T12:05:00.011-05:00

A few decades ago, black holes were nothing more than hypothetical topological features of spacetime. This was the main subject in a post I published here a time ago. The title of this post was: "Black Holes: Rulers of the Universe". But today's evidence leaves no doubt that black holes are very real, indeed almost every galaxy may have a black hole at its center. Thereafter a "new" hypothetical feature of spacetime followed as a consequence of the existence of black holes. I'm talking about the so called wormholes, which are nothing more than "shortcuts" through spacetime (created by the dynamic interaction between two black holes) that eventually could allow us to travel faster than light, without violating the principles of general relativity. Can you imagine? Just let's consider the possibility that an undetected "entrance" to such a wormhole exists somewhere inside our own solar system. If so, maybe we would be able of visiting other worlds, besides our own. Of course, wormholes are still hypothetical structures, as once were black holes..., Thilo. NOTE: The image above belongs to NASA.

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Exoplanets (Fourth part) - Gliese 581d

2010-10-27T12:34:00.012-05:00

And we'll now finish this series about extrasolar planets with the video showing the exoplanet Gliese 581d, another "Super-Earth" discovered thanks to the HARPS technology of one of ESO's telescope known as the "Exoplanet hunter", which was of the main subjects discussed in the third part of this series. There are still many speculations about this planet, since it lies outside the "habitable zone", but due to some sort of a local Greenhouse effect temperatures could be much higher than predicted and therefore liquid water could exist on this exoplanet. On the other hand the mass is eight times that of our Earth, which also is a source of doubt about the real chances of this exoplanet of harboring life, according to the experts in the field of astrobiology. We'll see what surprises are awaiting for us to be discovered when the spectrographic analysis are done. Meanwhile we'll keep dreaming in our minds about these worlds which maybe could harbor extraterrestrial civilizations far beyond our Solar System. Until next time, Thilo.

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Exoplanets (Third part) - Gliese 667Cb

2010-10-27T11:48:00.008-05:00

"Super-Earths" is the term which tries to describe rocky exoplanets whose mass might be equivalent to more than one and less than ten times our own Earth. The exoplanet shown here was discovered thanks to a technology known as HARPS, and which is part of a very famous telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the so called "Exoplanet hunter" located in La Silla, Chile. A video about this spectacular astronomical observatory was shown here recently (if you wish you may CLICK on "Exoplanet hunter" to watch it). Even more impressive are the findings oif this telescope, like the exoplanet Gliese 667Cb, and which images based on artistic impressions you may watch right now. THL

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Exoplanets (Second part) - HD209458b

2010-10-27T11:31:00.008-05:00

Another gas-giant. Why are there so many Jupiter-like planets? Maybe they are just more easy to identify, since they are much bigger and massive. But in the first part of this series we already watched the exoplanet HD189733b, a gas-giant orbiting a dwarf star. The exoplanet HD209458b we are going to watch now, is a gas-giant orbiting very near to a star very similar to our own Sun in size and mass, so close that scientists haven't been able yet to figure out why it hasn't evaporated so far. Giant electromagnetic storms have been detected as well. They could be related to a very strong magnetosphere, which protects this planet from being evaporated fast enough. That's why scientists are researching this exoplanet extensively. And this planet also has a name, rather than only a simple number, Osiris. Please enjoy this video.

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Exoplanets (First part) - HD189733b

2010-10-27T10:56:00.012-05:00

Until the year of 1992, when it was confirmed for the first time in the history of human kind that other planets existed atround other stars (besides our own Sun), a myth was broken. I'm talking about the myth that only within our Solar System planets existed. Other myths remain, like the one that implies that life only exists on our Earth. Eighteen years later, more than 400 "new worlds" have been discovered, most of them gas-giants that are very similar to the planet Jupiter.

A few rocky exoplanets have been discovered as well, and from these, some may be well inside the so called "habitable zone", which is a place relative to a star where other forms of life could eventually develop or exist, maybe some of them "intelligent species" like our own, if we take it for granted that we are intelligent (others might argue that humans actually are stupid). Anyway, in this series we'll watch two videos about Jupiter-like gas-giants, and two videos about two rocky exoplanets, starting with the exoplanet HD189733b. Enjoy.

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Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) - Taking pictures from a 50 km polar mapping orbit

2010-09-27T12:12:00.001-05:00

ESO's telescopes at La Silla (Chile) - Fourth part

2010-09-25T14:30:00.018-05:00

So far we have been able to watch a general view of ESO's telescopes in La Silla (Chile) in the first part, and the NTT telescope in the second and third parts. But to me the most important telescope of La Silla in Chile is ESO's 3.6 m Telescope, also known as "The exoplanet hunter". The incredible worlds that this telescope has helped to discover and describe in detail are so amazing, that in the near future I will devote a new series of four postings to them alone. But let's have a look at this incredible piece of human technolgy first, and specially at the HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher), the most important instrument implemented on this telescope. I really hope you enjoyed this series. Until next time, Thilo.

FIRST PART - SECOND PART - THIRD PART - FOURTH PART

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ESO's telescopes at La Silla (Chile) - Third part

2010-09-25T14:18:00.006-05:00

In the second part of this series I promised you a more insightful look at the most important technology developed for the New Technology Telescope (NTT): the adaptive optics. As many of you know, Earth's atmosphere may deform or alter the images that come from space in many ways, one of them being the distorted light. Let's see how the NTT deals with this particular problem. Thilo

FIRST PART - SECOND PART - THIRD PART - FOURTH PART

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ESO's telescopes at La Silla (Chile) - Second part

2010-09-25T13:56:00.008-05:00

Like I told you in the first part of this series, one of the most important telescopes of ESO's complex of observatories in La Silla (Chile) is the NTT. NTT stands for "New Technology Telescope". But let's have a look at the description of this telescope taken from the Website of the ESO organization:

"The ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT) is an Alt-Az, 3.58m Richey-Chretien telescope which pioneered the use of active optics. The telescope and its enclosure had a revolutionary design for optimal image quality. The ESO New Technology Telescope was commissioned in 1989, and completely upgraded in 1997 (Big Bang). It has an alt-az mounting, and two Nasmyth focii, which host two instruments. SUSI2 is mounted on Nasmyth A, while since 21 June 2008 EFOSC2 is mounted on Nasmyth B. The pointing error is about 1.5" RMS, but degradation occurs close to zenith and at zenith angle larger than 60 degrees. The pointing is limited to 70 degrees of zenithal distance, and 3 degrees from zenith."

The most revolutionary technology developed for this celestial machine however is its adaptive optics technology. But let's have a close look at the machinery first, and on the next post, I'll show you a little bit more about these adaptive technologies. Thilo

FIRST PART - SECOND PART - THIRD PART - FOURTH PART

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ESO's telescopes at La Silla (Chile) - First part

2010-09-25T13:17:00.007-05:00

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has a huge amount of its most modern astronomical observatories in Chile. There are two main locations where ESO's telescopes are situated, one is La Silla (The Saddle) at the Atacama Desert, and the other is Cerro Paranal, where the famous Very Large Telescopes (VLT's) are. Today I will start with a series of four videos showing the landscapes around La Silla with its eighteen telescopes, nine of which were built by the ESO organisation, while several of the others are partly maintained by ESO. But two telescopes constitute their real treasures, the New Technology Telescope (NTT), and ESO's 3.6 m Telescope, the last one of these two being totally devoted to the detection and study of exoplanets. But let's start with a video that gives a general view of ESO's telescopes at La Silla. Enjoy, Thilo.

FIRST PART - SECOND PART - THIRD PART - FOURTH PART

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The Orion Nebula - Zooming into M42

2010-09-21T12:03:00.004-05:00

Like I said in many articles before, one can't ignore M42 for too long. This time I present a video showing a zoom into the Orion Nebula (also catalogued as M42 and NGC 1976), starting from the Orion Constellation itself and ending at the nebula of the same name. Thilo

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Globular Star Cluster Omega Centauri - Artist's impression

2010-09-20T11:43:00.007-05:00

Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) is a globular cluster which is visible to the naked eye. Located in the constellation Centaurus, this star cluster appears about as large as the full Moon. Exactly one year ago the above image of NGC 5139 was released by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) website. It displays a colorful collection of 100,000 stars inside a small region inside the Omega Centauri globular cluster, which is composed of 10 to 12 million stars packed densely together, something that only can be explained by the presence of a huge black hole in the center of this star cluster. The following video shows an edition of artist's impressions that try to show us all these features together. Until next time, Thilo.

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Open Star Cluster NGC 3603 - Artist's impression

2010-09-16T08:59:00.013-05:00

NGC 3603 is one of the most beautiful open star clusters photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) so far. This star cluster is situated in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way, nearly 20,000 light-years away from Earth. Almost ten years ago three prominent Wolf-Rayet stars were detected within this cluster by a scientifical team of The Australia Telescope Compact Array, which makes it also an astronomical object of special interest for Research. This artist's impression based on real images like the one you may see above this text shows us the beauty of this open star cluster in motion. I hope you'll enjoy it. Thilo

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Planet Mars - Incredible pictures of the "red planet"

2010-08-25T11:16:00.011-05:00

Mars is supposed to be the "red planet". While it is true that most of it is in fact red, the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter (MRO) gives us a new perspective through many of its pictures taken through special filters that try to highlight many of the geological Martian features, creating the so called "false colors", which is a relative term to me, since there are other colors besides red as well. What really happens is that we will find a predominance of red over the rest of colors.

So let's look at this images of The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE), which is a 0.5 m reflecting telescope, the largest ever carried on a deep space mission, and which has a resolution of 1 microradian (μrad), or 0.3 m from an altitude of 300 km. By the way, satellite images on Google Maps are available to 1 m resolution, so if you think this images of Mars have a very high resolution, you're absolutely right. Greetings from Bogotá, Thilo.

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Planet Jupiter - Galilean moons

2010-08-15T23:18:00.010-05:00

400 years after Galileo discovered the four major moons of Jupiter, we take it for granted that all four of the Galilean moons are easily visible in a small telescope or binoculars. But in Galileo's times telescopes barely started to exist. Nor did he have any chance of speculating about the likelihood of the existence of life outside our Earth. He didn't have the chance to watch them closer like we did, to discover the incredible details of Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, because on that time there were no robotic spacecraft to reveal the universe for us.

And of course, he was very occupied defending himself of the accusations of being an enemy of the Church, since his discoveries, as his conclusions of an heliocentric Solar System, were considered nothing more than blasphemies. But, how far away are we from such obscure times, when a scientifical conclusion was considered a menace against human kind by many? While in The Western part of our world religion is not considered a threat anymore to scientific research, on the other hand scientific dogmas and doctrines have replaced the so called "revealed truths" from the past.

Who dares to question the existence of "dark matter", the "Big Bang", the "String theory", or Einstein's prediction that "nothing can move (or accelerate, whatever) faster than light"? Almost nobody. And this does not mean that I personally do question this theories. I do not have the knowledge nor the intention to. But, weren't many brilliant men and women convinced of the existence of the so called "luminiferous aether" (space matter)? And weren't the ones before Einstein convinced about Newton's laws of mechanics being absolute truths?

Interestingly enough, Galileo never abandoned his faith in God, nor did Kepler, nor did Newton himself. This is no proof of the existence or no-existence of God, it is proof that the best way to honor the great men of modern history, is keeping our minds open, and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. The magnifecent four worlds
we're about to watch in detail in the following video, should therefore not only be a reason of wonder and delight for our senses and comprehension of the universe, but to remain really humble, no matter what our beliefs are. Thilo

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Carina Nebula, full of surprises

2010-08-13T11:52:00.010-05:00

The Carina Nebula (also known as NGC 3372) is a large bright nebula that surrounds several open star clusters. It also contains many famous stars, as Eta Carinae and HD 93129A, two of the most massive and luminous stars in our Milky Way galaxy, and even a Wolf-Rayet star, known as WR22, which is the big star of the picture above. But this nebula has a lot more interesting astronomical objects to offer, as the ones the picture below shows us.

Should you prefer to see this picture without annotations, then you may click HERE. Personally what impresses me most about this nebula is the enormous amount of pictures available of the Carina Nebula on the Internet, taken in many different spectra and by different telescopes, which sometimes make them look as if we were watching an entirely different nebula. The video that follows for example, is an artist's impression where this nebula looks all blue and orange. Thilo

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M17 - Many names, one nebula

2010-08-13T11:02:00.005-05:00

As an Amateur astronomer one of the most confusing things one may experience are the many names an astronomical object might have. This is the case of the Omega Nebula, also known as the Swan Nebula, or as the Horseshoe Nebula. It also was catalogued by Charles Messier as M17, and in the New General Catalogue it is classified as NGC 6618. M17 is located in the constellation Sagittarius, between 5,000 and 6,000 light-years away from Earth. But let's watch the video. Thilo

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Crab Nebula, or simply M1

2010-08-11T23:21:00.018-05:00

I don't know how many astronomical objects I'll be able to memorize during my quest of knowing the universe. But for many reasons that are primarly related with history and culture, there are some numbers one tends to fixate in the subconscious and therefore to associate with certain objects. The most obvious number is the one, and consequently almost anyone who likes to read a little about astronomy knows M1, or the first object to be classified in Messier's catalogue of astronomical objects, the Crab Nebula.

The other number I fixated from the beginning in my memory is M31, which stands for Andromeda (the galaxy). M42, which stands for the most popular of all nebulae, the Orion Nebula, and M45, which represents the most beautiful star cluster (and the most popular as well), the Pleiades (Seven Sisters), I also memorized easily, but a time later after I began to become serious about astronomy. I don't know if it has something to do with the numbers itself, or the fact that they represent not only beautiful and also popular sky targets, but more importantly, easy to watch astronomical objects.

Anyway, back to M1, I realized a time ago that all I had in my head about this nebula was its strange looks and the information that it was located in the constellation of Taurus (the Bull), but that's it. Reading further, I realized how important the Crab Nebula has been for the history of astronomy, and for its hidden mysteries that only in the Twentieth Century began to be unveiled and resolved by today's scientists. But let's watch the video, just in case you are an ethernal beginner in the passion for astronomy, as I am, still very close to the most elemental knowledge, even when it comes to numbers like M1. Thilo

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Olympus Mons (Mount Olympus)

2010-08-11T17:05:00.010-05:00

It was not long ago I wrote about the Amazing Planet Mars and its Valles Marineris. Today I just want to post a very short video about the highest mountain (and extinct volcanoe) of the entire Solar System: Olympus Mons, with a height of 27 km, that's more than three times Earth's Mount Everest which has a height of 8.8 km. I suppose that the grandchildren of our own grandchildren will some day climb this mountain, just for fun, and maybe to be able to watch the magnificent lanscapes of the red planet. Until next time, Thilo.

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Einstein was right

2010-08-09T11:21:00.024-05:00

"Failure" in school is one of today's nightmares of many children and adolescents around the world. The term "failure" of course, may have many connotations. One may understand it as the lack of academic competence, the lack of social skills, or the no compliance with specific "quality standards" of a given educational institution, maybe all the above at the same time. Applying a relativistic point of view to this matter, one can't really know when the failure should be attributed to the one who tries to learn (the student), or the one who tries to teach (the school and its teachers). This concept later continues applying to adult individuals, as the society ridicules them for thinking differently. Either way, from my point of view, the failure should at least morally attributed to the teacher, and not backwards.
But that's me.

But one thing is certain. There are so many cases of the so called "lazy students" or the "crazy men with their crazy ideas" (and women), that later on turned out to be "geniuses", that one cannot avoid to wonder if schools and the Western societies on general kill the natural talent of many individuals, instead of developing and encouraging it. The list of examples is long. Albert Einstein and Thomas Alva Edison, who were qualified as lazy students with no promising future in the academic world by many of their teachers. Alexander Graham Bell who's invention of the telephone was initially classified as "non promising" for commercial purposes by the industry of its time. Galileo Galilei who was sent to prison for his heliocentric model of the Solar System. Johannes Kepler and Nicolaus Copernicus who were humiliated for the same cause I just mentioned.

On the other side of the spectrum "lazy students" and "crazy people" really exist. In today's society the advantages that technology and science have given us are not only used for higher purposes as the development of modern medicine, the exploration of the Solar System and the universe by complex telescopes and robotic spacecraft, or the finding of particles smaller than an electron. They are mainly used to make us lazy indeed, by making us dependent of video games, TV Reality Shows, "Social Networks" on the Internet, "Fast Food", or sophisticated weapons to kill each other. So I asked myself what could have been Einstein's personal position on matters like these, and found some interesting quotes of him (spanish & english version of wikiquote), and will present only three of them:

1) "I consider that the worst problems of the school system are its fundamentation on fear, coercion and the artificial authority of its teachers."
February of 1923, in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

2) "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research."
Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein

3) "If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.
Address to the French Philosophical Society at the Sorbonne (6 April 1922)

Now it is very clear to me that in today's Western society imagination is not stimulated at all by all these mass-media influences and entertainment technologies. Furthermore, the students continue being humiliated by their teachers and other students, when they don't comply with the "status quo" of the society and the official knowledge contents that are being taught today. Ironically, the work and ideas of all these geniuses I mentioned before, has become "unquestionable" as well, and I can only wonder, ¿what if Einstein hadn't been right about his theories of special and general relativity? Germany wouldn't have claimed him to be a German, or at least, of German origin, nor would have he been relevant not only as a scientist, but as a humanist.
In essence, Einstein was right. Thilo

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Supernova 1987A in 3D

2010-08-05T00:59:00.010-05:00

The very first article of this blog of mine was about the Supernova 1987A, discovered in Chile in 1987. Interestingly today, August fourth of 2010, the European Southern Observatory released new images about this supernova, including an artist's impression in three dimensions of SN 1987A. This exploding star taught us a lot about the nature of supernovas, as I tried to demonstrate on the first article (and video) of this blog, simply called "Supernova 1987A: The beginning, not the end". Now this new video based on the motion and still images released today by ESO maybe will complement the story already told before. I hope you'll enjoy it. Thilo

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