News from Mars

Some interesting news, especially given how long these rovers have
outlasted their initial mission.
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/dec/HQ_11-403_Mars_Rover_Gypsum.html

News

I'm sure someone else may have already sent these your way, but here are some news
blurbs from the last couple days.

Planet in Habitable Zone
http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-telescope-confirms-alien-planet-habitable-zone-162005358.html

Largest-Yet Black Holes
http://www.nature.com/news/record-breaking-black-holes-fill-a-cosmic-gap-1.9553

Shared by Phil.

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NMT Astro Cafe Maitre d'

Socorro rock makes it to Mars!!!

http://www.laserfocusworld.com/news/2011/12/1553522844/n-m-aids-mars-trip-emcore-supplies-solar-panels.html

I was looking for a picture of the rock but could not find one :P

News Nov. 09.11

Cygnus X-1

Credit:  X-ray: NASA/CXC; Optical: Digitized Sky Survey.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111117144045.htm

http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/742/2/83/pdf/0004-637X_742_2_83.pdf

The Cool Clouds of Carina

Hi A.C. -- I"m late again, but here's a link to some great new photos;  click on the image to get a larger version.  Great view of star formation in this famous nebula 

Jean

http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1145/

here's a link to some great new
photos; click on the image to get a larger version. Great view of
star formation in this famous nebula
Jean

Neutron stars formation paper

Hello all,
I would like to discuss this in the next astro Cafe
http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.2051
Bob

Proof the Universe is Fine-Tuned for Life? Scientists Find Antarctica Meteorites Contain Essential Building Block of DNA

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/11/more-proof-the-universe-fine-tuned-for-life-scientists-find-antarctica-meteorites-contain-sssential-.html

Shared by Jean.

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NMT Astro Cafe Maitre d'

News Nov. 09.11

Phobos-Grunt Mars 

Credit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15631472

NASA captures new images of large asteroid passing Earth

Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111108070612.htm

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/newsfeatures.cfm?release=2011-346

Video:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=77341&media_id=119737731

News Nov. 02.11

Large Asteroid to Pass by Earth Nov. 8

Credit: NASA/Cornell/Arecibo

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111101134315.htm

Planets Smashed Into Dust Near Supermassive Black Holes

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111028082003.htm

yet more on superluminal neutrinos

The ICARUS group rebuts the OPERA result:

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1110.3763

while the OPERA group has started a redo of their experiment:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21093-fasterthanlight-neutrino-result-to-get-extra-checks.html

Dark Matter and Galaxy Warping

This is the article I mentioned last week about galaxies made up entirely of dark matter.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-dark-side-of-the-milky-way

Still in the news

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/science/25neutrinos.html?_r=1&ref=science

Shared by Rick

News Oct. 26.11
First observation of spiral arms in a circumstellar disk: a hint at presence of planets

Credit: NASA, NAOJ, Subaru
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/possible-planets.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111019170256.htm

Direct Image of Newborn Planet

Astronomers used aperture masking interferometry at Keck to directly image the youngest known planet.  We can see that LkCa-15-b is a hot protoplanet with cool dust and gas still falling in.  This protoplanet is 5 times younger than the previous youngest planet.

http://keckobservatory.org/images/gallery/press_images/LkCa-15-b-Protoplanet.jpg

Here is an article on Wired Science:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/newborn-planet/

the Keck press release:

http://www.keckobservatory.org/news/first_close-up_view_of_a_planet_being_formed/

and the paper on the arXiv:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.3808

News Oct. 19.11

Crab Pulsar Emits Light at Highest Energies Ever Detected in a Pulsar System

Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL/CXC

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111006141358.htm

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6052/69.full.pdf?sid=c1d4a65f-d41f-4c2f-b431-52674fe3fba8

ROSAT satellite falling to Earth

Artist's impression of the ROSAT satellite in space

Credit: DLR

http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10484/763_read-1096/

The Expanding Universe: From Slowdown to Speed Up

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=expanding-universe-slows-then-speeds&page=4

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NMT Astro Cafe Maitre d'

Binary black hole in a spiral galaxy

NGC 3393 has clear signs of a recent merger:

But:  how did that merger produce a close black hole pair in the core (seen here in Xrays, Fabbiano et al) without destroying the disk?

The CHANDRA press release:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/n3393/

and the full Nature paper:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v477/n7365/full/nature10364.html

Physics Nobel awarded for dark energy!

This is a well deserved award.  Here's the Nobel site:  click on "press release", "popular info" or "advanced info" to get more (as pdf's)

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2011/

News Sept. 28.11

Opera experiment

    Credit: Opera web page

Sunspot 1302

    Credit: NASA/SDO/HMI

http://www.space.com/13089-solar-storm-coronal-mass-ejection-northern-lights.html

Superlight neutrinos?

This is becoming a major kerfuffle on the web:

Some blogs of interest:

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/

http://neutrinoscience.blogspot.com/2011/09/arriving-fashionable-late-for-party.html

The NYT article is good for basic reporting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/24/science/24speed.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

and, of course, the real article from arXiV:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4897

Shared by Jean.

Video: New results from OPERA on neutrino properties

http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1384486

Shared by Rick. 

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NMT Astro Cafe Maitre d'

Galactic Habitable Zone?

I found this article "Living in the Galactic Danger Zone" (http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/living-in-the-galactic-danger-zone/) quite randomly, but thought it was interesting enough to share.  Here's the link to the paper on the arxiv:  http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.1286.

Heather Bloemhard

Graduate Research Assistant

Physics/MRO

New Mexico Tech

575-835-5548

heatherb@nmt.edu

Aurora borealis from an airplane

Shared by Tina:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/aurora-borealis-from-an-airplane-video/2011/04/13/AF0WvrVD_blog.html

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NMT Astro Cafe Maitre d'

Vesta "flyover" video

NASA has created a video of what it might look like to
fly around Vesta, the second largest asteroid in the
asteroid belt. The video is computer-generated, but
the computer model was made by detailed photos collected
by the spacecraft Dawn, so it's kind of "real-ish."
Neat video but not likely not much science interest
except to those who study asteroids (and solar system
formation, I suppose).
The link is here:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1020
Thanks!
- Paul

Space Station views of the Earth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74mhQyuyELQ&feature=player_embedded
Raul

NASA's WISE Mission Captures Black Hole's Wildly Flaring Jet

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110920161546.htm

Thanks Tina!

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NMT Astro Cafe Maitre d'

News for Sept. 21.11

NASA satellite  expected to hit Earth this week

UARS artist concept 

Credit: NASA  

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/index.html

New Planet with two moons

Artist's concept of Kepler-16b

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt

http://kepler.nasa.gov/Mission/discoveries/kepler16b/

Southern Lights seen from above in amazing Nasa space video

View of the Southern Lights from the ISS.

Read more:

 http://www.metro.co.uk/news/876035-southern-lights-seen-from-above-in-amazing-nasa-space-video#ixzz1YbdkgFj9

Star Wars Come True? Tatooine-Like Planet Discovered

Along the lines of discussing funny headlines ... Star Wars come true!!! :P

Here is a link to the Nasa TV news ...

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html

The video says that rocky planets orbiting two Sun's are common in our galaxy. Could somebody add a reference to this?

NASA to announce Kepler discovery at media briefing

This sounds really intriging ... we'll see tomorrow what this is all about ...

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/13/3907487/nasa-to-announce-kepler-discovery.html

Origin of the Fermi Bubbles ???

http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.2619

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/new-structure.html