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

--
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/