This stunningly trippy object is W49B, a supernova remnant 26,000 light years away from Earth. It’s just a thousand years old, which in cosmological terms is not even a heartbeat in the life of a human. It may also be the birth place of a newborn black hole, the youngest ever detected in the galaxy. More »
NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory has captured this incredible image of an object 1,000 light years away from Earth. It looks like an awesome Klingon spaceship accelerating to Warp 10. Or a majestic 12-mile-long Cylon Basestar that flies through the cosmos rotating eleven times every second. More »
The universe is so incredibly large that it’s difficult to know where to begin when trying to visualize its size. This video should help you get your head around that very problem. More »
Mariner 10 took the first close-up photo of Venus on February 5, 1974. It’s still the best and most mesmerizing. More »
Space enthusiasts on the east coast, keep an eye to the sky. NASA will be launching their Wallops Mission rocket sometime between now and 6:50pm EST. The Terrier-Improved Orion sounding rocket will release two lithium vapor trails colored red that will be visible to some in the Mid-Atlantic area. The mission is taking place from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility located in Virginia.
For those who can’t get outside, don’t want to brave the cold, or are stymied by clouds, NASA is showing the launch online via video on Ustream, which you can view here. This is the first of three missions NASA has for 2013 that involve the use of lithium vapor trails, which are being used to observe space events.
The project’s manager with NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program Office, Libby West, had this to say about the mission. “This launch is a technology test flight for two upcoming missions. We will be testing two different methods for creating the lithium vapor to determine which configuration is best for observing various science phenomena in space.”
The vapor trails will not happen at the same time, with the first one going off at an altitude of about 72 miles, and the second going off at an altitude of about 78 miles. NASA has stated that the vapor does not prose any risk to the public. In the event the project has to be postponed, the backup launch dates are January 30 to February 1.
[via NASA]
NASA to launch Wallops Mission rocket this evening, live streaming now is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
In four billion years, Andromeda will collide with the Milky Way. That will be an amazing view—but until then we have to look at it from a distance. This new photo by the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory shows a beautiful view. From NASA: More »
As digital displays are becoming more common than ever, good old-fashioned projectors are getting rarer and rarer. That includes the hulking beasts that are planetarium projectors, those often massive, rotating behemoths that spout out views of the entire sky. Fortunately, the antiquated gadgets have a home at the aptly named Planetarium Projector Museum. More »
NASA has penned a $17.8 million deal with Bigelow Aerospace that will bring a (relatively speaking) inexpensive inflatable pod to the International Space Station. The space pod is fabric-based, and could make its way into space by 2015. While its initial test run will be for observation and data, one day the pod could be used, among other things, as a quiet place for astronauts to hang out.
The inflatable pod is called the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, Beam for short, and is constructed from layered material, including a bullet-resistant fabric called Vectran. Because of how it is designed, Beam will not tear if a hole is introduced into it. Likewise, it softens noise by absorbing it, and can be folded up and stuffed in a small area like a piece of clothing.
For its first run, the Beam module will be inflated but empty while researchers observe its various details, such as temperatures and how it holds up to space debris. When completely expanded, the pod’s dimensions measure in at 13-feet long and 10-feet around, for a total capacity of approximately 560 cubic feet. The module is mounted to the ISS via an air lock.
For now, it is rumored that NASA will use Beam in manned missions, and to build a base on the Moon. At some point, the inflatable pod could also be used to create soft spacecraft, which won’t experience a dangerous explosion from air movement if punctured. Likewise, Bigelow himself wants to use the material to create two large modules that will function as the first ever private space station.
[via New York Times]
NASA to send inflatable pod to the International Space Station is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
An international team of scientists has discovered the biggest known structure in the universe—and it would take a vehicle traveling at the speed of light 4 billion years to cross it. More »
Astronomers have discovered a large quasar group, more commonly referred to as an LQG, that is reported to be the largest known structure in the universe. The discovery was reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal, and was led by the University of Central Lancashire. The LQG is so large, in fact, that it challenges the Cosmological Principle.
The Cosmological Principle states that when the universe is observed at a large enough scale, it will look the same regardless of where it is being observed from. This principle is based on an assumption, which is now being challenged by the LQG. Just how large is it? According to the Royal Astronomical Society, it would take a car 4 billion years to travel across it at the speed of light.
According to the modern theory of cosmology, a structure like this should not be discoverable at over 370 Megaparsecs, with LQGs being capable of exceeding 200 Mpc. The large LQG discovery, however, measures in at 500 Mpc, with its longest dimension clocking in at 1,200 Mpc. According to RAS, this is about 1,600 times bigger than the distance between Andromeda and the Milky Way.
Dr. Roger Clowes, who led the team that made the discovery, had this to say. “While it is difficult to fathom the scale of this LQG, we can say quite definitely it is the largest structure ever seen in the entire universe. This is hugely exciting – not least because it runs counter to our current understanding of the scale of the universe.”
[via RAS]
Astronomers discover the universe’s largest known structure is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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