The Sun’s corona—essentially its plasma “atmosphere”—is actually hotter than the surface of the star itself. Scientists have long suspected that the region’s million-degree temperatures influence its massive magnetic fields, and have hypothesized that solar flares originate there. But researchers had never been able to observe these phenomena first-hand—until now. More »
Celestron has taken its expertise in designing telescope mounts that can track and pan with the motion of the stars and created a cheaper, lightweight version called the Virtuoso that can also be used with a camera to capture massive multi-shot images. More »
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this just leaves us speechless. Pictured above is a compressed 108,500 x 81,500 pixel image of 84 million stars across central parts of the Milky Way. Taken by the VISTA survey telescope at the ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, this 9-gigapixel photo is the result of thousands of individual images being meshed together. If it were printed out at the average resolution of a standard book it would measure a mind-boggling 9 x 7 meters. Using three separate infrared filters, VISTA is able to see through dust fields that normally obscure the view of an optical telescope. By studying this monumental image, astronomers hope to gain a better understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. If you’d like to take a look at this galactic work of art in its entirety, you can do so by visiting the source link below.
(Image credit: ESO/VVV Consortium)
Continue reading 9-gigapixel image of the Milky Way reminds us just how small we truly are
9-gigapixel image of the Milky Way reminds us just how small we truly are originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Oct 2012 06:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We may be on the verge of an astronomical renaissance. Once complete, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope hunt for dark energy and matter throughout the Southern sky from its perch atop Cerro Pachon in Chile while producing a staggering 60 petabyte public data archive. Now, we just need to figure out how to pay for it. More »
From the Byrd telescope in West Virginia, to the Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico, to the MeerKAT system in South Africa, the world is not hurting for gigantic radio telescopes. These large arrays are precise and powerful, but come 2024, they will all be eclipsed by the capability of the Square Kilometre Array—a telescope system big enough to answer science’s deepest questions about the nature of our universe. More »
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