Monday 29 July 2013

Chandra sees eclipsing planet in X-rays for first time

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For the first time since exoplanets, or planets around stars other than the sun, were discovered almost 20 years ago, X-ray observations have detected an exoplanet passing in front of its parent star.



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Pulsating star sheds light on exoplanet

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Astronomers have devised a way to measure the internal properties of stars —- a method that offers more accurate assessments of their orbiting planets.

via Science Daily

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NASA's Chandra sees eclipsing planet in X-rays for first time

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For the first time since exoplanets, or planets around stars other than the sun, were discovered almost 20 years ago, X-ray observations have detected an exoplanet passing in front of its parent star. An advantageous alignment of a planet and its parent star in the system HD 189733, which is 63 light-years from Earth, enabled NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM Newton Observatory to observe a dip in X-ray intensity as the planet transited the star.

via Science Daily

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Desiderata - Eagle Nebula, Messier 16, NGC 6611 Print

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Inspirational Guidance series

The full Desiderata by Max Ehrmann: Go placidly amidst the noise and haste... With an inspiring colour image showing the spectacular star-forming region, the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16, or NGC 6611). At the centre, the so-called “Pillars of Creation” can be seen.

The poem has inspired young adults who are coming of age since the 1920's and is as popular today as it ever was. It's been given as a gift by loving parents, grandparents, godparents and aunts and uncles as essential life-wisdom ever since it was written.

They've found it to be one of the few ways for such wisdom to get past those raging hormones, giving support to the upcoming generation through their rebellious years and beyond...

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Image code: eglneb

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

via Zazzle Astronomy market place

Desiderata - North American and Pelican Nebulae Posters

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Inspirational Guidance series The full Desiderata by Max Ehrmann: Go placidly amidst the noise and haste... featuring the North American and Pelican emission nebulae in the constellation of Cygnus, The Swan. The red, green and yellow areas all highlight the cloud of interstellar ionized hydrogen.

The poem has inspired young adults who are coming of age since the 1920's and is as popular today as it ever was. It's been given as a gift by loving parents, grandparents, godparents and aunts and uncles as essential life-wisdom ever since it was written.

They've found it to be one of the few ways for such wisdom to get past those raging hormones, giving support to the upcoming generation through their rebellious years and beyond...

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image code: nanpn
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

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Desiderata - The Crab Nebula in Taurus Poster

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Inspirational Guidance series

The full Desiderata by Max Ehrmann: Go placidly amidst the noise and haste... Featuring a three colour composite of the well-known Crab Nebula (also known as Messier 1).

The poem has inspired young adults who are coming of age since the 1920's and is as popular today as it ever was. It's been given as a gift by loving parents, grandparents, godparents and aunts and uncles as essential life-wisdom ever since it was written.

They've found it to be one of the few ways for such wisdom to get past those raging hormones, giving support to the upcoming generation through their rebellious years and beyond...

more items with this image
more items featuring the full Desiderata
more Wall Art

Image code: crbneb

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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A Surprisingly Bright Superbubble

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This composite image shows a superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way located about 160,000 light years from Earth. Many new stars, some of them very massive, are forming in the star cluster NGC 1929, which is embedded in the nebula N44, so named because it is the 44th nebula in a catalog of such objects in the Magellanic Clouds. The massive stars produce intense radiation, expel matter at high speeds, and race through their evolution to explode as supernovas. The winds and supernova shock waves carve out huge cavities called superbubbles in the surrounding gas. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) show hot regions created by these winds and shocks, while infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) outline where the dust and cooler gas are found. The optical light from the 2.2-m Max-Planck-ESO telescope (yellow) in Chile shows where ultraviolet radiation from hot, young stars is causing gas in the nebula to glow. A long-running problem in high-energy astrophysics has been that some superbubbles in the LMC, including N44, give off a lot more X-rays than expected from models of their structure. These models assume that hot, X-ray emitting gas has been produced by winds from massive stars and the remains of several supernovas. A Chandra study published in 2011 showed that there are two extra sources of N44's X-ray emission not included in these models: supernova shock waves striking the walls of the cavities, and hot material evaporating from the cavity walls. The Chandra observations also show no evidence for an enhancement of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in the cavities, thus ruling out this possibility as a third explanation for the bright X-ray emission. Only with long observations making full use of the capabilities of Chandra has it now become possible to distinguish between different sources of the X-rays produced by superbubbles. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Mich./S.Oey, IR: NASA/JPL, Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-m Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

via Chandra X-ray Observatory Images

X-rays From A Young Supernova Remnant

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More than fifty years ago, a supernova was discovered in M83, a spiral galaxy about 15 million light years from Earth. Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to make the first detection of X-rays emitted by the debris from this explosion. Named SN 1957D because it was the fourth supernova to be discovered in the year 1957, it is one of only a few located outside of the Milky Way galaxy that is detectable, in both radio and optical wavelengths, decades after its explosion was observed. In 1981, astronomers saw the remnant of the exploded star in radio waves, and then in 1987 they detected the remnant at optical wavelengths, years after the light from the explosion itself became undetectable. A relatively short observation - about 14 hours long - from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2000 and 2001 did not detect any X-rays from the remnant of SN 1957D. However, a much longer observation obtained in 2010 and 2011, totaling nearly 8 and 1/2 days of Chandra time, did reveal the presence of X-ray emission. The X-ray brightness in 2000 and 2001 was about the same as or lower than in this deep image. This new Chandra image of M83 is one of the deepest X-ray observations ever made of a spiral galaxy beyond our own. This full-field view of the spiral galaxy shows the low, medium, and high-energy X-rays observed by Chandra in red, green, and blue respectively. The new X-ray data from the remnant of SN 1957D provide important information about the nature of this explosion that astronomers think happened when a massive star ran out of fuel and collapsed. The distribution of X-rays with energy suggests that SN 1957D contains a neutron star, a rapidly spinning, dense star formed when the core of pre-supernova star collapsed. This neutron star, or pulsar, may be producing a cocoon of charged particles moving at close to the speed of light known as a pulsar wind nebula. If this interpretation is confirmed, the pulsar in SN 1957D is observed at an age of 55 years, one of the youngest pulsars ever seen. The remnant of SN 1979C in the galaxy M100 contains another candidate for the youngest pulsar, but astronomers are still unsure whether there is a black hole or a pulsar at the center of SN 1979C. Image Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/STScI/K.Long et al., Optical: NASA/STScI

via Chandra X-ray Observatory Images

Black Hole Outburst

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NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered an extraordinary outburst by a black hole in the spiral galaxy M83, located about 15 million light years from Earth. Using Chandra, astronomers found a new ultraluminous X-ray source, or ULX. These objects give off more X-rays than most normal binary systems in which a companion star is in orbit around a neutron star or black hole. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/Curtin University/R.Soria et al.

via Chandra X-ray Observatory Images

Like water for batteries: Water 'likeability' plays role in battery-charged objects

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Objects made from graphite -- such as lithium-ion batteries -- are "hydrophobic," meaning that they "dislike" water. For decades this lack of likeability has presented significant challenges in terms of building more durable technological devices made with graphite -- until now.

via Science Daily

NASA's Chandra Sees Eclipsing Planet in X-rays for First Time

Pulsating star sheds light on exoplanet

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A team of researchers has devised a way to measure the internal properties of stars—a method that offers more accurate assessments of their orbiting planets.



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NASA Welcomes New Chief Scientist

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named planetary geologist Ellen Stofan the agency's chief scientist, effective Aug. 25.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/july/nasa-welcomes-new-chief-scientist

Tetrapod nanocrystals light the way to stronger polymers

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Fluorescent tetrapod nanocrystals could light the way to the future design of stronger polymer nanocomposites. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed an advanced opto-mechanical sensing technique based on tetrapod quantum dots that allows precise measurement of the tensile strength of polymer fibers with minimal impact on the fiber's mechanical properties.



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NASA and Korean Space Agency Discuss Space Cooperation

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and the president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Seung Jo Kim, met in Washington Monday to discuss collaboration in aeronautics research and space exploration, including KARI's robotic lunar mission and NASA's asteroid initiative.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/july/nasa-and-korean-space-agency-discuss-space-cooperation

Scientists realize quantum bit with a bent nanotube

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One of the biggest challenges in quantum science is to build a functioning quantum bit, the basic element for the quantum computer. An important theoretical candidate for such a quantum bit is using a bent carbon nanotube. Scientists at the Delft University of Technology and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), led by Professor Leo Kouwenhoven, have succeeded for the first time to create a working quantum bit using a carbon nanotube. On July 28 they published their results in Nature Nanotechnology.



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When fluid dynamics mimic quantum mechanics

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In the early days of quantum physics, in an attempt to explain the wavelike behavior of quantum particles, the French physicist Louis de Broglie proposed what he called a "pilot wave" theory. According to de Broglie, moving particles—such as electrons, or the photons in a beam of light—are borne along on waves of some type, like driftwood on a tide.



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Earth's gold came from colliding dead stars

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We value gold for many reasons: its beauty, its usefulness as jewelry, and its rarity. Gold is rare on Earth in part because it's also rare in the universe. Unlike elements like carbon or iron, it cannot be created within a star. Instead, it must be born in a more cataclysmic event - like one that occurred last month known as a short gamma-ray burst (GRB).



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