Monday 13 November 2017

Trilobites: The Dream Chaser Takes Flight and Seems to Ace Its Landing

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Built by Sierra Nevada Corporation, the space plane that brings to mind NASA’s retired shuttles completed a successful test flight and landing on Saturday.
via New York Times

Anatomy of a cosmic snake reveals structure of distant galaxies

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We have a fair understanding of star formation, from the interstellar matter to the diffuse clouds whose gravitational contraction gives birth to stars. But observations of distant galaxies have questioned this picture, the size and mass of these distant stellar nurseries exceeding that of their local counterparts. Astrophysicists have tackled this inconsistency and found the first answers thanks to the observation of the cosmic snake.
via Science Daily
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Duo of titanic galaxies captured in extreme starbursting merger

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Astronomers have uncovered the never-before-seen close encounter between two astoundingly bright and spectacularly massive galaxies in the early universe.
via Science Daily
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Stellar explosions and cosmic 'recipe' for nearby universe

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Thanks to an in-depth look into the composition of gas in the Perseus galaxy cluster, Japan's Hitomi mission has given scientists new insights into the stellar explosions that formed its chemical elements.
via Science Daily
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Gravitational waves from merging supermassive black holes will be spotted within 10 years

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New research predicts that gravitational waves generated by the merger of two supermassive black holes -- the strongest gravitational waves in the universe -- will be detected within 10 years. The study is the first to use real data, rather than computer simulations, to predict when such an observation will be made.
via Science Daily
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Herschel discovers galaxy merger in the very early Universe

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What seemed at first like a rare instance of a huge, ancient galaxy revealed itself to be an even rarer pair of extremely massive galaxies, seen on the brink of merging when the Universe was only a billion years old.


via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Herschel/Herschel_discovers_galaxy_merger_in_the_very_early_Universe

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Early Science Observations Revealed


First Publicly Available Science Observations for Webb Announced

The Space Telescope Science Institute is announcing some of the first science programs NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will conduct following its launch and commissioning. These specific observations are part of a program of Director’s Discretionary Early Release Science (DD-ERS), which will provide the scientific community with immediate access to Webb data. These data will help inform proposals for observations in the second year of Webb operations. The 13 ERS programs will address a broad variety of science areas, from black hole growth and the assembly of galaxies to star formation and the study of exoplanets.


via Hubble - News feed
http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2017-39

Webb’s first space targets chosen

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Gas giant Jupiter, organic molecules in star-forming clouds and baby galaxies in the distant Universe are among the first targets for which data will be immediately available from the James Webb Space Telescope once it begins casting its powerful gaze on the Universe in 2019.


via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Webb_s_first_space_targets_chosen

Record luminosity: well done LHC

Phobos photobomb

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Space Science Image of the Week: Phobos, the Red Planet’s innermost moon, sneaks into Hubble’s image of Mars
via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2017/11/Phobos_orbiting_Mars