Astrophysics Newsfeeds
Astronomy Picture of the Day: Stickney Crater
November 7, 2009
Stickney Crater Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red Planet's moons in 1877. Over...
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Universe Today (Top 5 items)
- One Strange Mars Rock (Sat Nov 7 10:37 am)
Opportunity has come upon another big rock on Mars. But what is it? Another meteorite? A big clump of ejecta from an old impact? There's lots of other debris scattered around this area as well. The rock has been named "Marquette Island,"... - Early Galaxy Pinpoints Reionization Era (Fri Nov 6 1:17 pm)
Astronomers looking to pinpoint when the reionozation of the Universe took place have found some of the earliest galaxies about 800 million years after the Big Bang. 22 early galaxies were found using a method that looks for far-away redshifting... - Space Junk May Force Crew from ISS (Fri Nov 6 10:54 am)
Update #2, 5:30 pm: NASA has now said that after further analysis, the space debris they have been tracking no longer poses any concern or threat to the ISS. Everyone can rest easy tonight! The piece of debris was only 5 cm long, and will... - Podcast: Planet X (Fri Nov 6 10:20 am)
Astronomers have been searching for the mysterious Planet X for hundreds of years. It was the search for a theoretical planet beyond Uranus that turned up Neptune, and then again for Pluto. And even now there are some astronomers who think... - Podcast: Pulsars (Fri Nov 6 10:17 am)
Imagine an object with the mass of the Sun, crushed down to the size of Manhattan. Now set that object spinning hundreds of times a second, blasting out powerful beams of radiation like a lighthouse. That's a pulsar, one of the most exotic...
EurekaAlert Space News (Top 5 items)
- 'Dropouts' pinpoint earliest galaxies (Thu Nov 5 11:00 pm)
(Carnegie Institution) Astronomers, conducting the broadest survey to date of galaxies from about 800 million years after the Big Bang, have found 22 early galaxies and confirmed the age of one by its characteristic hydrogen signature at 787... - AGU journal highlights -- Nov. 5, 2009 (Wed Nov 4 11:00 pm)
(American Geophysical Union) Featured in this release are research papers on the following topics: "Antarctica warming a regional, not local, trend"; "New model factors storms into shoreline loss"; "Study agrees reservoir contributed to Wenchuan... - DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory names 6 scientists as 2009 Fellows (Wed Nov 4 11:00 pm)
(DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory) Antoinette "Toni" Taylor, Stephen Becker, Joachim Birn, Lowell Brown, Patrick Colestock and Samuel "Tom" Picraux have been designated 2009 Los Alamos National Laboratory Fellows in recognition of sustained,... - Tackling new Arctic challenges from space (Wed Nov 4 11:00 pm)
(European Space Agency) International scientists, researchers and decision makers met at the Space and the Arctic workshop to identify the needs and challenges of working and living in the rapidly changing Arctic and to explore how space-based... - German high-school students involved in an astronomical research project (Wed Nov 4 11:00 pm)
(Astronomy & Astrophysics) Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes the results of an unusual research project, by a team involving German high-school students. They present an accurate, long-term ephemeris of the cataclysmic variable EK Ursae Majoris,...
Bad Astronomy Blog (Top 5 items)
- Carl Sagan Day live stream! (Sat Nov 7 8:07 am)
My friend, the magician Andrew Mayne, is here at Carl Sagan Day, and told me that he will be live streaming the entire event on UStream! I’ve embedded the video viewer below (hopefully it won’t start playing automatically). If you... - Reminder: Carl Sagan Day (Fri Nov 6 3:00 pm)
A quick reminder: the Carl Sagan Day celebration will be at Broward College in southern Florida on Saturday! Speakers include James Randi, Jeffrey Bennett, David Morrison, and me. There will be lots of stuff for kids and astronomy enthusiasts... - Pray this doesn/\?t/ get passed (Fri Nov 6 1:00 pm)
I was going to write about how Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and John Kerry (D-MA) were trying to somewhat slimily slip a provision into the health care bill about paying for prayer-based health services, but then wouldn’tyouknowit, Steve... - Careidolia (Fri Nov 6 11:30 am)
OK, I know that some people see the face of their religious icons in random things. I’ve written about this a zillion times. And I know that sometimes it’s just pareidolia, our tendency to see faces in random objects. And I know... - The Universe Has Us in Its Crosshairs (Fri Nov 6 9:00 am)
Looking for something to do this weekend, and for the next month? Are you anywhere near New York City? Then I am very pleased to let you know that a group of artists there have created an exhibit based on my book, Death from the Skies! The...
Science@NASA (Top 5 items)
- A Tale of Planetary Woe (Fri Nov 6 12:00 am)
Long ago, something calamitous happened to Mars, transforming a hospitable world into the apparently lifeless desert we see today. Many scientists believe the Red Planet lost most of its atmosphere, but how? A new NASA mission named MAVEN... - Hidden Territory on Mercury Revealed (Tue Nov 3 12:00 am)
The MESSENGER spacecraft's third flyby of the planet Mercury has given scientists an almost complete view of the planet's surface and revealed some dramatic changes in Mercury's comet-like tail. Please vote for this podcast at PodcastAlley!... - A Mars Rover Named "Curiosity" (Fri Oct 30 1:00 am)
NASA's next Mars rover, a super-capable robot named "Curiosity," will push Mars exploration to a new level. Please vote for this podcast at PodcastAlley! Get this podcast story. - The Sun's Sneaky Variability (Tue Oct 27 1:00 am)
It might not be obvious to the naked eye, but the sun is a variable star. A sensor slated for launch onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory will probe the sun's "sneaky variability" with better time and spectral resolution than... - NASA Mission to Study the Moon's Fragile Atmosphere (Fri Oct 23 1:00 am)
NASA is planning a mission to study the Moon's fragile atmosphere--before it's too late. Please vote for this podcast at PodcastAlley! Get this podcast story.
RedOrbit Space News (Top 5 items)
- US Seeks Dialogue Over China's Space Program Intentions (Wed Nov 4 1:05 pm)
A U.S. - New Type Of Supernova Explosion Reported (Thu Nov 5 12:35 pm)
A new class of supernova was discovered by scientists at Berkeley and may be the first example of a new type of exploding star. - Launching The Space Elevator Race (Wed Nov 4 12:04 pm)
NASA's Centennial Challenges program and the Spaceward Foundation kicked off the Space Elevator Games in the Mojave Desert on Wednesday.Teams of engineers have their eye on the $2 million prize to be awarded to the first group to climb just... - SMOS Forms 3-Pointed Star In The Sky (Tue Nov 3 1:10 pm)
Following the launch of ESA's SMOS satellite on 2 November, the French space agency CNES, which is responsible for operating the satellite, has confirmed that the instrument's three antenna arms have deployed as planned, and that the instrument... - More Hidden Territory On Mercury Revealed By Messenger (Tue Nov 3 11:10 am)
Image Caption: A MESSENGER color observation of Mercury obtained as the spacecraft approached the planet for its third and final flyby on 29 September 2009. The 1000, 700, and 430 nm filters were combined in red, green, and blue to create this...
Astronomer's Telegrams (Top 10 items)
- ATel 2284: Swift/BAT reports a flaring state of PKS 0405-385 (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
As part of its hard X-ray transient monitor program, the Burst Alert Telescope on Swift has detected a brightening of the rapidly variable radio quasar PKS 0405-385. ... - ATel 2283: Long-slit CCD spectroscopy of planetary radar targets 1999 AP10, 2000 TO64, and 2000 UJ1 (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
We report taxonomic classifications of three near-Earth asteroids (1999 AP10, 2000 TO64, and 2000 UJ1) scheduled for radar observation at the Arecibo facility during Oct-Nov 2009, using long-slit CCD spectroscopy acquired at the Palomar... - ATel 2282: Outburst of Cataclysmic Variable 1RXS J231935.0+364705 (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
We report the first real-time detection of the outburst (from 19.0 mag to 14.5 mag on Nov. 5, 2009) of an optical counterpart of the poorly studied ROSAT X-ray source 1RXS J231935.0+364705 in Andromeda. ... - ATel 2281: A recent Swift/XRT observation of GX 339-4 during its faint optical flux (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
We report on the X-ray luminosity of the black hole X-ray binary GX 339-4, which was reported to fade in the optical and reach its lowest optical flux since the start of its 2006-7 outburst (ATels #968, #1027, #2270). ... - ATel 2280: GBM detection of XTE J1752-223 to above 100 keV (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
The new transient black hole candidate XTE J1752-223 (ATel. #2258; see also ATels. #2259, #2261, #2263, #2268, #2269, #2278), is also detected using the Earth occultation technique with the Gamma Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on Fermi. ... - ATel 2279: Swift/BAT observes a new outburst from the SFXT SAX J1818.6-1703 (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
The Swift/BAT triggered on a new outburst of the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient SAX J1818.6-1703 on 2009 November 4 at 07:24:10 UT. Swift did not perform a slew to the target, hence no narrow-field instrument observations are available.... - ATel 2278: Radio detection of XTE J1752-223 with the ATCA (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
Following the detection of the new X-ray transient, XTE J1752-223, by RXTE and Swift (ATel. #2258; see also ATels. #2259, #2261, #2263, #2265, #2268, #2269), we have performed radio observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and... - ATel 2277: Renewed activity of A0535+26 detected by MAXI/GSC (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
MAXI/GSC detected a renewed activity of Be/X-ray binary pulsar A0535+26 starting at October 21, 2009 (MJD 55125), and is still detectable at about 10 mCrab on October 30. ... - ATel 2276: Swift/BAT confirms the outburst from 2S 1417-624 (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
As part of its hard X-ray transient monitor program, the Burst Alert Telescope on Swift has detected a brightening of the high-mass X-ray binary and binary pulsar 2S 1417-624 which confirms the results recently reported from the Fermi/GBM... - ATel 2275: 2S 1417-624 in Outburst (Wed Dec 31 6:00 pm)
Observations with the GBM on Fermi show that the transient Be/X-ray binary pulsar 2S 1417-624 is currently in outburst. Coherent pulsations from the source at a 17.5 s period have been detected in the GBM data since October 18. ...