Telescopes

Hubble Space Telescope View Of Turbulent Star-Making Region In The Tarantula Nebula

May 14, 2012

Several million stars are vying for attention in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of a raucous stellar breeding ground in 30 Doradus, located in the heart of the Tarantula nebula.

30 Doradus is the brightest star-forming region in our galactic neighbourhood and home to the most massive stars ever seen. The nebula resides 170 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small, satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. No known star-forming region in our galaxy is as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus. The image comprises one of the largest mosaics ever assembled from Hubble photos and consists of observations taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys, combined with observations from the European Southern Observatory’s MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope that trace the...

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope Detects Light of Alien ‘Super Earth’

May 9, 2012

By Michael Muracco

Seen here in this artist's concept, the planet is called 55 Cancri e. It's a toasty world that rushes around its star every 18 hours. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a “super-Earth” planet beyond our solar system for the first time. While the planet is not habitable, the detection is a historic step toward the eventual search for signs of life on other planets. “Spitzer has amazed us yet again,” said Bill Danchi, Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The spacecraft is pioneering the study of atmospheres of distant planets and paving the way for NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to apply a similar technique on potentially habitable planets.” The planet, called 55 Cancri e, falls into...

Nasa’s Kepler Spacecraft Narrows The Search For Goldilocks Planet

March 30, 2012

By Michael Muracco

Light reflected from a planet carries the 'fingerprint' of its atmospheric composition.

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft is discovering a veritable avalanche of alien worlds. Recent finds include planets with double suns, massive “super-Earths” and “hot Jupiters,” and a miniature solar system. The variety of planets circling distant suns is as wonderful as it is surprising. As the numbers mount, it seems to be just a matter of time before Kepler finds what astronomers are really looking for: an Earth-like planet orbiting its star in the “Goldilocks zone”—that is, at just the right distance for liquid water and life. “I believe Kepler will find a ‘Goldilocks planet’ within the next two years,” says...

New Exo-Planet Found In Habitable Zone 22 Light Years Away

February 3, 2012

By Michael Muracco

An artist's conception of the alien planet GJ 667Cc

A team of scientists from Carnegie Institution of Washington and the University of California, Santa Cruz using data from the Kepler space telescope have identified a planet 22 light-years away that could possibly harbor life. The planets star is a member of a triple star system and has a different makeup than our Sun, being relatively lacking in metallic elements.This discovery demonstrates that habitable planets could form in a greater variety of environments than previously believed. The international team of scientists led by Carnegie’s Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Paul Butler annoced their dicovery yesterday. The team used public data from...

The Library Telescope Program

January 26, 2012

By Michael Muracco

Left to right: Nia Shea Ashby, Zeth Ashby, and their mother Karson Ashby learn how to focus one of the NHAS’s loaner Orion StarBlast telescopes.

An astronomy club’s outreach program gets telescopes into peoples’ hands. “The strongest thing that’s given us to see with’s a telescope. Someone in every town seems to me owes it to the town to keep one.” The words of Robert Frost in The Star Splitter inspired the New Hampshire Astronomical Society (NHAS) to develop a novel public outreach eff ort. Frost’s “someone” could be the local librarian, and thus the Library Telescope Program was born. Society members decided to place telescopes in town libraries, where patrons can check them out just like books. Libraries were chosen instead of schools,...

Scientist Find Three Exo-Planets Smaller Than Earth

January 11, 2012

By Michael Muracco

A team of astronomers led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has discovered the three smallest confirmed planets ever detected outside our solar system. The alien worlds, detected using publicly available data from NASA’s Kepler mission, are 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times the diameter of Earth, respectively; the smallest one is roughly Mars-size. The three exoplanets orbit a red dwarf star known as KOI-961, which is just one-sixth the size of our sun and is located 120 light-years away, in the Constellation Cygnus. The red dwarf, called KOI-961, was first flagged as a potential planetary system...

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope Discovers First Earth Sized Exo-Planets

December 20, 2011

By Michael Muracco

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the "habitable zone," the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface.

NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface, but they are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star like our sun. The discovery marks the next important milestone in the ultimate search for planets like Earth. The new planets are thought to be rocky. Kepler-20e is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring 0.87 times the radius of Earth. Kepler-20f is slightly larger...

Telescope Filters That Help Block Light Pollution

November 11, 2011

By Michael Muracco

Deep-sky or Nebula filters can transform a washed-out city skyscape into reasonably dark location. These high-tech wonders are a huge help for backyard astronomers. One look at the Veil Nebula or Barnard’s Loop and you will be hooked. Most light pollution comes from mercury and sodium streetlamps, which radiate blue and yellow light that shows up as bright background sky glow. But many nebulae comprise hydrogen and oxygen atoms that emit green and red light. Light-pollution filters work by blocking the bad stuff in the blue and yellow, and letting through the good stuff in the red and green....

ROSAT Falls To Earth – Exact Location Still Unknown

October 23, 2011

By Michael Muracco

This imge from an animation by Analytical Graphics, Inc., depicts the re-entry of Germany's defunct ROSAT satellite in October 2011. CREDIT: Analytical Graphics, Inc.

The German satellite ROSAT plunged to Earth today (Oct. 22, 2011) after circling Earth in a dead orbit for more than a decade. Officials do not know it’s exact landing place yet. The 2.7-ton Roentgen Satellite, or ROSAT, slammed into Earth’s atmosphere sometime between 9:45 p.m. EDT (0145 GMT Sunday) and 10:15 p.m. EDT (0215 GMT Sunday), according to officials at the German Aerospace Center. “There is currently no confirmation if pieces of debris have reached Earth’s surface,” German aerospace officials said in a statement. The 21-year-old satellite broke apart as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. German aerospace officials estimated...

German Satellite ROSAT Set To Plunge To Earth This Weekend

October 20, 2011

By Michael Muracco

Artist's impression of the ROSAT satellite in space. Image: German Aerospace Center

A defunct German satellite is expected to plunge to Earth this week, but exactly when and where the satellite will fall remains a mystery. The massive German Roentgen Satellite, or ROSAT, is expected to plummet to Earth on Saturday or Sunday (Oct. 22 or 23), though German space officials have also offered a wider re-entry window of between Oct. 21 and Oct. 24. (See Current Position Of The ROSAT X-Ray Space Telescope for more details). This latest falling satellite comes about a month after a dead NASA climate satellite, called the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), plunged into the...