Parkes Radio Telescope Receives Unexplained Fast Radio Burst From Space

Since 2007, astronomers have been trying to find an explanation for Fast Radio Bursts. These are brief bursts of radio waves which last only a few milliseconds. There have been seven records of this event but has not been observed live as it is happening.

A team of astronomers in Australia, using the Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, developed a technique on how to capture this phenomenon and have succeeded in observing a live fast radio burst from space.

By coordinating with the Swift space telescope and the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma, they pinpoint the source of the radio waves to be around 5.5 billion light years from Earth. It was also noted that the energy emitted by these millisecond long fast radio bursts is equal to the energy the Sun gives out in a single day.

Although they have no explanation on what these events are and what causes them, they theorize that it might be connected to neutron stars or black holes.

The results of their findings have been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) To Hunt and Study Exoplanets

The Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), a wide-field observing system by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) was launched and has achieved first light.

The Survey will focus on transiting exoplanets or planets that passes in front of their parent star. This movement by the exoplanets produces a slight dimming of the light emitted by the stars which can be detected by light sensitive instruments. The telescopes of NGTS will be focusing on discovering Neptune-sized and smaller planets, with diameters between two and eight times that of Earth.

The Next-Generation Transit Survey is located at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. The site benefits from the superb observing conditions and its excellent support facilities.

The NGTS telescopes are made up of an array of 12 modified versions of small high-quality commercial telescopes made by Astro Systeme Austria (ASA). Each has an aperture of 20 centimeters. The NGTS cameras are modified ikon-L cameras by Andor Technology Ltd built around red-sensitive deep-depletion CCDs by e2v.

The NGTS was made possible by a consortium comprised of the UK, Switzerland, and Germany.

Ongoing Assassin Project Has Detected 89 Supernovas To Date

Ohio State University reported that their All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN, pronounced "assassin") project has had tremendous success in detecting supernovas (supernovae). Since May 2014, ASAS-SN has detected 89 supernovae which is more than all other professional astronomical surveys combined.

The survey uses six 6-inch telescopes located in Hawaii (4) and in Chile (2). Amateurs worldwide has also volunteered their time and equipment to ASAS-SN. ASAS-SN covers the nearest 500 million light years around the Milky Way Galaxy which is about 1 percent of the observable universe.

According to the astronomists, ASAS-SN complements the work done by big telescopes since these telescopes are too sensitive to capture details of bright, nearby events. As an example, the image above was taken by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (left image). On 03 January 2015, the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae looked at the same region (right image) and detected a bright supernova.

Aside from supernovae, the survey has also detected two tidal disruption events which are extremely rare sightings of what happens when a black hole captures a portion of a nearby star, and many M dwarf flares, which are believed to emanate from stars with extremely strong magnetic fields.

European Extremely Large Telescope Groundbreaking in Cerro Armazones

The largest optical/infrared telescope in the world, the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), held its groundbreaking ceremony at the 3000 meter peak of Cerro Armazones in Chile.

The E-ELT is planned to start operations within the next decade; around 2024. Projects for the European Extremely Large Telescope include tracking down habitable Earth-like planets, finding out more about dark matter and dark energy, and measuring the properties of the first stars and galaxies.

Civil works in the the Cerro Armazones started in March 2014 and are expected to take 16 months. These include the laying and maintenance of a paved road, the construction of the summit platform and the construction of a service trench to the summit.

Lobster Nebula NGC 6357 Imaged In Infrared By VISTA Telescope

The Lobster Nebula (NGC 6357) is captured in an infrared image by the European Southern Observatory's VISTA Telescope in infrared. The image shows the object in a surprising new light.

A Nebula is a region where stars are fromed. Nebulae (or nebulas) are made up of clouds of gas and dust. Over millions of years. these gas and dust clouds start massing together to form stars.

The Lobster Nebula is the informal name for Messier 17, also known as NGC 6357. This nebula is imaged in infrared which shows features of the nebula that is not picked up in visible-light images. This may happen because the object is too cold, blocked by the thick dust in the nebula, or is very far that the light that can be detected is in the red end of the spectrum. The farther an object is, the closer to the red spectrum (infrared) it is. Closer objects shift more to the blue spectrum of light.

In the case of the Lobster Nebula, the infrared image penetrates most of the clouds of dust blocking the light.

Lobster Nebula

Cosmic Rays Confirmed To Originate From Supernovas In Two Separate Announcements

When stars explode, the supernovas send off shock waves, which accelerate protons to cosmic-ray energies through a process known as Fermi acceleration. In this mechanism, named for Enrico Fermi who first hypothesized it, the protons gain energy from collisions with turbulent magnetic fields on either side of a shock wave. Though many details of Fermi acceleration remain unknown, new results from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope provide overwhelming evidence that the mechanism is indeed responsible for producing many of the galaxy's cosmic ray protons.
Credit: Greg Stewart, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

In two separate announcements (and two separate studies), the European Southern Observatory and the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at the Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory confirmed that cosmic rays come from exploding stars or supernovas.

Cosmic rays are high energy particles from space. These particles travel at close to the speed of light and originate from outside the Solar System. They have very high energy that they can penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and even through solid rock at the surface. Prior to the announcement, its origin and how it was formed has been a mystery.

The ESO together with the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg Germany, used the VIMOS Equipment on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to study SN 1006, a supernova first observed in the year 1006, to gather data and base their discovery of the cosmic ray mystery. Their study, An Integral View of Fast Shocks around Supernova 1006, is appearing in the 14 February 2013 issue of the journal Science.

The Kavli Institute, NASA, and Stanford University used the Large Area Telescope (LAT), which sits onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to base their findings. They used the telescope to study two supernova remnants, IC 433 and W44. Both are located within the Milky Way with IC 443 5,000 light years away from Earth in the constellation Gemini, and W44 is located about 10,000 light years away, in the constellation of Aquila. Their study, Detection of the Characteristic Pion-Decay Signature in Supernova Remnants, will be appearing in the February 15 2013 issue of the journal Science.

Bok Globule Barnard 86 - A Dark Cloud Against A Sea Of Stars

Star Cluster NGC 6520

The Wide Field Imager takes a picture of Barnard 86, a Bok Globule, set against a sea of stars from The Large Sagittarius Star Cloud.

Star clusters are groups of stars held together by their own gravitational field. These star clusters, formerly known as star clouds, are made up of more than a hundred thousand stars that are more than a million years old.

One prominent star cluster is the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud. It is about 600 light years wide and the multitude of stars in the area makes it the "most dense concentration of individual stars visible using binoculars". Within the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud is Barnard 86. It is a cold, dark cloud of gas and dust that absorbs background light making it almost opaque to visible light. These objects are known as Bok Globules.

It is this area of the sky that is imaged above, taken by the Wide Field Imager at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Hubble Space Telescope Captures Image of LHC 120-N 11 in the Large Magellanic Cloud

The Hubble Space Telescope captures an image of LHC 120-N 11, a region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy 200,000 light years from Earth. (Image by Hubble/ESA)

The Large Magellanic Cloud is an irregular galaxy but has a clearly visible bar, and a single spiral-arm-like structure. These properties are similar to that of spiral galaxies leading to the belief that the LMC was once a small spiral galaxy but was pulled out of shape by the gravitational effect of the Milky Way.

Star Forming Molecular Cloud Lupus 3 Captured In Amazing Detail

Most interstellar clouds of dust and gas are where stars are formed. The surrounding matter start to form large masses which will eventually become stars. Planets and other objects are also formed within these regions. Clouds like Lupus 3 are called 'dark clouds' or 'molecular clouds'.

A molecular cloud is a type of star forming region where molecules, most commonly molecular hydrogen (H₂), are formed. The stars formed in the image are called Herbig Ae/Be stars (named after astronomer George Howard Herbig).

Herbig Ae/Be stars are still in their star forming space and are not yet burning hydrogen for fuel. Instead, they shine by converting gravitational potential energy into heat as they contract.

Planet Forming Disc of Gas And Dust Around Star HD 142527 Observed

Artist's impression of the disc of gas and dust forming around young star HD 142527

The European Southern Observatory's ALMA space telescope has directly observed for the first time a disc of cosmic dust and gas around a young star, HD 142527. This material is believed to further form into giant planets.

Just like stars, astronomers believe that planets are also formed when clouds of cosmic dust and gas start to clump together and gain mass. These planets form from the residual material of a newly born star.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope has helped astronomers look more closely and clearly into space by detecting near infrared light which is hard to detect and invisible to the eye. The telescope which will be fully inaugurated by March 2013, has 66 high-precision antennas, spread over distances of up to 16 kilometers.

The ALMA space telescope performs very well on these clouds of gas and dust which are dense and dark.

ESO Installs Supercomputer At ALMA Facility - The ALMA Correlator

The ALMA correlator

One of the fastest supercomuter, the ALMA correlator, has been fully installed and tested at the ALMA astronomical facility in Chile. With over 134 million processors and performance up to 17 quadrillion operations per second, the ALMA correlator is one of the fastest supercomputers in existence today.

The Atacama Large Millimeter /submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a space telescope located on the Chajnantor plateau in the Chilean Andes. It has 66 high-precision antennas, spread over distances of up to 16 kilometres. The facility is partially operational and will be fully completed by March 2013.

ALMA studies light emitted by some of the coldest objects in space. Since these objects emit light that is hardly detected, the ALMA looks at wavelengths between infrared light and radio waves. This is known as millimeter and submillimeter radiation. The telescope can detect light emitted by objects that are a few degrees above absolute zero.

The space telescope can help astronomers study the chemical and physical conditions in molecular clouds where stars are produced. These clouds are made up of dense gas and dust which are dark and obscured in visible light, much like clouds in the sky are. By detecting the light emitted in near infrared, ALMA can detect and collect data from these objects.

With the installation of the ALMA correlator, it will increase the sensitivity and image quality of its observation of outer space.

New Space Instrument, K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph (KMOS), Can Observe 24 Objects In Space At The Same Time

A new space instrument was attached to the ESO's Very Large Telescope. The K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph (KMOS) has 24 robot arms that can study and observe 24 objects such as galaxies all at the same time.

Space telescopes and instruments study and gather data about the Universe by observing the light emitted by these objects. Stars can be seen by the naked eye because of the light they emit.

But as farther the objects are, the light from these objects move from visible light to the infra-red spectrum which is not visible to the eye. This is called the redshift.

To explain redshift, it is best to compare it to hearing a police or ambulance siren. As the siren gets closer, the pitch gets higher, as the siren passes and moves away, the pitch goes lower. This is known as the Doppler effect.

This Doppler effect works the same way with light waves, as the object is far away, the wavelength of light gets lower and moves toward the red side of the spectrum. Because of the expansion of the Universe, stars and galaxies are moving farther from each other which explains the redshift.

The James Webb Space Telescope Successor To The Hubble Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to be launched sometime 2018 will be replacing the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency have collaborated in the project since 1996.

It is built to peer farther into space than the Hubble can and measure and observe objects in space from the early Universe. Since it's mission is to study objects farther into space, the size, its orbit and the mirrors of the telescope, the instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope are different from those in the Hubble.

The mirror of the JWST is 6.5 meters in diameter and will have a five layer sunshield the size of a tennis court. It will be positioned around 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from the Earth and is designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Compared to JWST, the Hubble Space Telescope is positioned 353 miles away from the Earth.

New Class of Galaxy-Black Hole System With Black Hole Of Mass Equal To 11 Billion Suns Discovered

Astronomers discover a black hole a mass equal to 17 billion Suns in the middle of galaxy NGC 1277. The black hole is 11 times wider than the orbit of Neptune to the Sun. This may be the most massive black hole ever discovered and may be the first of a class of Galaxy-Black Hole systems.

A black hole is a region in space where gravity is so strong even light falls into it. Nothing escapes the pull of a black hole. These are formed when a star, in its dying days, explodes into a supernova and starts to collapse into itself.

What prevents a black hole from eating up everything around it is its event horizon. The Event Horizon is the edge or boundary surrounding the black hole which marks the area where escape from a black hole is impossible.

The size of a black hole may vary from some having a mass equivalent to 20 times that of the Sun to large ones reaching up to a Sun-mass of a million times. These are called supermassive black holes. Each galaxy has a super-massive black hole in its center.

Planet Floating Freely Through Space Without An Orbit Discovered

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope have discovered a planet that is freely wandering through space. It has no orbit nor a star attached to it. This planet free-floating planet is labeled CFBDSIR2149 and also referred to as CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9.

Free-floating planets are objects in space that are not paired up or connected to a star. They roam the universe without a predetermined orbit since there is no star to supply the gravity to put them in their place.

Binary Stars Discovered Orbiting Center Of Fleming 1 Nebula By ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT)

The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) disovered a pair of stars orbiting each other at the center of the planetary nebula, Fleming 1. This discovery may explain the pattern Fleming 1 forms from its ejected gas.

Globular Star Cluster NGC 6362 Shown To Have Young Stars As Well As Ancient Ones

The European Southern Observatory's Wide Field Imager telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile captures an amazing detailed image of the globular star cluster NGC 6362 showing stars both ancient and young within the cluster.

There are groups of stars bound together by gravity called globular star clusters. Because of the pull of gravity on each other, these globular clusters form tightly bound spheres with high densities of stars going towards the center of it.

A globular star cluster can contain thousands of stars and have been existing longer than some lesser dense galaxies in the universe. In the Milky Way alone, there are around 160 identified globular star clusters with more waiting to be discovered. The Andromeda galaxy is known to have 500 while galaxy M87 has 13,000 globular clusters.

Vista Captures 9 Gigapixel Image of the Center Of The Milky Way Galaxy

The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) captured a nine gigapixel image of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers have used this image to catalog more than 84 million stars within it.

Because of the high resolution of the image (108,200 by 81,500 pixel), if printed in regular resolution as that of a book, the image would be 9 meters wide by 7 meters tall. This is one of the biggest astronomical images ever produced.

VISTA gigapixel mosaic of the central parts of the Milky Way

“By observing in detail the myriads of stars surrounding the centre of the Milky Way we can learn a lot more about the formation and evolution of not only our galaxy, but also spiral galaxies in general,” explains Roberto Saito (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Valparaíso and The Milky Way Millennium Nucleus, Chile), lead author of the study.

Strange Spiral Structure Discovered Around Red Giant Star By Astronomers

Curious spiral spotted by ALMA around red giant star R Sculptoris

A strange spiral structure was discovered by astronomers around a red giant star. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope, astronomers discovered that R. Sculptoris, an old red giant star, has a surprising spiral structure around it.

Astronomers believe that this structure is ejected material from the star. It forms the surprising spiral shape because of another companion star orbiting R Sculptoris. The orbit of the star may influence stellar winds shaping the material into the spiral structure discovered.

Astronomers have yet to discover this unseen companion star.

Although strange, red giants eject hot material later in its life. These materials are made up of dust and gasses that later on form into other stars, planets, and other interstellar objects. Initially, these materials form a gas and dust cloud in outer space called a nebula/nebulae.

The imaging telescope used is the ALMA. It is the most powerful telescope in the world. It covers sixteen kilometers of 66 high-precision antennas high up in the Chajnantor plateau in the Chilean Andes.

Using light wavelengths between infrared light and radio waves, the telescope can detect light from cold objects at near absolute zero temperatures in space. Usually, the light emitted is not detected by standard telescopes but since ALMA works in the what is called the millimeter/submillimeter radiation, it can be imaged.

Objects such as gas and dust clouds in space are often the target by ALMA since these areas are dark, cold and obscured by visible light.

ESO Press Release: Surprising Spiral Structure Spotted by ALMA

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered a totally unexpected spiral structure in the material around the old star R Sculptoris. This is the first time that such a structure, along with an outer spherical shell, has been found around a red giant star. It is also the first time that astronomers could get full three-dimensional information about such a spiral. The strange shape was probably created by a hidden companion star orbiting the red giant. This work is one of the first ALMA early science results to be published and it appears in the journal Nature this week.

A team using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the most powerful millimetre/submillimetre telescope in the world, has discovered a surprising spiral structure in the gas around the red giant star R Sculptoris [1][2][3]. This means that there is probably a previously unseen companion star orbiting the star [4]. The astronomers were also surprised to find that far more material than expected had been ejected by the red giant.

Two Black Holes Discovered Inside Globular Star Cluster M22

Star clusters are a group of stars that are attracted to each other by their gravitational fields or are moving in the same direction. Star clusters were used to be called star clouds.

There are two kinds of star clusters, the open star cluster and the globular star cluster. Open star clusters are loosely clustered groups of young stars. The gravitational attraction between the stars may be weak or non existent.

Globular star clusters are made up of hundreds of thousands of very old stars that are gravitaionally bound. These stars are attracted to each other and form a very tight sphere. The stars within a globular star cluster orbit a galactic core and the amount of stars within get denser going toward the center.

There are about 160 known globular clusters in the Milky Way. The Andromeda galaxy has 500 while Galaxy M87 has 13,0000. The first discovered globular star cluster was M22 in the constellation Sagittarius by Abraham Ihle in 1665.

The image above is an artist's conception of two black holes in globular cluster. Image credit goes to Benjamin de Bivort; Strader, et al.; NRAO/AUI/NSF.

Surprising black-hole discovery changes picture of globular star clusters

An unexpected discovery by astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is forcing scientists to rethink their understanding of the environment in globular star clusters, tight-knit collections containing hundreds of thousands of stars.

The astronomers used the VLA to study a globular cluster called Messier 22 (M22), a group of stars more than 10,000 light-years from Earth. They hoped to find evidence for a rare type of black hole in the cluster's center. They wanted to find what scientists call an intermediate-mass black hole, more massive than those a few or more times the Sun's mass, but smaller than the supermassive black holes found at the cores of galaxies.