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NASA shows how black hole powered jets turned a galaxy into a giant doughnut
What happens when a black hole 100 million times more massive than our sun ploughs into a galaxy? The galaxy forms a giant “doughnut” of blocked light around the black hole.
At least that’s what NASA shows in a recently released photograph which combines data from their Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), visible light obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (gold) and radio waves from the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array (pink).
“This multi-wavelength view shows 4C+29.30, a galaxy located some 850 million light years from Earth. The radio emission comes from two jets of particles that are speeding at millions of miles per hour away from a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy,” the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics wrote in a release explaining the image. (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
![The three biggest solar flares of the year all happened in a 24-hour period yesterdayWhen the sun fired off a massive flare late on Sunday, it was the strongest solar eruption this year. That was until another, even stronger flare followed it a few hours later. Soon a third flare, almost twice as powerful as the first blasted out of the sun.“The [third flare] was also associated with a coronal mass ejection, or CME. The CME began at 9:30 p.m. EDT and was not Earth-directed. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME left the sun at approximately 1,400 miles per second, which is particularly fast for a CME. The models suggest that it will catch up to the two CMEs associated with the earlier flares,” NASA said on it’s website.Solar flares are graded as A, B, C, M or X with each category being ten times more powerful than the one before it. The flares in the past day were all “X” flares, the first ones of 2013.“‘X-class’ denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. (NASA/SDO/AIA)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/6e30a75f3303d44ae27ae6675bc56f89/tumblr_mmt2s7Qkb81qze0z6o1_1280.jpg)
The three biggest solar flares of the year all happened in a 24-hour period yesterday
When the sun fired off a massive flare late on Sunday, it was the strongest solar eruption this year. That was until another, even stronger flare followed it a few hours later. Soon a third flare, almost twice as powerful as the first blasted out of the sun.
“The [third flare] was also associated with a coronal mass ejection, or CME. The CME began at 9:30 p.m. EDT and was not Earth-directed. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME left the sun at approximately 1,400 miles per second, which is particularly fast for a CME. The models suggest that it will catch up to the two CMEs associated with the earlier flares,” NASA said on it’s website.
Solar flares are graded as A, B, C, M or X with each category being ten times more powerful than the one before it. The flares in the past day were all “X” flares, the first ones of 2013.
“‘X-class’ denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. (NASA/SDO/AIA)
NASA captures stunning photos of gigantic hurricane whipping across Saturn’s North Pole
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured stunning views of a monster hurricane at Saturn’s North Pole. The eye is an enormous 2,000 kilometres across. That’s 20 times larger than the typical eye of a hurricane here on Earth. And it’s spinning super-fast. Clouds at the outer edge of the storm are whipping around at 530 kilometres per hour. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)
Watch three years of solar activity in four minutes: NASA releases mesmerizing new video of the sun
It’s the job of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory to keep an eye on the sun, a job the SDO has presented in a new video showing off three years’ worth of solar activity.
“In the three years since it first provided images of the sun in the spring of 2010, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has had virtually unbroken coverage of the sun’s rise toward solar maximum, the peak of solar activity in its regular 11-year cycle,” NASA said in a release.
New planets painted — Scientists using NASA’s Kepler telescope have found two distant planets that are in the right place and are the right size for potential life. This handout image from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows an artist concept of what these two planets, called Kepler-62-e and Kepler-62-f look like. The larger planet in the left corner is somewhat covered by ice and is f, which is farther from the star. The planet below it is e, which is slightly warmer and has clouds and may be a water world. (AP Photo/Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
Kepler Planetary Discovery Live: What did NASA find on its mission to find ‘Earth-size planets’?
Right now, NASA is unveiling new planetary results from its Kepler mission.
Kepler is “the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, which is the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water.”
Although click-baiting headlines suggesting that NASA has found alien life are probably false, NASA is giving this press conference a lot of exposure, so they are probably announcing something pretty notable.
Keeping an eye on the Sun — This NASA image obtained April 10, 2013 and taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument at 171 Angstrom shows the current conditions of the quiet corona and upper transition region of the Sun on April 9, 2013. (NASA/AFP/Getty Images)
This image which looks like a scene from the Star Wars shows the tip of the “wing” of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy in a view from NASA’s Great Observatories. The Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC, is a small galaxy about 200,000 light-years way that orbits our own Milky Way spiral galaxy. The colors represent wavelengths of light across a broad spectrum. X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in purple; visible-light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue; and infrared observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope are also represented in red. The spiral galaxy seen in the lower corner is actually behind this nebula. Other distant galaxies located hundreds of millions of light-years or more away can be seen sprinkled around the edge of the image.The SMC is one of the Milky Way’s closest galactic neighbors. Even though it is a small, or so-called dwarf galaxy, the SMC is so bright that it is visible to the unaided eye from the Southern Hemisphere and near the equator. Many navigators, including Ferdinand Magellan who lends his name to the SMC, used it to help find their way across the oceans. (NASA/AFP/Getty Images)
NASA set to launch Sunjammer, the largest solar sail in history, with hopes to revolutionize near space travel
It might not get you all the way to Cardassia Prime, but NASA hopes its newly launched solar-sail Sunjammer program will lead to a future where propellantless space craft are used for a multitude of functions beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
“Once proven, solar sail technology could enable a host of versatile space missions, including flying an advanced space-weather warning system to more quickly and accurately alert satellite operators and utilities on Earth of geomagnetic storms caused by coronal mass ejections from the sun,” NASA said in a release.
Additionally, NASA sees the project as something that can work to help clean up the piles of floating space garbage in orbit. (NASA)
Things you can do when you have $25B: Amazon CEO recovers Apollo 11 rockets from bottom of Ocean
Two mammoth rocket engines that helped boost Apollo astronauts to the moon have been fished out of the Atlantic.
An expedition led by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pulled up the engines and is headed back to Cape Canaveral, Florida, after three weeks at sea.
Bezos and NASA announced the recovery on Wednesday.
“This is a historic find and I congratulate the team for its determination and perseverance in the recovery of these important artifacts of our first efforts to send humans beyond Earth orbit,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a release. (AFP PHOTO / Bezos Expeditions)
Chris Hadfield, William Shatner — two of Canada’s most iconic spacemen — chat via video link: Watch it live
Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut who’s been grabbing headlines around the world on his five-month mission on the International Space Station, is set for a conversation from Captain Kirk himself Thursday.
Forty-five-metre wide, 130,000-ton asteroid set to make closest-ever flyby of Earth next week
It will be one near-miss for man. But a new breed of space entrepreneurs hope it will presage one giant leap for mankind.
When Asteroid 2012-DA14 hurtles past Earth February 15 in what counts as the closest of cosmic calls, U.S. government scientists will be closely tracking its path from NASA’s observatory in the Californian desert.
Not least thanks to the attention of Hollywood, the world’s interest in asteroid fly-bys has until now been focused on the danger of a cataclysmic collision.
The 130,000-ton lump of debris measuring 45 metres across will pass at 29,000 km/h within 27,000 km — the largest asteroid to fly so close since we’ve been tracking them. It will be closer than many of the satellites circling the planet, though it’s unlikely to collide with them, according to NASA. (NASA/YouTube)
Mars scientists find ‘strongest evidence yet’ that planet may have supported life
Scientists believe they may have found the ‘strongest evidence yet’ that Mars may have supported life, but it’s unlikely in the form most people would recognize.
New research published today in the journal Nature Geoscience suggests a team of scientists could have discovered the ingredients of life in a huge crater up to 5km below the planet’s surface.
The McLaughlin crater, which was made by a meteorite which smashed into Mars, is described as an area of interest for the team, led by London’s Natural History Museum and the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
The impact of the meteorite forced up rocks from kilometres below the surface around the crater - one of the deepest on Mars - which scientists believe are made of clays and minerals that have been altered by water - a key ingredient for life. (European Space Agency; NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona; AP Photo/NASA)
NASA’s NuSTAR telescope captures first glimpses of two mysterious black holes in galaxy 7 million light years away
NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), has captured an image of two black holes in the spiral galaxy IC342 (also known as Caldwell 5).
The NuSTAR is the first telescope in orbit that can focus on high-energy X-Ray emissions, which allows it to get a much clearer picture of distant stellar phenomena. Galaxy IC342 is 7 million light-years away from Earth.
In the NuSTAR image (above), the two points of purple indicate the presence of black holes. The purple indicates X-rays while the rest of the image is represents visible light. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/DSS)
A least 17 billion Earth-like planets across the Milky Way: study
Astronomers hunting for Earth-like planets now have many places to look. A new estimate released Monday suggested the Milky Way galaxy is home to at least 17 billion planets similar in size to our planet.
It doesn’t mean all are potentially habitable, but the sheer number of Earth-size planets is a welcome starting point in the search for worlds like our own.
“Earths and super-Earths aren’t picky. We’re finding them in all kinds of neighbourhoods,” co-author Guillermo Torres of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in a statement. The CfA was one of two teams working on the project. (C. Pulliam & D. Aguilar (CfA))
