* The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread *

Cosimo · 11 Aug 2015 at 13:03

robgmun said:
Any more info on Pluto? I would liked more High Res images of the surface and of the moons

As the downlink speeds are so slow it will take days/months to get the best, full sized, high resolution images back to earth. New Horizons communicates at 600 to 1,200 bits per second so:

At the data rate we have ... it takes over 2 hours to downlink a standard picture from your cell phone!

Apparently it will take 16 months to get all the data:

http://gizmodo.com/why-itll-take-new-horizons-16-months-to-send-us-this-we-1717769317

I’ve read that Images of Pluto's tiniest moons, Styx and Kerberos are not expected before October. So your guess on timing is a finger in the air job and patience is the name of the game.

Cosimo · 12 Aug 2015 at 06:43

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/

A reminder:

The mornings of August 12th and 13th and 14th: midnight to dawn - look out for the Perseid meteor shower.
If clear, these mornings should give us a chance of observing the Perseid meteor shower - produced by debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. The peak of the shower is after sunrise on the morning of the 13th so the early morning of the 13th August will give us the best chance, if clear, of viewing the shower, but the peak is quite broad and so its well worth observing on the nights before and after. Most meteors are seen looking about 50 degrees from the "radiant" which lies between Perseus and Cassiopeia. The great thing about this year is that, with New Moon on the 14th, there will be no moonlight to hinder our view in the days around the peak. Under cloudless skies and from a dark location observers might expect to see 50 to 70 meteros an hour near the peak (the last hours of darkness on the morning of the 13th).

Cosimo · 12 Aug 2015 at 07:33

The scientific findings on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko :

An outburst from 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was captured by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera aboard Rosetta on July 29:

Each image was taken 18 minutes apart, showing no activity, a sudden eruption, and then a faint trace of the jet. Rosetta was flying 186 kilometers (115 miles) from the comet at the time of the outburst. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Comet_s_firework_display_ahead_of_perihelion

Big day tomorrow as the comet reaches perihelion and Rosetta will be there to witness the event. There have been some suggestions that the comet will break in two. Watch this space!

SickAsAParrot · 12 Aug 2015 at 08:01

I had a look out at midnight for 10 minutes to see if the meteors were showing, Cassiopea was obvious so I knew where to look but only saw a couple of brief white flashes.

I did see 2 from other directions, one directly overhead south to north, then another from the west. I'll have another go tonight if the sky's clear.

smr · 12 Aug 2015 at 22:13

If i venture out in the next hour is there any chance of seeing them? Or is it better to go out at midnight?

Tibbz2 · 12 Aug 2015 at 22:44

smr said:
If i venture out in the next hour is there any chance of seeing them? Or is it better to go out at midnight?

You'll still see them, but there will be more further through the night and into the morning hours closer to the peak!

Longbow · 13 Aug 2015 at 00:25

I've seen about 10 so far.

Spacedeck · 13 Aug 2015 at 00:26

I managed to get a glimpse of two. They wasn't appearing enough in the amount of time I was looking for to justify me watching the sky all night :rolleyes:

Helios1234 · 13 Aug 2015 at 00:39

Saw around 15, some very bright ones as well. I was surprised the sky was so clear.

Cosimo · 13 Aug 2015 at 07:04

Saw a few on Monday night, woke at 3am but it was cloudy again.

Cosimo · 13 Aug 2015 at 08:21

So, onto making astronomical images:

VaderDSL · 13 Aug 2015 at 09:29

Saw about 20 last night between 22:30 and 00:00, was hoping for a few more. Couple of good ones, but nothing massively spectacular.

Fairly happy though considering most of the year it's cloudy here in the NW England.

Cosimo · 14 Aug 2015 at 06:54

A supermassive black hole:

Cosimo · 20 Aug 2015 at 07:39

A look at the multi-tasking capabilities of one of the cameras on the Webb Space Telescope, the Near-Infrared Spectrograph:

Cosimo · 21 Aug 2015 at 07:04

We've been exploring Mars for 50 years starting with Mariner 4 in 1965. There have now been 15 robotic missions to the planet:

Cosimo · 22 Aug 2015 at 07:16

Back to the sun:

A single plume of plasma, many times taller than the diameter of Earth, rose up from the Sun, twisted and spun around, all the while spewing streams of particles for over two days (Aug. 17-19, 2015) before breaking apart. At times, its shape resembled the Eiffel Tower

Cosimo · 26 Aug 2015 at 15:06

A look at the wings of the Twin Jet Nebula:

More:

http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1518/

colzboppo · 26 Aug 2015 at 17:49

Cosimo said:
A look at the wings of the Twin Jet Nebula:

More:

http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1518/

Lovely example of Plasma Z-pinch focusing plasma into glow mode around the star. Hard to explain via. mechanical/gravitational processes with the standard model, but perfect example of a bipolar plasma focal area; notice the intricate double layers in the cylindrical parts, a classic manifestation of a Birkeland current.

Actually one of many fantastic examples the Electric Universe nuts use as a stark reminder of the standard models failure to explain some of the most intricate and complicated nebulae we observe today

Cosimo · 27 Aug 2015 at 07:17

One step closer as the Webb Telescope's Backplane arrived at Joint Base Andrews, is off-loaded from the C-5 and transported to NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre:

Cosimo · 28 Aug 2015 at 07:14

Understanding how clusters grow helps to understand how the universe itself evolves over time:

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