* The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread *

Cosimo · 28 Oct 2016 at 06:56

November nights:

Cosimo · 28 Oct 2016 at 10:59

Pumpkin Stars:

Astronomers using observations from NASA's Kepler and Swift missions have discovered a group of rapidly spinning stars that produce X-rays at more than 100 times the peak levels ever seen from the sun. The stars, which spin so fast they've been squashed into pumpkin-like shapes, are thought to be the result of close binary systems where two sun-like stars merge.

Cosimo · 2 Nov 2016 at 07:04

More November nights:

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

Liquidfox · 2 Nov 2016 at 12:52

I went up to the Kielder observatory for the 2nd time on October 20th to try and co-incide with the peak of the meteor shower, for the second time we were unable to use the telescopes due to weather conditions

It was an interesting night none the less, I've now held Martian rock

Hopefully it's third time lucky when I book up again early next year.

Cosimo · 2 Nov 2016 at 15:18

A James Webb Space Telescope milestone, the completion of the telescope element:

Cosimo · 2 Nov 2016 at 17:15

Facts about JWST:

Cosimo · 3 Nov 2016 at 06:52

Media briefing on the JWST:

Cosimo · 4 Nov 2016 at 06:46

NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks at Saturn for four days:

Visible at top is the giant hexagon-shaped jet stream that surrounds the planet's north pole. Each side of this huge shape is slightly wider than Earth.

The resolution of the 250 natural color wide-angle camera fames comprising this movie is 512 by 512 pixels, rather than the camera's full resolution of 1024 by 1024 pixels. Cassini's imaging cameras have the ability to take reduced-size images like these in order to decrease the amount of data storage space required for an observation.

The spacecraft began acquiring this sequence of images just after it obtained the images to make a three-panel color mosaic (see Saturn, Approaching Northern Summer? ).

When it began taking images for this movie sequence, Cassini was 1,847,000 miles (2,973,000 kilometers) from Saturn, with an image scale of 355 kilometers per pixel. When it finished gathering the images, the spacecraft had moved 171,000 miles (275,000 kilometers) closer to the planet, with an image scale of 200 miles (322 kilometers) per pixel.

Cosimo · 4 Nov 2016 at 10:24

Mixed radio signals coming from Saturn:

Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn for more than six years. And new data tells scientists
that the sixth planet from the sun is weirder than we've even imagined.

Ever since we arrived, Cassini has been measuring radio waves called 'Saturn kilometric radiation.'

Cassini's radio and plasma wave instrument recently determined that the variation in radio waves
is different in the northern and southern hemispheres of Saturn.

And the northern and southern rotational variations also appear to change with the Saturnian seasons.

Sound: Radio waves

Burton: The radio wave patterns are controlled by the rotation of the planet
So, to Cassini, Saturn's radio waves sound a bit like bursts of a spinning air raid siren.

Sound: Radio waves

Burton: We can't normally hear these radio wave patterns. But Cassini scientists
have translated the patterns into the human audio range.

In this video you actually hear the radio wave patterns coming from the two hemispheres
swap rates over the course of several years.

The crossover happened a few months after spring began in the northern hemisphere.

Scientists don't think the radio wave patterns indicate hemispheres actually rotating at different rates.

It has more to do with variations in high-altitude winds.

A recently result from the Hubble Space Telescope also gives us clues.

Scientists found that the northern and southern auroras wobbled back and forth
in a pattern matching the radio wave variations.

The Cassini magnetometer also found that Saturn's magnetic field over the north and south poles
wobbled in a similar pattern.

These signals are connected because they're all affected by the behavior of the magnetic bubble around Saturn
and the sun's influence on the whole Saturnian system.

For those of us watching Saturn, these findings all help explain the complicated dance between the sun and
Saturn's magnetic bubble, something normally invisible to the human eye and imperceptible to the human ear.

Cosimo · 5 Nov 2016 at 06:54

Cassini sees clouds of methane moving across the far northern regions of Saturn's largest moon Titan:

Cosimo · 6 Nov 2016 at 08:09

A party we'd all like to go to:

Cosimo · 7 Nov 2016 at 16:08

I'm sad to announce that "Patrick Moore's Yearbook of Astronomy 2017" will no longer be published as the MacMillan have pulled the plug:

https://www.britastro.org/node/8106

Cosimo · 8 Nov 2016 at 07:17

Galaxy clusters, a look at CL J1001+0220:

Cosimo · 11 Nov 2016 at 07:37

A look at the supernova remnant called RCW 103:

The supernova remnant called RCW 103 is a by-product of one of these explosions and the neutron star it left behind, known as 1E 1613, is proving to be particularly interesting. For years, astronomers have known that 1E 1613 shows a regular brightening and dimming in its X-rays that repeats about every six and a half hours. It could be a neutron star that is rotating much more slowly than other neutron stars, or it could be a faster-spinning neutron star that has a normal star as a companion.

New data from four high-energy telescopes, Chandra, Swift, NuSTAR and XMM-Newton, have shown that the unusually slow spin is the correct explanation and that.1E 1613 has the properties of a magnetar. Magnetars are neutron stars that possess enormously powerful magnetic fields, trillions of times greater than that on the Sun.

While it is still unclear why 1E 1613 is spinning so slowly, scientists do have some ideas. One leading scenario is that debris from the exploded star has fallen back onto magnetic field lines around the spinning neutron star, causing it to spin more slowly with time. Searches are currently being made for other very slowly spinning magnetars to study this idea in more detail.

Cosimo · 13 Nov 2016 at 06:42

A look at Pluto and its X-ray emissions:

Cosimo · 14 Nov 2016 at 07:48

Hope we get some great pictures of the Supermoon tonight. The forecast for my part of the UK is not good.

Mel_P · 14 Nov 2016 at 09:27

Saw the "supermoon" yesterday evening (13th Nov) just as the full moon was coming above horizon - looked very big them but as it got higher it looks more normal. the supermoon "only" looks 14% bigger but should appear much brighter (30%). Best time to see is at moonrise - about 16.45 in UK. Then on horizon and LOOKS much bigger. Forecast is for pretty mucg full cloud cover though for 14th. Boo hoo.

Mel

Cosimo · 14 Nov 2016 at 10:28

There will be one more on the 14th of December.

Stringy · 14 Nov 2016 at 11:22

Went to Kielder Observatory on Saturday night for the third time, set in the largest protected dark skies area in Europe. It was an amazingly clear night, but unfortunately there wasn't much to see due to the impending full 'supermoon' (they hate that moniker there by the way). We got to have a play with their 20 and 16 inch telescopes, with good views of the orion nebula, Sirius and a binary star that I've forgotten the name of. Views of the moon were spectacular through their telescopes, although even with a lunar filter detail was a little hard to resolve as it was so bright.

I'd massively recommend it to anyone with an interest who is close enough or can be bothered with the journey!

Cosimo · 15 Nov 2016 at 07:08

A look at the supernova remnant G11.2-0.3:

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