*** The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread ***

The motion of two million stars:


This video reveals the changing face of our Galaxy, tracing the motion of two million stars five million years into the future using data from the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution, one of the products of the first Gaia data release. This provides a preview of the stellar motions that will be revealed in Gaia’s future data releases, which will enable scientists to investigate the formation history of our Galaxy.

The stars are plotted in Galactic coordinates and using a rectangular projection: in this, the plane of the Milky Way stands out as the horizontal band with greater density of stars.

The video starts from the positions of stars as measured by Gaia between 2014 and 2015, and shows how these positions are expected to evolve. The frames in the video are separated by 750 years, and the overall sequence covers five million years. The stripes visible in the early frames reflect the way Gaia scans the sky and the preliminary nature of the first data release; these artefacts are gradually washed out in the video as stars move across the sky.

The shape of the Orion constellation can be spotted towards the right edge of the frame, just below the Galactic Plane, at the beginning of the video. As the sequence proceeds, the familiar shape of this constellation (and others) evolves into a new pattern. Two stellar clusters – groups of stars that were born together and consequently move together – can be seen towards the left edge of the frame: these are the alpha Persei (Per OB3) and Pleiades open clusters.
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NASA Radar Images of Asteroid 2014 JO25:


Radar images of asteroid 2014 JO25 were generated and collected on April 18, 2017, by NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in California's Mojave Desert. At the time, asteroid 2014 JO25 was 1.9 million miles (3 million kilometers) from Earth. The asteroid will safely pass Earth at a distance of 1.1 million miles (1.8 million km) on April 19 at about 8:24 a.m EDT (12:24 UTC).
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a great interview about cassini with Lisa Tatge - Subsystem Engineer on the Spacecraft Operations Team

they've been having a lot of great interviews recently, its always news > interview > last weeks comments if you want to skip and just watch interview. Roughly 24:19 for start of interview.

 
Any advice on getting a telescope for a beginner/amateur? Thinking of getting one for my son's 5th as he keeps asking for one. He's really gotten into astronomy so it would be good to get him something that is simple enough but will last him a while.
 
Raz said:
Any advice on getting a telescope for a beginner/amateur? Thinking of getting one for my son's 5th as he keeps asking for one. He's really gotten into astronomy so it would be good to get him something that is simple enough but will last him a while.
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Being 5 year old he would want something that is simple to set up. Depending on your budget, you could get him something like this for £95. It is very easy to set up and allow him to find objects himself by positioning the scope, will be good for the moon and planets and the brighter Deep Sky Objects. It would last him for a good few years, give good views and won't break the bank if he decides not to follow Astronomy when he gets older. Just put on a chair or something for his height and away he goes. You can get this which is cheaper, but won't so as much detail on the planets as the one above. And you would probably ending up changing in a year or 2 if he gets into it.

HTH
 
Raz said:
Any advice on getting a telescope for a beginner/amateur? Thinking of getting one for my son's 5th as he keeps asking for one. He's really gotten into astronomy so it would be good to get him something that is simple enough but will last him a while.
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Second hand 8" dobsonian will last for years.
 
acharris said:
Being 5 year old he would want something that is simple to set up. Depending on your budget, you could get him something like this for £95. It is very easy to set up and allow him to find objects himself by positioning the scope, will be good for the moon and planets and the brighter Deep Sky Objects. It would last him for a good few years, give good views and won't break the bank if he decides not to follow Astronomy when he gets older. Just put on a chair or something for his height and away he goes. You can get this which is cheaper, but won't so as much detail on the planets as the one above. And you would probably ending up changing in a year or 2 if he gets into it.

HTH
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Vargas said:
Second hand 8" dobsonian will last for years.
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Thanks , I'll look into it. Would definitely like to get something that would last for a while.

On a related note, this is what my son is singing practically everyday and admittedly it's quite catchy - Mars is the best one :p

I was pleased but surprised to know that my son already knew the planets, dwarf planets, the moons of Mars and why Venus is hotter than Mercury :cool:

 
Scientists have found a vast wave of hot gas in the nearby Perseus galaxy cluster. Spanning some 200,000 light-years, the wave is about twice the size of our own Milky Way galaxy:

 
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