Nine smallest, faintest, most compact Galaxies

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope discovered nine of the smallest, faintest, most compact galaxies ever sighted in the distant Universe. Each of these Galaxies hosts millions of stars and is a hundred to a thousand times smaller than the Milky Way.

One of the conventional models for galaxy evolution predicts that small galaxies in the early Universe evolved into the massive galaxies of today by coalescing. Nine Lego-like 'building block' galaxies initially detected by Hubble likely contributed to the construction of the Universe as we know it. “These are among the lowest mass galaxies ever directly observed in the early Universe” says Nor Pirzkal at STScI.

Hubble detected sapphire-blue stars residing within the galaxies. The youthful stars are just a few million years old and are in the process of turning light elements created shortly after the Big Bang (hydrogen and helium) into heavier elements. The stars have probably not yet begun to pollute the surrounding space with elemental products forged within their cores.

The galaxies were first identified by James Rhoads of Arizona State University, USA, and Chun Xu of the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, China. Three of the galaxies appear to be slightly disrupted – rather than being round they appear stretched. This is a sign that they may be interacting and merging with neighbouring galaxies to form larger, cohesive structures.

THE SKY ON GOOGLE EARTH!!!!

Finally!!!!! Google launched Sky in Google Earth 4.2. The sky button and related search bar help navigate the sky. This is an awesome tool for Astronomy lovers. All data integrated on one platform. Travel to any star, constellation, galaxy you wish. Users can navigate in various directions on a galaxy.

Download the free version from http://earth.google.com/sky/index.html

The Facts Of the Universe

History.com has this amazing Did You Know section with simple facts about the universe, and awesome footage from NASA.

Journey To A Distant Nebula

A Nebula is a diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or both, visible as luminous patches or areas of darkness depending on the way the mass absorbs or reflects incident radiation. Originally, the word "nebula" referred to almost any extended astronomical object (other than planets and comets). The etymological root of "nebula" means "cloud". We sometimes use the word "nebula" to refer to galaxies, various types of star clusters and various kinds of interstellar dust/gas clouds. More strictly speaking, the word "nebula" should be reserved for gas and dust clouds and not for groups of stars.

Mercury's Soft Center

By tracking a subtle wobbling of the planet Mercury as it spins about its axis, researchers using a trio of ground-based telescopes have found strong evidence that the planet has a molten core.

Careful measurements of Mercury's spin--to an accuracy of one in 100,000--reveal that the planet's interior is decoupled from its exterior, providing strong evidence of a molten core.

Astronomer Jean-Luc Margot of Cornell University, Stan Peale of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Ray Jurgens and Martin Slade of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and Igor Holin of the Space Research Institute in Russia report their findings in the cover story of the May 4, 2007, journal Science.

While most models for the formation of Mercury suggest the planet has an iron-rich core, many predict that the core is solid after billions of years of cooling. Others predict that small amounts of sulfur and other trace elements mixed with the iron have lowered the core's freezing point, keeping the planet's outer core from completely solidifying over that time.

While peering into the deepest interior of a planet--even our own--is difficult even with on-site technology, the ground-based telescope data collected by Margot and his colleagues provided evidence that strongly supports the latter scenario, suggesting the core is at least partially molten and may contain at least small amounts of sulfur.

The researchers used National Science Foundation's (NSF) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, part of NSF's National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, NSF's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in W. Va., and the NASA/JPL 70-meter antenna at Goldstone, Calif., to beam radar signals to the planet and then carefully analyze the echoes that returned.

To obtain their measurements, the astronomers compared the properties of the return signal as it struck the distributed telescope locations on Earth's surface. The amplitude of the wobbling was twice what the researchers expected for a solid planet, but on par with an object that has a solid exterior and liquid core.

The Singlemost Important Image Ever Taken By Humanity

This mesmerising video on youtube takes us the farthest man has ever seen into space. Taken by hubble, the view simply fills the viewer with awe at His creation. There's so, so much more to discover, see, explore. The space above is vast beyond comprehension.

Passion and Money Can Buy You Anything

Anousheh's space sojourn is a fascinating event. I've sent her a question through Google, hope its picked up to put forward to her. unluckily I can't watch the live chat. Waiting to catch the recorded show. Anousheh's passion and money have helped her acheive a rare feat, which only a v, v, few chosen get.

Solar System Montage - Thanks NASA

Found this breathtaking view on a NASA page.

This montage of images taken by the Voyager spacecraft of the planets and four of Jupiter's moons is set against a false-color Rosette Nebula with Earth's moon in the foreground.

Voyager provided the of images Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and many of their moons.The renamed Voyager Interstellar Mission searches for the edge of the solar wind influence (the heliopause) and exits the solar system. A shortened list of the missions discoveries of Voyager 1 and 2 include: Uranian and Neptunian magnetospheres (magnetic environments caused by various types of planet cores); 22 new satellites including three at Jupiter, three at Saturn, 10 at Uranus, and six at Neptune; active volcanism on Io; active geyser-like structures and an atmosphere on Triton; Auroral Zones (where gases become excited after being hit by solar particles) on Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune; rings at Jupiter; and, large-scale storms on Neptune, originally thought to be too cold to support such atmospheric disturbances.

ps: found two comments for my first post....feels great....awestruck by how a blog can bring starngers together...this can do so much to promote world peace.

Titan - Saturn Moon

Images of the Saturn moon - Titan - show meandering river channels, icy cobbles, dark ovals suggestive of lakes and massive cumulus clouds that form in a similar way to tropical clouds on Earth.

Although Titan has an atmosphere that is tantalisingly similar to that of primordial Earth, its atmosphere is 10 times thicker and much cooler at -179C, so that it takes 29.5 Earth years for the atmosphere to respond to the seasons! Titan is also smaller and lacks oceans, which are central to Earth's climate. As a result, its weather is quite alien to ours.

Methane rain falls on the surface. The strongest storms occur when methane humidity in the middle atmosphere tops 80 per cent, producing updraughts as fast as 45mph that create thick clouds. Large hydrocarbon raindrops then fall, delivering up to 250lb of liquid on each square yard of Titan's surface, around 3in per hour, carving out its rugged features.

Scientists reported the first widespread evidence of giant hydrocarbon lakes near Titan's frigid north pole after Cassini, flew within 590 miles of the moon. Researchers counted about a dozen lakes six to 62 miles wide. Some were connected by channels and others had tributaries. Several were dried up; the ones that contained liquid were most likely a mixture of methane and ethane.

Titan's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen with a dash of methane and an intriguing batch of "organic molecules" that are vital to life. Although that does not mean that Titan supports life, it is viewed by some astrobiologists as a place that might be much like early Earth and therefore could yield clues about how life forms.

Saturn Moon May Have Lakes

The Cassini space probe has found a huge methane gas lake on the largest and most mysterious moon of Saturn. The find could make Titan the only place outside Earth known to have lakes, scientists say.

The lake near Titan's south pole is about the size of Lake Ontario. Scientists think the lake may have been produced by a volcanic eruption or the impact of an asteroid.

The Cassini-Huygens space probe began its sweep of Titan in January 2005, sending back the first data on an atmosphere resembling Earth's when life began. The probe was the first man-made device to encounter the moon - and the first to orbit Saturn.

Dense mists envelope Titan. Titan is the only moon in the Solar System with a dense atmosphere - believed to be similar to the one initially formed when the Earth came into being.

The probe will scan Saturn's stormy atmosphere, molten core and mysterious rings, believed to be the remains of pulverised moons, asteroids and comets.


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