Astronomy, cosmology and space thread

[Nereus]

Event Horizon Telescope set to reveal 'exciting results' about the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/202 ... /101050908

There's a monster lurking in the heart of our galaxy, and we may get our first glimpses of it tonight.

At 11pm AEST, an international team of scientists will reveal what they're calling a "groundbreaking" discovery from our galactic centre — and you'll be able to watch it live.

There are rumbles the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) will unveil images of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole in the middle of the Milky Way.

In 2019, the EHT captured the first-ever images of the swirling mass of superheated dust and gas surrounding a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy 55 million light-years away called M87.

article too long to post............................

[Lost]

Few days old this now but images from the recently launched James Webb telescope compared to Spitzer (launched in 2003)...

20220512_110104.jpg

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[PeteC]

Black hole: First picture of Milky Way monster

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61412463

More photos, video and charts at link.

More and better photos and story: https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2022/0 ... 652323466/

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[pharvey]

Black hole: First picture of Milky Way monster

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61412463

More photos, video and charts at link.

Just been watching this on the BBC News - quite incredible......

[Nereus]

First total lunar eclipse of the year seen around the world, with a super blood Moon emerging from the shadows

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-16/ ... /101069302

A blood Moon total lunar eclipse is on show in many parts of the world as the Moon passes through Earth's shadow.

Australia will miss out on the eclipse this time, but it will be seen in the Americas, Antarctica, Europe, Africa and the eastern Pacific.

However, Australians will see a blood moon on the night of November 8.

New Zealand, Eastern Europe and the Middle East will experience a penumbral lunar eclipse, where the edge of Earth's shadow will fall over the Moon.

The Old Farmer's Almanac — which publishes Native American names for full Moons — calls it a "flower Moon" because May is known as a month when flowers bloom in abundance.

NASA calls May's full Moon a "marginal supermoon", but there's varying opinion on whether it actually is a supermoon, due to different definitions on what constitutes one.

[pharvey]

Should it be here or in the "Weird" thread?

I actually find it fascinating....

https://www.space.com/congress-ufo-hear ... d57734e5e2

[pharvey]

Certainly an interesting read!

India's Mysterious Gateway to The Stars

"Created 300 years ago, Jaipur's Jantar Mantar is an outdoor complex filled with gargantuan astronomy tools designed to be used by the naked eye – and they're still accurate."

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2022 ... -hand-slot

[Nereus]

Micrometeoroid strikes NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-09/ ... /101137762

A tiny meteoroid struck the newly deployed James Webb Space Telescope in May, knocking one of its gold-plated mirrors out of alignment but not changing the orbiting observatory's schedule to become fully operational shortly, NASA said on Wednesday.

The little space rock hit the $US10 billion ($13.9 billion) telescope sometime in late May and left a small but noticeable effect in the telescope's data, NASA said in a statement, adding that it was the fifth and largest hit to the telescope since its December launch.

"After initial assessments, the team found the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements," NASA said.

"Thorough analysis and measurements are ongoing."

Engineers have begun a delicate readjustment of the impacted mirror segment to help "cancel out a portion of the distortion" caused by the micrometeoroid, NASA said.

Webb parked itself in a solar orbit roughly 1.6 million kilometres from Earth in January and is expected to yield its first full-colour images of the cosmos in July.

"This recent impact caused no change to Webb's operations schedule," NASA said.

Impact 'larger than was modelled'

Webb's mirror was engineered to withstand bombardment with dust-sized particles flying at extreme velocities in space, but the most recent impact was "larger than was modelled and beyond what the team could have tested on the ground," NASA said.

The space telescope, managed by NASA, is regarded as the most powerful space-based observatory ever built, with a suite of sensors and 18 gold-plated mirror segments working together to seek out distant planets as well as galaxies from the earliest stages of the universe.

Engineers designed the telescope to withstand occasional impacts from micrometeoroids — tiny space rocks travelling at ultra-fast speeds during predicted meteor showers near Webb's location in space.

Last month's micrometeoroid was not from any meteor shower, NASA said.

The US space agency, calling the impact "an unavoidable chance event," said it has now convened a team of engineers to study ways to avoid future impacts from similar space rocks.

The telescope is an international collaboration led by NASA in partnership with the European and Canadian space agencies. Northrop Grumman Corp was the primary contractor.

Reuters

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has a mirror made out up of 126 smaller mirrors.(Supplied: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center/David Higginbotham )

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[pharvey]

^ 5 hits in +/- 6 months makes you wonder if it will reach it's expected 20 year lifespan (10 year design) - as has been mentioned, somewhat difficult to service considering it's location!!

Time will tell I guess, but here's hoping it will.

[Nereus]

What is Pluto up to, and what exactly is it made of. Article not suitable for posting here.

Searching for the flash

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-12/ ... /101130096

It’s the solar system’s most mysterious former planet.

And a group of scientists are gathering together in the Northern Territory outback on a mission to unlock its secrets: A mission that could all fall apart.

This operation on the outskirts of Katherine, nearly 300km south of Darwin, is the first night of three well-orchestrated practice-runs for a fourth and final night as they prepare for a rare event that these professional and amateur scientists hope will reveal secrets of the solar system’s most mysterious dwarf planet.

A body five billion kilometres from Earth: The dwarf planet we call Pluto.

Pluto.jpg

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[STEVE G]

A company that specialises in low cost satellite systems sent a gopro camera into space with a very small cube satellite:
https://nanoavionics.com/news/nanoavion ... -in-space/

[huahin4ever]

How To See Webb’s First Images!

The public release of Webb’s first images and spectra is July 12 – now less than two weeks away! The Webb team has confirmed that that 15 out of 17 instrument modes are ready for science, with just two more still to go. As we near the end of commissioning, we wanted to let you know where you can see the first Webb science data and how to participate in the celebration of Webb science! Here are all the ways you can #UnfoldTheUniverse with Webb:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/07/01/ ... st-images/

YNWA

[Lost]

^^^ First image is out.

"If you held a grain of sand up to the sky at arms length, that tiny speck is the size of Webb's view in this image—galaxies galore within a grain."

Anyone who thinks we're the only sentient beings in the universe is totally bonkers. Be nice if they found evidence of those beings in my lifetime.

[Nereus]

For those that do not use twatter or such, here is some good discriptions. I will comment that some of the "aleins" may already be here on earth, going by some of the talking heads:
.........................................................................................................
Joe Biden releases first James Webb Space Telescope image showing early universe warped by giant galaxy cluster SMACS 0723

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/202 ... /101229070

The deepest view of the cosmos ever captured has been released by US President Joe Biden.

The first image from the $13 billion James Webb Space Telescope is the farthest humanity has ever seen in both time and distance, closer to the dawn of time and the edge of the universe.

Released at a White House event, the "deep field" image is filled with lots of stars, with massive galaxies in the foreground and faint and extremely distant galaxies peeking through here and there.

"What you are seeing are galaxies shining around other galaxies whose light has been bent.

"It's just a tiny sliver of the vast universe."

The image, which was taken over 12.5 hours, is of a giant cluster of galaxies known as SMACS 0723 in the constellation of Volans.

The cluster, as it appeared about 4.6 billion years ago, acts like a magnifying glass to the galaxies beyond.

The mass of the cluster warps space and bends the light from more distant and older galaxies from the early universe.

"It's really striking," astrophysicist Robin Cook from the University of Western Australia said.

The bright stars with the hexagonal shape are closer stars from our own Milky Way.

Then, in the distance is the warped curves of the galaxy cluster, which provides a powerful lens into the much older galaxies behind it.

"If this galaxy group wasn't in between, we wouldn't be able to see these galaxies because they'd just be too faint," Dr Cook said.

"But it's the fact that they're magnifying the light, boosting how bright they are that we actually get a chance to see these very, very distant, very faint galaxies."

Astrophysicist Karl Glazebrook of Swinburne University said the “amazing” image provided far more detail about the galaxy cluster and the older galaxies sitting behind than was ever possible using the Hubble Telescope.

For example, beads of colour in the image could be early star clusters.

"We are seeing a wide range of colours we haven’t seen before in the early universe," Professor Glazebrook said.

The other thing Professor Glazebrook found interesting was the diverse range of galaxy shapes in the early universe.

“The larger background galaxies are quite smooth. That's different to our view of SMACS from Hubble.

read more at the link with photos and video..........................

[buksida]

Anyone who thinks we're the only sentient beings in the universe is totally bonkers. Be nice if they found evidence of those beings in my lifetime.

Agree but the reason we haven't found any yet could be answered by this equation ...

drake.jpg

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