I see so many amazing discoveries from educational institutions around the world, as they do cutting edge research in a variety of space-related fields. But I am truly excited when a discovery is made close to home, at a university here in Ontario, Canada. A PhD candidate from Queen’s University named Matt Schultz has discovered the first ever massive binary star in which both stars have magnetic fields, a star called epsilon Lupi. Why is this a big deal? Well if you’ve done a bit of astronomy in school, you’ll know that stars like the Sun have huge magnetic fields....
The International Space Station is orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 400 Km, give or take. This gives it an orbital period of about 90 minutes. Keen observers on Earth can track these movements and look for the ISS in the sky as it passes overhead. Some of the keenest observers even take photos, and plan for incredible transits. In the case below, we can see the ISS transit the Sun, twice in one day. A carefully chosen time and place on Earth by the photographer Hartwig Luethen, this photo was taken on August 22nd, during two successive transits....
It sounds more wacky over-the-top science fiction, but this is real. A video from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a huge spiralling solar prominence many times larger than the Earth. The Sun’s powerful magnetic fields drive such events, and even though I’m well aware crazy things like this happen on the Sun every day, I’m still blown away. Cheesy disaster B-movie? Let’s call it Solar Plasma Tornado.
It’s like a birthday to an astronomer when new science data comes in. I will always love seeing new photos from the Pluto system, and with terabytes of data left to download from new horizons, we’re going to have a lot of presents over the next few months. Our latest gift gives us some new images from the flyby, showing surface features and atmosphere. These are stunning. These incredible photos show the surprising complexity of surface features on Pluto. The gorgeous variation in the surface is reminiscent of Mars, amazing considering the lack of sunlight this distant world receives. The long...
Honestly this could be the name of a new TV show, similar to ‘when buildings collapse,’ or ‘here’s what Kim Kardashian did today.’ I’ll take the colliding galaxies, simply because they can hold my attention longer. Galaxy collisions are some of the most massive and long term events in the universe. The result is the formation of billions of stars, the change in orbit of Billions more, and the complete restructuring of a galaxy. Since we see a snapshot of the Universe whenever we look at a single galaxy, we tend to see collisions happening at all stages of the...
Maybe I am a starry-eyed dreamer, or maybe I just treat astronomy like a little kid opening birthday presents, but every time I see a new Hubble image I am blown away by it. Today’s mind-blowing photo is of Messier 63, the Sunflower Galaxy, located in Canes Venatici. It shows the central region of the galaxy and out tot he spiral arms. The arms are clearly visible due to the bright blue clusters of newly formed stars intermixed with dark patched of thick gas and dust. In between the arms lie older, redder stars. Closest to the centre, the yellowish...
Remember that amazing high-def photo of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, from Hubble a few months back? It was able to separate the light from the galaxy into the millions of visible stars that populate its spiral arms. This image is used for far more than the wow factor of seeing another galaxy up close. It allows us to study the entire galaxy and gain insights into the lives of spiral galaxies beyond our own, how they formed, how they evolve, and maybe even how they will eventually die. By looking at the spiral arms of M31, where the youngest and...
A bright fireball appeared in the sky over Hawaii a couple of days ago. It appeared to break into several pieces and burn up in the atmosphere. Naturally one would expect it to be a meteor, but if you take a look at the video below, it sticks around a little bit too long for that. Aside from the over-the-top reaction of those watching, it’s not as exciting and quick as a meteor. In fact, most meteors can move through the sky at up to 70 km/s, enough to burn up quickly and leave a bright flash in their wake....
Lovely Earth is not entirely lonely. We have five planets that have been observed since the dawn of civilization. The five are visible with the naked eye in the sky at different times of year, and were given the name planets as a derivation of the Greek ‘planetes,’ meaning ‘wanderers.’ They do wander, or at least they appear to move against the background of the stars, since they are much closer to the Earth as it orbits the Sun. So what planets are visible this month? For September 2015 and back to school, you had better be willing to get...
The concept of Panspermia is a description of all life in the Galaxy having been seeded by other life, all originating at one point. This life can hitch a ride from star to star on comets, meteorites, and rogue planets. It’s true we have never found evidence for life outside of our own home planet, but if panspermia is a viable theory, it could mean that life is everywhere, just waiting for us to find it. In a new study from astronomers as the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, panspermia creates ‘oases’ where pockets of life form. As life is able...
