This is one hell of a bizarre journey. Star and planetary systems from a neighbouring dwarf galaxy have been gravitationally absorbed by our much larger Milky Way Galaxy.
A planet has now been found around one of those stars that originated in that small, foreign galaxy and it's the first planet to be discovered that came from another galaxy. The planet itself is a large "hot Jupiter" close to the parent star and so is unlikely to be an abode of life.
Nevetheless, it is an interesting story because it directly confirms that planet formation occurs in other galaxies. There is further reading below:
Just out of curiosity, what's that very bright object in the sky - as dawn breaks it's still shining brightly to the south and slightly east, and more low in the sky than high?
Edit: it's daylight now and it's still shining like a beacon. Must be a planet?
Just out of curiosity, what's that very bright object in the sky - as dawn breaks it's still shining brightly to the south and slightly east, and more low in the sky than high?
Edit: it's daylight now and it's still shining like a beacon. Must be a planet?
The last episode of The Sky at Night said that Jupiter is very bright over the next month or so, so I suspect it may be that.
Just out of curiosity, what's that very bright object in the sky - as dawn breaks it's still shining brightly to the south and slightly east, and more low in the sky than high?
Edit: it's daylight now and it's still shining like a beacon. Must be a planet?
Here is a nice picture showing how Venus moves in the evening sky. No doubt a similar one could be done for the morning sky. See Venus Just after sunset.
Yup - East in the morning - It's Venus
Anyone with binoculars, or a spotter-scope - I'd recommend taking a look.
Venus goes through phases, like the Moon, and is currently a fairly thin crescent - at the moment it is moving sideways away from the Sun (from our viewpoint), while receding from us at the same time, so over the next few months it will gradually shrink as it gets further away, and the crescent will gradually grow, to half, and then to gibbous, as it heads to maximum elongation, then starts to head back in towards, and behind, the Sun.
Around May 10th-15th next year - Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars will all pass within a few degrees of each other, very low to the East just before sunrise
It would seem it was Venus then eh - thanks everybody. Wikipedia says, "Venus is always brighter than any star", so that ties in with what I saw because it was still shining brightly even in the daylight. That's two planets that I've seen now - Mars and Venus, which is quite exciting in a small-scale kind of way.
It would seem it was Venus then eh - thanks everybody. Wikipedia says, "Venus is always brighter than any star", so that ties in with what I saw because it was still shining brightly even in the daylight. That's two planets that I've seen now - Mars and Venus, which is quite exciting in a small-scale kind of way.
Here was the waning crescent moon near Venus on 2nd December 2010.
It is easy to add Jupiter to that since it is now prominent in the evening sky. The moon will be very close to it on the night of December 13.
There will be a total eclipse of the moon on December 21. Sadly it is near dawn.
It would seem it was Venus then eh - thanks everybody. Wikipedia says, "Venus is always brighter than any star", so that ties in with what I saw because it was still shining brightly even in the daylight. That's two planets that I've seen now - Mars and Venus, which is quite exciting in a small-scale kind of way.
Well you only have to look in the south west after sunset to see Jupiter (or even just before sunset if you know exactly where to look), and, if you look at it through binoculars you get 2 for the price of one in the next few weeks, because Uranus will be very close to it.
Quite rightly, afcbfan, you have highlighted the way that many people can now participate in astronomical research.
The active way to do it is to take part in any of the 8 Zooniverse projects here http://www.zooniverse.org/projects including helping to spot solar explosions, galactic mergers, etc.
The passive way to help out is to use your PC's/laptop's spare capacity to help out research projects and there are some that deserve a mention below:
MilkyWay@home is attempting to generate highly accurate three-dimensional dynamic models of stellar streams in the immediate vicinity of our Milky Way galaxy - http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/
Einstein@Home is looking for evidence of continuous gravitational-wave sources, which are expected for instance from some rapidly spinning neutron stars - http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/
Orbit@home aims to optimize the search strategy that telescopes used to find potentially dangerous Near Earth Objects such as asteroids - http://orbit.psi.edu/
SETI@home (the most well-know such project) is analysing radio signals to search for signs of extra terrestrial intelligence - http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
All of the above dozen projects are worthy indeed and if anyone could help out with any of the research projects then that would no doubt be appreciated.
PS If anyone does sign up to any of the above projects, please do post and let us know how you get on.
A unique event (at least in our lifetimes) occurs tomorrow morning with a total lunar eclipse falling on the Winter Solstice.
The first time this has happened for almost 400 years and will not happen again for almost another 400 years. It is also one of the few times during an eclipse that both the sun and the moon are above the horizon during the event.
Should nt we give up the idea of a man on Mars ?
Its been 30 plus years since the last man on the moon and America dont look in the mood to repeat the journey any time soon.
Isn't the idea of a manned voyage to Mars really absurd ?
Should nt we give up the idea of a man on Mars ?
Its been 30 plus years since the last man on the moon and America dont look in the mood to repeat the journey any time soon. Isn't the idea of a manned voyage to Mars really absurd ?
Nope, xxtimbo, because in his The Case for Mars book here http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780684835501/The-Case-for-Mars, Robert Zubrin, an American aerospace engineer, set out the case for relatively cheap missions to Mars costing about $5 billion a mission and using existing technology.
That sounds a lot but in terms of the American budget it's nothing. For example, the Americans spent $500 billion plus on the Iraq War and the British spent £10 billion/$15 billion so the USA could have easily funded over 100 crewed missions to Mars and back and the UK alone could have funded 3 such missions. As you can see, it's also about political will and priorities.
In any event, Robert Zubrin's book is an excellent read and l highly recommend it.
Comments
This is one hell of a bizarre journey. Star and planetary systems from a neighbouring dwarf galaxy have been gravitationally absorbed by our much larger Milky Way Galaxy.
A planet has now been found around one of those stars that originated in that small, foreign galaxy and it's the first planet to be discovered that came from another galaxy. The planet itself is a large "hot Jupiter" close to the parent star and so is unlikely to be an abode of life.
Nevetheless, it is an interesting story because it directly confirms that planet formation occurs in other galaxies. There is further reading below:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2010/11/17/science.1193342.abstract
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stellar_streams
Edit: it's daylight now and it's still shining like a beacon. Must be a planet?
It's Venus.
Jupiter is the really bright one that is out at night in the east/southeast sky. It sinks below the western horizon at about 3-4am I think.
So I would go with other poster. Venus. "The Morning Star"
Yep, in the dawn sky it's almost certainly the hell-planet Venus which you can read about here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus.
Would I go there, no. Would I send global warming sceptics there for a trip to the surface to see how climate change can wreck a planet, yes!
Anyone with binoculars, or a spotter-scope - I'd recommend taking a look.
Venus goes through phases, like the Moon, and is currently a fairly thin crescent - at the moment it is moving sideways away from the Sun (from our viewpoint), while receding from us at the same time, so over the next few months it will gradually shrink as it gets further away, and the crescent will gradually grow, to half, and then to gibbous, as it heads to maximum elongation, then starts to head back in towards, and behind, the Sun.
Around May 10th-15th next year - Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars will all pass within a few degrees of each other, very low to the East just before sunrise
does it look about right ?
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3190/moonandearthghhghghhg.jpg
Here was the waning crescent moon near Venus on 2nd December 2010.
It is easy to add Jupiter to that since it is now prominent in the evening sky. The moon will be very close to it on the night of December 13.
There will be a total eclipse of the moon on December 21. Sadly it is near dawn.
See night sky for December 2010
The solar wind it is detecting has shifted from 'blowing' outward to sideways.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11988466
Still doing well for a 33 year old spacecraft
A remarkable feat in Human innovation.
Quite rightly, afcbfan, you have highlighted the way that many people can now participate in astronomical research.
The active way to do it is to take part in any of the 8 Zooniverse projects here http://www.zooniverse.org/projects including helping to spot solar explosions, galactic mergers, etc.
The passive way to help out is to use your PC's/laptop's spare capacity to help out research projects and there are some that deserve a mention below:
MilkyWay@home is attempting to generate highly accurate three-dimensional dynamic models of stellar streams in the immediate vicinity of our Milky Way galaxy - http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/
Einstein@Home is looking for evidence of continuous gravitational-wave sources, which are expected for instance from some rapidly spinning neutron stars - http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/
Orbit@home aims to optimize the search strategy that telescopes used to find potentially dangerous Near Earth Objects such as asteroids - http://orbit.psi.edu/
SETI@home (the most well-know such project) is analysing radio signals to search for signs of extra terrestrial intelligence - http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
All of the above dozen projects are worthy indeed and if anyone could help out with any of the research projects then that would no doubt be appreciated.
PS If anyone does sign up to any of the above projects, please do post and let us know how you get on.
The first time this has happened for almost 400 years and will not happen again for almost another 400 years. It is also one of the few times during an eclipse that both the sun and the moon are above the horizon during the event.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/dec/20/lunar-eclipse-winter-solstice
http://www.satnews.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?number=327420408
Its been 30 plus years since the last man on the moon and America dont look in the mood to repeat the journey any time soon.
Isn't the idea of a manned voyage to Mars really absurd ?
Nope, xxtimbo, because in his The Case for Mars book here http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780684835501/The-Case-for-Mars, Robert Zubrin, an American aerospace engineer, set out the case for relatively cheap missions to Mars costing about $5 billion a mission and using existing technology.
That sounds a lot but in terms of the American budget it's nothing. For example, the Americans spent $500 billion plus on the Iraq War and the British spent £10 billion/$15 billion so the USA could have easily funded over 100 crewed missions to Mars and back and the UK alone could have funded 3 such missions. As you can see, it's also about political will and priorities.
In any event, Robert Zubrin's book is an excellent read and l highly recommend it.