tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-365087262007-09-27T06:13:43.964-07:00Bruce DormineyBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1165461476104134812006-12-06T19:17:00.000-08:002006-12-07T13:18:43.906-08:00

The Mars rovers have produced a collection of stunning photo-mosaics exotic enough to open a photography show at one of Manhattan’s trendiest galleries. The dune field above lies at the bottom of Mars’ Endurance Crater, as seen in this false color image from NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity. Image: NASA/JPL/Cornell But hard science edged out a purely esoteric appreciation of the Martian

Bruce Dormineytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1164882147303637392006-11-30T02:21:00.000-08:002007-01-24T01:43:24.486-08:00

It may end with a whimper, but most cosmologists agree that our universe surely began with a bang; bursting forth from an infinite singularity and period of universal inflation en route to the cosmos that we continue to marvel over some 13.7 billion years later. Image: NASA/STSCI New images from NASA's Spitzer Space telescope are giving cosmologists their share of early times. The above figure

Bruce Dormineytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1164652999560976042006-11-27T10:37:00.000-08:002006-11-27T11:02:43.343-08:00

A stellar mass black hole in our galactic center has been caught in the rare act of cannibalizing its own binary companion. A weeks-long gamma ray burst has been detected by the European Space Agency’s Integral observatory. This highly-energetic burst is thought to have been produced by the accretion of an active sun-like star being gradually ripped apart by its black hole companion. The

Bruce Dormineytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1164405974190517822006-11-24T13:57:00.000-08:002006-11-27T11:37:33.083-08:00

Unlike the massive elliptical galaxy featured in the previous post, this "topsy- turvy" starburst galaxy seen in this image by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile is a comparative lone wolf, undergoing an unusually large amount of stellar formation. Starburst galaxies usually result from mergers with other galaxies in galaxy clusters. At a distance of some 15

Bruce Dormineytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1164219222860327252006-11-22T10:07:00.000-08:002006-11-22T21:26:30.156-08:00

No, it's not a bleary-eyed shot of Santa after a night out at the North Pole. It's the unusual phenomenon of twin supernovae captured in this image made by NASA's Swift satellite. The host galaxy, NGC 1316 (or Fornax A), a massive elliptical galaxy located some 75 million light years away, is now the most prodigious producer of galactic supernovae yet known. Why would such an elliptical

Bruce Dormineytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1163571945270168172006-11-14T22:08:00.000-08:002006-11-15T02:13:29.386-08:00

The French space agency, CNES, is planning a late December launch for a space telescope that will finally place some hard parameters on the number of terrestrial mass planets circling other stars. COROT is an acronym for Convection, Rotation and Planetary Transits, in honor of the 19th century painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. The French impressionist's own work may not conjure images of "

Bruce Dormineytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1163135495704471102006-11-09T21:07:00.000-08:002007-01-24T01:36:42.647-08:00

Planetary scientists are still scratching their heads over why Venus is so radically different from our own planet. An obvious explanation lies in its enigmatic atmosphere. But posing the questions isn't the same as pondering the answers. The planet's South Pole has a mysterious double-eyed vortex fueled by super-hurricane force winds. Above: A night-side false color image of Venus' South

Bruce Dormineytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1162945952530584022006-11-07T16:20:00.000-08:002006-11-07T21:12:47.236-08:00

This false color image is a spectacular composite of real images taken by NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. The image illustrates the chaos surrounding young stars in the Trapezium, a collection of massive stars in the Orion Nebula, in the middle of Orion's sword. Researchers believe they've detected a plethora of PAHs, Polycyclic Hydrocarbons, which are thought to be a key to

Bruce Dormineytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1162709963708539812006-11-04T22:47:00.000-08:002006-11-04T23:30:06.453-08:00

For the first time, an international team of astronomers has found observational evidence of shock waves and radio-emitting rings rippling around a giant galaxy cluster some 600 million light years away. Observations made with the VLA (Very Large Array) radio telescope in New Mexico and with the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton x-ray observatory have confirmed the presence of both giant

Bruce Dormineytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1162275861189039582006-10-30T22:19:00.000-08:002006-11-24T19:55:29.613-08:00

Radar observations made by the giant Arecibo radio telescope show no indication of water ice at the lunar South Pole. Lunar colonization advocates had hoped that the region could have harbored at least a small amount of H2O. Some researchers won't be completely convinced of this until boots hit the lunar regolith once again. Shackleton crater pictured in this close-up image taken by the

Bruce Dormineytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1162010424515486052006-10-27T21:37:00.000-07:002006-11-09T22:36:51.646-08:00

The International Astronomical Union is organizing 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy. Could this be a harbinger of a new global astronomical awareness? Stay tuned. For more info: http://www.iau.org/INTERNATIONAL_YEAR_OF_ASTRONOM.403.0.html Image: IAU/Lars Holm Nielsen

Bruce Dormineytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36508726.post-1161656118981645442006-10-23T19:11:00.000-07:002006-11-07T21:16:21.760-08:00

Whether waxing, waning or at its fullest, our moon affects everyone who gazes skyward. It's been a fixture of our imaginations since time immemorial. But the question of just how it formed remains in dispute. The first edition of Cosmic Cast explores the possibilities. Image courtesy: NASA Johnson Space Center

Bruce Dorminey