Another Black Hole

Another Black Hole - Yeah!



Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

"Omega Centauri has been known as an unusual globular cluster for a long time. A new result obtained by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini Observatory reveals that the explanation behind Omega Centauriâ€s peculiarities may be a black hole hidden in its centre. One implication of the discovery is that it is very likely that Omega Centauri is not a globular cluster at all, but a dwarf galaxy stripped of its outer stars, as some scientists have suspected for a few years."




Credit: NASA/ESA and the Digitized Sky Survey 2.

A wide star field image of the region around Omega Centauri (NGC 5139).





Credit: A. Fujii

Southern Milky-Way: At the centre, the constellation of Centaurus, where the globular cluster Omega Centauri is located.

Solar Cycle and Astrocast

Astronomy Internet TV




This is a new internet TV channel covering all things astro. The first show covers three main topics:

-The Sun entering a new 11 year solar cycle.

-NASA's Messenger flies-by the planet Mercury.

-Fabulous radar images from the South Pole of the Moon.

Two NASA Solar System Ambassadors are hosting the show, Greg Redfern and Greg Piepol, the latter runs Sungazer.net - a site I have visited many times.


I think they give a very nice presentation of the solar cycle in general. Watch this and get a solid background understanding for all the sunspot/solar cycle material that will flood the science media in the years to come. In particular, listen carefully and learn how you can determine which solar cycle's sun spots you see on the solar surface. We have a very special situation these days with sunspots from both cycle 23 and cycle 24 active at the same time.

I've included a link to more written material from ESA on the revival of the old solar cycle 23 below.

Solar Cycles



Sunspot count versus year




Old cycle spots

Wasp

WASP discover 10 new planets



The (Super)WASP project has a discovery of ten new planets - the largest individual haul for any transiting planet survey. WASP has now discovered fifteen new exoplanets all together!

Fireballs

Man, don't you wish you had...



Balls of Fire!



No worries. This is what you do. Set up this experiment!

Nanoparticles in ball-lightning-like fireballs



"The enigma of the natural ball-lightning phenomenon, reported by eyewitnesses as glowing luminescent objects floating in the air on rare occasions, has attracted scientists for more than a century. A model proposed by scientists at ESRF, explains the formation of ball-lightning as normal lightning that strikes the ground and ejects a plume of Si, SiO and SiC nanoparticles whose oxidation sustains the glow of ball-lightning."

ESRF - Ants

Super Duper X-Ray Machine!



X-raying amber: The phase contrast micro-tomography employed at ESRF allows scientists to virtually extract the insect from the amber. This is a wasp from the family Falciformicidae.


European Synchrotron Radiation Facility


From my former life - I used to be part of the international management of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble. I have very good memories from Grenoble.

They discovered synchrotron radiation as a disturbing side effect at CERN. As an astrophysicist you know ALL about electromagnetic waves - including the fascinating synchrotron radiation (which may be described as highly intense and focused x-ray radiation).

Discovering dino bugs in opaque amber is one really cool application of the super duper X-ray machine! :-)

Peanuts

Peanuts!



Credit: Image by Kevin Gecsi, courtesy of Ohio State University


"Ohio State University astronomers and their colleagues have discovered a new type of star system, one that may be the progenitor of a rare type of supernova. The star system is called a "yellow supergiant eclipsing binary" -- it contains two very bright, massive yellow stars that are very closely orbiting each other. In fact, the stars are so close together that a large amount of stellar material is shared between them, so that the shape of the system resembles a peanut."

Tasmanian Devil

Long Live Tasmanian Devil!



I love cartoons, always have, always will. One of the fascinating characters is the Tasmanian Devil. I learned about the cartoon version before I knew there were a real animal called by the same name.

Now, the animal is in danger of extinction due to facial cancer. I hope we get to keep both the cartoon and the real world animal for ever. :-)