Earth-size Planet Discovered Orbiting Within Habitable Zone of Star

Earth-sized planets could be more common than we first assumed

This artist’s conception of Kepler-186f is elegant, but still imagination at work

Space news (astrophysics: exoplanets; Kepler-186f )

NASA astronomers working with the Kepler Space Telescope have discovered the first Earth-sized planet orbiting within the ‘habitable zone’ of its host star. Kepler-186f, as its name implies, is in the Kepler-186 star system, around 500 light-years from Sol in the constellation Cygnus. A discovery that implies planets the size of Earth, residing within their host star’s habitable zone, could be more common than we first thought.

Space scientists believe there’s a good chance Kepler-186f is a rocky planet, similar in many ways to the Earth. The fact it resides within the habitable zone implies liquid water could exist on the surface of this planet and possibly life based on the same principles as on Earth. The M dwarf, or red dwarf, sun it orbits is a common star making up about 70 percent of the suns in our home galaxy and is only half the volume and mass of Sol. This star is also orbited by four other planets, according to the latest information, but this number could change as more data is obtained.

“The discovery of Kepler-186f is a significant step toward finding worlds like our planet Earth,” said Paul Hertz, NASA’s Astrophysics Division director at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “Future NASA missions, like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the James Webb Space Telescope, will discover the nearest rocky exoplanets and determine their composition and atmospheric conditions, continuing humankind’s quest to find truly Earth-like worlds.”

NASA astronomers have no idea, yet, what Kepler-186f is made of, or even its mass. They’ll now focus more instruments and time to look into some of these facts, and hopefully, soon we’ll know a lot more about this possible twin-Earth.

“We know of just one planet where life exists — Earth. When we search for life outside our solar system we focus on finding planets with characteristics that mimic that of Earth,” said Elisa Quintana, a research scientist at the SETI Institute at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and lead author of the paper published today in the journal Science. “Finding a habitable zone planet comparable to Earth in size is a major step forward.”

Earth-size planets are more familiar to scientists than the larger planets discovered lying within the habitable zone of their host stars. It will be easier to understand the data they obtain concerning Kepler-186f, and hopefully, this translates into a better picture of the planet.

“M dwarfs are the most numerous stars,” said Quintana. “The first signs of other life in the galaxy may well come from planets orbiting an M dwarf.”

What would a day on Kepler-186f be like? This planet is near the outer boundary of its host star’s habitable zone, which results in it receiving about 30 percent of the energy Earth gets from Sol. Viewed from the surface of the planet at high noon, the host star would only be as bright as Sol an hour before sunset. A day on Kepler-186f isn’t going to be a walk in the park on a sunny day.

“Being in the habitable zone does not mean we know this planet is habitable. The temperature on the planet is strongly dependent on what kind of atmosphere the planet has,” said Thomas Barclay, a research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames, and co-author of the paper. “Kepler-186f can be thought of as an Earth-cousin rather than an Earth-twin. It has many properties that resemble Earth.”

What’s next for the team?

The next step for NASA astronomers is to find Earth-size planets that are a true twin for Earth, which will be a day to remember. Determining the chemical composition of any planets found will be an exciting time for both astronomers and humankind. A planet with a similar chemical composition to Earth would open up eyes and change the prospect of the possibility of alien life in the galaxy and universe.

It would truly be something to experience.

What is the possibility of alien life existing in the universe? Read “The Possibility of Intelligent Lifeforms Existing in the Universe”.

What has Kepler discovered lately? Read “Kepler Mission Introduces 715 New Planets“

Read about “The Search for Life Beyond Earth Takes a Turn at Jupiter“

Watch this YouTube video on Kepler-186f

Searching for Extraterrestrial Moons

NASA astronomers are optimistic that they’ll eventually be able to detect transiting exomoons

Question: Is it possible to detect moons orbiting distant exoplanets? How would this be accomplished?

Questions from the kids (2013-12-30) – If we use our own solar system as an example, we would expect exoplanets to have bodies similar to our own Moon orbiting them. Exomoons, as we’ll refer to them, would be small in comparison to their host planets, and this fact is going to make it more difficult to detect them at the extreme distances involved.

NASA scientists believe exomoons could be a good place for life to start and thrive in many solar systems

Despite this fact, astronomers believe exomoons should be detectable, using the same techniques and for the same reasons exoplanets are detected. Exomoons have mass, which means they’ll interact gravitationally with their host planet and sun, causing the exoplanet to move in a mathematically predictable manner in response to the force of gravity. The exomoon will constantly pull on the planet gravitationally, which changes the amount of time it takes the planet to pass in front of its host sun. If an exomoon lines up with its home sun from our point of view here on Earth, this would cause a resulting collection of dips in measured sunlight, just before or after the much more significant transits of the host planet in front of its star. Astronomers believe they can use this fact in the future, along with any new techniques they develop, to search for and find distant exomoons orbiting their home planets.

This detection technique is the most practical way astronomers have developed in order to search for and find distant exomoons. This method provides astronomers with a more direct technique to use in the search for exomoons and at present is the best way to do the job. Currently, NASA’s Kepler telescope, which is looking for smaller transiting exoplanets, is probably our best chance of finding a distant exomoon orbiting its home planet. The Kepler telescope really isn’t designed to search for and find distant exomoons, which makes the job a truly daunting task using this telescope. If we use the largest moon in our solar system, Jupiter’s Ganymede, as an example, we would find Ganymede’s diameter is only about 40 percent of Earth’s. This means Ganymede would only block about 0.0014 percent of the Sun’s light during any transit, which is around six times less than the amount blocked by an Earth transit.

The human journey to the beginning of space and time could one day discover an exomoon looking like this

All of this is based upon the data and information astronomers have concerning our own solar system, which could be too general, or just wrong. It could be Earth-sized moons orbit transiting planets as large as Jupiter or Saturn, which would mean Kepler would just be able to detect them, and make it possible to search for and find distant exomoons orbiting their home planets.

The best bet astronomers have of finding exomoons orbiting their home planets light-years away will probably be the James Webb Space Telescope once it comes online. This will be when the human journey to the beginning of space and time has the best chance of searching for and finding exomoons orbiting their home planets.

Read about NASA’s Messenger spacecraft and its mission to Mercury

Have you heard about the recent meteorite that exploded near the Ural Mountains

Read about the supernova astronomers are studying looking for a black hole they think was created during the explosion

The Search for Life Beyond Earth Takes a Turn at Jupiter

Astronomers view water geysers on Europa

This artist’s conception of vapour plumes possibly containing water and organic material

Astronomy news (2013-12-22) – Galileo might have dreamed of unseen life forms existing in a watery soup under the icy surface of Europa when he first discovered Jupiter had moons on January 07, 1610. NASA astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope probably had similar thoughts when they recently saw images of what appears to be water geysers erupting from the south pole of Europa. The image above shows an artist’s conception of what astronomers and scientists believe is plumes of water vapour reaching over 100 miles into space from the south pole of Europa.

Are there life forms or maybe just organic material of some type existing on this watery moon? NASA astronomers, space scientists and interested people around the world are hoping this news will spur NASA officials and congress to provide them with the resources they need to fund the Europa Clipper (a NASA mission designed to travel to Europa to see if the conditions required for life exist).

“If there’s a geyser 200 kilometers tall, and you could fly a spacecraft through it and sample the water coming out from Europa, that would be phenomenal. What if there are organics in it? That’s getting to the question of ‘Are we alone in the universe?’ ” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s top official for space science. “A subsurface ocean at Europa potentially provides all conditions for microbial life — at least life we know,” says study lead author Lorenz Roth, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

Astronomers believe Europa’s “Great Lake” is just one of many in the shallow regions of the moon’s icy exterior

Astronomers are currently taking a look at earlier data concerning Europa provided by the Voyager probes during the 1980s and Galileo spacecraft during the 1990s to see if they missed something. Astronomers and planetary scientists suspected back in the 1980s, when they first obtained the data from the Voyager probes, that Europa could have an ocean of water beneath its icy crust deeper and more massive than all of the oceans of Earth. The Galileo spacecraft also detected the magnetic signature of a subsurface ocean beneath the surface ice of Europa and brown regions on the ice planetary scientists think could be due to ice crystals containing possible organic material, formed from water vapor plumes like the ones recently viewed, being deposited on the surface of the moon.

Astronomers search for water near the south pole of Europa by looking for the presence of both hydrogen and oxygen

Astronomers are also comparing this data to more recent information concerning Europa, they obtained last year through the repaired Hubble Space Telescope, to see if they can find the telltale signature of hydrogen and oxygen they’re looking for in the data. Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen and this signature will help astronomers and planetary scientists determine if plumes of water vapour are in fact coming from Europa’s southern hemisphere.

“As it hit the vacuum of space, the water would flash freeze and some of it would turn into water vapour. Those water molecules would be split into atomic hydrogen and oxygen in the harsh radiation environment of the Jupiter system. But it wouldn’t just be water in the plume: Whatever else was in that ocean would be squirted into space, too, said James Green, head of NASA’s planetary science division. For a planetary scientist, it’s huge,” Green said of the news.

The image above shows spikes in hydrogen and oxygen levels in two southern hemisphere regions on Europa’s surface that last for brief periods of about seven hours and coincide with the moon reaching its farthest point from Jupiter in its orbit. Astronomers and planetary scientists think current computer models suggest the images obtained through the Hubble Space Telescope could show plumes of water vapour over a hundred miles high streaming into space from the surface of Europa. It remains puzzling to astronomers and scientists why the water vapour plumes seem to coincide with Europa reaching its apocenter, since this is the moment when tidal forces on the moon are at a low point (Astronomers estimate these tidal forces can be over 1,000 times stronger than the tidal forces our own moon experiences due to Earth). Current ideas include the thought that maybe the surface cracks on Europa’s southern pole open once Jupiter’s gravity starts to lessen, allowing water vapour to squeeze out in jets reaching over a hundred miles into space.

The coloured area here is called Thera Macula, a region below the icy exterior of Europa that appears to be in chaos

Astronomers and planetary scientists at NASA suggest Europa’s plumes are probably like geysers they found on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which also seem to appear when the moon reaches its apocenter. They’re excited about this discovery because Europa is only about half as far from Earth than Enceladus, which will allow the Hubble Space Telescope to have a closer look, this time. They hope to be able to use this fact to confirm the discovery of water on Europa and Enceladus and possibly get some quantitative data on the size, density, composition and timing of the plumes. Analysis of the composition of the plumes should also give them the data they need to model the interior of the moon, without having to land on the surface and drill holes.

Visible on the surface of Europa are plains of bright ice, cracks that run to the horizon, and dark patches that likely contain both ice and dirt

The implications of the discovery of water on both Enceladus and Europa is stunning to contemplate for human beings, astronomers, and planetary scientists. We believe the human journey to the beginning of space and time should voyage to both of these moons in the future to determine if the ingredients for life exist on these distant bodies. We need to do this for science, mankind and future generations of humanity.

This image shows a crack in the icy exterior of Europa, through which vapour could escape into space

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc. in Washington operates STScI for NASA.

To view the images of the evidence for plumes visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-europa-water-vapor

For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

Watch this YouTube video on astronomers thoughts on the possibility of an ocean beneath the crust of Europa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrjY2BKm-TA.

Read about NASA’s Messenger spacecraft and its mission to Mercury

Have you heard about the recent meteorite that exploded near the Ural Mountains

Read about the supernova astronomers are studying looking for a black hole they think was created during the explosion

Cassini Spacecraft Shows Us Views of the Solar System in Natural Color

Cassini Orbiter blasts off on its mission to Saturn

NASA spacecraft shows us the solar system as it would be seen by human eyes

A breakdown of the onboard instrumentation of the Cassini Orbiter

Astronomy news (2013/12/19) – NASA revealed to the world an image of stunning Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft at the Newseum in Washington on Tuesday showing the giant planet as our eyes would view it.

The spectacular image, seen below, is a panoramic composed of 141 wide-angle images, showing us a view 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) across of Earth, Venus, Mars, and Saturn and its moons and inner ring system. The image includes all of Saturn’s rings, including the E ring, which is the second ring from the outer edge of the planet’s rings (the distance between the Earth and the Moon would easily fit within the width of the E ring). “In this one magnificent view, Cassini has delivered to us a universe of marvels,” said Carolyn Porco, Cassini’s imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. “And it did so on a day people all over the world, in unison, smiled in celebration at the sheer joy of being alive on a pale blue dot.”

A real color image of Saturn, with Earth, Mars, Venus and a few moons visible

Join the Wave at Saturn Campaign

This spectacular image of Saturn and its moons and rings is part of NASA’s “Wave at Saturn” campaign, which invited people around the United States and the world to take part in a celebration and party on July 19. NASA asked people to take the time to find Saturn in the sky in their part of the world. To say hello to Cassini and the ringed planet by waving across the solar system and loading any pictures they take onto the Internet to be shared with the world. A fun and social way to join the human journey to the beginning of space and time.

The image above shows Earth as the bright blue dot located to the lower right of Saturn. Venus isn’t easily seen in this image and is the bright dot located to the upper left of the giant planet, while Mars is the faint red dot to the left and above Venus. Viewers with good eyes should be able to view seven of Saturn’s moons in the image, including amazing Enceladus just to the left. Take a closer look and you should see icy plumes flying out from Enceladus’s south pole region, which provides the fine, grain-sized icy dust that makes up the E ring.

Saturn’s E-Ring is Visible

Saturn’s E ring appears like a halo surrounding the planet and its inner rings, and the best view of this area is provided by light shining from behind the planet. Astronomers studying Saturn and its rings used enhanced computer programs to improve the contrast and color balance of the pictures. This allowed them to pick out detailed data and evidence which made it possible to trace out the full orbits of smaller moons like Anthe and Methone, for the first time in the history of the human journey to the beginning of space and time. “This mosaic provides a remarkable amount of high-quality data on Saturn’s diffuse rings, revealing all sorts of intriguing structures we are currently trying to understand,” said Matt Hedman, a Cassini participating scientist at the University of Idaho in Moscow. “The E ring shows patterns that likely reflect disturbances from such diverse sources as sunlight and Enceladus’ gravity.”

The astronomers in charge of Cassini usually don’t try to use the instrument to image Earth very often because an unobstructed view of the sun will damage sensitive equipment on the spacecraft. Astronomers had to wait until the sun was hidden behind Saturn, in relation to Cassini, which occurred on July 19, before taking images of Earth and its moon, and the backlit panoramic picture above. “With a long, intricate dance around the Saturn system, Cassini aims to study the Saturn system from as many angles as possible,” said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Beyond showing us the beauty of the Ringed Planet, data like these also improve our understanding of the history of the faint rings around Saturn and the way disks around planets form — clues to how our own solar system formed around the sun.”

Cassini has been exploring Saturn and its local region for nine years to date, and NASA has indicated the spacecraft will continue its mission until at least 2017. We will bring you more images of Saturn and data concerning the planet as long as the human journey to Saturn continues.

To view the image, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17172.

A new version of the collage of photos shared by the public, with the Saturn system as the backdrop, is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17679.

More information about Cassini is available at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Watch this YouTube video on Cassini and mission results here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5zcrEze8L4.

Watch this YouTube video on the picture Cassini took of the Earth and Moon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-PlmiKs6Mk.

Read about NASA’s Messenger spacecraft and its mission to Mercury

Have you heard about the recent meteorite that exploded near the Ural Mountains

Read about the supernova astronomers are studying looking for a black hole they think was created during the explosion

2014: The Journey Ahead

Find a good viewing spot on the night of April 14/15 and watch as the Full Moon falls far into the Earth’s shadow

 

Looking ahead to next year

Astronomy questions and answers – 2014 is expected to be a banner year for the human journey to the beginning of space and time. This year we are treated to a total eclipse of the Moon for the first time since December 2011. Find a good viewing spot on the night of April 14/15 and watch as the Full Moon falls far into the Earth’s shadow. Skywatchers and astronomers across North America can watch the entire show from the comfort of their favorite dark sky viewing spot. The partial phases of the eclipse will get started around 1:58 a.m. eastern standard time. Watch during the next hour, or so, as the Moon darkens as totality nears. Totality lasts from about 3:06 to 4:25 and the Moon should look orange-red during this period as sunlight filters through the Earth’s atmosphere. The show should finish around 5:33 a.m, with a wrap up of the partial phases.

The Moon once again falls into the Earth’s shadow on the morning of October 8, 2014. The partial phases of this celestial event get started around 5:14 a.m. eastern standard time, with totality occurring at 6:24 a.m. The Moon will spend about an hour immersed in the shadow of Earth, before reappearing like a phantom at 7:24 a.m. Skywatchers and astronomers located in western North America will have the best seat for the show while people on the East Coast will get a partial show.

No total eclipse of the sun in 2014

October 23 skywatchers and astronomers across North America will be treated to a partial eclipse of the closest star to Earth

There will be no total eclipse of the sun during 2014, but on the afternoon of October 23 skywatchers and astronomers across North America will be treated to a partial eclipse of the closest star to Earth. Viewers in the majority of the United States of America should see the Moon block over 40 percent of the Sun’s disk from view while people in the northern states and lower Canada should see the Moon cover over 60 percent. The best view of this partial solar eclipse will be in the far northern regions of Canada, with about 81 percent coverage of the Sun’s disk.

Planet hunters should enjoy the show during 2014

Mighty Jupiter reigns supreme in the sky during the month of January 2014

Planet hunters can book a seat for the dramatic appearance of Mars in the sky during spring of 2014. The Red Planet reaches opposition April 8, and will shine at magnitude -1.3 and appear big (15”) and bright when viewed through a telescope. Mighty Jupiter reigns supreme in the sky during the month of January 2014 and will peak early during this month. Saturn will also be spectacular to view both a few months before and after opposition on May 10, 2014, while beautiful and serene Venus will dazzle skywatchers before dawn during late winter and spring.

Meteorite hunters look forward to potentially great 2014

Viewers planning to look at the Perseids during August will have to deal with the light from the Moon

Meteorite hunters can also look forward to a potentially great year of viewing one their favorite celestial bodies. Viewers planning to look at the Perseids during August will have to deal with the light from a Moon which will be almost full, but people watching the Quadrantids during January won’t have to deal with much light from this source. The other expected meteorite showers during 2014 should all be free from interfering light from the moon. All-in-all 2014 should be a memorable year for astronomers and backyard skywatchers taking part in the human journey to the beginning of space and time.

Watch this YouTube video on the expected lunar eclipse in 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P5sQ0iSc0w.

Watch this YouTube video on the expected partial solar eclipse on October 23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnolE2bcGUg.

Watch this YouTube video on the 2014 Quadrantids meteorite shower https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wViXDdbRC7Y.

Read about NASA’s Messenger spacecraft and its mission to Mercury

Have you heard about the recent meteorite that exploded near the Ural Mountains

Read about the supernova astronomers are studying looking for a black hole they think was created during the explosion

NASA’s Messenger Spacecraft Answers Questions Concerning Mercury

NASA’s Messenger spacecraft is leading the human journey to the beginning of space and time

Geophysical data from Messenger illuminates internal structure of Mercury

Astronomy news (December 02, 2013) – NASA’s Messenger Spacecraft answered many questions concerning the innermost planet in the solar system during its two-year mission to Mercury. Messenger took around 80,000 high-definition images of about ninety percent of the surface of Mercury. It also took around 10,600,000 laser ranging shots using the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) in order to map the topography of the planet surface. In addition, astronomers tracked the spacecraft using radio waves in order to gather data on how the spacecraft reacted in the planet’s gravity field.

Mercury’s generates a magnetic field

Messenger has shown us things about the interior of Mercury that are a little surprising to astronomers and geophysicists

Astronomers combined the gravity and topographical data from Messenger to learn interesting things about the interior of Mercury. They found the core of Mercury spans about eighty percent of the diameter of the planet, compared to the fifty percent the Earth’s core spans. They also think Mercury has a solid silicate crust and mantle atop a layer of solid iron. Beneath these layers, astronomers believe lies a liquid layer and possibly a solid inner core. Astronomers need this information in order to better understand how the planet generates a magnetic field.

NASA astronomers and geophysicists are trying to determine why Mercury has a magnetic field

Mercury’s has surface features astronomers at NASA want to take a closer look at

Mercury’s surface shows features that have geophysicists thinking tectonic processes were recently shaping the surface of the planet

Astronomers looking at Mercury’s surface also found areas with interesting features they want to take a closer look at in the future. They found a ridge in Mercury’s northern region they think formed after the volcanic plains had cooled. They also viewed an altered portion of the Caloris Basin were part of the basin floor is higher than the ridge. This could indicate more recent geophysical activity on the surface of Mercury than first thought.

Astronomers also used the topographical data collected on Mercury to determine the largest height variation on the planet is just 6.2 miles (10 km). This seems unusual since this distance is less than the greatest height variation on both Mars (19 miles [30 km]) and the Moon (12 miles [20 km]).

The Messenger Spacecraft taught us a lot more about Mercury than just the items above. Astronomers announced a lot more interesting things they discovered about Mercury through Messenger recently and you can read about many of these items on the NASA website.

NASA’s Messenger spacecraft continues to study Mercury

Messenger is still in orbit about Mercury taking images and providing astronomers with the data they need to delve even deeper into the mysteries of the innermost planet of our solar system. The spacecraft is presently closer to the surface of Mercury than ever and is taking a closer look at some of the interesting regions and features we mentioned.

Watch this YouTube orbit on Messenger and its mission to Mercury https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVVerBya6l4.

Watch this YouTube video on the icy poles of Mercury https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxR66Y0XcXA.

Join the human journey to the beginning of space and time. You can find out more about NASA here http://www.nasa.gov/.  You can learn more about Messenger and NASA’s mission to Mercury here http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/.

Learn why astronomy binoculars are a popular choice with amateur astronomers

Read about the Anasazi Indians

Read about astronomers viewing a supernova they think might have given birth to a black hole

The Birth of a Blackhole

NASA astronomers believe a young black hole was created somewhere within W49B

Astronomers find unusual supernova

Astronomy News – Black holes are stellar objects of the most unusual nature and temperament. They’re also something we haven’t witnessed being born during the human journey to the beginning of space and time, until now. NASA astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory to take a look at W49B, a 1,000-year-old supernova remnant, found it to be unlike any they have observed before. In fact, this supernova remnant could have left behind a black hole.

NASA astronomers use the Chandra X-ray Observatory to look at W49B

There should be some mass left over in the form of a neutron star

When the most massive suns reach the end of their lives, their central regions collapse and trigger a chain of events that ends in a supernova explosion. Astronomers studying W49B found this supernova remnant was formed when mass from the poles of a 25-solar mass star shot out at a much higher speed than mass shooting from the equator. This is the first supernova remnant with this characteristic they have found in the Milky Way.

Looking for the rabbit hole

Astronomers also couldn’t find the characteristic neutron star they expected to detect within the remnant, which leaves scientists wondering if there’s a black hole lurking somewhere within the cloud. Star scientists are currently studying data concerning W49B, trying to find the telltale evidence they need to indicate the presence of a black hole. Should they find the evidence they’re looking for this will be the first opportunity to study a supernova responsible for creating a young black hole.

Watch this YouTube video on W49B https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ssE7egUf8E.

Watch this YouTube video of the Birth of a Black Hole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kgS0PeQN1M.

Read about the biggest black hole found so far by the Hubble Space Telescope

Are you looking for a moderately priced telescope?

Read about NASA’s mission to Mars

Phaitos Disk: Ancient Astronomer’s Handiwork

Some people think the Phaistos Disk could be an ancient farmers’ almanac listing seasonal changes used to determine the best times for planting and harvesting of crops

Minoan artifact could be ancient farmers’ almanac created by ancient astronomers

Kenneth had programmed the planetarium to show the night sky above Crete as it was 4,000 years ago

Ancient Astronomy –

Late one night around 1971, two men stood staring upward at a virtual representation of the star covered sky of ancient Crete. One was Leon Pomerance, an amateur astronomer with time and money on his hands. The other was Kenneth Franklin, an astronomer working at the American Museum’s Hayden Planetarium in New York City. On this night, Kenneth had programmed the planetarium to show the night sky above Crete as it was 4,000 years ago. Pomerance was astounded by what he saw because he recognized the sequence of constellations he saw above his head. He had seen this pattern of constellations on the ancient face of one of the most mysterious ancient artifacts ever found, the Phaistos Disk.

Phaistos Disk opens astronomers’ eyes

Found around 1908 by Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier, the Phaistos Disk was recovered from the ruins of the City of Phaistos, a center of the Minoan culture that thrived in Crete about 3000 to 1100 BC

Found around 1908 by Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier, the Phaistos Disk was recovered from the ruins of the City of Phaistos, a center of the Minoan culture that thrived in Crete about 3000 to 1100 BC. A terra-cotta disk six inches in diameter and inscribed with 45 different symbols of animals, people, and designs that repeat in different variations along a spiral band that coils to an end in the disk’s center, the Phaistos Disk is an enigma of history.

Inscribed by ancient astronomers

The designs on the disk include dot clusters, a bird, a bear, a serpentine figure and even a human head, but they’re totally different than the known hieroglyphic systems Minoans Linear A and B

Were the figures on the disk inscribed by ancient astronomers? The designs on the disk include dot clusters, a bird, a bear, a serpentine figure and even a human head, but they’re totally different than the known hieroglyphic systems of the Minoan culture Linear A and B. The figures inscribed on the Phaistos Disk also appear to have been pressed into the clay surface with small instruments, like a form of ancient movable type. Could they be representations of constellations in the night sky thousands of years ago?

For some experts and archeologists, the Phaistos Disk is purely a linguistic puzzle, but these scientists have yet to translate the symbols on the disk’s surface. Different linguists translate the symbols differently and some say the symbols will never be translated because linguists can’t determine enough of the vocabulary with the information they have to work with.

Leon Pomerance believed the symbols on the Phaistos Disk were graphic symbols, like the glyphs on road signs they stood for things, not sounds. After studying the disk for years he believed the symbols were inscribed by ancient astronomers who had spent decades recording the passage of celestial bodies across the night sky.

Deciding to test his theory, he asked for the help of Kenneth Franklin at the Hayden Planetarium. One night, beneath the virtual sky of Crete in 2,000 BC, he and Franklin watched as the planetarium computer set the ancient night sky of Crete in motion. They watched as the constellations swiftly went through their progression 4,000 years ago. First Serpens Cauda, the Serpent’s Tail, came into view in what would have been late November, followed by Aquila the Eagle, which seemed to fly toward the west. Next, the seven-star Pleiades appeared in April, just before the Sun. Pomerance recognized this pattern of symbols as the same pattern inscribed on the clay surface of the Phaistos Disk.

What do scientists think?

He concluded it was probably an ancient almanac used by prehistoric farmers to list previous planting and harvesting times. This interpretation has been met with both skepticism and approval by archeologists and other experts. Today, possibly one of the earliest human records of seasonal changes in the night sky waits in the Heraklion Museum on Crete for confirmation of his belief. One day, an archeologist could find an artifact dredged from the Aegean or discovered in ancient Minoan ruins confirming this idea.

Watch this YouTube video on the Phaistos Disk here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQwW2RvP948.

Can NASA astronomers detect extraterrestrial moons orbiting distant suns? Read this article to find out https://spaceshipearth1.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/searching-for-extraterrestrial-moons/.

Read about the latest discovery in the search for life beyond Earth https://spaceshipearth1.wordpress.com/2013/12/25/the-search-for-life-beyond-earth-takes-a-turn-at-jupiter/.

Read about the latest images of the solar system sent back by the Cassini spacecraft https://spaceshipearth1.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/cassini-spacecraft-show-views-of-the-solar-system-in-natural-color/.

NASA Astronomers find Giant Planet Orbiting at an Extreme Distance from Parent Star

HD 106906 b is the first exoplanet astronomers have found orbiting at such an extreme distance from its parent star

Planet’s orbit is a little extreme

The giant Magellan Telescope provides astronomers with important data

Astronomy News – Astronomers working with an infrared camera mounted on the Magellan Telescope located in the Atacama Desert in Chile recently detected an exoplanet orbiting its parent star at the greatest distance recorded to date. This massive alien planet, designated HD 106906 b, has a mass at least 11 times larger than Jupiter and circles its parent sun in an orbit 650 times the average orbital distance of Earth from our sun. These facts are making astronomers rethink current theories on planet formation, since no current planet or star formation model explains how these extreme planets can exist.

HD 106906 b is many times more massive than Jupiter

Current planet formation theories don’t explain how it’s possible for huge planets to form at such an extreme distance from their parent sun. Astronomers have suggested such planets could be formed in a process similar to binary star formation. But there are still holes in this idea, although astronomers are excited to find things aren’t quite the way they predicted. They have been studying planet HD 106906 b, because this planet is only 13 million years old and is still hot from the process of formation. This gives astronomers the perfect opportunity to develop a new theory to explain what they see.

Find out more about NASA at http://www.nasa.gov/.

Watch this YouTube video on how astronomers are finding exoplanets here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBDzuyLV_7I.

Can NASA astronomers detect extraterrestrial moons orbiting distant suns? Read this article to find out https://spaceshipearth1.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/searching-for-extraterrestrial-moons/.

Read about the latest discovery in the search for life beyond Earth https://spaceshipearth1.wordpress.com/2013/12/25/the-search-for-life-beyond-earth-takes-a-turn-at-jupiter/.

Read about the latest images of the solar system sent back by the Cassini spacecraft https://spaceshipearth1.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/cassini-spacecraft-show-views-of-the-solar-system-in-natural-color/.

Astronomers View Rectangular Galaxy Never Seen Before

Astronomers discovered LEDA 07886 in images taken by the Subaru telescope

Astronomers studying galaxies have discovered something unusual

Astronomy news (November 29, 2013) – Astronomers have found galaxies of different shapes and sizes during the human journey to the beginning of space and time, but the rectangular-shaped galaxy astronomers recently located 68 million light-years away in Eridanus the River doesn’t fit any current theory of what a galaxy should look like. Leda 074886 is one of about 250 galaxies in the cluster of galaxies around the massive galaxy NGC 1407, which lies about 70 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus.

Astronomers wonder about this rectangular shape

Astronomers detected LEDA 074886 in a wide-field image taken with the Japanese Subaru Telescope. After analysis astronomers detected a stellar disk inside the rectangular-galaxy, aligned edge-on to our line of sight in the Milky Way. This disk is rotating at speeds up to 33 km/second, but at this point they’re not sure it has a spiral structure characteristic of a galaxy.

Astronomers classify galaxies according to their overall shape, using three general categories; elliptical, disk-like, and irregular. The unusual shape of the galaxy designated LEDA 074886 doesn’t fit into any of these three categories. The question astronomers are asking is how did this galaxy come to have this unusual shape?

Could this rectangular shaped galaxy be the result of a galactic collision?

Is the unusual shape of this galaxy due to a collision with another galaxy, perhaps between two spiral galaxies? Astronomers models indicate this scenario could possibly result in the stars of each galaxy flinging outward to form a rectangular shape. Astronomers also detected a disk of bluish, relatively young stars near the center of this galaxy, which they believe could indicate a recent collision with another small galaxy. This discovery should help astronomers model the formation and evolution of galaxies better and perhaps get a picture of the fated collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda 4 billion years from now.

Astronomers are wondering if LEDA 07886 is how our galaxy and Andromeda will look when they collide four billion years from now

Can NASA astronomers detect extraterrestrial moons orbiting distant suns? Read this article to find out https://spaceshipearth1.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/searching-for-extraterrestrial-moons/.

Read about the latest discovery in the search for life beyond Earth https://spaceshipearth1.wordpress.com/2013/12/25/the-search-for-life-beyond-earth-takes-a-turn-at-jupiter/.

Read about the latest images of the solar system sent back by the Cassini spacecraft https://spaceshipearth1.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/cassini-spacecraft-show-views-of-the-solar-system-in-natural-color/.