La cenizas de Clyde Tombaugh se esparciran más allá de Plutón

Nacho

achievement.org

La sonda New Horizons, lanzada en 2006 tiene previsto pasar más o menos cerca de Plutón allá por el verano de 2015 para luego perderse por ahí. La nave lleva a bordo un parte de las cenizas de Clyde Tombaugh, el astrónomo que descubrió Plutón en 1930. Un rito de exequias realmente épico.

'Makemake' - A New Discovery in Our Solar System

TimeMagazine

El Destino del Universo = 74,3 ± 2,1 (km/s)/Mpc

Microsiervos/

Omega, el parámetro de densidad determina cual será el destino de nuestro universo

Esta cifra, obtenida gracias a nuevas observaciones realizadas con el telescopio espacial Spitzer, es el nuevo valor de la constante de Hubble, con un margen de error del 3 por ciento.

Lo que significa es que el resto de los objetos que hay en el universo se alejan de nosotros a 74,3 kilómetros por segundo más por cada megaparsec –un megaparsec son unos tres millones y cuarto de años luz– de distancia.

Es decir, que cuanto más lejos está un objeto de nosotros en el universo, más rápido se aleja de nosotros, aunque con ciertos límites.

En cualquier caso el nuevo valor más refinado de la constante de Hubble tiene ciertamente poco o ningún efecto en nuestras vidas cotidianas más allá de que sabemos un poquito más del universo en el que vivimos; de hecho el hecho de que el universo esté en expansión tampoco influye en nuestras vidas.

Pero la constante de Hubble es uno de los parámetros de los que depende cual de los distintos destinos finales del universo que manejan los científicos es el válido.

Estos van desde un universo en permanente expansión que muere congelado a otro que en un momento dado comienza a contraerse terminando en un Big Crunch, pasando por otros en los que la expansión continua termina por hacer que toda la materia quede reducida a partículas elementales.

Y quien no haya pensado nunca en el destino del universo, aunque ni nosotros ni probablemente la especie humana vaya estar aquí para verlo, es que no es humano.

(Vía NASA).

Could asteroid dust counter climate change on Earth?

Scientists have proposed creating a dust cloud made of asteroid material that could help to cool Earth. Here, an artist's depiction shows what a spacecraft spewing asteroid dust might look like.

NBC news/ By Charles Choi Contributor

To combat global warming, scientists in Scotland now suggest an out-of-this-world solution — a giant dust cloud in space, blasted off an asteroid, which would act like a sunshade for Earth.

The world is warming and the climate is changing. Although many want to prevent these shifts by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that trap heat from the sun, some controversially suggest deliberating manipulating the planet's climate with large-scale engineering projects, commonly called geoengineering.

Instead of altering the climate by targeting either the oceans or the atmosphere, some researchers have suggested geoengineering projects that would affect the entire planet from space. For instance, projects that reduced the amount of solar radiation Earth receives by 1.7 percent could offset the effects of a global increase in temperature of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius).

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has noted that climate models suggest average global temperatures will rise by 2 to 11.5 degrees F (1.1 to 6.4 degrees C) by the end of this century.

"A 1.7 percent reduction is very small and will hardly be noticeable on Earth," said researcher Russell Bewick, a space scientist at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. "People sometimes get the idea of giant screens blocking the entire sun. This is not the case ... as [the device] is constantly between the sun and the earth, it acts merely as a very light shade or filter."

Shading Earth One proposal to shade Earth from the sun would place giant mirrors in space. The main problem with this concept is the immense cost and effort needed either to build and launch such reflectors or to construct them in outer space — the current cost to launch an object into low Earth orbit runs into thousands of dollars per pound. Another would use blankets of dust to blot out the sun, just as clouds do for Earth. These offer the virtue of simplicity compared with mirrors, but run the risk of getting dispersed over time by solar radiation and the gravitational pull of the sun, moon and planets. [Top 10 Craziest Environmental Ideas]

Now, instead of having a dust cloud floating by itself in space, researchers suggest that an asteroid could essentially gravitationally anchor a dust cloud in space to block sunlight and cool the planet.   More >>

Water on Mars? NASA finds evidence of once-flowing river

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Mars rover targets a rock called Jake

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Flash spotted on Jupiter: Is it a hit?

George Hall/ The flash on Jupiter is visible as a bright spot on the left edge of the planet's disk

nbcnews.com/ By Alan Boyle

Astronomers are abuzz over sightings of a flash on Jupiter — which suggests that the giant planet has taken another bullet for the solar system team.

Today's report follows similar sightings of impacts in 2009 and 2010. As in those earlier cases, the call has gone out to look for any visible scars on Jupiter's cloud tops. That would be a sure sign that an asteroid or comet was drawn in by the planet's gravitational pull, potentially saving us from a cosmic collision threat.

"It's kind of a scary proposition to see how often Jupiter gets hit," said George Hall, an amateur astronomer from Dallas who captured the flash on video this morning.  More >>

Solar storm bombarding Earth today

 

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Higgs boson: La particula de Dios

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Huge asteroid to fly by Earth Thursday

Slooh Space Camera

A look at where near-Earth asteroid 2012 LZ1 will appear in the sky on the evening of June 14, 2012.

By Mike Wall

An asteroid the size of a city block is set to fly by Earth Thursday, and you may be able to watch it happen live.

The near-Earth asteroid 2012 LZ1, which astronomers think is about 1,650 feet wide, will come within 14 lunar distances of Earth Thursday evening. While there's no danger of an impact on this pass, the huge space rock may come close enough to be caught on camera.

That's what the team running the Slooh Space Camera thinks, anyway. The online skywatching service will train a telescope on the Canary Islands on 2012 LZ1 and stream the footage live, beginning at 8:00 p.m. EDT Thursday (0000 GMT Friday).
You can watch the asteroid flyby on Slooh's website, found here: http://events.slooh.com/  More >>

An alien world 'like no planet we know of'

GJ1214b, shown in this artist’s view, is a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. New observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show that it is a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. GJ 1214b represents a new type of planet, like nothing seen in the solar system or any other planetary system currently known.

Scientists have discovered a new type of alien planet — a steamy waterworld that is larger than Earth but smaller than Uranus.

David A. Aguilar / CfA / NASA / ESA

The standard-bearer for this new class of exoplanet is called GJ 1214b, which astronomers first discovered in December 2009. New observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope suggest that GJ 1214b is a watery world enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere.
"GJ 1214b is like no planet we know of," study lead author Zachory Berta of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., said in a statement. "A huge fraction of its mass is made up of water."
Adding to the diversity To date, astronomers have discovered more than 700 planets beyond our solar system, with about 2,300 more "candidates" awaiting confirmation by follow-up observations.
These alien planets are a diverse bunch. Astronomers have found one planet as light and airy as Styrofoam, for example, and another as dense as iron. They've discovered several alien worlds that orbit two suns, like Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine in the "Star Wars" films.
But GJ 1214b, which is located 40 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer), is something new altogether, researchers said.
This so-called " super-Earth " is about 2.7 times Earth’s diameter and weighs nearly seven times as much as our home planet. It orbits a red-dwarf star at a distance of 1.2 million miles (2 million kilometers), giving it an estimated surface temperature of 446 degrees Fahrenheit (230 degrees Celsius) — too hot to host life as we know it.

Sun points a loaded gun in our direction

NASA / SDO

An "intensitygram" from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the double-barreled sunspot active region 1416 pointing toward Earth.

By Alan Boyle

As solar activity builds toward an expected peak in 2013, a double-barreled sunspot has been doubling in size over the past couple of days and now has the potential to shoot significant eruptions in our direction.

It's not certain that active region 1416 will erupt with coronal mass ejections as violent as the blasts that were thrown off by the sun late last month. But it has developed a mixed "beta-gamma" magnetic field that packs enough energy to throw off medium-scale solar flares, SpaceWeather.com reports.

"Any such eruptions this weekend would be Earth-directed as the sunspot turns to face our planet," SpaceWeather's Tony Phillips wrote.

Medium-size M-class flares are generally associated with the kinds of solar storms that produce enhanced auroral lights, but not huge inconveniences on Earth. It's the X-class flares you really have to watch out for: That level of solar storming could affect radio communications as well as satellites and electrical grids if the operators of those systems aren't careful.

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have a wide array of space assets monitoring the sun, and for now all's quiet on the solar front. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center reported some problems tracking the Advanced Composition Explorer, a satellite that plays a key role in tracking solar storms, but those problems are expected to go away as ACE's orientation with respect to the sun improves. More >>

Solar blast heading our way

By Alan Boyle

The sun has unleashed a blast in Earth's direction, and that should cause brighter-than-normal auroral displays this weekend. Skywatchers won't be the only ones monitoring the storm: The folks in charge of power grids and orbiting satellites will also be on guard to make sure the disturbance in the (geomagnetic) force won't be disruptive.

Word of today's blast, technically known as a coronal mass ejection or CME, comes via SpaceWeather.com's Tony Phillips. NASA says the outburst sparked an M3.2-class solar flare, as well as a stream of electrically charged particles that is due to interact with Earth's magnetic field on Saturday. "Viewers can be on the lookout for increased aurora," NASA says.

M-class flares are capable of causing brief radio blackouts near the poles as well as minor radiation storms, but it's unlikely that this one will disrupt communication or power transmission networks. The forecast would be different if it were an X-class storm heading our way. As the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year activity cycle in 2013 or so, we can expect to see more powerful solar outbursts.  More >>

What Is the 13-Pound Metal ‘Space Ball’ That Left a 12.5-Foot Crater in Namibia?

dailymail.co.uk

It is a mysterious ball that looks like a prop from a science fiction film - and nobody can explain where it came from.

Police have been left baffled after a strange metal sphere fell to the ground in a remote area of northern Namibia, Africa.

It weighs around 13lbs, has a diameter of 14 inches and its rough surface looks like ‘two halves welded together’, said police forensics director Paul Ludik.

The baffling metal sphere, pictured made a crater 12 inches deep where it fell

When the ball came down it caused a crater 12 inches deep and 13ft wide, although it was found some 60ft away.

Locals claimed to have heard several explosions in the days before it was discovered by a farmer on his land.

The find sparked speculation on the internet that it could finally be proof of extra terrestrial life, even though it bore a passing resemblance to the head of a character from the children’s series Teletubbies.

Some claimed that it could be an escaped particle from the Large Hadron Collider, reindeer droppings or a Quaffle from the Harry Potter films.

Others - arguably with more accuracy - guessed it was a hydrazine tank, which are used on space satellites to store the flammable chemical.

Mr Ludik however was quick to point out that more tests need to be done and that NASA and the European Space Agency had been notified.

The sphere could be a hydrazine tank used on satellites such as the one pictured

He said that the ball was discovered a month ago but it has only now been made public. Whilst it was made of a ‘sophisticated material’, it was something that was known to mankind.

He explained that the explosion heard by locals could have been the sonic boom when it broke the sound barrier coming down to Earth, or by the impact on the ground.

The compound appeared to be a ‘metallic compound normally used in space vehicles,’ although he would not be surprised it it was actually from a normal aircraft.

Police deputy inspector general Vilho Hifindaka added that the sphere, which landed 480 miles from the Namibian capital Windhoek, did not pose any danger.

He said: ‘It is not an explosive device, but rather hollow, but we had to investigate all this first’.

The mysterious metal sphere landed on dry land in an area of northern Namibia, pictured

Earlier this year Britain and the rest of the world was put on alert when one of NASA’s satellites broke up and crashed to Earth.

Huge chunks of titanium up to 350lbs from car-sized Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite tore through the atmosphere at 1,800mph but the best NASA could guess was that they landed somewhere south of Inverness on the equator.

To try and reassure the public it also revealed that the odds of being hit were one in 3,200 - more likely than getting a hole-in-one in golf.

Weeks later Germany’s Roentgen satellite crashed to Earth and split up into 30 huge chunks including one which weighed 880lbs.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077708/Metallic-spaceball-Metal-sphere-fell-Earth-sparks-alien-speculation.html#ixzz1hOR7R6c9

Face to Face With Our Galaxy’s Black Hole

Cloud Could Soon Meet Its Demise in Milky Way's Black Hole

Scientific American/ By John Matson

All of us, not just astronomers, have an obvious fascination with what happens when matter gets sucked into the maw of a black hole. Usually, we've had to watch from the equivalent of partial-view bleacher seats as these cosmic garbage disposals do their thing in the Milky Way and in distant galaxies. For once, though, we may have procured primo seats behind the dugout.

In the next few years, the supermassive black hole at our galaxy's center could shred and consume a cloud of dust and gas with the mass of a small planet.

In about 18 months the newfound object will draw near the cosmic orifice at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Its orbit will carry it to within about 36 light-hours of the black hole, roughly twice the distance now separating NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft from the sun.

That's when things could get interesting. A group of astronomers reports in a study published online December 14 in Nature that the black hole ought to rip the gas cloud apart and pull it inward, producing a detectable surge in x-ray emissions as the gas compresses and heats up. Depending on how the cloud breaks up, the black hole may feed on it for years to come, significantly brightening the faint glow that emanates from just outside the edge of the black hole, its event horizon, and providing astrophysicists a unique view of black hole digestion. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)  More >>

Have scientists discovered Earth's twin?

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star's habitable zone — that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist — and found more than 1,000 new exoplanet candidates, researchers announced Monday.

The new finds bring the Kepler space telescope's total haul to 2,326 potential planets in its first 16 months of operation. These discoveries, if confirmed, would quadruple the current tally of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system, which recently topped 700.

The potentially habitable alien world, a first for Kepler, orbits a star very much like our own sun. The discovery brings scientists one step closer to finding a planet like our own — one that could conceivably harbor life, scientists said.

 NASA / Ames / JPL-Caltech

This diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first "habitable zone" planet discovered by NASA's Kepler mission.

"We're getting closer and closer to discovering the so-called 'Goldilocks planet,'" Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said during a news conference on Monday.

Hunting down alien planets The $600 million Kepler observatory launched in March 2009 to hunt for Earth-size alien planets in the habitable zone of their parent stars, where liquid water, and perhaps even life, might be able to exist.

Kepler detects alien planets using what's called the "transit method." It searches for tiny, telltale dips in a star's brightness caused when a planet transits — or crosses in front of — the star from Earth's perspective, blocking a fraction of the star's light.

The finds graduate from "candidates" to full-fledged planets after follow-up observations confirm that they're not false alarms. This process, which is usually done with large, ground-based telescopes, can take about a year.

The Kepler team released data from its first 13 months of operation back in February, announcing that the instrument had detected 1,235 planet candidates, including 54 in the habitable zone and 68 that are roughly Earth-size.

To date, just over two dozen of these potential exoplanets have been confirmed, but Kepler scientists have estimated that at least 80 percent of the instrument's discoveries should end up being the real deal. More >>

Alien planet count tops 700 distant worlds

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered a world where two suns set over the horizon instead of just one. The planet, called Kepler-16b, is not thought to be habitable. It is a cold world, with a gaseous surface, and it circles two stars, just like "Star Wars" Tatooine.

By Mike Wall

Less than 20 years after discovering the first world beyond our solar system, astronomers have bagged alien planet number 700.

As of Nov. 18, the tally stands at 702 exoplanets, according to the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia, a database compiled by astrobiologist Jean Schneider of the Paris-Meudon Observatory.

Schneider's list is one of two main alien-world trackers out there. The other is called "PlanetQuest: New Worlds Atlas," run by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. PlanetQuest's current count stands at 687; the difference between the two databases highlights the uncertainties involved in exoplanet detection and confirmation.

Regardless, both tallies have been growing quickly lately. And both will add hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of new alien planets in the near future. More >

Rocas evidencian impacto de enorme asteroide en Cuba

Granma/ Orfilio Peláez

Investigaciones desarrolladas en las últimas dos décadas muestran que en Cuba existen las mejores muestras de roca de toda la región del Caribe, cuyo origen está relacionado con el choque hace 65 millones de años de un enorme asteroide sobre la Tierra, que presuntamente ocasionó la extinción de los dinosaurios y otras especies.

Algunas de esas formaciones geológicas alcanzan hasta 500 metros de espesor y fueron localizadas fundamentalmente en la Cordillera de los Órganos y la Sierra del Rosario, en Pinar del Río, y en puntos de la provincia de Matanzas. Tienen indicios de haber surgido como resultado de grandes trenes de olas o tsunamis desencadenados por la mencionada colisión.
Una de las huellas más notorias de tan importante suceso es la presencia de una capa con alto contenido de iridio, material escaso en las rocas terrestres, pero abundante en los meteoritos y determinados cuerpos espaciales.
El impacto del asteroide ocurrió en las inmediaciones de la actual Península de Yucatán, y se corresponde con el gigantesco cráter que yace a más de un kilómetro de profundidad, denominado Chicxulub, por el nombre en lengua maya de la localidad donde fue encontrado.

Para buscar posibles evidencias de aquel hecho en nuestro archipiélago, especialistas del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, el Instituto de Geología y Paleontología, y la Universidad de Tokio, unieron esfuerzos en un proyecto de investigación iniciado en 1997.

Could spacetime rip apart?

Those pesky physicists are at it again; they want to build a laser so powerful that it will literally rip spacetime apart. 

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