Posts in the past four weeks
Tuesday
Feb 09 2010
12:02 UTC
File this one under "one more thing that requires us to re-learn what we learned in school about galaxies". You've probably seen the "Hubble sequence" in astronomy books. It looks like a tuning fork, and has been thought of as a way not only to describe and classify galaxies, but possibly explain their evolutionary tracks as well. The original scheme, named for Edwin Hubble, was based on galaxies relatively close by in space. With more powerful modern telescopes able to image galaxies at much gre
Posted by Simostronomy
Friday
Feb 05 2010
03:34 UTC
Galaxies in the Young UniverseFor a long time, well before the invention, creation, and deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, classifying galaxies was easy for the closest ones and quite a bit tougher for the more distant ones. When I say “classify” I mean determining a galaxy's size and shape and structure — its morphology.
Posted by TheSpacewriter's Ramblings
Thursday
Feb 04 2010
21:50 UTC
Pluto-philes (and astronomers, too) have always bemoaned the fact that the best image of the principal dwarf planet wase just a fuzzy, pixelized haze. Bemoan no more. The most detailed look to date of the entire surface of Pluto has been constructed from hundreds of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The images
Posted by Universe Today
Thursday
Feb 04 2010
20:07 UTC
Pity poor Pluto. The debate over its planethood has caused much consternation over the years. Part of the problem is that it's so dinky and so far away! If it were closer, or bigger, we almost certainly wouldn't be having this debate. But whether or not you think Pluto should be part of the gang or
Posted by Bad Astronomy
Thursday
Feb 04 2010
15:10 UTC
Galaxies come in all sorts of shapes. But in the past, the various galaxy shapes used to be more diverse and "peculiar" than they are now. Over time, according to a new study, galaxies tend to become spirals. "Six billion years ago, there were many more peculiar galaxies than now a
Posted by Universe Today
Tuesday
Feb 02 2010
17:12 UTC
Last week, the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) sky survey program, designed to sweep the heavens looking for near-Earth asteroids, spotted something really weird; an elongated streak that looked as if two asteroids had collided. Just days later, Hubble was pointed at the object, and what it saw was really really weird:[Click to armageddonate.]This is
Posted by Bad Astronomy
Tuesday
Feb 02 2010
14:00 UTC
One of the closest and most spectacular galaxies in the sky is M51, the Whirlpool. A grand design face-on spiral with a small, irregular companion, it's so bright and big that it's a favorite target for amateurs. So you just know when you point Hubble at it, what you get is nothing short of jaw-dropping
Posted by Bad Astronomy
Wednesday
Jan 20 2010
19:01 UTC
If you have a few million lying around, and you qualify, you might want to add a Space Shuttle to your collection: NASA is selling off historic artifacts, and the Orbiters are among the lots:NASA is inviting eligible education institutions, museums and other organizations to examine and request space program artifacts online. The items represent
Posted by Bad Astronomy
Saturday
Jan 16 2010
19:26 UTC
And Galaxies are Happenin' Kinds of Places!There are SO many interesting strands of astronomy research going on these days. I'm reminded of the complexity of it all every time I go to an AAS meeting or open up a week's worth of press releases to see the latest news. This past week I spent a
Posted by TheSpacewriter's Ramblings
Friday
Jan 15 2010
15:00 UTC
... don't think I need to say anything here other than: Imax has put out a trailer for their hi-res 3D movie about the Hubble repair mission from May 2009. Oh, yeah. I'm in. Tip o' the spherically aberrated mirror to my old friend from college Christy Venters. Hi Christy!
Posted by Bad Astronomy
