Have you heard of 'living fossils'? The coelacanth, the ginko tree, the platypus, and several others are species alive today which seem to be the same as those found as fossils, in rocks up to hundreds of millions of years old. Now combined results from the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer, Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), and Swift
Posted by Universe Today
Recent Hubble images of Pluto are showing us a world that may be unexpectedly active on the surface. Such a small object so far away that takes so very long to revolve around the sun should not have very many ways to exercise such rapid changes upon its surface. Scientists studying Pluto say that the
Posted by wanderingspace
In keeping with the mini-aurora theme, check out this Hubble view of Saturn (taken in 2009), you can see both of the planet's aurorae. The aurorae is created by the interaction of Saturn's magnetic field and the solar wind. Below is the press release from The European Homepage for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope:An enormous
Posted by Tom's Astronomy Blog
NEWS SPAZIO :- Il pianeta Saturno con i suoi anelli è da sempre uno dei corpi celesti più spettacolari da vedere. Si tratta del sesto pianeta del sistema solare partendo da Mercurio e dista dalla nostra (e sua!) stella mediamente 1. 429. 400. 000 Km, circa 9,5 volte la distanza Sole-Terra. La sua orbita intorno al Sole ha una durata pari a 30 anni terrestri ed in tutto questo tempo solamente due volte è possibile riprendere entrambi i suoi poli, quando cioè con l'appross...
Posted by News Spazio
In January and March 2009, researchers using Hubble took advantage of a rare opportunity to record Saturn when its rings are edge-on, resulting in a unique look featuring both of the giant planet's poles. And Saturn cooperated by providing an incredible double light show with Saturn's own northern and southern lights. Since Saturn is
Posted by Universe Today
What NASA thinks we might be looking at here is an asteroid that was recently shattered by another asteroid, giving it a comet-like appearance. It stays within the asteroid belt, so it cannot be a comet as those objects are known to be dusty ice-balls that stay in highly elliptical orbits around the Sun. See the
Posted by wanderingspace
Despite Mike Brown's best efforts, Pluto is not dead (yet). These cool new images of the tiny non-planet taken with the Hubble Space Telescope show that it is by no means a boring lump of icy rock. When comparing these images, taken in 2002-2003, to a previous set dating back to 1994, scientists noticed some
Posted by SarahAskew
On Friday (5 Feb 2010) NASA released the most detailed images yet taken of Pluto. The photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) show the dwarf planet's icy, mottled surface undergoing seasonal changes - the surface has become much redder and the illuminated northern hemisphere is getting brighter. The changes are probably due to surface ice sublimating to gas on the sunlit pole and then freezing again on the opposite pole as Pluto moves into the next phase of its 248-year seasonal cycle.
Posted by Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Pluto has a surface temperature of something like 35 to 45 K (-378oF to -396oF). I sort of always thought of Pluto as a pretty static place, but not so. The little world´s northern hemisphere is getting brighter and it is becoming redder as a result. Hubblesite described it as an icy and dark molasses-colored world. Here
Posted by Tom's Astronomy Blog
Hubble Images of Pluto: Image credit M. Buie /NASA, ESA, Southwest Research InstituteOften you see illustrations of Pluto as being white, but really, it's red. This is just one more link showing the Pluto is a big Kuiper Belt object (these are red too, due to UV action on the organic compounds in their ices). The black parts in the image probably represent organics that have been polymerized into taryy gunk. Back in 1994 Hubble took some images of Pluto and made a map of the distribution of redd
Posted by Astroblog
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
New Hubble images of Pluto have revealed that the surface of the dwarf planet changed between 2000 and 2002.
Posted by Orbiting Frog
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
Image Credit NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (University of California, Los Angeles). Photo No. STScI-2010-07Comet P 2010/A2 was always a strange beast, one of the few known comets that orbited in the main asteroid belt. Well, turns out to be weirder than that, a close-up view from the Hubble Space telescope suggests that the tail of P 2010. A2 is not a cometary tail, but a debris tail resulting from the collision of two asteroids. See also here.
Posted by Astroblog
NEWS SPAZIO :- Cintura degli asteroidi, a circa 180 milioni di chilometri dalla Terra. Un nuovo oggetto è stato registrato dal nuovo potentissimo occhio del Telescopio Spaziale Hubble, la WCF3 (Wide Field Camera 3). Apparentemente il nuovo e stranissimo oggetto sembra una cometa, ma le comete non vivono tra gli asteroidi. Esse ruotano intorno al Sole seguendo un'orbita molto ellittica ed hanno una "coda", mentre gli asteroidi sono in orbite praticamente circolari e non hanno scie di materi...
Posted by News Spazio
What you see here is something mankind has never seen before, the aftermath of an asteroid collision. This conclusion comes after the Hubble Space Telescope was commanded to take a closer look at a strange comet-like object pottering around in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.“The truth is we're still struggling Post from: Astroengine. comP/2010 A2 Was An Asteroid Collision (Says Hubble)
Posted by Astroengine.com
This is incredible, and just released yesterday. Tom and I got the release yesterday morning, but waited until NASA could get the image up. NASA/ESA had it ready last night. They are so awesome. Scientist believe that Hubble captured something long suspected, but never seen: An asteroid collision in the Asteroid Belt. Asteroid collisions are what
Posted by Tom's Astronomy Blog
We reported earlier that on January 6, 2010, ground-based observatories may have spotted evidence that two asteroids had collided in the asteroid belt. Now, the Hubble Space Telescope has taken a look at the mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust. With Hubble's sharp vision, astronomers believe a head-on collision
Posted by Universe Today
Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)More ImagesNASA's Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids. Astronomers have long thought that the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never before been seen. The comet-like object imaged by Hubble, called P/2010 A2, was first discovered by the LINEAR (Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research program) sky s
Posted by astronomy cmarchesin
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