Stellary Starry Universe

 

Venus and Jupiter are converging for a spectacular three-way conjunction with the crescent Moon–a rare gathering some are calling ‘the sky show of the year.’ Today’s story tells when and where to look.

Nov. 24, 2008: This story ends with the best sky show of the year–a spectacular three-way conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon.

It begins tonight with a sunset stroll.

At the end of the day, when the horizon is turning red and the zenith is cobalt-blue, step outside and look southwest. You’ll see Venus and Jupiter beaming side-by-side through the twilight. Glittering Venus is absolutely brilliant and Jupiter is nearly as bright as Venus. Together, they’re dynamite:

Source: Nasa Science – click here for full article

 

 

 

The solar wind appears to be ripping big chunks of air from the atmosphere of Mars. This could help solve a longstanding mystery about the Red Planet.

Nov. 21, 2008: Researchers have found new evidence that the atmosphere of Mars is being stripped away by solar wind. It’s not a gently continuous erosion, but rather a ripping process in which chunks of Martian air detach themselves from the planet and tumble into deep space. This surprising mechanism could help solve a longstanding mystery about the Red Planet.

Source: Nasa Science – click here or title for full article

 

Yesterday, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft flew past Mercury and photographed a broad swath of never-before-seen terrain. The first of more than 1,200 high-resolution images are now arriving back at Earth.

“The MESSENGER team is extremely pleased by the superb performance of the spacecraft and the payload,” said Sean Solomon, MESSENGER lead scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington DC.

“We are now on the correct trajectory for eventual insertion into orbit around Mercury, and all of our instruments returned data as planned,” he said…

Source: Nasa Science – click here or title for full article

 

 

 

Nov. 7, 2008: After two-plus years of few sunspots, even fewer solar flares, and a generally eerie calm, the sun is finally showing signs of life.

“I think solar minimum is behind us,” says sunspot forecaster David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

His statement is prompted by an October flurry of sunspots. “Last month we counted five sunspot groups,” he says. That may not sound like much, but in a year with record-low numbers of sunspots and long stretches of utter spotlessness, five is significant. “This represents a real increase in solar activity.”

Source: Nasa Science – click here or title for full article

SYDNEY: Scientists using a space observatory orbiting the Sun, have calculated the star’s roundness with unprecedented precision, and found that it is not a perfect sphere. The research could lead to techniques for measuring the Sun’s elusive internal core.

Though the Sun is more perfectly round than any of the planets, their new study – reported today in the U.S. journal Science – shows that in years of high solar activity it develops a thin “cantaloupe skin” that significantly changes how wide it is around the equator.

Strong gravity

“The Sun is the biggest and smoothest natural object in the solar system, perfect at the 0.001 per cent level because of its extremely strong gravity,” said study lead author Hugh Hudson of the University of California, Berkeley, in the USA. “Measuring its exact shape is no easy task.”

The team achieved the calculation by analysing data from NASA’s Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), an X-ray/gamma-ray space telescope…

Source : Cosmos