Archives for February 2006
Posted by Davin Flateau on 20 Feb 2006 at 11:13 am.
Make a Comment. Filed under General, Astronomy.
University of Arizona astronomer Dr. Fulvio Melia spoke under the giant 60-foot dome of Exploration Place’s CyberDome Theater on February 17 and 18. The assembled audiences were treated to a deep but down to earth explanation of one of the most exotic, cutting-edge topics in science today - the supermassive black holes found at […]
Read ‘Supermassive Black Holes with Fulvio Melia’
Posted by Davin Flateau on 21 Feb 2006 at 10:33 am.
3 Comments. Filed under General, Astronomy.
Supermassive black holes — the huge black holes at the centers of galaxies — appear to litter the Universe, according to astronomers using the orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory at an announcement at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in St. Louis last week.
These deep, extragalactic X-ray surveys looked at carefully chosen patches of […]
Read ‘My God! It’s Full of Black Holes!’
Posted by Davin Flateau on 21 Feb 2006 at 5:22 pm.
Make a Comment. Filed under General, Astronomy.
In the previous post, I talked about astronomers figuring out the cause of the extragalactic glow of x-rays. But in a separate discovery, astronomers have discovered what’s causing the glow of x-rays observed from within our galaxy. It’s not black holes this time, but huge numbers of white dwarfs, another fate of dying […]
Read ‘X-Rays in the Milky Way’
Posted by Davin Flateau on 22 Feb 2006 at 11:36 am.
1 Comment. Filed under General, Astronomy.
Space.com has a cool mini-documentary movie about black holes. It includes great animations and interviews with astronomers and astrophysicists. Quicktime is required, and you do have to sit through an ad at the beginning and at the end, but well worth checking out.
Read ‘Black Hole Mini Documentary’
Posted by Davin Flateau on 23 Feb 2006 at 9:18 am.
Make a Comment. Filed under General, Astronomy.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have taken images that reveal two new moons around the solar system’s tiniest planet, Pluto. The observations also hint at a possible faint ring around the planet. From a press release:
In a paper published today in Nature, a team of U.S. scientists led by Dr. S. Alan […]
Read ‘Pluto Adds Two Moons, Maybe a Ring’
Posted by Davin Flateau on 27 Feb 2006 at 4:04 pm.
4 Comments. Filed under General, Astronomy.
Andrew Shaner of the University of Arizona writes us that great things happen when kids and space get together:
This image was taken by a camera on a high altitude balloon two weeks ago. This image was taken at an altitude of over 95,000 ft.
This balloon launch was part of the Changes in Altitude program […]
Posted by Davin Flateau on 28 Feb 2006 at 4:14 pm.
2 Comments. Filed under General, Astronomy.
On March 29, the moon’s shadow will fall silently onto the earth’s surface. The dark circle will cruise at over 1500 miles per hour across the western shores of Brazil, over the Atlantic Ocean, and darken a narrow swath across Africa, central Asia, before finally disappearing into darkness when the sun sets on the horizon […]
