Naked Astronomy

M42, This cosmic nursery measures 30 light-years from side to side, and contains dozens of newborn baby suns.

According to this press release, you will be able to roam the milkyway and other far away galaxies in your bathing suite (summer is coming) or naked!

“Astronomers and enthusiasts have used our technology for years, but thanks to Otto and our new design, anyone can have a powerful telescope and an expert astronomer available at home whenever they want,” says Michael Paolucci, founder of Slooh. “Otto unveils the space stories and science behind the views that our technology feeds to the world.”

New York, March 30, 2009—Slooh is well known among astronomy enthusiasts for providing a space camera that offers unprecedented access to real-time views of the ever-changing night sky. Now, the company is unlocking space for those who never dared explore beyond our terrestrial world by introducing Otto, the Night Watchdog for the Milky Way Galaxy as their guide.

“Astronomers and enthusiasts have used our technology for years, but thanks to Otto and our new design, anyone can have a powerful telescope and an expert astronomer available at home whenever they want,” says Michael Paolucci, founder of Slooh. “Otto unveils the space stories and science behind the views that our technology feeds to the world.”

This comes just in time for the 100 Hours of Astronomy, a worldwide event aimed at bringing everyone the same sense of wonderment felt by Galileo when he first looked through a telescope 400 years ago.

Slooh also added two new telescopes to its worldwide network. The new sites in Chile and Australia complement the telescopes that have operated in Europe continuously since 2003. The complete network now offers space enthusiasts 24 hour views of the night sky from their computer screens.

Available online at Slooh.com and retail channels across the country, including, in nearly every Toys“R”Us store, Slooh fulfills the common yearning to see and capture images from space. A true space camera, Slooh and Otto guide users on quests to see and record the best current views of the night sky with tailored missions happening every few hours.

Otto’s night missions such as "Lunar Risings: The Phases of the Moon,” and "Starburst: The Birth, Life & Death of a Star" guide and shape exploration and discovery for kids and parents through telescopes situated at some of the world’s finest observatories. These missions use the same high-caliber images and patented technologies that have made Slooh critical to astronomical discovery.

Pricing and Availability

Slooh adventures are available for as little as $14.99 for 150 minutes of missions with each mission lasting about five minutes. Mission books can be found at Toys“R”Us stores or online at www.slooh.com.

Tags: slooh, astronomy

Volunteer Astronomer Finds “Cosmic Ghost”

Green Object in the center is the “Hanny’s Voorwerp”

New Haven, Conn. — When Yale astrophysicist Kevin Schawinski and his colleagues at Oxford University enlisted public support in cataloguing galaxies, they never envisioned the strange object Hanny van Arkel found in archived images of the night sky.

The Dutch school teacher, a volunteer in the Galaxy Zoo project that allows members of the public to take part in astronomy research online, discovered a mysterious and unique object some observers are calling a “cosmic ghost.”

van Arkel came across the image of a strange, gaseous object with a hole in the center while using the www.galaxyzoo.org website to classify images of galaxies.

When she posted about the image that quickly became known as “Hanny’s Voorwerp” ( Dutch for “object”) on the Galaxy Zoo forum, astronomers who run the site began to investigate and soon realized van Arkel might have found a new class of astronomical object.

“At first, we had no idea what it was. It could have been in our solar system, or at the edge of the universe,” said Schawinski, a member and co-founder of the Galaxy Zoo team.

Scientists working at telescopes around the world and with satellites in space were asked to take a look at the mysterious Voorwerp. “What we saw was really a mystery,” said Schawinski. “The Voorwerp didn’t contain any stars.” Rather, it was made entirely of gas so hot — about 10,000 Celsius — that the astronomers felt it had to be illuminated by something powerful. They will soon use the Hubble Space Telescope to get a closer look.

Tags: Galaxy Zoo project, astronomy research, cosmic ghost, Hanny’s Voorwerp, Hubble Space Telescope

A Real Life Death Star, A Blackhole Blasts A Galaxy

A powerful jet from a super massive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy, according to new findings from NASA observatories. This never-before witnessed galactic violence may have a profound effect on planets in the jet's path and trigger a burst of star formation in its destructive wake

Known as 3C321, the system contains two galaxies in orbit around each other. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show both galaxies contain super massive black holes at their centers, but the larger galaxy has a jet emanating from the vicinity of its black hole. The smaller galaxy apparently has swung into the path of this jet.

This "death star" galaxy was discovered through the combined efforts of both space and ground-based telescopes. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope were part of the effort. The Very Large Array telescope, Socorro, N.M., and the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) telescopes in the United Kingdom also were needed for the finding.

"We've seen many jets produced by black holes, but this is the first time we've seen one punch into another galaxy like we're seeing here," said Dan Evans, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and leader of the study. "This jet could be causing all sorts of problems for the smaller galaxy it is pummeling."

Jets from super massive black holes produce high amounts of radiation, especially high-energy X-rays and gamma-rays, which can be lethal in large quantities. The combined effects of this radiation and particles traveling at almost the speed of light could severely damage the atmospheres of planets lying in the path of the jet. For example, protective layers of ozone in the upper atmosphere of planets could be destroyed.

Jets produced by super massive black holes transport enormous amounts of energy far from black holes and enable them to affect matter on scales vastly larger than the size of the black hole. Learning more about jets is a key goal for astrophysical research.

"We see jets all over the Universe, but we're still struggling to understand some of their basic properties," said co-investigator Martin Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. "This system of 3C321 gives us a chance to learn how they're affected when they slam into something - like a galaxy - and what they do after that."

The effect of the jet on the companion galaxy is likely to be substantial, because the galaxies in 3C321 are extremely close at a distance of only about 20,000 light years apart. They lie approximately the same distance as Earth is from the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

A bright spot in the Very Large Array and MERLIN images shows where the jet has struck the side of the galaxy, dissipating some of the jet's energy. The collision disrupted and deflected the jet.

Another unique aspect of the discovery in 3C321 is how relatively short-lived this event is on a cosmic time scale. Features seen in the Very Large Array and Chandra images indicate that the jet began impacting the galaxy about one million years ago, a small fraction of the system's lifetime. This means such an alignment is quite rare in the nearby universe, making 3C321 an important opportunity to study such a phenomenon.

It is possible the event is not all bad news for the galaxy being struck by the jet. The massive influx of energy and radiation from the jet could induce the formation of large numbers of stars and planets after its initial wake of destruction is complete.

The results from Evans and his colleagues will appear in The Astrophysical Journal. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass.

Additional information and images are available at:
http://chandra.harvard.edu
and
http://chandra.nasa.gov
Tags: DeathStar, astronomy, Chandra X-Ray Center

Perseid meteor shower peaks this weekend

AP LOS ANGELES -Summer's annual meteor shower promises to put on a dazzling show when it peaks this weekend - provided you're far from city lights. With no moon in sight to interfere with the Perseid meteor shower, skygazers can expect to spot streaking fireballs late Sunday into dawn Monday regardless of time zone. Astronomers estimate as many as 60 meteors per hour could flit across the sky at the shower's peak.

This year's sky show comes with an added bonus: Mars will be visible as a bright red dot in the northeastern sky.

"We have front-row seats this year," said Kelly Beatty, executive editor of Sky & Telescope magazine.

The Perseids, which are named after the constellation from which they appear to originate, Perseus, also used to be known as the “tears of St Lawrence” after a third-century archdeacon of Rome. When he was executed by the Romans, meteors streaked through the night sky and reappeared every year around St Lawrence’s feast day on August 10.

Because the first Perseid showers have already begun, increasing in volume to their maximum over Sunday evening and Monday morning, skywatchers may also be able to catch a glimpse of them on Saturday and Monday nights.However, the weather will have the final word on the Perseids display.

Tags: The Perseids, astronomy, “tears of St Lawrence”, meteor shower, Perseids meteor shower