There has been a debate about the distance to the Pleiades cluster that has been going for decades. Although it appears to have been resolved, well this is the claim of a team of radio astronomers in the US, who concluded that the cluster is approximately as far away as originally estimated. This contradicts analyses …
In November 2012, a new distance record breaker has been weighed in with a photometric redshift of z ~ 10.8 which is roughtly 420 million years after the big bang. This is pretty significant. The Cluster Lensing and Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH), and the Spitzer/IRAC has measured the photometric redshift and with the help …
* Comet PANSTARRS (C/2011 L4) in Cetus * Photo By Humayun Qureshi. Taken from Canberra. Astronomers discovered Comet PANSTARRS (C/2011 L4) on June 7, 2011. In early February, the comet reached its southernmost point, but by the end of May it will lie near Polaris (Alpha [α] Ursae Minoris). Comet watchers should target February 21 …
This is a Digitized Sky Survey image of the oldest star with a well-determined age in our galaxy. The aging star, cataloged as HD 140283, lies 190.1 light-years away. The Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) UK Schmidt telescope photographed the star in blue light. Credit: Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), STScI/AURA, Palomar/Caltech, and UKSTU/AAO A team of astronomers using NASA’s …
The selection of the best site for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which was between South Africa and a joint Australian/New Zealand bid, surprised most people. But it makes real sense to utilize the preliminary facilities that both nations have started to contribute. In an earlier article on RelativeCosmos.com I suggested Australia would be best …
By Estelle Asmodelle Recent reports on the selection of the site for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) have suggested that South Africa offers the best site and a panel of advisors recommended the SA site over Australia. The argument was put that the SA site was cheaper for construction, yet Australia had lower insurance fees, and primarily …
Square Kilometre Array (SKA) may go to South Africa but is it really the best site? Read More »
By Estelle Asmodelle The transit of Venus is happening 5th-6th June 2012. There are plenty of Astronomical Societies who are holding ‘transit parties,’ including two that I do presentations to: The first one, here is a page from the Newcastle Astronomical Society with their ‘transit party’ and they had ABC radio there as well: http://www.nas.org.au/HTML%20Pages/venus_transit_event_2004.htm …
THE TRANSIT OF VENUS and also the TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE. Read More »
As NASA prepares to wrap up its shuttle program, leaving open questions about what comes next for U.S. human spaceflight, the next big thing in NASA’s astronomy program has been dealt a blow. The James Webb Space Telescope, a tennis court–size spacecraft that would take up a position in deep space to peer farther than …
Threat of James Webb Space Telescope Cancellation Read More »
NEW METHOD OF MAPPING THE UNIVERSE USING QUASARS -BOSS. The biggest 3-D map of the distant universe ever made, using light from 14,000 quasars – supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies billions of light years away – has been constructed by scientists with the third Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III). See the Phyorg …
If you are interested in Exoplanets – then there are TWO good PDFs for free download from Nature this week – they are both must read documents: Exoplanets on the cheap The search for planets outside our Solar System will always be pricey. But creative solutions are proving that it no longer has to break …