Carnival of Space 404

1. NASA Chandra X-ray Space Telescope blog - NASA's Chandra Suggests Black Holes Gorging at Excessive Rates

Astronomers have studied 51 quasars with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and found they may represent an unusual population of black holes that consume excessive amounts of matter, as described in our latest press release. Quasars are objects that have supermassive black holes that also shine very brightly in different types of light. By examining the X-ray properties with Chandra, and combining them with data from ultraviolet and visible light observations, scientists are trying to determine exactly how these large black holes grow so quickly in the early Universe.

The quasars in this study - including the three shown as Chandra images in the bottom of the graphic - are located between about 5 billion and 11.5 billion light years from Earth. These quasars were selected because they had unusually weak emission from certain atoms, especially carbon, at ultraviolet wavelengths. Also, about 65% of the quasars in this new study were found to be much fainter in X-rays, by about 40 times on average, than typical quasars.

2. NASA Chandra X-ray Space Telescope blog- Supermassive Black Holes Running at Full Tilt

Bin Luo has mainly been working on X-ray studies of supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies. He is now leading the data analysis of the 7-million-second (81 days) Chandra Deep Field-South survey, the deepest Chandra observation ever performed.

Monstrous black holes – quasars fueled by large amounts of gas and dust, consuming of the order of a couple solar masses per year – are known nearly universally to be strong X-ray emitters. Meanwhile, strong line emission – that is, light coming from a narrow range of wavelengths – is also a hallmark of quasar spectra in optical and ultraviolet bands. Therefore, I was quite puzzled when we discovered that a small group of quasars with remarkably weak ultraviolet line emission are often extremely X-ray weak. The pioneering work was led by Jianfeng Wu, Niel Brandt, and Pat Hall in 2011 and 2012, where the X-ray emission from 19 such quasars was examined. What makes things even more interesting is that for a subgroup of these quasars selected with refined ultraviolet properties, almost 100% are weak in X-ray light.

Carnival of Space 399

1. Chandra Xray Space Telescope - In Hollywood blockbusters, explosions are often among the stars of the show. In space, explosions of actual stars are a focus for scientists who hope to better understand their births, lives, and deaths and how they interact with their surroundings.

2. Chandra Xray Space Telescope - Dark Matter is Darker Than Once Thought

3. Meridiani Journal - Cassini finds evidence for hydrothermal activity on Saturn’s moon Enceladus

Hydrothermal vent on the ocean bottom on Earth, an oasis for various life forms. Similar vents are now thought to exist in the ocean inside Enceladus as well. Photo Credit: NOAA/PMEL

Carnival of Space 397

The Carnival of Space 397 is up at Brown Spaceman.

Universe Today - This Is The Asteroid That Didn’t Hit Us The designation for the object above is 2015 EO6. On March 10, 2015, a 12–28 meter asteroid dubbed 2015 ET cosmically “just missed us,” zipping past Earth at 0.3 lunar distances – 115,200 kilometers, or 71, 580 miles.*

Carnival of Space 395

The Carnival of Space 395 is up at Everyday Spacer.

Examiner - Scientists mull how to find life on Europa

Ever since the Europa mission had been given the official nod of approval by NASA, scientists have been giddy with excitement at the prospect of exploring a new world where life might reside. The likely model for the mission is the Europa Clipper, which will orbit Jupiter and fly by the moon multiple times. According to a Tuesday story in the New Scientist, researchers are mulling over how to use the Europa Clipper to search for life.

Ordinarily, detecting life on Europa using a remote sensing satellite would be problematic at best. Whatever life that might exist on Europa would reside in the subsurface ocean, deep beneath the ice crust, warmed by the tidal forces exerted by Jupiter. Accessing that ocean would require a lander with a drill that would penetrate the ice crust.

However, in 2013, data gathered by the Hubble space telescope suggested that geysers of water from the interior ocean were escaping through vents in the ice crust.

NASA is planning the next round of planetary missions (Mark Wittington | examiner.com)

While attention has been focused on a multi-billion dollar mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, NASA is planning a number of new planetary missions. Most are grouped under the Discovery Program, small-scale missions with a cap of $450 million, and the New Frontier Program, which has a cap of $1 billion, according to a Tuesday story in Spaceflight Now.

Carnival of Space 394

The Venus Transit has a summary of Venus and Mars conjunction

Venus and Mars between the clouds -19/2/2015

Carnival of Space 393

The Carnival of Space 393 is up at Universe Today

Meet Three People Who Intend to Die on Mars at Universe Today

More than 200,000 people have applied to the Mars One Project, and 663 candidates have been put on the shortlist. Eventually just 4 people will be packed into a spacecraft and blasted off to the Red Planet in 2018. Once they get there, they’ll need to survive with what they brought with them, and what they can scrounge from the surface of the planet. And then they’ll be joined every 2 years later by another crew of potential colonists.

Dina from Iraq/USA one of severalon the Mars One shortlist of Mars candidates

Carnival of Space 392 - Rings 200 times larger than Saturn's Rings around exoplanet J1407

The Carnival of Space 392 is up at Urban Astronomer

There is a gigantic ring system around exoplanet J1407b. It is much larger, heavier than Saturn’s rings

Astronomer Eric Mamajek at the University of Rochester and his co-author from the Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands, have discovered that the ring system that they see eclipse the very young Sun-like star J1407 is of enormous proportions, much larger and heavier than the ring system of Saturn. The ring system – the first of its kind to be found outside our solar system – was discovered in 2012 by a team led by Rochester’s Eric Mamajek.

A new analysis of the data, led by Leiden’s Matthew Kenworthy, shows that the ring system consists of over 30 rings, each of them tens of millions of kilometers in diameter. Furthermore, they found gaps in the rings, which indicate that satellites (“exomoons”) may have formed. The result has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

“The details that we see in the light curve are incredible. The eclipse lasted for several weeks, but you see rapid changes on time scales of tens of minutes as a result of fine structures in the rings,” says Kenworthy. “The star is much too far away to observe the rings directly, but we could make a detailed model based on the rapid brightness variations in the star light passing through the ring system. If we could replace Saturn’s rings with the rings around J1407b, they would be easily visible at night and be many times larger than the full moon.”

“This planet is much larger than Jupiter or Saturn, and its ring system is roughly 200 times larger than Saturn’s rings are today,” said co-author Mamajek, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester. “You could think of it as kind of a super Saturn.”

Artist’s conception of the extrasolar ring system circling the young giant planet or brown dwarf J1407b. The rings are shown eclipsing the young sun-like star J1407, as they would have appeared in early 2007. Credit: Ron Miller

Carnival of Space 390 - Milky Way may have a huge stable wormhole

The Carnival of Space 390 is up at Photostospace

Universe Today - The Entire Milky Way Might Be a Huge Wormhole That’s Stable and Navigable

According to the team, a collaboration between Indian, Italian, and North American researchers at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Italy, the central halo of our galaxy may harbor enough dark matter to support the creation and sustenance of a “stable and navigable” shortcut to a distant region of spacetime – a phenomenon known as a wormhole. They believe wormholes could exist in most spiral galaxies.

Artist rendering of a wormhole connecting two galaxies. Credit: Davide and Paolo Salucci.

Arxiv - Possible existence of wormholes in the central regions of halos

The Meridiani Journal - Kepler discovers three super-Earth exoplanets orbiting nearby star

Last week was a good one for exoplanet enthusiasts, with yet more news relating to how other worlds are now being found by the thousands, and that there may be many habitable planets out there. Now there’s already another discovery being announced of three more planets almost the same size as Earth, all orbiting a nearby star.

The star, EPIC 201367065, is a red M-dwarf star cooler than our Sun and about half the size and mass. Only 150 light-years away, it is one of the 10 closest stars known to have transiting exoplanets.

Cartoon illustration depicting how the three newly-found planets’ shadows (right side) can be seen as eclipses from Earth (left side) as they transit in front of their star. Image Credit: K. Teramura, UH IfA.

Carnival of Space 389

1. Universe Today - Some of the Best Pictures of the Planets in our Solar System

Saturn and its rings, as seen from above the planet by the Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/Gordan Ugarkovic

2. Universe Today - Beagle 2: Found on Mars After An 11 Year Hunt The Beagle 2 landed in one piece on Mars but the solar power panels did not deploy, so it could not establish communications.

The Beagle-2 lander on the plains of Isidis Planitia. Credit & Copyright: HiRISE/NASA/Leicester.

Carnival of Space 387

The Carnival of Space 387 is up at Everyday spacer

Paul Scott Anderson | The Meridiani Journal - Kepler finds ‘super-Earth’ exoplanet in first discovery of new mission


The Kepler space telescope has found its first new exoplanet, a “super-Earth,” of its secondary mission phase. The discovery adds to a current tally of 996 confirmed exoplanets and 4,183 planetary candidates already found by the revolutionary planet-hunting telescope.

Universe Today - 10 Space Science Stories to Watch in 2015 Here are six of the ten

1. New Horizons at Pluto
2. Dawn at Ceres
3. Long Duration ISS Missions - Beginning in 2015, astronauts and cosmonauts will begin year-long stays aboard the ISS to study the effects of long duration space missions. In March of 2015, cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko and U.S. astronaut S
5. SpaceX will make multiple Attempts to Land on a Sea Platform [first one reached the platform but stuck the landing too hard, possibly ten more attempts]
6. Akatsuki at Venus - Japanese mission
9. Advanced LIGO - Earth based gravitational wave detector goes online
10. LISA Pathfinder - The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, and the Pathfinder mission will journey to the L1 Lagrange point between the Earth and the Sun to test key technologies. LISA Pathfinder will pave the way for the full fledged LISA space platform, a series of three free flying spacecraft proposed for launch in the 2030s.

Carnival of Space 385 - Understanding dunes of Titan which are as tall as Pyramids of Egypt

The Carnival of Space 385 is up at Photos to space.

The Meridiani journal - Strong winds explain Titan’s immense dunes, according to new study

Saturn’s largest moon Titan is one of the most Earth-like places in the Solar System, as least in terms of appearances, with its seas, lakes, and rivers (of liquid methane/ethane). But it is similar in another way as well, with vast stretches of huge wind-blown dunes in its equatorial regions. Only Earth, Venus, and Mars are known to have such dunes. Now, scientists think they have figured out how Titan’s dunes can become so immense in size: fast-blowing winds.

The dunes cover about 13 percent of Titan’s surface, stretching over an area of 4 million square miles (10 million square kilometers). That’s about the same surface area as the United States. On average, they are 0.6 to 1.2 miles (1 to 2 kilometers) wide, hundreds of miles (kilometers) long, and around 300 feet (100 meters) high. Their size and spacing can vary, however, according to location. They are similar in shape to the linear dunes found on Earth in Namibia or the Arabian Peninsula, but on larger scales, and confined to the equatorial region, in a band between 30 degrees south latitude and 30 degrees north latitude.

Dunes in the Belet and Fensal regions of Titan, compared with Oman and Kalahari dunes on Earth. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, and NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Red Pyramid was 104 meters tall

The Red Pyramid, also called the North Pyramid, is the largest of the three major pyramids located at the Dahshur necropolis.

Carnival of Space 384

The Carnival of Space 384 is up at The Venus Transit blog

Universe Today - A Universe of 10 Dimensions

Superstring theory posits that the universe exists in 10 dimensions at once. Image Credit: National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli.

Carnival of Space 383

Carnival of Space 383 is up at Urban Astronomer

Universe Today - Meteorite May Contain Proof of Life on Mars, Researchers Say

According to a recent paper submitted by an international team of scientists, evidence of Mars life may have arrived on Earth three and a half years ago aboard a meteorite that fell in the Moroccan desert. Believed to have broken away from Mars 700,000 years ago, so-called Tissint meteorite has internal features that researchers say appear to be organic materials.

Research challenges work proposed in 2012 that asserted that the carbon traces originated through the high-temperature crystallization of magma. According to the new study, a more likely explanation is that liquids containing organic compounds of biological origin infiltrated Tissint’s “mother” rock at low temperatures, near the Martian surface

A piece of the Tissint meteorite that landed on Earth on July 18th, 2011. Credit: EPFL/Alain Herzog

Carnival of Space 380 - NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

The Carnival of Space 380 is up at Links Through Space

Universe Today - NASA’s ongoing hunt for exoplanets has entered a new phase as NASA officially confirmed that the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is moving into the development phase. This marks a significant step for the TESS mission, which will search the entire sky for planets outside our solar system (a.k.a. exoplanets). Designed as the first all-sky survey, TESS will spend two years of an overall three-year mission searching both hemispheres of the sky for nearby exoplanets.

“During its first two years in orbit, the TESS spacecraft will concentrate its gaze on several hundred thousand specially chosen stars, looking for small dips in their light caused by orbiting planets passing between their host star and us,” said TESS Principal Investigator George Ricker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Carnival of Space 379

Carnival of Space 379 is up at Cosmoquest

Watch Universe Today’s Fraser Cain School the Cast of ‘Interstellar’ on Black Holes The cast of Interstellar have a video of a Google+ Hangout live from Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

Carnival of Space 378

The Carnival of Space 378 is up at Is Universe.

Double Disc Found Feeding Each Other In Binary Star System

This artist’s impression shows the dust and gas around the double star system GG Tauri-A. Researchers using ALMA have detected gas in the region between two discs in this binary system. This may allow planets to form in the gravitationally perturbed environment of the binary. Half of Sun-like stars are born in binary systems, meaning that these findings will have major consequences for the hunt for exoplanets.

Carnival of Space 377

The Carnival of Space 377 is up at Everyday Spacer

The Meridiani Journal - MESSENGER takes first images of ice near Mercury’s north pole

Carnival of Space 376

The Carnival of Space 376 is up at the Urban Astonomer

Universe Today - ‘Death Star’ Ocean? Seven Moons That Could Host Huge Hidden Liquid Reservoirs

Newly released data from the Cassini spacecraft suggests there are big liquid reservoirs underneath the surface of Mimas, a moon of Saturn.

A global layer of liquid water thick enough to decouple the crust from the mantle is believed to be present on Titan, Europa and, with less certainty, Callisto, Ganymede and Triton. A magma ocean is thought to be present on Io. Geysers have been found on Saturn's moon Enceladus, possibly originating from about 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) deep ocean beneath an ice shell.

The asteroid Ceres appears to be differentiated into a rocky core and icy mantle and may harbour a liquid-water ocean under its surface.

Not enough is known of the larger Trans-Neptunian objects to determine whether they are differentiated bodies capable of possessing oceans, although models of radioactive decay suggest that Pluto, Eris, Sedna, and Orcus have oceans beneath solid icy crusts at the core-boundary approximately 100 to 180 km thick.

There is the hypothesis that Uranus and Neptune possessing hot, highly compressed, supercritical water under their thick atmospheres.

Science - Constraints on Mimas’ interior from Cassini ISS libration measurements

Universe Today - Moons of Confusion: Why Finding Extraterrestrial Life may be Harder than we Thought

Carnival of Space 375

Carnival of Space 375 is up at BrownSpaceman

Suspected Black Hole Unmasked as Ultraluminous Pulsar

‘Frankenstein’ Moon: Tidal Forces From Uranus May Have Contributed to Miranda’s Bizarre Appearance

Carnival of Space 374

The Carnival of Space 374 is up at Cosmoquest.

Universe Today - Making the Case for a Mission to the Martian Moon Phobos

From where did Phobos arise or arrive? The Inner or Outer Solar System? Is it dry or wet? Should we flyby or sample & return? Or should it be Boots or Bots? In the illustration, space probes (L-R) Phobos-Grunt 2, JPL/SAR, ARC PADME. Also, Stardust’s return capsule, Phobos above Mars, the Solar Nebula and the MRO HiRISE photo of Phobos. (Photos: NASA, Illustration:T.Reyes)

Three prominent planetary scientists have joined forces in a new paper [The value of Phobos sample return] in the journal Planetary and Space Science to explain the case for a mission to the moons of Mars, particularly Phobos.

“Phobos occupies a unique position physically, scientifically, and programmatically on the road to exploration of the solar system,” say the scientists. In addition, the moons may possibly be a source of in situ resources that could support future human exploration in circum-Mars space or on the Martian surface. But a sample return mission first could provide details on the moons’ origins and makeup.