Weekly Space News Roundup, August 16-23

The Sharpest Photos of the Night Sky Ever Taken

Astronomers have captured the sharpest images of the night sky ever!

Sharpest Photo of the Night Sky Ever Taken Image Source

The photos were taken by the Magellan Telescope with a new type of camera that is able to capture extremely sharp images.

Astronomers at the University of Arizona, the Arcetri Observatory and the Carnegie Observatory spent twenty years developing the camera.

Their efforts finally paid off when the camera captured the sharpest images of the night sky ever.

The Magellan camera has a 21-foot diameter mirror and can take sharper images than the Hubble telescope camera that has an 8-foot mirror.

The camera is so powerful that it can see a dime more than 100 miles away. Its resolution is so powerful that it can see a baseball diamond on the moon from Earth.

Juno Has Completed Half of Its Journey to Jupiter

Did you know that NASA has a spacecraft headed to Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, right now?

The spacecraft is called Juno and it has already completed half of its five years long journey to Jupiter.

Launched on August 5 2011, it reached this significant milestone on 12 August 2013.

Come October, it will fly by close to Earth for a speed boost that will propel it to its destination.

It is expected to arrive to its destination on July 4 2016.

Once there, it will orbit Jupiter 33 times, peer through Jupiter’s dense clouds and use its instruments to study the gas giant.

Artists Concept of Juno Spacecraft Orbiting Above Jupiter Image Source: National Geographic

Image of Earth Waving at Saturn Released

Did You Wave at Saturn on July 19?

The image of Earth waving at Saturn was released on August 21.

For the first time, Earth knew that its picture was been taken and its inhabitants could pose and wave at the planet.

The wave at Saturn event was organized by NASA’s Cassini mission on July 19 when the Cassini spacecraft turned towards Earth to take our picture.

During the pose waving at the ringed planet, people shared more than 1,400 images of themselves waving at Saturn.

Now the mission team has used the images to create a collage as below:

Earth Waves at Saturn and Cassini on July 19, 2013 You Can View The Full Resolution Image Here

WISE Spacecraft Back To Work to Hunt for Asteroids

The retired Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft has been reactivated to hunt for asteroids.

The spacecraft was switched off two and a half years ago and will resume operation in September 2013 for three more years.

During its new mission, it will determine the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects including asteroids and comets and identify the ones worthy of asteroid missions for farther exploration.

During its original mission, it discovered and characterized thousands of asteroids in the solar system.

Artist Concept of the WISE Spacecraft Orbiting Earth Image Source

Galaxies 11 Billion Years Ago Surprises Astronomers

Have you ever wondered how the universe looked like billions of years ago? Human beings have always wanted to know how the young universe was like. If only time travel were possible!

Hubble has managed to look way back in time and observe the true shape and size of different types of galaxies 11 billion years ago.

Scientists are surprised because what they have observed is not at all what they had expected to the universe to have been like.

Galaxies Today, 4 Billion Years Ago and 11 Billion Years Ago Image Source: ESA

What is The Hubble Sequence?

Astronomers use a system known as the Hubble sequence to classify galaxies. This system classifies galaxies according to their morphology and star forming activities.

There are spiral, elliptical and irregularly shaped galaxies. Today, the two main types of galaxies observed are spiral and elliptical with lenticular types falling in between.

The True Shape and Size of Galaxies 11 Billion Years Ago

To determine the morphology of the galaxies 11 billion years ago, Astronomers have used observations from Hubble’s CANDLE Survey to study the shapes, sizes and colors of distant galaxies covering the last 80% of the history of the universe.

They examined the anatomy of distant galaxies when the universe was very young and only galaxies existed.

In the observations, the galaxies look even more mature than was estimated by galaxy formation models that early in the history of the universe.

Apparently back then there were blue star forming galaxies with complex shapes and massive red galaxies no longer forming stars. Galaxies as large as the Milky Way were observed.

The First Comprehensive Study of Distant Galaxies

The Hubble observation is the first extensive study of the galaxies that existed far back in time.

Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) high resolution and strong sensitivity observed the infrared universe to study the galaxies in their visible rest form and compare them with galaxies today.

With these observations, astronomers can analyze a large number of these galaxies consistently and to details. This observation will help us learn more about galaxies in the early universe.

The Hubble Sequence Applied 11 Billion Years Ago

Astronomers knew that the Hubble sequence applied as far as 8 billion years ago. These observations confirm that galaxies this far back in time fit into the different classifications of the Hubble sequence. It shows that the sequence was accurate as far as 11 billion years ago.

Now that the Hubble Sequence is the basis of much of what we know about how galaxies form and evolve, it is great to know that it is consistent with how the galaxies were 11 billion years ago.

Weekly Space News Roundup, August 10-16

What Next for Disabled Kepler Space Telescope?

This is the exact question NASA’s scientists are asking themselves after engineers were unable to restore its damaged two wheels. They scientists are now on a mission to find a new mission for the probe.

Artist Concept of Kepler Space Telescope Image Source

Problems started in May 2013 when two reaction wheels failed due to friction. Engineers tried to bring the wheels back to life in vain.

Now that it can’t focus its three wheels to search for Earth size planets, a new use has to be found for it since its systems and cameras are still working perfectly.

It could focus on the exoplanets it has discovered so far or start looking for alien worlds, comets, asteroids and supernovas.

During its original mission, it discovered 135 confirmed exoplanets and 3500 planet candidates that require farther observations to confirm their existence.

Has Voyager 1 Finally Left the Solar System?

Controversy surrounds voyager 1’s location. Some astronomers believe it already left the solar system and entered interstellar space to begin exploring the Milky Way galaxy while some believe that it is still at the boundary where the sun’s influence begins to wane.

According to a University of Maryland team of scientists, Voyager 1 has left the solar system and entered interstellar space becoming the first manmade object to officially leave the solar system.

However, NASA and some other scientists believe the spacecraft is still in a transition zone between the solar system and the rest of the Milky Way galaxy.

Voyager 1 At The Edge of The Solar System Image Source

Perseid Meteor Showers on the August Night Sky

August 12 and August 13 were the best days to view the annual Perseid meteor shower, a spectacular natural display of fireworks.

This shower originates from a radiant in the constellation of Perseus and is active every year from around 17 July to August 24 and is visible with the naked eye.

During this year’s Perseid meteor shower photographer Michael K. Chung and several others surprisingly captured a meteor explosion of a shock wave or debris ring on the early morning of August 12.

Mars Curiosity Rover Captures Phobos and Deimos Together

The Mars Science Laboratory aka Curiosity Rover captured the two moons of Mars together in the sky.

It captured about 41 images on August 1 when one moon eclipsed the other. The mission team used the images to create a time-lapse movie of the two moons.

This is the first time that the two moons have been imaged together from the Martian surface. The Mars Express Orbiter had captured them together from orbit.

Weekly Space Roundup, August 3-9

Hello fellow AstronomyTimers! Below is our weekly roundup of the most remarkable space activity:

This is what the planets in our solar system would look like if they were place the same distance away from the moon. Too cool!
The sun over the new few months will flip it’s magnetic poles which happens only once every 11 years. Right now the sun’s North pole has flipped but the South pole is still catching up, so it has two South poles. This is interesting because Earth only does this every few hundred thousand years. And even though the Sun’s shift won’t cause any change in our daily lives, it will likely create some cool space weather.
NASA has begun thinking about what questions to answer before sending a probe to Europa, Jupitor’s icy moon which may harbor oceans and even life!
The Curiosity rover’s one year anniversary was on Monday, August 5th and in honor it sang happy birthday to itself, the firs time a robot has ever done that.