Central Blackholes influence Star birth: Herschel

 We very well know that the black hole at the centre of the galaxy has a great influence on the life cycle of galaxy. This is certainly true when it comes to the case of star birth in a galaxy. But no one knows how and it wouldn't have proved true even today if it wasn't for the Herschel Space Observatory. To study the star birth, astronomers have to look at the galaxies with their telescopes. As we all know that almost all the galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers, and due to the accretion problems of these black holes, it is highly impossible to get a clear view of whats happening in the galaxy and thereby the star birth. But grateful to the SPIRE camera of Herschel Observatory its now made entirely possible to watch the interior of a galaxy inspite of the outshine produced by the accretion disks. “Herschel provides a new perspective and is conducting a number of surveys of galaxies near and far, in order to unravel the mysteries of the formation and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time,” said Dr. Göran Pilb’ratt, the ESA Herschel project scientist. Everything is quite casual till here but now when they compared the images obtained on the SPIRE camera with the wavelengths of the accretion material, it revealed the most intriguing thing. Time to wow :-) Studies with Herschel revealed that a galaxy with fastest growing black hole is the galaxy with less star formation and vice versa. So lets wait to get these results confirmed by an even accurate team of astronomers :-)

Hoping the results to be true signing of for today Yours Astro baby :-)

Ref: sci news
Date: 10-05-2012

Japan loses the astronomy professor

58 year old Japanese astronomy professor Koichiro Morita was found dead with brain bleeding at his appartment. He was one of the main members of the team who had constructed the Alma radio telescope facilities. deep condolence....our astro world has lost one more gem....may his soul rest in peace :-)

Ref: La Tercera newspaper, Japan.
Date: 8-5-2012

Tycho helps NASA in studying Venus transit

Tycho crater...the most explosive location on the lunar surface

Guys...you are well aware of Tycho crater on the moon right? Yeahhhhhh that is not all about it...It has helped something to come onto the tv screens now. The thing is astronomers used it as mirror to see the planet Venus's transit around the Sun. We cannot directly focus our telescopes to the Sun due to its heat intensity. So the telescope is being focused at this crater Tycho which helps by capturing reflected sunlight and isolate the sunlight portion falling onto the Venus. So this is all the concept behind the scene. So now this whole technique has got so many applications like it can help us study the planet's physical and chemical atmosphere. Secondly the spectroscopy study is made possible by an arsenal of Hubble instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys, Wide Field Camera 3, and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. The whole experiment will be carried out for 7 hours during the transit to get accurate wholesome observations.
     I was really wondering why they are so focused at Venus's transit while there are hell lot more things to focus upon...may be now you are too ;-) Let me tell ya folks one thing...next transit will be at 2117...amazed? but its true...as we know the most important of the astronomical events occur very rare and this is one such!! So wishing the Hubble space telescope team a very good luck for this event, signing off for today.....

Yours Astro baby Pranu :-)
Ref: rdmag news
Date: 8-5-2012

A black hole's homicide

Its been long huh but have come up with something really interesting to share with you dudes. Heard about the recent homicide being undergone by a supermassive black hole? No? Jeez....then definitely I have got something to perk you up at your systems. Look Johns Hopkins University's department of physics and astronomy have discovered a black hole devouring a wandering star and was caught red handed when it is on its way gulping up this sun-like star (it might even more wow you if I tell you that the whole thing happened just in few weeks!). It waited for the star to come into its ergosphere and then shred it away once it got it's extraordinary gravitational force.It had undergone such a destruction that it outshone all other stars in it's galaxy. Not to get too scientific but the destruction thing was so strong that helium gas was flowing in a stream moving at 32 million kilometers an hour and this is exactly what helped them in figuring out it as a black hole swallow up. This is the first ever discovery of this kind of black hole devouring getting caught on the telescopes though one was found the last year as then it ended up as a real mystery. Letting you folks go into the evidences they're able to see the glow of accretion gas and they're also able to find the spectral composition of the accretion gas as mostly helium. This was made possible using data from the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory in Arizona. As an obvious guess the star is reckoned to be a helium cored star ;-)

using data from the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory on Mount Hopkins in Arizona. Since each element has

Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/1aGmY)

using data from the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory on Mount Hopkins in Arizona. Since each element has Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/1aGmY)As an obvious guess the star is reckoned to be helium cored one ;-)

Date- 6 May, 2012.
Ref: cbc.ca news, redorbit.com

Stay glued to get more updates on this :-)
Signing out yours astro-baby Pranu :-)

New Sunspot theory

The sun is entering into the peak of the 11 year cycle and the concepts of sunflares and sunspots have become the burning topic even among the illeterate people. The present theories are based on the principle that the sunspots are the result of heat flowing into the spot where magnetic fields are formed due to lower temperatures existing which are the result of reduction in pressure due to hydrogen atoms present at that spot. But the new theory put up by the researchers at Hawai explains this in a different way. They, Instead of looking at the hydrogen atoms in the sun, started looking up at the hydroxyl atoms which break up into hydrogen and oxygen at even lower temperatures than that of the hydrogen atoms. Thus they declared that those are hydroxyl atoms leading to the sunspots.

You know when it is a strange topic, that too related to astronomy, people drive themselves crazy with n number of theories. So only thing we as observers need to do is consider the principles and concept of every theory in order to build up a perfect theory. Anyways stay glued for more updates regarding the upcoming theories about the sunspots because you know this is the sunspot-season ;-)
Signing off for today yours  Pranu :-)

Ref: Accuweather
Date: 02-02-2012

Number of habitable planets changes to 4

Here comes one more planet into the category of potentially habitable planets. This is the reult of work done by the European Southern Observatory which they named as GJ667C. The observations say it should be at a distance of 22 light years. Let me remind you the first three on the occasion of the discovery of this planet. 1st one found is Gliese 581d, the 2nd one is HD85512b by Swiss astronomers and the 3rd is Kepler 22b by NASA.

Well these are the conclusions that could be drawn basing upon the observations made on that planet. 

1.             coming to our present GJ 667C planet, it is observed to be revolving around its starevery 28.15 days which indicates the shorter size of the star when compared to the Sun.
2. It is estimated to be about 22 light years away from the earth which is not so much when compared to the distances of the previously discovered 3 planets.
3. It has a mass of 4.5 times that of the earth.
4. Observations doubt it as a 3-star system in which the other 2 planets orbiting our star of concern might be a super earth and a gas giant.
5. The percentage of heavier elements is very low when compared to those of the earth's. but astronomers back up this under the shadow of "metal-poor" example types of stars. Lets see if this is the correct reason underlying or just a back up.

With these conclusions, the research will be continued in the coming days going to the deeper depths of each and every observation. Stay glued to get more updates on this 4th discovered habitable planet. who knows if this planet may become our future accommodating planet. Signing off for today yours Pranu :)


Ref: Economic times, Astronomy now
Date: 02-02-2012

Russia's search for Exoplanets

The search for exo planets has now become the interesting field in Astronomy. Believe in the presence of alien life or not, astronomers always love to search for these exo-planets. More than 250 have been detected so far using the U.S and Japan's space telescopes. Now Russia announces that its going to start the exo-planet search like the U.S & Japan, but with a different methodology. Head of the Institute for Space Research Lev Zelyony said on Wednesday that their scientists are planning to conduct this search using ground-based instruments unlike the space ones used in other countries. They also explained the principle this way: the searchwould be based on a simple logic that the star's brightness will drop to a lower value when the planet passes by it and this drop will be measured by the ground instruments that would be built. Zelyony also added that already the Hungarian Automated Telescope Network (HATNet) proved it to be useful.

Stay glued for more news regarding this ground instrument based exo-planet search. Will keep updating the blog with more interesting things. Signing off for today yours Pranu :)

Ref: ria.ru
Date: 01-02-2012

February...The month of Planets

Here comes the February once again to bring you the planets of our solar system. The skies will be dazzled with these planets all throughout the month and don't you afford missing it. All you need to do is just know the timings in which the planets can be seen on your stairs. Let me present you the schedule of planets and their shows.
1. Go upstairs and find the Venus in the south western part of your sky. By the end of the month Venus will be in such a position that it could be seen 4 hours after the sun set.
2. Jupiter can be seen overhead to the left of the Venus.
3. Mercury can be seen up in the sky to the west side of the horizon. The Mercury rises after the late night.
4. Mars will rise in the East , most probably around 8:30 pm.
5. Saturn rises in the East by 11:30 pm after the Mars rises. But the Mars and Saturn can be distinguished by their Orange-red and glow colours, respectively.

So ultimately we have 5 planets dazzling the February night skies, as every time. Don't miss watching any of the 5 planets. Stay glued for more updates. I will keep the blog updating with more info.

Signing off for today yours Pranu :)
31-01-2012 

Asteroid fever is over now

The long await is over today and nothing as feared has happened with the asteroid 2012 BX34. The space rock as seen from the NASA was approximately11 metres in diameter and passed the Earth at a distance of 36,750 miles. The astronomers called it a "bus-sized" and declared it as a very small object to enter the earth's atmosphere and pose some sort of hazard. Even though this is over today, this declaration can be of further help to avoid the asteroids smaller than this into consideration. But due to its closer move, the world suspected a hit from it. In fact its recorded as the 20th closest asteroid, ever. Scientists at NASA's Asteroid Watch tweeted: "Thanks to spotting assistance from pro and amateur astronomy community, we were able to observe 2012 BX34 with the Goldstone DSN radar."

References : PhysOrg.com, HeraldScotland
Date: 28-01-2012

Pranu :-)