Category Archives: Astronomy

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The Magnetic Field of our Active Sun by Andrew McCarthy. All images courtesy of Royal Museums Greenwich, shared with permission

A trippy shot of the psychedelic California Nebula, a panorama of the Milky Way sprawling above French lavender crops, and a phenomenal glimpse of the suns magnetic field bursting after a solar flare are a few of the stellar images on the 2021 Astronomy Photographer of the Year shortlist. Hosted by Royal Museums Greenwich for the past 13 years, the annual contest garnered more than 4,5000 images of the green lights of the Aurora, distant nebula, and other galactic sights from entrants in 75 countries. The winner will be announced on September 16 prior to the National Maritime Museums exhibition of the works opening on September 18. You can see more of the top photos on the contest site. (via Kottke)

Harmony by Stefan Liebermann

Iceland Vortex by Larryn Rae

Alien Throne by Marcin Zajac

California Dreamin NGC 1499 by Terry Hancock

Milky Way rising over Durdle Door by Anthony Sullivan

Break of a New Day by Nicholas Roemmelt

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Brilliant Solar Flares and the Northern Lights Appear in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Shortlist - Colossal

Swerdlow was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1988, and was twice appointed as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study. He was also a member of the American Astronomical Society and the International Astronomical Union, professional societies which bring together astronomers and other experts.

He was a highly independent mind, and he was willing to rethink assumptions people had made for a really long time, said Anthony Grafton, the Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, who was a student in Swerdlows very first undergraduate class at UChicago and remained a lifelong friend and colleague. When he examined a text, he could imagine his way into possible interpretations that other people simply didnt see.

Swerdlow was also known for his passion and charisma in the classroom and as a mentor. He was an extraordinary teacher and an incredibly generous person, to whom I owe more debts than I can list, said Grafton, AB71, AM72, PhD75. If someone was passionate about the scholarship, Noel would put in immense amounts of time to make their work even deeper and stronger. Scholars around the world, as well as his own students, learned an immense amount from him.

Though he occupied an unusual position in the astronomy department as its only historian, Swerdlows UChicago colleagues said his presence influenced how they thought.

He was the consummate scholar, said Michael Turner, the Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UChicago. Noel was enormously respected in the Department of Astronomy. Talking with him impressed upon me a newfound appreciation for the history of sciencea humility for its scope and a sense of progression, that it is a long-term and team effort.

Rigorous inquiry only begins to describe Swerdlows work in the history of the exact sciences, said Rocky Kolb, Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago and Swerdlows longtime colleague and friend. Whether the study of obscure Babylonian clay tablets or the well-studied works of Nicolas Copernicus, Swerdlows books and papers brought to light the underappreciated mathematical sophistication of ancient astronomers.He was a great influence on his colleagues in the Department of Astronomy, infusing us all with a deeper understanding of our predecessors in the quest to understand the heavens.

Swerdlow shared an appreciation for these ancient scientists with many colleagues in the astronomy department, but particularly Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the famed astrophysicist known for his work on black holes. Swerdlow and Chandrasekhar co-authored several articles on ancient astronomers.

In addition to his scholarship, Swerdlow loved music and was a regular opera attendee and music listener. Encyclopedic doesnt begin to do justice to his knowledge of performances and recordings of the great symphonies and operas of the 18th and 19th centuries, Grafton said.

After retiring, he moved to California, where he continued research at Caltech as a visiting associate professor in history from 2010 to 2018.

He is survived by his wife, Nadia Swerdlow; son Dorian Swerdlow, daughter-in-law Fiona and granddaughter Julia; and brother Lanny Swerdlow and partner Victor.

A memorial is planned; details will be announced later this fall.

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Noel Swerdlow, one of the 'greatest scholars' of the history of science, 1941-2021 - UChicago News

From most of Earth in early August, Saturn and Jupiter ascend in the eastern half of your sky by mid-evening (midway between your local sundown and midnight). Both are bright and noticeable! This chart is via Stellarium; try it to view the orientation of the planets from your specific location on the globe. In a dark sky, notice the famous Teapot in Sagittarius, and the graceful J shape of Scorpius the Scorpion, near Saturn and Jupiter (to the right of them, on this chart).Saturn at opposition

When viewed through a telescope, Saturn is our solar systems most glorious planet. But, to the eye, Saturn isnt as noticeable as bright Jupiter. Luckily, were still less than a year past the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. It happened on December 21, 2020. At that time, Saturn and Jupiter were exceedingly close in the sky. Now, as Saturn reaches its opposition on August 1-2, 2021, Saturn and Jupiter are still close. Keep reading to learn how Jupiter and the moon can help you find Saturn on the skys dome.

Earths faster motion in orbit brings Saturn to opposition once each year. Opposition is a big yearly milestone for observing the ringed planet Saturn, or any outer planet. It happens when we on Earth fly between that planet and the sun. At opposition, an outer planet is generally closest to Earth and brightest for that year. Saturns opposition comes on August 2 at about 06:00 UTC. That is on August 2 at 3 a.m. ADT, 2 a.m. EDT, 1 a.m CDT, 12 midnight MDT yet on August 1 at 11 p.m. PDT, 10 p.m. Alaskan Time and 8 p.m Hawaiian Time.

And dont worry about exact times too much. Just know that in early August 2021 Saturn is generally opposite the sun in Earths sky. At opposition, Saturn rises in the east around sunset, climbs highest up for the night around midnight and sets in the west around sunrise. When opposite the sun, Saturn is visible all night and at its brightest seen from Earth.

How can you find Saturn? First, look for Jupiter, which is the brightest starlike object in the evening sky once Venus sinks below the western horizon after sunset. Saturn is not far from Jupiter, located along the same path the sun travels during the day (the ecliptic). Saturn is the bright golden star a short hop to the west of Jupiter. Saturn lies in the direction of the constellation Capricornus and can be found there for the rest of 2021.

Does it surprise you that Jupiter will be at opposition on August 19-20? Yes, the heavens are orderly! Plus, in late August, the moon full or nearly full can help you find both Saturn and Jupiter. That makes sense, because both Jupiter and Saturn are near opposition, opposite the sun or nearly so. And a full moon is also opposite the sun. Check out the chart below:

The ringed planet will be in good view in the evening sky for the rest of August and throughout September, October, November and December 2021. Saturn and Jupiter will stay rather close together on the skys dome throughout 2021. Theyll remain fixtures of the evening sky for the rest of this year.

In 2021, Saturn comes closest to Earth for the year about 5 hours after it reaches opposition. But its nowhere near us in space. In fact, Saturn is the most distant of the worlds we can see with the eye alone. At present, Saturn lies about 10 times the Earths distance from the sun, and nine times the Earth-sun distance from Earth. Astronomers refer to one Earth-sun distance as an astronomical unit (AU). Saturn is now about 10 AU from the sun, and nearly 9 AU from us. Heavens-Above gives information about the present distances of the planets from the sun and Earth.

So the distance scale of the solar system is vast, and so is the size scale. For a realistic depiction of Saturns size relative to that of Earth (but not its distance), see the illustration below.

Our fast movement in orbit brings Earth between Saturn and the sun every year, or more precisely, about two weeks later every year. For instance, in 2016, Saturns opposition was June 3. In 2017, it was June 15. In 2018, opposition came on June 27. In 2019, it was July 9. And in 2020, it was July 20.

If you recognize this golden world tonight or later this month, youll also enjoy it throughout the Northern Hemisphere summer, or Southern Hemisphere winter.

If you had a birds-eye view of the solar system on the day of Saturns opposition, youd see our planet Earth passing between the sun and Saturn. Youd see the sun, Earth, and Saturn lining up in space. But not for long. Earth moves in orbit at 18 miles (29 km) per second in contrast to about 6 miles (9 km) per second for Saturn. Soon, well be pulling ahead of Saturn in the race of the planets.

The planets that orbit the sun inside Earths orbit Mercury and Venus can never be at opposition. Only the planets that orbit the sun beyond Earths orbit Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and the dwarf planet Pluto can ever reach opposition, that is, appear opposite the sun in Earths sky.

All the planets farther from the sun reach opposition every time our swifter-moving planet sweeps between the sun and these superior planets, the planets that orbit the sun outside Earths orbit. Mars returns to opposition every other year. Jupiters opposition happens about one month later each year, whereas Saturns opposition occurs about two weeks later yearly. The farther that a planet resides from the sun, the shorter the period of time between successive oppositions.

Saturn is the sixth planet outward from the sun. People in ancient times saw it as a golden star that moved among the fixed stars: a wanderer. It wasnt until astronomers began using telescopes in the 17th century that they saw its rings. In the 1950s, astronomers spoke of Saturn as having three rings. But spacecraft in the latter part of the 20th century showed vastly more detail. They revealed that Saturn actually has thousands of thin, finely detailed rings made of tiny chunks of ice. Saturn also has at least 62 moons with confirmed orbits. Only 53 of Saturns moons have names, and only 13 have diameters larger than 50 kilometers (about 30 miles).

Saturn is truly a wondrous world of rings and moons. Its everyones favorite celestial object to gaze at through a small telescope, so if theres a public astronomy night near you this month go!

Bottom line: Look for Saturn at and around opposition in early August 2021. It will be shining in the southeast at nightfall. Clouded out tonight? No problem. Saturn will be in an excellent place to observe throughout late July, August, September and October 2021.

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Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.

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Saturn at opposition August 1-2, near Jupiter - EarthSky

Some astronomers suggest setting up a "SatHub" to address the growing threat that satellite megaconstellations pose to the night sky but funding and support are necessary to make it happen.

The primary goal of the international SatHub project would be implementing and adapting plans for observations as new satellites go up, team members said. A secondary goal would be training, outreach and analysis concerning low Earth orbit satellites for the greater community.

SatHub was one of the key recommendations emerging from a recent workshop, called Satellite Constellations 2 (SATCON2), to figure out how astronomers can best perform observations in the face of swiftly growing satellite numbers. (Some satellite companies also participated in workshop discussions.)

Related: Astronomers ask UN committee to protect night skies from megaconstellations

"That may include a proposal to the International Astronomical Union," SATCON2 co-chair Connie Walker said during a preliminary press conference on July 16, referring to the SatHub idea. The IAU is one of the largest organizations representing astronomers and astronomy interests around the world.

"They have a call that just went out recently on such a center, so stay tuned for more on that," added Walker, a scientist at the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab.

Proposals are due to the IAU on Sept. 10, and deliberations will likely continue until at least the end of 2021, representatives added in the workshop. They did not give a timeline for when SatHub could be available, but this would likely depend in large part on funding.

Ideally, companies that send satellites to space should put money toward the center, said Meredith Rawls, a research scientist at the University of Washington who was also the observations working group chair for SATCON2.

"The idea here is to have a one-stop shop for all of your different needs pertaining to low Earth orbit satellite constellation observations," Rawls said during the press conference. "We really would like to get out ahead of this and avoid reinventing the wheel by having lots of individual siloed groups addressing the problem, and instead have a single landing place for all of these different observations and related analyses to land."

SATCON2 had three objectives, according to a press release from NOIRLab and the American Astronomical Society (AAS), which jointly organized the workshop: to figure out what is required to implement the previous recommendations from 2020's SATCON1; to have astronomers and satellite operators work together for policy frameworks and strategies; and to increase the diversity of all stakeholders.

SATCON1 participants produced a report last year warning that the impacts on astronomy of satellite megaconstellations in low Earth orbit "are estimated to range from negligible to extreme." All-sky survey telescopes that depend on lengthy light exposures free from interference will feel the biggest effects, the report concluded.

Report: Satellite megaconstellations could have 'extreme' impact on astronomy

Key recommendations from 2020 included limiting satellite altitudes in low Earth orbit to 370 miles (600 kilometers); reducing satellite brightness; developing image-processing software to minimize satellite trails; and making orbital information about satellites widely available so astronomers can point away from them.

This year, SATCON2 astronomers pointed to challenges in keeping up with the growing pace of satellite launches. Among the conclusions was that substantial development will be needed in software solutions, said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who was co-chair of the SATCON2 algorithms working group.

"We've tried to identify what existing software is relevant to the software problems, but we find that a lot of it is specialized to particular instruments or particular observatories, and it's going to need some work to be generalized," he warned during the press conference. "Also, there are big gaps where the software just doesn't exist. We do need a significant software development effort, and that's going to require substantial resources and funding."

Since satellites are always launching and software takes time to be developed, "we're going to need these resources as soon as possible," McDowell added. And the money will not only be needed for software, he added: Spectroscopic observations in particular are likely to be highly affected, so some observatories will likely need to spend money on hardware such as auxiliary spotting cameras.

The problem also goes beyond technical issues. Other commonly cited problems of constellations include space junk and crowding in terms of radio interference between satellites. These issues were not addressed in the workshop, but there were discussions concerning the impact on Indigenous peoples, as lack of access to the sky is seen as a cultural loss, said James Lowenthal, an astronomy professor at Smith College at Northampton, Massachusetts, who was the co-chair of the SATCON2 community engagement working group. (That said, he warned, not all Indigenous groups want the same thing.)

"The sky belongs to everyone," Lowenthal said. "People are impacted by changes in the sky. Megaconstellations are a global issue because space is a global commons. The sky is part of the environment and ecosystems depend on the night sky, and on each other, echoing the intersectional, interdependent nature of the many strands of this complex issue."

Lowenthal suggested that, when coming with policy solutions, stakeholders should look to lessons learned from past global commons agreements such as the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, which led to some restrictions on CFCs. But not all such agreements were that successful, he said.

"Telephones, trains, planes, cars, fossil fuels, the internet itself all of these technologies burst upon the scene, were disruptive, produced profound change in society, to be followed by some modicum of regulation and lawmaking. Some were more successful than others at protecting public interests," Lowenthal said.

One way of mitigating the megaconstellation issue might be for those involved in satellite constellations to anticipate impacts long before satellites launch, said Richard Green of the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, director of the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory and chair of the SATCON2 policy working group.

Related: Air pollution from reentering megaconstellation satellites could cause ozone hole 2.0

The policy working group "wanted to encourage operators to consider effects on astronomy, early in their development of their constellations," Green said. Acknowledging that SpaceX creates satellites in-house, most other companies contract for construction, he added. "They can adjust designs early, but it's very hard to change once they're in production."

Among other measures, the policy working group urged individual countries who are responsible for their launching entities, under the United Nations' 1967 Outer Space Treaty recognized in international space law frameworks to grant licenses to satellite operators only after the environmental impact of satellites has been assessed and minimized.

Despite the Outer Space Treaty's age, Green noted, it remains a useful tool for policy discussions. "It is a very flexible backbone that provides the principles under which nations can operate together, to define how some new phenomenon like satellite constellations fits under the expectations of a spacefaring nation," he said.

Constellations are not a new concept in space exploration, but they have been proliferating in recent years due to the ability to launch fleets of small but capable satellites on a single rocket. The most cited concern is the SpaceX Starlink constellation, which has an estimated 1,630 operational satellites as of July 2021, according to calculations from McDowell, and is growing fast.

"We started the SATCOM workshops after the launch in May 2019 of the first tranche of Starlink satellites," SATCOM2 co-chair Jeff Hall, an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, said during the press conference.

"That led to the idea we should all get together, in a community sense, and see what might be done about some of the impacts on astronomy. We know these satellites are perhaps up to a billion times brighter than the faintest objects astronomers study and have a significant impact on ground-based observatories, which require pristine dark skies to perform their research."

SpaceX eventually hopes to have as many as 42,000 Starlink satellites providing broadband service, and more companies are looking to grow their own fleets, including Amazon's Project Kuiper (which has yet to launch any craft) and OneWeb, which has already lofted 254 operational satellites.

Lowenthal praised some satellite companies for being "significantly and substantially involved in the planning of this workshop," along with promising to "commit resources" to reduce the effects of satellite constellations.

That said, he pointed to challenges. There are no firm regulations yet forcing companies to adjust their satellites to help astronomy observations, he said. Further, the competition has already been tough and resulted in bankruptcies. While Lowenthal did not name any particulars, one commonly cited example is OneWeb's recent Chapter 11 proceedings and subsequent ownership change.

"Even the business model is on shaky ground," he said. "We've already seen bankruptcies, and having a completely unregulated atmosphere is not necessarily the best for them, either. I think there's broad agreement that regulation is going to happen. Of course it's a slow process, but that's what we're launching with this workshop."

More than 350 astronomers, satellite operators, space policy specialists and advocates for dark skies skies with a minimum of light pollution and satellite interference attended SATCON2 from 40 countries, representatives said. A final report will be available around the end of September.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Astronomers propose 'SatHub' to address growing threat of satellite megaconstellations - Space.com

Growing up in a Quaker household, Jocelyn Bell Burnell was raised to believe that she had as much right to an education as anyone else. But as a girl in the 1940s in Northern Ireland, her enthusiasm for the sciences was met with hostility from teachers and male students. Undeterred, she went on to study radio astronomy at Glasgow University, where she was the only woman in many of her classes.

In 1967, Burnell made a discovery that altered our perception of the universe. As a Ph.D. student at Cambridge University assisting the astronomer Anthony Hewish, she discovered pulsars compact, spinning celestial objects that give off beams of radiation, like cosmic lighthouses. (A visualization of some early pulsar data is immortalized as the album art for Joy Divisions Unknown Pleasures.)

But as the short documentary above shows, the world wasnt yet ready to accept that a breakthrough in astrophysics could have come from a young woman.

Ben Proudfoot is a filmmaker and the founder and C.E.O. of Breakwater Studios. He co-directed the Oscar-nominated Op-Doc A Concerto Is a Conversation.

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Opinion | The Silent Pulse of the Universe: What Jocelyn Bell Burnell Discovered - The New York Times

A staple of mythology, the hero Hercules has a strange celestial story.

One of the best-known star patterns, Hercules stands high over our heads in the Northern Hemisphere at nightfall this week.

Like many of our oldest constellations, Hercules can be traced to the beginnings of recorded history about 5,000 years ago in the Middle East, specifically Mesopotamia (the region that today we call Iraq), although we refer to the ancient hero by his Latin name. Hercules has long represented a man of extraordinary strength and he appears in various forms in the legends of many peoples throughout the region, including the tale of Sampson in the Bible.

Related: Best night sky events (stargazing maps)

Depending on what astronomy guide book you are consulting, there are several variations on how Hercules is traced out. Initially, you might expect this mighty strongman to be a bright and conspicuous constellation, something along the lines of Orion the Hunter with his distinctive three-star belt.

But this is not so.

In his book "Find the Constellations" (Houghton Mifflin Co., 2008), author H.A. Rey perhaps said it best when he noted that "Hercules was ... famous for his strength, but as a constellation he is rather weak, without bright stars."

Mesopotamian skywatchers in 3000 BC saw Hercules standing upright high in the northern sky during the summer. Hercules' brightest star is third-magnitude Ras Algethi, which is Arabic for "Head of the Kneeler." And indeed, in the sky Hercules was portrayed posturing on one knee, with Ras Algethi, a red supergiant star, marking his head.

But over the past 5,000 years, the wobbling of the Earth's axis (called "precession") has caused the position of the stars to shift in such a manner so that today Hercules appears to be performing acrobatics, with his head passing well south of the zenith. In other words, Hercules is now standing on his head!

Rey reimagined this group of stars according to its current orientation as "a man swinging a club," he writes, "Hercules' favorite weapon." In Rey's version, a keystone-shaped quadrilateral which the ancients envisioned as his waist and hips ends up as Hercules' head. Meanwhile, the star Ras Algethi that the ancients considered the hero's head marks Hercules' left foot. Different strokes for different folks.

Meanwhile, in his book "Introducing the Constellations" (Viking Press, 1937), astronomer Robert H. Baker traced out Hercules as "a figure of six stars that outlines a butterfly with outstretched wings." This figure also somewhat resembles the letter "H," which of course is also the initial for Hercules.

Hercules was known in Greek culture as Heracles, and the extensive legends surrounding him are among the best known of Greek mythology. We call him Hercules in keeping with the tradition of using Latin names for the constellations.

Many Greek gods, heroes, heroines, and other legendary personalities were adopted by the Romans, who identified them with characters of their own. Thus, Zeus became Jupiter; Hera, Juno; Ares, Mars; and so forth. When astronomical bodies are given mythological names in modern times, the Latin version has generally been preferred.

The great Roman author, statesman and philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-AD 65) relates in verse some of the leading Hercules legends in "Hercules Furens" ("Mad Hercules"), including a diatribe by Juno against Hercules her husband's (Jupiter's) demigod son by another woman, the mortal Alcmene.

There is actually a connection between Hercules and two other constellations, the nine-headed serpentine water monster known as the Lernean Hydra, and a much smaller creeping sea creature.

A jealous Juno summoned a crab (Cancer) to fatally bite Hercules. Her crustacean arrived just at that moment that Hercules was busy slaying the multiheaded Hydra, one of his 12 assigned superhuman "labors."

But Cancer's bite was no more than a mere annoyance to our hero, who abruptly crushed the attacker under his heel. Infuriated with the crab's less-than-heroic fate, Juno banished this hapless creature to the heavens as one of the most inconspicuous of the traditional constellations.

As for the Hydra, each time Hercules lopped off one head, two others grew in its place. But Hercules emerged victorious by having his nephew, Iolaus, burn the stump of each severed neck, preventing new heads from sprouting. Interestingly, in our current evening sky, as Hercules stands triumphantly at the top of the heavens, the tail of the constellation Hydra can be seen slithering below the southwest horizon and hurrying out of sight.

The object that always draws the most attention in Hercules and is regarded as a showpiece for Northern Hemisphere observers is M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. It is within the Keystone, about two-thirds of the way from the butterfly's head along the western edge of the northern wing. With a total light equivalent of about a sixth-magnitude star, it can be seen with the unaided eye in a very dark sky, as it was by Edmond Halley, who discovered this cluster in 1714.

At a distance of roughly 22,000 light years, M13 is among the nearest globulars; scientists believe that this great swarm contains at least several hundred thousand stars. Binoculars will show it as a pale, colorless glow with a diameter as much as half that of the moon. But through telescopes it becomes a sight to behold. Small telescopes of 4 to 6-inches will reveal the outer stars, while larger telescopes of 8 or more inches reveal the entrancing beauty of a great ball of stars.

The Hercules cluster is a celebrated object, often shown to those who might pay an evening summertime visit to an observatory. Next week (Aug. 5 to Aug. 8) will be the 85th annual Stellafane Convention which is held just outside of Springfield, Vermont. Weather permitting, assiduous amateur astronomers will set up their equipment under dark New England skies or congregate at the McGregor Observatory for views through the 13-inch Schupmann telescope or at the 12-inch Porter Turret Telescope.

An oft-told story about M13 stars deep-sky authority Walter Scott Houston (1912-1993), who had a regular column in Sky & Telescope magazine for nearly half a centuryand was known to one and all as "Scotty."

One evening he noticed a long line of people patiently waiting their turn to get a look through the Porter scope. "What are you folks looking at?" he asked as he poked his head through the observatory door. From out of the darkness, several people quietly murmured: M13.

"M13?" replied Scotty, with a tinge of skepticism. "So many people have looked at it, you would think it'd be worn out by now!"

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York'sHayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy forNatural History magazine, theFarmers' Almanacand other publications. Follow uson Twitter@Spacedotcomand onFacebook.

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Hercules, the mighty strongman of the summer sky - Space.com

Part of an astronomy team, Indian astronomers have detected a very short, powerful burst of high-energy radiation that lasted for about a second. The event had been travelling for nearly half the present age of the universe before it hit Earth. The universe is nearly 14 billion years old.

The burst was first detected by Nasas Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope last year. Analysis of the data showed that the shortest Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) was caused by the death of a massive star. These bursts are considered one of the most powerful events in the universe and can travel across billions of light-years.

Named GRB 200826A, after the date it occurred, researchers released the details of the event in two papers published in Nature Astronomy. While the first paper led by Bin-bin Zhang at Nanjing University in China explores the gamma-ray data. The second, led by Toms Ahumada, a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, describes the GRBs fading multiwavelength afterglow and the emerging light of the supernova explosion that followed.

Dr Shashi Bhushan Pandey from Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) was part of the study, apart from scientists from other Indian institutions. They showed for the first time that a dying star can produce short bursts too. Such a discovery has helped to resolve the long-standing issues related to gamma-ray bursts. Also, this study triggers to re-analyse all such known events to constrain number densities better, Dr Pandey said.

The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune (IUCAA), National Centre for Radio Astrophysics - Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Pune (NCRA) and IIT Mumbai also participated in the study, the Ministry of Science & Technology said in a statement.

While the burst was detected for barely a second, astronomers estimate that it emitted 14 million times the energy released by the entire Milky Way galaxy over the same amount of time, making it one of the most energetic short-duration GRBs ever seen.

When a star much more massive than the Sun runs out of fuel, its core suddenly collapses and forms a black hole. As matter swirls toward the black hole, some of it escapes in the form of two powerful jets that rush outward at almost the speed of light in opposite directions.

Astronomers only detect a GRB when one of these jets happens to point almost directly toward Earth. When a star much more massive than the Sun runs out of fuel, its core suddenly collapses and forms a black hole. As matter swirls toward the black hole, some of it escapes in the form of two powerful jets that rush outward at almost the speed of light in opposite directions. Astronomers only detect a GRB when one of these jets happens to point almost directly toward Earth.

According to the Ministry of Science & Technology, "GRB 200826A was a sharp blast of high-energy emission lasting just 0.65 seconds. After travelling for aeons through the expanding universe, the signal had stretched out to about one-second-long when it was detected by Fermis Gamma-ray Burst Monitor."

The new discovery could help astronomers in understanding the nature of these bursts that are linked to supernovas. The detection of such GRB remains rare compared to exploding stars.

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Indian astronomers part of Nasa team detect radiation from death of a star over 5 billion years ago - India Today

New data from the star-mapping Gaia satellite are helping scientists unlock the mystery of our Milky Way galaxy's spiral arms.

Recently published studies exploring the Early Data Release 3 (EDR3), a batch of observations made available to the scientific community last December, reveal the spiral structure of our galaxy with a greater precision and detail than was possible before.

Since the 1950s, astronomers have known that our galaxy, the Milky Way, looks like a spiral, with several dense streams of stars and dust emanating from the galactic center, winding through the galactic disc and dissolving around its edges. However, scientists have struggled to understand how many of these streams there are and what created them.

"The problem with our galaxy is that we are inside its disc and therefore it's very difficult to understand the structure as a whole," Eleonora Zari, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, and author of one of the new papers, told Space.com. "It's like being in a forest and looking around. At some point, the trees are in front of each other. Plus the forest is a bit foggy, so you really cant see what the whole forest looks like."

Related: See a virtual Milky Way map from Europe's Gaia spacecraft

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia mission has been mapping the Milky Way since 2014, measuring the precise positions and distances from Earth of nearly two billion stars. The first two batches of data acquired by the spacecraft, which were released to the scientific community in 2016 and 2018, have revolutionized the study of our galaxy. In addition to the fixed positions, the spacecraft also measures how fast stars move in three-dimensional space, allowing astronomers to model the evolution of the Milky Way in the past as well as into the future.

The latest data release, EDR3, improves the accuracy of the previous data sets. And it's this precision that is enabling astronomers to disentangle the spiral arms from the rest of the stars in the galactic disc with better precision.

"We derive the distance of the stars from a measure called the parallax," Zari said. "And this parallax measurement is 20% better with the latest release. That means that stars that previously we may have seen as part of the same structure now clearly belong to different structures."

Parallax is a star's apparent movement against the background of more distant stars as Earth revolves around the sun. By measuring the change in the angle between the star and Earth from two opposite points in the planets orbit, astronomers can calculate the distance of the star using simple trigonometry.

In one new paper, Zari and her colleagues looked at concentrations of hot bright blue stars, called the OBA-type stars, in the Milky Way's disc. In areas where they could see a higher-than-average concentration of these stars, they could assume the existence of a spiral arm. They then compared their analysis with previously developed models of the galaxy.

"The position of the spiral arms is different and also the strength of the spiral arms, how bright they are, is different," Zari said.

The Milky Way is known to have two main spiral arms, the Perseus arm and the Scutum-Centaurus arm. Our galaxy also possesses two less pronounced arms, or spurs, called the Sagittarius and the Local Arm (which passes close to the sun).

But in Zari's study, the difference between the arms doesn't seem so obvious.

"The Perseus arm seems less bright, and instead the Local arm is more prominent," she said. "Aso the other two arms Sagittarius and Scutum Centaurus at least in my study, they seem to have about the same brightness."

Zari's colleague Eloisa Poggio looked at concentrations of 600,000 young stars to determine the precise position of the spiral arms. Young stars are especially valuable when studying the spiral arms, Poggio explained, because spiral arms, with their dense concentration of dust and gas, are believed to be where the majority of stars form.

"We calculated, for each position in the disc, whether that region was more or less populated with respect to the average," Poggio told Space.com. "Using that approach, we were able to construct a map of the spiral arms in the region that Gaia maps, that is about 16,000 light-years around the sun."

When the researchers compared their galaxy map to previous models, they found that the Perseus arm, one of the two dominant arms, lies further away from the center of the galaxy in the studied region. The short Local arm appeared much longer than the previous models expected.

Astronomers are also still speculating about the origin of those arms and their longevity. Some earlier theories proposed that the shape of the arms is somehow fixed and spins around the galactic center over a long period of time while individual stars, orbiting at their own velocities, move in and out of this shape.

This so-called density wave theory, however, is being disputed by the latest findings enabled by the Gaia mission. Many scientists now think that the spiral arms might not be fixed at all. Instead, they might form temporarily, as a result of the rotation of the galactic disc, and later dissolve and reform again in a different configuration.

To find which theory is correct, Alfred Castro, of the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands, looked at so-called open clusters, groups of thousands of young stars born from the same cloud of gas and dust. Due to their young age, these stars are still close to their birth place, that is within the spiral arms. If the newer theories were correct, the amount of younger open clusters in the spiral arms would be higher than the amount of older open clusters, Castro speculated. And that's exactly what the data showed.

"I saw in the data that the spiral structure appears to contain the younger population of stars but disappears if you look at the older stars," Castro told Space.com. "We see that the rotation rate of the shape is more or less similar to the rotation rate of the stars and varies with the radius to the galactic center. The shape and the stars can't be decoupled, and that means we don't have a global shape, which would be the spiral arms, and then the stars moving in and out of them as the density wave theory suggests."

According to Castro's analysis, the spiral arms may exist for about 80 to 100 million years, a small fraction of time in the 13-billion-year life of our galaxy.

In the future, Poggio hopes, scientists might be able to find out why those spiral arms in the Milky Way exist in the first place. While some theories expect this swirl of stellar streams may have been born after another, smaller galaxy crashed into the Milky Way, others believe it came to existence naturally as a result of the rotation of the galactic disc.

"We expect that we would see different signatures in the motion of the stars if the spiral arms were caused by an external impact," Poggio said. "Future Gaia data releases will give us more information about the motion of stars in a greater portion of the galactic disc, and we hope we might be able to find something there."

The next batch of Gaia data, the full Data Release 3, is expected to be made available to scientists worldwide in about mid-2022. Gaia, one of the most productive missions in history (measured by the number of scientific papers it produces), will continue scanning the sky until 2025. The vast catalogues of stellar positions, motions and velocities it creates will keep astronomers busy for decades to come.

The papers by Poggio, Castro and Zari were published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics in July.

Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Why does the Milky Way have spiral arms? New Gaia data are helping solve the puzzle - Space.com

While not all of us have access to a rocketship like Branson and Bezos, we can still appreciate space from right here on Earththough it helps if you can also tap into some of those visionaries pocket change. Sonomas newest luxury resort, Montage Healdsburg, has just unveiled a new astrotourism experience to immerse guests in the wonders of the night sky that will set you back $95,000, for up to six guests, and its full of plenty of big-ticket touches.

To get to and from wine country, the group will receive a private flight from (and back to) anywhere in the US, via Jet Edge, plus airport transfers in wine country.Once at the upscale resort, which debuted in January, youll be whisked away to a 4,600-square-foot, three-bedroom hideaway thats perched on a high knoll overlooking Mount St. Helena and the vineyards of the Alexander Valley.

While in this beautiful settingwhich will be your home for two nightsyoull be treated to a private dinner on a terrace with epic views of the Mayacamas mountain range to help you really unplug. Naturally, the feast will showcase the very best local produce and an array of exclusive wines from nearby vineyards, because even astronomy buffs can appreciate the fruits of our planet.

Guests will be flown to the resort from anywhere in the US aboard a luxe private jet.JetEdge

One of the highlights of the stay will be a private tour of the Robert Ferguson Observatory. Located in Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Santa Rosa, this is the largest observatory on the West Coast and is nestled amid a ring of hills that block out the light pollution from nearby cities, making for optimal stargazing. The observatory is equipped with several high-tech telescopes that afford views of planets, constellations and galaxies lightyears away.

Whats more, each group will enjoy a two-hour photography session with Rachid Dahnoun. The award-winning astrophotographer, who has shot the cover of National Geographics Night Sky of North America guide,specializes in nighttime photography and will snap a one-of-a-kind picture of you and your guests to encapsulate the experience.

Guests will be treated to a private dinner on an epic terrace.Christian Horan

While the two-nightSkys the Limit package does command a rather astronomical price tag, it has been organized to the nth degree and promises to impart some unforgettable memories. Who knows, you may even spot the next billionaires voyage to space.

Check out more photos of the resort below:

Christian Horan

Christian Horan

Christian Horan

Christian Horan

Christian Horan

Christian Horan

Christian Horan

Christian Horan

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This Sonoma Luxury Resorts $95,000 Astronomy Experience Is (Almost) Out of This World - Robb Report

Image Credit: Supplied

Dubai: Get ready to explore night skies at The View at The Palm, the 360-degree observation deck, during the yearly phenomenon known as Opposition.

In collaboration with Dubai Astronomy Group, visitors have a unique opportunity to observe Saturn and Jupiter at their largest and brightest on Monday, August 2 and Friday, August 20 from 8pm to 10pm, as well as take part in ongoing astronomy sessions on select dates from August 6 to 28.

The anticipated annual event for observing planets in their clearest forms, Opposition is when the earth is between the sun and the opposite planet. Only planets that are further out in the solar system including Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune can be in Opposition.

Tailor-made for stargazers and astrophotographers, this is a prime opportunity to observe the planets in great detail, ranging from Saturns spectacular and complicated rings to Jupiters stripes and swirls atmosphere.

Hosted at The View at The Palm, on level 52 of The Palm Tower, each 60-minute event will start with an explanation of the phenomenon, led by Dubai Astronomy Groups CEO, Hasan Ahmad Al Hariri, followed by an in-depth Q&A session. Participants can view Saturn and Jupiter through telescopes and take images on their mobile phones or cameras.

Tickets for Saturn and Jupiter at Opposition are priced at Dh125 for adults, Dh95 for children aged four to 12, and free for kids under four.

Visitors can also take part in ongoing 90-minute astronomy sessions at The View during August to learn more about the solar system and our planets, and enjoy a session of stargazing. Tickets are Dh125 per adult and Dh95 per child.

All sessions have a limited capacity and will adhere to strict Covid-19 safety regulations including two-metre social distancing norms, the wearing of masks and sanitising protocols.

Location: The ViewCost: Dh125 for adults, Dh95 for kidsWhen: Saturn at Opposition: August 2 from 8pm to 10pm, Jupiter at Opposition:August 20 from 8pm to 10pm, Ongoing Astronomy Sessions: August 6, 7, 13, 14, 21, 27 and 28 from 8.30pm to 10pm

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See Saturn and Jupiter at The View with Dubai Astronomy Group - Gulf News