Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:12/20/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
New insight into the bar in the center of the Milky Way
New all-sky map shows the magnetic fields of the Milky Way with the highest precision
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:12/9/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Mapping The Milky Way’s Magnetic Fields – The Faraday Sky
Fig. 3: In this map of the sky, a correction for the effect of the galactic disk has been made in order to emphasize weaker magnetic field structures. The magnetic field directions above and below the disk seem to be diametrically opposed, as indicated by the positive (red) and negative (blue) values. An analogous change of direction takes place accross the vertical center line, which runs through the center of the Milky Way.
Kudos to the scientists at the Max Planck Institut and an international team of radio astronomers for an incredibly detailed new map of our galaxy’s magnetic fields! This unique all-sky map has surpassed its predecessors and is giving us insight into the magnetic field structure of the Milky Way beyond anything so far seen. What’s so special about this one? It’s showing us a quality known as Faraday depth – a concept which works along a specific line of sight. To construct the map, data was melded from 41,000 measurements collected from a new image reconstruction technique. We can now see not only the major structure of galactic fields, but less obvious features like turbulence in galactic gas. (…)
Read the rest of Mapping The Milky Way’s Magnetic Fields – The Faraday Sky (990 words)
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Antique Stars Could Help Solve Mysteries Of Early Milky Way
The Milky Way is like NGC 4594 (pictured), a disc shaped spiral galaxy with around 200 billion stars. Above and below the galactic plane there is a halo, which includes older stars dating back to the galaxy’s childhood billions of years ago. In principle they should all be primitive and poor in heavy elements like gold, platinum and uranium. New research shows that the explanation lies in violent jets from exploding giant stars. Credit: ESO
Utilizing ESO’s giant telescopes located in Chile, researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute have been examining “antique” stars. Located at the outer reaches of the Milky Way, these superannuated stellar specimens are unusual in the fact that they contain an over-abundance of gold, platinum and uranium. How they became heavy metal stars has always been a puzzle, but now astronomers are tracing their origins back to our galaxy’s beginning. (…)
Read the rest of Antique Stars Could Help Solve Mysteries Of Early Milky Way (833 words)
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Post tags: Binary Supernova, Early Milky Way, ESO, Heavy Elements, Heavy Metal, Massive stars, Stellar Fossils
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VISTA finds new globular star clusters and sees right through the heart of the Milky Way
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:10/19/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Astrophoto: Milky Way by Paul Andrew
Milky Way. Credit: Paul Andrew
Paul Andrew captured this image of the Milky Way on September 28, 2011.
This image is composed of six 6-minute exposures (36 mins in total) taken using a modded Canon 500D camera with the following specs: CLS, 800 ISO, Canon 16-35mm F2.8 L @16mm, f/3.5 and AstroTrac.
Check out Paul’s Flickr page for more astrophotos.
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Astrophoto: Milky Way Over the Sea by Jerónimo Jesús Losada
Milky Way Over the Sea. Credit: Jerónimo Jesús Losada
This stunning view of the Milky Way over a sea in Cadiz, Spain was captured by Jerónimo Jesús Losada last August.
Jerónimo took the photo using a Canon 1000D camera with the following settings: 8-minute exposure at ISO 800. Monitoring is manual and processing is done in Photoshop.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group, post in our Forum or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
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Mangaia’s Milky WayAstrophoto: The Milky Way by Hugh Carrick-Allan
The Milky Way. Credit: Hugh Carrick-Allan
Hugh Carrick-Allan took this photo of the Milky Way on a very cold, clear night in August last year at Vaucluse in Sydney, Australia which is around 4 miles from the city centre.
Hugh also provided us with the camera specs he used in capturing this photo.
“Taken on a Canon 5D mkII with a 16-35mm f2.8L II lens, 30 second exposure at ISO 800. Lots of post processing to bring the Milky Way out and reduce noise.”
Check out Hugh’s blog for more photos.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group, post in our Forum or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
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Milky Way’s spiral arms are the product of an intergalactic collision course
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:9/19/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Astrophysicists report first simulation to create a Milky Way-like galaxy
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:8/30/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
With a 3.5 meter diameter mirror, larger than the Hubble SpaceAstrophoto: Milky Way by Barry Armstead
Milky Way. Credit: Barry Armstead
Barry Armstead stayed up late and took advantage of the moonless, clear sky to capture this stunning photo of the Milky Way galaxy. The photo was taken on a dark site in Canberra’s mountain range on August 25, 2011.
Barry tracked the stars for around 4 minutes using an EQ6 pro mount under his camera. He provided us with the camera specs he used to take this photo: Canon5DMKII SLR camera, Canon 16-35 f/2.8L Zoom lens @ 16mm, ISO 800, F2.8. He then processed the photo using Photoshop Elements 6.
Check out Barry’s photos in his website: http://barryarmsteadphotography.webs.com/
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group, post in our Forum or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
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Astrophoto: The Milky Way and Venus over Andes
The Milky Way and Venus over Andes. Credit: Guillermon Abramson
Guillermo Abramson of Bariloche, Argentina captured this stunning photo of the central region of the Milky Way and Venus over the Andes Mountains on October 24, 2008. Guillermo used a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi camera mounted on a Meade LX10 telescope and took this photo with the following settings: 18 mm, F/3.5, 120 sec, ISO 400.
Can’t get enough of Guillermo Abramson’s photos? You can check out his blog here.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Universe Today Flickr group; we select photographs from this group and post them every day. If you don’t want to join Flickr, you can send your images in by email. If you do contribute to the group, or send us photos by email, you’re giving us permission to post them here on Universe Today. To help us out, please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, and/or a little story about it — that would enable us to write a better article about your picture! Make sure you tell us your name, and give us a place we can link to if people want to see more of your work.
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What’s that below the Milky Way?
Most bright stars in our
On June 15, theCarbon Monoxide Reveals Distant Milky Way Arm
The Milky Way's basic structure is believed to involve two main spiral arms emanating from opposite ends of an elongated central bar. But only parts of the arms can be seen – gray segments indicate portions not yet detected. Other known spiral arm segments–including the Sun's own spur–are omitted for clarity. Credit: T. Dame
Our Milky Way Galaxy’s elemental form is hypothesized to be a barred structure – made up of two major spiral arms originating at both poles of the central bar. But from our vantage point, we can only see portions of those arms. Because of huge amounts of dust literally blocking our view, we can’t be as confident of our structure as other galaxies we can study as a whole. However, by “sniffing our galaxy’s tailpipe”, we’re able to judge our structure just a little bit better. (…)
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Timelapse: Milky Way from the Dakotas
Plains Milky Way from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.
Growing up in the Dakotas, I can attest to the dark skies that grace the northern plains. However, there is also cold weather (even in the spring) and — at times — almost unbelievably windy conditions. But that didn’t stop videographer Randy Halverson from shooting this magnificent timelapse video of the Milky Way. And in fact, his low shots enhance the beauty of the landscape and sky. “There were very few nights, when I could shoot, that were perfectly clear, and often the wind was blowing 25mph +,” Halverson said. “That made it hard to get the shots I wanted. I kept most of the shots low to the ground, so the wind wouldn’t catch the setup and cause camera shake, or blow it over.”
Ten seconds of the video is about 2 hours 20 minutes in real time. Randy tells us he has been doing astro timelapse for only about 16 months, but shooting other types of video since the mid 90′s. See more of his marvelous work at his Dakotalapse website.
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NGC 6744: A galaxy that resembles the Milky Way
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:6/1/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Hubble Space Telescope finds rare “blue straggler” stars in the Milky Way’s hub
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:5/26/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Hubble Finds “Oddball” Stars in Milky Way Hub
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope to peer deep into the central bulge of our galaxy have found a population of rare and unusual stars. Dubbed “blue stragglers”, these stars seem to defy the aging process, appearing to be much younger than they should be considering where they are located. Previously known to exist within ancient globular clusters, blue stragglers have never been seen inside our galaxy’s core – until now.
(…)
Read the rest of Hubble Finds “Oddball” Stars in Milky Way Hub (361 words)
© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2011. |
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Have you ever seen the band of ourStars gather in “downtown” Milky Way
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:3/22/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
What’s visible in the night sky during this time of year?Milky Way sidelined in galactic tug of war
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:9/30/2010
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Space telescopes reveal previously unknown brilliant X-ray explosion in Milky Way Galaxy
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:10/25/2010
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Huge Gamma Ray Bubbles Found Around Milky Way
Did you know that our Milky Way Galaxy has huge bubbles emitting gamma rays from the direction of the galactic center?
Fermi Telescope Finds Giant Structure in the Milky Way
From end to end, the newly discovered gamma-ray bubbles extend 50,000 light-years, or roughly half of the Milky Way’s diameter, as shown in this illustration. Credit: NASA
From a NASA press release:
NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy.
“What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center,” said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who first recognized the feature. “We don’t fully understand their nature or origin.”
(…)
Read the rest of Fermi Telescope Finds Giant Structure in the Milky Way (577 words)
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