Exoplanets continue to inspire October 27, 2009
Posted by sarah in: new astronomy, science . 1 comment so far
At a conference last week, a team of astronomers announced the discovery of 32 new exoplanets. This confirms what many already suspected: they’re everywhere! The disoveries were made by European astronomers based around Prof. Michel Mayor‘s group at the Observatory of Geneva, who continue to increase their exoplanet tally since they spotted the first one around a regular star, back in 1995. Their secret? A small telescope with a damn fine instrument, that they themselves built specifically for the job.
Adventures in ELT Wonderland August 26, 2009
Posted by sarah in: politics, science . 1 comment so far
Snazzy artist's rendering of the E-ELT, VLT and the Atomium
Optical and infrared observations are the bread and butter of astronomy. For thousands of years the earliest scientists were inspired by the light coming from the sun and the night sky, the light they could see with the unaided eye. These observations have shaped our vision of the world throughout history. Using modern telescopes we can see far beyond the wavelengths visible to the naked eye, catching the photons from the most distant known objects in the Universe, from radio waves through to the most energetic gamma rays. But it’s optical and infrared images, like those produced by the Hubble Space Telescope, that still prove the most inspiring to many scientists and the public.
For the past 2 years I’ve been involved in the planning of the next generation of optical/IR observatories, the European Extremely Large Telescope or E-ELT. Specifically, I work on the design of a potential instrument for this mammoth of a telescope, whose 42-m primary mirror diameter will be four times larger than the largest optical telescopes in the world today. Previous generations of telescopes have always seen an approximate doubling of mirror size, and this new generation of observatories signal an important departure from this trend – a hugely ambitious endeavour by all accounts.
NTT snaps the Omega Nebula July 7, 2009
Posted by sarah in: pics . 1 comment so far
This beautiful picture of the Omega Nebula (M17) was released today by ESO. It’s a three-colour composite image taken with the 3.6-m New Technology Telescope at ESO’s La Silla site in Chile. The nebula is a region of active star formation, one of the youngest and nearest to our solar system. A recent paper by Matthew Povich and collaborators reported over 90 candidate newborn stars in the region at varying stages of starbirth. Energetic radiation from hot young stars is exciting and lighting up the gas in the nebula.
The Povich paper contains a complete description of this hotbed of star formation at wavelengths from the radio to X-ray and is an excellent reference if you wold like to learn more.
Image credit: ESO
Lightest exoplanet discovered April 22, 2009
Posted by sarah in: new astronomy, science . Add a comment
ESO yesterday reported the discovery of the lightest exoplanet yet. Gliese 581e, the fourth in a family of exolanets around Gliese 581, is just twice as massive as the Earth, which means it could well be rocky rather than gassy like Jupiter or Saturn. The discovery was made by a team of Swiss an French astronomers led by Michel Mayor of Geneva Observatory, who discovered of the first ever exoplanet in 1995, using ESO’s 3.6m telescope at La Silla, Chile.
But Mayor and his team added a cherry to ESO’s cake. Further study of the orbit of Gliese 581d, one of the new planet’s known siblings, has shown that the planet lies well within the host star’s so-called Habitable Zone, where the existence of liquid water is thought to be possible (though that doesn’t mean that it does!).
Nice work!
Image credit: M. House, F. Kamphues (top)
A big week for astronomy March 30, 2009
Posted by sarah in: science . 1 comment so far
This week, starting 2 April, one of the biggest events in the International Year of Astronomy will take place. 100 Hours of Astronomy, one of the year’s Cornerstone programmes, will get thousands of people looking through a telescope at the skies, just like Galileo did 400 years ago, over the course of 5 nights. Tons of great events are taking place, from star parties organised by local astronomy organisations around the world to global webcast events.
The webcast events look particularly fun. The first, called Live Science Centre, will allow anyone with a weblink to participate in discussions about space and astronomy throughout history with scientists in places as far-flung as Germany, South Africa and the US. The Science Centre webcast takes place on 2 April at 17:00 UTC (follow the link to see the time at your location). Around the World in 80 Telescopes is a really cool continuous 24-hour webcast, starting on 3 April at 09:00 UTC that hops around 80 world-class telescopes scattered around the globe and in space to follow live what astronomers are up looking at.And yes, that does include the space telescopes like Hubble, Spitzer and the newly launched Kepler!
This is really one of the big highlights of the IYA and it will be well worth your while to take a peek. So follow the jump over to the website to see what’s happening in your area and mark the webcasts in your diaries. You can also get updates via twitter (@100Hours and @telescopecast). If you own a telescope, take it out onto the street and get your neighbours out.
