Astronomers discover coolest exoplanet yet

Astronomers have published an image of the coolest planet outside our solar system that has been pictured directly.

The new find is more similar to our own Solar System than prior pictured exoplanets, in terms of the parent star's type and the planet's size.

However, the surface temperature is a scorching 280-370C, and could still prove to be a brown dwarf star.

The planet, called GJ758B, may well have a sister, GJ758C

The results, published in Astrophysical Journal, were obtained by a new camera on the Subaru telescope in Hawaii.

Among more than 400 known exoplanets, only 10 have been imaged directly, rather than detecting them via measurements of their parent stars' light or movement.
The task is notoriously difficult, akin to discerning a match next to a floodlight at a distance of kilometres.

The new HiCIAO camera makes it possible to spot exoplanets next to their parent stars through a process called angular differential imaging.
In this approach, successive pictures are taken when a target star is directly overhead in the sky and possible exoplanets appear to rotate around it; any specks of light due to the measurement stay put and can be subtracted.

In two observations in May and August, an international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy focused the telescope on GJ758, a star about 50 light-years away.

They found a so-called gas giant planet of a mass somewhere between 10 and 40 times that of Jupiter, in an oval-shaped orbit around the star.

Exoplanets are tough to picture directly, but methods are being refined
It is presently at a distance about the same as between our Sun and Neptune. Because of the elliptical orbit, its average distance from its host star is about one-and-a-half times that between our Sun and Pluto.

Because it remains so hot despite the considerable distance from its star, the researchers believe it is still in the process of contracting.
As is the case with many potential exoplanets of that estimated mass, GJ758B may be a brown dwarf star.

"We can see how warm this thing is but we don't know for how long it has cooled, because we don't know the age of the system - that's the tricky part," said Markus Janson, one of the authors on the paper now at the University of Toronto.
Knowing the age as well as the temperature of GJ758B will help determine exactly how massive it is, and thereby if it is in fact a planet or a brown dwarf.
"One thing we want to do is to examine the star, because determining the properties of the star is the easiest way to determine the age of the star," he told BBC News.
However, the August observation turned up another interesting possibility.
"We also want to follow up on another candidate in the system that can be seen in the images, but we have to see if it's actually bound to the star, or whether it's something that's just there by chance."

The team will continue its measurements on the parent star and investigate the second candidate - GJ758C - in the spring of 2010.

Explorers of the Universe

Max Alexander has composed an audio/photographic homage to astronomers everywhere and can be viewed here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8319044.stm

The work was supported by the STFC and RAS

Astronaut Becomes Father in Space

A US astronaut on board the space shuttle Atlantis is literally walking on air, with the news of the birth of a daughter back on Earth.

Randolph Bresnik, who is on his first space flight, became a father for a second time when baby Abigail was born back home in Houston, Texas. The event makes Bresnik the second astronaut to become a father in space - the first was Mike Fincke in 2004.

Mr Bresnik is due to return to Earth on Friday after an 11-day mission.

The 42-year-old Marine and his crewmates were awoken on Sunday by the song Butterfly Kisses, especially chosen by his wife, Rebecca.

Among the lyrics are the lines: "There's two things I know for sure, she was sent here from heaven and she's daddy's little girl."

The couple have a three-year-old son, who they adopted from Ukraine.

24 Hours gone!

Well...its been an exciting 24 hours.

The south coast has been battered by severe weather, wind gusts hitting 100mph in certain areas, which meant cause for concern for our recently built run off roof observatory but despite our concerns the 100mph winds and the week previous tornado strike could not budge our sturdy observatory, scope and home are doing well :-)

Imagine our surprise then when after all this bad weather we looked out and were greeted with clear skies....observing started straight away.

Members tonight have completed a series of observations of variable stars including assisting on projects as requested to do so by the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) monitoring some important changes that have been noted in recent days. Variable star observation count has nearly hit the 500 mark already!!

M76, M100, NGC7226 & M45 were also observed and recorded with members sketching their observations, these notes will be on their way to both the British Astronomical Association and Society for Popular Astronomy as soon as possible

Thanks to all members who attended the observing session tonight....a great time was had by all inlcuding the groups two youngest members Sharon (8 years) and Martin (10 years)

Rosetta Probe makes last fly by

Europe's Rosetta probe is making its third and final flyby of Earth as it seeks to position itself to chase down a comet in 2014.

The spacecraft's whip around the planet will give it the extra speed it needs to take it out to the rendezvous location near Jupiter.
Launched in 2004, Rosetta has already flown by Earth twice and Mars once.

The journey out to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will also take the probe past an asteroid in 2010.

Rosetta is expected to be moving at some 13.3km/s as it sweeps over the Indian Ocean, just south of the Indonesian island of Java.

At closest approach, timed currently to be 0745GMT, it should be at an altitude of just 2,481km, well inside the orbits of geostationary telecoms satellites.

Rosetta needs the gravity assist of passing close to Earth
Engineers say the gravity-assist will increase Rosetta's speed by 3.6km/s with respect to the Sun. Scientists will use the flyby to test the health of some of Rosetta's instruments by making observations of the Earth and the Moon.

Osiris, the main scientific camera system, will be taking pictures.

Rosetta will be extremely difficult to see from the ground, and amateur astronomers have been told that large telescopes will be required to pick up the faint, fast-moving object.
Engineers will assess the probe's trajectory after the Earth-Moon flyby sequence has been completed, to see if any course corrections are required. Any changes will be easier and lighter on fuel if they are made as early as possible.
The mission is expected to make a flyby of Asteroid Lutetia in July 2010, but apart from that one event the long journey into the outer Solar System should be a quiet one.

Indeed, for much of the time, the spacecraft will be put in a hibernation mode.
Rosetta's meeting with Churyumov-Gerasimenko is set for the May of 2014.
The probe will go into orbit around the 4km-wide ball of ice and dust and place a small lander called Philae on its surface.

As the comet moves into the inner Solar System, radiation from the Sun will cause the comet's ices to sublime - they will turn straight from a solid to a gas. Material will be ejected at supersonic speeds.

Gas and dust will be thrown out around the comet to form a coma, and away from the comet to form tails.

The Rosetta orbiter and lander will watch and record these events as the comet hurtles along at speeds up to 135,000km/h.

Scientists are keen to study comets close up because they are thought to contain materials that have remained largely unchanged since the formation of the Solar System 4.6bn years ago.

Rosetta milestones:
• Launch: 2 March 2004
• First Earth swingby: 4 March 2005
• Mars swingby: 25 February 2007
• Second Earth swingby: 13 November 2007
• Steins flyby: 5 September 2008
• Third Earth swingby: 13 November 2009
• Lutetia flyby: 10 July 2010
• Comet rendezvous manoeuvres: 22 May 2014
• Lander delivery: 10 November 2014
• Escorting the comet around the Sun: November 2014 - December 2015
• End of mission: December 2015

Lithium clues for planet hunters

Astronomers may have found a way to identify those Sun-like stars most likely to harbour orbiting planets.

A survey of stars known to possess planets shows the vast majority to be severely depleted in lithium.

To date, scientists have detected just over 420 worlds circling other stars using a range of techniques.

Garik Israelian and colleagues tell the journal Nature that future planet hunts could be narrowed by going after stars with particular compositions.
Scientists think events early in the star's formation may be responsible for producing the lithium phenomenon.

Theory holds that planets grow from a disc of dusty material that develops around infant stars.
The researchers propose that this disc and its contents alter the young star's spin, mixing its upper layers more effectively into the interior where its contents can be "burnt" in the fusion processes that power it.
"When discs form around stars there is interaction of angular momentum between disc, planets and parent star; and this interaction affects the rotation of the parent star and that will affect the lithium abundance," said Garik Israelian from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain.

The relative low abundance of lithium in our Sun's upper layers has long been a fascination for scientists.

Researchers who have studied meteorites with compositions unchanged since the beginning of the Solar System say the element's presence in our star ought to be 140 times greater than is observed.

Physicists know the Sun's upper layers as viewed today do not convect deeply enough to take any lithium to a location that is sufficiently hot to burn the element. This suggests mixing conditions must have been different in the past.

The outcome of the research is a tool astronomers can now use to help pinpoint the right type of stars where they are likely to detect planets.
"Suppose you had 50 or 100 candidates for parent-bearing stars," explained Dr Israelian.
"Those which have a very low abundance of lithium will be the best candidates around which you might find planets," he told BBC News.
Astronomers detect exoplanets, as they are called, using a number of methods.
One technique looks for the gravitational "wobble" a massive planet will induce in its parent star.
Another approach is to monitor a star for extended periods in the hope a planet will pass across its face. This transit reveals the planet's presence by making the star's light dim ever so slightly.

(This news from www.bbc.co.uk)

Apollo landing site.....a closer view!

This should quieten all those critics saying the lunar landings were faked

Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is now in a 50km-high orbit around the Moon and has been able to resolve Apollo 17 hardware. The image shows the descent stage left on the Moon's surface by Jack Schmitt's and Gene Cernan's Lunar Module. Even the flag they planted is just visible.

Developments in Amateur Astronomy: Past, Present & Future

A meeting in honour of Sir Patrick Moore to celebrate 75 years as a BAA member.




Join Sir Patrick at The Royal Institution , London, to share in this special celebration of amateur astronomy, past present and future. To book download this Booking Form , complete and return with payment to the BAA Office, by 31st October 2009.


Speakers to include

The Craters of the Moon: From Pre-Apollo to Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter - Sir Patrick Moore and Dr. Peter Catermole.

The Virtual Observatory and Data Mining - Prof. Andy Lawrence, ROE.

Discovering Variable Stars and Transiting Exoplanets - Stan Waterman

Leading-Edge Imaging Sensor Technologies for the Amateur Astronomer: Today and Tomorrow - Karen Holland, X-Cam

Amateur Spectroscopy: Dawn of a New Age - Robin LeadbeaterAstrophotography with your Digital SLR - Tony Morris

New Opportunities for Observing Asteroids and Comets - Dr. Richard Miles

Splitting the Arcsecond: 21st Century Planetary Imaging - Martin Mobberley

High Precision CCD Photometry & Pro-Am Collaboration in Variable Star Research - Dr. David Boyd

Imaging the Deep Sky - Dr. Nick Hewitt

Remote and Robotic Observing - Nick James

Venue: The Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, London, W1
Date: Saturday 21st November 2009


Price including all talks and refreshments £10 per person for BAA Members, £15 per person for non-members.

This meeting is being generously supported by a grant from the Royal Astronomical Society.

Goodbye LCROSS

Well....I write this a little under two hours since LCROSS hit the crater Cabeus on the lunar south pole and although I wasn't able to look at the moon direct, being daylight here in the UK, I did follow the impact live via NASA TV

Initially it doesn't look like Centaur kicked up too much of a plume and I certainly could not see any bright light in the Cabeus crater when Centaur hit. Data is still coming in from both the impacts of Centaur and LCROSS and we will bring these to you as soon as NASA releases the information

In the meantime I hope you enjoy the below image, courtesy of NASA, of the crater Cabeus as viewed in the last minute of LCROSS' life

Goodbye LCROSS....thanks for an exciting day

LCROSS to hit the moon!

Todays the day that Centaur and LCROSS will impact in the caretr Cabeus on the lunar south pole

Unfortunatley its daytime here in the UK but you can watch all the exciting events live on NASA TV which is streamed here http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Romsey Astronomical Society gets new telescope!

September 2009:

Romsey Astronomical Society have now taken loan of a 12" S/C LX200 that has been kindly lent to the society by a local benefactor. The scope has already been housed in its own run off roof observatory and has already been put to work on an intensive project of variable star observations, including Mira, R CrB, GCAS and numerous other types of variables. The scope is also giving splendid views of the moon and members have been very content with sketching the landscape that has been presented in recent weeks. Deep sky is also proving interesting and members have reported at least dropping to magnitude 14.5 from Romsey. The Blue Snowball appears to be a favourite amongst members.

Rocky World Discovered?

Astronomers say they are now confident that a planet orbiting a star some 500 light-years away is rocky.

Detailed observations show the world, dubbed Corot-7b, to have a mass just five times that of the Earth. Combined with the object's known radius, the measurement means the far-off world should be solid in nature. Most of planets identified outside our Solar System are so big they are almost certainly gas giants like our Jupiter and Saturn.
But it is unlikely that life could survive on the surface of Corot-7b because the temperatures would be blistering.

The planet is only 2.5 million km away from its host star, or 23 times closer than Mercury is to the Sun. The discovery of Corot-7b was announced in February. It was detected using the French-led Corot spacecraft. The satellite is equipped with a sensitive telescope and camera-system which hopes to catch a planet as it crosses the face of a distant "sun", dimming its light ever so slightly.

This transit method, as it is known, established that the planet has a radius that is about 80% greater than the Earth's. The Corot approach, though, cannot, establish the mass of the planet; and without the mass, the density (and an assessment of its rockiness) cannot be firmly established.

To fix this number, scientists went to the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (Harps) spectrograph attached to the European Southern Observatory's 3.6m telescope at La Silla in Chile. It investigates planets in a different way, recording the "wobble" a massive object will induce in its parent star as it orbits about it.

The observations with Harps infer that Corot-7b has a mass of about five Earth masses, making the exoplanet's density very similar to the Earth's. This is compelling evidence that it is a solid, rocky world.

"This is science at its thrilling and amazing best," said Didier Queloz, leader of the team that made the Harps observations. "We did everything we could to learn what the object discovered by the Corot satellite looks like and we found a unique system."

Extraordinary Hubble

The following article has been taken from www.bbc.co.uk and was written by Jonathon Amos


Extraordinary Hubble. Some say it is the greatest scientific instrument since the telescope Galileo himself used to study the sky 400 years ago.

Certainly, it is hard to think of another machine that has changed so completely the way our species views its place in the cosmos.
The Pillars of Creation, the Eskimo and Cat's-Eye Nebulas, the Tadpole and Sombrero Galaxies - we all know the pictures even if we're not quite sure precisely what it is we're looking at.
The images fill books, adorn posters, and feature in TV docs and movies - they really are "iconic".




Above: Butterfly Nebula



Above: Carina Nebula

And so here we are again. Hubble 6.0. A repaired, refurbished, revitalised telescope ready to reveal yet more wonders. Nasa's PR machine has been in overdrive to find the pictures that best illustrate the observatory's new capabilities following its fifth and final servicing mission in May. A TV producer came to see me before the announcement to say they were worried that Wednesday's new batch might not be as exciting as past releases. "Don't be," I said. "They'll be spectacular; they always are." And I haven't been disappointed. The picture of the ButterflyNebula, showing the end stages of a star, I predict will become the wallpaper on umpteen computers in the next few days.

For sure, we've been given the "money shots" - the ones that tell US and European taxpayers that their orbiting investment continues to be well spent (remember that Hubble is 15% a European Space Agency mission). But it is some very fuzzy - and on the face of it, pretty dull - pictures that I'm anxiously waiting to see. These will also come via Hubble's new Wide Field Camera 3.


Above: Hubbles view of Jupiter

It has the power to look deeper into the Universe than ever before, to peer at events so far back in time and so faint that their light will be arriving at the telescope's detectors just a few photons at a time. Even before the latest servicing mission, Hubble could spy events occurring a mere 700 million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe would have been just 5% of its present age. "New Hubble" should be able to stretch that vision still further, taking us into an epoch when we think the very first stars and galaxies came into being.

Theory would suggest that the first stars were monsters - more than a hundred times the mass of our little Sun. They would have burned brilliant but brief lives, blowing themselves apart to seed the cosmos with the very first heavy elements. Iron, magnesium, calcium, carbon - the stuff from which we're all made. Who knows? Some of that material could be in our bodies right now.

Can New Hubble see this early action? I hope so.

Astronomy's great "discovery machine" is back in action.



Above: NGC5866



Above: Orion Nebula



Above: NGC6217

Shuttle finally launches

This article is featured from www.bbc.co.uk

The US space agency Nasa has successfully launched the space shuttle Endeavour - at the sixth attempt.

Earlier launches at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida were called off because of bad weather and fuel leaks. The crew will spend 11 days on the International Space Station, finishing work on a Japanese research laboratory. If the shuttle had not taken off by Thursday, it would have had to have waited until the end of the month to make way for a Russian cargo ship.
"The weather is finally co-operating so it is now time to fly," said launch director Pete Nickolenko. "Persistence pays off, good luck and God speed."

The seven crew members will spend 11 days on the space station

Mission commander Mark Polansky replied: "We're ready to go, and we're going to take all of you with us on a great mission." The orbiter is taking a seven-strong crew into space, made up of six Americans and one Canadian - Julie Payette - who will operate the shuttle's robotic arm during the mission. Their arrival, on Friday, will bring the total crew on the outpost to 13 - a record for the International Space Station (ISS).

On the first of five spacewalks, a platform will be added to the Japanese laboratory complex, Kibo, which can be used for experiments that require materials to be exposed to the harsh environment of space. The crew will also install new batteries to one of the solar arrays, which provide power to the space station, and perform other maintenance tasks.

Astronaut Julie Payette is to operate the shuttle's robotic arm
In addition, Endeavour will deliver a new long-stay US crew member, Tim Kopra, to the ISS and bring back Japan's Koichi Wakata, who has lived aboard the platform for more than three months. The $100bn space station, now about the size of a four-bedroom house, has been under construction for more than a decade. This is the 127th space shuttle flight, the 29th to the station, the 23rd for Endeavour and the third in 2009.

Seven further flights to the platform remain before the shuttles retire in 2010.

A video clip of the launch can be watched at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8153091.stm

How do I find my way?

One very common question in the field of astronomy is How do I find way around the night sky? and How do I know whats what on the moon?

These are two common questions and very relevant ones. Obviously finding your way around the night sky can be done by star hopping and also by using a planishere...a great free online planishere known as Stellarium can be found at http://www.stellarium.org/

Finding your way around the way is simple and easy with the Virtual Moon Atlas. Again 100% free of charge and can be downloaded direct to your PC/Laptop by visiting this website http://www.ap-i.net/avl/en/start

Hope these help and we will look forward to hearing what you thought about these two great software packages

Herschel Scope see first light

By Jonathan Amos Science reporter, BBC News

Europe's Herschel space observatory is set to become one of the most powerful tools ever to study the Universe. The "first light" data from its three instruments demonstrates a remarkable capability even though their set-up is still not complete. Galaxy images released on Friday by the European Space Agency show detail previously unseen in the objects.

The pictures - and the thousands that will follow - should give new insights on star formation and galaxy evolution. "We have some excellent images; they're not calibrated, but they look spectacular," said Dr Göran Pilbratt, Esa's Herschel project scientist. "They tell you we are working; it's just fantastic," he told BBC News.
Herschel is sensitive to light at long wavelengths - in the far-infrared and sub-millimetre range (55 to 672 microns). Observations at these longer wavelengths do not produce the "pretty pictures" obtained at shorter wavelengths, such as the visible light detected by the famous Hubble telescope.

What they can do, however, is see features in celestial objects that are invisible to Hubble; and with Herschel's giant 3.5m mirror, the detail becomes extremely rich.
Friday's release includes the first two galaxy observations using the European telescope's SPIRE (Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver) instrument.
SPIRE has pictured M74 (also known as NGC 628), a face-on spiral galaxy located about 24 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces; and M66 (also known as NGC 3627), a barred spiral galaxy located about 36 million light-years away in the constellation Leo.

What Herschel sees in these objects is not their stars but the dusty clouds of gas that give rise to stars.

SPIRE's view of M74 at progressively shorter wavelengths (from left to right)

The shortest wavelengths will always produce the sharpest images
A range of wavelengths are needed to see all the features of a galaxy
"We're seeing the hidden life of the galaxy that never shows up in visible light images," explained Professor Matt Griffin, the principal investigator on the UK-led SPIRE consortium.
"We see the dust which is a tracer for all the gas and dust which are the raw materials from which star formation occurs. These are fairly normal galaxies where star formation is going on in a continuous cycle; and the red [freckles] you see in the images are very distant galaxies, probably undergoing intense bursts of star formation."

The Cardiff University researcher added: "This really was take off the blindfold, point and shoot, and see what we see. These were the very first observations; and there is a long way to go in terms of the way we set up the instrument, do the image processing and the map making. But it's incredible."

Also in the release are new images from Herschel's Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS); and data from its Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI).
PACS, which produced the very first Herschel image last month, has been used to look at a well-known planetary nebula - the Cat's Eye Nebula. The object has nothing to do with planets but is in fact an ageing star surrounded by a shell of ejected material.
The new PACS images illustrate the complex structure of the shell.
HIFI has a fine ability to detect the presence of particular chemical species in gas clouds that are birthing new stars. In a test observation of a star-forming region known as DR21 in the constellation Cygnus, the instrument could pick out charged carbon, carbon monoxide, and water.

Scientists expect Herschel to be able to address many such questions
Herschel was despatched into space along with Esa's Planck telescope on 14 May.
Over the course of the past two months, both astronomical satellites have been moving to observation positions some 1.5 million km from Earth, on its "night side".
The long journey has been used by engineers to switch on and check out all of the telescopes' systems.

This past week, a major review of the observatories' status was held in Darmstadt, Germany. The meeting marked the formal handover of the facilities from the industrial manufacturers - a pan-European industrial consortium led by Thales Alenia Space.
"We're now going to start to tune the instruments for maximum performance," explained Dr Pilbratt. "We're going to try them out in many different observing situations in order to learn how to get the best out of them."

This verification period will then be followed by a six-week demonstration phase in which the operations team hope to show the world the full power of a perfectly prepared, fully mature Herschel space observatory.
Routine operations should begin towards the end of the year.
Herschel is expected to continue working through to 2013, by which time the super-fluid helium that keeps its instruments and detectors in the necessary ultra-cold state to make observations will have boiled off.

AR1024 - Is this the end?

Well, after five days of enjoyable observation sunspot Ar1024 appears to be decaying quite quickly. The group is nearing the eastern limb of the sun so will vanish soon regardless. The group shall continue to monitor the group until its demise or disappearance and we will keep you posted every step of the way.

All observations of AR1024 have so far been submitted to the Society for Popular Astronomy and the British Astronomical Association

AR1024 still active

The sunspot AR1024 that burst forth onto the solar surface two days ago has already changed somewhat and is moving along the sun at a steady rate. A video of the group has been created and is below, courtesy of spaceweather.com

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2009/06jul09/1024_anim.gif?PHPSESSID=4pq8365umrls5c55h2sob6pvk6

Finally....a Sunspot!

Today, July 5th 2009, members of the Romsey Astronomical Society were able to observe a sunspot on the sun, something that has been quiet rare in recent months what with the Maunder Minimum being in full swing. AR1024 comprises of a large sunspot surrounded by at least six smaller spots that all gather together to form quiet an appealing looking little collection. The photo to the left shows the Sunspots as seen with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

Romsey Astronomical Society launches Blog!

Well we have finally done it and got a blog going.

We hope this blog will grow and grow and relate the most upto date information and news from the group as a whole and serve as an extra source of information in addition to our website at www.freewebs.com/romseyas