javamanjoe/astronomy

MICHIO KAKU VIDEO--'FROM UNIVERSE TO MULTIVERSE. ARE YOU READY'. Thanks 'skyblue101'.

SIZZLING--HOTTEST PLANET DISCOVERED AT 2250 CENTIGRADE. Thanks 'geojim56'. Scientists have made an amazing discovery in space - the hottest planet ever found.
Known as WASP-12b, it is a sizzling 2250 centigrade as hot as many stars and half as hot as the surface of the sun.
The planet, which is one and half times the size of Jupiter, orbits at one fortieth the distance between the Earth and the Sun. It takes just over a day to circle its host star making it the planet with the fastest orbit.

ARTIFICAL METEORITE SHOWS LIFE COULD WITHSTAND THE VIOLENT HEAT AND SHOCK OF ENTRY INTO OUR ATMOSPHERE. Thanks 'geojim56'. ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2008) -- An artificial meteorite designed by the European Space Agency has shown that traces of life in a martian meteorite could survive the violent heat and shock of entry into the Earth's atmosphere. The experiment's results also suggest that meteorite hunters should widen their search to include white rocks if we are to find traces of life in martian meteorites.

WHOOPS. TWO MAJOR PLANETS COLLIDE RECENTLY. ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2008) -- Two terrestrial planets orbiting a mature sun-like star some 300 light-years from Earth recently suffered a violent collision, astronomers at UCLA, Tennessee State University and the California Institute of Technology will report in a December issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

BLACK HOLES MAY MAKE GOOD MOMMIES. Thanks 'comely1'. Black holes might have a nurturing side. Scottish researchers have created a computer simulation that explains how supermassive black holes, such as the one at the center of the Milky Way, could promote the birth of nearby stars. The findings expand the possible scenarios for star formation and could help astronomers determine how stars emerged in the very young universe.

AMAZING MYSTERIES IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM--TITAN'S ATMOSPHERE. Why does Titan have an atmosphere? Titan, one of Saturn's moons, is the only moon in the Solar System with a significant atmosphere. It is the second biggest moon in the Solar System (second only to Jupiter's moon Ganymede) and about 80% more massive than Earth's Moon. Although small when compared with terrestrial standards, it is more Earth-like than we give it credit for. Mars and Venus are often cited as Earth's siblings, but their atmospheres are 100 times thinner and 100 times thicker, respectively. Titan's atmosphere on the other hand is only one and a half times thicker than Earth's, plus it is mainly composed of nitrogen. Nitrogen dominates Earth's atmosphere (at 80% composition) and it dominates Titans atmosphere (at 95% composition). But where did all this nitrogen come from? Like on Earth, it's a mystery.

ARMCHAIR ASTROTOMER DISCOVERS UNIQUE 'COSMIC GHOST'. CNN) -- Hanny van Arkel was poring over photos of galaxies on the Internet last August when she stumbled across a strange object in the night sky: a bright, gaseous mass with a gaping hole in its middle.
Hanny van Arkel made her discovery by poring over images of galaxies on an astronomy Web site.
"It looked a bit like an irregular galaxy, but I wasn't sure what it was," Van Arkel told CNN. So she posted a query on the Web site of the Galaxy Zoo project, which encourages members of the public to join in astronomy research online.
Van Arkel is a 25-year-old schoolteacher.

ANCIENT GALAXAY CLUSTERS. Thanks 'berrypicker'. Explanation: Globular clusters once ruled the Milky Way. Back in the old days, back when our Galaxy first formed, perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed our Galaxy. Today, there are perhaps 200 left. Many globular clusters were destroyed over the eons by repeated fateful encounters with each other or the Galactic center. Surviving relics are older than any Earth fossil, older than any other structures in our Galaxy, and limit the universe itself in raw age. There are few, if any, young globular clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy because conditions are not ripe for more to form. Things are different next door, however, in the neighboring LMC galaxy. Pictured above is a "young" globular cluster residing there: NGC 1818. Observations show it formed only about 40 million years ago - just yesterday compared to the 12 billion year ages of globular clusters in our own Milky Way