Dr. John Barentine FRAS
Dr. John Barentine FRAS  ·  2 days ago

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The best-ever reconstructed views of the #MilkyWay #galaxy as seen from the outside, released today on the occasion of the end of ESA Gaia science observations. #Astronomy
Galaxy Map
Galaxy Map  ·  5 days ago

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This Saturday, my star-themed board game, Acrux, based on data from ESA's Gaia and Hipparcos survey missions, will have its public debut at the Dutch Board Games Association (Ducosim) game fair in Amersfoort. I am busy improving my prototype to make it look as good as possible! #boardgames #astronomy #gaiamission
Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️
Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️  ·  7 days ago

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"An Evening Sky Full of Planets" is #NASA #astronomy picture of the day #APOD - Rare but occasionally-recurring spectacle in the sky: most of the visible planets line up briefly in a single night-sky view while our orbits put us all on the same side of the Sun. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250111.html
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for 2025-01-11: photo caption from https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250111.html An Evening Sky Full of Planets Image Credit & Copyright: Dario Giannobile Explanation: Only Mercury is missing from a Solar System parade of planets in this early evening skyscape. Rising nearly opposite the Sun, bright Mars is at the far left. The other naked-eye planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus, can also be spotted, with the positions of too-faint Uranus and Neptune marked near the arcing trace of the ecliptic plane. On the far right and close to the western horizon after sunset is a young crescent Moon whose surface is partly illuminated by earthshine. In the foreground of the composite panorama captured on 2 January, planet Earth is represented by Mount Etna's lower Silvestri Crater. Of course Earth's early evening skies are full of planets for the entire month of January. On 13 January, a nearly Full Moon will appear to pass in front of Mars for skywatchers in the continental U.S. and Eastern Canada.
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for 2025-01-11: photo caption from https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250111.html An Evening Sky Full of Planets Image Credit & Copyright: Dario Giannobile Explanation: Only Mercury is missing from a Solar System parade of planets in this early evening skyscape. Rising nearly opposite the Sun, bright Mars is at the far left. The other naked-eye planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus, can also be spotted, with the positions of too-faint Uranus and Neptune marked near the arcing trace of the ecliptic plane. On the far right and close to the western horizon after sunset is a young crescent Moon whose surface is partly illuminated by earthshine. In the foreground of the composite panorama captured on 2 January, planet Earth is represented by Mount Etna's lower Silvestri Crater. Of course Earth's early evening skies are full of planets for the entire month of January. On 13 January, a nearly Full Moon will appear to pass in front of Mars for skywatchers in the continental U.S. and Eastern Canada.
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for 2025-01-11: photo caption from https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250111.html An Evening Sky Full of Planets Image Credit & Copyright: Dario Giannobile Explanation: Only Mercury is missing from a Solar System parade of planets in this early evening skyscape. Rising nearly opposite the Sun, bright Mars is at the far left. The other naked-eye planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus, can also be spotted, with the positions of too-faint Uranus and Neptune marked near the arcing trace of the ecliptic plane. On the far right and close to the western horizon after sunset is a young crescent Moon whose surface is partly illuminated by earthshine. In the foreground of the composite panorama captured on 2 January, planet Earth is represented by Mount Etna's lower Silvestri Crater. Of course Earth's early evening skies are full of planets for the entire month of January. On 13 January, a nearly Full Moon will appear to pass in front of Mars for skywatchers in the continental U.S. and Eastern Canada.
Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  last week

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A sweet astronomy story, for a little break:

Earth & its Moon were forged from a violent collision. But Pluto and its giant moon, Charon, came together with a gentle kiss. A similarly soft process may have occurred all across the outer solar system.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/pluto-charon-moon-kiss #space #science #astronomy #love

Galaxy Map
Galaxy Map  ·  2 weeks ago

Content Warning

My Acrux board game set up for play. The new action card feature where you are allowed to buy up to three cards that give you one-time powers like jumping to any star or emptying an opponent's ore supply has turned out to be very popular.

After six months of play testing I think the game is basically finished so I am now looking at ways to promote it and find a publisher.

#boardgames #astronomy #gaiamission

Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  2 weeks ago

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Newly discovered: A pair of supermassive black holes (40 million times as massive as the Sun) cuddling in a distant galaxy.

"Cuddling" in this case means they're about as far apart as Voyager 1 is from Earth...which is really close for such monster objects.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/swift/nasas-swift-studies-gas-churning-monster-black-holes/ #science #space #astronomy

Watch as a gas cloud encounters two supermassive black holes in this simulation. The complex interplay of gravitational and frictional forces causes the cloud to condense and heat. Some of the gas is ejected from the system with each orbit of the black holes.
Phil Stooke
Phil Stooke  ·  4 weeks ago

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This implies that the Martian names would begin with places from the far east of Ptolemy's map, and names would progress towards western places. Our names should be distributed like that. But where does the scheme start on Mars since there is no obvious place to begin? Schiaparelli found a perfect starting point. These are the traditional astronomical symbols for the Sun, Moon and planets. Schiaparelli found the Sun symbol on Mars. #Mars #astronomy
Daniel Pomarède
Daniel Pomarède  ·  4 weeks ago

Content Warning

Wowzer! Map of cosmic flows, by yours truly, makes it to the cover of the Nature Astronomy journal.

"Galaxies from
wherever flock
together"

I'm no poet, but could this be a Haiku?

https://www.nature.com/natastron/volumes/8/issues/12

Credits:
Image: Daniel Pomarède, Institut de Recherche sur les Lois Fondamentales de l’Univers, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay.
Cover design: Bethany Vukomanovic.

#Cosmology#Galaxies#Astronomy #Astrodon#Astrophysics#Cosmography#Cartography#Map#Cosmicflows #science#STEM #news #space

A cover of the Nature Astronomy journal, dated December 2024, Volume 8, issue number 12, featuring a three-dimensional visualization of the cosmic velocity field inferred from the Cosmicflows-4 catalog of galaxies' distances and velocities. This map spans two billion lightyears from top to bottom. The velocity field is mapped by means of tens of thousands of very thin streamlines, seeded at the positions of the catalog's galaxies. Streamlines are shown white and semi-transparent, against a black background. They exhibit a very complex pattern with multiple attractors, seen as points of convergence of the lines. A text reads Galaxies from wherever flock together.
A cover of the Nature Astronomy journal, dated December 2024, Volume 8, issue number 12, featuring a three-dimensional visualization of the cosmic velocity field inferred from the Cosmicflows-4 catalog of galaxies' distances and velocities. This map spans two billion lightyears from top to bottom. The velocity field is mapped by means of tens of thousands of very thin streamlines, seeded at the positions of the catalog's galaxies. Streamlines are shown white and semi-transparent, against a black background. They exhibit a very complex pattern with multiple attractors, seen as points of convergence of the lines. A text reads Galaxies from wherever flock together.
A cover of the Nature Astronomy journal, dated December 2024, Volume 8, issue number 12, featuring a three-dimensional visualization of the cosmic velocity field inferred from the Cosmicflows-4 catalog of galaxies' distances and velocities. This map spans two billion lightyears from top to bottom. The velocity field is mapped by means of tens of thousands of very thin streamlines, seeded at the positions of the catalog's galaxies. Streamlines are shown white and semi-transparent, against a black background. They exhibit a very complex pattern with multiple attractors, seen as points of convergence of the lines. A text reads Galaxies from wherever flock together.
Galaxy Map
Galaxy Map  ·  last month

Content Warning

At the suggestion of our latest play testers, I added a star system legend on my Acrux game playing board at the upper right. The board is looking pretty good so I am considering having a quad fold version printed in Belgium.

The Acrux prototype is looking more and more like a real board game!

#boardgames #Astrodon #astronomy

Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  last month

Content Warning

For some reason, the NASA folks did not link to the research paper describing the newfound dark comets.

Allow me to correct that oversight. Here is "Two Distinct Populations of Dark Comets Delineated by Orbits and Sizes":

https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.07603 #science #astronomy

Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  last month

Content Warning

Intriguing "hey, that's weird" discovery: Astronomers have found 14 asteroids that seeming move under their own power.

These objects are classified as "dark comets." Presumably they are emitting puffs of gas that shifts their orbits. But ...so far, nobody can spot any sign of activity.

https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/nasa-researchers-discover-more-dark-comets/ #space #science #astronomy #nature

The orbits of the fourteen currently known dark comets, Jupiter, and the Earth. One orbital period is shown for each object starting on the vernal equinox in 2023 March, and the points represent the corresponding initial positions of the Earth and of Jupiter. The left and right panels highlight the orbits of the outer and inner dark comets respectively. Orbits of the newly discovered dark comets are labeled with italicized font, and the orbits of previously reported objects are labeled in roman font.
The orbits of the fourteen currently known dark comets, Jupiter, and the Earth. One orbital period is shown for each object starting on the vernal equinox in 2023 March, and the points represent the corresponding initial positions of the Earth and of Jupiter. The left and right panels highlight the orbits of the outer and inner dark comets respectively. Orbits of the newly discovered dark comets are labeled with italicized font, and the orbits of previously reported objects are labeled in roman font.
The orbits of the fourteen currently known dark comets, Jupiter, and the Earth. One orbital period is shown for each object starting on the vernal equinox in 2023 March, and the points represent the corresponding initial positions of the Earth and of Jupiter. The left and right panels highlight the orbits of the outer and inner dark comets respectively. Orbits of the newly discovered dark comets are labeled with italicized font, and the orbits of previously reported objects are labeled in roman font.
Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  last month

Content Warning

Astronomers are closing in on a radically new kind of cosmic map--a map that shows the universe in gravitational waves.

The process is hard. This new, preliminary version is uncertain. But we're seeing a fresh view of reality come into focus.

https://www.spaceaustralia.com/feature/mapping-gravitational-wave-universe #space #science #astronomy #nature

This map, which measures the directional power of the gravitational wave signal, reveals some intriguing results. Astrophysicists generally expect the gravitational wave signal to be approximately the same in all directions. This arises from key cosmological assumptions that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic, generally evenly distributed in all directions and evenly mixed. Surprisingly our map shows a ‘hot spot’ - an area of stronger gravitational wave signal in the Southern Hemisphere. This hot spot could suggest that a nearby, extraordinarily massive black hole binary is drowning out others, but it may also just be a statistical anomaly.
This map, which measures the directional power of the gravitational wave signal, reveals some intriguing results. Astrophysicists generally expect the gravitational wave signal to be approximately the same in all directions. This arises from key cosmological assumptions that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic, generally evenly distributed in all directions and evenly mixed. Surprisingly our map shows a ‘hot spot’ - an area of stronger gravitational wave signal in the Southern Hemisphere. This hot spot could suggest that a nearby, extraordinarily massive black hole binary is drowning out others, but it may also just be a statistical anomaly.
This map, which measures the directional power of the gravitational wave signal, reveals some intriguing results. Astrophysicists generally expect the gravitational wave signal to be approximately the same in all directions. This arises from key cosmological assumptions that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic, generally evenly distributed in all directions and evenly mixed. Surprisingly our map shows a ‘hot spot’ - an area of stronger gravitational wave signal in the Southern Hemisphere. This hot spot could suggest that a nearby, extraordinarily massive black hole binary is drowning out others, but it may also just be a statistical anomaly.
Daniel Pomarède
Daniel Pomarède  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

A map of the structure surrounding the Local Void

In this map our Milky Way galaxy lies at the origin of the red-green-blue orientation arrows, each 200 million lightyears in length.

☑️ this is Fig.1 of https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019ApJ...880...24T/abstract
☑️ more insights by APOD: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190806.html

#Cosmology#Cosmography#LocalVoid#APOD#GreatAttractor #map #astronomy #astrophysics#astrodon #science#STEM#MilkyWay #galaxy #galaxies#CosmicWeb

a cosmographic map featuring the cosmological large scale structure in our local cosmic neighborhood. The density field is displayed as semi-transparent isosurfaces, colored grey for the the lower isocontour value, and colored in nuances of red for five higher levels. The resulting structure is filamentary, with high-density knots at the filaments' crossing, an architecture typical of the Cosmic Web. Three colored arrows materialize the cardinal axes of the Supergalactic Coordiante System, centered at our location. Several important actors of our local cosmography are named: Milky Way, Virgo, Arrowhead, Great Attractor, Perseus-Pisces, Coma, Arch, Hercules. The name of the astronomer leading the study is inprinted in the lower right corner of the figure, reading R. Brent Tully. All these elements are drawn against a white background.
a cosmographic map featuring the cosmological large scale structure in our local cosmic neighborhood. The density field is displayed as semi-transparent isosurfaces, colored grey for the the lower isocontour value, and colored in nuances of red for five higher levels. The resulting structure is filamentary, with high-density knots at the filaments' crossing, an architecture typical of the Cosmic Web. Three colored arrows materialize the cardinal axes of the Supergalactic Coordiante System, centered at our location. Several important actors of our local cosmography are named: Milky Way, Virgo, Arrowhead, Great Attractor, Perseus-Pisces, Coma, Arch, Hercules. The name of the astronomer leading the study is inprinted in the lower right corner of the figure, reading R. Brent Tully. All these elements are drawn against a white background.
a cosmographic map featuring the cosmological large scale structure in our local cosmic neighborhood. The density field is displayed as semi-transparent isosurfaces, colored grey for the the lower isocontour value, and colored in nuances of red for five higher levels. The resulting structure is filamentary, with high-density knots at the filaments' crossing, an architecture typical of the Cosmic Web. Three colored arrows materialize the cardinal axes of the Supergalactic Coordiante System, centered at our location. Several important actors of our local cosmography are named: Milky Way, Virgo, Arrowhead, Great Attractor, Perseus-Pisces, Coma, Arch, Hercules. The name of the astronomer leading the study is inprinted in the lower right corner of the figure, reading R. Brent Tully. All these elements are drawn against a white background.
Daniel Pomarède
Daniel Pomarède  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

Cosmography archives

2005: Discovery of the Sloan Great Wall

by J. Richard Gott and co-authors
https://doi.org/10.1086/428890

At the time of its discovery, this 1.37 billion light-years long filament is the largest observed structure in the Universe.

#Cosmology #galaxies#SloanGreatWall#Cosmography #archives #archive#CosmographyArchives #history #science#HistoryOfScience #Astrodon #astrophysics #astronomy #physics#STEM#Universe#CosmicWeb

The distribution of galaxies obtained with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and displayed as two fan-shaped plots with Right Ascension versus redshift distances as coordinates. Galaxies' positions are shown as black points on a white background, featuring filamentary structures typical of the Cosmic Web, which describes the large-scale structure of the Universe. The two fan-shaped plots lie on top of each other, with their boundaries elegantly matching each other's. On the lower plot, running from 0 to 14000 km/s in redshift, and from 8 to 17 hours in Right Ascension, is shown the CfA2 Great Wall, with its iconic stickman-shaped distribution of galaxies. On the higher plot, running from 14000 to 28000 km/s in redshift distances, and from about 9 to 14 hours in Right Ascension, is featured the Sloan Great Wall. A caption completes this figure.
The distribution of galaxies obtained with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and displayed as two fan-shaped plots with Right Ascension versus redshift distances as coordinates. Galaxies' positions are shown as black points on a white background, featuring filamentary structures typical of the Cosmic Web, which describes the large-scale structure of the Universe. The two fan-shaped plots lie on top of each other, with their boundaries elegantly matching each other's. On the lower plot, running from 0 to 14000 km/s in redshift, and from 8 to 17 hours in Right Ascension, is shown the CfA2 Great Wall, with its iconic stickman-shaped distribution of galaxies. On the higher plot, running from 14000 to 28000 km/s in redshift distances, and from about 9 to 14 hours in Right Ascension, is featured the Sloan Great Wall. A caption completes this figure.
The distribution of galaxies obtained with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and displayed as two fan-shaped plots with Right Ascension versus redshift distances as coordinates. Galaxies' positions are shown as black points on a white background, featuring filamentary structures typical of the Cosmic Web, which describes the large-scale structure of the Universe. The two fan-shaped plots lie on top of each other, with their boundaries elegantly matching each other's. On the lower plot, running from 0 to 14000 km/s in redshift, and from 8 to 17 hours in Right Ascension, is shown the CfA2 Great Wall, with its iconic stickman-shaped distribution of galaxies. On the higher plot, running from 14000 to 28000 km/s in redshift distances, and from about 9 to 14 hours in Right Ascension, is featured the Sloan Great Wall. A caption completes this figure.
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