Category: Space - Ascension Now

THAT NOVA YOU'VE HEARD ABOUT IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE:

26/6/2024

By the time you finish reading this story, there could be a new star in the night sky. Recurrent nova T CrB (pronounced "tee-core-bore") is poised on the knife edge of a once-in-a-lifetime explosion.

"Our best estimate for the time of eruption is close to now," says Brad Schaefer, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at Louisiana State University.
Schaefer is a leading expert on T CrB. He's been studying the star since he was a teenager. "When I was 18 year old, I calculated when T CrB should erupt again. The answer was 'around 2026' -- and I've been waiting for this moment ever since," he says.

Above: A T CrB infographic created by South Korean astronomer Bum-Suk Yeom

T CrB is a "recurrent nova." That means it erupts not just once, but over and over again. Its explosion in 1866 was the first nova anyone had ever seen in detail. "No one knew what caused it," says Schaefer. Another blast in 1946 established its period (79 or 80 years) and led astronomers to the modern interpretation:
T CrB is a binary star system consisting of an ancient red giant circled by a hot white dwarf. Hydrogen from the red giant spills onto the surface of the white dwarf. It takes about 80 years to accumulate a critical mass, then--BOOM--a thermonuclear explosion occurs. "It's an H-bomb that blows up on an incredibly large scale," says Schaefer.
After an explosion, the process resets and repeats. Looking at old light curves, Schaefer realized that T CrB tells us when it's about to explode. Approximately 1.1 years before each blow-up, there's a "pre-eruption dip" in brightness. This dip foretells the next blast.

Above: The pre-eruption dip in March 2023

Start the clock! "T CrB started its pre-eruption dip in March 2023. If the star behaves in 2023-2024 as it did in 1945-1946, then the next eruption should take place in 2024.4+-0.3," says Schaefer. "That's May 2024 plus or minus a few months."
The explosion will be visible to the naked eye. Schaefer expects it to be about as bright as the North Star. When it blows, T CrB will burst forth as an extra jewel in the "Northern Crown" (the constellation Corona Borealis), easy to find high in the summer night sky between Hercules and Bootes.
"T CrB will be the brightest nova for generations," says Schaefer. "It's a chance for everyone in the world to step outside, look up, and see the hellfire."
Observing tips:
(1) Go out tonight to see what Corona Borealis normally looks like: sky map. Then, when the nova explodes, you'll be able to see the difference.
(2) Sign up for Space Weather Alerts. All subscribers (Basic and Pro) will receive an immediate text message when the nova explodes.
https://spaceweather.com/

SUPERNOVA IN THE PINWHEEL GALAXY: Plus Update 22 May 2023

20/5/2023

Astronomers are scrambling to photograph a new supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy. "This is best supernova in a decade," says Eliot Herman of Tucson, Arizona. "I am pleased I caught it on the rise less than a day after its discovery." The red arrow marks the brightening explosion:

This is a Type II supernova, caused by the core collapse of a massive star. If it behaves like other supernovas of the same type, it should continue to brighten for a few days at least. "It is at magnitude +14.4 at the moment," says Herman. "I am betting it gets below +13, hoping for +12."
These numbers make it an easy target for backyard telescopes.

Discovered on May 19th by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, the supernova is located in the constellation Ursa Major, right here. Take a look!

Update 22 May 2023:
"This is best supernova in a decade," says Eliot Herman of Tucson, Arizona. "It has tripled in brightness in only 24 hours." At this rate, it will soon rival or outshine the spiral galaxy's core.

Astronomer Yvette Cendes of Harvard's Center for Astrophysics says the supernova should continue to brighten for another day or so. "We think it will peak around magnitude +10, although it is hard to be certain."

Image credit: Eliot Herman of Tucson, Arizona

https://spaceweather.com/

JUPITER SPACECRAFT PHOTO-OP:

10/4/2023

The European Space Agency is about to launch a very important spacecraft: The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer - 'Juice' for short. Its mission is to probe Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, moons with oceans larger than those of Earth and possible habitats for extraterrestrial life. Liftoff is scheduled for April 13th (12:15 UT) from French Guiana. "It may be possible for experienced observers to photograph Juice as it recedes on the night after launch", says John H. Rogers, the Jupiter Section Director of the British Astronomical Association. "The solar panels should be deployed by 100 minutes after launch, with full deployment over the next 17 days. You can obtain an ephemeris from JPL-Horizons. Type 'Juice' in for the target body."

"The best views will be from the Far East and Australia, from about 14:00 UT onwards, when solar panels are deployed", says Rogers. "The brightness will then diminish as the distance from Earth increases; by the time it is visible from western Europe, approaching 150,000 km out, one experienced observer suggests that it might be around mag.13 or 14."
Juice will take 8 years to reach Jupiter. After a series of visits to Callisto and Europa, Juice will enter into a permanent orbit around Ganymede in 2034 - the first time a spacecraft has ever held an orbit around a moon other than our own. Bigger than the planet Mercury, Ganymede is also the only moon in the solar system with its own magnetic field, providing a possible protective cocoon for life.
www.spaceweather.com

Iconic 'Pillars of Creation' captured in new JWST image

21/2/2023

Daily Mail: Wed, 19 Oct 2022 17:47 UTC

© NASA
These handout photos provided by NASA show the 'Pillars of Creation' that are set off in a kaleidoscope of color
in theJames Webb Space Telescope's near-infrared-light view (R) compared to the Hubble telescope's
2014 wider view in visible light

The James Webb Space Telescope captured the iconic "Pillars of Creation," huge structures of gas and dust teeming with stars, NASA said Wednesday, and the image is as majestic as one could hope.

The twinkling of thousands of stars illuminates the telescope's first shot of the gigantic gold, copper and brown columns standing in the midst of the cosmos.

At the ends of several pillars are bright red, lava-like spots. "These are ejections from stars that are still forming," only a few hundred thousand years old, NASA said in a statement.

These "young stars periodically shoot out supersonic jets that collide with clouds of material, like these thick pillars," the US space agency added.

The "Pillars of Creation" are located 6,500 light years from Earth, in the Eagle Nebula of our Milky Way galaxy. The pillars were made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope, which first captured them in 1995 and then again in 2014.

But thanks to Webb's infrared capabilities, the newer telescope -- launched into space less than a year ago -- can peer through the opacity of the pillars, revealing many new stars forming.

"By popular demand, we had to do the Pillars of Creation" with Webb, Klaus Pontoppidan, the science program manager at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said Wednesday on Twitter.

STScI operates Webb from Baltimore, Maryland.

"There are just so many stars!" Pontoppidan added.

NASA astrophysicist Amber Straughn summed it up: "The universe is beautiful!" she wrote on Twitter.

© NASA
This handout photo provided by NASA on October 19, 2022 shows the 'Pillars of Creation' that are set off in a kaleidoscope of color in the James Webb Space Telescope's near-infrared-light view

The image, covering an area of about eight light years, was taken by Webb's primary imager NIRCam, which captures near-infrared wavelengths -- invisible to the human eye.

The colors of the image have been "translated" into visible light.

According to NASA, the new image "will help researchers revamp their models of star formation by identifying far more precise counts of newly formed stars, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region."

Operational since July, Webb is the most powerful space telescope ever built, and has already unleashed a raft of unprecedented data. Scientists are hopeful it will herald a new era of discovery.

One of the main goals for the $10-billion telescope is to study the life cycle of stars. Another main research focus is on exoplanets, planets outside Earth's solar system.
https://www.sott.net/article/473446-Iconic-Pillars-of-Creation-captured-in-new-JWST-image

Pam Gregory: Insights from the Galactic Center

29/4/2021

LeeHarrisEnergy

Pam Gregory, acclaimed astrologist and author, shares with Lee how deep space astrology is showing a new map of the current shift in consciousness and galactic evolution - and the impact that can have for us as human beings living through this time, in this excerpt from their interview for the Impact the World podcast.

For the full episode, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY69M...

SIRIUS IS PULSING WITH COLOR:

30/1/2021

There's something strange about Sirius. The brightest star in the sky is pulsing with color. To the naked eye, Sirius looks pale blue, almost white. But if you photograph it with a camera, using very short exposure times, Sirius reveals its true colors. Lots of them. Photographer Arne Recke of Broager, Denmark, just did the experiment, and this is what he found:

"Here are 16 pictures of Sirius," says Recke. "The uppermost picture was taken with 1/2 sec. shutter speed (ISO 6400). The other 15 pictures were taken much faster with a 1/500 sec.shutter speed (also ISO 6400). The short exposures are incredibly colorful."
Astronomers call this phenomenon "scintillation." It is caused by thermal irregularities in Earth's atmosphere. Packets of relatively warm and cool air act like prisms, spreading starlight into rainbow colors. When these packets drift in front of Sirius--voilá.
The reason Recke's first exposure looks white is because 1/2 sec. is long enough to average many colors together. Multiple packets of air drift by during that time. The shorter snapshots, however, capture individual packets; they look like tiny supernova explosions.
All stars scintillate, but Sirius does so most flamboyantly because of its extreme brightness. See for yourself. Step outside this evening an hour or so after sunset and look east for Sirius near the feet of Orion. The lower it is, the more it scintillates. You may be able to see the colors--no camera required.
www.spaceweather.com

Lost Nebulae Images Hubble Forgot to Tell You About | 4k60 Annotated | 2000 Photos over 7 years

5/7/2020

DTTV - Science Answers

Discover the universe via telescope data and imagery, artwork, photography, over 2000 Lost Images have been compiled to bring you this amazing Annotated nebulae documentary which has taken 7 years to compile, See the universe come to life via animations, scientific visualizations, expert music alignment software

NEW IAU STATEMENT ON SATELLITE MEGA-CONSTELLATIONS:

14/2/2020

The night sky is in danger. This has been true for years as urban landscapes became increasingly light-polluted. But now there's a new threat, one you can't escape by driving into the countryside. It's the "mega-constellation." Some companies are planning to launch tens of thousands of internet satellites into low-Earth orbit. The recent launch by Space X of just 240 Starlink satellites has already ruined many astronomical observations.

Above: Astronomers at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory were trying
to photograph nearby galaxies when 19 Starlink satellites intervened. [Full Story]

This week the International Astronomical Union (IAU) issued a new press release describing the impact of satellite mega-constellations on astronomy. IAU astronomers simulated 25,000 satellites similar in type to the satellites of SpaceX, Amazon, and OneWeb, and here are their results:
1. The number of satellites above the horizon at any given time would be between ~1500 and a few thousand. Most will appear very close to the horizon, with only a relative few passing directly overhead.
2. When the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon--that is, when the night becomes dark--the number of illuminated satellites above the horizon would be around 1000. These numbers will decrease during the hours around midnight when many satellites fall into Earth's shadow.
3. At the moment it is difficult to predict how many of the illuminated satellites will be visible to the naked eye because of uncertainties in their reflectivity. Probably, the vast majority will be too faint to see. This depends to some degree on experiments such as those being carried out by SpaceX to reduce the reflectivity of their satellites with different coatings.

Above: Starlink satellites photobomb the NGC 5353/4 galaxy group
at Lowell Observatory [more]

4. Even if most satellites are invisible to the naked eye, mega-constellations pose a serious problem for professional astronomy. The trails of these satellites are bright enough to saturate modern detectors on large telescopes, and wide-field scientific astronomical observations will be severely affected.
5. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory currently under construction in Chile will be particularly hard-hit. The innovative observatory will scan large swaths of the sky, looking for near-Earth asteroids, studying dark energy, and much more. According to the IAU, up to 30% of the 30-second images during twilight hours will be affected. In theory, the effects of the new satellites could be mitigated by accurately predicting their orbits and interrupting observations, when necessary, during their passage, but this is a burdensome procedure.

There are no international rules governing the brightness of orbiting manmade objects. Until now, they didn't seem to be necessary. Mega-constellations, however, threaten "the uncontaminated view of the night sky from dark places, which should be considered a non-renounceable world human heritage," says the press release. Therefore the IAU will present its findings at meetings of the UN Committee for Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, bringing the attention of this problem to world leaders.
www.spaceweather.com

THE CHANGING SHAPE OF BETELGEUSE:

14/2/2020

Betelgeuse, in the constellation Orion, isn't just dimming, it's also changing shape. Today, the European Southern Observatory released new images of Betelgeuse from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile's Atacama desert. The unstable red supergiant is definitely lopsided.

A team led by Miguel Montargès of KU Leuven in Belgium took the following picture in Dec. 2019, shortly after the star began its unprecedented dimming. They were able to compare it to a "normal" picture of Betelgeuse taken 11 months earlier. The change in shape is striking.

What's going on? The researchers aren't sure why Betelgeuse looks so different, but they suspect the involvement of dust. Red supergiants like Betelgeuse create and eject vast amounts of dusty material, losing mass even before they explode as supernovas. The lopsided shape and dimming of Betelgeuse might be explained if a cloud of dust is partially blocking its disk. Indeed, VLT infrared observations of Betelgeuse at the same time reveal lots of dust around the star.

Mystery solved? Not necessarily. "Our knowledge of red supergiants remains incomplete, and this is still a work in progress, so a surprise can still happen," notes Montargès. Other possibilities include magnetic activity on Betelgeuse's surface (such as a giant starspot) and, of course, the early stages of a supernova explosion.

The Very Large Telescope with its adaptive optics instruments is one of the few facilities in the world capable of imaging the surface of Betelgeuse, located more thann 600 light years away. More images from the Atacama desert may yet reveal what's happening--if Betelgeuse doesn't tell us first!
www.spaceweather.com

A NEW TYPE OF AURORA--"THE DUNES":

30/1/2020

A new type of aurora is rippling across Arctic skies. Citizen scientists who discovered it nicknamed it "The Dunes" because of its resemblance to desert sand dunes. A paper published in the Jan. 28th issue of AGU Advances describes the new form and the unexpected physics that causes it.

Above: Aurora dunes over Latilla, Finland, on Oct. 7, 2018. Credit: Pirjo Koski. [more]

Dune-shaped auroras form in a narrow altitude range 80 km to 120 km above Earth's surface. Turns out, this is an extremely hard-to-study layer of Earth's atmosphere. It's too high for weather balloons, and too low for rockets.

"Due to the difficulties in measuring atmospheric phenomena between 80 and 120 km, we sometimes call this region 'the ignorosphere'," says Minna Palmroth, Professor of Computational Space Physics at the University of Helsinki and the lead author of the study.

Sky watchers in the Arctic have been seeing Dunes for years without understanding what they were. A breakthrough came on Oct. 7, 2018, when multiple groups photographed the dunes from widely separated locations in Finland. Maxime Grandin, a postdoctoral researcher in Palmroth's team, analyzed the images, using triangulation techniques to decipher the Dune's geometry.

Conclusion: Dunes are located ~100 km high--smack-dab in the middle of the ignorosphere--and have a pure, monochromatic wavelength of about 45 km.

Above: An artists' concept of a mesospheric bore trapped in a high-altitude waveguide. [more]

The research team believes the Dunes are a "mesospheric bore"--a type of atmospheric gravity wave that springs up from the surface below and gets caught in a thermal waveguide ~100 km high. When solar wind particles rain down on the bore, they illuminate its rippling structure.

The discovery of Dunes may allow researchers to study the ignorosphere as never before. Monitoring Dunes can reveal previously hidden waves and waveguides at the boundary between Earth and space. Aurora photographers, have you seen a Dune? Submit your photos here.
www.spaceweather.com

Earth hit by highest energy photons ever recorded from the Crab Nebula

25/6/2019

MIT Technology Review; Fri, 21 Jun 2019 18:43 UTC

© NASA

The Tibetan Plateau is a vast elevated plain almost five kilometers above sea level, sometimes called the Roof of the World. It is bordered to the south by the world's highest mountain range and to the north by desert lands. It is one of the most isolated places on Earth.

But the extreme altitude makes it a useful place for scientists. In 1990, they built an observatory here to study the showers of subatomic particles that rain down from the upper atmosphere whenever it is hit by a high-energy cosmic ray. This work is better done at high altitude because there is less atmosphere to absorb the particles.

Since then, the so-called Tibet Air Shower Array has recorded vast numbers of high-energy cosmic rays, particles accelerated to huge energies by astrophysical phenomena such as supernovas, active galactic nuclei, and mysterious as-yet-unidentified sources.

But the array also picks up air showers caused by a different source - high-energy photons. These mysterious photons are also created by astrophysical phenomena such as the interaction between high-energy particles and the cosmic microwave background. Consequently, they can provide a unique insight into these processes and the environments in which they occur.

Over the years, the Tibet Air Shower Array has spotted plenty of these photons with energies up to dozens of teraelectronvolts (TeV 1012). That's roughly equivalent to the highest-energy photons that can be created on Earth. But nobody has ever observed more powerful photons.

Until now. Today, researchers from the Tibet Air Shower Gamma Collaboration say they have observed photons with energies above 100 TeV for the first time, including a remarkable photon with an energy of almost 500 TeV. This single photon has about the same energy as a falling Ping-Pong ball and is the highest-energy photon ever recorded.

The collaboration has also worked out where these photons are coming from: the Crab Nebula, the remnants of a supernova that occurred in 1054 AD in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way, some 6,500 light-years from Earth.

.... read more at https://www.sott.net/article/415559-Earth-hit-by-highest-energy-photons-ever-recorded-from-the-Crab-Nebula

STARLINK VS. ASTRONOMY:

7/6/2019

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.... a star exploded. Light from the supernova reached Earth in May 2019 following a journey of 110 million years across the cosmos. Astronomers saw it--a tiny bloom of light on the edge of lenticular galaxy NGC5353--and immediately began to monitor its light curve. Then this happened:

Bill Williams of the Chiefland Astronomy Village in Florida created the composite image. "It shows my photo of the supernova on May 15th (left), one week before the launch of SpaceX's Starlink satellites, alongside a similar photo taken at the Lowell Observatory after the launch (right)", explains Williams. The difference is, Starlink ruined the Lowell Observatory image.
SN2019ein is a Type 1a supernova. It happened when matter from one star fell onto another--a nearby white dwarf, pushing the mass of the dwarf over the threshold for a supernova explosion. This special kind of supernova is a "standard candle", which cosmologists have used to show that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Monitoring the light curves of Type 1a supernova literally helps us understand the fate of the cosmos.
"To me, as a dedicated observer of the night sky for over 50 years and an avid underwater photographer, satellite megaconstellations such as Starlink are the equivalent of polluting our oceans with plastics", notes Williams. "I hope we take every measure possible to mitigate the effects of satellite light pollution of our night skies."
The International Astronomical Union seems to agree. Read their statement here.
www.spaceweather.com

INTERPLANETARY SHOCK WAVE HITS EARTH:

27/5/2019

A minor interplanetary shock wave hit Earth on May 26th at approximately 22:00 UT. The CME-like disturbance was unexpected. It caused the density of the solar wind around Earth to abruptly quadruple, while the interplanetary magnetic field doubled in strength. Minor geomagnetic storms are possible on May 27th as our planet passes through the shock wave's wake.
www.spaceweather.com

'Black Whole' by Nassim Haramein - The Resonance Project

28/4/2019

The Holographic Fractal Universe concept and the 'Black Whole' view, promulgated by Physicists Nassim Haramein and Dr. Elizabeth Rauscher.

NASA shares stunning video showing the raw vastness and scale of space

17/4/2019

© REUTERS / Amr Abdallah Dalsh

NASA has clocked up numerous amazing technological feats of engineering and ingenuity for decades, but a recent video from the space agency shows just how much work they have cut out for them.

In just the last few years, NASA has provided some incredible perspectives on our own planet, including stunning images of some of the Earth's most majestic natural phenomena.

Not content with studying our own backyard, the agency has beamed back photos and videos from Mars thanks to its now-deceased rover, not to mention orbiting far-flung asteroids to try and understand the origins of the universe itself.

In an attempt to explain the vastness of their field of study, NASA helpfully put together a short explainer video showcasing the mindblowing scale of the Milky Way galaxy.

Our Milky Way Galaxy: How Big is Space?

NASASolarSystem
Published on Apr 2, 2019

When we talk about the enormity of the cosmos, it’s easy to toss out big numbers – but far more difficult to wrap our minds around just how large, how far, and how numerous celestial bodies really are. How big is our Milky Way Galaxy and how far away are exoplanets, the planets beyond our solar system?

Read more: go.nasa.gov/2FTyhgH
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech