The image above is the globular cluster M54, a huge ball of mostly older stars 90,000 light-years away. I thought I knew about globular clusters, but the Bad Astronomer posted two points that are entirely new to me, and very cool:
Category Archive: cosmology
Mar 23 2012
Nomad planets could be traveling at near warp speeds
Call it planet Crank. A study slated to be published in the Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society finds that not only are nomad planets possible, under ideal conditions some of them could be ejected from the heart of large galaxies at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light:
Mar 16 2012
Midnight treat: WISE releases a cosmic atlas in false color infrared
The NASA WISE telescope spent a year imaging sections of the sky in infrared and astronomers have been working for the last few months to knit it together in a 360 degree map, all doped up with false color. It is spectacular. The limitations of this website can’t do it justice: that bad boy above is scalable …
Feb 16 2012
The beautiful and incredibly violent Eta Carina
![Eta Carinae and the lobed Homunculus Nebula which surrounds the star[s]. The massive blue-giant appears as the white patch near the center of the image, where the 2 lobes. Image courtesy of the Hubble](http://freethoughtblogs.com/zingularity/files/2012/02/EtaCarinae-150x150.jpg)
Eta Carinae, 7th sun in its constellation, is not your ordinary star, or even a familiar crusty old red-giant. At the heart of the gorgeous double lobed cloud are at least two massive stars, and one of them is one the most unusual kinds of stellar objects in the universe: an unstable, misshapen blue-white colossus that could burst open and shower this …
Dec 12 2011
All eyes on CERN
The mystery may get a little less mysterious in this afternoon: (BBC) — Prof Stefan Soldner-Rembold, from the University of Manchester, called the quality of the LHC’s results “exceptional”, adding: “Within one year we will probably know whether the Higgs particle exists, but it is likely not going to be a Christmas present.” He told …
Dec 09 2011
Lunar eclipse offers rare treat for some in the wee morning hours
The image above courtesy of Anthony Ayiomamitis gives an idea of the treat in store for star-gazer tonight. In the wee morning hours a beautiful full moon will offer up a rare show in crystal winter skies as it sets gently wrapped in red and gold in the west: the 2011 lunar eclipse. Cosmic Log has a great rundown …
Dec 07 2011
Aren’t they all God particles?
Thanks to the Higgs rumors I’ve already read enough God Particle articles to last me a lifetime. Besides, technically, given an a priori belief in a cosmic creator/planner, wouldn’t every particle be a “God” particle? But I do understand the Higgs is hard to understand, so its significance to physics is difficult for the layperson to …
Dec 06 2011
Rumors swirling of major announcement on Higgs boson
I don’t know anything beyond that. Other than a physicist just tipped me off a major announcement would be forthcoming in the near future and there’s a lot of press speculation on it. Prepare for endless reviews of the God Particle… Update: Here’s what I’ve been told “two experiments see a big enhancement in 2-photon …
Dec 05 2011
Kepler bags a twin earth candidate 600 light-years away!
It may be the first of many, but it will always be the first. It was inevitable, inasmuch as we all thought it would happen sooner or later, but a chill still ran down my spine when I read what the Kepler planet finder discovered.
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Feb 11 2012
NASA Mars program facing steep budget cuts
Commentary, cosmology, NASA, Space
by Stephen "DarkSyde" Andrew
The official budget won’t be released until Monday, but word is NASA’s unmanned program will see big cuts and Mars missions will take the brunt of them. Sadly, when it comes to our budget priorities as of late, we are one screwed-up country:
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