Kepler's Catalogue of Planet Candidates from Observations in the Cygnus Constellation Finalized
NASA's Kepler space telescope team has released a mission catalog of planet candidates that introduces 219 new candidates, 10 of which are near-Earth size and orbiting in their star's habitable zone, which is the range of distance from a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of a rocky planet. This is the most comprehensive and detailed catalog release of candidate exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, from Kepler's first four years of data. It's also the final catalog from the spacecraft's view of the patch of sky in the Cygnus constellation. With the release of this catalog, derived from data publicly available on the NASA Exoplanet Archive, there are now 4,034 planet candidates identified by Kepler. Of those, 2,335 have been verified as exoplanets. Of roughly 50 near-Earth size habitable zone candidates detected by Kepler, more than 30 have been verified.

The Kepler spacecraft continues to make observations in new patches of sky in its extended mission, searching for planets and studying a variety of interesting astronomical objects, from distant star clusters to objects such as the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven Earth-size planets, closer to home.



more at: JPL News June 19

NASA Snímek dne v Praze! | Kalendář akcí | Astronomický informační server astro.cz
http://www.astro.cz/kalendar-akci/nasa-snimek-dne-v-praze.html
Zvažuju vejlet do Prahy, Jožku Chlachulu znám a neviděla jsem ho spoustu let, to by bylo asi zajímavé setkání!! :)

JAYME: pisal, ze pojde prec :) ale sak sa vrati :)

JAYME: to ne, a budu jen rád, když se VIRGO vrátí a zase se do toho pustí. Přišlo mi ale smutné, jak to tady v jeho nepřítomnosti, poté co odjel na dovolenou či kam, zeje prázdnotou. A nikdo jiný se k postování neměl. Popravdě, já téhle problematice zas tolik nerozumím, tak jsem zkoušel dát alespoň obecné věci. Možná jsou příliš povrchní, co já vím. Jestli máš něco zajímavého, tak sem s tím. Jinak to vypadá na prázdno. :)

VINCENT_BU: hele ty ses VIRGO co ztratil heslo nebo nakej nahradnik? :)

Cosmic Magnifying-Glass Effect Captures Universe's Brightest Galaxies
Boosted by natural magnifying lenses in space, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured unique close-up views of the universe's brightest infrared galaxies, which are as much as 10,000 times more luminous than our Milky Way. The galaxy images reveal a tangled web of misshapen objects punctuated by exotic patterns such as rings and arcs. The odd shapes are due largely to the foreground lensing galaxies' powerful gravity distorting the images of the background galaxies. The unusual forms also may have been produced by spectacular collisions between distant, massive galaxies in a sort of cosmic demolition derby that existed between 8 billion and 11.5 billion years ago. These ultra-luminous, massive, starburst galaxies are very rare. We can see small details that otherwise are unimaginable, features as small as about 100 light-years or less across.



more at: Hubble hits a jackpot

Icy Moons, Galaxy Clusters, and Distant Worlds Among Selected Targets for James Webb Space Telescope
Mission officials for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope announced some of the science targets the telescope will observe following its launch and commissioning. These specific observations are part of a program of Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO). The broad spectrum of initial GTO observations will address all of the science areas Webb is designed to explore, from first light and the assembly of galaxies to the birth of stars and planets. Targets will range from the solar system’s outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) and icy Kuiper Belt to exoplanets to distant galaxies in the young universe. Searching for chemical fingerprints of life on Enceladus, Europa, and exoplanets like TRAPPIST-1e, Webb will be looking at some incredible things in our universe.



more at: NASA Webb Telescope

General relativity passes test at Milky Way’s central black hole
“It’s the first time that general relativity is really tested around a supermassive black hole,” says Aurélien Hees at the University of California, Los Angeles.

These two stars (S0-2 and S0-38) speeding around Sagittarius A* (4 million times as massive as the sun) were first discovered in the 1990s, when astronomers began tracking their movements. By observing their orbits for 19 years, Hees and his colleagues found that general relativity describes the stars’ paths perfectly. The stars show no sign of a hypothetical fifth force that would cause a deviation from the theory’s predictions.

Ordinary black holes, such as Cygnus X-1 in the constellation of the same name, are more massive than the sun, but stars that orbit them don’t provide useful tests of general relativity. This is partly because they lose gas to the black hole, which leads to their paths being altered in ways that have nothing to do with Einstein’s theory. In contrast, the two mentioned stars don’t come close enough to lose gas to the black hole.



more at: New Scientist

Stars are not motionless in the sky: their positions change continuously as they move through our galaxy, the Milky Way. These motions, too slow to be appreciated with the naked eye over a human lifetime, can be captured by high-precision observations like those performed by ESA’s billion-star surveyor, Gaia. A new video, based on measurements by ESA’s Gaia and Hipparcos satellites, shows how our view of the Orion constellation will evolve over the next 450 000 years.
(The birth and demise of stars are not shown in the video.)
The future of the Orion constellation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6v9G06Ks8


full story at: www.esa.int

a jedno zpochybnění: WOW! signál byl neobvykle silný. signál z 266P/Christensen nikoliv, což mohlo být způsobeno ztrátou hmoty vypařováním za 40 let, ale závěry jsou prý předčasné a bude třeba si počkat na další studie. :)
Wow! Signal Update for 06/10/17 & The Mystery of SHGb02+14a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjNrCbahum0

Waltzing Brown Dwarfs
The image is a stack of 12 images made over the course of three years with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Using high-precision astrometry, an Italian-led team of astronomers tracked the two components of the system as they moved both across the sky and around each other.

The observed system, Luhman 16AB, is only about six light-years away and is the third closest stellar system to Earth — after the triple star system Alpha Centauri and Barnard’s Star. Despite its proximity, Luhman 16AB was only discovered in 2013 by the astronomer Kevin Luhman. The two brown dwarfs that make up the system, Luhman 16A and Luhman 16B, orbit each other at a distance of only three times the distance between the Earth and the sun, and so these observations are a showcase for Hubble’s precision and high resolution.



more at: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/hubble-applauds-waltzing-dwarfs

(kapka mediálního odlehčení)
The Rocket That Will Eventually Take Humans to the Moon Will Launch in 4 Months
The Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful rocket in the world, capable of launching 54 metric tons (119,000 lb) of cargo and crew into space. The rocket will be used to boost the first space tourists to the Moon in a launch expected to take place in 2018. The entire journey is expected to take about six to seven days. The Falcon Heavy will likely also play a role in preparing SpaceX for the highly anticipated first manned missions to Mars, set to happen by 2025.

VINCENT_BU: Mě to vzdáleně připomíná hvězdu OnOff z Vernora Vinge :-)

Oznámen objev dvou dalších měsíců Jupitera

Přírůstky k rodině Jupiterově

HOWKING: pecka, tak to je vončo :) dík ;) zlatý iridium!!! :D když si vzpomenu jaký to pro mně bylo sci-fi, když se to plánovalo.....no ale to už bych se vracela do starejch debat ;)

NEBULA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTGVuPr9Epg

The 40-Year Old Mystery of The "Wow!" Signal Has Just Been Solved
In 1977, the sound of extraterrestrials was heard by human ears for the first time - or so people at the time thought. The Wow! Signal was detected by astronomer Jerry Ehman using Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope.

However, Antonio Paris, of St Petersburg College, has now discovered the explanation: a pair of comets. The work was published in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences.

These comets, known as 266P/Christensen and 335P/Gibbs, have clouds of hydrogen gas millions of kilometres in diameter surrounding them. The Wow! Signal was detected at 1420MHz, which is the radio frequency hydrogen naturally emits. Notably, the team has verified that the comets were within the vicinity at the time, and they report that the radio signals from 266/P Christensen matched those from the Wow! signal.

more here: Futurism

NEBULA: Tady http://www.heavens-above.com/ si můžeš zadat přesně svou polohu a čas a ono ti to najde, co nad tebou letělo. (samozřejmě tam nebudou nákladní lodi jako před chvíli Dragon) :-)