Sandia National Laboratories: News Releases : Black hole models contradicted by hands-on tests at Sandia’s Z machine
https://share-ng.sandia.gov/news/resources/news_releases/black_hole/#.WaRlmTOg9hE

A long-standing but unproven assumption about the X-ray spectra of black holes in space has been
contradicted by hands-on experiments performed at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine.

Z, the most energetic laboratory X-ray source on Earth, can duplicate the X-rays surrounding black
holes that otherwise can be watched only from a great distance and then theorized about.

“Of course, emission directly from black holes cannot be observed,” said Sandia researcher and lead
author Guillaume Loisel, lead author for a paper on the experimental results, published in August
in Physical Review Letters. “We see emission from surrounding matter just before it is consumed by
the black hole. This surrounding matter is forced into the shape of a disk, called an accretion disk.”

The results suggest revisions are needed to models previously used to interpret emissions from matter
just before it is consumed by black holes, and also the related rate of growth of mass within the black
holes. A black hole is a region of outer space from which no material and no radiation (that is, X-rays,
visible light, and so on) can escape because the gravitational field of the black hole is so intense.

Astronomy and Space News - Astro Watch: Proposed Astrophysics Mission to Conduct the First Infrared Spectral Survey of the Entire Sky
http://www.astrowatch.net/2017/08/proposed-astrophysics-mission-to.html

NASA has recently chosen six proposed astrophysics mission for concept studies. Among them is the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe,
Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer, or SPHEREx, which aims to unlock the mysteries of the universe by performing the first all-sky spectral survey.

If selected for construction and launch, the survey provided by the SPHEREx spacecraft could provide crucial insights into the origin and evolution of
galaxies, and could help scientists explore whether planets around other stars could harbor life.

“SPHEREx will produce the first infrared spectral survey of the entire sky. This survey will have broad applications in astronomy, providing rich spectra
of galaxies, quasars, stars, clusters and our Galaxy. Following the wide usage of previous all-sky surveys like the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS)
and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), SPHEREx will have a lasting value for the astronomy community,” James Bock, Principal Investigator of
SPHEREx at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), told Astrowatch.net.

VLA Reveals Distant Galaxy’s Magnetic Field – National Radio Astronomy Observatory
https://public.nrao.edu/news/vla-reveals-magnetic-field/

With the help of a gigantic cosmic lens, astronomers have measured the magnetic field of a galaxy nearly five billion light-years away.
The achievement is giving them important new clues about a problem at the frontiers of cosmology — the nature and origin of the magnetic
fields that play an important role in how galaxies develop over time.

The scientists used the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to study a star-forming galaxy that lies
directly between a more-distant quasar and Earth. The galaxy’s gravity serves as a giant lens, splitting the quasar’s image into two
separate images as seen from Earth. Importantly, the radio waves coming from this quasar, nearly 8 billion light-years away, are
preferentially aligned, or polarized.

“The polarization of the waves coming from the background quasar, combined with the fact that the waves producing the two lensed images
traveled through different parts of the intervening galaxy, allowed us to learn some important facts about the galaxy’s magnetic field,”
said Sui Ann Mao, Minerva Research Group Leader for the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany.

VIRGO: dik ;-)

HADIAK: Tak to je fakt nádhera!

Cassini: The Grand Finale: NASA Announces Cassini End-of-Mission Activities
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3104/nasa-announces-cassini-end-of-mission-activities/

On Sept. 15, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will complete its remarkable story of exploration with an intentional plunge into Saturn's atmosphere,
ending its mission after nearly 20 years in space. News briefings, photo opportunities and other media events will be held at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

NASA also will hold a media teleconference Tuesday, Aug. 29 to preview activities for Cassini during its final two weeks.

Media: https://www.nasa.gov/cassinitelecon

SwRI-led study captures science data from Great American Eclipse | SwRI
http://www.swri.org/press-release/swri-led-study-captures-science-data-great-american-eclipse

Two NASA WB-57F research aircraft successfully tracked the August 21 solar eclipse as part of a NASA project led by Southwest
Research Institute (SwRI) to study the solar corona and Mercury’s surface.

“The visible and infrared data look spectacular,” said SwRI senior research scientist Dr. Amir Caspi, principal investigator of
the project. “We’re already seeing some surprising features, and we are very excited to learn what the detailed analysis will reveal.”

The team began initial analysis of the data gathered during the flights, showing clear images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere and thermal
images of Mercury’s surface. Initial results are expected to be released in a few months and presented at the fall meeting of the American
Geophysical Union in December 2017.

Kepler satellite discovers variability in the Seven Sisters
http://www.ras.org.uk/...-and-press/3038-kepler-satellite-discovers-variability-in-the-seven-sisters

The Seven Sisters, as they were known to the ancient Greeks, are now known to modern astronomers as the Pleiades star cluster –
a set of stars which are visible to the naked eye and have been studied for thousands of years by cultures all over the world.
Now Dr Tim White of the Stellar Astrophysics Centre at Aarhus University and his team of Danish and international astronomers
have demonstrated a powerful new technique for observing stars such as these, which are ordinarily far too bright to look at
with high performance telescopes. Their work is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Using a new algorithm to enhance observations from the Kepler Space Telescope in its K2 Mission, the team has performed
the most detailed study yet of the variability of these stars. Satellites such as Kepler are engineered to search for planets
orbiting distant stars by looking for the dip in brightness as the planets pass in front, and also to do asteroseismology,
studying the structure and evolution of stars as revealed by changes in their brightness.
structure and evolution of stars as revealed by changes in their brightness.

Konečně doma z práce. Víno ulito, konečně si vychutnám "multimedia čtvrtek"... :)
Moc se těším na Deep A: WASP-121b

WASP-121b - A Scorching Hot Atmosphere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl1I9L8xemk


FB Live: Frank Drake talks about the Aug. 25th 40th anniversary of the Golden Record.

https://www.facebook.com/SETIInstitute/videos/10155494936395535

Cassini: The Wonder of Saturn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htOoWJmYVtQ

https://www.nasa.gov/...oddard/2017/nasa-s-webb-telescope-will-study-our-solar-system-s-ocean-worlds

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will use its infrared capabilities to study the “ocean worlds” of Jupiter’s moon
Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, adding to observations previously made by NASA’s Galileo and Cassini orbiters.
The Webb telescope’s observations could also help guide future missions to the icy moons.

Possible Spectroscopy Results of Europa Using Webb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze2ooa3c8yg

Large fireball recorded over Krugersdorp, South Africa
https://watchers.news/2017/08/23/large-fireball-recorded-over-krugersdorp-south-africa/

A large fireball was observed and recorded over the South African
city of Krugersdorp at 16:59 UTC (18:59 SAST) on August 22, 2017.

Huge meteor over Krugersdorp, South Africa (22/08/2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlQo-NUNWNo


Meteorite Over Johannesburg South Africa 15-06-2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmhClpLXLnA