Eyes on the Sky

crookedindifference: Observatory Laser meets Lightning On...

Tue, 07 May 2013 17:59:04 +0200

Observatory Laser meets Lightning

On Thursday 18 August, the sky above the Allgäu Public Observatory in southwestern Bavaria was an amazing sight, with the night lit up by two very different phenomena: one an example of advanced technology, and the other of nature’s dramatic power.

As ESO tested the new Wendelstein laser guide star unit by shooting a powerful laser beam into the atmosphere, one of the region’s intense summer thunderstorms was approaching — a very visual demonstration of why ESO’s telescopes are in Chile, and not in Germany. Heavy grey clouds threw down bolts of lightning as Martin Kornmesser, visual artist for the ESO outreach department, took timelapse photographs of the test for ESOcast 34. With purely coincidental timing this photograph was snapped just as lightning flashed, resulting in a breathtaking image that looks like a scene from a science fiction movie. Although the storm was still far from the observatory, the lightning appears to clash with the laser beam in the sky.

Laser guide stars are artificial stars created 90 kilometres up in the Earth’s atmosphere using a laser beam. Measurements of this artificial star can be used to correct for the blurring effect of the atmosphere in astronomical observations — a technique known as adaptive optics. The Wendelstein laser guide star unit is a new design, combining the laser with the small telescope used to launch it in a single modular unit, which can then be placed onto larger telescopes.

The laser in this photograph is a powerful one, with a 20-watt beam, but the power in a bolt of lightning peaks at a trillion (one million million) watts, albeit for just a fraction of a second! Shortly after this picture was taken the storm reached the observatory, forcing operations to close for the night. While we may have the ability to harness advanced technology for devices such as laser guide stars, we are still subject to the forces of nature, not least among them the weather!

Photo

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 22:32:39 +0100

crookedindifference: Milky Way Galaxy Doomed: Collision with...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:39:17 +0100

crookedindifference:

Milky Way Galaxy Doomed: Collision with Andromeda Pending

Will our Milky Way Galaxy collide one day with its larger neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy? Most likely, yes. Careful plotting of slight displacements of M31’s stars relative to background galaxies on recent Hubble Space Telescope images indicate that the center of M31 could be on a direct collision course with the center of our home galaxy. Still, the errors in sideways velocity appear sufficiently large to admit a good chance that the central parts of the two galaxies will miss, slightly, but will become close enough for their outer halos to become gravitationally entangled. Once that happens, the two galaxies will become bound, dance around, and eventually merge to become one large elliptical galaxy — over the next few billion years. Pictured above is an artist’s illustration of the sky of a world in the distant future when the central parts of each galaxy begin to destroy each other. The exact future of our Milky Way and the entire surrounding Local Group of Galaxies is likely to remain an active topic of research for years to come.

Photo

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:01:57 +0100

inothernews: SOLAR SPIT An image captured by NASA’s Solar...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 23:36:47 +0100

inothernews:

SOLAR SPIT An image captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a blast of plasma streaming from the Sun in August 2012. Scientists say a solar eruption was detected on Tuesday and was headed toward Mars. When reached for comment, Mars said “Tell the Sun to come at me, bro.” (Photo: NASA via the AP / Wall Street Journal)

Video

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:05:00 +0100

n-a-s-a: IC 1805: The Heart Nebula Image Credit &...

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:32:48 +0100

n-a-s-a:

IC 1805: The Heart Nebula

Image Credit & Copyright: Terry Hancock

Photo

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:47:41 +0100

The Heart and The Soul Nebulae HST

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:41:56 +0100

The Heart and The Soul Nebulae HST

Photo

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 21:19:57 +0100

If you live in southwest-germany and are interested in...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:10:00 +0100

If you live in southwest-germany and are interested in Telescopes and new developements, I highly recommend the Optik-Kolloquium in Stuttgart, Feburary, 27.

n-a-s-a: A VLT Auxiliary Telescopes watches the Milky Way...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:04:03 +0100

n-a-s-a:

A VLT Auxiliary Telescopes watches the Milky Way setting

Credit: G. Hüdepohl/ESO

Beautifull, isn’t it.

atomstargazer: APOD, 2013 February 11 N11: Star Clouds of the...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:58:43 +0100

atomstargazer:

APOD, 2013 February 11
N11: Star Clouds of the LMC
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Lake (Pomfret School

Explanation: Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC). The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.