Atomos

Atomos

I am titled Melissa.
I've seen 20 revolutions around the sun.
Science + SciFi + Art
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Aspiring amateur astronomer.
Science enthusiast.
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This is what I post.
This is what I look like.
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01/24/12
* What I post does not belong to me, unless otherwise stated, obviously. Please don't remove the credit when reblogging.

ikenbot:

New Research Confirms The Existence of Dark Matter

Image: Don Dixon

Fans of dark matter can rest easy. A study published last month raised eyebrows by suggesting that our cosmic neighbourhood is empty of the extra mass needed to hold the galaxy together. But a re-analysis shows that the dark matter was there all along.

Dark matter is the mysterious, invisible stuff that makes up 83 per cent of the matter in the universe. It is responsible for keeping galaxies from flying apart despite their high spinning speeds, and has aided our understanding of how structures in the universe formed.

The most popular theories say that dark matter is a hitherto undetected particle called a WIMP (weakly interacting massive particle) that is shy of interacting with ordinary matter through any force except gravity.

But several underground detectors waiting for WIMPs have come up empty, or with conflicting results. If the galaxy is so full of dark matter, why hasn’t it shown up yet?

In April, a team led by Christian Moni-Bidin of the University of Concepcion in Chile thought they had a solution: the WIMPs aren’t actually there.

The team tracked the motions of more than 400 stars within 13,000 light years of Earth to estimate the mass of matter – visible and dark – in the sun’s local neighbourhood. They concluded that the mass they found could be explained by the visible matter alone, with no need for dark matter.

But the team made a subtle error, say Jo Bovy and Scott Tremaine of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

Moni-Bidin and colleagues considered stars whose orbits take them far above or below the Milky Way’s main bright disc, and used the speed at which they orbit the centre of the galaxy to figure out how much of a pull they feel from the nearby mass of stars and dark matter. They assumed that the stars’ speeds would be the same no matter how far they were from the galactic centre. Observations of dust clumps have shown that this assumption is true for young stars orbiting in the galactic disc, which mostly move in a near-perfect circle.

But the stars that orbit high above or far below the disc can’t have circular orbits, Bovy says. The only stars that reach such great heights have been kicked away from the disc by matter in the galaxy’s spiral arms, which sent them on highly elliptical orbits.

Full Article: Crisis averted: Dark matter was there all along

New Research Confirms The Existence of Dark Matter

Image: Don Dixon

Fans of dark matter can rest easy. A study published last month raised eyebrows by suggesting that our cosmic neighbourhood is empty of the extra mass needed to hold the galaxy together. But a re-analysis shows that the dark matter was there all along.

Dark matter is the mysterious, invisible stuff that makes up 83 per cent of the matter in the universe. It is responsible for keeping galaxies from flying apart despite their high spinning speeds, and has aided our understanding of how structures in the universe formed.

The most popular theories say that dark matter is a hitherto undetected particle called a WIMP (weakly interacting massive particle) that is shy of interacting with ordinary matter through any force except gravity.

But several underground detectors waiting for WIMPs have come up empty, or with conflicting results. If the galaxy is so full of dark matter, why hasn’t it shown up yet?

In April, a team led by Christian Moni-Bidin of the University of Concepcion in Chile thought they had a solution: the WIMPs aren’t actually there.

The team tracked the motions of more than 400 stars within 13,000 light years of Earth to estimate the mass of matter – visible and dark – in the sun’s local neighbourhood. They concluded that the mass they found could be explained by the visible matter alone, with no need for dark matter.

But the team made a subtle error, say Jo Bovy and Scott Tremaine of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

Moni-Bidin and colleagues considered stars whose orbits take them far above or below the Milky Way’s main bright disc, and used the speed at which they orbit the centre of the galaxy to figure out how much of a pull they feel from the nearby mass of stars and dark matter. They assumed that the stars’ speeds would be the same no matter how far they were from the galactic centre. Observations of dust clumps have shown that this assumption is true for young stars orbiting in the galactic disc, which mostly move in a near-perfect circle.

But the stars that orbit high above or far below the disc can’t have circular orbits, Bovy says. The only stars that reach such great heights have been kicked away from the disc by matter in the galaxy’s spiral arms, which sent them on highly elliptical orbits.

Full Article: Crisis averted: Dark matter was there all along

ikenbot:

IC 4603

The Turbulent Heart of the Rho Ophiuchi Complex

Copyright: Rolf Wahl Olsen

This image shows the core region of the Rho Ophiuchi Complex, centered around the prominent blue reflection nebula IC 4603. This is one of the nearest star forming regions and the intricacies of the dense interstellar dust clouds in the area provides a spectacular display of light and colours.

The bright star is 7.9 magnitude SAO184376 which is the main source of light for the blue reflection nebula. The contrasting red areas towards the top are primarily due to reflected light from the hearby red giant star Antares, which lies outside the field of view. The entire area is also littered with hundreds of dim reddish stars, which are typically very young T Tauri stars.

IC 4603

The Turbulent Heart of the Rho Ophiuchi Complex

Copyright: Rolf Wahl Olsen

This image shows the core region of the Rho Ophiuchi Complex, centered around the prominent blue reflection nebula IC 4603. This is one of the nearest star forming regions and the intricacies of the dense interstellar dust clouds in the area provides a spectacular display of light and colours.

The bright star is 7.9 magnitude SAO184376 which is the main source of light for the blue reflection nebula. The contrasting red areas towards the top are primarily due to reflected light from the hearby red giant star Antares, which lies outside the field of view. The entire area is also littered with hundreds of dim reddish stars, which are typically very young T Tauri stars.

Friday, May 25, 2012

bouncingdodecahedrons:

“These are some of the things hydrogen atoms do, given fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution. It has the sound of epic myth, but it’s simply a description of the evolution of the cosmos as revealed by science in our time. And we, we who embody the local eyes and ears, and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, we’ve begun at last to wonder about our origins. Star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms contemplating the evolution of matter, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet Earth and, perhaps, throughout the cosmos. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves, but also to that cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.”

#A Personal Voyage

#Who Speaks for Earth

ikenbot:

Scorpius in Red and Blue

Scorpius in Red and Blue

Thursday, May 24, 2012

My favorite moment from Cosmos is one a lot of people seem to have overlooked

“Near zero gee, the slightest motion sends our friends floating and tumbling in the air. Little blobs of liquid tea are everywhere. If we now return the gravity to one gee, it’s raining tea, and our friends [from Alice in Wonderland] fall back to Earth.

I’ve been to a couple of parties like that myself.”

-From Episode 9: The Lives of the Stars.

#gravity motherfuckers

Sunday, May 20, 2012

M31 / Andromeda Galaxy
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M31 / Andromeda Galaxy

[x]

#Astrophotography

Veil Nebula
[x]

Veil Nebula

[x]

#Astrophotography

Saturday, May 19, 2012

NGC 7380 / The Wizard Nebula
[x]

NGC 7380 / The Wizard Nebula

[x]

#Astrophotography

NGC 7000 and IC 5070
[x]

NGC 7000 and IC 5070

[x]

#Astrophotography

NGC 6559 / Nebula in Sagittarius
[x]

NGC 6559 / Nebula in Sagittarius

[x]

#Astrophotography