the-star-stuff: It’s Official: Mars Was Habitable Long ago, Mars had the conditions and ingredients to support life. That conclusion—the first ever made about another celestial body—was announced today by the Curiosity rover team after a wildly successful drilling campaign into what may have once been the bed of a Martian lake.  “We have found a habitable environment,” said John Grotzinger, project scientist for the Curiosity mission. “The water that was here was so benign and supportive of life that if a human had been on the planet back then, they could drink it.” Read the article here.
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the-star-stuff:

It’s Official: Mars Was Habitable

Long ago, Mars had the conditions and ingredients to support life.

That conclusion—the first ever made about another celestial body—was announced today by the Curiosity rover team after a wildly successful drilling campaign into what may have once been the bed of a Martian lake. 

“We have found a habitable environment,” said John Grotzinger, project scientist for the Curiosity mission. “The water that was here was so benign and supportive of life that if a human had been on the planet back then, they could drink it.”

Read the article here.

The Arms of M106 The spiral arms of bright galaxy M106 sprawl through this remarkable multiframe portrait, composed of data from ground- and space-based telescopes. Also known as NGC 4258, M106 can be found toward the northern constellation Canes Venatici. The well-measured distance to M106 is 23.5 million light-years, making this cosmic scene about 80,000 light-years across. Typical in grand spiral galaxies, dark dust lanes, youthful blue star clusters, and pinkish star forming regions trace spiral arms that converge on the bright nucleus of older yellowish stars. But this detailed composite reveals hints of two anomalous arms that don’t align with the more familiar tracers. Seen here in red hues, sweeping filaments of glowing hydrogen gas seem to rise from the central region of M106, evidence of energetic jets of material blasting into the galaxy’s disk. The jets are likely powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole. [x]
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The Arms of M106

The spiral arms of bright galaxy M106 sprawl through this remarkable multiframe portrait, composed of data from ground- and space-based telescopes. Also known as NGC 4258, M106 can be found toward the northern constellation Canes Venatici. The well-measured distance to M106 is 23.5 million light-years, making this cosmic scene about 80,000 light-years across. Typical in grand spiral galaxies, dark dust lanes, youthful blue star clusters, and pinkish star forming regions trace spiral arms that converge on the bright nucleus of older yellowish stars. But this detailed composite reveals hints of two anomalous arms that don’t align with the more familiar tracers. Seen here in red hues, sweeping filaments of glowing hydrogen gas seem to rise from the central region of M106, evidence of energetic jets of material blasting into the galaxy’s disk. The jets are likely powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole. [x]

scienceisbeauty: This collage of solar images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows how observations of the sun in different wavelengths helps highlight different aspects of the sun’s surface and atmosphere. Credit: NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center Source: Why NASA Scientists Observe the Sun in Different Wavelengths, NASA.
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scienceisbeauty:

This collage of solar images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows how observations of the sun in different wavelengths helps highlight different aspects of the sun’s surface and atmosphere.

Credit: NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center

Source: Why NASA Scientists Observe the Sun in Different Wavelengths, NASA.

(via computronium)

Source: scienceisbeauty

rhamphotheca: Nearby Solar System Looks More Like Home by Ken Croswell Gliese 581 (main image) is a red dwarf star just 21 light-years from Earth that boasts a number of planets. As astronomers report this month in Astronomy & Astrophysics, the Herschel Space Observatory has now discovered another feature that earthlings would find familiar: a ring of dust far from the star which resembles the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, a zone of objects, each much smaller than Earth, that lies beyond Neptune’s orbit and includes Pluto. The dim red star’s light heats dust in the belt, which emits the far-infrared wavelengths that Herschel detects (inset). The newfound debris disk is about as large as the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, even though Gliese 581 is small and all of its known planets lie closer to their sun than Earth does to ours. The scientists speculate that the little red star harbors a more remote planet whose gravity stirs up the belt’s small objects, causing them to collide and spew the dust that Herschel has discerned. (via: Science NOW)       (images: ESO; (inset) J. F. Lestrade et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics)
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rhamphotheca:

Nearby Solar System Looks More Like Home

by Ken Croswell

Gliese 581 (main image) is a red dwarf star just 21 light-years from Earth that boasts a number of planets. As astronomers report this month in Astronomy & Astrophysics, the Herschel Space Observatory has now discovered another feature that earthlings would find familiar: a ring of dust far from the star which resembles the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, a zone of objects, each much smaller than Earth, that lies beyond Neptune’s orbit and includes Pluto.

The dim red star’s light heats dust in the belt, which emits the far-infrared wavelengths that Herschel detects (inset). The newfound debris disk is about as large as the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, even though Gliese 581 is small and all of its known planets lie closer to their sun than Earth does to ours. The scientists speculate that the little red star harbors a more remote planet whose gravity stirs up the belt’s small objects, causing them to collide and spew the dust that Herschel has discerned.

(via: Science NOW)      

(images: ESO; (inset) J. F. Lestrade et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics)