What is a Dark Galaxy?

By on Feb 6, 2014 in For Your Information | 0 comments

  What is a dark galaxy? Well a dark galaxy is an early galaxy formation that is very inefficient at forming stars and is thought to be made up of dark matter. They are usually small low density gas-rich galaxies that have been thought to be the building blocks of today’s bright star filled galaxies. Since dark galaxies don’t hold any visible stars they are invisible to us making it very hard to detect. The theory of dark galaxies originated in 2000 when astronomers were studying a gas cloud called VIRGOHI21. Scientists were trying to figure out what it was and why it could cause a gravitational pull from the galaxy NGC 4254. After years of research they concluded that VIRGOHI21 was a dark galaxy due to the massive effect it had on NGC 4254. Well how does an astronomer detect a dark galaxy if they devoid light? Interestingly astronomers use quasars (which is an active...

Happy 10 Year Anniversary Mars Spirit Rover

By on Jan 3, 2014 in Events | 0 comments

  10 years ago today Spirit rover lands on Mars, marking it a beautiful time in human history.  It landed in 2004 and was active until 2010. It was one of the two rovers, at the time, that took part in NASA’s ongoing mission called Mars Exploration Rover Mission. The other rover, Opportunity, landed on the other side of the red planet 3 weeks later than Spirit. The objective for Spirit’s mission was to search for and characterize a variety of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity. It wa also sent to determine what geological processes have shaped the local terrain. Spirit rover was built to last for 600 m and about 90 sol (sol is one day on Mars), but lasted for an astounding 2,208 sols and drove 7 km! Unfortunately in 2009 the rover became stuck and its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010. JPL continued to make contact with Spirit...

Your 2013 Guide to the Top Space Discoveries of the Year

By on Dec 30, 2013 in Round Up Post | 0 comments

  What a year it has been for astronomy! There have been some amazing discoveries like finding more habitable planets that contained water to the more bittersweet stories such as the malfunctioning of the Kepler Spacecraft. Nonetheless, it’s that time of the year where we take a look back at some of the top space discoveries of 2013. Let’s take a look!     Our Friend Voyager Enters Interstellar Space Sending Humankind Farther Than Ever Before Back to Top   Voyager 1 and 2 have made humankind proud with how far they have traveled in the depths of space. They have been traveling for over 30 years and they manage to keep sending us data back. It has traveled about 18 billion km! To give you a little perspective, if you traveled at the speed of light it would take you about 35 hours to reach Voyager! I am still very proud of Voyager to keep pushing the...

NASA’s New Study Suggests Carbon Worlds May Be Waterless

By on Nov 5, 2013 in Breaking News | 0 comments

NASA’s New Study Suggests Carbon Worlds May Be Waterless     According to a NASA-funded theoretical research carbon rich planets, such as diamond planets, may be waterless. By modelling the ingredients of a carbon planet the data shows that they would lack ocean reservoirs or icy water that supply said planets with oceans. Torrence Johnson of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena says, “The building blocks that went into making our oceans are the icy asteroids and comets.” Then goes on to say “If we keep track of these building blocks, we find that planets around carbon-rich stars come up dry.” Torrence brings up an interesting point that from his observations he noticed that if the main building block, carbon, is too abundant then it will steal away all the oxygen that would have made water. This strikes me as thought provoking when...

Beautiful Reflection Nebula of M78

By on Oct 26, 2013 in Pictures | 1 comment

Beautiful Reflection Nebula of M78     This is a beautiful image of a reflection nebula called M78. It’s located in the constellation Orion and is 1600 light years away from Earth. A reflection nebula is a cloud of interstellar dust that reflects the light of nearby stars. The nebula itself is 5 light years across and glows blue because it’s reflecting blue light from young hot stars in the region. Dark dust lanes can be easily traced through this beautiful skyscape. An interesting antidote about reflection nebulas is that the energy from nearby stars are insufficient to ionize the gas of the nebulae to create an emission nebula. However, when you do see ionized gas in a nebulae it is giving you clues that a hot star is entering the stages of a dying star. M78 is a beautiful example of a reflection nebula and is one breath taking image. For more information you...