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Mars Base

LEGO Figures Flying On NASA Jupiter Probe | NASA Juno Spacecraft & LEGOs In Space | Spa... - 0 views

www.space.com/s-jupiter-juno-spacecraft.html

scibyte38 lego Jupiter

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • three more "very special" LEGO figurines are set to fly to the planet Jupiter with NASA's Juno spacecraft
  • specially-constructed LEGO Minifigures are of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno, and "father of science" Galileo Galilei.
  • part of the Bricks in Space project
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • joint outreach and educational program developed as part of the collaboration between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
  • NASA has a long-standing partnership with the LEGO company
  • Juno and the minifigures are scheduled to arrive in July 2016 and orbit Jupiter for a year (33 revolutions) before intentionally crashing into the giant gas planet
  • 04 August 2011
  • The trio resemble the typical small toys that LEGO sells, but are made out of metal.
  • Jupiter (who was the equivalent of "Zeus" to the Greeks) drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief
  • Juno was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature
  • Juno spacecraft will also look beneath the clouds to help NASA understand the planet's structure and history.
  • Juno holds a magnifying glass "to signify her search for the truth,"
  • husband holds a lightning bolt
  • third LEGO crew member, Galileo Galilei, made several important discoveries about Jupiter
  • first to point a telescope at the sky to make astronomical observations and discovered the four largest satellites of Jupiter — named the Galilean moons in his honor.
  • minifigure Galileo has his telescope with him for the journey to Jupiter.
  • basically the size of the normal LEGO figures
  • made out of aluminum, very special aluminum and they have been prepared in a very special way
  • space-grade aluminum
  • testing to make sure that they fit on our spacecraft in a way that is like our other science instruments."
  • mini-metal statues are joined on the spacecraft by another "special passenger," one
  • 2.8-inch by 2-inch (71 mm by 51 mm) plaque also made of flight-grade aluminum is bonded to Juno's propulsion bay with a spacecraft-grade epoxy. The graphic on the plaque shows a self-portrait of Galileo. The plaque also includes — in Galileo's own hand — a passage he made in 1610 of observations of Jupite
  • Galileo's text included on the plaque reads as follows: "On the 11th it was in this formation -- and the star closest to Jupiter was half the size than the other and very close to the other so that during the previous nights all of the three observed stars looked of the same dimension and among them equally afar; so that it is evident that around Jupiter there are three moving stars invisible till this time to everyone."
Mars Base

Jupiter Photos Reveal Big Changes on Giant Planet | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/teroid-strikes-atmosphere.html

scibyte68 jupiter

shared by Mars Base on 18 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 18 Oct 12
     
    Voyager 1 took photos of Jupiter and two of its satellites (Io, left, and Europa). The new study says that moons orbiting a gas giant planet greater than 8 Jupiter masses could help astronomers detect a rogue planet. Photos: Jupiter, the Solar System's Largest Planet This graphic of Jupiter by UK astronomer Pete Lawrence shows the location of the Jupiter impact region from Sept. 12, 2012, as seen through an inverting astronomical telescope. Jupiter Impact of Sept. 10, 2012 (Photos) Jupiter: Giant, Windy Gas-Ball Protecting The Inner Solar System Jupiter: Giant, Windy Gas-Ball Protecting The Inner Solar System | Video Jupiter Photos Reveal Big Changes on Giant Planet by SPACE.com Staff Date: 17 October 2012 Time: 04:58 PM ET inShare1
Mars Base

Jupiter May Help Supercharge Orionid Meteor Shower | Halley's Comet | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/met-orionid-meteor-shower.html

scibyte40 comet jupiter Halley

shared by Mars Base on 28 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Jupiter's powerful gravity can help supercharge a meteor shower caused by trailing chunks of the famed Halley's comet, a new study suggests
  • Every October, skywatchers are treated to a dazzling show when the Orionid meteors — leftover bits of Halley's comet
  • The Orionids are incredibly active from time to
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • activity is generated by a complex orbital interplay among Jupiter, the comet and the meteoroids
  • according to the study
  • Previous research had suggested that intense Orionid outbursts occur after the meteoroids fall into resonances with Jupiter's orbit
  • Resonances are gravitational sweet spots in which objects' orbits around the sun are related by a ratio of two whole numbers. (A 1:2 resonance, for example, means that one body completes one orbit in the time it takes another object to make two orbits.)
  • new study finds that Halley's comet itself has likely been in resonances with Jupiter in the
  • which in turn increases the odds of populating the Orionid stream with resonant meteoroids
  • particles ejected during those times tend to clump together due to periodic effects from Jupiter
  • modeled the orbital evolution of Halley's comet over a long stretch of time
  • from more than 12,000 years in the past to 15,000 years into the future
  • determind that from 1404 B.C. to 690 B.C., the comet was likely trapped in a 1:6 resonance with Jupiter
  • Halley completed one orbit for every six orbits of Jupiter around the sun).
  • from 240 B.C. to 1700 A.D., the comet was in a 2:13 orbital resonance with Jupiter
  • Debris deposited during these two periods are directly linked to heightened activity in the Orionid meteor showers in some years, according to the study.
  • the unusual Orionid outburst observed in 1993 was due to 2:13 resonant meteoroids sloughed by Halley around 240 B.C
  • predicts that the next similarly heightened display of meteors from this 2:13 resonance will be in 2070 A.D.
Mars Base

Russia May Land Probe on Jupiter's Moon Ganymede with Europe's JUICE Mission | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/sia-europe-jupiter-probes.html

scibyte99

shared by Mars Base on 20 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A Russian probe being designed to land on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, could launch toward the gas giant with a European spacecraft being developed to explore Jupiter's icy ocean-covered satellites, according to European space officials.
  • more Earthly concerns, such as government finances and the realities of technical developments, could thwart the proposal
  • JUICE is scheduled to launch in 2022 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030, entering orbit around the huge planet and making repeated flybys of three of its largest moons — Ganymede, Callisto and Europa
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • In September 2032, the European spacecraft will arrive at Ganymede, becoming the first probe to enter orbit around the moon of another planet
  • Equipped with radar, a mapping camera and other instruments, JUICE will measure the thickness of global ice sheets covering Jupiter's moons and produce terrain and mineral maps of Ganymede
  • Russia's plan is to implement a Ganymede Lander
  • Russian mission planners initially proposed the lander to target Europa, another of Jupiter's moons with a frozen crust thinner than the ice cap covering Ganymede
  • After a NASA mission to orbit Europa never materialized, Russia retooled the project to focus on Ganymede, falling in line with the goals of Europe's Jupiter mission
  • advantages of landing on Ganymede as opposed to Europa
  • The radiation environment at Ganymede is less severe than at Europa, which lies closer to Jupiter
  • this is one of the reasons ESA picked Ganymede as the destination for JUICE
  • Russian scientists say mapping and reconnaissance of Ganymede are required before any attempted landing
  • If Russia becomes a full partner in Europe's JUICE mission, the development of the lander will need to be accelerated to launch in 2022, if managers want the Russian craft to ride to Jupiter as a piggyback payload.
Mars Base

This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 23 - 31 | Sky & Telescope - 0 views

www.skyandtelescope.com/...weeks-sky-glance-may-23-31

scibyte132 LookingUp

shared by Mars Base on 25 May 14 - No Cached
  • Wednesday, May 28
  • New Moon
  • (exact at 2:40 p.m. EDT)
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • Friday, May 30
  • very low in the west-northwest in twilight for the hairline crescent Moon with Mercury to its right. They're far to the lower right of bright Jupiter
  • Saturday, May 31
  • The Moon, Jupiter, and Pollux above them form a nearly straight line in twilight as seen from North America
  • Mercury
  • highest evening apparition of 2014 for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes,
  • fades this week
  • twilight deepens, look for it in the west-northwest to the lower right of bright Jupiter
  • Venus
  • "Morning Star" low due east during dawn
  • Mars (
  • ighest in the south in late twilight
  • Mars sets in the west around 3 or 4 a.m. daylight saving time
  • Jupiter
  • in the west in twilight
  • sinks during the evening and sets around 11 or midnight.
  • Jupiter is on the far side of the Sun from us
  • nearly its minimum apparent size.
  • Saturn
  • is two weeks past 10th opposition.
  • in the southeast during evening and stands highest in the south around 11 or midnight.
Mars Base

Should This Alien World Even Exist? This Young Disk Could Challenge Planet-Formation Th... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...enge-planet-formation-theories

scibyte98 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 14 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • gap in the cloud? That could be a planet being born some 176 light-years away from Earth
  • small planet, only 6 to 28 times Earth’s mass.
  • This alien world, if we can confirm it, shouldn’t be there according to conventional planet-forming theory
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • The gap in the image above — taken by the Hubble Space Telescope — probably arose when a planet under construction swept through the dust and debris in its orbit
  • That’s not much of a surprise (at first blush) given what we think we know about planet formation
  • You start with a cloud of debris and gas swirling around a star, then gradually the bits and pieces start colliding, sticking together and growing bigger into small rocks, bigger ones and eventually, planets or gas giant planet cores
  • this planet is a heck of a long way from its star, TW Hydrae, about twice Pluto’s distance from the sun
  • Given that alien systems’ age, that world shouldn’t have formed so quickly.
  • Astronomers believe that Jupiter took about 10 million years to form at its distance away from the sun
  • This planet near TW Hydrae should take 200 times longer to form because the alien world is moving slower, and has less debris to pick up
  • because TW Hydrae‘s system is believed to be only 8 million years old.
  • TW Hydrae is only 55 percent as massive as our sun
  • astronomers are seriously investigating other theories
  • One alternative brought up in the press release: perhaps part of the disc collapsed due to gravitational instability
  • If that is the case, a planet could come to be in only a few thousand years, instead of several million
  • add to planet formation theories as to how you can actually form a planet very far out
  • If we can actually confirm that there’s a planet there, we can connect its characteristics to measurements of the gap properties
  • direct collapse” theory, though: astronomers believe it takes a bunch of matter that is one to two times more massive than Jupiter before a collapse can occur to form a planet
  • this world is no more than 28 times the mass of Earth, as best as we can figure
  • Jupiter itself is 318 times more massive than Earth
  • There are also intriguing results about the gap
  • dust grains in this system, orbiting nearby the gap, are still smaller than the size of a grain of sand
  • Astronomers plan to use ALMA and the James Webb Space Telescope, which should launch in 2018, to get a better look
Mars Base

Jupiter helps Halley's Comet give us more spectacular meteor displays - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-comet-spectacular-meteor.html

scibyte40 jupiter comet Halley

shared by Mars Base on 28 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • The dramatic appearance of Halley's comet in the night sky has been observed and recorded by astronomers since 240 BC. Now a study shows that the orbital influences of Jupiter on the comet and the debris it leaves in its wake are responsible for periodic outbursts of activity in the Orionid meteor showers. The results will be presented by Aswin Sekhar at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester on Tuesday 27th March.
Mars Base

Ceres (dwarf planet) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Ceres_(dwarf_planet)

scibyte118 LookingBack LookingBackFed LookingBackJan

shared by Mars Base on 01 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • in 1772, first suggested that an undiscovered planet could exist between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
  • Kepler had already noticed the gap between Mars and Jupiter in 1596.
  • Giuseppe Piazzi at the Academy of Palermo
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • discovered Ceres on 1 January 1801
  • Instead of a star, Piazzi had found a moving star-like object, which he first thought was a comet
  • Piazzi observed Ceres a total of 24 times, the final time on 11 February 1801, when illness interrupted his observations
  • The information was published in the September 1801
Mars Base

Distant planets' atmospheres revealed | Atom & Cosmos | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...t_planets_atmospheres_revealed

scibyte86 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Astronomers have gotten the most detailed look yet at the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system
  • The study is among the first to directly analyze the chemical makeup of an exoplanet
  • In the past, astronomers inferred the existence of exoplanets and their gases by looking for subtle changes in the light streaming from the planet’s star
  • ...42 more annotations...
  • Now, with improved instruments, a team
  • has detected light coming directly from a planet light-years away
  • The data have high enough resolution to reveal not only the presence but the abundance of carbon monoxide and water in the planet’s atmosphere
  • Such information could shed light on how the planet formed
  • studies could also reveal the presence of life on a distant planet, but the planet’s size and orbit have already ruled it out as a habitable world
  • In 2008
  • the first image of a multiplanet system outside the solar system, showing three gas giants orbiting the star HR 8799
  • HR 8799 is about 130 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Pegasus
  • The planets are scorching hot, making them bright enough for astronomers to detect directly
  • In 2010, the researchers imaged a fourth planet around HR 8799
  • In the new study
  • focused on one of these planets, HR 8799c.
  • Five to 10 times as massive as Jupiter, HR 8799c sits about eight times farther away from its star than Jupiter does from the sun
  • Because of that great distance, the astronomers could block the star’s light and record infrared light
  • Because different gases absorb and emit light in distinct ways, the team could identify carbon monoxide and water but found no methane, which scientists had thought might be present.
  • In another new study
  • researchers simultaneously collected infrared light from the atmospheres of all four planets
  • A team led by
  • an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, found hints of ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide and acetylene in the planets’ atmospheres
  • The chemistry of each planet varies
  • different from anything in our own solar system
  • Although the teams looked at different wavelengths of light, which pick up different types of molecules, the two studies appear consistent
  • by peering at just one planet, Konopacky’s team obtained more detailed data that allowed the researchers to get a sense of how much carbon and oxygen is in HR 8799c’s atmosphere
  • Knowing the ratio of carbon to oxygen in the atmosphere may reveal how the planet formed
  • Astronomers have two competing theories of how planets arise from the disk of gas and dust encircling a young star
  • In the gravitational instability model, some of the gas and dust suddenly clumps and collapses, simultaneously creating a planet’s core and atmosphere
  • In this scenario, the chemical composition of a planet should match that of its star
  • In the other model, known as core accretion, planet building is a two-step process
  • First, material from the disk accumulates into a core.
  • Later, the core captures gases swirling in the disk to form an atmosphere.
  • In this case, the carbon-to-oxygen ratio of the planet may differ from the star because the accretion of cores may deplete the disk of certain elements
  • Compared with its star, HR 8799c appears to have slightly more carbon relative to oxygen, suggesting the planet originated via core accretion
  • surmise that when the disk around HR 8799 formed, water froze into particles of ice.
  • The bits of ice collided to form the planet’s core, leaving behind little water vapor, and therefore less oxygen, when the planet accumulated its atmosphere later on
  • Other researchers are not convinced by this conclusion
  • “We don’t really understand planetary formation enough to make a strong case either way,”
  • the data from both new studies may help astronomers refine their simulations of planetary formation
  • astronomers have directly imaged planets around three distant stars
  • researchers are poised to capture light from many more planets
  • Project 1640,
  • is looking for Jupiter-sized planets around some 200 stars
  • “Ultimately, with better instruments, people will be able to use these methods on Earthlike planets.”
Mars Base

Jupiter Moon's Buried Lakes Evoke Antarctica | Jupiter Moon Europa | Subsurface Lakes P... - 0 views

www.space.com/arth-antarctica-analogues.html

scibyte22 Europa

shared by Mars Base on 17 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Patches of broken ice unique to the moon have puzzled scientists for over a decade
  • Some have argued they are signs of a subterranean ocean breaking through, while others believe that the crust is too thick for the water to pierce
  • studies of ice formations in Antarctica and Iceland have provided clues to the creation of these puzzling features
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • , a combination of these elements could very well be at work on Jupiter's moon
  • "It looks like crushed ice,
  • In Iceland, volcanoes lay beneath the ice. Their heat melts the base of glaciers and ice sheets, causing the surface to buckle in on itself and allowing stress fractures to form
  • there's no evidence for volcanoes on Europa, and the makeup of the ice is likely different from Earth'
  • irregular areas contain domes and iceberglike blocks that no theoretical models have been able to replicate
  • "On Earth, it is the volcano [melting the ice]," Schmidt said. "On Europa, it is the warm ice plume coming up from below."
  • estimated that it contained as much water as all of the North America's Great Lakes combined, about 1.5 miles (3 kilometers) beneath the surface.
  • One such lake
  • several liquid lakes are likely to exist near the surface today
  • The material cycled into the ocean via these lakes may make Europa's ocean even more habitable than previously imagined
  • The lakes may even be habitats themselves
Mars Base

This Week's Sky at a Glance - SkyandTelescope.com - 1 views

www.skyandtelescope.com/...ataglance

scibyte123 LookingUp

shared by Mars Base on 02 Feb 14 - Cached
  • Thursday, February 6
  • First-quarter Moon
  • Mercury is visible in evening twilight, low in the west-southwest. It fades rapidly
  • ...39 more annotations...
  • y in the dawn; look southeast
  • s just 4° or 5° from lesser Spica to its lower right.
  • highest in the south around 4 a.m., with Spica now under Mars.
  • the eastern sky in early evening
  • . It crosses nearly overhead (for mid-northern observers) around 9 or 10 p.m
  • ) rises around 1 or 2 a.m. and is high in the south at dawn
  • Regulus in Leo to the Moon's left during evening.
  • "Morning Star" in the dawn; look southeast
  • ) rises around 10 or 11 p.m. now
  • 5° to the right of
  • It crosses nearly overhead (for mid-northern observers) around 9 p.m.
  • rises around 1 a.m. and is highest in the south at dawn.
  • by 28°
  • Wednesday, February 19
  • Go out after 11 tonight, and low in the east-southeast, where the Moon has just risen or is about to rise, you'll find bright, fiery Mars with Spica to its right.
  • Thursday, February 20 As dawn breaks Friday morning the 21st, spot the waning Moon in the south with Saturn to its left. Off to their right are Mars and Spica (out of the frame above).
  • before and during dawn; look southeast. It's at its brightest this week.
  • rises around 10 p.m. now, a fiery blaze 5° or 6° to the right of icy Spica. The two of them are highest in the south around 3 or 4 a.m., with Spica now to Mars's lower right
  • Jupiter
  • high southeast in early evening. It crosses nearly overhead (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes) around 8 or 9 p.m.
  • Saturn
  • rises around midnight or 1 a.m. and is highest in the south at the beginning of dawn. By then it's far to the left of Mars and Spica,
  • Venus
  • rises around 10 p.m
  • 6° to the left of icy Spica. The two of them are highest in the south around 3 or 4 a.m., with Spica now lower right of Mar
  • Jupiter
  • e high south during evening
  • Thursday, March 13
  • left of the Moon this evening for Regulus. It's the bottom star in the handle of the Sickle of Leo.
  • Venus
  • "Morning Star" before and during dawn; look southeast.
  • rises around 9 p.m
  • Mars (
  • Spica 5° or 6° to its right
  • highest in the south around 2 a.m., with Spica now lower right of Mars
  • Jupiter
  • overhead during evening
  • Saturn
  • rises around 11 p.m. and is highest in the south before dawn
Mars Base

NASA's Juno Spacecraft Returns 1st Flyby images of Earth while Sailing On to Jupiter - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...th-while-sailing-on-to-jupiter

scibyte105

shared by Mars Base on 11 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Following the speed boosting slingshot of Earth on Wednesday, Oct. 9, that sent NASA’s Juno orbiter hurtling towards Jupite
Mars Base

Hubble discovers water vapor venting from Jupiter's moon Europa - 0 views

phys.org/...apor-venting-jupiter-moon.html

scibyte113 Europa

shared by Mars Base on 13 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Only after a particular camera on the Hubble Space Telescope had been repaired on the last servicing mission by the Space Shuttle did we gain the sensitivity to really search for these plumes
  • Future space probe missions to Europa could confirm that the exact locations and sizes of vents and determine whether they connect to liquid subsurface reservoirs
  • ESA's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, a mission planned for launch in 2022, and which aims to explore both Jupiter and three of its largest moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
Mars Base

July 16 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on July 16th, died, and events - 0 views

www.todayinsci.com/...7_16.htm

scibyte136 LookingBackJul

shared by Mars Base on 15 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Shoemaker-Levy Comet
  • In 1994, the first of 21 asteroids, major fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broken-up 2 years earlier, hit Jupiter, creating a 1200-mile wide fireball 600 miles high to the joy of astronomers awaiting the celestial fireworks, giving scientists their first chance to observe such a collision as it happened, and others through July 22. Jupiter is a gas giant, made up mostly of hydrogen and helium in gas and liquid form.When we observe Jupiter, we are looking not at a solid surface, but a banded atmosphere with swirling clouds and huge storms
Mars Base

Astronomers find 'homeless' planet wandering through space - 0 views

phys.org/...ers-homeless-planet-space.html

scibyte72 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 14 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Over the past few years, several objects of this type have been identified, but their existence could not be established without scientific confirmation of their age
  • appears to be part of a group of very young stars known as the AB Doradus Moving Group
  • This group is unique in that it is made up of around thirty starts that all have the same age, have the same composition and that move together through space
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • the link between the planet and AB Doradus that enabled us to deduce its age and classify it as a planet
  • the researchers obtained a series of infrared images
  • to deduce its mass, its temperature, and of particular note, its age
  • found to be between 50 and 120 millions years old, with a temperature of approximately 400 degrees celsius, and a mass four to seven times that of Jupiter
  • Objects more than 13 times the mass of Jupiter are not considered to be planets but rather Brown dwarfs, as it is this is the minimum amount of mass required for the deuterium at the heart of a star to achieve fusion
  • This object was discovered during a scan that covered the equivalent of 1000 times the surface of the full moon
  • observed hundreds of millions of stars and planets, but we only found one homeless planet in our neighbourhood
Mars Base

'Orphan' Alien Planet Found Nearby Without Parent Star | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ue-alien-planet-discovery.html

scibyte72 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 14 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • The free-floating object
  • is likely a gas giant planet four to seven times more massive than Jupiter,
  • Astronomers have discovered a potential "rogue" alien planet wandering alone just 100 light-years from Earth
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • And if the discovery team is right about CFBDSIR2149's age, the body is likely a planet, with an average temperature of 806 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius), researchers said
  • There's still a slight chance that CFBDSIR2149 is a brown dwarf 
  • Additional observations should help decide the matter.
  • With a good distance measurement and a more accurate proper motion, we will be able to increase (or decrease) the probability that it is indeed a planet
  • One 2011 study, for example, estimated that rogue worlds outnumber "normal" planets with obvious host stars by at least 50 percent throughout the Milky Way
  • The discovery of a starless alien planet would not be shocking
  • In the last year or so, astronomers have spotted a number of such orphan worlds
Mars Base

Astronomers Watch as a Black Hole Eats a Rogue Planet - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...black-hole-eats-a-rogue-planet

scibyte89 BlackHole

shared by Mars Base on 03 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Astronomers using the Integral space observatory were able to watch as the planet was eaten by a black hole that had been inactive for decades
  • The observation was
  • from a galaxy that has been quiet for at least 20–30 years
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • the event is a preview of a similar feeding event that is expected to take place with the black hole at the center of our own Milky Way Galaxy
  • galaxy NGC 4845, 47 million light-years away
  • Astronomers were using Integral to study a different galaxy when they noticed a bright X-ray flare coming from another location in the same wide field-of-view
  • the origin was confirmed as NGC 4845, a galaxy never before detected at high energies
  • the emission was traced from its maximum in January 2011, when the galaxy brightened by a factor of a thousand, and then as it subsided over the course of the year
  • By analyzing the characteristics of the flare, the astronomers could determine that the emission came from a halo of material around the galaxy’s central black hole as it tore apart and fed on an object of 14–30 Jupiter masses, and so the astronomers say the object was either a super-Jupiter or a brown dwarf
  • This object appears to have been ‘wandering,’ which would fit the description of recent studies
  • The black hole in the center of NGC 4845 is estimated to have a mass of around 300,000 times that of our own Sun
  • This is the first time where we have seen the disruption of a substellar object by a black hole
  • estimate that only its external layers were eaten by the black hole, amounting to about 10% of the object’s total mass, and that a denser core has been left orbiting the black hole
  • The flaring event in NGC 4845 might be similar to what is expected to happen with the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way Galaxy
  • these events will tell astronomers more about what happens to the demise of different types of objects as they encounter black holes of varying sizes
  • Estimates are that events like these may be detectable every few years in galaxies around us
  • the emission brightened and decayed shows there was a delay of 2–3 months between the object being disrupted and the heating of the debris in the vicinity of the black hole.
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