Organics, New Binary and More.... PDF Print E-mail
Written by Nathaniel Whitehead   
Well once again we have some very interesting and exciting news to report from the world of astronomy. There have been some major discoveries over the last few weeks, including Cassini’s surprising data from its encounter with one of Saturn’s moons, the discovery of a new and very curios type of star system, the images captured of a solar tsunami, the smallest exoplanet found thus far and new images of one of the moons of Mars…….

Enceladus and its Organics:


On March 12th the Cassini probe that is exploring the Saturnian system flew over one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus and tested material that is being ejected from its southern polar region in geyser like plumes. The result of this flyby was a mass of data that indicated high levels of water vapor and organic compounds in the small moon. The Cassini flyby took the probe within 120 miles of the surface of this little moon and right through the plumes of material that come from a feature known as the “tiger strips” that are long fractures showing warmer temperatures than the surrounding areas.


Image on left: A heat map of the fractures in the southern polar region of Enceladus. The yellow stars indicate where plumes have been seen coming from the moon. Image on right: ratios of organic materials found in the moon plumes. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute


The ratio of organic materials found in this ice moon were a surprise to researchers in that they closely resembled the make up of a comet. The density of the materials was 20 times what was expected and the data from Cassini has many in the world of astronomy very excited. The importance of these finds can not be overlooked, for Enceladus has water vapor, heat and organic chemicals present, all we need is evidence for liquid water and we have a fantastic candidate for pre-biotic chemistry, which is the beginning of the chemical process thought to lead to life. To find primordial material inside a small moon of Saturn was a surprise and no doubt the Cassini mission will keep yielding more fantastic results. To read more on this and the Cassini mission in general visit the following link and our original source;
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=827

The Stellar Peanut:

What’s that in the sky? Is it a cosmic peanut? No it’s a new type of star system that just happens to look like a peanut.


The image above shows a rendering of what the
yellow supergiant eclipsing binary system might look like.
Image Credit: Kevin Gecsi/Ohio State University


Astronomers at Ohio State University have discovered two star systems not previously known called “a yellow supergiant eclipsing binary”. The binary system consists of two yellow stars that are each 15 to 20 times the mass of our own Sun and orbit so close to one another that they actually share some of their material with one another, which produces the very peanut like shape. The first one of these systems was found 13 million light years away in a small galaxy dubbed Holmberg IX using the large binocular telescope located in Arizona. The researchers were very surprised to see such a system and started going through old observation data looking for the signs of more of these systems. The system is called eclipsing because as it rotates one star passes in front of the other, making the light from the pair dim and then brighten. By looking for this pattern in old data one of the astronomers uncovered another one of these systems much closer to home, only a mere 230,000 light years away.

The discovery of this new type of stellar system may help shine light on an odd type of supernova as well. See normally stars end their lives in a supernova when they are in a red or blue stage of evolution, usually the red, but recently two supernovae were linked to yellow supergiant stars and this requires more explanation. Though it is still very speculative the source of the yellow supernovae may be these types of stars systems, though we will have to wait to find out. This discovery shines new light on stellar properties and evolution as well it shows how much there is left to discover and understand about the universe around us. To find out more and to view our original source visit the following link; http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/superyellow.htm

Solar Tsunami:

Observations by a team of researchers from Trinity College in Dublin revealed an amazing sight recently, a huge solar tsunami. Astronomers have known about such events on the Sun for some time but new images and time lapse footage reveal the event with amazing detail. Solar tsunamis are caused by massive explosions in the Sun called coronal mass ejections and travel at speeds of over a million kilometers an hour, quickly spreading over large areas of our closest star.


Above is an image of a solar tsunami as it traversed
the sun at mind bending speeds with amazing energy.
Image Credit: University of Dublin

The energy released is tremendous, in just a split second the energy released in this event was two billion times the annual energy consumption of the entire planet Earth, and that is a lot of energy. Starting out in the chromosphere, a layer of the Sun that is not visible to the naked eye, the tsunami was captured by several orbiting imagers like Stereo and the Soho observatory, because so many images were taken researchers were able to see how the event traveled through different layers of the Sun that have different densities. What they found was a slight surprise; the tsunami seemed to move equally through multiple layers of varying density. There is still a lot to be learned from our Sun and with research like this we are well on our way to a much clearer understating of solar processes. To find out more about this story visit the following link and one of our sources;

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080402154252.htm

Extra Rocky and Extra Solar:

Researchers from the Spanish research council and the University College London have announced the possible discovery of a rocky planet orbiting a star other than our own. Astronomers have identified other exoplanets (a planet outside our solar system) that they believe to be rocky because of their mass, but this one is the smallest to date. Located 30 light years away from Earth in the constellation Leo the planet was found by looking at the radial velocities of planets already known in the system. Dubbed GJ 436c and orbiting a star named GJ 436, the planet is much closer to its parent star than we are to the Sun, its orbit is only 5.2 of our days and because of its revolution and its orbit its days are almost three of our weeks long. More confirmation is needed to make sure the find is what is believed but this discovery shows us that the tools for searching for Earth like planets are getting better all the time and before long we should be able to detect exoplanets much like our own. To read on this and other stories visit the following link and our original source;

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080409113958.htm

A Moon of Mars:

Some people are surprised to find out that Mars has two Moons, but they aren’t like our Moon, they are small, oblong and may be captured asteroids. Images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are showing one of the Moons, Phobos, in amazing quality, resolving images as small as 15 meters. Researchers find the small moon of great interest because of the possibility that it harbors water ice and carbon rich materials. If nothing else the images are wonderful to look at and hopefully they will be able to tell us more about the origin and evolution of the little moon itself.


Shown here is one of the images taken by the MRO craft.
It shows the moon Phobos.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

To see more of the images taken by the orbiter and read the press release follow this link;

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro-20080409.html