Here Comes the Sun- an X-Ray Photo Extravanganza - http://clapway.com/2015/07/09/here-comes-the-sun-an-x-ray-photo-extravanganza987/

Flaring sun resembled a kaleidoscope

Once again at the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales, some new exciting science research and news came up. On July 7th, the NAM released a press release on the Sun with accompanying x-rays that turned into an x-ray extravaganza.

The resulting images looks like the sun turned into a quasi-kaleidoscope, with some areas of the Sun lighting up from flare activity. According to one astronomer with the University of Glasgow, Ianin Hannah, in a press release by the Royal Astronomical Society, the activity seems to be dimming down. However, the process of dimming will still be a few years coming before it reaches its minimum activity level. Perhaps a few less heat waves? Here’s to hoping.

NuSTAR captures the Sun

NuSTAR usually observes black holes and other such things, but was used to study the Sun one day. NuSTAR’s mission is to focus light on high energy x-rays, which in this case revealed areas lit up in the images to be the work of nanoflares. This tells scientists why the Sun is so much hotter on an atmospheric level, and because these nanoflares are smaller in comparison to other things that occur on the Sun, we wouldn’t normally be able to see them were it not for the x-ray images.

But because other flares occur more visibly to telescopes than the nanoflares, detecting them with the NuSTAR was difficult. However, this particular instrument finally succeeded.

Hindrance

Since the Sun is particularly active now, as evident by the solar flares hitting Earth a few weekends ago twice in one week, circumstances make it difficult to study the smaller nanoflares. This is why the dimming down in activity is a good thing. It makes for studying the nanoflares easier without the disrupting larger solar flares getting in the way. Ironically, the Sun is near the end of the quiet session in its eleven year cycle, yet still remaining really active this year.

Once the activity cools down, researchers hope to pinpoint where and how these nanoflares are produced on the Sun. Just don’t try to spot them yourself by staring at it.

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Here Comes the Sun- an X-Ray Photo Extravanganza

New Telescope Will Eventually Replace the Hubble - http://clapway.com/2015/07/09/new-telescope-will-eventually-replace-the-hubble234/

Unveiling the successor

The Hubble has revealed many space discoveries over the years and provided beautiful images of the galactic neighborhood we reside in, as well as other ones much further away. But now, a new telescope may be on the horizon.

On July 6th Monday, a team of researchers put forth a proposal to have a new telescope. The telescope would be able to achieve higher resolution, supposedly around twenty-five times higher than the Hubble. This new telescope will be called the High-Definition Space Telelscope.

The report was made public by renowned Neil deGrasse Tyson at the event in New York’s American Museum of Natural History. There, Tyson expressed high hopes and positive notes on the new telescope and what it can possibly achieve and contribute to the scientific community.

The main mission of the new telescope would be to find the doppelganger of Earth out there somewhere. Researchers thought it was time for the search to get more serious and wanted a new telescope to get back into action and start looking.

What does it do?

In an early release, it was revealed that the new telescope would be able to find exoplanets while muting a star’s light to examine the planet and see if it is Earth’s twin. The new telescope will have a combination of previous telescope technologies available in this as well as the improved resolution. This will help us to see if we are just a lonely speck of living organisms on an island in the waters of the universe.

The potential of the new telescope

With the new improvements on the telescope, more advances in the astrophysics field and astronomy in general are an inevitable result in searching for Earth’s twin. In fact, the possibilities are a bit overwhelming to think about, with what can be done with the high quality images and the scientific examinations.

This sentiment or idea is what Tyson already expressed in the publicizing of the idea for the new telescope. As it is, the idea hopes to be launched and become a reality sometime in the 2030s after the James Webb Space Telescope launches in 2018 and wets its feet for a few years.

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New Telescope Will Eventually Replace the Hubble

Magnetar near galaxy black hole surprises with high x-ray count - http://clapway.com/2015/05/16/magnetar-near-galaxy-black-hole-surprises-high-x-ray-count123/

Two years ago, scientists identified a gigantic magnetar near the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole. Magnetars are collapsed neutron stars with extremely powerful magnetic fields. This particular magnetar happens also to be the closest interstellar entity to the 4-million-solar mass black hole in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of approximately 0.3 light-years (at least 2 trillion miles). In recent discoveries, the magnetar — nicknamed SGR 1745-2900, for research purposes — appears to have not only a higher observed amount of x-rays than previously observed magnetars, but also maintains much higher surface temperatures.

Into the heart of the Milky Way’s darkness — light at the nucleus

It all started when astronomers wanted to observe the circuit of the magnetar around the black hole (called the “sagittarius A-star”) at the center of the Milky Way. Scientists have long concluded that our entire galaxy revolved around this black hole, and until recently did not detect the one galactic body that lives appallingly close to the black hole. Scientists are predicting that it sits at least 2 trillion miles away from the center of the hole. This seems like an indomitable distance, but when the magnitude of the black hole’s 4-million-sun mass is factored in, the position of the magnetar seems exceedingly precarious.

This magnetar, observed using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the ESA’s XMM-Newton, is showing peculiar signs. The studies derived from the space telescopes have indicated specifically that the magnetar’s surface is much hotter than expected of its star type, and that its x-ray emissions appear to be lowering at a rate slower than that of other observed magnetars. Scientists first turned to the phenomenon of “starquakes” to expand on the theory for an explanation. When neutron stars form, a crust develops on its condensed surface. In some cases, this crust will crack and fracture, just like earth’s surface does during an earthquake.

Ultimately, however, the researchers dispelled this possible explanation, since they garnered information showing that the speed at which surface temperatures are cooling, and at which the light of x-rays on the star is fading, didn’t exactly match the projections given by the star-quake mechanism.

Particles in magnetic fields may account for magnetar’s high heat

Perhaps a likelier explanation for the magnetar’s dauntingly high temperatures and high supply of x-rays lies in the charged particles trapped in magnetic fields above the star’s surface. Twisted in bundles, these particles (which are created when neutron stars form) may constantly batter the surface below, administering an increased layer of heat on it.

Magnetar near galaxy black hole surprises with high x-ray count