Astronomia e Ciências Espaciais 2018

Pek

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Imagem desta madrugada. Meia Lua, destacando a cratera Copernicus no centro:

973b217b0e59834302d2a1dffc8ddb2co.jpg
 


KarluZ

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Astronomia

Unexpected changes from an interstellar object have scientists surprised and excited.
Here’s what we know (and what we don’t) about


Chasing 'Oumuamua


'Oumuamua was too small to appear as anything more than a point of light, even in the largest telescopes. But we know that it must be a highly elongated object because it varied dramatically in brightness over every 7-to-8-hour period. It appeared brightest when its full length faced the Earth (middle image), but dimmed dramatically when it was pointed towards the Earth (left and right images). The brightness variations (represented as squares on bottom row) repeated over and over as the object tumbled through space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
[URL='https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/asteroid/20180627/Oumuamua-16.jpg']› Larger view



The interstellar object 'Oumuamua perplexed scientists in October 2017 as it whipped past Earth at an unusually high speed. This mysterious visitor is the first object ever seen in our solar system that is known to have originated elsewhere.

Scientists conclude that interstellar object 'Oumuamua must be very elongated because of its dramatic variations in brightness as it tumbled through space. They also conclude that vents on the surface must have emitted jets of gases, giving the object a slight boost in speed, which researchers detected by measuring the position of the object as it passed by in 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

What we know


-It came from outside the solar system --Because of its high speed (196,000 mph, or 87.3 kilometers per second) and the trajectory it followed as it whipped around the Sun, scientists are confident 'Oumuamua originated beyond our solar system. The object flew by Earth so fast its speed couldn't be due to the influence of the Sun's gravity alone, so it must have approached the solar system at an already high speed and not interacted with any other planets. On its journey past our star, the object came within a quarter of the distance between the Sun and Earth.

-Its trajectory is hyperbolic -- By tracking this object as it passed within view of telescopes, scientists can see that this high-speed object won't be captured by our Sun's gravity. It won't circle back around again on an elliptical path. Instead, it will follow the shape of a hyperbola -- that is, it will keep on going out of the solar system, and never come back.

-It doesn't look like a comet, but it behaves like one -- A comet is a small icy body that, when heated by the Sun, develops a coma -- a fuzzy atmosphere and tail made of volatile material vaporizing off the comet body. At first, scientists assumed 'Oumuamua was a comet. But because 'Oumuamua appears in telescope images as a single point of light without a coma, scientists then concluded it was an asteroid. But when astronomers saw the object was accelerating ever so slightly, they realized that a coma and jets might not be visible to the telescopes used to observe it. The jetting of volatile materials or "outgassing" would explain why 'Oumuamua was accelerating in a subtle, unexpected way when only gravity from our solar system is taken into account.

-It must be elongated --While it is impossible to take a close-up photo of 'Oumuamua, its dramatic variations in brightness over time suggest it is highly elongated. By calculating what kind of object could dim and brighten in this way, scientists realized the object must be up to 10 times as long as it is wide. Currently, 'Oumuamua is estimated to be about half a mile (800 meters) long. Astronomers had never seen a natural object with such extreme proportions in the solar system before.

-It tumbles through space -- The unusual brightness variations also suggest the object does not rotate around just one axis. Instead, it is tumbling -- not just end over end, but about a second axis at a different period, too. A small object's rotation state can easily change, especially if it is outgassing, so this tumbling behavior could have started recently. The object appears to make a complete rotation every 7.3 hours.


What we don't know


-What does it look like? All that astronomers have seen of 'Oumuamua is a single point of light. But because of its trajectory and small-scale accelerations, it must be smaller than typical objects from the Oort Cloud, the giant group of icy bodies that orbit the solar system roughly 186 billion miles (300 billion kilometers) away from the Sun. Oort Cloud objects formed in our own solar system, but were kicked out far beyond the planets by the immense gravity of Jupiter. They travel slower than 'Oumuamua and will forever be bound by the gravity of our Sun. But besides its elongated nature, scientists do not know what kinds of features 'Oumuamua has on its surface, if any. An elongated shape would explain its rotation behavior, but its exact appearance is unknown.


-What is it made of? Comets from our solar system have a lot of dust, but because none is visible coming off 'Oumuamua, scientists conclude it may not have very much at all. It is impossible to know what materials make up 'Oumuamua, but it could have gases such as carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide coming off the surface that are less likely to produce a visible coma or tail.

-Where did it come from? 'Oumuamua came into our solar system from another star system in the galaxy, but which one? Scientists observe that its incoming speed was close to the average motion of stars near our own, and since the speed of younger stars is more stable than older stars, 'Oumuamua may have come from a relatively young system. But this is still a guess -- it is possible the object has been wandering around the galaxy for billions of years.

-What is it doing now? After January 2018, 'Oumuamua was no longer visible to telescopes, even in space. But scientists continue to analyze it and crack open more mysteries about this unique interstellar visitor.

Written byElizabeth Landau
[/URL]
 
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rokleon

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Sempre interessantes e fascinantes as imagens do Hubble. :uau:
Burst of Celestial Fireworks
stsci-gallery-1022a-2000x960.jpg

(imagem de 2009)

Appearing colorful and serene, this environment is anything but. Ultraviolet radiation and violent stellar winds have blown out an enormous cavity in the gas and dust enveloping the cluster. Most of the stars in the cluster were born around the same time but differ in size, mass, temperature and color. The course of a star's life is determined by its mass, so a cluster of a given age will contain stars in various stages of their lives, giving an opportunity for detailed analyses of stellar life cycles. NGC 3603 also contains some of the most massive stars known. These huge stars live fast and die young, burning through their hydrogen fuel quickly and ultimately ending their lives in supernova explosions.
 
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PaulusLx

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Astronomia

Unexpected changes from an interstellar object have scientists surprised and excited.
Here’s what we know (and what we don’t) about


Chasing 'Oumuamua


'Oumuamua was too small to appear as anything more than a point of light, even in the largest telescopes. But we know that it must be a highly elongated object because it varied dramatically in brightness over every 7-to-8-hour period. It appeared brightest when its full length faced the Earth (middle image), but dimmed dramatically when it was pointed towards the Earth (left and right images). The brightness variations (represented as squares on bottom row) repeated over and over as the object tumbled through space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

› Larger view


The interstellar object 'Oumuamua perplexed scientists in October 2017 as it whipped past Earth at an unusually high speed. This mysterious visitor is the first object ever seen in our solar system that is known to have originated elsewhere.

Scientists conclude that interstellar object 'Oumuamua must be very elongated because of its dramatic variations in brightness as it tumbled through space. They also conclude that vents on the surface must have emitted jets of gases, giving the object a slight boost in speed, which researchers detected by measuring the position of the object as it passed by in 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

What we know


-It came from outside the solar system --Because of its high speed (196,000 mph, or 87.3 kilometers per second) and the trajectory it followed as it whipped around the Sun, scientists are confident 'Oumuamua originated beyond our solar system. The object flew by Earth so fast its speed couldn't be due to the influence of the Sun's gravity alone, so it must have approached the solar system at an already high speed and not interacted with any other planets. On its journey past our star, the object came within a quarter of the distance between the Sun and Earth.

-Its trajectory is hyperbolic -- By tracking this object as it passed within view of telescopes, scientists can see that this high-speed object won't be captured by our Sun's gravity. It won't circle back around again on an elliptical path. Instead, it will follow the shape of a hyperbola -- that is, it will keep on going out of the solar system, and never come back.

-It doesn't look like a comet, but it behaves like one -- A comet is a small icy body that, when heated by the Sun, develops a coma -- a fuzzy atmosphere and tail made of volatile material vaporizing off the comet body. At first, scientists assumed 'Oumuamua was a comet. But because 'Oumuamua appears in telescope images as a single point of light without a coma, scientists then concluded it was an asteroid. But when astronomers saw the object was accelerating ever so slightly, they realized that a coma and jets might not be visible to the telescopes used to observe it. The jetting of volatile materials or "outgassing" would explain why 'Oumuamua was accelerating in a subtle, unexpected way when only gravity from our solar system is taken into account.

-It must be elongated --While it is impossible to take a close-up photo of 'Oumuamua, its dramatic variations in brightness over time suggest it is highly elongated. By calculating what kind of object could dim and brighten in this way, scientists realized the object must be up to 10 times as long as it is wide. Currently, 'Oumuamua is estimated to be about half a mile (800 meters) long. Astronomers had never seen a natural object with such extreme proportions in the solar system before.

-It tumbles through space -- The unusual brightness variations also suggest the object does not rotate around just one axis. Instead, it is tumbling -- not just end over end, but about a second axis at a different period, too. A small object's rotation state can easily change, especially if it is outgassing, so this tumbling behavior could have started recently. The object appears to make a complete rotation every 7.3 hours.


What we don't know


-What does it look like? All that astronomers have seen of 'Oumuamua is a single point of light. But because of its trajectory and small-scale accelerations, it must be smaller than typical objects from the Oort Cloud, the giant group of icy bodies that orbit the solar system roughly 186 billion miles (300 billion kilometers) away from the Sun. Oort Cloud objects formed in our own solar system, but were kicked out far beyond the planets by the immense gravity of Jupiter. They travel slower than 'Oumuamua and will forever be bound by the gravity of our Sun. But besides its elongated nature, scientists do not know what kinds of features 'Oumuamua has on its surface, if any. An elongated shape would explain its rotation behavior, but its exact appearance is unknown.


-What is it made of? Comets from our solar system have a lot of dust, but because none is visible coming off 'Oumuamua, scientists conclude it may not have very much at all. It is impossible to know what materials make up 'Oumuamua, but it could have gases such as carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide coming off the surface that are less likely to produce a visible coma or tail.

-Where did it come from? 'Oumuamua came into our solar system from another star system in the galaxy, but which one? Scientists observe that its incoming speed was close to the average motion of stars near our own, and since the speed of younger stars is more stable than older stars, 'Oumuamua may have come from a relatively young system. But this is still a guess -- it is possible the object has been wandering around the galaxy for billions of years.

-What is it doing now? After January 2018, 'Oumuamua was no longer visible to telescopes, even in space. But scientists continue to analyze it and crack open more mysteries about this unique interstellar visitor.

Written byElizabeth Landau
ET imperial ship misfunction... :)
 

luismeteo3

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A coroa solar tem estruturas que nunca tinham sido detetadas e é mais dinânima do que se julgava



Fonte do vento solar, a ainda misteriosa região que circunda o Sol não é lisa como os cientistas julgavam. A câmara a bordo do STEREO-A da NASA captou imagens sem precedentes

mw-320

Imagens do vento solar captadas pelo STEREO-A

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Craig DeForest, SwRI

A atmosfera exterior do Sol tem micro-estruturas, descobriu uma equipa liderada por investigadores do Southwest Research Institute graças à câmara COR-2 a bordo do Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory-A da NASA, ou STEREO-A.

A coroa é a fonte do vento solar, a corrente de partículas carregadas emitida a partir da estrela em todas as direções. Quando medidos junto à Terra, os campos magnéticos do vento solar são cruzados e complexos. "As imagens captadas até aqui mostravam a coroa como uma estrutura lisa, apesar de o vento solar no espaço profundo ser turbulento e agitado", explica Craig DeForest, físico solar e principal autor da investigação, agora publicada no The Astrophysical Journal. "Com o uso de novas técnicas para melhorar a fidelidade da imagem, percebemos que a coroa não é lisa mas estruturada e dinâmica. Cada estrutura que pensávamos compreender é, afinal, composta por outras mais pequenas e é mais dinâmica do que pensávamos."


A descoberta foi possível graças ao desenvolvimento de algoritmos de filtragem das imagens captadas, que permitiu identificar e isolar a "poluição" causada tanto pelo ambiente espacial em torno como pelo próprio coronógrafo do STEREO-A. O resultado foi uma visão da coroa num "detalhe sem precedentes", como se lê no site da NASA.

Os novos algoritmos filtraram a luz, ajustaram a luminosidade e ainda permitiram contornar a mais dificuldade: a desfocagem provocada pelo movimento do vento solar.
http://visao.sapo.pt/actualidade/mu...detetadas-e-e-mais-dinanima-do-que-se-julgava
 
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luismeteo3

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Marte. Encontrado lago de água em estado líquido
25 jul 2018 16:51

Foi encontrado o primeiro lago de água em estado líquido em Marte, anunciou a revista 'Science' esta quarta-feira. A massa de água tem condições adversas ao desenvolvimento de vida, pelos elevados níveis de sais, mas a descoberta levanta a hipótese de serem encontrados outros lagos e, possivelmente, vida, dizem os cientistas.


O lago tem 20 quilómetros de extensão e encontra-se debaixo de uma camada de gelo, a 1,5 quilómetros de profundidade, na zona polar sul do "planeta vermelho", relata a equipa de cientistas italianos.

“Se a vida em Marte for como a vida no planeta Terra, esta água é demasiado fria e demasiado salgada", afirmou à 'Science' o geofísico David Stillman do Southwest Research Institute, no Colorado, que não esteve envolvido no estudo.

A descoberta foi feita por um radar da sonda europeia Mars Express, que se encontra em órbita e tem a capacidade de penetrar nas camadas de gelo. Os registos dizem respeito ao período compreendido entre 2012 e 2015.

O lago é muito semelhante aos grandes lagos de água líquida encontrados debaixo do gelo da Antártida e da Gronelândia.

"Este é um resultado surpreendente que sugere que a água em Marte é uma massa persistente que cria condições para a existência de vida durante longos períodos de tempo", ao contrário do que se pensava, disse Alan Duffy, professor associado da Universidade Swinburne na Austrália, que também não fez parte do estudo.

Em 2007, a sonda Mars Express já tinha confirmado a existência de água em Marte, perto do pólo sul.

Os cientistas acreditam que há mil milhões de anos Marte tenha tido água líquida, quando a atmosfera do planeta era mais quente e densa. Hoje em dia, o planeta é frio, árido e deserto, fazendo com que a água só exista em estado sólido nas calotas polares e em depósitos de gelo subterrâneos.

Apesar de inóspito, Marte é considerado o planeta do sistema solar mais parecido com a Terra.
https://24.sapo.pt/atualidade/artigos/marte-encontrado-lago-de-agua-em-estado-liquido
 
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Thomar

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Hoje é dia do mais longo eclipse lunar do século. Saiba como observar o fenómeno

(...)
Em Portugal só será possível ver "meio eclipse", porque a Lua nasce numa altura em que já está totalmente na sombra da Terra. Mas tudo indica que estarão reunidas as condições para poder observar o fenómeno, com o bónus de uma Lua de Sangue e Marte mais brilhante do que é habitual.

O eclipse total, que vai decorrer na noite de 27 para 28 de julho, será o mais longo do século. O fenómeno tem previsão de início às 20h30 e terá uma duração de quase quatro horas, desde o início ao fim da deslocação da Lua, sendo possível assistir ao mesmo sem qualquer equipamento especial. O chamado eclipse total deverá durar uma hora e 43 minutos.

Em Lisboa os primeiros 16 minutos não vão ser observáveis, já que a Lua estará ainda abaixo do horizonte, explica o Observatório de Lisboa. Assim, a fase de totalidade será visível durante 1h27 min, desde o nascimento da Lua até ao momento em que começa a sair da umbra.
Também pode escolher um local sossegado, sem a saturação de luz das grandes cidades, e sentar-se a olhar o céu. Para o fenómeno ser observável, o céu tem de estar limpo e a linha de horizonte, a nascente, desimpedida. O Observatório de Lisboa tem recomendações mais detalhadas: para conseguir ver o eclipse desde o nascimento da Lua, é necessário estar num local onde seja possível ver o horizonte (sem prédios, árvores ou colinas à frente), no azimute 115º (contado de Norte para Este).

E é melhor aproveitar, até porque um fenómeno com esta duração não voltará a acontecer até 2100. Se não conseguir mesmo ver "ao vivo" há vários sites que fazem a transmissão online, em direto, como o Observatório de Greenwich.A longa duração do eclipse deve-se ao facto da Lua passar perante a parte central da sombra da Terra, mas também por estar encontra-se no apogeu, a 406 mil quilómetros da Terra. Estando no ponto mais longe da sua órbita tem uma velocidade menor.

No eclipse anterior, que durou uma hora e 16 minutos, o satélite percorreu a zona a sul da sombra do planeta, e o próximo fenómeno, previsto para janeiro do próximo ano, terá uma duração de cerca de uma hora, pela passagem a norte da mesma área.

O eclipse será igualmente especial por coincidir com a chamada “Lua de Sangue”, devido às cores vermelhas manifestadas pelo satélite. Esta acontece quando o ponto orbital da Lua se encontra mais próximo da Terra e os raios solares são refletidos pela atmosfera terrestre na superfície lunar.

Conte ainda com a possibilidade e observar Marte mais brilhante do que é habitual. O planeta vermelho vai estar alinhado em linha reta com o Sol e a Terra, o que acontece a cada dois anos, um mês e 18 dias, como explica o OAL.

Hoje Marte estará à distância mínima da Terra, na maior aproximação entre os dois planetas dos últimos 15 anos.

Nota da Redação: A notícia foi atualizada com mais informação. Última atualização 8h38.