- Saturn at its closest and brightest now for Washington, Oregon, the coast Oregon Coast Beach Connection
- Skygazers alert! Saturn to appear bigger, brighter as planet will be in direct opposition to Sun on August 27 The Tribune India
- Skywatchers alert! Saturn will make its brightest and biggest appearance this weekend. Here`s how to watch it WION
- Saturn and the moon are set to light up the skies starting tonight for stargazers in South-East Asia The Star Online
- Ring Side Seats: Three Ways To Witness Saturn’s 2023 Opposition SciTechDaily
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: brightest
Brightest cosmic explosion of all time: How we may have solved the mystery of its puzzling persistence – Phys.org
- Brightest cosmic explosion of all time: How we may have solved the mystery of its puzzling persistence Phys.org
- Surprising Phenomena Observed by NASA’s NuSTAR in Brightest Cosmic Explosion Ever Detected SciTechDaily
- Brightest Cosmic Burst Since The Big Bang Observed And There’s Something Strange Going On msnNOW
- Largest explosion since the Big Bang was powered by a bizarre energy jet unlike any other Livescience.com
- Recording the entire process of a tera-electron volt gamma-ray burst during the death of a massive star Phys.org
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Surprising Phenomena Observed by NASA’s NuSTAR in Brightest Cosmic Explosion Ever Detected – SciTechDaily
- Surprising Phenomena Observed by NASA’s NuSTAR in Brightest Cosmic Explosion Ever Detected SciTechDaily
- Largest explosion since the Big Bang was powered by a bizarre energy jet unlike any other Livescience.com
- Brightest cosmic explosion on record is even weirder than first thought Business Insider
- Recording the entire process of a tera-electron volt gamma-ray burst during the death of a massive star Phys.org
- Brightest Cosmic Burst Since The Big Bang Observed And There’s Something Strange Going On Giant Freakin Robot
- View Full Coverage on Google News
A New Satellite Is One of The Brightest Objects in The Sky, And It’s a Big Problem : ScienceAlert
We’re putting more and more satellites into orbit, and along with all the welcome technological and scientific advances that brings, there are also potential problems.
Intended to be the start of an orbiting communications network that can be accessed by standard smartphones, the recently launched prototype BlueWalker 3 satellite is now one of the brightest objects in the night sky.
For experts and enthusiasts who peer out into space, that’s a major issue. While astronomers have a few telescopes high above, many of our observations on the Universe are logged from Earth’s surface.
All but the brightest stars can now be outshone by the satellite’s glare, according to the International Astronomical Union Center for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (IAU CPS).
“BlueWalker 3 is a big shift in the constellation satellite issue and should give us all reason to pause,” says Piero Benvenuti, the Director of the IAU CPS.
“It’s like exactly what astronomers don’t want,” astronomer Meredith Rawls, from the University of Washington in Seattle, told Science. “It’ll show up as a super bright streak in images and potentially saturate camera detectors at observatories.”
BlueWalker 3 is certainly an impressive bit of hardware. Its 693-square-foot (64-square-meter) antenna array is the largest commercial array in low Earth orbit, capable of reflecting much more light than the SpaceX Starlink satellites, for example.
The intention of parent company AST SpaceMobile is to get more than 100 satellites up in the sky by the end of 2024, many potentially even bigger than BlueWalker 3. That’s a significant worry for scientists.
There’s another concern too: BlueWalker 3 is built to act as a cell phone tower in space, which means it uses terrestrial radio frequencies that might interfere with radio telescopes – telescopes that are currently built well away from areas with mobile phone coverage.
“Frequencies allocated to cell phones are already challenging to observe even in radio quiet zones we have created for our facilities,” says Philip Diamond, Director-General at the Square Kilometer Array Observatory, headquartered in the UK.
“New satellites such as BlueWalker 3 have the potential to worsen this situation and compromise our ability to do science if not properly mitigated.”
Representatives from the IAU CPS and its partners are also keen to acknowledge the potential for satellites to improve worldwide communications, but they want more discussions to happen over the “equitable and sustainable use of space”.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is responsible for regulating communications networks both within the US and internationally. It has announced plans to open an office dedicated to space, but in the meantime conversations between the IAU CPS and AST SpaceMobile have already started.
“We’re eager to use the newest technologies and strategies to mitigate possible impacts to astronomy,” an AST SpaceMobile spokesperson told New Scientist.
“We are actively working with industry experts on the latest innovations, including next-generation anti-reflective materials.”
NASA Images Show Brightest Explosion Ever Recorded
NASA telescopes have detected the brightest, most high-energy flood of radiation from space ever recorded.
About 1.9 billion years ago, a dying star collapsed, exploding in a powerful burst of gamma rays that careened toward Earth. Finally, they washed over our planet on October 9. They set off detectors on three telescopes in orbit: the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and the Wind spacecraft.
NASA/Swift/A. Beardmore (University of Leicester)
Those telescopes, and other observatories around the world, quickly homed in on the source of the radiation: a distant object now called GRB 221009A, pulsing with the powerful glow of its gamma-ray emissions.
It was the most luminous, powerful event ever detected, NASA announced on Thursday. The telescopes’ images show just how dramatic the explosion was.
NASA/Swift/B. Cenko
“In our research group, we’ve been referring to this burst as the ‘BOAT’, or Brightest Of All Time, because when you look at the thousands of bursts gamma-ray telescopes have been detecting since the 1990s, this one stands apart,” Jillian Rastinejad, a PhD student at Northwestern University, said in a statement.
NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration
Rastinejad led a group of researchers who conducted follow-up observations on Friday, taking more measurements as the gamma rays continued to flood past Earth.
The radiation probably came from a supernova explosion — a dying star collapsing into a black hole. It could be decades before another gamma-ray burst this bright appears again.
“It’s a very unique event,” Yvette Cendes, an astronomer and postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told Mashable, adding that a giant gamma-ray burst in a galaxy so close to us is “incredibly, incredibly rare.”
“It’s the equivalent of getting front row seats at a fireworks show,” she said.
The sheer power and brightness of the ancient explosion allows astronomers to collect lots of data on it, which could reveal new insights about how stars die, how black holes form, and how matter behaves near the speed of light, as it’s ejected from a supernova. It helps that the object is relatively close to us, compared to other gamma-ray bursts astronomers have detected.
That proximity “allows us to detect many details that otherwise would be too faint to see,” Roberta Pillera, a Fermi LAT Collaboration member who led initial communications about the burst, said in a NASA statement. “But it’s also among the most energetic and luminous bursts ever seen regardless of distance, making it doubly exciting.”
NASA telescope images reveal brightest explosion ever recorded, as a star collapses into a black hole
NASA telescopes have detected the brightest, most high-energy flood of radiation from space ever recorded.
About 1.9 billion years ago, a dying star collapsed, exploding in a powerful burst of gamma rays that careened toward Earth. Finally, they washed over our planet on October 9. They set off detectors on three telescopes in orbit: the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and the Wind spacecraft.
Those telescopes, and other observatories around the world, quickly homed in on the source of the radiation: a distant object now called GRB 221009A, pulsing with the powerful glow of its gamma-ray emissions.
It was the most luminous, powerful event ever detected, NASA announced on Thursday. The telescopes’ images show just how dramatic the explosion was.
“In our research group, we’ve been referring to this burst as the ‘BOAT’, or Brightest Of All Time, because when you look at the thousands of bursts gamma-ray telescopes have been detecting since the 1990s, this one stands apart,” Jillian Rastinejad, a PhD student at Northwestern University, said in a statement.
Rastinejad led a group of researchers who conducted follow-up observations on Friday, taking more measurements as the gamma rays continued to flood past Earth.
The radiation probably came from a supernova explosion — a dying star collapsing into a black hole. It could be decades before another gamma-ray burst this bright appears again.
“It’s a very unique event,” Yvette Cendes, an astronomer and postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told Mashable, adding that a giant gamma-ray burst in a galaxy so close to us is “incredibly, incredibly rare.”
“It’s the equivalent of getting front row seats at a fireworks show,” she said.
The sheer power and brightness of the ancient explosion allows astronomers to collect lots of data on it, which could reveal new insights about how stars die, how black holes form, and how matter behaves near the speed of light, as it’s ejected from a supernova. It helps that the object is relatively close to us, compared to other gamma-ray bursts astronomers have detected.
That proximity “allows us to detect many details that otherwise would be too faint to see,” Roberta Pillera, a Fermi LAT Collaboration member who led initial communications about the burst, said in a NASA statement. “But it’s also among the most energetic and luminous bursts ever seen regardless of distance, making it doubly exciting.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
It’s the BOAT: Astronomers observe “brightest of all time” gamma-ray burst
Astronomers think the gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A represents the birth of a new black hole formed within the heart of a collapsing star. Credit: NASA/Swift/Cruz deWilde
On the morning of October 9, multiple space-based detectors picked up a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) passing through our solar system, sending astronomers around the world scrambling to train their telescopes on that part of the sky to collect vital data on the event and its afterglow. Dubbed GRB 221009A, astronomers say the gamma-ray burst is the most powerful yet recorded and likely could be the “birth cry” of a new black hole. The event was promptly published in the Astronomer’s Telegram, and observations are still ongoing.
“In our research group, we’ve been referring to this burst as the ‘BOAT,’ or Brightest Of All Time, because when you look at the thousands of bursts gamma-ray telescopes have been detecting since the 1990s, this one stands apart,” said Jillian Rastinejad, a graduate student at Northwestern University. Rastinejad led one of two independent teams using the Gemini South telescope in Chile to study the event’s afterglow.
“This burst is much closer than typical GRBs, which is exciting because it allows us to detect many details that otherwise would be too faint to see,” said Roberta Pillera, a graduate student at the Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy, and member of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) Collaboration. “But it’s also among the most energetic and luminous bursts ever seen regardless of distance, making it doubly exciting.”
Gamma-ray bursts are extremely high-energy explosions in distant galaxies lasting between mere milliseconds to several hours. The first gamma-ray bursts were observed in the late 1960s, thanks to the launching of the Vela satellites by the US. They were meant to detect telltale gamma-ray signatures of nuclear weapons tests in the wake of the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union. The US feared that the Soviets were conducting secret nuclear tests, in violation of the treaty. In July 1967, two of those satellites picked up a flash of gamma radiation that was clearly not the signature of a nuclear weapons test.
Enlarge / Swift’s X-ray Telescope captured the afterglow of GRB 221009A about an hour after it was first detected.
NASA/Swift/A. Beardmore (University of Leicester)
That data was filed away, but later Vela satellites with improved instruments recorded several more gamma-ray bursts. A team at Los Alamos National Laboratory analyzed when each burst was detected by different satellites to estimate the sky position of 16 such bursts. And they determined that the bursts weren’t from Earth or our Solar System, publishing their conclusions in a 1973 paper in Astrophysical Journal.
There are two classes of gamma-ray bursts. Most (70 percent) are long bursts lasting more than two seconds, often with a bright afterglow. These are usually linked to galaxies with rapid star formation. Astronomers think that long bursts are tied to the deaths of massive stars collapsing to form a neutron star or black hole (or, alternatively, a newly formed magnetar). The baby black hole would produce jets of highly energetic particles moving near the speed of light, powerful enough to pierce through the remains of the progenitor star, emitting X-rays and gamma rays.
Those gamma-ray bursts lasting less than two seconds (about 30 percent) are deemed short bursts, usually emitting from regions with very little star formation. Astronomers think these gamma-ray bursts are the result of mergers between two neutron stars, or a neutron star merging with a black hole, comprising a “kilonova.”
That hypothesis was confirmed in 2017, when the LIGO collaboration picked up the gravitational wave signal of two neutron stars merging, accompanied by the powerful gamma-ray bursts associated with a kilonova. Earlier this year, astrophysicists spotted mysterious X-rays they believed could be the very first detection of a kilonova “afterglow” from that same merger. (Alternatively, it could be the first observation of matter falling into the black hole that formed after the merger.)
Astronomers are captivated by brightest flash ever seen
Issued on: Modified:
Washington (AFP) – Astronomers have observed the brightest flash of light ever seen, from an event that occurred 2.4 billion light years from Earth and was likely triggered by the formation of a black hole.
The burst of gamma-rays — the most intense form of electromagnetic radiation — was first detected by orbiting telescopes on October 9, and its afterglow is still being watched by scientists across the world.
Astrophysicist Brendan O’Connor told AFP that gamma-ray bursts that last hundreds of seconds, as occurred on Sunday, are thought to be caused by dying massive stars, greater than 30 times bigger than our Sun.
The star explodes in a supernova, collapses into a black hole, then matter forms in a disk around the black hole, falls inside, and is spewed out in a jet of energy that travels at 99.99 percent the speed of light.
The flash released photons carrying a record 18 teraelectronvolts of energy — that’s 18 with 12 zeros behind it — and it has impacted long wave radio communications in Earth’s ionosphere.
“It’s really breaking records, both in the amount of photons, and the energy of the photons that are reaching us,” said O’Connor, who used infrared instruments on the Gemini South telescope in Chile to take fresh observations early Friday.
“Something this bright, this nearby, is really a once-in-a-century event,” he added.
“Gamma-ray bursts in general release the same amount of energy that our Sun produces over its entire lifetime in the span of a few seconds — and this event is the brightest gamma ray burst.”
The gamma-ray burst, known as GRB 221009A, was first spotted by telescopes including NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and Wind spacecraft on Sunday morning Eastern time.
1.9 billion-year-old movie
It originated from the direction of the constellation Sagitta, and traveled an estimated 1.9 billion years to reach Earth — less than the current distance of its starting point, because the universe is expanding.
Observing the event now is like watching a 1.9 billion-year-old recording of those events unfold before us, giving astronomers a rare opportunity to glean new insights into things like black hole formation.
“That’s what makes this sort of science so addictive — you get this adrenaline rush when these things happen,” said O’Connor, who is affiliated with the University of Maryland and George Washington University.
He added that though the initial burst may have been visible to lucky amateur astronomers, it has since faded out of their view.
Over the coming weeks, he and others will continue watching for the signatures of supernovas at optical and infrared wavelengths, to confirm that their hypothesis about the origins of the flash are correct, and that the event conforms to known physics.
Unfortunately, while the initial burst may have been visible to amateur astronomers, it has since faded
Supernova explosions are also predicted to be responsible for producing heavy elements — such as gold, platinum, uranium — and astronomers will also be on the hunt for their signatures.
Astrophysicists have written in the past that the sheer power of gamma-ray bursts could cause extinction level events here on Earth.
But O’Connor pointed out that because the jets of energy are very tightly focused, and aren’t likely to arise in our galaxy, this scenario is not something we should worry much about.
© 2022 AFP
Jupiter appears biggest and brightest to Earth in 59 years on Monday
Separately, the two occurrences are not exceptionally rare. Jupiter reaches opposition every 13 months, which makes the gas giant appear bigger and brighter than at any other time of the year. It also makes its closest approach to Earth, appearing larger, about every 12 years, the amount of time the planet takes to orbit the sun. The overlap of the two events is a game of physics and will not take place again until 2139.
“This is one of the fun things about living on a moving planet,” said Michelle Thaller, an astronomer at NASA. “Everything is lined up to make Jupiter the largest you will see in the sky for the last 59 years.”
Amateur astronomers will probably notice the differences the most, Thaller said. Using binoculars or a telescope, people will be able to observe the finer details of Jupiter, including its banding, and three or four of its Galilean moons, according to NASA. Sky gazers should find a high elevation, dark skies and dry weather for the best visibility.
After spending all night shooting around 600,000 photos of it, I’m thrilled to show you my sharpest Jupiter shot so far. This was captured using an 11” telescope and a camera I usually use for deep sky work. pic.twitter.com/puCv57wGzn
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) September 17, 2022
Telescopes in space will also be able to capture a better view of the gas giant for the next couple of months, Thaller said. The recently launched James Webb Space Telescope has already captured an exceptional image of the planet in remarkable detail. The image, created from several composites, shows auroras above the northern and southern poles of Jupiter. The famous Great Red Spot, a large spinning storm that could swallow the Earth, and its clouds appear white as they reflect a lot of sunlight.
Jupiter has long fascinated astronomers, as it could provide clues to the early history of Earth. Jupiter was probably the first planet to form in our solar system, created from leftover gas and dust from the formation of the sun around 4.6 billion years ago. During this time, the large, heavy planet swung through the inner solar system and destroyed other new planets forming in its path. Debris from the destroyed nascent planets were some of the construction materials for Venus, Earth, Mars and Mercury.
Thaller said Jupiter might also be responsible for much of the water on our home planet. As Jupiter was moving through the inner solar system, it might have delivered some of the water that fills our oceans today. A lot of surface water on Earth “may have been brought by Jupiter coming in and dragging a lot of the icy stuff from the outer solar system with it,” Thaller said.
For galactic explorers, Jupiter’s moon Europa is also one of the likeliest places to find life in our solar system, outside of Earth. The icy moon could possess the three necessary ingredients for life: water, energy and chemistry.
As Jupiter makes its rare approach and opposition, admire one of the biggest physical reasons we are here. “There are so many cool things about Jupiter,” Thaller said. “It will look particularly big and bright over the next couple of weeks. It will just be beautiful.”
Jupiter appears biggest and brightest to Earth in 59 years on Monday
Separately, the two occurrences are not exceptionally rare. Jupiter reaches opposition every 13 months, which makes the gas giant appear bigger and brighter than at any other time of the year. It also makes its closest approach to Earth, appearing larger, about every 12 years, the amount of time the planet takes to orbit the sun. The overlap of the two events is a game of physics and will not take place again until 2139.
“This is one of the fun things about living on a moving planet,” said Michelle Thaller, an astronomer at NASA. “Everything is lined up to make Jupiter the largest you will see in the sky for the last 59 years.”
Amateur astronomers will probably notice the differences the most, Thaller said. Using binoculars or a telescope, people will be able to observe the finer details of Jupiter, including its banding, and three or four of its Galilean moons, according to NASA. Sky gazers should find a high elevation, dark skies and dry weather for the best visibility.
After spending all night shooting around 600,000 photos of it, I’m thrilled to show you my sharpest Jupiter shot so far. This was captured using an 11” telescope and a camera I usually use for deep sky work. pic.twitter.com/puCv57wGzn
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) September 17, 2022
Telescopes in space will also be able to capture a better view of the gas giant for the next couple of months, Thaller said. The recently launched James Webb Space Telescope has already captured an exceptional image of the planet in remarkable detail. The image, created from several composites, shows auroras above the northern and southern poles of Jupiter. The famous Great Red Spot, a large spinning storm that could swallow the Earth, and its clouds appear white as they reflect a lot of sunlight.
Jupiter has long fascinated astronomers, as it could provide clues to the early history of Earth. Jupiter was probably the first planet to form in our solar system, created from leftover gas and dust from the formation of the sun around 4.6 billion years ago. During this time, the large, heavy planet swung through the inner solar system and destroyed other new planets forming in its path. Debris from the destroyed nascent planets were some of the construction materials for Venus, Earth, Mars and Mercury.
Thaller said Jupiter might also be responsible for much of the water on our home planet. As Jupiter was moving through the inner solar system, it might have delivered some of the water that fills our oceans today. A lot of surface water on Earth “may have been brought by Jupiter coming in and dragging a lot of the icy stuff from the outer solar system with it,” Thaller said.
For galactic explorers, Jupiter’s moon Europa is also one of the likeliest places to find life in our solar system, outside of Earth. The icy moon could possess the three necessary ingredients for life: water, energy and chemistry.
As Jupiter makes its rare approach and opposition, admire one of the biggest physical reasons we are here. “There are so many cool things about Jupiter,” Thaller said. “It will look particularly big and bright over the next couple of weeks. It will just be beautiful.”