... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... Last week's Snack talked about how black holes can affect the environment around them in such a way as to be very bright . ... It's a common misconception that black holes always have matter swirling into them. ... As this matter gets closer and closer to the black hole it piles up and a large, fairly flat disk forms. This is called the accretion disk , because matter from this disk accretes (that is, falls in) on the black hole. ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

... Credit: DMR , COBE , NASA , Four-Year Sky Map Explanation: Our Earth is not at rest. ... The Milky Way Galaxy orbits in the Local Group of Galaxies . ... But these speeds are less than the speed that all of these objects together move relative to the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). ... NASA Official: Jay Norris. ... Publications with keywords: COBE - dipole - microwave background . ... COBE Hotspots:The Oldest Structures Known . COBE Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe . ...

M1 image More About M1 Nice Color Picture . ... M16 image More About M16 HST image . ... M31 image More About M31 Nice Color Picture . ... M42 image ; M43 image More About M42/43 Nice Color CCD Picture . M51 image More About M51 Color Image of M51 M51 Supernova . M57 image More About M57 Nice Color CCD Picture Very Deep M57 Image . ... M81 image More About M81 M81 Supernova Ultraviolet Image of M81 More about Ultraviolet Imaging . M82 image More About M82 M82 False Color M82 True Color . ...

... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2015 September 2 . The Flare and the Galaxy . ... Despite appearances, this person is actually pointing in the direction of a bright Iridium flare , a momentary reflection of sunlight off of a communications satellite in orbit around the Earth. ... The featured flare involved Iridium satellite 15 and occurred over southern Estonia last week. ...

... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. February 5, 1996 . COBE Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe . Credit: NASA , COBE , DMR , Four-Year Sky Map . ... The Milky Way Galaxy orbits in the Local Group . ... The map indicates that the Local Group moves at about 600 kilometers per second relative to this primordial radiation . ... About APOD | ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Moon . ... Earth Satellites . ... By admin October 4, 2012 Posted in: Moon . A tiny second moon.This is Phobos (27 km across) seen over Mars by ESA's Mars Express (Image credit:ESA) . ... They concluded that at any given time Earth probably has a second moon. ... But, just perhaps, briefly the Earth had a second natural satellite seen by thousands of people.Remember the spectacular fireball witnessed over the UK and Ireland on 21 September 2012 ? ...

In 2001, Westerbork observations of the disturbed galaxy named VV-29 (alias Arp-188, UGC-10214) showed that there is second smaller galaxy (named VV-29c) that appears behind the western side of the main body of the distorted galaxy. ... The galaxy was featured as the May 2, 2002 Astronomy Picture of the Day . ... When VV-29 had its 15 minutes of fame in May 2002, it appeared under the name "The Tadpole Galaxy," but based on the images above, we will always think of it as "The CHAINSAW"! ...

The Mars Flag has a different design on the reverse side. obverse side of flag . ... The orbit lines on the obverse cross the Sun on the lower half of the flag and appear to go behind the Sun on the upper half of the flag. The reverse side has the orbits lines continuing around the Sun on the upper half of the flag. ... The Mars Flag reverse side is a continuation of the obverse side and not just a different design on the back and not a mirror image of the obverse. Main Flag Background Color . ...

... The Tully-Fisher relation of early-type galaxies . ... One of the tightest scaling relations in extragalactic astronomy is that between galaxies' circular velocity (i.e., the speed at which matter in a galaxy orbits around its centre) and luminosity. This is known as the Tully-Fisher relation. ... For this reason, the relation is mostly populated by gas-rich late-type galaxies, while placing the usually gas-poor early-type (E/S0) galaxies on it has historically been challenging. ... today * ATNF | ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL: 9:20 AM CST, January 6, 1999 CONTACT: John Biretta Space Telecsope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD (Phone: (410) 338-4917; Internet: biretta@stsci.edu) HUBBLE DETECTS FASTER-THAN-LIGHT MOTION IN GALAXY M87 Astronomers reported today discovering clouds which appear to move many times faster than the speed of light, shooting out from the region of a black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy. ... It's an illusion created by the finite speed of light and rapid motion," Biretta said. ...

... Over the first 4 years, its X-ray telescopes eROSITA and ART-XC will survey the whole sky with a record sensitivity in the 0.5-10 keV energy band. ... The goal of the second international Spectrum-RG conference is to discuss the different scientific topics addressed by the mission, synergies with surveys at other wavelengths, and requirements to follow-up observations.Contributed talks and poster presentations are invited on the topics related to the SRG science goals. ... Active galactic nuclei . ...

... The colors indicate the relative motions of galaxies with accurately measured distances, with shades of green and blue indicating motions toward us and shades of yellow to red indicating motions away from us. Our nearest neighbors have only small relative motions (represented by yellows and greens), as seen best in the exploded view of the right panel. We, along with all these nearest neighbors, are moving together toward the lower right corner of the figures. ...

... For a long time, astronomers found it very difficult to make a map of the very centre of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. ... You can imagine the Milky Way as a CD with a ball of cotton wool slotted through the hole in its centre. ... It s one the oldest and most impressive features of the Galaxy, but it was not very well understood until now. ... Cool fact : Did you know that Earth, the Sun and our entire Solar System are orbiting around the centre of the Milky Way at thousands of kilometres per hour. ...

... Our Sun is part of a huge wheel-shaped collection of stars. ... Astronomers have long suspected it was a very massive black hole, and that every galaxy had such a central mass, created early in the history of the universe. ... However, unless that object happens to be headed directly at the black hole (a relatively small target) it will just swing around and fly away again, like a comet making a pass at the Sun. The velocity acquired in falling towards the black hole also helps it escape. ...

... Circumstellar disc of beta Pictoris: constraints on grain properties from polarization. To appear in the Astronomy & Astrophysics . abs , src , ps ] . ... Dust influx to Titan from Hyperion . ... abs ] . ... Characteristics of bulges and disks in interacting galaxies . ... Dust grains around Herbig Ae/Be stars: porous, cometary-like grains? ... To appear in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement . ... Finally, Links may lead you to more options (e.g. via the LANL preprint system). ...

An image of the grand design of spiral galaxy M100 obtained with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope resolves individual stars within the majestic spiral arms. ... Hubble has the ability to resolve individual stars in other galaxies and measure accurately the light from very faint stars. This makes space telescope invaluable for identifying a rare class of pulsating stars, called Cepheid Variable stars embedded within M100's spiral arms. ... 617) 495-7062 . Fax: (617) 495-7356 . ...

... Here some data observed on the 6m telescope with IFP installed in the OLD focal reducer are presented. ... Mkn 3: velocity field . ... NGC 5252: [OIII] image . ... NGC 5252 was observed 23 Feb. 1998 in the [OIII]5007 emission line with CCD TK1024 as detector. ... We observed the ionized gas velocity fields of the spiral galaxies with two purpose. ... Restored velocity field of NGC 157 in the reference frame rotating with the pattern speed overlaid on the Ha image of the galaxy . ... NGC 4100 . ...

... Special Reports Giant space cloud may be powered by black holes 17:57 23 April 2007 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga An enormous cloud of roiling plasma in space may be drawing its energy from black holes, new observations suggest. Such clouds might be sources for the mysterious particles that occasionally crash into Earth's atmosphere at ultra - high speed. ... But higher energy particles in the cloud may be able to escape, he says. ...

The ETG Mass - Size relation in different environment from z~1.6 to present Simona Mei - GEPI - Observatory of Paris - University of Paris D. Diderot Marc Huertas-Company , Francesco Shankar , Lauriane Delaye, Rossella Licitra, Anand Raichoor, Mariangela Bernardi, Chris Lidman + ACS GTO, COSMOS collaborators Wednesday , September 4, 13 Anand Raichoor Marc Huertas-Company Lauriane Delaye Rossella Licitra Francesco Shankar Wednesday , ... 2013 HAWKI Cluster survey (Lidman et al. ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . The Armagh Human Orrery is the first large-scale outdoor exhibit to show with precision on the ground the positions of the main planets, a dwarf planet and two comets. It is an innovative education and learning tool designed to explain the motion of the planets around the Sun and the changing position of Earth, relative to those planets, as it too revolves around the Sun. ... The Armagh Human Orrery . ...