... 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. ...

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... ESO is building what will be the World's largest optical telescope array, The Very Large Telescope (VLT). The VLT Project organisation is responsible for the design and construction of the Unit Telescopes, including enclosures, optics, adapter-rotators and coating unit. ... Unit Telescopes Overview - This page is outdated, an update is in process. ... Secondary mirror (M2 Unit) - This page is outdated, an update is in process. ... Coating Unit - This page is outdated, an update is in process. ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Stars . ... Starbursts are short-lived events, stars are forming so quickly that the reservoirs of interstellar gas from which stars are coalescing would be used up on a timescale much shorter than the age of the galaxy . ... Strong stellar winds from giant new stars in the starburst region combine with the blasts of supernovae to push a mighty flood of extremely hot gas, a ?superwind? from the galaxy thousands of light years into intergalactic space. ...

... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2010 December 7 . Too Close to a Black Hole . ... Explanation: What would you see if you went right up to a black hole? ... The black hole has such strong gravity that light is noticeably bent towards it - causing some very unusual visual distortions . ... About APOD | ... NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply . ...

... Too Close to a Black Hole . ... Credit Copyright: Alain Riazuelo Explanation: What would you see if you went right up to a black hole? ... The black hole has such strong gravity that light is noticeably bent towards it - causing some very unusual visual distortions . ... Near the black hole , you can see the whole sky - light from every direction is bent around and comes back to you. ... Publications with keywords: black hole - gravitational lens . ... Galaxy Cluster Abell 1689 Deflects Light . ...

... We have measured this "redshift" for the pink black holes, and allowed for it in our calculations. ... We see this effect in the emission from gas around these pink black holes, but it is far too small an effect to account for the pinkness. Thus the swirling motions of gas around or into the black holes cannot produc the colour. ... At first we thought that these things were normal blue black holes hidden behind clouds of interstellar dust, that absorbed the blue light and made them appear pink. ...

... Proposal Type: General Category: Observation Category: Time Requested this semester: Hours already used for this pro ject: Additional Hours required to complete pro ject: Minimum Useful Time: Expected Data Storage: Prop osal Title: ABSTRACT: Regular Pulsars Galactic 55.5 0 1.5 h over 500 GB Searching for Millisecond Pulsars in Low-Latitude Fermi Unidentified Sources We propose to search for pulsars in fourteen Fermi unidentified sources close to the Galactic plane (|b|<4 degrees). ...

... HUBBLE DISCOVERS BLACK HOLES IN UNEXPECTED PLACES . ... Even more odd, these new black holes were found in the cores of glittering, "beehive" swarms of stars -- called globular star clusters -- that orbit our Milky Way and other galaxies. ... Supermassive black holes found by Hubble in the centers of galaxies represent about 0.5 percent of the galaxies' mass. Amazingly, the black holes now found in star clusters, which are 10,000 times less massive than a galaxy, also obey this trend. ...

... General information . ... Staff . Research staff . ... Information . ... Historical highlights . Historical research . ... This process is thought to occur in circumstellar disks of gas and dust around young stars on rather short timescales : infrared surveys show that the number of low mass stars with disks drops dramatically for stars older than 10 Myr, suggesting that in order to form large solids before the disk disperses, the growth process has to take place within a few million years. ...

... Comet Ikeya-Zhang, designated C/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang), is named after Kaoru Ikeya of Shizuoka prefecture, Japan, and Daqing Zhang of Henan province, China, who independently discovered it on the night of 1 February 2002. A preliminary orbit reported the following day indicated that it would come moderately close to both the Earth and the Sun and that it might become visible to the naked eye during late March and April 2002. ... Bailey, M.E., Clube, S.V.M. and Napier, W.M. The Origin of Comets . ...

... SS433 is a close binary system, one star is a supergiant, a second one is a black hole. ... Even a black hole cannot accept such an enormous mass flux, a supercritical accretion disk appears, all the excess gas glows up to several tens of thousands degrees and is ejected off the disk with enormous velocities. ... SAO researchers have found an evidence of the supercritical accretion onto a black hole in SS433, which follows from a brightness variability of the SS433 disk. ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... The center of the elliptical galaxy M84 was observed using STIS to see if there was a giant black hole there (a wide view of the galaxy is seen on the left). ... Their huge gravity accelerates matter up to tremendous speeds, but only closer in to the actual black hole. The great resolution of Hubble combined with the spectrographic qualities of STIS allow it to look very close in to the center of the galaxy and look at the matter nearest the black hole. ...

... Another option is to buy slides of astronomical objects at different wavelengths to show students why astronomers use different bands of the spectrum to bring out specific characteristics in celestial objects. ... He then uses the camera to scan the entire classroom, asking students to identify what they are seeing. ... Once students see light in action, they can investigate its properties - such as frequency, wavelength, and interference - with wave experiments. ...

Blackholes Forum Message . Forums: . ... Black Holes And RedShift . ... Perhaps black holes really are the reproductive means of the universe.Could the black hole of a Quasar red-shift the electromagnetic energy trying to escape it? ... Perhaps black holes treat electromagnetic energy the same way. ... No one really knows enough about Quasars and black holes to say for sure but ask yourself this: Why would all the Quasars in the universe be moving away from the Milky Way? ... www.astronomy.net . ...

Next: NICMOS/HST H-band (F160W) Images Up: NICMOS Science Previous: HST NICMOS Observations of . ... Observations of P . ... The NICMOS team has devised a comprehensive program of observations of the Galactic Center. ... Data in hand give a first look at variability and a detailed look at the search for the tip of the main sequence will be discussed where NICMOS has demonstrated adequate sensitivity and photometric precision to identify likely O8-B1 stars at the Galactic Center. ...

... VLBI Schedule . ... Observers Wiki . Schedules . ... Main / . Locate VNC session "pksvnc1", to be found on (usually) the left-most screen of the 4-headed control room machine. ... On the leftmost desktop in this session find the "oprin" window and type; . ... To start a new observing schedule type the following; . ... The second of the four connected displays (on "bourbon") is displaying the VNC session "vlbi's PkMk5B ", which is running on pictor:2 using the vlbi VNC password. ...

... Tonight's Sky . ... Observing . ... Astronomy for Kids . ... Observing springtime deep-sky objects with a large telescope . ... How do light pollution filters work? Do they actually help? ... Light pollution reduction (LPR) filters work because many outdoor lighting sources do not shine evenly across the visible spectrum. ... Get instant access to subscriber content on Astronomy.com! ... Receive news, sky-event information, observing tips, and more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter. ...

... See "About ATMoB" / "Network" for more details on the clubhouse network. ... Direct viewing of a laser-pointer beam, even briefly and at a distance of a kilometer or two, has the potential to cause temporary flash blindness — the same effect you get right after a flash photo is taken — or afterimages. ... To help use our laser tools safely, the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, Inc. has adopted these recommendations as policy. ... Copyright (c) Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, Inc. ...

Cosmic rays are not the only sign of high energy particles in the distant universe. Additional evidence comes (like most astronomical data) from visible light and other types of electromagnetic waves , e.g. x-rays and radio waves. ... Photons of visible light have about 2 electron volts (ev), while medical x-ray photons may have energies of 50,000 ev and those of gamma rays reach 1,000,000 ev and even more. ... To produce x-rays or gamma rays, electrons must collide with something. ...