The PRIMA instrument of the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) recently saw "first light" at its new home atop Cerro Paranal in Chile. When fully operational, PRIMA will boost the capabilities of the VLTI to see sources much fainter than any previous interferometers, and e...
The cataclysmic variable V1159 Orionis is in outburst. Date: 16th November 2008 Magnitude: 12.5 - 16.0 Period: ? days Satellite orbital period: 0.062178 days Type: UGSUPosition(2000): RA=05h28m59.52s, Dec=-03°33'52.8"
The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, also known as the Napier earthquake, occurred in New Zealand at 10:47 am on Tuesday 3 February 1931, killing 256 and devastating the Hawke's Bay region. Read more
One Of World's Oldest Cypress Trees, 'The Senator,' Burns In Florida Investigators are now saying arson was not the likely cause of a fire that on Monday destroyed a cypress tree in Central Florida that was an estimated 3,500 years old - making it perhaps the oldest such tree in the nat...
RSGC3 is a young massive open cluster belonging to the Milky Way galaxy. It was discovered in 2010 in the GLIMPSE survey data. The only members of the cluster that are currently identified are 8-14 red supergiants - young massive stars undergoing helium burning in their cores. The cluster is located...
Title: Discovery of Halpha satellite emission in a low state of the SW Sextantis star BB Doradus Authors: L. Schmidtobreick, P. Rodriguez-Gil, K. S. Long, B. T. Gaensicke, C. Tappert, M. A. P. Torres BB Dor was observed during its low state in 2009. Signatures of both binary components are revealed i...
The 8 day old moon captured with a 100mm refractor and Vesta pro webcam. Baader contrast filter + IR-cut filter. 2x Barlow lens Expand (113kb, 1024 x 1298)
STS-41-B was the tenth space shuttle mission, and the fourth flight for Challenger. Liftoff occurred at 8 a.m. EST, on 3 February 1984. Two communications satellites were deployed about 8 hours after launch. One was for Western Union (WESTAR) and the other for Indonesia (Palapa B-2). [url=http:/...
Spanish researchers have confirmed that the largest bat in Europe, Nyctalus lasiopterus, was present in north-eastern Spain during the Late Pleistocene (between 120,000 and 10,000 years ago). The Greater Noctule fossils found in the excavation site at Abríc Romaní (Barcelona) prove that this...
The variable star LX Andromedae is in outburst. Date of Outburst: 24th August, 2011 Magnitude: 12.2 - 16.5 V Period: ? Satellite Period: 0.1509743 days Type: UGPosition(2000): RA=02 19 44.07 | Dec=+40° 27' 22.9"
Seagrass 'tens of thousands of years old' Meadows of seagrass found in the Mediterranean Sea are likely to be thousands of years old, a study shows. Researchers found genetically identical samples of Posidonia oceanica up to 15km apart, which suggested that the species was extrem...
Orbital elements:
2012 CA Earth MOID = 0.0913 AU
Epoch 2012 Mar. 14.0 TT = JDT 2456000.5 MPC
M 57.76965 (2000.0) P Q
n 0.70849522 Peri. 320.98230 -0.13345895 -0.88843725
a 1.2461723 Node 131.53030 +0.99068735 -0.13165414
e 0.1625177 Incl. 35.91946 +0.02696810 +0.43971176
P 1.39 H 23.7 G 0...
Orbital elements:
2012 CD Earth MOID = 0.1445 AU
Epoch 2012 Mar. 14.0 TT = JDT 2456000.5 MPC
M 350.88299 (2000.0) P Q
n 0.63421589 Peri. 232.80802 -0.94839943 +0.11234691
a 1.3416667 Node 311.51322 +0.09593998 -0.78961473
e 0.2078878 Incl. 23.32682 -0.30221522 -0.60323026
P 1.55 H 24.2 G...
'Supergiant' crustacean found in deepest ocean A huge crustacean has been found lurking 7km down in the waters off the coast of New Zealand. The creature - called a supergiant - is a type of amphipod, which are normally around 2-3cm long. But these beasts, discovered in the Kermadec T...
Title: FM stars: A Fourier view of pulsating binary stars, a new technique for measuring radial velocities photometrically Authors: Hiromoto Shibahashi, Donald W. Kurtz Some pulsating stars are good clocks. When they are found in binary stars, the frequencies of their luminosity variations ar...
