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Here’s a blueprint for life on Saturn’s moon

This false color image shows Titan’s northern wetlands and atmosphere. (Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Val Klavans via Flickr)

Using both science and imagination, chemical engineers and astronomers have come up with a template for life on Titan, the giant moon … Continued

The post Here’s a blueprint for life on Saturn’s moon appeared first on Futurity.

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Our Observed Universe is a Tiny Corner of an Enormous Cosmos –“Ruled by Dark Energy”

“This new concept is, potentially, as drastic an enlargement of our cosmic perspective as the shift from pre-Copernican ideas to the realization that the Earth is orbiting a typical star on the edge of the Milky Way.” Sir Martin Rees,…
via The Daily Galaxy –Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, Tech http://ift.tt/1DG9zr4
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Dark matter guides growth of supermassive black holes

This illustration shows two spiral galaxies – each with supermassive black holes at their center – as they are about to collide and form an elliptical galaxy. New research shows that galaxies’ dark matter halos influence these mergers and the resulting growth of supermassive black holes. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-dark-growth-supermassive-black-holes.html#jCp

Every massive galaxy has a black hole at its center, and the heftier the galaxy, the bigger its black hole. But why are the two related? After all, the black hole is millions of times smaller and less massive than its home galaxy.

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‘Lopsided’ Supernova Could Be Responsible for Rogue Hypervelocity Stars

Hypervelocity stars have been observed traversing the Galaxy at extreme velocities (700 km/s), but the mechanisms that give rise to such phenomena are still debated.  Astronomer Thomas M. Tauris argues that lopsided supernova explosions can eject lower-mass Solar stars from the Galaxy at speeds up to 1280 km/s.   “[This mechanism] can account for the majority (if not all) of […] via Universe Today http://ift.tt/1Df2kqJ
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Hubble’s Little Sombrero

Galaxies can take many shapes and be oriented any way relative to us in the sky. This can make it hard to figure out their actual morphology, as a galaxy can look very different from different viewpoints. A special case is when we are lucky enough to observe a spiral galaxy directly from its edge, providing us with a spectacular view like the one seen in this picture of the week.
This is NGC 7814, also known as the “Little Sombrero.” Its larger namesake, the Sombrero Galaxy, is another stunning example of an edge-on galaxy — in fact, the “Little Sombrero” is about the same size as its bright namesake at about 60,000 light-years across, but as it lies farther away, and so appears smaller in the sky.
NGC 7814 has a bright central bulge and a bright halo of glowing gas extending outwards into space. The dusty spiral arms appear as dark streaks. They consist of dusty material that absorbs and blocks light from the galactic center behind it. The field of view of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image would be very impressive even without NGC 7814 in front; nearly all the objects seen in this image are galaxies as well.
European Space Agency
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgement: Josh Barrington
NASA Image of the Day http://ift.tt/16prBlg

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Hubble’s Little Sombrero

European Space Agency Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Josh Barrington

Galaxies can take many shapes and be oriented any way relative to us in the sky. This can make it hard to figure out their actual morphology, as a galaxy can look very different from different viewpoints. A special case is when we are lucky enough to observe a spiral galaxy directly from its edge, providing us with a spectacular view like the one seen in this picture of the week.

This is NGC 7814, also known as the “Little Sombrero.” Its larger namesake, the Sombrero Galaxy, is another stunning example of an edge-on galaxy — in fact, the “Little Sombrero” is about the same size as its bright namesake at about 60,000 light-years across, but as it lies farther away, and so appears smaller in the sky.

NGC 7814 has a bright central bulge and a bright halo of glowing gas extending outwards into space. The dusty spiral arms appear as dark streaks. They consist of dusty material that absorbs and blocks light from the galactic center behind it. The field of view of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image would be very impressive even without NGC 7814 in front; nearly all the objects seen in this image are galaxies as well.

NASA image of the day