##NOLIGHTBOX##

Here’s a background for your desktop if you want. It’s from the Purple Rose post earlier, and although I had to do some cropping it looks good.

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Image Credit: ESO

What do you think is humanity’s greatest challenge? Hmmmmm?

Now I KNOW a few of you have an opinion * boy do I *; if you also have a video camera with which to make a short video, you can enter the X PRIZE Contest.

If you are like me and don’t have a video camera – mine no longer functions in ways you would expect- you could still take a look at the videos and maybe vote on them. Voting begins on April 1st. — Coincidence??

Tell you what, I actually might have done something, but since I can’t, if YOU can, you should, go ahead live on the edge. Hey you never know, and the Grand Prize would be excellent, it’s round trip travel for two to the Wirefly X PRIZE! Wicked….as we used to say back in the day.

You can get the details at the Zannel website and check this out. They have a link that goes to videos already submitted I’ll try it out. I’m going to try and take a look at the videos already submitted and maybe have a look around the site in general it’s some sort of Beta — worth a look.

What do I think? We got lots of real and serious challenges…..wait, you first.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Bristol/Worral et al.; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF

From the Chandra website:

Astronomers think that there are enormous black holes at the centers of most, if not all, galaxies. These black holes, which can be millions or even billions of times more massive than the Sun, can greatly affect the galaxy and the environments around them. One way such black holes shape their surroundings is by generating powerful jets of high-energy particles. The jets, which are bright in radio waves, have been seen to push around the hot gas that envelopes the galaxy. When this happens, astronomers can detect huge cavities and powerful shock fronts in the hot, X-ray emitting gas.

However, the opposite scenario is apparently unfolding in the galaxy known as 3C442A. Read more »

Here’s an image of one of the supernovas that happened earlier this month. Look how bright that supernova is, brighter than the galactic center! The galaxy is also known as NGC 5584, it’s a bit smaller than our Milky Way and about 75 million light years distant. The ESO website calls it: The Purple Rose of Virgo.

Here is one of the captions from ESO:

ESO PR Photo 16/07 is a colour-composite of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5584. It is based on data collected by the Paranal Science Team with the FORS1 instrument on Kueyen, the second 8.2-m Unit Telescope of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The supernova SN 2007af is the bright object seen slightly below and to the right of the galaxy’s centre. The galaxy and its bright supernova were observed on the nights of 16, 19 and 22 March 2007 through a B, V, R, H-alpha and OII filter. The total exposure time is about 28 minutes. The observers are Susana Randall, Claudio Melo and Swetlana Hubrig, and the day astronomer was Dominique Naef (all ESO). Henri Boffin (ESO) processed the data and made the colour-composite, and Haennes Heyer (ESO) made the final adjustments.

Image Credit: ESO

This image was taken in October 2006 by the Cassini spacecraft. This is one of the first images of Saturn’s North Pole.

The very strange 6-sided shape is even more pronounced in the nighttime shot taken in the infrared – click on the image above to see the night time shot..

From the ESA article (you should really check this out!):

To show clouds as features that are bright or white rather than dark, the original image has been contrast reversed to produce the image shown here. The nested set of alternating white and dark hexagons indicates that the hexagonal complex extends deep into the atmosphere, at least down to the 3-Earth-atmosphere pressure level, some 75 kilometres underneath the clouds seen by Voyager.

Multiple images acquired over a 12-day period between 30 October and 11 November 2006, show that the feature is nearly stationary, and likely is an unusually strong pole-encircling planetary wave that extends deep into the atmosphere.

How strange is that!?

Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona and ESA

The Japanese infrared astronomy satellite AKARI launched a little over a year ago is starting to pay off with lots of great observations.

This is an image of the nebula IC4954/4955 showing star formation over three generations.

IC 4954/4955 are reflection nebulae in the constellation Vulpecula about 6,500 light-years away.

To find out more about this image and other findings from AKARI visit the JAXA web site.

Image Credit: JAXA