Mercury, sulfur-rich deposits

The finding of the Messenger spacecraft raises questions about how the planet formed closer to the Sun

 

It is believed that volcanoes would have given a large amount of sulfur (Foto: NASA )
Friday June 17, 2011 La Nación/ GDA | El Universal

21:20

The Messenger spacecraft, which began a few weeks ago to orbit Mercury, sent information revealing that the surface of the planet closest to the Sun has rich deposits of sulfur, which casts doubt on how the scientists actually formed.
The announcement took place yesterday the NASA in a statement. Since May, the MESSENGER spacecraft is sending photos with a quality never before obtained.

Until now, astronomers thought that the planet Mercury, have formed in the hot and dense part of the nebula that created the solar system, had not had temperatures suitable for light materials such as sulfur.
According to astronomers, the volcanoes appear to have played an important role in the formation of this planet it would have provided new material to fill its surface full of craters.
It is believed that these same volcanoes would have given a lot of sulfur, implying that Mercury would be different from those building blocks of planets such as Venus, Earth or Mars.
The research team Sean Solomon Messenger said now the history of Mercury 'does not seem as simple' as they thought.
According to NASA, also found evidence of an asymmetric magnetic field and regular bursts of electrons that pass through the magnetosphere.

 

Unveil the mystery of gamma ray

NASA reports that the bursts come from the destruction of a star that is too close to a massive black hole

 

Among scientists study is the director of the Institute of Astronomy, UNAM, William Lee (Foto: Especial )

 

Thursday June 16, 2011 Notimex | El Universal22:00

Less than two months, on 28 March, NASA's Swift satellite pinpointed a burst of gamma rays coming from the destruction of a star that got too close to a massive black hole in the center of a distant galaxy, he to meet an international group of astronomers.
The scientists, among which is the director of the Institute of Astronomy, UNAM, William Lee, released by the journal Science, indicated that the Swift satellite has spent nearly seven years of observing the sky hunting, among other things, flashes of gamma rays.

These flashes represent the light of higher energy there to try to unravel the mystery of its origin.
Although uncertainties remain, experts believe that most of the rays are generated when high mass stars collapse at the end of his life and form a black hole.
This is followed by the emission of radiation as a narrow jet that lasts only minutes, but due to its high intensity can be detected even occur in very distant galaxies.
These flares can release very soon so much energy as the Sun has issued since it was formed, made ​​five billion years.

Interestingly, the burst that Swift satellite detected (called SW 1644 +57), although it seemed routine lasted longer than usual.
Located in the center of a galaxy in the constellation Draco, at almost four billion light years from Earth, shone unusually SW 1644 +57 in the satellite monitors for days, a record for this type of phenomena.

After the flare detected, astronomers-institutional U.S., Europe and Mexico decided to track and studied with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray telescope, both orbited and operated by NASA.
They also sought information on how it looked before exploding the galaxy. Everything indicates that like many others, has at its heart a very massive black hole, in this case a level equivalent to a million suns, medium compared with larger, which can weigh up to one billion stars.
Most times they are calm and remain invisible, but if a star passes by, can be destroyed by the violent pull of the black hole and be swallowed by it, UNAM said in a statement.
All studies conducted by astronomers suggest that this seems to have been the case with SW 1644 +57. Probably a star the size of our sun would have reached a dangerous area near the black hole and it would have disturbed strongly undoing; swallowed much of his material.

known astronomical events of the week

ECLIPSE The third year is visible only in Antarctica and will be partially solar (Foto: Especial NASA Eclipse Website )

Friday June 24, 2011 Andrés Eloy Martínez | El Universal 22:56

Saturday June 25 Jupiter will be seen next to the moon, right down to the right before the dawn.
 Sunday June 26 A small and weak "Shield" star rises higher through the southern sky tonight. The constellation Scutum represents the shield of John Sobieski, king of Poland from the 17th century and one of the great heroes of that country.
Monday June 27Mars is starting to look to the naked eye in the sky in the early hours of the morning.
Tuesday June 28The Red Planet is rising in the dawn sky, it looks like a bright orange star below the moon during the first glow of twilight.
The star Aldebaran, which also glows orange is slightly closer to the moon and its name means "rival of Mars."
Wednesday June 29Mars is low in the east at first light to the upper right of the crescent Moon, while Aldebaran or the eye of Taurus, we see a little higher.
Thursday June 30About an hour after nightfall, the Milky Way curve from northeast to south-southeast. In the northeast, look for Cygnus, the swan-shaped cross, surrounded by the glow of the Milky Way. And in the south and southeast, look for the Scorpion and Sagittarius, the archer.
Friday July 1New Moon occurs at 3:54 hours time in central Mexico, while a partial eclipse will be appreciated solar only in Antarctica.
Starts the seventh month of the year July.
Originally this month was the fifth of the original Roman calendar and was called Quintilis. At first, comprising 36 days but was changed to 31, according to tradition by the legendary king Romulus and reduced to 30 by King Numa, staying with the 31 that now has by order of Julio Cesar, who was born on 12 this month and which was also renamed to "Julius" from which derives "Julio." 

Black holes common in early universe

Astronomers note that the holes grew more aggressively, the pair of galaxies that host them

 

FORMATION OF THE UNIVERSE. According to this new study very young black holes grew more aggressively, the pair of galaxies that host them (Foto: NASA / Chandra )

Wednesday June 15, 2011 Notimex | El Universal22:00

A team of astronomers from the University of Michigan (UM) found the first direct evidence that giant black holes were common in the early universe.
The experts turned to Chandra X-ray of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which detects very faint objects at great distances, and led the team to a selected portion of the sky for six weeks.
According to research published this week in the journal Nature, very young black holes grew more aggressively, the pair of galaxies that host them.
By combining optical and infrared images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope from NASA, the new Chandra data enabled the astronomers find black holes in 200 distant galaxies when the universe was between 800 million and 900 million years old.
"We had reason to expect that black holes exist in many of the earliest galaxies which until now had eluded our searches," said Marta Volonteri, UM astronomer and co-author of the study.
"By comparing the Chandra data with theoretical models, the match was amazing," said the astronomer.

Because black holes are almost all wrapped in thick clouds of gas and dust, often do not detect optical telescopes, but x-rays allows the study.
The large growth means that black holes are related to quasars, bright objects and rare materials strengthened with falling into supermassive black holes giants.
The investigation determined that between 30 and 100% of distant galaxies contain supermassive black holes grow giant.

Volonteri explained that 'the extrapolation of these results from the small field of sky observed the entire sky' to estimate that there are at least 30 million super-giant black holes in the universe.
"This is a factor 10 000 times the estimated number of quasars in the early universe," he said.
"We seem to have found a whole new children's population of black holes," noted study co-author Kevin Schawinski of Yale University.
Scientists had expected to have a population of black holes babies in the early universe, but so far not been observed.
Detailed calculations show that the total growth of black holes observed by the team is about a hundred times greater than most recent estimates.
"Until now we had no idea what made ​​black holes in these early galaxies, or even exist. Now we know they are there and are growing momentum," said Ezequiel Treister of the University of Hawaii and author of the study.
While there is evidence of parallel growth of black holes and galaxies at closer distances, the new Chandra results show that the connection starts earlier than previously thought, perhaps since the origin of both.
"It is thought that in the present universe, black holes and galaxies grow in a symbiotic manner, and we have shown that this co-dependent relationship has existed since the early days," said Priya Natarajan, coauthor of Yale University.