Quarkers?

“Yes, Quarkers. Not 'Quakers' you oat-junkies.

Hot off the presses: Chandra X-ray Observatory has studied two separate supernova remnants, or neutron stars, and found evidence that they may, in fact, be composed of a new form of matter. The neutrons within them may be
partly, or entirely, broken down into quarks. This finding, if confirmed, would be of fundamental importance in physics, and demonstrates the value of using space as a physics laboratory.

LINK!


Other CXO news: Chandra Finds Well-Established Black Holes In Distant
Quasars - surprisingly, they look much the same as younger quasars,
suggesting that they formed early and haven't changed much.

LINK!


Still more CXO news: like snowballs in a blast furnace, Chandra has identified relatively cool lumps of gas around two large galaxies, within a much hotter cloud of gas that surrounds them. So why don't they melt?

LINK!

testing...

         

                                 snowballsnowball

                         snowballsnowballsnowball

                  snowballsnowballsnowballsnowball

           snowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowb

       snowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsn

   snowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnob

 snowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowba

snowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowball

snowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowball

 snowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowbal

   snowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowb

      snowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsno

         snowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnowball

           snowballsnowballsnowballsnowballsnow

               snowballsnowballsnowballsnowball

                      snowballsnowballsnowball

                                GOTCHA!!!!!!!

And a Chicken Little Story for Marvin...

Radar Pushes Limits of Asteroid Impact Prediction - we're getting better at this, and there's no reason to sell the farm.

Story, with links to images and animations.”

“Hey Tilt. Why dont you post a link to the web-site that tracks the progess of Ikya Zhang (sp?) I've lost it, and I'm lazy...

Thanks.”

“Let's see...

This week at Sky & Telescope

Check that 'Interactive Sky Chart. You can enter your latitude & longitude, (or city, or zip code), and time zone and it's saved for later. Then plug in whatever date & time and you're set.

Click on '+' and '-' and the chart cycles through the hours. Click and drag on either chart to change your view.

Hmmm... I clicked on 'Advanced Display Options' and checked everything, so it's supposed to be showing deep-sky objects and 'events' like the comet, but that's not happening at the moment...

a-Ha... I turned the chart off, then back on --- now the other objects are showing up. The comet shows up as a tiny white blur with 'Comet I-Z' next to it. The view is much better when you maximize the rectangular viewing window.


More comet info.


It was nearly on top of M31 (the Andromeda galaxy) just a few days ago and is now heading further north. It's actually higher in the sky before sunrise, now. It's just below Cassiopeia after sunset (a bit north of northwest) and just to the right of it before sunrise (just north of northeast).

A decent pair of binoculars would be nice to have along.



(hmmm... that 'snowball' didn't quite pan out, did it?)”

“Hey Tilt I take it you are very much into science?

I am not but I am not as smart as you are.

Science=fun

8)”

“So this is where Chandra Levy has been hiding.”

“It's not a 'smart' thing... it's just that I got into Astronomy years ago. When it comes to high-energy physics, I'm about as lost as the next guy. Then there's loads of chemistry, studying other planets' atmospheres, their geology... and possibly, Exobiology. I just read about it until I get a brain-cramp.

But I wonder...

Is Chandra Levy orbiting Uranus looking for Klingons? We know what happened to Frank Poole.”

“Now we know where Marvin is hiding.”

“Hey Tilt -

If you ever get up this way, I'll have to take you to my friend's astronomy club’s site. They have an observatory with several telescopes (and here’s the kicker) situated on the Appalachian Trail corridor!”

“Cool Deal.

I don't know how the light pollution is around there, but it's starting to suck royally down here. You can drive out to the reservoir 25 miles northwest of Augusta and the southeastern horizon has a glow like 10 Full Moons are about to rise. I remember when we would watch Sirius twinkling like mad as it cleared the hills in the distance. Now its mush.

I need to get out West for some Serious Darkness.”

“It’s in central PA. There are deed restrictions prohibiting any light for some distance around but the background glow keeps on growing. There is a new billboard on the highway just outside of the deed restriction area with floodlights pointing upward. The club offered to install shields or reposition the lights at their own cost but the owner told them to f___ off. It’s an amateur club but they have some pretty good equipment and several of the members are professionals. They are building a radio telescope now – pretty cool stuff.”

“I listened to NPR about these things last night. Pretty interesting and bizarre. If you guys need a break from light pollution and a chance to see the stars clearly, you ought to think about the Montanapalooza. We have real dark up here.”

“Don't think Montanapalooza hasn’t tempted me. I may have to wait until the second annual event.”

“Just think Violin. High in the Beartooths. No one for miles and miles and miles and most of all no light. Just dark. Good star gazing conditions.”

“Darkness is a beautiful thing! I'm tellin' ya!

Yep, billboards are a major offender. I seem to remember that Atlanta passed an ordinance that billboard lights should point DOWNWARD. It would be great if we could get something like that passed, but it would Cost Money --- and that's the kiss of death around here.

Geeeee... if only Montana wasn't soooooo far away! I'd wear out five pair of boots just getting there, <G>.”

“HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* New Moon April 12-13
* The crescent Moon pairs with bright Venus at twilight on April 14th
* Comet Ikeya-Zhang remains bright in the morning sky just before
twilight.
* On April 17th, just after sunset, six solar-system objects are spaced
almost equally in a huge, diagonal line crossing the western sky. From top
left they are: Jupiter, the Moon, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and very low
Mercury.

For details, see This Week's Sky at a Glance and Planet Roundup.”

“I want a pet neutron star, those things sound so cool! I promise I'll take good care of it and never let it bosenova. LOL!!!”

“Here is a neutron star you can have, skullcap: Neutron Star RX J185636-3754.


For additional information, see
Introduction to neutron stars, Fantasy MPEG movie to a neutron star, or a GOOGLE search for Neutron Star.”

“Thank you nowslimmer but I actually had this in mind.”

“Oops. Try this.”

“I like the chewy chocolate center.”

“Do those multiple, regular vortices count as nuts in a creamy nougat?”

“That sounds more like an automatic transmission. Newton's Mechanical Universe! It runs like a clock.”

“Welcome to Ned Wright's Cosmology Tutorial

"the 65 ms pulsar in the supernova remnant 3C58 which coincides with the historical SN 1181 appears to be too cool for its age"

<G>”

“Soooo....if it breaks down we'll have to call a quantum mechanic?





Ahhhhhhhhahahahahaha! I crack me up!”

“<ARGH>”

“Schroedinger's Cat Is Half Dead!!”