Conception art no longer

Summary: The Alma telescope has captured a first image of its kind. A picture of planetary formation. The star is HL Tau and here we can see the protoplanetary disk that has formed around the star. It is out of this that the planets are formed. The dark rings in the image are the paths carved out by new planets being formed. Astronomers were surprised by how quickly the process was taking place; HL Tau is only about a million years old. It was not expected to have planets forming yet. This adjustment in the timescale of planetary formation could have an impact on how we date our own solar system, and now that we know it forms faster than expected, we might train our telescopes on other stars around this age and hope for similar results.

BBC News

First Gaia Telescope Image

Summary: The telescope Gaia has released its first test image of a star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This is only a test image though, Gaia's real job is to track and characterize points of light moving across its big detector. These points of light could be anything from a star, an asteroid, or even flashes of light caused by explosions such as supernovae. The test image simply verified that all the electronics are working and communicating with each other properly.

Gaia will be making a 3D map of a small area of the sky over five years. Ideally, at the end of the mission, it will know the coordinates of the brightest stars to within an error of seven micro-arcseconds. This angle is the same angle as viewing a small coin like a euro on the surface of the moon from earth; incredibly small! Currently, the best precision is to within 1%, and as astronomers try to measure stars farther away, this error will become more noticeable. Gaia will double check our current methods of measurement and help limit the amount of error when measuring other stars. This means that our future measurements can be more accurate and we will be able to, hopefully, have a more accurate estimate of how fast our universe is expanding.


BBC News

The Future of African Astronomy

Summary: Due to a new radio telescope array in Africa, scientists are predicting a burst of enthusiasm for my favorite branch of physics. Right now, the challenge is to nurture the African scientists and make sure it is not just a flood of US scientists who happen to be in Africa. A long-term relationship with the country needs to be built up. South Africa is also hoping to use this project to inspire future generations of scientists in their country to boost their country's economy and world standing.

The telescope array will contain 3,000 radio dishes and will be able to scan the sky faster than any previous instruments of the kind. The headquarters of this project is in South Africa who took the other countries by surprise when they won the bid. They won the scientific community with clear skies and legislation that strictly limits the amount of radio noise in that area surrounding the telescope which will make the data incredibly accurate and meaningful.


Nature
Square Kilometer Array (SKA)

Fifty Years of Observing

Summary: The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has now been observing our universe for 50 long years. This is the radio telescope most commonly used for a picture when teaching children. One of the coolest things is that it is still the biggest single-dish telescope in the world. It is a very interesting read so I encourage you to click on the picture to get to the article.

The end of Herschel's telescope

Summary: ESA's Herschel telescope, best known for its stunning images of nebulae like the Pillars of Creation, is set to take its last images later this month. this is a planned shut down. Due to the scientific instruments to take its images, the telescope needed to be constantly cooled to almost absolute zero temperatures. However, there is only so much coolant that can be flown with a satellite. The liquid is due to run out this month as expected.
Scientists are rushing to try and fit in as many observations as they can before the telescope ceases to function and they send it into orbit around the sun.
The images will be archived somewhere that they can be easily accessed.

BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21668712

New Australian Telescope

Summary: Australia has given us a wonderful new telescope with which to survey the sky! I don't know too many details but I'm excited to see what it has to offer.


BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19840545