ONE OF THE OLDEST STARS KNOWN

Hey Space Placers!

Here is the story about one of the oldest stars known. It is also the current record holder for the star with the fewest heavy elements which means it is OLD - perhaps forming with the first generation of stars after the Big Bang.

As a red dwarf star it will live for TRILLIONS of years.



Sky Guy in the Pacific

SKY GUY VIEWING ALERT 11/11/18 MOON AND SATURN, TAURID METEORS

Hey Space Placers!

Still with me?

I really am sorry to have gone silent the past week or so but I was under deadline to do the final proofs for my book which I just sent off last night - YAY!!!!!

The book is supposed to be out Nov. 27, 2018. If you like the sea and sky this book is for you.

Tonight the waxing crescent Moon and Saturn will be close to one another in the SW after sunset and will be the first pic I post on my 18 day cruise on Holland America's Eurodam from San Diego to Hawaii and back.

Also be on the lookout for Taurid Meteors.

Sky Guy Soon To Be Underway

Space Weather

Hey Space Placers!

I've been off planet reviewing the final proofs of my book the past week and have 1 week more to go.

Here is an article that discusses space weather  and a new ESA mission to provide alerts.

Space weather affects our daily lives in a variety of ways. Adding a new mission to monitor the Sun and the space weather it generates will go a long way in helping to protect our technologies and ourselves.

Sky Guy in VA

SOYUZ ACCIDENT VIDEO - GO FOR 12/3/18 LAUNCH

Hey Space Placers!

Here is the incredible video showing the October 11, 2018 accident of the Soyuz MS-10 launch that I blogged about previously.



More details on the accident are here. The article also states that the next crew launch to the International Space Station will take place on December 3rd.

Sky Guy in VA

HAPPY HALLOWEEN & HST IS BACK

Hey Space Placers!

Happy Halloween - the half way point from fall to winter. Check out what happens when JPL has a pumpkin carving contest!





HST is operating again after 3 weeks down time due to a faulty gyro and a troublesome back up gyro. Good news indeed!

Sky Guy in VA

MARS PARACHUTE TESTS

Hey Space Placers!

Check out pulling the ripcord on Mars-bound parachutes.



Testing was done in Virginia at NASA's Wallops Flight Test Facility.

Pretty cool......

On to Mars with the 2020 Rover.

Sky Guy in VA

IT'S A PICKLE: LEARN ABOUT HOW GALAXIES FORM

Her 2+ey Space Placers!

Have you ever wondered about how galaxies form and evolve? We live in the Milky Way Galaxy, one of 2+ TRILLION known galaxies in the observable Universe. Galaxies form and evolve over billions of years.

This is a LONG but easy to understand and insightful article written by an astrophysicist about his research into how galaxies form and evolve under the influence of dark matter. His ongoing research shows that galaxies seem to start out as "cosmic pickles" and evolve.

This computer simulation shows the evolution of particles representing stars. Note that after a number of stars have formed, the galaxy is “pickle” shaped—long, thin, and not rotating. A few satellite galaxies enter the visualization volume and merge with the central galaxy, but they do so along the main axis of the galaxy, so it continues to be long and thin. These images are all in the first (pre-"blue-nugget") stage of the evolution of this galaxy. Then the center becomes rounder and brighter, as gas flows toward the center and many stars form there (the "blue nugget" stage). Finally additional gas turns into stars to form a disk around the central region.

Simulation and video by Daniel Ceverino in collaboration with the author.

We can currently look back to the early Universe to about a billion years after the Big Bang and see young galaxies in their early stages of evolution. With new monster telescopes on the horizon we might be able to detect the very first galaxies to form!ex us

The enigmas of dark matter and dark energy still vex us as to what they are. We certainly can observe their effects on the Universe but are still in the dark - forgive the pun - as to what they truly are.

Perhaps one day we will know......

Sky Guy in VA