Page 31 - 200812 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - December 2008

Amazing Astronomy Discoveries 2008 31 Amazing Astronomy Discoveries 2008 31 Top 5 Amazing has imaged nearly 40 percent of the planet). energy produced can kick the newly merged Top 5 Amazing A major goal of such missions has been Astronomy Discoveries to find signs of past or present liquid water, the black hole clear out of its galaxy. Astronomy Discoveries Also, for the first time this year, in 2008 main ingredient for life. That's why Phoenix scientists detected such a rogue black hole in 2008 snagged a star-studded headline when the lander racing along at 5,900,000 mph (2,650 By Jeanna Bryner collected water ice near Mars' north pole this kilometers per second). By Jeanna Bryner year. Astronomers have continued to cast Earlier in the year, Spirit found deposits 5. Solving Mercury mysteries their eyes to the heavens, with bigger and better of silica in Gusev Crater, suggesting, scientists More than half of our solar system's telescopes and as much passion as ever this said, that hot water once flowed through the smallest planet (Pluto once took this honor), year, but some of the coolest findings of 2008 Martian soil in hydrothermal vents. As on Earth, Mercury, had remained a mystery until this year. were right in our own backyard, or at least these hydrothermal vents may have once On Jan. 14, NASA's MESSENGER probe made looked like they were. harbored life. The discovered silica could its first flyby of Mercury, beginning a mission to From worlds nearby like Mercury and preserve fossils of such ancient life if it did image the entire planet. Mars to those beyond our solar system, indeed exist there. From the get-go, the probe sent back planetary science saw a boon. As for extrasolar And just in from MRO — evidence of intriguing images, including clear evidence for planets, astronomers bagged at least 50 newbies carbonates on the Martian surface. Since volcanoes. Images of the Caloris basin showed this year. carbonates can't survive in acidic, harsh hints of lava flows and the presence of a shield "It's been a very exciting year for conditions, the mineral finding suggests any volcano larger than the state of Delaware, with exoplanet discoveries," said Michael Liu, an microbes crawling around when Mars was wet gently sloping sides. astronomer at the University of Hawaii. could've enjoyed a cushy existence. And Mercury is indeed shrinking as its What's responsible for the surge of iron-rich core slowly cools. Scientists had exoplanet detections? 3. Dark energy speculated this much from images taken during "The big picture is that a wide variety of Scientists were hot on the trail this year the Mariner 10 mission in 1974. But new technologies, both instruments on existing of a mysterious "force" called dark energy that MESSENGER images showed more faults than telescopes and new dedicated telescopes, are has been expanding the universe at an did Mariner 10, suggesting the strain from the really allowing astronomers to do much more increasing pace and was only discovered about planet's contraction was at least one-third sensitive measurements, and thus leading to a 10 years ago. greater than originally thought. real bonanza of discoveries," Though, admittedly, scientists say they More to come: The thousands of images And there's more. Here are five favorite are more than a few years away from solving and other data collected by MESSENGER findings in astronomy for 2008: the puzzler of what dark energy is, a new could also shed light on other Mercury method this year confirmed its existence, mysteries, including the planet's relatively giant 1. Alien worlds suggesting the force is stifling the growth of core, which makes up about two-thirds of the With the extrasolar planet tally now well galaxies in the universe. Basically, in an planet's mass. One idea is that huge impacts above 300, astronomers seem to be on track for expanding universe dominated by dark energy, hundreds of millions of years ago might have spotting another Earth (the astronomical galaxies fly away from one another rather than stripped the innermost planet of its original jackpot) before long. Along the way this year, a mingle and merge. surface. [] jaw-dropping announcement came in These results also suggest dark energy November when two teams of astronomers takes the form of what Einstein called the MORE ‘X’ TRIVIA... reported they had snapped direct images of cosmological constant — a term in Einstein's exoplanets. theory of general relativity that represents the - Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of Geoffrey Marcy of the University of possibility of empty space having a density and where they grew up. California, Berkeley, calls the images "the most pressure associated with it. - Al Capone’s business card said he was a used spectacular thing in 2008." furniture dealer. "In my own professional opinion this is 4. Black hole antics - A bowl of Wheaties contain twice as much by far the most definitive picture of a planet Black holes are so dense that nothing, sodium as a bowl of potato chips. ever taken," Marcy said during a telephone not even light, can escape their gravitational - Americans spend $1.4 billion on chewing gum interview, referring to the direct image by the grips. Though invisible, astronomers have every year. Hubble Space Telescope of the planet called inferred the presence of the dark behemoths - Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows Fomalhaut b. from their effects on nearby objects. And this when their cats died as a sign of mourning. The gold rush of exoplanet discoveries year, it seems, all the crazies came out of their - Peanuts are one of the ingredients used to this year boils down to new techniques and cosmic closets. make dynamite. observatories as well as energetic astronomers Take the fastest spinning black hole, - More Americans are arrested for drunk driving involved, Marcy said. found to whirl around at speeds approaching the than any other crime. Some other highlights include: the least- speed of light. - If you’re like most people, your fingernails massive planet, weighing in at just three times And when it comes to obesity, one black grow 4 times as fast as your toenails. the mass of Earth; the hottest planet, with hole could've gobbled up 18 billion suns. This - Five cows were killed in a drive-by xhooting temperatures reaching about 4,000 degrees giant would dwarf the smallest black hole found in Clay County, Missouri, in 1992. Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius); and three this year, weighing in at about 3.8 times the - The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas has 12 so-called super-Earths orbiting a star. mass of our sun and spanning just 15 miles (24 gardeners on its staff to care for artificial plants. Astronomers like Marcy predict the km) in diameter. - The average yawn lasts 6 seconds. upcoming year will bring us even closer to Researchers also found this year that - About 50% of U.S. workers say they’ve had detecting Earth's twin. For instance, NASA's some supermassive black holes, which reside at sex in the workplace. Favorite place: the boss’s Kepler mission is scheduled to launch in March the centers of many or all galaxies, spew out desk. with the goal of finding rocky planets about the giant bubbles from the tips of their jets. (As - Elephants can’t jump. Every other mammal size of Earth that orbit within the habitable material falls into the gravitational clutches of a can. black hole, the energy can be spit out as jets of - Taxpayers spent $57,000 U.S. on gold- 2. Martian life? radiation and high-speed particles.) The bubbles embossed playing cards for Air Force One in The red planet has gotten celebrity ultimately pop, spilling their gaseous guts. 1992. treatment this past year, with the touchdown of Turns out, the hot gas keeps the black hole and - Finders keepers: 25% of U.S. territory NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander in May, the its galaxy from ballooning to mega sizes. originally belonged to Mexico. continuing presence of the Mars Exploration Black holes can also take the form of - Bloodhounds are the only animals who Rover twins (Spirit and Opportunity) and "masked fugitive." Computer simulations evidence is admissable in U.S. courts. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (which revealed that when two black holes merge, the More ‘X’ TRIVIA to come!