No naked black holes

No matter how hard you try to push their boundaries, black holes always seem to preserve their modesty. Indiscreet astrophysicists have simulated the most violent collisions of black holes yet, and found that the resulting black hole still has an event horizon — the surface through which even light cannot escape and that hide black holes’ interiors.

Full article: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/37200/title/No_naked_black_holes

Hubble Finds Unidentified Object in Space, Scientists Puzzled

This is exactly why we send astronauts to risk their life to service Hubble: in a paper published last week in the Astrophysical Journal, scientists detail the discovery of a new unidentified object in the middle of nowhere. I don't know about you, but when a research paper conclusion says "We suggest that the transient may be one of a new class" I get a chill of oooh-aaahness down my spine. Especially when after a hundred days of observation, it disappeared from the sky with no explanation. Get your tinfoil hats out, because it gets even weirder.

Full Article:
http://gizmodo.com/5049896/hubble-finds-unidentified-object-in-space-scientists-puzzled
For those more technically minded than me, here is the report:
Oops! I lost it! post it later though!

Snow on Mars

Nasa's Phoenix explorer has delivered the first reports of snowfall on Mars.
Mars weatherman Jim Whiteway of York University in Toronto, Canada, said the lander has seen snow, frost and clouds forming as the atmosphere cools, although the snow is vaporizing before reaching the ground.

He said: "Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars. We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground."

Full Article
http://www.itv.com/News/Articles/Snow-on-Mars-12862363.html

With a twinkle, pulsating stars could deliver signals from E.T.

Searching for signals from extraterrestrials can be a ticklish business. Astronomer John Learned thinks tickling certain stars in just the right way might be a good strategy for ET to phone Earth.

Those stars, known as Cepheid variables, brighten and dim on a regular schedule. In 1908, after analyzing stars on photographic plates at Harvard College Observatory, Henrietta Swan Leavitt reported that a Cepheid’s maximum brightness depends on the timing of its bright-dim cycle. The longer the period, the brighter the star. Other astronomers soon realized that they could use the period-brightness relationship to measure distances to remote galaxies.

A century later, Learned and colleagues are proposing a new use for Cepheids. In an article recently posted online (arxiv.org/abs/0809.0339), the researchers suggest that tinkering with the core of a Cepheid variable using a beam of neutrinos could be an effective way for advanced civilizations to communicate. This modulation, or “tickling,” would alter the phase at which the star brightens and slightly shorten the time it takes for the star to wax and wane, creating a new pattern that distant observers might detect.

Full article: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/36890/description/With_a_twinkle,_pulsating_stars_could_deliver_signals_from_E.T.

Welcome to Startracker!

Welcome!
the purpose of this blog is for astronomers, both professional and beginner, to get together and record information about there observations everything from fluctuations of variable stars, to extraterrestrials!

Rules:
cussing is allowed in moderation
stay fairly close to the topic
be nice to new people
DON'T SAY SOMETHING IS STUPID OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT

Have Fun and happy Startracking