Hubble Shoots Movies of Stellar Jets 30
With his first accepted submission, aglider writes "A number of different science publications are reporting on a recent announcement made by NASA and Hubblesite.org. Quoting: 'A team of scientists [headed by Rice astronomer Patrick Hartigan] has collected enough high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope images over a 14-year period to stitch together time-lapse movies of powerful jets ejected from three young stars. The jets, a byproduct of gas accretion around newly forming stars, shoot off at supersonic speeds in opposite directions through space.' The report is also accompanied by a number of photos and, of course, astounding small movies. The complete scientific study, which dates back to 2011.07.20, has been published in the Astrophysical Journal (subscription needed) but is also available on the ESA's Space Telescope site (PDF)."
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way to waste a first post there
Re:SuperSONIC speeds... (Score:4, Funny)
of course, it means faster than the speed of sound in a vacuum...
Re:SuperSONIC speeds... (Score:4, Informative)
speed of sound (in the interstellar medium) is about 100 km/s
(source [wikipedia.org])
Yes, really.
Moron.
if you'd left off the 'moron' (Score:3, Informative)
i would have modded you up
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The tail of a comet is caused by the star around which it orbits heating it up and blowing off the dust into a 'tail' shape. The tail does not trail behind the comet as it moves, but points away from the star it is orbiting.
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From one of the videos it looks like a tail caused by the star moving... Could there be star-sized comets in the universe?
It depends on what you want to call a comet. The "dirty snow balls" at the nucleus of all the comet pictures you'd normally see are no bigger than an asteroid. When activated by solar energy, they develop a coma of gaseous material that is several times larger than the nucleus, but still pretty small. If you count the tail that streams away from the star, then yes: it is possible to say a particularly large and active comet can conceivably approach the diameter of a star. However, even as such, no comet
Finally! (Score:1)
This is awesome! Finally a real, optical series of images for something like this -- no infrared, or otherwise exotic EM 'images'. This moves us one step closer to what I really want to see before I die -- a supernova actually bursting and wiping out its star system in real imagery.
Hopefully we put another good, optical tele up there so we can get a bit better resolution so we can see the scales of a star system and not 14years worth of 440k mph stills.
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Insects, we (Score:2)
Does this give anyone else the impression that we are like insects, living, moving, dying too fast to appreciate the slowly unfolding majesty of the Universe?
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Yes. Breathtaking footage.
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I wont go so far as reduce us to insects, but I'll agree this blows me away. The universe continues to humble me with its complete beauty and art. Yes art, on a scale we can barely imagine. The first alien ship that passes by us asks if any one wants a one way ride out to see these sights close up...I'm in.
What is sad for me is that we have these amazing minds that can imagine, create, and explore worlds beyond our horizons, but we are ruled by insects who's lives are measured in quarterly reports, and h
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The first alien ship that passes by us asks if any one wants a one way ride out to see these sights close up...I'm in.
No - because you would not go so far as to "reduce" us to insects, the insect-like aliens will just sacrifice you and place you on the giant fungal heap and you never will see those sights. I, for one, welcome our insect overlords.
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Re:Insects, we (Score:4, Informative)
No, we're not at all like insects. Insects are "cold-blooded", have chitinous exoskeleton and six legs, often wings and webbed eyes. We're very different. There's been like 600+ million years of evolution since our last common ancestor.
Sheesh, don't they teach biology in schools any more?
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I suggest you look up the word "simile". The meaning hasn't changed in the 28 years since I was at school. Also, look up the meanings of the terms you are using before you post, because next time you are trolling you will make less of a fool of yourself.
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I was not trolling, I was disagreeing with the simile, I just chose to be a smart-ass instead of writing a well reasoned response.
The simile is about as good as saying "we humans are like planets, totally insignificant in the grand dance of stars, dust and dark matter". And especially we don't die too fast to appreciate slowly unfolding majesty of the universe, because thanks to finite speed of light, we can see a cross-section of the entire history of the universe by just looking up. If you don't believe m
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He said "like" insects. Meaning that insects live their whole lives in what is for us a fraction of our lives.
In mood for flame, aren't we?
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Oh there is lots of majesty even in a rosebud that lives for one night :)
Supersonic (Score:2)
Wow, they move faster than sound in space. Wonder what speed that is? Are orbiting space loudspeakers blasting rock-n-roll to unfortunate planets next? (Apologies to Douglas Adams)
Cool videos, though.
Re:Supersonic [Speeds] (Score:1)
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"While determining supersonic speed requires not being in a vacuum, once you know what speed supersonic-speed is, can it not be used as a measuring stick for comparison?"
Supersonic means faster than the speed of sound referenced to a specific medium at specific conditions, and that varies wildly depending on the medium, say air or steel, and on the temperature, pressure, and state of the medium. Perhaps astro-physicists use "supersonic" in some specialized sense, but it looks to me as if the author used it
This looks like effects shots from Kubrick's 2001 (Score:2)
Specifically the HH1 jet has some of the streaming blob like motion created using light show fluid projections techniques. This is done on an overhead projector with a big watch glass (a big shallow section of a sphere) and volatile fluids. Colors are dripped into the liquid and as the glass is moved they mix around and bubbles form from a combination of the heat of the projector and changing pressure in the liquid.
It's all