May 12 2010
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-174
NASA ANNOUNCES LINEUP FOR TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE MOON
3- WASHINGTON -- NASA has planned various ways to help the public enjoy the total lunar eclipse on the night of Dec. 20 to 21. Astronomers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will host a pair of live web chats to answer questions and help make the rare celestial experience one to remember. Marshall Center astronomer Rob Suggs will hold the first chat from 3 - 4 p.m. EST on Dec. 20 and discuss the best ways to view the eclipse. From 12 a.m. - 5 a.m., Marshall researcher Mitzi Adams will answer questions as the eclipse passes across the continental United States. A live video feed of the eclipse will be available on the chat site at: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/lunar_eclipse.html Suggs also will be available for media interviews at Marshall from 2 - 3 p.m. Dec. 20. News media interested in attending the events should contact Janet Anderson at 256-544-0034 no later than 10 a.m. Monday. For observers on the East Coast, the eclipse will last from 1:33 - 5:01 a.m. EST. The eclipse happens when the moon passes through the shadow of Earth, and the moon's appearance changes from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and perhaps gray. To learn about the science behind eclipses, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/eclipse NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., has set up a lunar eclipse Flickr group for those who want to share or view photos of the eclipsed moon. NASA will choose one photographer to have his or her work featured as official JPL wallpaper on their website. To learn more, visit: http://www.flickr.com/groups/imthere/ JPL also is hosting the I'm There: Lunar Eclipse text campaign to connect people who are watching the eclipse in the same area and to provide them with tips on viewing the phenomenon. To learn more, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/imthere/map.php
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RELEASE: 10-299
NASA'S CHANDRA FINDS YOUNGEST NEARBY BLACK HOLE
WASHINGTON -- Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have found evidence of the youngest black hole known to exist in our cosmic neighborhood. The 30-year-old black hole provides a unique opportunity to watch this type of object develop from infancy. The black hole could help scientists better understand how massive stars explode, which ones leave behind black holes or neutron stars, and the number of black holes in our galaxy and others. The 30-year-old object is a remnant of SN 1979C, a supernova in the galaxy M100 approximately 50 million light years from Earth. Data from Chandra, NASA's Swift satellite, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and the German ROSAT observatory revealed a bright source of X-rays that has remained steady during observation from 1995 to 2007. This suggests the object is a black hole being fed either by material falling into it from the supernova or a binary companion. "If our interpretation is correct, this is the nearest example where the birth of a black hole has been observed, said Daniel Patnaude of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. who led the study. The scientists think SN 1979C, first discovered by an amateur astronomer in 1979, formed when a star about 20 times more massive than the sun collapsed. Many new black holes in the distant universe previously have been detected in the form of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). However, SN 1979C is different because it is much closer and belongs to a class of supernovas unlikely to be associated with a GRB. Theory predicts most black holes in the universe should form when the core of a star collapses and a GRB is not produced. "This may be the first time the common way of making a black hole has been observed, said co-author Abraham Loeb, also of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. However, it is very difficult to detect this type of black hole birth because decades of X-ray observations are needed to make the case. The idea of a black hole with an observed age of only about 30 years is consistent with recent theoretical work. In 2005, a theory was presented that the bright optical light of this supernova was powered by a jet from a black hole that was unable to penetrate the hydrogen envelope of the star to form a GRB. The results seen in the observations of SN 1979C fit this theory very well. Although the evidence points to a newly formed black hole in SN 1979C, another intriguing possibility is that a young, rapidly spinning neutron star with a powerful wind of high energy particles could be responsible for the X-ray emission. This would make the object in SN 1979C the youngest and brightest example of such a pulsar wind nebula and the youngest known neutron star. The Crab pulsar, the best-known example of a bright pulsar wind nebula, is about 950 years old. "It's very rewarding to see how the commitment of some of the most advanced telescopes in space, like Chandra, can help complete the story, said Jon Morse, head of the Astrophysics Division at NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The results will appear in the New Astronomy journal in a paper by Patnaude, Loeb, and Christine Jones of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge.
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