Maui Astronomy
A FEW GOODIES FROM 2009
Earth and Moon imaged by LCROSS satellite.
images from www.space.com
First rocky exoplanet discovered.
image from www.space.com
Though its terrestrial surface renders CoRoT-7b more similar to Earth than many other exoplanets are, it's still a far cry from a familiar setting. The planet orbits extremely close to its star – about 1.6 million miles (2.5 million km), or 23 times closer than Mercury is to the sun. At this range, the planet's surface temperatures are scorching, with highs above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius) on the star-facing side. CoRoT-7b was discovered in February 2009 by the CoRoT space telescope, a European collaboration. The tiny planet was discovered orbiting a star slightly smaller and cooler than our sun, about 500 light-years away. As the planet passed in front of its star, it eclipsed a small portion of the star's light, causing a dip in brightness.
The Hawaiian dwarf planet and it's keiki.
image from www.space.com
A dwarf planet in our solar system, called Haumea, is known for its unusual shape and fast spin. Now astronomers have discovered another distinguishing feature: a dark red spot which appears to be richer in minerals and organic compounds than the surrounding icy surface.
Haumea, discovered in 2004, orbits the Sun beyond Neptune, in a region known as the Kuiper Belt. It is classified as a dwarf planet — a celestial body that is big enough to have been rounded by its own gravity, but has not cleared its neighboring region of similar objects. There are four other dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, Eris and Makemake. Haumea is the fourth largest dwarf planet. Haumea has 2 satellite moons, Hi'iaka and Namaka.
Haumea is also the fastest spinning large object in the solar system – one day on Haumea is equal to about 3.9 hours on Earth. This rapid rotation distorts Haumea, elongating it into a football-like shape.
Haumea was the Hawaiian goddess of childbirth, and the mother of many other Hawaiian deities (including Hi'iaka and Namaka), who were all born as chunks taken from her.
Hubble's Infrared view of deep space!
image from hubblesite.org
