The Week in Pictures: August 17–23, 2013
In the past seven days, NASA announced that its WISE spacecraft will be reactivated to hunt for asteroids, scientists discovered an exoplanet that orbits its host star in only 8.5 hours, the Sun emitted an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, and more.
Published: Friday, August 23, 2013
WISE reactivated to hunt for asteroids
The spacecraft will assist in efforts to identify the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects, as well as those suitable for asteroid exploration missions.
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ESO/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/H. Arce. Acknowledgements: Bo Reipurth
ALMA takes close look at drama of star birth
New observations of young star region Herbig-Haro 46/47 revealed that some of the ejected material had velocities much higher than had been measured before.
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Team discovers exoplanet that orbits star in 8.5 hours
Kepler-78b is so close to its star that scientists hope to measure its gravitational influence on the sun.
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NASA/ESA/E. Meyer, W. Sparks, J. Biretta, J. Anderson, S.T. Sohn, & R. van der Marel (STScI)/C. Norman (Johns Hopkins University)/M. Nakamura (Academia Sinica)
Astronomers create movie of M87's jet
The movie, created from more than 13 years of Hubble observations, promises to give scientists a better understanding of how black holes shape galaxy evolution.
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Spacecraft capture an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection
The particles from ejections cannot travel through the atmosphere to harm humans on Earth, but they can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground.
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Scientists find "fluffy" disk around baby star
This near-transparent layer of RY Tauri's dust disk may have been left over from the star’s earlier formation period and could aid in the development of new planets around the star.
Learn more »NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/Texas A&M Univ.
Rover gets movie as a Mars moon passes another
These observations of Phobos and Deimos help make researchers’ understanding the moons’ orbits even more precise.
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Astronomers take sharpest photos ever of the night sky
The new ground-based images are at least twice as sharp as what the Hubble Space Telescope can make.
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NASA captures radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2005 WK4
Radar measurements of asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into the future than if radar observations weren't available.
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