Black Hole Cluster in Andromeda!!!

NASA scientists have discovered an astonishing large cluster of black holes in our nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda's central bulge.The 26 candidates to be black holes were spotted with the Chandra X-ray Observatory from more than 150 observations spread over 13 years.

Each of the black holes is of the kind that forms after a star collapses in on itself. As they suck in material from other stars that orbit or pass nearby, they also suck in material that gives out X-rays as it is consumed. It's this that Chandra spotted.

To filter Andromeda's black holes from other X-ray sources, such as neutron stars, or much larger black holes which are much far away from the Andromeda, the astrophysicists had to look for attributes like brightness, variability and color. These black holes are more easily spotted than most because they have got companion stars that provide the material that emits X-rays. 

The Super Moon 2013!

Everyone, today on Sunday 23rd of june 2013, its the super moon. The moon today would be the biggest and the brightest moon of this year. Stargazers and astronomers will get a rare chance to observe the year's largest fullmoon. 

The moon will be at its closest distance(the Perigee) to Earth in its orbit, a distance of 356,991 km(221,823 miles). Astronomers believe that the supermoon can cause natural disasters. This Sunday's full moon will have an effect on high and low ocean tides.    

 In India, people can watch the supermoon all night after 6.40 pm on Sunday. But the best time to view the full moon is between 4.30 am to 5.30 am (7 am EDT) on Monday when it is very close to the horizon.

One can follow their website on Slooh.com or also watch the live stream that will start on 23 June at 6 pm EDT and 9 pm EDT. Viewers can also download Slooh iPad app from the iTunes store to watch the phenomenon live on their PC, MAC and mobile devices.

The Great Attractor!!!

The Great Attractor is far bigger than a galaxy. In the terminology of astronomers, these are clusters of galaxies containing maybe hundreds of galaxies, and superclusters containing many clusters.
The Norma Cluster is the closest massive galaxy cluster to the Milky Way, and lies about 220 million light-years away. The enormous mass concentrated here, and the consequent gravitational attraction, mean that this region of space is known to astronomers as the Great Attractor, and it dominates our region of the Universe.

Our galaxy, along with other galaxies in our local group, is currently rushing at a speed of nearly 1,000km per second towards the Great Attractor which is about 220 million light years away from us.

This Great Attractor has a mass of nearly 100 quadrillion times greater than our sun and span of 500 million light-years, and is made of both the visible matter and dark matter.
So in a way its a massive black hole which is pulling us.
This motion can only be accounted for by gravitational attraction, even though the mass that we can observe is not nearly great enough to exert that kind of pull. The only thing that could explain the movement of Andromeda is the gravitational pull of a lot of unseen mass--perhaps the equivalent of 10 Milky Way-size galaxies--lying between the two galaxies.

Meanwhile, our entire Local Group is hurtling toward the center of the Virgo cluster at one million miles per hour.
If you want to know more about The Great Attractor and the theories behind it click here:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/03/mystery-of-the.html

Mr. Einstein in space!!

On 5 June 2013 a specially adapted Ariane 5 rocket placed the 20.2 tonnes of the ATV-4 ‘Albert Einstein’ into orbit. The ATV-4 is the heaviest payload that Ariane has ever carried into orbit. The cargo resupply ship named Albert Einstein—officially called the Automated Transfer Vehicle-4—is on its way to the International Space Station loaded down with supplies. 

The ATV ‘Albert Einstein’, designed and built by Astrium, is the fourth unmanned European transport spacecraft for the International Space Station (ISS). This is the 55th consecutive successful launch of Ariane 5, with a new payload record of 20.2 tonnes.  It is carrying over 2500 kilograms of supplies to the station. It’s a total of 1400 separate items, including food, water, clothing, equipment, even air. Once the port is cleared, ATV-4 can approach and dock. That’s scheduled for June 15, 2013.