The Sharpest View of the Sun

This stunning picture shows remarkable and mysterious details in the vicinity of the central dark region of a planet-sized sunspot in one of the sharpest views ever from the surface of the sun. Just released, the picture was taken with the Swedish solar telescope now in its first year of operation on the Canary island of La Palma. In addition to the functions described as hair and dark channels are visible in the bright cores threads that are in the sunspot, which hitherto unknown and unexplored solar phenomena. The filaments "new, dark seeds are visible at that thousands of kilometres long, but only about 100 km wide. The solution offers 100 km wide or less is a milestone in astronomy and solar technology has been achieved here using sophisticated adaptive optics, digital image processing stacks, and processing techniques to combat the effects of atmospheric blurring. At optical wavelengths, these images are even sharper than current space-based observatories can produce solar. Incorporated on July 15, 2002, the sunspot shown, is the largest the group of sunspots cataloged as solar active region AR 10030

Youngest planet

An embryonic planets outside our solar system discovered a system could be less than 2000 years old, say astronomers.

The ball of dust and gas that is in the process of transforming into a giant Jupiter, it was found around the star Tau HL, by a British team.

Research leader Dr. Jane Greaves, said the planet `s growth in May were kickstarted when another young stars to the system 1600 years.

Details were presented at the UK National Astronomy Meeting in Belfast.

The scientists studied a disk of gas and rocky particles to HL Tau, which is 520 light years away in the constellation Taurus and thought to less than 100000 years old.

The disc is unusually massive and bright, making it an excellent place to search for evidence of planets in the process of formation.

The researchers say their image belongs to a proto-planetary still embedded in his birth.

Dr. Greaves of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, said the discovery of a planet around the formation of such a young star was a big surprise.

"It was not really what we were looking for. And we were surprised when we found it," she said BBC News.

"The next planet confirmed youngest is 10 million years old."

When the proto-Earth is assumed that the same age as the star it orbits, which would be several hundred times less than the previous record holder.

`` Record holder The growth of the planet But it is an interesting suggestion that the gas giant, which is about 14 times as big as our Jupiter, could even younger.

With the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in the USA, the researchers studied the system on emission wavelengths specially selected to the search for rocky particles approximately the size of pebbles. The presence of these pebbles is a clue that rocky material gradually clump together to form planets.

In the United Kingdom, researchers used the Merlin radio telescopes at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire study on the same system at longer wavelengths. This allowed them to confirm the emissions were from rocks, and not from other sources such as hot gas.

In addition to the detection of super-large dust in the disc to HL Tau, she was also an extra bright "clump" of the material.

This confirms a so-called "nebulosity" seen a few years earlier in the same position, by a team led by Dr. Jack Welch of the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Array, USA.

Formation Theories

Dr. Ken Rice, from the Institute for Astronomy in Edinburgh, said the discovery throw new light on theories of planet formation.

Following a model that planets form from the bottom up. Under this scenario, particles of rocky material collide and "stick" to one another, a larger object.

But he says that the proto-Earth and HL Tau formed relatively quickly, if a region of the disc collapsed into a self-contained. This can occur because of the gravitational instability in the disk.

Dr. Rice said his computer simulations were like a good fit for the observation that it seemed, could the mechanism really in the nature.

Surprisingly other young star in the same region XZ Tau May, a narrow pass of HL Tau about 1600 years ago.

Although not required for planetary formation, it is possible that this summary surprised the disc, making it unstable. This would be a very recent event in astronomical terms.

"It` s possible, it was a "yank" on one side of the disc to HL Tau, making it unstable, and this was a "trigger" for the planet, "said Dr. Greaves.

"If the planets formed in the last 1600 years, that would be incredibly young."

The Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting 2008 continues through Friday at Queen's University in Belfast.

Evidence of Huge Planetary Collision Found

Astronomers may have discovered the aftermath of a collision between a Saturn-size planet and a smaller world, perhaps the size of Uranus, some 170 light-years away.

Scientists made the find while studying the larger planet, which orbits a small, dim star in the constellation Centaurus.

The planets were puzzled experts because the brightness and temperature not match what is known as the objects to be developed.

"It is either too dark or it is too hot," said Eric Mamajek of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The planet-star system is only eight million years old, an age at which planets are still in the form, he said.

The world can with the remaining glowing heat of a mammoth collision with another protoplanet, Mamajek.

Such a collision would leave the planet unusually hot for many years, he said.

"We do not see the actual collision right now," said Mamajek.

"We see this long drawn-out period after the collision, about a hundred thousand years in which this thing would be very hot."

Mamajek discussed his findings yesterday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.

The discovery is exciting, because when our own solar system was young, at least three planets Uranus, Venus, Earth and are believed to have been smacked by large protoplanets.

"This could be the first evidence that this happens to another object in another solar system," said Mamajek.

The theory can not be confirmed, but astronomers can detailed observations of the distant planet atmosphere.

"It's very weak," said Mamajek. "And even the largest telescopes we have now really struggle to collect enough light."