An Image it Took 30 Years to Complete: Father and Son at First and Last Shuttle Launch

Father and Son: STS-1 and STS-135. Chris Bray and his father took two similar images, 30 years apart. Image courtesy Chris Bay. Click the image to see it on Flickr

Chris Bray and his father Kenneth attended the first space shuttle launch 30 years ago and even though they hadn’t seen any other launches in person since, they decided to make the journey to see the final launch to ‘bookend’ the shuttle program in their lives. Plus, they were able to take this great image of father and son at two shuttle launches, “the picture we waited 30 years to complete,” Chris Bray said.

Note the similar shirts and poses, as well as examples of the available technology of the day.

But their odyssey wasn’t without a bit of adventure!

“In addition to being astronomy buffs for as long as I can remember, Dad and I have been big fans and followers of the space program — including all the private endeavors,” Chris Bray told Universe Today. “We’ve only been to the two Shuttle launches. I live in NYC and he lives in NJ, so it’s not always the easiest and most convenient trip to make.”

Chris said that about a year ago when NASA started discussing the last missions, he and his father talked about how nice it would be to go to the last launch since they had attended the first.

“Dad was a jewelry designer and made some of the official shuttle pins for the early STS missions (like this one),” Chris said, “so that’s why we were down there for the first launch. We were lucky enough to get in the lottery for STS-135 and scored some tickets to the Astronaut Hall of Fame viewing site.”

“But we almost didn’t make it! Our flight out of Newark on Thursday the 7th was delayed 5 or so hours and we didn’t get to Orlando until about 2:30 am. On top of that, all the rental cars were gone and despite having a reservation for a car we had no transportation. We eventually were able to rent a 15 seat passenger van (the last available car) from a small rental company and drove straight to the site, bailing on our hotel.”

Chris said both he and his Dad are sad to see the program end, but at the same time excited about the next phase, whatever that might be.

Thanks to Chris for sharing the image with Universe Today.

Tagged as: launches, Space Shuttle, STS-1, STS-135

View the original article here

Black Hole Devours Star and Hurls Energy Across 3.8 Billion Light Years

What University of Warwick researchers think the star may have looked like at the start of its disruption by a black hole at the center of a galaxy 3.8 billion light years distant resulting in the outburst known as Sw 1644+57. Credit: University of Warwick / Mark A. Garlick

Engaging the Hubble Space Telescope, Swift satellite and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers at the University of Warwick were quick to pick up a signal from Swift’s Burst Alert Telescope on March 28, 2011. In a classic line from Easy Rider, Jack Nicholson says: “It’s a UFO beaming back at you.” But this time it isn’t a UFO… it’s the death scream of a star being consumed by a black hole. The alert was just the beginning of a series of x-ray blasts that turned out to be the largest and most luminous event so far recorded in a distant galaxy.

Originating 3.8 billion light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation of Draco, the beam consisting of high energy X-rays and gamma-rays remained brilliant for a period of weeks after the initial event. As more and more material from the doomed star crossed over the event horizon, bright flares erupted signaling its demise. Says Dr. Andrew Levan, lead researcher on the paper from the University of Warwick; “Despite the power of this the cataclysmic event we still only happen to see this event because our solar system happened to be looking right down the barrel of this jet of energy”.

Dr Andrew Levan is a researcher at the University of Warwick.

Dr. Levan’s findings were published today in the Journal Science in a paper entitled “An Extremely Luminous Panchromatic Outburst from the Nucleus of a Distant Galaxy”. His findings leave no doubt as to the origin of the event and it has been cataloged as Sw 1644+57.

“The only explanation that so far fits the size, intensity, time scale, and level of fluctuation of the observed event, is that a massive black at the very centre of that galaxy has pulled in a large star and ripped it apart by tidal disruption.” says Levan. “The spinning black hole then created the two jets one of which pointed straight to Earth.”

And straight into our eager eyes…

Original Story Source: Eurekalert.

View the original article here