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Collapsing Wolf-Rayet Stars and Inverse Compton Scattering of Stellar Photons

Wolf-Rayet stars are a violent and self-destructive phase of a massive star’s lifetime. This is the point at which they begin to die as a prelude to a supernova and black hole formation. Often, large nebulae can be found around these bright stellar objects (pictured), emitting strong ultraviolet radiation. As Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars continue to lose huge amounts of mass and deplete all their fuel, they become even more unstable, resulting in a huge supernova. Exploding WR stars have been linked with powerful gamma ray (γ-ray) bursts; in fact the largest, most distant GRB was observed on March 19th in the constellation of Boötes by NASA’s Swift Observatory and the Polish “Pie of the Sky” GRB detector. There is some evidence that this GRB was the result of a WR star/neutron star binary pair, but what would happen if a WR star is sitting close to an O-type star just as it explodes?

As the WR star collapses, a shock wave (containing hot, relativistic electrons) sent hurtling toward the O-type star may cause inverse Compton scattering of the stellar photon field, generating powerful, long period emissions of γ-ray radiation. New research suggests that this mechanism may explain the 1-100 GeV γ-rays observed minutes or hours after the main GRB…
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A Fun Couple of Days for Writing…

It’s been a flood, a flood I tell you! The last week has been a full-on space news week, especially with the landing of Phoenix on Mars on Sunday. But not only this, we’ve had news from all over the globe and it’s been hard to keep up. Over at the Universe Today we’ve been trying to give a good cross section of topics (with a heavy dose from Mars, naturally), and mine have been pretty eclectic. From Japanese space beer, stunning Very Large Telescope (VLT) images of the iconic Eta Carinae, cool space lasers, hot laboratory lasers and a crazy-spinning asteroid to name a few. It’s just a shame I didn’t have time to write more. So here they are, the last couple of days of articles I’ve written for the Universe Today…
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Carnival of Space Week 56 @Lifeboat Foundation

Another week, another Carnival! And this week it is being hosted over at the Lifeboat Foundation Blog, an organization with a focus on safeguarding the future of mankind. A superb site with some great concepts. This weeks Carnival, again, has a large range of subjects, focusing (obviously) on the Sunday landing of Phoenix on Mars to my article on the closedown of the Goonhilly Earth Station.

Check out the Carnival of Space Week 56!

Phoenix Descent Captured by HiRISE – A Breathtaking View

Its images like these that restore your faith in mankind’s exploration spirit. After the flawless entry, descent and landing of Phoenix on Sunday night at 16:54 PST (00:54 GMT Monday morning), I took some time to contemplate the enormity of what the amazing team at NASA and the University of Arizona had achieved. I was a bit concerned as to whether the lander would make it through the “7 minutes of terror”, especially when thinking back to the silence that followed the UK’s Beagle 2 landing on Christmas Day, 2003. But it did make it, and with bags of confidence. Then we are flooded with news and images from the Red Planet, but one photo stood out from the rest. A photo, from an orbiting Mars satellite, looking down on Phoenix, floating through the Martian atmosphere, with a 10 km-wide crater as a backdrop. It doesn’t get much better than this…
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Goonhilly: Shutdown of the Worlds Largest Satellite Earth Station

Goonhilly is an area of the Lizard Peninsula in the British county of Cornwall. This region has been the destination of countless family holidays in my lifetime, and even today the Cornish landscape provides plenty of surprises for me. One landmark in particular has been the focus of my interest for as long as I can remember. Driving from the town of Helston, past RNAS Culdrose (an active Royal Naval Air Service site), and then on toward the most southerly point of mainland United Kingdom, a strange, yet familiar sight greets me. Every time I see the silhouette of those satellite dishes on the horizon of the Goonhilly Downs, I’m full of curiosity and excitement. But this year, the station is cutting back its operations to be moved to another site. The sad end of an era…
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Planet X Does Not Exist

Planet X really doesn't exist... — Planet X really doesn’t exist…

(Update: “2012: No Planet X” hit the front page of Digg.com this morning. It doesn’t appear to have the accelerated popularity of the first “No Doomsday in 2012”, but the response is still fantastic. Thanks to everybody for your support. Join the fun over at Digg!)

After some questions about the specific theories surrounding the end of the Earth in 2012, I decided to investigate the strange and mysterious “Planet X” (or “Nibiru”) in todays posting on the Universe Today. Primarily this was out of curiosity, after all, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of websites devoted to the coming of this massive planet in, you guessed it, 2012. What is it with this date? It seems that every doomsday theory has come together for a huge party in four years time. So, you can probably guess from my tone, I’m a little skeptical. To cut a long story short, I am sick and tired with seeing unfounded “scientific” (borderline psudoscientific) theories of a planet that doesn’t exist, purely to scare people into buying an aspiring best selling novel about “How to Survive the Planet X Flypast”. My argument differs quite a lot to the Planet X supporter’s argument; I back my points up with scientific evidence.

Check out “2012: No Planet X” over at the Universe Today and see what you think…

Carnival of Space Week 55 @Catholic Sensibility

This week’s outing to all things spacey is being hosted over at Catholic Sensibility.

Our blogger Neil presents a great and informative edition this week, with a space habitation (or space real estate) theme. I put my 2c-worth into the ring with my adventures in Cornwall last week. Visiting the Eden Project near St. Austell really did spike my interest into how the superb geodesic domes could be used for future Mars colonies. Check out all the posts from the space blogosphere to find out more!

No Mayan Prophecy Doomsday in 2012 (Sorry)

(Update: It seems people agree with my 2012 article and it hit the front page of Digg just before 1am (GMT) on Wednesday. Join the fun!)

The Mayan Prophecy seems to predict the end of the world, or at least a large potion of humans on Earth. As a race we appear to have side-stepped many previous doomsday events in the past (how can you forget the crazed predictions of the Y2K bug), so what makes December 21st 2012 so special? Why is it going to be this date that will kill us all off? Actually, and I doubt this will surprise all the level-headed thinkers out there, there is very little evidence that anything will happen on that date. I can’t really talk for the predictions that there will be nuclear Armageddon, a plague outbreak or an ultra-credit crunch, but as far as any astro-threats are concerned, I have good news (we’re in the clear)…
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The Eden Project and Mars Settlement

On our travels last week, we decided to stop off at the Eden Project down near St. Austell in Cornwall for a few hours. It’s been one of those places I’ve always wanted to visit, especially since my involvement with the Mars Foundation. Well known in the UK for its “Biomes” – huge geodesic domes composed of hexagonal cushions of flexible but durable plastic – the project supports a huge number of plants and animals from around the globe. So, apart from looking pretty cool, why have I decided to mention it on astroengine? Well, Eden hasn’t only inspired environmentalists, it could aid the future design and implementation of structures beyond Earth…
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Carnival of Space Week 54 @Altair VI

This week’s Carnival of Space was held over at Altair VI, David S. F. Portree’s space blog. It is a superb read at the best of times and he’s done a wonderful job with the 54th edition. I entered a small article about the recent observations of the STEREO solar observatory with a nice little video of evolving coronal loops (how I miss studying those things). The scope and quality of all the stories from the space blogosphere are top drawer (as it is every week), from Fermi’s Paradox to the Phoenix Mars mission, we have it all, so be sure to check it out!