1. WIND - Here, There & Everywhere
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[Runtime: 03:11]
(NASA/CXC/A. Hobart)
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We've all felt the wind - whether as a gentle breeze or the wrath of an angry storm. But what exactly is wind and what impact does it have?
Wind is an excellent example of a phenomenon that happens here, there, and everywhere. By studying wind wherever it occurs - here on Earth, somewhere in the Solar System, or across the vastness of galaxies - we are learning more about how science is connected no matter where it is found.
[Runtime: 03:11]
(NASA/CXC/A. Hobart)
2. Listening to Light
QuicktimeMPEG When we look up on a dark night, we see a sky filled with stars. The light from a star, like the light from a flashlight or a lightning bug, is one form of electromagnetic radiation. Light is formed of waves, and different colors of light have different wavelengths. Red light has a longer wavelength than blue light. But the colors we see with our eyes represent only a tiny piece of the story. The electromagnetic spectrum spans from radio waves, with wavelengths longer than a car, to gamma-rays, with wavelengths smaller than the nucleus of an atom.
[Runtime: 9.21]
(NASA/CXC/A. Hobart)
QuicktimeMPEG When we look up on a dark night, we see a sky filled with stars. The light from a star, like the light from a flashlight or a lightning bug, is one form of electromagnetic radiation. Light is formed of waves, and different colors of light have different wavelengths. Red light has a longer wavelength than blue light. But the colors we see with our eyes represent only a tiny piece of the story. The electromagnetic spectrum spans from radio waves, with wavelengths longer than a car, to gamma-rays, with wavelengths smaller than the nucleus of an atom.
[Runtime: 9.21]
(NASA/CXC/A. Hobart)
3. Ice Core Records: From Volcanoes to Supernovas
QuicktimeMPEG To study space, scientists usually use telescopes in high and dry places atop mountains. Or they gather their data remotely from observatories far away in space. There are other ways, however, to learn about the cosmos.
Researchers have been traveling for decades to some of the coldest places on the planet - Antarctica and Greenland - to uncover some of the secrets from space that have been left behind on Earth.
[Runtime: 07:20]
(CXC)
QuicktimeMPEG To study space, scientists usually use telescopes in high and dry places atop mountains. Or they gather their data remotely from observatories far away in space. There are other ways, however, to learn about the cosmos.
Researchers have been traveling for decades to some of the coldest places on the planet - Antarctica and Greenland - to uncover some of the secrets from space that have been left behind on Earth.
[Runtime: 07:20]
(CXC)
4. Multiwavelength Views of GRB 050709
QuicktimeMPEG Various observatories watch the July 9, 2005 Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) afterglow. A team lead by Dr. Derek Fox discovered the X-ray afterglow with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory; a team led by Prof. Jens Hjorth of the University of Copenhagen then identified the optical afterglow using the Danish 1.5-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Fox's team continued its study of the GRB afterglow with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
[Runtime: 0:31]
(NASA/University of Copenhagen)
Related Chandra Images:
QuicktimeMPEG Various observatories watch the July 9, 2005 Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) afterglow. A team lead by Dr. Derek Fox discovered the X-ray afterglow with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory; a team led by Prof. Jens Hjorth of the University of Copenhagen then identified the optical afterglow using the Danish 1.5-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Fox's team continued its study of the GRB afterglow with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
[Runtime: 0:31]
(NASA/University of Copenhagen)
Related Chandra Images:
- Photo Album: GRB 050709
5. Colliding Binary Neutron Stars
QuicktimeMPEG Gamma-ray bursts are common, yet random, and fleeting events that have mystified astronomers since their discovery in the late 1960s. Many scientists say longer bursts (more than four seconds in duration) are caused by massive star explosions; shorter bursts (less than two seconds in duration) are caused by mergers of binary systems with black holes or neutron stars. This animation portrays one possible scenario that could produce the shorter bursts. While uncertainty remains, most scientists say in either scenario a new black hole is born.
[Runtime: 0:23]
(NASA/D.Berry)
Related Chandra Images:
QuicktimeMPEG Gamma-ray bursts are common, yet random, and fleeting events that have mystified astronomers since their discovery in the late 1960s. Many scientists say longer bursts (more than four seconds in duration) are caused by massive star explosions; shorter bursts (less than two seconds in duration) are caused by mergers of binary systems with black holes or neutron stars. This animation portrays one possible scenario that could produce the shorter bursts. While uncertainty remains, most scientists say in either scenario a new black hole is born.
[Runtime: 0:23]
(NASA/D.Berry)
Related Chandra Images:
- Photo Album: GRB 050709
6. Black Hole Devours a Neutron Star
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Scientists say they have seen tantalizing, first-time evidence of a black hole eating a neutron star-first stretching the neutron star into a crescent, swallowing it, and then gulping up crumbs of the broken star in the minutes and hours that followed.
[Runtime: 0:28]
(NASA/D.Berry)
Related Chandra Images:
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Scientists say they have seen tantalizing, first-time evidence of a black hole eating a neutron star-first stretching the neutron star into a crescent, swallowing it, and then gulping up crumbs of the broken star in the minutes and hours that followed.
[Runtime: 0:28]
(NASA/D.Berry)
Related Chandra Images:
- Photo Album: GRB 050709
Revised: April 17, 2013