Nasa to Hold Media Teleconference On Bizarre Star

This is going to be a critical announcement I do believe. Will be very interesting to see what they have to say.



Grey Hautaluoma
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668
grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-4673
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

Aug. 13, 2007
MEDIA ADVISORY: 07-102


NASA to Hold Media Teleconference on Bizarre Star

WASHINGTON -- Astronomers are scheduled to announce new findings about a star unlike any seen before at a media teleconference Wednesday, Aug. 15, at 1 p.m. EDT. The findings are from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The briefing participants are:
- Christopher Martin, principal investigator of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
- Mark Seibert, astronomer, Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Pasadena, Calif.
- Michael Shara, curator at the American Museum of Natural History and professor of astronomy at Columbia University, both in New York

Reporters should call the Jet Propulsion Laboratory newsroom at 818-354-5011 for participation information. Audio of the event will be broadcast live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio



http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/aug/HQ_M07102_GALEX_media_advisory.html

ooo, I'm curious too, please keep us updated, Spring. Thanks!

Nasa is talking about a new ultraviolet mosaic from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer that shows a speeding star named Mira (pronounced my-rah) that is leaving an enormous trail of "seeds" for new solar systems. The visuals are beautiful.

The name Mira means "devotee of God" in Sanskrit, and after the latin word for "wonderful," and in English it means "Miracle." (Oh BTM what a great girl's name for a new baby - I have named her for you. LOL)
One of the speakers said ""the tail has heavy elements necessary for the development of life in the future."

Mira's comet-like tail stretches a startling 13 light-years across the sky.

Cornelia it does look BLUE!

Two Links Here here:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/20070815/a.html

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/20070815/



"The unique tail, discovered by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer in ultraviolet light, is startlingly long, It stretches about 13 light-years through space, which means that light would take 13 years to travel from one end to the other. For reference, the nearest star to our sun, Proxima Centauri, is about four light-years away. If you could see Mira's tail in the night sky, it would span four full moons-worth of sky.

The tail is made up of gas and dust that has been shed by Mira slowly over the past 30,000 years, with the oldest material being at the end (far left) and the newest material being closer to Mira (right). This material consists of oxygen and carbon and other elements that will ultimately make their way into new stars, planets and possibly even life."

A chart on NASA's site also lists a few historical events that happened at various points of time in the development of Mira's tail. For example, 26,000 years ago, when material near the end of Mira's tail was just being released, Neanderthals had recently died out.

Okay I am thinking this over. This looks like a comet to me. It is streaking through the sky and has an enormous tail. The largest I believe ever seen. It will become visable to the naked eye in mid November this year. What have they left out? What are they not telling us?

Quote :

From Nasa:

Mira is a highly evolved, "red giant" star near the end of its life. Technically, it is called an asymptotic giant branch star. It is red in color and bloated; for example, if a red giant were to replace our sun, it would engulf everything out to the orbit of Mars. Our sun will mature into a red giant in about 5 billion years.

Like other red giants, Mira will lose a large fraction of its mass in the form of gas and dust. In fact, Mira ejects the equivalent of the Earth's mass every 10 years. It has released enough material over the past 30,000 years to seed at least 3,000 Earth-sized planets or 9 Jupiter-sized ones.

While most stars travel along together around the disk of our Milky Way, Mira is charging through it. Because Mira is not moving with the "pack," it is moving much faster relative to the ambient gas in our section of the Milky Way. It is zipping along at 130 kilometers per second, or 291,000 miles per hour, relative to this gas.