Monday, February 20, 2012

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbit Camera has been taking pictures of the surface of the moon and has shown us that there are more graben than scientists had thought on the moon. Graben are certain features on that show the moon's crust pulling apart. Researchers believe that they form because the force of pulling the moon apart is greater than the force trying to shrink the moon in.

This contradicts previous findings as of August 2010 where it was shown that the lunar surface would contract. These contractions appeared in ridges known as lobate scarps. Because of the presence of these lobate scarps, the moon's diameter was shrinking and it was thought that it would continue to shrink, until these recent images were studied.

http://www.universetoday.com/93666/recent-geologic-activity-on-the-moon/#more-93666

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Black holes are present at the center of every galaxy and were thought to disrupt the formation of stars because of the extremely strong gravitational pull. Because of new evidence, some new scientists believe that black holes may actually help to form new stars. We can see this when the outflows from black holes are discussed. "The flows plough through galactic gas, compressing, heating and pushing it out of the way. Much of this gas is the raw material from which stars are made, so the outflows significantly affect star formation in the galaxies that host them."
This information was found when researching the "inner filament" of Centaurus A, a galaxy 13 million lightyears away. The inner filament is a source of X-ray and ultraviolet ray emission close to the outflow in a black hole. Young stars were found at the tip of the filament that date back to forming when the black hole "switched on". We are now drawn to the conclusion that when a black hole is switched on, it helps to form new stars.