geekosystem

1.3 billion kilometers is a great distance, but tonight consider it relatively close. That's how far away close Saturn will be to the Earth tonight. What does that mean for you? It means that with a telescope -- even a cheap one -- you can get a beautiful view of another planet that's more than 800 million miles away. Oh, you don't have a telescope? Go buy a telescope. There's still time.

We were too far away to try to stop it. All we could do is watch, helpless, horrified, and secretly delighted, as the event unfolded beyond our reach. The crime: A black hole 47 million light years away, after stirred from its dormancy, fed on a planet-like object that could have had up to 30 times the mass of Jupiter. That's one hungry light-sucking hole!

We love explosions, don't we? Especially when they're a) on TV or b) very far away from us. In this case, crazy far away, because I'm talking about supernovas -- those spectacular events wherein a star dies and then has a cosmic funeral in the form of a massive explosion visible to the edge of the universe itself. Now astronomers have discovered a new variety of stellar explosion that's...much smaller. It's potentially even adorable. A kind of supernova that is so weak that the star itself survives it.

We little humans on our floating rock discover celestial bodies long after the they were born -- we kind of can't help it -- but when we do, the date is a big deal to us. On this day in 1930, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh examined some photographs he'd taken and discovered our very own Pluto.

Some of the oldest celestial bodies in our known universe are stars. And we don't mean that name-forgetting and license-revoking kind of old, we're talking about way before the first single-cell organism decided to start splitting in that puddle of primordial ooze. But for all our technological advancements in the field of astronomy, it can be difficult at times to accurately pinpoint the exact age of a particular star, since such efforts can take exhaustive years of constant analysis. Over an eight year period between 2003 to 2011 utilizing the Hubble Space Telescope’s Fine Guidance Sensors, astronomers have concluded that the star designated HD 140283 is the oldest star out in space -- and even more surprising is the fact that neighbors our very solar system.

NASA and the European Southern Observatory have put their heads -- and their space telescope data -- together to produce this image of NGC 6872, the largest known spiral galaxy in the universe. The gargantuan galaxy measures more than half-a-million light years from end to end -- more than five times larger than our own Milky Way.

Researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark have put to bed once and for all the rumors of Tycho Brahe's murder by mercury poisoning that have swirled for more than four hundred years, and all it took was exhuming the long interred corpse of the Danish astronomer from it's rightful resting place. Researchers have also found that Brahe's prosthetic nose, rumored to be cast from gold or silver, was actually made of brass, presumably solving this last mystery because, hey, if you've already got the guy dug up and all, why not, right?

This is NGC 5010, a dusty, lenticular galaxy in the constellation Virgo and the latest to be discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope. While the red and yellow colors of NGC 5010 make it look vibrant and active, those looks are deceiving -- the galaxy is mostly done forming stars, and with its best years behind it, is a great example of a galaxy transitioning from mid-life to old age.

Many of us will be donning a fresh layer of  makeup and fake blood for this evening's many Halloween parties, but we're not the only ones in the solar system doing so. Vesta, which is either a giant asteroid or the beginnings of a planet that never quite made good on its potential, depending on who you ask, is continually updating its appearance. New data from NASA's Dawn mission shows that Vesta isn't affected by certain forms of cosmic weathering, and, in a way, manages to stay forever young, complicating efforts to gather information about the asteroid's history.

Researchers from the University of Tennessee have found proof for the theory that water present on the surface of the Moon is the product of solar winds. This work not only shows that other teams have been on the right track, but suggests that large, planet like bodies such as asteroids could also house water created by the same process, in which solar winds carry charged hydrogen particles millions of miles to bond with oxygen particles, producing water molecules in unexpected places.

Every year around this time, the Earth is pelted with fiery stones from the frigid depths of outer space. Instead of as being as terrifying as that concept has every right to be, it is beautiful and awe-inspiring. For skywatchers, this year's Perseid meteor shower should be a particular treat, with Jupiter and Venus getting in on the action as well. Hit the jump for ProTips on how to view the coolest light show of the year and a video from the smart folks at NASA, who when they are not sending robots to perfect 10 landings on another planet, are apparently getting other people to do their more menial tasks -- like counting meteors -- for them. Nice work if you can get it, right?

We have loads of astronomical data on various planetary systems that sits on shelves that only a select few folks actually seem to be interested in. That isn't to say it's not a fascinating area of research but books can only reach so many people. But what if we were to translate this data into musical chords? YouTube user Unfuzified has done exactly that with the Kepler-11 system. The six planets are given a pitch based on the distance from their star and the volume is determined by their size to form a fascinating sonata.

On June 6, 2012, the Earth will bear witness to a transit of Venus, where the second planet will pass between us and the sun. The last transit occurred in 2004, but the next will happen in December 2117. While once in a lifetime events are cool, twice in a lifetime events get bonus points for being a little more forgiving.

As you may recall, Jupiter and Venus have been putting on quite the show together as they pace each other across the night sky. For those of you that haven't seen some of the more dramatic conjunctions of these planetary bodies, Patrick Cullis has put together this beautiful time lapse video. What's more, he's pointed his camera above Boulder, Colorado's beautiful Flatiron rock formations. It's an unforgettable view.

The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile has already made a name for itself in the scientific community, second only to the Hubble Space Telescope for generating optical observation related academic papers. Though the first of the VLTs four primary telescopes was completed in 1999, plans to link the telescopes together as a single, massive unit have been in the works for nearly a decade. After years of work, all four telescopes were successfully integrated last week, giving scientists a 130 meter (426 foot) "virtual" mirror.