ServiAstro

ServiAstro is the website for public outreach on astronomy of the Astronomy and Meteorology Department (DAM) of the University of Barcelona.

It offers information about the past and future astronomical events visible from Catalonia. Also about the most important ones, no matter the geographical visibility. In some especially outstanding cases, such as planetary transits or Solar and Lunar eclipses, ServiAstro offers live webcasts which can be enjoyed anytime, thanks to our permanent galleries.

Furthermore, ServiAstro publish the public outreach activities carried out by the (DAM). Visitors will find a compilation of astronomical ephemerides, tools for astronomical calculations, news, answers to frequently asked questions and links to lots of other websites about astronomy, organized in sections.

Picture of the day

News, 2012

• ESA's Mars Express radar gives strong evidence for former Mars ocean, 6 February:
  ESA's Mars Express has returned strong evidence for an ocean once covering part of Mars. Using radar, it has detected sediments reminiscent of an ocean floor within the boundaries of previously identified, ancient shorelines on Mars.

• https://carnegiescience.edu/news/new_superearth_detected_within_habitable_zone_nearby_cool_star, 2 February:
  A team of astronomers led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé y Paul Butler has discovered a super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone (where there may be liquid water) of a system of three stars.

• NASA Mission Returns First Video From Moon's Far Side, 1 february:
  A camera aboard one of NASA's twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft has returned its first unique view of the far side of the moon.

• A Pocket of Star Formation, 1 february:
  This new view shows a stellar nursery called NGC 3324. It was taken using the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

• BEX: Glimpses of the Interstellar Material Beyond our Solar System, 1 february
  A great magnetic bubble surrounds the solar system as it cruises through the galaxy. The sun pumps the inside of the bubble full of solar particles that stream out to the edge until they collide with the material that fills the rest of the galaxy, at a complex boundary called the heliosheath. On the other side of the boundary, electrically charged particles from the galactic wind blow by, but rebound off the heliosheath, never to enter the solar system. Neutral particles, on the other hand, are a different story. They saunter across the boundary as if it weren't there, continuing on another 7.5 billion miles for 30 years until they get caught by the sun's gravity, and sling shot around the star.

• NASA's Kepler Announces 11 Planetary Systems Hosting 26 Planets, 26 January:
  These discoveries nearly double the number of verified Kepler planets and triple the number of stars known to have more than one planet that transits, or passes in front of, its host star. Such systems will help astronomers better understand how planets form.

• The Wild Early Lives of Today's Most Massive Galaxies, 25 January:
  Using the APEX telescope, a team of astronomers has found the strongest link so far between the most powerful bursts of star formation in the early Universe, and the most massive galaxies found today.

• Solar storm hits the Earth, 25 de gener:
  A large solar flare, at 03:59 GMT on Monday, triggered a coronal mass ejection (CME) travelling at 1400 km/s that reached the Earth in the afternoon of 24 January.

• The Helix in New Colours, 19 January: ESO’s VISTA telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, has captured a striking new image of the Helix Nebula. This picture, taken in infrared light, reveals strands of cold nebular gas that are invisible in images taken in visible light, as well as bringing to light a rich background of stars and galaxies.

• The International Telecommunication Union postponed for 3 years the decision about the leap second. This seconds are occasionally added to the world’s atomic clocks (UTC) to keep them synchronized with Earth’s rotational cycles (UT1).
  International Earth Rotation & Referrence Systems Service.
  In thel New York Times
  
  This year the second will be added on 30 of june at 23h 60 m 60s.