NASA's Great Observatories Begin Deepest Ever Probe of the Universe

NASA's Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes are teaming up to look deeper into the universe than ever before. With a boost from natural "zoom lenses" found in space, they should be able to uncover galaxies that are as much as 100 times fainter than what these three great observatories typically can see.

In an ambitious collaborative program called The Frontier Fields, astronomers will make observations over the next three years of six massive galaxy clusters, exploiting a natural phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, to learn not only what is inside the clusters but also what is beyond them. The clusters are among the most massive assemblages of matter known, and their gravitational fields can be used to brighten and magnify more distant galaxies so they can be observed.

"The Frontier Fields program is exactly what NASA's great observatories were designed to do; working together to unravel the mysteries of the Universe" said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Each observatory collects images using different wavelengths of light with the result that we get a much deeper understanding of the underlying physics of these celestial objects."

The first object they will view is Abell 2744, commonly known as Pandora's Cluster. The giant galaxy cluster appears to be the result of a simultaneous pile-up of at least four separate, smaller galaxy clusters that took place over a span of 350 million years.

Astronomers anticipate these observations will reveal populations of galaxies that existed when the universe was only a few hundred million years old, but have not been seen before.

"The idea is to use nature's natural telescopes in combination with the great observatories to look much deeper than before and find the most distant and faint galaxies we can possibly see," said Jennifer Lotz, a principal investigator with the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md.

Data from the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes will be combined to measure the galaxies' distances and masses more accurately than either observatory could measure alone, demonstrating their synergy for such studies.

"We want to understand when and how the first stars and galaxies formed in the universe, and each great observatory gives us a different piece of the puzzle," said Peter Capak, the Spitzer principal investigator for the Frontier Fields program. "Hubble tells you which galaxies to look at and how many stars are being born in those systems. Spitzer tells you how old the galaxy is and how many stars have formed."

The Chandra X-ray Observatory also will peer deep into the star fields. It will image the clusters at X-ray wavelengths to help determine their mass and measure their gravitational lensing power, and identify background galaxies hosting supermassive black holes.

High-resolution Hubble data from the Frontier Fields program will be used to trace the distribution of dark matter within the six massive foreground clusters. Accounting for the bulk of the universe's mass, dark matter is the underlying invisible scaffolding attached to galaxies.

Hubble and Spitzer have studied other deep fields with great success. The Frontier Fields researchers anticipate a challenge because the distortion and magnification caused by the gravitational lensing phenomenon will make it difficult for them to understand the true properties of the background galaxies.

For images and more information about The Frontier Fields, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/news/2013/44

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Compilation of memorable movie windscreen shots is great for trivia night

This might be the coolest video you'll see all day. From Supercut's YouTube channel comes this two-minute clip of nothing but movie scenes that take place in cars. Using Hollywood's time-honored through-the-windshield shot, it's interesting to see how so many movies stick to the same formula when showing scenes that take place behind the wheel (or should we say, in front of the wheel).

The sheer number of movies that use this view, rather than some B-roll of the car moving down the road, show how important scenes in cars can be. Give the vid a watch below and try to identify which scenes are from which movies. Afterwards, you can can head over to Supercut's YouTube page for the full rundown of which films are shown.

View the original article here

Compilation of memorable movie windscreen shots is great for trivia night

This might be the coolest video you'll see all day. From Supercut's YouTube channel comes this two-minute clip of nothing but movie scenes that take place in cars. Using Hollywood's time-honored through-the-windshield shot, it's interesting to see how so many movies stick to the same formula when showing scenes that take place behind the wheel (or should we say, in front of the wheel).

The sheer number of movies that use this view, rather than some B-roll of the car moving down the road, show how important scenes in cars can be. Give the vid a watch below and try to identify which scenes are from which movies. Afterwards, you can can head over to Supercut's YouTube page for the full rundown of which films are shown.

View the original article here

Thor 2: The Dark World hits theaters this fall, but you can get lots of great Thor stuff from iTunes right now

Thor 2: The Dark World hits theaters this fall, but you can get lots of great Thor stuff from iTunes right now | iMore.com Skip to main content Android BlackBerry iPhone / iPad Windows Phone webOS SIGN UP|LOG IN iMore Forums Apps Games Accessories Reviews How-To Podcasts Contests iPhone iPad mini iPad iPod touch Apple TV iOS iCloud iTunes Mac Hot: iPhone 5S Guides: iPhone buyers | iPad buyers | iOS users Free: Wallpaper | iPhone apps, games | iPad apps, games Shop Online Cases Chargers Screen protectors Headsets & More Free shipping on orders over $50 Thor 2: The Dark World hits theaters this fall, but you can get lots of great Thor stuff from iTunes right now By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Apr 30, 2013 a 11:20 pm 3

The first teaser trailer for Thor 2: The Dark World has hit the internet and... I don't know what to make of it yet. I enjoyed Malekith, the accursed dark elf, as Walt Simonson rendered him in the Thor comics decades ago, but I don't get any real sense of his character here and how it plays into whatever greater story arc they have for Thor this time around. And his look in the film doesn't really wow me so far.

Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the aftermath of Marvel’s “Thor” and “Marvel’s The Avengers,” Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos…but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.

There seems to be some reverse fish-out-of-water action going on, with Sarah Foster going to Asgard this time instead of Thor going to Earth/Midgard like in the previous film, but other than that... not much is shown.

Hopefully they're building up to Surtur and an adaption of Ragnarok 'n Roll for the third movie in the series, because that's probably the best Thor story ever written, and I'd love to see it brought to film. We'll have to wait until more trailers are released later this summer, and ultimately until Thor 2: The Dark World is released and we've seen it to know for sure, but in the mean time there's lots of great Marvel Thor media on iTunes to tide us over. Here are some of my favorites. (I'm re-watching Avengers for what must be the 12th time on my iPad mini right now.)

Thor (movie)

The Avengers

Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson Vol. 1: Walt Simonson (comic)

Rene Ritchie

Editor-in-Chief of iMore, co-host of Iterate, Debug, ZEN and TECH, MacBreak Weekly. Cook, grappler, photon wrangler. Follow him on Twitter, App.net, Google+.

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More of: thor, Movies, itunes media ? PreviouslyBlackBerry CEO supposedly says dumb things about the future of tablets, but what are the smart things? Next up ?Easyjet app update brings mobile boarding passes and Passbook support There are 3 comments. Add yours. MsLoveTech says: Apr 30, 2013 at 11:30 pm - 6 hours ago

Thanks i Will Check it out

Reply SockRolid says: May 1, 2013 at 1:37 am - 4 hours ago

Natalie Portman FTW!

Reply digitalhomeboy says: May 1, 2013 at 1:40 am - 4 hours ago

You wrote "Sarah Foster" instead of Jane Foster in follow-up paragraph after the quote!

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