|
|
Where Galactic Snakes Live
| Title |
Where Galactic Snakes Live |
| Description |
This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows what astronomers are referring to as a "snake" (upper left) and its surrounding stormy environment. The sinuous object is actually the core of a thick, sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems. In fact, astronomers say the "snake's belly" may be harboring beastly stars in the process of forming. The galactic creepy crawler to the right of the snake is another thick cloud core, in which additional burgeoning massive stars might be lurking. The colorful regions below the two cloud cores are less dense cloud material, in which dust has been heated by starlight and glows with infrared light. Yellow and orange dots throughout the image are monstrous developing stars, the red star on the "belly" of the snake is 20 to 50 times as massive as our sun. The blue dots are foreground stars. The red ball at the bottom left is a "supernova remnant," the remains of massive star that died in a fiery blast. Astronomers speculate that radiation and winds from the star before it died, in addition to a shock wave created when it exploded, might have played a role in creating the snake. Spitzer was able to spot the two black cloud cores using its heat-seeking infrared vision. The objects are hiding in the dusty plane of our Milky Way galaxy, invisible to optical telescopes. Because their heat, or infrared light, can sneak through the dust, they first showed up in infrared images from past missions. The cloud cores are so thick with dust that if you were to somehow transport yourself into the middle of them, you would see nothing but black, not even a star in the sky. Now, that's spooky! Spitzer's new view of the region provides the best look yet at the massive embryonic stars hiding inside the snake. Astronomers say these observations will ultimately help them better understand how massive stars form. By studying the clustering and range of masses of the stellar embryos, they hope to determine if the stars were born in the same way that our low-mass sun was formed -- out of a collapsing cloud of gas and dust -- or by another mechanism in which the environment plays a larger role. The snake is located about 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. This false-color image is a composite of infrared data taken by Spitzer's infrared array camera and multiband imaging photometer. Blue represents 3.6-micron light, green shows light of 8 microns, and red is 24-micron light. |
|
Where Galactic Snakes Live (
…
| Title |
Where Galactic Snakes Live (Artistically Enhanced) |
| Description |
This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows what astronomers are referring to as a "snake" (upper left) and its surrounding stormy environment. The sinuous object is actually the core of a thick, sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems. In fact, astronomers say the "snake's belly" may be harboring beastly stars in the process of forming. The galactic creepy crawler to the right of the snake is another thick cloud core, in which additional burgeoning massive stars might be lurking. The colorful regions below the two cloud cores are less dense cloud material, in which dust has been heated by starlight and glows with infrared light. Yellow and orange dots throughout the image are monstrous developing stars, the red star on the "belly" of the snake is 20 to 50 times as massive as our sun. The blue dots are foreground stars. The red ball at the bottom left is a "supernova remnant," the remains of massive star that died in a fiery blast. Astronomers speculate that radiation and winds from the star before it died, in addition to a shock wave created when it exploded, might have played a role in creating the snake. Spitzer was able to spot the two black cloud cores using its heat-seeking infrared vision. The objects are hiding in the dusty plane of our Milky Way galaxy, invisible to optical telescopes. Because their heat, or infrared light, can sneak through the dust, they first showed up in infrared images from past missions. The cloud cores are so thick with dust that if you were to somehow transport yourself into the middle of them, you would see nothing but black, not even a star in the sky. Now, that's spooky! Spitzer's new view of the region provides the best look yet at the massive embryonic stars hiding inside the snake. Astronomers say these observations will ultimately help them better understand how massive stars form. By studying the clustering and range of masses of the stellar embryos, they hope to determine if the stars were born in the same way that our low-mass sun was formed -- out of a collapsing cloud of gas and dust -- or by another mechanism in which the environment plays a larger role. The snake is located about 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. This false-color image is a composite of infrared data taken by Spitzer's infrared array camera and multiband imaging photometer. Blue represents 3.6-micron light, green shows light of 8 microns, and red is 24-micron light. |
|
An Asteroid's Sky Trek
| title |
An Asteroid's Sky Trek |
| description |
While analyzing NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of the Sagittarius dwarf irregular galaxy (SagDIG), an international team of astronomers led by Simone Marchi, Yazan Momany, and Luigi Bedin were surprised to see the trail of a faint asteroid that had drifted across the field of view during the exposures. The trail is seen as a series of 13 reddish arcs on the right in this August 2003 Advanced Camera for Surveys image. As the Hubble telescope orbits around the Earth, and the Earth moves around the Sun, a nearby asteroid in our solar system will appear to move with respect to the vastly more distant background stars, due to an effect called parallax. It is somewhat similar to the effect you see from a moving car, in which trees by the side of the road appear to be moving much more rapidly than background objects at much larger distances. If the Hubble exposure were a continuous one, the asteroid trail would appear like a continuous wavy line. However, the exposure with Hubble's camera was actually broken up into more than a dozen separate exposures. After each exposure, the camera's shutter was closed while the image was transferred from the electronic detector into the camera's computer memory, this accounts for the many interruptions in the asteroid's trail. Since the trajectory of the Hubble spacecraft around the Earth is known very accurately, it is possible to triangulate the distance to the asteroid in a manner similar to that used by terrestrial surveyors. It turns out to be a previously unknown asteroid, located 169 million miles from Earth at the time of observation. The distance places the new object, most likely, in the main asteroid belt, lying between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Based on the observed brightness of the asteroid, the astronomers estimate that it has a diameter of about 1.5 miles. The brightest stars in the picture (easily distinguished by the spikes radiating from their images, produced by optical effects within the telescope), are foreground stars lying within our own Milky Way galaxy. Their distances from Earth are typically a few thousand light-years. The faint, bluish SagDIG stars lie at about 3.5 million light-years (1.1 Megaparsecs) from us. Lastly, background galaxies (reddish/brown extended objects with spiral arms and halos) are located even further beyond SagDIG at several tens of millions parsecs away. There is thus a vast range of distances among the objects visible in this photo, ranging from about 169 million miles for the asteroid, up to many quadrillions of miles for the faint, small galaxies. The team reported their science findings about the asteroid in the October 2004 issue of New Astronomy. *Image Credit*: NASA, ESA, and Y. Momany (University of Padua) |
|
Quintuplet Cluster
| Title |
Quintuplet Cluster |
| Full Description |
Penetrating 25,000 light-years of obscuring dust and myriad stars, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided the clearest view yet of one of the largest young clusters of stars inside our Milky Way galaxy, located less than 100 light-years from the very center of the Galaxy. Having the equivalent mass greater than 10,000 stars like our sun, the monster cluster is ten times larger than typical young star clusters scattered throughout our Milky Way. It is destined to be ripped apart in just a few million years by gravitational tidal forces in the galaxy's core. But in its brief lifetime it shines more brightly than any other star cluster in the Galaxy. Quintuplet Cluster is 4 million years old. It has stars on the verge of blowing up as supernovae. It is the home of the brightest star seen in the galaxy, called the Pistol star. This image was taken in infrared light by Hubble's NICMOS camera in September 1997. The false colors correspond to infrared wavelengths. The galactic center stars are white, the red stars are enshrouded in dust or behind dust, and the blue stars are foreground stars between us and the Milky Way's center. The cluster is hidden from direct view behind black dust clouds in the constellation Sagittarius. If the cluster could be seen from earth it would appear to the naked eye as a 3rd magnitude star, 1/6th of a full moon's diameter apart. |
| Date |
09/16/1999 |
| NASA Center |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
|
Hubble Sees Material Ejected
…
| Title |
Hubble Sees Material Ejected from Comet Hale-Bopp |
|
Hubble Identifies What May B
…
| Title |
Hubble Identifies What May Be the Most Luminous Star Known |
|
Hubble Witnesses the Final B
…
| Title |
Hubble Witnesses the Final Blaze of Glory of Sun-Like Stars |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. The end of a Sun-like star's life was once thought to be simple: the star gracefully casts off a shell of glowing gas and then settles into a long retirement as a burned-out white dwarf. Now, a dazzling collection of detailed views from the Hubble telescope reveals surprisingly intricate, glowing patterns spun into space by aging stars: pinwheels, lawn sprinkler-style jets, elegant goblet shapes, and even some that look like a rocket engine's exhaust. In this picture of M2-9, twin lobes of material emanate from a central, dying star. Astronomers have dubbed this object the "Twin Jet Nebula" because of the shape of the lobes. If the nebula is sliced across the star, each side appears much like a pair of exhausts from jet engines. Indeed, because of the nebula's shape and the measured velocity of the gas, in excess of 200 miles per second, astronomers believe that the description as a super-super-sonic jet exhaust is quite apt. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1997/38/text/ ] |
|
Hubble Witnesses the Final B
…
| Title |
Hubble Witnesses the Final Blaze of Glory of Sun-Like Stars |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. The end of a Sun-like star's life was once thought to be simple: the star gracefully casts off a shell of glowing gas and then settles into a long retirement as a burned-out white dwarf. Now, a dazzling collection of detailed views from the Hubble telescope reveals surprisingly intricate, glowing patterns spun into space by aging stars: pinwheels, lawn sprinkler-style jets, elegant goblet shapes, and even some that look like a rocket engine's exhaust. In this picture of M2-9, twin lobes of material emanate from a central, dying star. Astronomers have dubbed this object the "Twin Jet Nebula" because of the shape of the lobes. If the nebula is sliced across the star, each side appears much like a pair of exhausts from jet engines. Indeed, because of the nebula's shape and the measured velocity of the gas, in excess of 200 miles per second, astronomers believe that the description as a super-super-sonic jet exhaust is quite apt. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1997/38/text/ ] |
|
Hubble Captures the Shrouds
…
| Title |
Hubble Captures the Shrouds of Dying Stars |
|
Astronomers Unveil Colorful
…
| Title |
Astronomers Unveil Colorful Hubble Photo Gallery |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. A vibrant celestial photo album of some of NASA Hubble Space Telescope's most stunning views of the universe is being unveiled today on the Internet. Called the Hubble Heritage Program, this technicolor gallery is being assembled by a team of astronomers at Hubble's science operations center, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. The four images released today are (top row, left to right) spiral galaxy NGC 7742, Saturn, and (bottom row, left to right) the Sagittarius Star Cloud and the Bubble Nebula. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1998/28/text/ ] |
|
Astronomers Unveil Colorful
…
| Title |
Astronomers Unveil Colorful Hubble Photo Gallery |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. A vibrant celestial photo album of some of NASA Hubble Space Telescope's most stunning views of the universe is being unveiled today on the Internet. Called the Hubble Heritage Program, this technicolor gallery is being assembled by a team of astronomers at Hubble's science operations center, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. The four images released today are (top row, left to right) spiral galaxy NGC 7742, Saturn, and (bottom row, left to right) the Sagittarius Star Cloud and the Bubble Nebula. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1998/28/text/ ] |
|
Astronomers Unveil Colorful
…
| Title |
Astronomers Unveil Colorful Hubble Photo Gallery |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. A vibrant celestial photo album of some of NASA Hubble Space Telescope's most stunning views of the universe is being unveiled today on the Internet. Called the Hubble Heritage Program, this technicolor gallery is being assembled by a team of astronomers at Hubble's science operations center, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. The four images released today are (top row, left to right) spiral galaxy NGC 7742, Saturn, and (bottom row, left to right) the Sagittarius Star Cloud and the Bubble Nebula. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1998/28/text/ ] |
|
Hubble Astronomers Feast on
…
| Title |
Hubble Astronomers Feast on an Interstellar Hamburger |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ] |
|
A Giant Star Factory in Neig
…
| Title |
A Giant Star Factory in Neighboring Galaxy NGC 6822 |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ] |
|
Hubble Finds Extrasolar Plan
…
| Title |
Hubble Finds Extrasolar Planets Far Across Galaxy |
| General Information |
What is a NASA Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a NASA Science Update (NSU), broadcast on NASA television. The NSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered 16 extrasolar planet candidates orbiting a variety of distant stars in the central region of our Milky Way galaxy. The planet bonanza was uncovered during a Hubble survey, called the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS). Hubble looked farther than has ever successfully been searched for extrasolar planets. Hubble peered at 180,000 stars in the crowded central bulge of our galaxy 26,000 light-years away or one-quarter the diameter of the Milky Way's spiral disk. The results will appear in the Oct. 5 issue of the journal Nature. Read more: * NASA Press Release [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2006/34/text/ ] |
|
Hubble Weighs in on the Heav
…
| Title |
Hubble Weighs in on the Heaviest Stars in the Galaxy |
|
Hubble Weighs in on the Heav
…
| Title |
Hubble Weighs in on the Heaviest Stars in the Galaxy |
|
Image of the solar corona as
…
| Description |
Image of the solar corona as recorded by the outer LASCO coragraph (C3) on 23 December 1996. The field of view of this instrument encompasses 32 diameters of the Sun. To put this in perspective, the diameter of the images is 45 million kilometers (28 million miles) at the distance of the Sun, or half of the diameter of the orbit of Mercury. The Sun is located in the constellation Sagittarius. The center of the Milky Way is visible, as well as the dark interstellar dust rift, which stretches from the south to the north. The cloudy solar wind can be seen along the ecliptic plane, both over the east and the west limb of the Sun, stronger over the latter. The image also shows Comet SOHO-6, one of 7 sungrazers discovered so far by LASCO, as its head enters the equatorial solar wind region. It eventually plunged into the Sun. (See also the LASCO C3 December '96 movie in the "Movie" section). |
|
Composite of: - EIT EUV imag
…
| Description |
Composite of: - EIT EUV image taken in the Fe XV line at 284A showing the corona above the disk at a temperature of about 2-2.5 million K (innermost image) - UVCS image showing the Sun's outer atmosphere as it appears in ultraviolet light emitted by electrically charged oxygen (O VI) flowing away from the Sun to form the solar wind (middle region), and - Image of the extended whight light corona as recorded by the outer LASCO coragraph (C3) on 23 December 1996. The field of view of this instrument encompasses 32 diameters of the Sun. To put this in perspective, the diameter of this image is 45 million kilometers at the distance of the Sun, or half of the diameter of the orbit of Mercury. During that time of the year, the Sun is located in the constellation Sagittarius. The center of the Milky Way is visible, as well as the dark interstellar dust rift, which stretches from the south to the north. Three prominent streamers can be seen (two at the West and one at the East limb). This image also shows Comet SOHO-6 (elongated streak at about 7:30 hours), one of several tens of sun-grazing comets discovered so far by LASCO. It eventually plunged into the Sun. |
|
Chandra X-Ray Observatory Im
…
| Name of Image |
Chandra X-Ray Observatory Image of Sagittarius A |
| Date of Image |
2003-01-06 |
| Full Description |
A 2 week observation through the optic eye of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory revealed this sturning explosion occurring in the super massive black hole at the Milky Way's center, known as Sagittarius A or Sgr A*. Huge lobes of 20-million degree Centigrade gas ( red loops in image) flank both sides of the black hole and extend over dozens of light years indicating that enormous explosions occurred several times over the last 10 thousand years. Weighing in at 3-million times the mass of the sun, the Sgr A* is a starved black hole, possibly because explosive events in the past have cleared much of the gas around it. |
|
The Trifid Nebula
| Name of Image |
The Trifid Nebula |
| Date of Image |
1997-09-08 |
| Full Description |
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of the Trifid Nebula reveals a stellar nursery being torn apart by a nearby massive star. Embryonic stars are forming within an ill-fated cloud of dust and gas, which is destined to be eaten away by the glare from the massive neighbor. The cloud is about 8 light years away from the nebula' s central star. This stellar activity is a beautiful example of how the life cycle of stars like our Sun is intimately cornected with their more powerful siblings. Residing in the constellation Sagittarius, the Trifid Nebula is about 9,000 light years from Earth. |
|
Hubble Space Telescope Image
| Name of Image |
Hubble Space Telescope Image |
| Date of Image |
1997-01-01 |
| Full Description |
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have identified what may be the most luminous star known, a celestial mammoth that releases up to 10-million times the power of the Sun and is big enough to fill the diameter of Earth's orbit. The star unleashes as much energy in six seconds as our Sun does in one year. The image, taken by a UCLA-led team with the recently installed Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) aboard the HST, also reveals a bright nebula, created by extremely massive stellar eruptions. The UCLA astronomers estimate that the star, called the Pistol Star, (for the pistol shaped nebula surrounding it), is approximately 25,000 light-years from Earth, near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The Pistol Star is not visible to the eye, but is located in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, hidden behind the great dust clouds along the Milky Way |
|
The Galactic Center in Infra
…
| Title |
The Galactic Center in Infrared |
| Explanation |
The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light [ http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/emspectrum.html ], much of the Galactic Center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011229.html ] is obscured by opaque dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030706.html ]. In infrared light [ http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/ir_tutorial/discovery.html ], however, dust glows more and obscures less, allowing nearly one million stars to be recorded in the above photograph [ http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/images_misc.html ]. The Galactic Center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020803.html ] itself appears [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020707.html ] on the right and is located about 30,000 light years [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html ] away towards the constellation of Sagittarius [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Sagittarius.html ]. The Galactic Plane [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000130.html ] of our Milky Way Galaxy [ http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gr/public/gal_milky.html ], the plane in which the Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/gifcity/interv.html ] orbits, is identifiable by the dark diagonal dust lane [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020703.html ]. The absorbing dust [ http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Mathis/Mathis1.html ] grains are created in the atmospheres of cool red-giant stars [ http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/starold.html ] and grow in molecular cloud [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030202.html ]s. The region directly surrounding the Galactic Center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000422.html ] glows brightly in radio [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020521.html ] and high-energy radiation [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000819.html ], and is thought to house a large black hole [ http://hubblesite.org/discoveries/black_holes/home.html ]. |
|
Sagittarius Star Cloud
| Title |
Sagittarius Star Cloud |
| Explanation |
Stars come in all different colors. The color of a star [ http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/Stars/color.html ] indicates its surface temperature [ http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/stars/cindex.html ], an important property used to assign each star a spectral type [ http://www.skypub.com/tips/basics/spectra.html ]. Most stars in the above Sagittarius Star Cloud [ http://heritage.stsci.edu/public/Oct22/sgr1/sgrtable.html ] are orange or red and relatively faint, as our Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980830.html ] would appear. The blue [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/gifcity/msblues.html ] and greenish stars are hotter, many being relatively young and massive. The bright red stars are cool Red Giants [ http://plabpc.csustan.edu/astro/stars/giant.htm ], bloated stars once similar to our Sun that have entered a more advanced stage of evolution [ http://www.aegis1.demon.co.uk/tutorials/stellar.htm ]. Stars of this Sagittarius Cloud lie towards the center of our Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990621.html ] - tantalizing cosmic jewels [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961111.html ] viewed through a rift in the dark [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990919.html ], pervasive, interstellar dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001119.html ]. This famous stellar grouping houses some of the oldest [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001029.html ] stars known. |
|
Galactic Center Flicker Indi
…
| Title |
Galactic Center Flicker Indicates Black Hole |
| Explanation |
Why would the center of our Galaxy flicker? Many astronomers believe the only credible answer involves a black hole [ http://cfpa.berkeley.edu/BHfaq.html ]. During observations of Sagittarius A* [ http://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/staff/hfalcke/bh/sld5.html ] with the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory [ http://asc.harvard.edu/udocs/overview_cxo.html ], the bright X-ray [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/xrays.html ] source at the very center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990128.html ] of our Milky Way [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/mw.html ] brightened dramatically for a few minutes. Sagittarius A* [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2001A%26A...375L..18C ] is visible as the bright dot near the center of the above image [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/0204flare/index.html ]. Since large objects cannot vary quickly, a small source is implicated in the variation. Evidence [ http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/active/smblack.html ] including the motions of central stars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001220.html ] indicates that the center of our Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010708.html ] is a massive place, however, estimated to be over a million times the mass of our Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/sun.html ]. Only one known type of object can fit so much mass in so small a volume: a black hole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010119.html ]. This short flicker therefore provides additional evidence that a black hole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html ] does indeed reside at our Galaxy's center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000120.html ]. If true, the flicker [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast05sep_1.htm ] might have been caused by an object disrupting as it fell toward the disruptive monster [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010508.html ]. |
|
Star Forming Region Hubble-V
| Title |
Star Forming Region Hubble-V |
| Explanation |
How did stars form in the early universe? Astronomers are gaining insight by studying NGC 6822 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n6822.html ], a nearby galaxy classified as irregular [ http://www.seds.org/messier/irre.html ] by modern standards but appearing more typical of galaxies billions of years ago [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000709.html ]. Inspection of NGC 6822 shows several bright star groups, including two dubbed Hubble-X [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010216.html ] and Hubble-V. Pictured above [ http://heritage.stsci.edu/2001/39/index.html ], the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010806.html ] has resolved Hubble V [ http://heritage.stsci.edu/2001/39/table.html ] into the energetic stars that are lighting up the surrounding gas. Each star in the central dense knot of Hubble V [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1999PASP..111.1382O ] shines brighter than 100,000 Sun [ http://www.nineplanets.org/sol.html ]s. The Hubble V [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2001AJ....121.2020B ] gas cloud spans about 200 light years [ http://www.treasure-troves.com/astro/Light-Year.html ] and lies about 1.5 million light-years away toward the constellation [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/constellations.html ] Sagittarius [ http://www.astronomical.org/constellations/sgr.html ]. |
|
Gomez's Hamburger: A Proto-P
…
| Title |
Gomez's Hamburger: A Proto-Planetary Nebula |
| Explanation |
What, in heaven, is that? Sometimes astronomers [ http://www.aas.org/education/career.html ] see things on the sky they don't immediately understand [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990928.html ]. In 1985 this happened to Arturo Gomez [ http://heritage.stsci.edu/2002/19/bio/bio_gomez_english.html ], and the object became known as Gomez's Hamburger [ http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/exhibits/food/panel6.html ] for its distinctive yet familiar shape. After some investigation, the object was identified as a proto-planetary nebula [ http://www.astro.washington.edu/palen/Research/nsf/intro.html ], a gas cloud emitted by a Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/sun.html ]-like star just after its central hydrogen [ http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/elements/1.html ] fuel has all been fused [ http://casswww.ucsd.edu/physics/ph7/StevI.html ] to helium [ http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/elements/2.html ]. Gomez's Hamburger is on its way [ http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/astro101/java/evolve/evolve.htm ] to becoming a full-fledged planetary nebula [ http://www.seds.org/messier/planetar.html ] in a few thousand years. The light seen (the bun) is reflected [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/reflection_nebulae.html ] by dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990509.html ] from the central star, although the star itself is obscured by a thick dust disk [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000208.html ] that runs across the middle (the patty). Gomez's Hamburger [ http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1987ApJ...316L..21R ], pictured above [ http://heritage.stsci.edu/2002/19/table.html ] in a recent image from the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010806.html ], is only a fraction of a light year [ http://www.howstuffworks.com/question94.htm ] across but located approximately 10,000 light years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Sagittarius.html ]. |
|
Open Cluster NGC 6520 from C
…
| Title |
Open Cluster NGC 6520 from CFHT |
| Explanation |
Did you ever have a day when it felt like a dark cloud [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010923.html ] was following you around? For the open cluster [ http://www.seds.org/messier/open.html ] of stars NGC 6520, every day is like this. On the left of the above picture [ http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/HawaiianStarlight/AIOM/English/CFHT-Coelum-AIOM.html ] are many of NGC 6520's bright blue stars. They formed only millions of years ago - much more recently than our ancient Sun which formed billions of years ago. On the right is an absorption nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/dark_nebulae.html ], molecular cloud [ http://origins.jpl.nasa.gov/poster/bigbang3.html ] Barnard 86 [ http://astro.uchicago.edu/yerkes/virtualmuseum/Barnard.html ], from which the stars of NGC 6520 surely formed. This nebula contains much opaque dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010813.html ] that blocks light from the many stars that would have been visible in the background. Surrounding NGC 6520 [ http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/AAO/images/captions/aat092.html ] is part of the tremendously dense starscape in the bulge of our Milky Way Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970315.html ], the extended halo of stars that surrounds the center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010708.html ] of our Galaxy. NGC 6520 [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1982S%26T....63..254M ] spans about 10 light years [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html ] and lies about 5500 light years away toward the direction of Sagittarius [ http://www.astronomical.org/constellations/sgr.html ]. |
|
A Sagittarius Starscape
| Title |
A Sagittarius Starscape |
| Explanation |
Many vast star fields [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011229.html ] in the plane [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990224.html ] of our Milky Way Galaxy [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/mw.html ] are rich in clouds of stars, dust, and gas. First and foremost, visible in the above picture [ http://www.aao.gov.au/images/captions/uks022.html ] are millions of stars, many of which are similar to our Sun [ http://www.nineplanets.org/sol.html ]. Next huge filaments of dark interstellar dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#dust ] run across the image and block the light from millions of more stars yet further across our Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000629.html ]. The bright red region on the left is the Omega Nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990126.html ], an emission nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/emission_nebulae.html ] of mostly hot hydrogen [ http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/elements/1.html ] gas also known as M17 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020501.html ]. A small bright grouping of stars near the image center is the open cluster [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/open_clusters.html ] M18 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m018.html ], while the long bright streak of stars just right of center is M24 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m024.html ]. On the far right of the image is the picturesque red emission nebula [ http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/emission_nebulae.html ] IC 1283 flanked by two blue reflection nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/reflection_nebulae.html ]s NGC 6589 [ http://www.aao.gov.au/images/captions/aat020.html ] and NGC 6590 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970810.html ]. These objects are visible with a small telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011014.html ] toward the constellation [ http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/history/exhibits/constellations/timeline.html ] of Sagittarius [ http://www.astronomical.org/constellations/sgr.html ]. |
|
X-Rays from the Galactic Cor
…
| Title |
X-Rays from the Galactic Core |
| Explanation |
Using the orbiting Chandra [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/chronicle/ ] X-ray Observatory, astronomers have taken this long look [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/03_releases/ press_010603.html ] at the core of our Milky Way galaxy, some 26,000 light-years away. The spectacular false-color view [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/0203long/ index.html ] spans about 130 light-years. It reveals an energetic region [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020803.html ] rich in x-ray sources and high-lighted by the central source, Sagittarius A*, known to be a supermassive black hole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021018.html ] with 3 million times the mass of the Sun [ http://www.sunblock99.org.uk/sb99/fact/heavy.html ]. Given its tremendous mass, Sagittarius A* is amazingly faint in x-rays in comparison to central black holes observed in distant galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021128.html ], even during its frequent x-ray flares. This suggests that this supermassive black hole has been starved [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast05sep_1.htm ] by a lack of infalling material. In fact, the sharp Chandra image shows clouds of multi-million degree gas dozens of light-years across flanking (upper right and lower left) the central region -- evidence that violent events have cleared much material from the vicinity [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/ illustrations/blackholes.html ] of the black hole. |
|
M17: The Majestic Swan Nebul
…
| Title |
M17: The Majestic Swan Nebula |
| Explanation |
What unusual eggs have been laid by this majestic swan [ http://www.dnr.ohio.gov/odnr/wildlife/diversity/swan.html ]? The star forming region above, known as Swan Nebula [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/m/m017.html ], is the home of hot red-glowing gas [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#hydrogen ], dark lanes of dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#dust ], bright young stars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960823.html ] and -- what are those? Of the few stars visible in the Swan Nebula [ http://www.seds.org/billa/twn/n6618x.html ], several have quite unusual colors and are hypothesized to be very young stars still shrouded by gas from the cloud that formed them [ http://www.aas.org/ApJ/v448n1/5151/sc0.html ]. The Swan Nebula [ http://decoy.phast.umass.edu/bergin/chap5/node1.html ] is quite large and massive as it contains roughly 1000 times the mass of our Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960520.html ]. The bright central region is about 15 light years across lies about 5000 light years away toward the constellation [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations.html ] of Sagittarius [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Sagittarius.html ]. The distinctive shape causes this region to have several other names, including the Omega Nebula, the Horseshoe Nebula, and the Lobster Nebula. |
|
M24: A Sagittarius Starscape
| Title |
M24: A Sagittarius Starscape |
| Explanation |
Many vast star fields [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011229.html ] in the plane [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990224.html ] of our Milky Way Galaxy [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/mw.html ] are rich in clouds of dust, and gas. First and foremost, visible in the above picture [ http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/m24.html ] are millions of stars, many of which are similar to our Sun [ http://www.nineplanets.org/sol.html ]. Next huge filaments of dark interstellar dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#dust ] run across the image and block the light from millions of more stars yet further across our Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030907.html ]. The bright red region on the left is part of the Omega Nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021210.html ], an emission nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/emission_nebulae.html ] of mostly hot hydrogen [ http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/elements/1.html ] gas also known as M17 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020501.html ]. A small bright grouping of stars near the image center is the open cluster [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/open_clusters.html ] M18 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m018.html ], while the long bright streak of stars just right of center is M24 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m024.html ]. On the far right of the image is the picturesque red emission nebula [ http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/emission_nebulae.html ] IC 1283 flanked by two blue reflection nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/reflection_nebulae.html ]s NGC 6589 [ http://www.aao.gov.au/images/captions/aat020.html ] and NGC 6590 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970810.html ]. These objects are visible with a small telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011014.html ] toward the constellation [ http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/history/exhibits/constellations/timeline.shtml ] of Sagittarius [ http://www.astronomical.org/portal/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=72 ]. |
|
X-Rays from the Galactic Cor
…
| Title |
X-Rays from the Galactic Core |
| Explanation |
Using the orbiting Chandra [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/chronicle/ ] X-ray Observatory, astronomers have taken this long look [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/03_releases/ press_010603.html ] at the core of our Milky Way galaxy, some 26,000 light-years away. The spectacular false-color view [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/0203long/ index.html ] spans about 130 light-years. It reveals an energetic region [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020803.html ] rich in x-ray sources and high-lighted by the central source, Sagittarius A*, known to be a supermassive black hole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021018.html ] with 3 million times the mass of the Sun [ http://www.sunblock99.org.uk/sb99/fact/heavy.html ]. Given its tremendous mass, Sagittarius A* is amazingly faint in x-rays in comparison to central black holes observed in distant galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021128.html ], even during its frequent x-ray flares. This suggests that this supermassive black hole has been starved [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast05sep_1.htm ] by a lack of infalling material. In fact, the sharp Chandra image shows clouds of multi-million degree gas dozens of light-years across flanking (upper right and lower left) the central region -- evidence that violent events have cleared much material from the vicinity [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/ illustrations/blackholes.html ] of the black hole. |
|
The Galactic Center in Infra
…
| Title |
The Galactic Center in Infrared |
| Explanation |
The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light [ http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/emspectrum.html ], much of the Galactic Center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011229.html ] is obscured by opaque dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030706.html ]. In infrared light [ http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/ir_tutorial/discovery.html ], however, dust glows more and obscures less, allowing nearly one million stars to be recorded in the above photograph [ http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/images_misc.html ]. The Galactic Center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020803.html ] itself appears [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020707.html ] on the right and is located about 30,000 light years [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html ] away towards the constellation of Sagittarius [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Sagittarius.html ]. The Galactic Plane [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000130.html ] of our Milky Way Galaxy [ http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gr/public/gal_milky.html ], the plane in which the Sun [ http://www.sunspot.noao.edu/PR/answerbook.html ] orbits, is identifiable by the dark diagonal dust lane [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020703.html ]. The absorbing dust [ http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Mathis/Mathis1.html ] grains are created in the atmospheres of cool red-giant stars [ http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/starold.html ] and grow in molecular cloud [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030202.html ]s. The region directly surrounding the Galactic Center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000422.html ] glows brightly in radio [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020521.html ] and high-energy radiation [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000819.html ], and is thought to house a large black hole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html ]. |
|
Sagittarius Star Cloud
| Title |
Sagittarius Star Cloud |
| Explanation |
Stars come in all different colors. The color of a star indicates its surface temperature [ http://www.bc.kern.cc.ca.us/programs/sea/ Astronomy/starprop/strpropb.htm#A1.5.3 ], an important property used to assign each star a spectral type [ http://www.bc.kern.cc.ca.us/programs/sea/ Astronomy/starprop/strpropd.htm#A2 ]. Most stars in the above Sagittarius Star Cloud [ http://heritage.stsci.edu/public/Oct22/sgr1/sgrtable.html ] are orange or red and relatively faint, as our Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980830.html ] would appear. The blue [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/gifcity/msblues.html ] and greenish stars are hotter, many being relatively young and massive. The bright red stars are cool Red Giants [ http://plabpc.csustan.edu/astro/stars/giant.htm ], bloated stars once similar to our Sun that have entered a more advanced stage of evolution [ http://zebu.uoregon.edu/textbook/se.html ]. Stars of the Sagittarius Cloud lie towards the center of our Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971111.html ] - tantalizing cosmic jewels viewed through a rift in the dark [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980318.html ], pervasive, interstellar dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980121.html ]. This famous stellar grouping houses some of the oldest stars known. |
|
The Sagittarius Dwarf Tidal
…
| Title |
The Sagittarius Dwarf Tidal Stream |
| Explanation |
Is our Milky Way Galaxy out to lunch? Recent wide field images and analyses [ http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~mfs4n/sgr/ ] now indicate that our home galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/milky_way.html ] is actually still in the process of devouring one of its closer satellite neighbors [ http://www.astro.uu.se/~ns/mwsat.html ]. This unfortunate neighbor [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991003.html ], the Sagittarius Dwarf [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/sagdeg.html ] galaxy, is now seen to be part of a larger Sagittarius Tidal Stream [ http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0308009 ], a loose filament of stars, gas, and possibly dark matter that entangles the Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020719.html ]. An artist's depiction of the stream is shown above. Speculation [ http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0309567 ] also holds that the Sagittarius Dwarf [ http://www.astro.wesleyan.edu/~kvj/sgr.html ] was once pulled through the Milky Way disk [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990224.html ] very close to our Sun's current location [ http://www.ecology.com/earth-at-a-glance/earth-at-a-glance-feature/ ]. An important resulting realization is that galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/spiral_galaxies.html ] contain a jumble of clumps and filaments [ http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0309162 ] of both dim [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030727.html ] and dark matter [ http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/guidry/violence/darkmatter.html ]. |
|
Starbirth in the Trifid Nebu
…
| Title |
Starbirth in the Trifid Nebula |
| Explanation |
Tremendous pillars of gas and dust are being boiled away in the Trifid Nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980331.html ]. In the center of the picturesque Trifid [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m020.html ] lies a young hot star, located above and to the right of this picture [ http://eagle.la.asu.edu/hester/trifid.html ]. As soon as it was born, the massive star scorched its surroundings with bright and energetic light. Nearby stars trying to form ended up starved for gas as it was swept away [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990502.html ] from them by the bright star's light and wind. Lower mass stars should continue to form in the Trifid Nebula [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1985ApJ...294..578L ], as over 1500 times the mass of our Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980830.html ] still exists in uncondensed gas. Also known as M20 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970828.html ], the Trifid Nebula [ http://www.seds.org/billa/twn/n6514x.html ] is about 9000 light years away and easily visible [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971111.html ] with a small telescope in the constellation of Sagittarius [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Sagittarius.html ]. |
|
The Galactic Center in Infra
…
| Title |
The Galactic Center in Infrared |
| Explanation |
The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light [ http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/emspectrum.html ], much of the Galactic Center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971111.html ] is obscured by opaque dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990509.html ]. In infrared light [ http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Outreach/Edu/discovery.html ], however, dust glows more and obscures less, allowing nearly one million stars to be recorded in the above photograph [ http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/powarc.html ]. The Galactic Center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990128.html ] itself appears on the right and is located about 30,000 light years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Sagittarius.html ]. The Galactic Plane [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971229.html ] of our Milky Way Galaxy [ http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gr/public/gal_milky.html ], the plane in which the Sun [ http://www.sunspot.noao.edu/PR/answerbook.html ] orbits, is identifiable by the dark diagonal dust lane [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980318.html ]. The absorbing dust [ http://crystal.ipac.caltech.edu:8001/applications/level5/Mathis/frames.html ] grains are created [ http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~mseibert/paper/grain.html ] in the atmospheres of cool red-giant stars [ http://plabpc.csustan.edu/astro/stars/giant.htm ] and grow in molecular cloud [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990511.html ]s. The region directly surrounding the Galactic Center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970121.html ] glows brightly in radio and high-energy radiation [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961008.html ], and is thought to house a large black hole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html ]. |
|
New Horizons Sees Pluto (Sep
…
PIA09233
Sol (our sun)
LORRI
| Title |
New Horizons Sees Pluto (Sept. 24) |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
A white arrow marks Pluto in this New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) picture taken Sept. 21, 2006. Seen at a distance of about 4.2 billion kilometers (2.6 billion miles) from the spacecraft, Pluto is little more than a faint point of light among a dense field of stars. Mission scientists knew they had Pluto in their sights when LORRI detected an unresolved "point" in Pluto's predicted position, moving at the planet's expected motion across the constellation of Sagittarius near the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. |
|
New Horizons Sees Pluto (Sep
…
PIA09232
Sol (our sun)
LORRI
| Title |
New Horizons Sees Pluto (Sept. 21) |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
A white arrow marks Pluto in this New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) picture taken Sept. 21, 2006. Seen at a distance of about 4.2 billion kilometers (2.6 billion miles) from the spacecraft, Pluto is little more than a faint point of light among a dense field of stars. Mission scientists knew they had Pluto in their sights when LORRI detected an unresolved "point" in Pluto's predicted position, moving at the planet's expected motion across the constellation of Sagittarius near the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. |
|
Where Galactic Snakes Live
PIA01318
Infrared Array Camera (IRAC)
…
| Title |
Where Galactic Snakes Live |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows what astronomers are referring to as a "snake" (upper left) and its surrounding stormy environment. The sinuous object is actually the core of a thick, sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems. In fact, astronomers say the "snake's belly" may be harboring beastly stars in the process of forming. The galactic creepy crawler to the right of the snake is another thick cloud core, in which additional burgeoning massive stars might be lurking. The colorful regions below the two cloud cores are less dense cloud material, in which dust has been heated by starlight and glows with infrared light. Yellow and orange dots throughout the image are monstrous developing stars, the red star on the "belly" of the snake is 20 to 50 times as massive as our sun. The blue dots are foreground stars. The red ball at the bottom left is a "supernova remnant," the remains of massive star that died in a fiery blast. Astronomers speculate that radiation and winds from the star before it died, in addition to a shock wave created when it exploded, might have played a role in creating the snake. Spitzer was able to spot the two black cloud cores using its heat-seeking infrared vision. The objects are hiding in the dusty plane of our Milky Way galaxy, invisible to optical telescopes. Because their heat, or infrared light, can sneak through the dust, they first showed up in infrared images from past missions. The cloud cores are so thick with dust that if you were to somehow transport yourself into the middle of them, you would see nothing but black, not even a star in the sky. Now, that's spooky! Spitzer's new view of the region provides the best look yet at the massive embryonic stars hiding inside the snake. Astronomers say these observations will ultimately help them better understand how massive stars form. By studying the clustering and range of masses of the stellar embryos, they hope to determine if the stars were born in the same way that our low-mass sun was formed - out of a collapsing cloud of gas and dust - or by another mechanism in which the environment plays a larger role. The snake is located about 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. This false-color image is a composite of infrared data taken by Spitzer's infrared array camera and multiband imaging photometer. Blue represents 3.6-micron light, green shows light of 8 microns, and red is 24-micron light. |
|
Two Moons and the Pleiades f
…
PIA06340
Sol (our sun)
Panoramic Camera
| Title |
Two Moons and the Pleiades from Mars |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Taking advantage of extra solar energy collected during the day, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit recently settled in for an evening of stargazing, photographing the two moons of Mars as they crossed the night sky. In this view, the Pleiades, a star cluster also known as the "Seven Sisters," is visible in the lower left corner. The bright star Aldebaran and some of the stars in the constellation Taurus are visible on the right. Spirit acquired this image the evening of martian day, or sol, 590 (Aug. 30, 2005). The image on the right provides an enhanced-contrast view with annotation. Within the enhanced halo of light is an insert of an unsaturated view of Phobos taken a few images later in the same sequence. "It is incredibly cool to be running an observatory on another planet," said planetary scientist Jim Bell of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., lead scientist for the panoramic cameras on Spirit and Opportunity. In the annotated animation (figure 2), both martian moons, Deimos on the left and Phobos on the right, travel across the night sky in front of the constellation Sagittarius. Part of Sagittarius resembles an upside-down teapot. In this view, Phobos moves toward the handle and Deimos moves toward the lid. Phobos is the brighter object on the right, Deimos is on the left. Each of the stars in Sagittarius is labeled with its formal name. The inset shows an enlarged, enhanced view of Phobos, shaped rather like a potato with a hole near one end. The hole is the large impact creater Stickney, visible on the moon's upper right limb. On Mars, Phobos would be easily visible to the naked eye at night, but would be only about one-third as large as the full Moon appears from Earth. Astronauts staring at Phobos from the surface of Mars would notice its oblong, potato-like shape and that it moves quickly against the background stars. Phobos takes only 7 hours, 39 minutes to complete one orbit of Mars. That is so fast, relative to the 24-hour-and-39-minute sol on Mars (the length of time it takes for Mars to complete one rotation), that Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east. Earth's moon, by comparison, rises in the east and sets in the west. The smaller martian moon, Deimos, takes 30 hours, 12 minutes to complete one orbit of Mars. That orbital period is longer than a martian sol, and so Deimos rises, like most solar system moons, in the east and sets in the west. Scientists will use images of the two moons to better map their orbital positions, learn more about their composition, and monitor the presence of nighttime clouds or haze. Spirit took the five images that make up this composite with the panoramic camera, using the camera's broadband filter, which was designed specifically for acquiring images under low-light conditions. |
|
Two Moons and the Pleiades f
…
PIA06340
Sol (our sun)
Panoramic Camera
| Title |
Two Moons and the Pleiades from Mars |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Taking advantage of extra solar energy collected during the day, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit recently settled in for an evening of stargazing, photographing the two moons of Mars as they crossed the night sky. In this view, the Pleiades, a star cluster also known as the "Seven Sisters," is visible in the lower left corner. The bright star Aldebaran and some of the stars in the constellation Taurus are visible on the right. Spirit acquired this image the evening of martian day, or sol, 590 (Aug. 30, 2005). The image on the right provides an enhanced-contrast view with annotation. Within the enhanced halo of light is an insert of an unsaturated view of Phobos taken a few images later in the same sequence. "It is incredibly cool to be running an observatory on another planet," said planetary scientist Jim Bell of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., lead scientist for the panoramic cameras on Spirit and Opportunity. In the annotated animation (figure 2), both martian moons, Deimos on the left and Phobos on the right, travel across the night sky in front of the constellation Sagittarius. Part of Sagittarius resembles an upside-down teapot. In this view, Phobos moves toward the handle and Deimos moves toward the lid. Phobos is the brighter object on the right, Deimos is on the left. Each of the stars in Sagittarius is labeled with its formal name. The inset shows an enlarged, enhanced view of Phobos, shaped rather like a potato with a hole near one end. The hole is the large impact creater Stickney, visible on the moon's upper right limb. On Mars, Phobos would be easily visible to the naked eye at night, but would be only about one-third as large as the full Moon appears from Earth. Astronauts staring at Phobos from the surface of Mars would notice its oblong, potato-like shape and that it moves quickly against the background stars. Phobos takes only 7 hours, 39 minutes to complete one orbit of Mars. That is so fast, relative to the 24-hour-and-39-minute sol on Mars (the length of time it takes for Mars to complete one rotation), that Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east. Earth's moon, by comparison, rises in the east and sets in the west. The smaller martian moon, Deimos, takes 30 hours, 12 minutes to complete one orbit of Mars. That orbital period is longer than a martian sol, and so Deimos rises, like most solar system moons, in the east and sets in the west. Scientists will use images of the two moons to better map their orbital positions, learn more about their composition, and monitor the presence of nighttime clouds or haze. Spirit took the five images that make up this composite with the panoramic camera, using the camera's broadband filter, which was designed specifically for acquiring images under low-light conditions. |
|
Two Moons and the Pleiades f
…
PIA06340
Sol (our sun)
Panoramic Camera
| Title |
Two Moons and the Pleiades from Mars |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Taking advantage of extra solar energy collected during the day, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit recently settled in for an evening of stargazing, photographing the two moons of Mars as they crossed the night sky. In this view, the Pleiades, a star cluster also known as the "Seven Sisters," is visible in the lower left corner. The bright star Aldebaran and some of the stars in the constellation Taurus are visible on the right. Spirit acquired this image the evening of martian day, or sol, 590 (Aug. 30, 2005). The image on the right provides an enhanced-contrast view with annotation. Within the enhanced halo of light is an insert of an unsaturated view of Phobos taken a few images later in the same sequence. "It is incredibly cool to be running an observatory on another planet," said planetary scientist Jim Bell of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., lead scientist for the panoramic cameras on Spirit and Opportunity. In the annotated animation (figure 2), both martian moons, Deimos on the left and Phobos on the right, travel across the night sky in front of the constellation Sagittarius. Part of Sagittarius resembles an upside-down teapot. In this view, Phobos moves toward the handle and Deimos moves toward the lid. Phobos is the brighter object on the right, Deimos is on the left. Each of the stars in Sagittarius is labeled with its formal name. The inset shows an enlarged, enhanced view of Phobos, shaped rather like a potato with a hole near one end. The hole is the large impact creater Stickney, visible on the moon's upper right limb. On Mars, Phobos would be easily visible to the naked eye at night, but would be only about one-third as large as the full Moon appears from Earth. Astronauts staring at Phobos from the surface of Mars would notice its oblong, potato-like shape and that it moves quickly against the background stars. Phobos takes only 7 hours, 39 minutes to complete one orbit of Mars. That is so fast, relative to the 24-hour-and-39-minute sol on Mars (the length of time it takes for Mars to complete one rotation), that Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east. Earth's moon, by comparison, rises in the east and sets in the west. The smaller martian moon, Deimos, takes 30 hours, 12 minutes to complete one orbit of Mars. That orbital period is longer than a martian sol, and so Deimos rises, like most solar system moons, in the east and sets in the west. Scientists will use images of the two moons to better map their orbital positions, learn more about their composition, and monitor the presence of nighttime clouds or haze. Spirit took the five images that make up this composite with the panoramic camera, using the camera's broadband filter, which was designed specifically for acquiring images under low-light conditions. |
|
Hubble-V
PIA04222
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble-V |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Resembling curling flames from a campfire, a magnificent nebula in a nearby galaxy observed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope provides new insight into the fierce birth of stars as it may have occurred in the early universe. The picture, taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, is online at http://heritage.stsci.edu and http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/39 and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc . The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The glowing gas cloud, called Hubble-V, has a diameter of about 200 light-years. A faint tail of gas and dust trailing off the top of the image sits opposite a dense cluster of bright stars at the bottom of the irregularly shaped nebula. Hubble's resolution and ultraviolet sensitivity reveal a dense knot of dozens of ultra-hot stars nestled in the nebula. Each star glows 100,000 times brighter than our Sun. These 4-million-year-old stars, considered youthful in the cosmic time scale, are too distant and crowded together to be resolved from ground-based telescopes. The small, irregular host galaxy, called NGC 6822, is one of the Milky Way's closest neighbors. It lies 1.6 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. The Hubble-V image data was taken by two science teams: C. Robert O'Dell of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. and collaborators, and Luciana Bianchi of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., and Osservatorio Astronomico, Torinese, Italy, and collaborators. This color image was produced by the Hubble Heritage Team at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md. The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is available at http://hubble.stsci.edu. More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is available at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov |
|
Hubble Sees Material Ejected
…
PIA01291
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Sees Material Ejected From Comet Hale-Bopp |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
These NASA Hubble Space Telescope pictures of comet Hale-Bopp show a remarkable "pinwheel" pattern and a blob of free-flying debris near the nucleus. The bright clump of light along the spiral (above the nucleus, which is near the center of the frame) may be a piece of the comet's icy crust that was ejected into space by a combination of ice evaporation and the comet's rotation, and which then disintegrated into a bright cloud of particles. Although the "blob" is about 3.5 times fainter than the brightest portion at the nucleus, the lump appears brighter because it covers a larger area. The debris follows a spiral pattern outward because the solid nucleus is rotating like a lawn sprinkler, completing a single rotation about once per week. Ground-based observations conducted over the past two months have documented at least two separate episodes of jet and pinwheel formation and fading. By coincidence, the first Hubble images of Hale-Bopp, taken on September 26, 1995, immediately followed one of these outbursts and allow researchers to examine it at unprecedented detail. For the first time they see a clear separation between the nucleus and some of the debris being shed. By putting together information from the Hubble images and those taken during the recent outburst using the 82 cm telescope of the Teide Observatory (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain), astronomers find that the debris is moving away from the nucleus at a speed (projected on the sky) of about 68 miles per hour (109 kilometers per hour). The Hubble observations will be used to determine if Hale-Bopp is really a giant comet or rather a more moderate-sized object whose current activity is driven by outgassing from a very volatile ice which will "burn out" over the next year. Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered on July 23, 1995 by amateur astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp. Though this comet is still well outside the orbit of Jupiter (almost 600 million miles, or one billion kilometers from Earth) it looks surprisingly bright, fueling predictions that it could become the brightest comet of the century in early 1997. The full-field picture on the left, taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (in WF mode), shows the comet against a stellar backdrop in the constellation Sagittarius. The stars are streaked due to a combination of Hubble's orbital motion and its tracking of the nucleus, which is now falling toward the Sun at 33,800 miles per hour (54,000 km/hr). In the close-up picture on the right, the stars have been subtracted through image processing. Each picture element is nearly 300 miles (480 km) across at the comet's distance. In this false color scale the faintest regions are black, the brightest regions are white, and intermediate intensities are represented by different levels of red. Even more detailed Hubble images will be taken with the Planetary Camera in late October to follow the further evolution of the spiral, look for more outbursts, place limits on the size of, the nucleus, and use spectroscopy to study the enigmatic comet's chemical composition. The Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and managed by the Goddard Spaced Flight Center for NASA's Office of Space Science. This image and other images and data received from the Hubble Space Telescope are posted on the World Wide Web on the Space Telescope Science Institute home page at URL http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/ |
|
|
