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Images of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) from 2006
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The Hole at the Pole
| Description |
The Hole at the Pole |
| Full Description |
The Cassini data presented in this view appear to confirm a region of warm atmospheric descent into the eye of a hurricane-like storm locked to Saturn's south pole. The view shows temperature data from the Cassini spacecraft composite infrared spectrometer overlaid onto an image from the imaging science subsystem wide-angle camera. The composite infrared spectrometer data refer to a depth in Saturn's upper stratosphere where the pressure is 0.5 millibars (324 kilometers above the 1-bar level), a region higher than that imaged by the imaging camera and visual and infrared spectrometer during the same observation period. The composite infrared spectrometer data show a very small hot spot over the pole, similar in size to the "eye" of the storm seen in the imaging science subsystem images. See also Looking Saturn in the Eye and Saturn's Surprisingly Stormy South for related images. The color scale at the bottom indicates the temperature in Kelvin corresponding to the colors of the temperature map. Numbers on the grid correspond to lines of latitude and longitude on the planet. Infrared images taken through the Keck I telescope by ground-based observers had previously shown the south polar spot to be warm. Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer has confirmed this with higher resolution temperature maps of the area (like the map displayed here) and sees a temperature increase of about 2 Kelvin (4 degrees Fahrenheit) at the pole. The temperatures are in the stratosphere and higher up than the clouds seen by the Cassini imaging and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer instruments, but they suggest that the atmosphere sinks over the south pole. Because the pressure increases with depth, the descending atmosphere compresses and heats up. The warmer temperatures over the south pole also indicate that the vortex winds are decaying with height in the stratosphere. The descent implied by the temperatures nicely supports the lower cloud altitudes observed by the imaging camera and visual and infrared spectrometer instruments at the pole. The image and atmospheric data were acquired on Oct. 11, 2006, when Cassini was approximately 340,000 kilometers (210,000 miles) from Saturn. The wide-angle camera image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The image has been contrast enhanced using digital image processing techniques. The unprocessed image shows an oblique view toward the pole, and was reprojected to show the planet from a perspective directly over the south pole. Scale in the original image was about 17 kilometers (11 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org . The composite infrared spectrometer team homepage is at http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ . *Credit:* NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/GSFC |
| Date |
November 9, 2006 |
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Enceladus Keeps the Home Fir
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| Description |
Enceladus Keeps the Home Fires Burning |
| Full Description |
On Nov. 9, 2006, Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer captured its first view of the infrared heat radiation emanating from the "tiger stripe" fractures at the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus (right) since the discovery of the hot spot 16 months earlier (left). The original discovery was made just before a close flyby of Enceladus on July 14, 2005, and coincided with the discovery of plumes of water-rich gas and ice particles jetting out of the tiger stripes. However, the spacecraft's orbit did not provide any good views of the south pole for follow-up observations until November 2006. The new observations were made from a range of 110,000 kilometers (68,350 miles), slightly more distant than the 80,000-kilometer range (49,700 miles) of the original observations. Comparison of the two images shows that the south polar region continues to be active, and the distribution of temperatures there has changed little in 16 months. The distribution of heat radiation suggests that most or all of the south polar heat comes from the tiger stripes themselves, though the individual stripes are not resolved at the approximate 30-kilometer (19-mile) spatial resolution of these images. The images show the intensity of heat radiation in the 10- to 16-micron wavelength range, translated into temperature and displayed in false color. Peak south polar temperature on both dates reached about 85 Kelvin (minus 306 degrees Fahrenheit), averaged over the 30-kilometer (19-mile) spatial resolution of the data. However, the variation in brightness with wavelength, which is also measured by the composite infrared spectrometer, reveals that the warm region includes small areas, possibly zones a few 100 meters (320 feet) wide along the length of the tiger stripes, that are at higher temperatures, reaching at least 130 Kelvin (minus 225 degrees Fahrenheit) and perhaps much warmer still. While the south polar tiger stripes are almost certainly heated by energy from the moon's interior, daytime regions at low latitudes are warmed by sunlight to temperatures in the high 70s Kelvin (about minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit). The white numbers on the images show west longitudes on Enceladus, which is 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter. The dashed line shows the terminator, the boundary between day and night. The blotchy appearance of the cooler regions away from the south pole, and of the sky beyond the globe of Enceladus, is an artifact resulting from the fact that apart from the polar hot spot, the composite infrared spectrometer can barely detect the very faint heat radiation from this very cold moon. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The, composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/. The composite infrared spectrometer team homepage is http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. *Image Credit:* NASA/JPL/GSFC/Southwest Research Institute |
| Date |
December 22, 2006 |
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Searching for Warmth
| Description |
The exciting mystery of an active south polar region on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus continues to unfold as scientists make the correlation between geologically youthful surface fractures and unusually warm temperatures. |
| Full Description |
The exciting mystery of an active south polar region on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus continues to unfold as scientists make the correlation between geologically youthful surface fractures and unusually warm temperatures. This view shows excess heat radiation from cracks near the moon's south pole. These warm fissures are the source of plumes of dust and gas seen by multiple instruments on the Cassini spacecraft during its flyby of Enceladus on July 14, 2005, as described in a series of papers in the March 10, 2006, issue of the journal Science. This image shows two arrays of temperature readings across the surface of Enceladus, as measured by the Cassini composite infrared spectrometer, superimposed on images of the surface taken simultaneously by the imaging science subsystem. Surface temperatures in Kelvin, derived from the intensity of infrared radiation detected by the composite infrared spectrometer, are shown along with their formal uncertainties, although true uncertainties for temperatures below about 75 Kelvin (minus 325 degrees Fahrenheit) are not easily described by a single number. Enhanced thermal emission is seen in the vicinity of the prominent "tiger stripe" fissures discovered by the imaging cameras. In this image, the excess emission is most strongly seen in the left-most composite infrared spectrometer field of view, which includes a fissure near the end of one of the tiger stripes. The peak temperatures, 86 Kelvin and 90 Kelvin (minus 305 and minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit) respectively, are averages over the composite infrared spectrometer field of view, and other composite infrared spectrometer data suggest that much higher temperatures, up to at least 145 Kelvin (minus 199 degrees Fahrenheit), occur in narrow zones a few hundred meters wide along the tiger stripe fissures. See (PIA07794) for a related image. This image is centered near longitude 135 west, latitude 65 south, and each square from the composite infrared spectrometer field of view is 17.5 kilometers (10.9 miles) across. This Cassini narrow-angle camera image has been cropped and resized for presentation. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The composite infrared spectrometer team homepage is http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org *Credit:* NASA/JPL/GSFC/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
March 9, 2006 |
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Searching for Warmth
| Description |
The exciting mystery of an active south polar region on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus continues to unfold as scientists make the correlation between geologically youthful surface fractures and unusually warm temperatures. |
| Full Description |
The exciting mystery of an active south polar region on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus continues to unfold as scientists make the correlation between geologically youthful surface fractures and unusually warm temperatures. This view shows excess heat radiation from cracks near the moon's south pole. These warm fissures are the source of plumes of dust and gas seen by multiple instruments on the Cassini spacecraft during its flyby of Enceladus on July 14, 2005, as described in a series of papers in the March 10, 2006, issue of the journal Science. This image shows two arrays of temperature readings across the surface of Enceladus, as measured by the Cassini composite infrared spectrometer, superimposed on images of the surface taken simultaneously by the imaging science subsystem. Surface temperatures in Kelvin, derived from the intensity of infrared radiation detected by composite infrared spectrometer, are shown along with their formal uncertainties, although true uncertainties for temperatures below about 75 Kelvin (minus 325 degrees Fahrenheit) are not easily described by a single number. Enhanced thermal emission is seen in the vicinity of the prominent "tiger stripe" fissures discovered by the imaging cameras. In this image, the excess emission is near the center of the composite infrared spectrometer array, directly over a tiger stripe fissure. The peak temperatures, 86 Kelvin and 90 Kelvin (minus 305 and minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit) respectively, are averages over the composite infrared spectrometer field of view, and other composite and infrared spectrometer data suggest that much higher temperatures, up to at least 145 Kelvin (minus 199 degrees Fahrenheit), occur in narrow zones a few hundred meters wide along the tiger stripe fissures. See (PIA07793) for a related image. This image was taken nearly three times closer to the moon and is centered near longitude 120 west, latitude 82 south, and each composite infrared spectrometer field of view is 6.0 kilometers (3.7 miles) across. This Cassini narrow-angle camera image was cropped and resized for presentation. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The composite infrared spectrometer team homepage is http://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org *Credit:* NASA/JPL/GSFC/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
March 9, 2006 |
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Dusty Planetary Disks Around
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| Title |
Dusty Planetary Disks Around Two Nearby Stars Resemble Our Kuiper Belt |
| General Information |
What is a News Nugget? News Nuggets are bulletins from the world of astronomy. These two bright debris disks of ice and dust appear to be the equivalent of our own solar system's Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy rocks outside the orbit of Neptune and the source of short-period comets. The disks encircle the types of stars around which there could be habitable zones and planets for life to develop. The disks seem to have a central area cleared of debris, perhaps by planets. |
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Hubble's Largest Galaxy Port
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| Title |
Hubble's Largest Galaxy Portrait Offers a New High-Definition View |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Giant galaxies weren?t assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). It is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released from Hubble. The galaxy?s portrait is actually composed of 51 individual exposures taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in March 1994, September 1994, June 1999, November 2002, and January 2003. The newly composed image also includes elements from images from ground-based photos. |
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Hubble's Largest Galaxy Port
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| Title |
Hubble's Largest Galaxy Portrait Offers a New High-Definition View |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Giant galaxies weren?t assembled in a day. Neither was this Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101). It is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released from Hubble. The galaxy?s portrait is actually composed of 51 individual exposures taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in March 1994, September 1994, June 1999, November 2002, and January 2003. The newly composed image also includes elements from images from ground-based photos. |
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Hubble Finds that Earth is S
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst |
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Hubble Snaps Baby Pictures o
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Hubble Snaps Baby Pictures of Jupiter's "Red Spot Jr. |
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Hubble Finds that Earth is S
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst |
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Hubble Finds that Earth is S
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst |
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Hubble Finds that Earth is S
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst |
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Hubble Snaps Baby Pictures o
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| Title |
Hubble Snaps Baby Pictures of Jupiter's "Red Spot Jr. |
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Hubble Finds that Earth is S
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst |
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Hubble Snaps Baby Pictures o
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| Title |
Hubble Snaps Baby Pictures of Jupiter's "Red Spot Jr. |
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Hubble Finds that Earth is S
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst |
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Hubble Finds that Earth is S
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst |
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Hubble Finds that Earth is S
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst |
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Cassiopeia A - The Colorful
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| Title |
Cassiopeia A - The Colorful Aftermath of a Violent Stellar Death |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. A new image taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope provides a detailed look at the tattered remains of a supernova explosion known as Cassiopeia A (Cas A). It is the youngest known remnant from a supernova explosion in the Milky Way. The new Hubble image shows the complex and intricate structure of the star's shattered fragments. The image is a composite made from 18 separate images taken in December 2004 using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). |
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Hubble Observations Confirm
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| Title |
Hubble Observations Confirm that Planets Form from Disks Around Stars |
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Hubble Observations Confirm
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| Title |
Hubble Observations Confirm that Planets Form from Disks Around Stars |
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Extraterrestrial Fireworks
| Title |
Extraterrestrial Fireworks |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of a cosmic explosion that is quite similar to fireworks on Earth. In the nearby galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud, a massive star has exploded as a supernova, and begun to dissipate its interior into a spectacular display of colorful filaments. The greenish-blue supernova remnant, E0102, resides 50 light-years away from the edge of a bright glowing massive star-forming region. |
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JWST Project Scientist Wins
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| Title |
JWST Project Scientist Wins Nobel Prize for Physics |
| General Information |
What is a News Nugget? News Nuggets are bulletins from the world of astronomy. John C. Mather, a senior astrophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), has won the 2006 Nobel Physics Prize. Mather shares the prize with George F. Smoot, a professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, for work that helped solidify the Big Bang theory for the origin of the universe. Mather and Smoot were members of a science team that used NASA?s Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite to measure the diffuse microwave background radiation, which is considered a relic of the Big Bang. |
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The Carina Nebula: Star Birt
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| Title |
The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers is releasing one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. READ: Junior version of this article Amazing Space Learn about this story in the Star Witness, a science newspaper available on our sister site, Amazing Space. [ http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/news/archive/2007/02/ ] It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth —, and death —, is taking place. This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen during March and July 2005. Color information was added with data taken in December 2001 and March 2003 at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission. |
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The Carina Nebula: Star Birt
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| Title |
The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers is releasing one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. READ: Junior version of this article Amazing Space Learn about this story in the Star Witness, a science newspaper available on our sister site, Amazing Space. [ http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/news/archive/2007/02/ ] It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth —, and death —, is taking place. This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen during March and July 2005. Color information was added with data taken in December 2001 and March 2003 at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission. |
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The Carina Nebula: Star Birt
…
| Title |
The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers is releasing one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. READ: Junior version of this article Amazing Space Learn about this story in the Star Witness, a science newspaper available on our sister site, Amazing Space. [ http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/news/archive/2007/02/ ] It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth —, and death —, is taking place. This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen during March and July 2005. Color information was added with data taken in December 2001 and March 2003 at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission. |
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Hubble Finds that "Blue Blob
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that "Blue Blobs" in Space Are Orphaned Clusters of Stars |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. Hubble Space Telescope's powerful vision has resolved strange objects nicknamed "blue blobs" and found them to be brilliant blue clusters of stars born in the swirls and eddies of a galactic smashup 200 million years ago. Such "blue blobs"—, weighing tens of thousands of solar masses —, have never been seen in detail before in such sparse locations, say researchers. The "blue blobs" are found along a wispy bridge of gas strung among three colliding galaxies, M81, M82, and NGC 3077, residing about 12 million light-years away from Earth. This is not the place astronomers expect to find star clusters, because the gas filaments were considered too thin to accumulate enough material to actually build these many stars. The star clusters in this diffuse structure might have formed from gas collisions and subsequent turbulence, which enhanced locally the density of the gas streams. Galaxy collisions were much more frequent in the early universe, so "blue blobs" should have been common. After the stars burned out or exploded, the heavier elements forged in their nuclear furnaces would have been ejected to enrich intergalactic space. Read more: * The Full Story [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/02/full/ ] |
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Hubble Finds that "Blue Blob
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that "Blue Blobs" in Space Are Orphaned Clusters of Stars |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. Hubble Space Telescope's powerful vision has resolved strange objects nicknamed "blue blobs" and found them to be brilliant blue clusters of stars born in the swirls and eddies of a galactic smashup 200 million years ago. Such "blue blobs"—, weighing tens of thousands of solar masses —, have never been seen in detail before in such sparse locations, say researchers. The "blue blobs" are found along a wispy bridge of gas strung among three colliding galaxies, M81, M82, and NGC 3077, residing about 12 million light-years away from Earth. This is not the place astronomers expect to find star clusters, because the gas filaments were considered too thin to accumulate enough material to actually build these many stars. The star clusters in this diffuse structure might have formed from gas collisions and subsequent turbulence, which enhanced locally the density of the gas streams. Galaxy collisions were much more frequent in the early universe, so "blue blobs" should have been common. After the stars burned out or exploded, the heavier elements forged in their nuclear furnaces would have been ejected to enrich intergalactic space. Read more: * The Full Story [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/02/full/ ] |
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Hubble Finds that "Blue Blob
…
| Title |
Hubble Finds that "Blue Blobs" in Space Are Orphaned Clusters of Stars |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. Hubble Space Telescope's powerful vision has resolved strange objects nicknamed "blue blobs" and found them to be brilliant blue clusters of stars born in the swirls and eddies of a galactic smashup 200 million years ago. Such "blue blobs"—, weighing tens of thousands of solar masses —, have never been seen in detail before in such sparse locations, say researchers. The "blue blobs" are found along a wispy bridge of gas strung among three colliding galaxies, M81, M82, and NGC 3077, residing about 12 million light-years away from Earth. This is not the place astronomers expect to find star clusters, because the gas filaments were considered too thin to accumulate enough material to actually build these many stars. The star clusters in this diffuse structure might have formed from gas collisions and subsequent turbulence, which enhanced locally the density of the gas streams. Galaxy collisions were much more frequent in the early universe, so "blue blobs" should have been common. After the stars burned out or exploded, the heavier elements forged in their nuclear furnaces would have been ejected to enrich intergalactic space. Read more: * The Full Story [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/02/full/ ] |
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Hubble Finds that "Blue Blob
…
| Title |
Hubble Finds that "Blue Blobs" in Space Are Orphaned Clusters of Stars |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. Hubble Space Telescope's powerful vision has resolved strange objects nicknamed "blue blobs" and found them to be brilliant blue clusters of stars born in the swirls and eddies of a galactic smashup 200 million years ago. Such "blue blobs"—, weighing tens of thousands of solar masses —, have never been seen in detail before in such sparse locations, say researchers. The "blue blobs" are found along a wispy bridge of gas strung among three colliding galaxies, M81, M82, and NGC 3077, residing about 12 million light-years away from Earth. This is not the place astronomers expect to find star clusters, because the gas filaments were considered too thin to accumulate enough material to actually build these many stars. The star clusters in this diffuse structure might have formed from gas collisions and subsequent turbulence, which enhanced locally the density of the gas streams. Galaxy collisions were much more frequent in the early universe, so "blue blobs" should have been common. After the stars burned out or exploded, the heavier elements forged in their nuclear furnaces would have been ejected to enrich intergalactic space. Read more: * The Full Story [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/02/full/ ] |
|
Hubble Finds that "Blue Blob
…
| Title |
Hubble Finds that "Blue Blobs" in Space Are Orphaned Clusters of Stars |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. Hubble Space Telescope's powerful vision has resolved strange objects nicknamed "blue blobs" and found them to be brilliant blue clusters of stars born in the swirls and eddies of a galactic smashup 200 million years ago. Such "blue blobs"—, weighing tens of thousands of solar masses —, have never been seen in detail before in such sparse locations, say researchers. The "blue blobs" are found along a wispy bridge of gas strung among three colliding galaxies, M81, M82, and NGC 3077, residing about 12 million light-years away from Earth. This is not the place astronomers expect to find star clusters, because the gas filaments were considered too thin to accumulate enough material to actually build these many stars. The star clusters in this diffuse structure might have formed from gas collisions and subsequent turbulence, which enhanced locally the density of the gas streams. Galaxy collisions were much more frequent in the early universe, so "blue blobs" should have been common. After the stars burned out or exploded, the heavier elements forged in their nuclear furnaces would have been ejected to enrich intergalactic space. Read more: * The Full Story [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/02/full/ ] |
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Dusty Planetary Disks Around
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| Title |
Dusty Planetary Disks Around Two Nearby Stars Resemble Our Kuiper Belt |
| General Information |
What is a News Nugget? News Nuggets are bulletins from the world of astronomy. These two bright debris disks of ice and dust appear to be the equivalent of our own solar system's Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy rocks outside the orbit of Neptune and the source of short-period comets. The disks encircle the types of stars around which there could be habitable zones and planets for life to develop. The disks seem to have a central area cleared of debris, perhaps by planets. |
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Dusty Planetary Disks Around
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| Title |
Dusty Planetary Disks Around Two Nearby Stars Resemble Our Kuiper Belt |
| General Information |
What is a News Nugget? News Nuggets are bulletins from the world of astronomy. These two bright debris disks of ice and dust appear to be the equivalent of our own solar system's Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy rocks outside the orbit of Neptune and the source of short-period comets. The disks encircle the types of stars around which there could be habitable zones and planets for life to develop. The disks seem to have a central area cleared of debris, perhaps by planets. |
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Hubble Finds that Earth is S
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst |
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Hubble Finds that Earth is S
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| Title |
Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst |
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Hubble Snaps Baby Pictures o
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| Title |
Hubble Snaps Baby Pictures of Jupiter's "Red Spot Jr. |
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Hubble Reveals Two Dust Disk
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| Title |
Hubble Reveals Two Dust Disks Around Nearby Star Beta Pictoris |
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Cassiopeia A - The Colorful
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| Title |
Cassiopeia A - The Colorful Aftermath of a Violent Stellar Death |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. A new image taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope provides a detailed look at the tattered remains of a supernova explosion known as Cassiopeia A (Cas A). It is the youngest known remnant from a supernova explosion in the Milky Way. The new Hubble image shows the complex and intricate structure of the star's shattered fragments. The image is a composite made from 18 separate images taken in December 2004 using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). |
|
Hubble Finds that "Blue Blob
…
| Title |
Hubble Finds that "Blue Blobs" in Space Are Orphaned Clusters of Stars |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. Hubble Space Telescope's powerful vision has resolved strange objects nicknamed "blue blobs" and found them to be brilliant blue clusters of stars born in the swirls and eddies of a galactic smashup 200 million years ago. Such "blue blobs"—, weighing tens of thousands of solar masses —, have never been seen in detail before in such sparse locations, say researchers. The "blue blobs" are found along a wispy bridge of gas strung among three colliding galaxies, M81, M82, and NGC 3077, residing about 12 million light-years away from Earth. This is not the place astronomers expect to find star clusters, because the gas filaments were considered too thin to accumulate enough material to actually build these many stars. The star clusters in this diffuse structure might have formed from gas collisions and subsequent turbulence, which enhanced locally the density of the gas streams. Galaxy collisions were much more frequent in the early universe, so "blue blobs" should have been common. After the stars burned out or exploded, the heavier elements forged in their nuclear furnaces would have been ejected to enrich intergalactic space. Read more: * The Full Story [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/02/full/ ] |
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Arctic Sea Ice Maximum Conce
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| Title |
Arctic Sea Ice Maximum Concentrations 1979-2006 |
| Abstract |
This visualization shows the annual maximum amount of winter Arctic ice from 1979 to 2006. In 2005 and 2006, the winter ice maximum was about 6% smaller than the average winter ice over the 26 year period. The expected winter ice retreat is 1.5 to 2% loss per decade. The same data is also shown with a yellow region representing the cumulative or maximum extent of winter ice observed from 1979 to 2006. |
| Completed |
2006-09-06 |
|
Arctic Sea Ice Maximum Conce
…
| Title |
Arctic Sea Ice Maximum Concentrations 1979-2006 |
| Abstract |
This visualization shows the annual maximum amount of winter Arctic ice from 1979 to 2006. In 2005 and 2006, the winter ice maximum was about 6% smaller than the average winter ice over the 26 year period. The expected winter ice retreat is 1.5 to 2% loss per decade. The same data is also shown with a yellow region representing the cumulative or maximum extent of winter ice observed from 1979 to 2006. |
| Completed |
2006-09-06 |
|
Arctic Sea Ice Maximum Conce
…
| Title |
Arctic Sea Ice Maximum Concentrations 1979-2006 |
| Abstract |
This visualization shows the annual maximum amount of winter Arctic ice from 1979 to 2006. In 2005 and 2006, the winter ice maximum was about 6% smaller than the average winter ice over the 26 year period. The expected winter ice retreat is 1.5 to 2% loss per decade. The same data is also shown with a yellow region representing the cumulative or maximum extent of winter ice observed from 1979 to 2006. |
| Completed |
2006-09-06 |
|
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cov
…
| Title |
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cover, Sea Ice, Sea Surface Temperature and Biosphere |
| Abstract |
This animation is part of an NSF-funded, international project, Exploring Time. The two-hour television special, broadcast on the Discovery Channel in the spring of 2007, explores how the world changes over different timescales ... from billionths of seconds to billions of years. This animation portrays a variety of remotely sensed data elements at different temporal resolutions. Initially, the animation shows cloud cover in motion over North America in half-hour increments from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7, 2005. The temporal pace quickens to show a 5-day moving average of daily MODIS snow cover along with daily AMSR-E sea ice from Dec. 7, 2005 to Mar. 15, 2006. As the view swings south over the Gulf of Mexico, the AMSR-E Sea Surface Temperature reveals warming ocean temperatures from March through August, 2006. As it passes over the Atlantic Ocean, the biosphere fades into view, showing both chlorophyll concentration in the ocean along with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index over the land areas. The biosphere animates over time while the view pans over northern Africa and Europe, showing data collected from September 2002 through February 2006. This program was also broadcast in Japan through a partnership with the NHK international broadcasting service and in France through a partnership with the ARTE television network. |
| Completed |
2006-11-29 |
|
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cov
…
| Title |
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cover, Sea Ice, Sea Surface Temperature and Biosphere |
| Abstract |
This animation is part of an NSF-funded, international project, Exploring Time. The two-hour television special, broadcast on the Discovery Channel in the spring of 2007, explores how the world changes over different timescales ... from billionths of seconds to billions of years. This animation portrays a variety of remotely sensed data elements at different temporal resolutions. Initially, the animation shows cloud cover in motion over North America in half-hour increments from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7, 2005. The temporal pace quickens to show a 5-day moving average of daily MODIS snow cover along with daily AMSR-E sea ice from Dec. 7, 2005 to Mar. 15, 2006. As the view swings south over the Gulf of Mexico, the AMSR-E Sea Surface Temperature reveals warming ocean temperatures from March through August, 2006. As it passes over the Atlantic Ocean, the biosphere fades into view, showing both chlorophyll concentration in the ocean along with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index over the land areas. The biosphere animates over time while the view pans over northern Africa and Europe, showing data collected from September 2002 through February 2006. This program was also broadcast in Japan through a partnership with the NHK international broadcasting service and in France through a partnership with the ARTE television network. |
| Completed |
2006-11-29 |
|
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cov
…
| Title |
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cover, Sea Ice, Sea Surface Temperature and Biosphere |
| Abstract |
This animation is part of an NSF-funded, international project, Exploring Time. The two-hour television special, broadcast on the Discovery Channel in the spring of 2007, explores how the world changes over different timescales ... from billionths of seconds to billions of years. This animation portrays a variety of remotely sensed data elements at different temporal resolutions. Initially, the animation shows cloud cover in motion over North America in half-hour increments from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7, 2005. The temporal pace quickens to show a 5-day moving average of daily MODIS snow cover along with daily AMSR-E sea ice from Dec. 7, 2005 to Mar. 15, 2006. As the view swings south over the Gulf of Mexico, the AMSR-E Sea Surface Temperature reveals warming ocean temperatures from March through August, 2006. As it passes over the Atlantic Ocean, the biosphere fades into view, showing both chlorophyll concentration in the ocean along with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index over the land areas. The biosphere animates over time while the view pans over northern Africa and Europe, showing data collected from September 2002 through February 2006. This program was also broadcast in Japan through a partnership with the NHK international broadcasting service and in France through a partnership with the ARTE television network. |
| Completed |
2006-11-29 |
|
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cov
…
| Title |
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cover, Sea Ice, Sea Surface Temperature and Biosphere |
| Abstract |
This animation is part of an NSF-funded, international project, Exploring Time. The two-hour television special, broadcast on the Discovery Channel in the spring of 2007, explores how the world changes over different timescales ... from billionths of seconds to billions of years. This animation portrays a variety of remotely sensed data elements at different temporal resolutions. Initially, the animation shows cloud cover in motion over North America in half-hour increments from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7, 2005. The temporal pace quickens to show a 5-day moving average of daily MODIS snow cover along with daily AMSR-E sea ice from Dec. 7, 2005 to Mar. 15, 2006. As the view swings south over the Gulf of Mexico, the AMSR-E Sea Surface Temperature reveals warming ocean temperatures from March through August, 2006. As it passes over the Atlantic Ocean, the biosphere fades into view, showing both chlorophyll concentration in the ocean along with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index over the land areas. The biosphere animates over time while the view pans over northern Africa and Europe, showing data collected from September 2002 through February 2006. This program was also broadcast in Japan through a partnership with the NHK international broadcasting service and in France through a partnership with the ARTE television network. |
| Completed |
2006-11-29 |
|
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cov
…
| Title |
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cover, Sea Ice, Sea Surface Temperature and Biosphere |
| Abstract |
This animation is part of an NSF-funded, international project, Exploring Time. The two-hour television special, broadcast on the Discovery Channel in the spring of 2007, explores how the world changes over different timescales ... from billionths of seconds to billions of years. This animation portrays a variety of remotely sensed data elements at different temporal resolutions. Initially, the animation shows cloud cover in motion over North America in half-hour increments from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7, 2005. The temporal pace quickens to show a 5-day moving average of daily MODIS snow cover along with daily AMSR-E sea ice from Dec. 7, 2005 to Mar. 15, 2006. As the view swings south over the Gulf of Mexico, the AMSR-E Sea Surface Temperature reveals warming ocean temperatures from March through August, 2006. As it passes over the Atlantic Ocean, the biosphere fades into view, showing both chlorophyll concentration in the ocean along with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index over the land areas. The biosphere animates over time while the view pans over northern Africa and Europe, showing data collected from September 2002 through February 2006. This program was also broadcast in Japan through a partnership with the NHK international broadcasting service and in France through a partnership with the ARTE television network. |
| Completed |
2006-11-29 |
|
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cov
…
| Title |
Sequence of Clouds, Snow Cover, Sea Ice, Sea Surface Temperature and Biosphere |
| Abstract |
This animation is part of an NSF-funded, international project, Exploring Time. The two-hour television special, broadcast on the Discovery Channel in the spring of 2007, explores how the world changes over different timescales ... from billionths of seconds to billions of years. This animation portrays a variety of remotely sensed data elements at different temporal resolutions. Initially, the animation shows cloud cover in motion over North America in half-hour increments from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7, 2005. The temporal pace quickens to show a 5-day moving average of daily MODIS snow cover along with daily AMSR-E sea ice from Dec. 7, 2005 to Mar. 15, 2006. As the view swings south over the Gulf of Mexico, the AMSR-E Sea Surface Temperature reveals warming ocean temperatures from March through August, 2006. As it passes over the Atlantic Ocean, the biosphere fades into view, showing both chlorophyll concentration in the ocean along with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index over the land areas. The biosphere animates over time while the view pans over northern Africa and Europe, showing data collected from September 2002 through February 2006. This program was also broadcast in Japan through a partnership with the NHK international broadcasting service and in France through a partnership with the ARTE television network. |
| Completed |
2006-11-29 |
|
Loop of AMSR-E Daily Arctic
…
| Title |
Loop of AMSR-E Daily Arctic Sea Ice from Aug 2005 to Aug 2006 |
| Abstract |
Sea ice is frozen seawater floating on the surface of the ocean. Some sea ice is permanent, persisting from year to year, and some is seasonal, melting and refreezing from season to season. Sea ice is almost always in motion, reacting to ocean currents and to winds. The AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite acquires high resolution measurements of the 89 GHz brightness temperature near the poles. Because this is a passive microwave sensor and independent of atmospheric effects, this sensor is able to observe the entire polar region every day, even through clouds and snowfalls. This animation of AMSR-E 89 GHz brightness temperature in the northern hemisphere during late 2005 and early 2006 clearly shows the dynamic motion of the ice as well as its seasonal expansion and contraction. This animation shows the seasonal advance and retreat of sea ice over the Arctic from 8/5/2005 through 8/4/2006. The false color of the sea ice, derived from the AMSR-E 6.25 km 89 GHz brightness temperature, highlights the fissures in the sea ice by showing warmer areas of ice in a deeper blue and colder areas of sea ice in a brighter white. The sea ice extent is defined by a three-day moving average of the AMSR-E 12.5 km sea ice concentration, showing as ice all areas having a sea ice concentration greater than 15%. |
| Completed |
2006-09-06 |
|
Loop of AMSR-E Daily Arctic
…
| Title |
Loop of AMSR-E Daily Arctic Sea Ice from Aug 2005 to Aug 2006 |
| Abstract |
Sea ice is frozen seawater floating on the surface of the ocean. Some sea ice is permanent, persisting from year to year, and some is seasonal, melting and refreezing from season to season. Sea ice is almost always in motion, reacting to ocean currents and to winds. The AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite acquires high resolution measurements of the 89 GHz brightness temperature near the poles. Because this is a passive microwave sensor and independent of atmospheric effects, this sensor is able to observe the entire polar region every day, even through clouds and snowfalls. This animation of AMSR-E 89 GHz brightness temperature in the northern hemisphere during late 2005 and early 2006 clearly shows the dynamic motion of the ice as well as its seasonal expansion and contraction. This animation shows the seasonal advance and retreat of sea ice over the Arctic from 8/5/2005 through 8/4/2006. The false color of the sea ice, derived from the AMSR-E 6.25 km 89 GHz brightness temperature, highlights the fissures in the sea ice by showing warmer areas of ice in a deeper blue and colder areas of sea ice in a brighter white. The sea ice extent is defined by a three-day moving average of the AMSR-E 12.5 km sea ice concentration, showing as ice all areas having a sea ice concentration greater than 15%. |
| Completed |
2006-09-06 |
|
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