Monday, October 31, 2022

The Jack-o-Lantern Nebula | NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

The Jack-o-Lantern Nebula (infrared) | NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

This carved-out cloud of gas and dust has been nicknamed the "Jack-o'-lantern Nebula" because it looks like a cosmic hollowed-out pumpkin. Powerful outflows of radiation and particles from a massive star known as an O-type star and about 15 to 20 times heavier than the Sun has likely swept the surrounding dust and gas outward, creating deep gouges in the cloud. The image shows infrared light (which is invisible to the human eye) captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

This image is a high-contrast version in which the red wavelength is more pronounced. Together, the red and green wavelengths create an orange hue. The picture highlights contours in the dust as well as the densest regions of the nebula, which appear brightest.

The data used to create this image was collected during Spitzer's "cold mission," which ran between 2004 and 2009.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.


Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Release Date: October 30th, 2019


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Halloween #ChandraObservatory #Nebula #JackoLanternNebula #OrionNebula #Messier42 #M42 #NGC1976 #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #Spitzer #Infrared #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Taongi Atoll in The Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean | International Space Station

Taongi Atoll in The Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean | International Space Station

Taongi Atoll, in the independent country of the Marshall Islands, is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 258 miles above the Pacific Ocean.

Read more about Taongi Atoll, also known as Bokak Atoll: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokak_Atoll

Office of Commerce, Investment & Tourism 

Republic of the Marshall Islands

https://www.ocit.mh

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the  International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Learn more about the important research being operated on the station:

https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science 

For more information about STEM on Station: https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

STEM is an acronym for the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.


Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Image Date: September 29, 2022


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #ISS #Earth #Planet #PacificOcean #Micronesia #MarshallIslands #RMI #CoralAtoll #Island #BokakAtoll #TaongiAtoll #Astronauts #Expedition68 #JSC #UnitedStates #HumanSpaceflight #Art #Photography #STEM #Education

Earth-Based Telescopes Spot NASA's Lucy Spacecraft | Goddard Space Flight Center

Earth-Based Telescopes Spot NASA's Lucy Spacecraft | Goddard Space Flight Center

As clouds covered most of Colorado the morning of Oct. 16, 2022, team members from NASA's Lucy Mission drove to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, in order to catch a glimpse of the spacecraft during its first Earth gravity assist. While Lucy was in Earth's shadow and therefore not visible at the moment of closest approach, the team managed to capture the spacecraft just moments after it reappeared at 6:26 a.m. CDT (5:26 a.m. EDT). 

The images were taken with an 11-inch (28 cm) telescope with an approximately 1-degree field of view. The telescope was moved multiple times to track Lucy through the sky. Each frame is marked with the observation time and the distance from the observer to the spacecraft.

Learn more about the Lucy mission: https://www.nasa.gov/lucy


Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Buie/Kretke

Duration: 1 minute, 48 seconds

Release Date: October 31, 2022


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Earth #LucyMission #Spacecraft #Planet #Jupiter #Asteroids #Trojans #Earth #Orbit #GravityAssists #SolarSystem #Exploration #Technology #Engineering #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Largest Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Detected in Eight Years | NOIRLab

Largest Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Detected in Eight Years | NOIRLab

Cosmoview Episode 56: Twilight observations with the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab, have enabled astronomers to spot three near-Earth asteroids (NEA) hiding in the glare of the Sun. These NEAs are part of an elusive population that lurks inside the orbits of Earth and Venus. One of the asteroids is the largest object that is potentially hazardous to Earth to be discovered in the last eight years.


Credit:

Images and Videos: DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine, D. Munizaga, T. Puzia (PUC), NASA, European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser, N. Bartmann

Duration: 1 minute, 17 seconds

Release Date: Oct. 31, 2022


#NASA #Gemini #Astronomy #Space #Science #Earth #Venus #Sun #NEA #Asteroids #TwilightSurvey #SolarSystem #CerroTololoInterAmericanObservatory #Chile #Telescope #Optical #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #UnitedStates #Art #Illustration #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Largest Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Detected in Eight Years | NOIRLab

Largest Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Detected in Eight Years | NOIRLab


Twilight observations from Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory spot three large near-Earth objects lurking in the inner Solar System

Twilight observations with the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab, have enabled astronomers to spot three near-Earth asteroids (NEA) hiding in the glare of the Sun. These NEAs are part of an elusive population that lurks inside the orbits of Earth and Venus. One of the asteroids is the largest object that is potentially hazardous to Earth to be discovered in the last eight years.

An international team using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, has discovered three new near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) hiding in the inner Solar System, the region interior to the orbits of Earth and Venus. This is a notoriously challenging region for observations because asteroid hunters have to contend with the glare of the Sun. 

By taking advantage of the brief yet favorable observing conditions during twilight, however, the astronomers found an elusive trio of NEAs. One is a 1.5-kilometer-wide asteroid called 2022 AP7, which has an orbit that may someday place it in Earth’s path. The other asteroids, called 2021 LJ4 and 2021 PH27, have orbits that safely remain completely interior to Earth’s orbit. Also of special interest to astronomers and astrophysicists, 2021 PH27 is the closest known asteroid to the Sun. As such, it has the largest general-relativity effects [1] of any object in our Solar System and during its orbit its surface gets hot enough to melt lead.

“Our twilight survey is scouring the area within the orbits of Earth and Venus for asteroids,” said Scott S. Sheppard, an astronomer at the Earth and Planets Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science and the lead author of the paper describing this work. “So far we have found two large near-Earth asteroids that are about 1 kilometer across, a size that we call planet killers.”

“There are likely only a few NEAs with similar sizes left to find, and these large undiscovered asteroids likely have orbits that keep them interior to the orbits of Earth and Venus most of the time,” said Sheppard. “Only about 25 asteroids with orbits completely within Earth’s orbit have been discovered to date because of the difficulty of observing near the glare of the Sun.”

Finding asteroids in the inner Solar System is a daunting observational challenge. Astronomers have only two brief 10-minute windows each night to survey this area and have to contend with a bright background sky resulting from the Sun’s glare. Additionally, such observations are very near to the horizon, meaning that astronomers have to observe through a thick layer of Earth’s atmosphere, which can blur and distort their observations. [2]

Discovering these three new asteroids despite these challenges was possible thanks to the unique observing capabilities of DECam. The state-of-the-art instrument is one of the highest-performance, wide-field CCD imagers in the world, giving astronomers the ability to capture large areas of sky with great sensitivity. Astronomers refer to observations as ‘deep’ if they capture faint objects. When hunting for asteroids inside Earth’s orbit, the capability to capture both deep and wide-field observations is indispensable. DECam was funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and was built and tested at DOE’s Fermilab.

“Large areas of sky are required because the inner asteroids are rare, and deep images are needed because asteroids are faint and you are fighting the bright twilight sky near the Sun as well as the distorting effect of Earth’s atmosphere,” said Sheppard. “DECam can cover large areas of sky to depths not achievable on smaller telescopes, allowing us to go deeper, cover more sky, and probe the inner Solar System in ways never done before.”

As well as detecting asteroids that could potentially pose a threat to Earth, this research is an important step toward understanding the distribution of small bodies in our Solar System. Asteroids that are further from the Sun than Earth are easiest to detect. Because of that these more-distant asteroids tend to dominate current theoretical models of the asteroid population. [3]

Detecting these objects also allows astronomers to understand how asteroids are transported throughout the inner Solar System and how gravitational interactions and the heat of the Sun can contribute to their fragmentation.

“Our DECam survey is one of the largest and most sensitive searches ever performed for objects within Earth’s orbit and near to Venus’s orbit,” said Sheppard. “This is a unique chance to understand what types of objects are lurking in the inner Solar System.”

“After ten years of remarkable service, DECam continues to yield important scientific discoveries while at the same time contributing to planetary defense, a crucial service that benefits all humanity,” said Chris Davis, NSF Program Director for NOIRLab.

DECam was originally built to carry out the Dark Energy Survey, which was conducted by the DOE and the US National Science Foundation between 2013 and 2019. 

Notes:

[1] Einstein’s general theory of relativity explains how massive objects warp the fabric of spacetime and how this influences the motion of objects in the Universe. In our Solar System, this influence can be directly measured as, for example, the precession of the orbit of planet Mercury, which cannot be accurately explained using only Newtonian physics. 

[2] Observing toward the inner Solar System is challenging for ground-based telescopes and impossible for space-based optical/infrared telescopes like NASA’s Hubble and JWST telescopes. The intense light and heat of the Sun would fry the sensitive electronics. For this reason, both Hubble and JSWT are always pointed away from the Sun. 

[3] Atria asteroids—also known by the Hawaiian term Apohele asteroids—are the smallest group of near-Earth asteroids. Their orbits have an aphelion (farthest point from the Sun) smaller than Earth's perihelion (nearest point to the Sun).

More information

Sheppard, S. Tholen, D., Pokorný, P., Micheli, M., and Dell’Antoniio, I., et al. (2022). “A deep and wide twilight survey for asteroids interior to Earth and Venus.” Published in The Astronomical Journal, 164, 168. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ac8cff 


Credit: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/National Science Foundation (NSF)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)/J. da Silva/Spaceengine

Release Date: October 31, 2022


#NASA #Gemini #Astronomy #Space #Science #Earth #Venus #Sun #NEO #Asteroids #TwilightSurvey #SolarSystem #CerroTololoInterAmericanObservatory #Chile #Telescope #Optical #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #UnitedStates #Art #Illustration #STEM #Education

Flying Through the Remains of a Dead Star: The Vela Supernova Remnant | ESO

Flying Through the Remains of a Dead Star: The Vela Supernova Remnant | ESO

In this video, we get to fly around in the highly detailed image of the beautiful and dramatic Vela supernova remnant, captured with OmegaCAM at the VST telescope, hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The image consists of 554 million pixels, revealing myriad stars and thin gaseous filaments, the latter created by shock-waves from the explosion of a massive star 11,000 years ago. 


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/VPHAS+ team

Acknowledgement: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

Duration: 56 seconds

Release Date: October 31, 2022


#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #SupernovaRemnant #Vela #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #VST #OmegaCAM #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Vela Supernova Remnant | ESO's VLT Survey Telescope

The Vela Supernova Remnant | ESO's VLT Survey Telescope

This image shows stringy clouds of hot pink and golden orange, nested together all over the frame, almost like the messy fragments of a spider’s web. Close to these colorful clouds, we find bright blue massive stars. In between the clouds there are gaps, revealing stars in blue and yellow, almost like sparklers.

This image shows a spectacular view of the orange and pink clouds that make up what remains after the explosive death of a massive star—the Vela supernova remnant. This detailed image consists of 554 million pixels, and is a combined mosaic image of observations taken with the 268-million-pixel OmegaCAM camera at the VLT Survey Telescope, hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory. 

OmegaCAM can take images through several filters that each let the telescope see the light emitted in a distinct color. To capture this image, four filters have been used, represented here by a combination of magenta, blue, green and red. The result is an extremely detailed and stunning view of both the gaseous filaments in the remnant and the foreground bright blue stars that add sparkle to the image.


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/VPHAS+ team

Acknowledgement: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

Release Date: October 31, 2022


#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #SupernovaRemnant #Vela #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #VST #OmegaCAM #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

Long March Rocket Launches Mengtian Lab Module | China Space Station

Long March Rocket Launches Mengtian Lab Module | China Space Station

A Long March-5B rocket carrying China's second lab module for its space station blasted off from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province on Monday, October 31, 2022. The Mengtian lab module successfully separated from the rocket. Mengtian, the last major part of China's space station, will join the Tianhe core module and the Wentian lab module, forming a T-shaped complex.


Credit: China Global Television Network (CGTN)

Release Date: October 31, 2022


#NASA #Space #Earth #China #中国 #Mengtian #LongMarch5B #Rocket #Launch #神舟十四号 #Taikonauts #ChenDong #LiuYang #刘洋 #CaiXuzhe #王亚平 #Tiangong #天宫 #Laboratory #Research #ChinaSpaceStation #CNSA #CMSA #国家航天局 #Science #Technology #Engineering #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Space Oddities: The Galactic Triplet Arp 248 | Hubble

Space Oddities: The Galactic Triplet Arp 248 | Hubble

This image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope shows two of the galaxies in the galactic triplet Arp 248—also known as Wild's Triplet—which lies around 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The two large spiral galaxies visible in this image—which flank a smaller, unrelated background spiral galaxy—seem to be connected by a luminous bridge. This elongated stream of stars and interstellar dust is known as a tidal tail, and it was formed by the mutual gravitational attraction of the two foreground galaxies.

Image description: Two spiral galaxies are viewed almost face-on; they are a mix of pale blue and yellow in color, crossed by strands of dark red dust. They lie in the upper-left and lower-right corners. A long, faint streak of pale blue joins them, extending from an arm of one galaxy and crossing the field diagonally. A small spiral galaxy, orange in color, is visible edge-on, left of the lower galaxy.

This observation comes from a project which delves into two rogues’ galleries of weird and wonderful galaxies: A Catalogue Of Southern Peculiar Galaxies And Associations, compiled by astronomers Halton Arp and Barry Madore, and the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, compiled by Halton Arp. Each collection contains a menagerie of spectacularly peculiar galaxies, including interacting galaxies such as Arp 248, as well as one- or three-armed spiral galaxies, galaxies with shell-like structures, and a variety of other space oddities.

Hubble used its Advanced Camera for Surveys to scour this menagerie of eccentric galaxies in search of promising candidates for future observations with the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and Hubble itself. With such a wealth of astronomical objects to study in the night sky, projects such as this, which guide future observations, are a valuable investment of observing time. As well as the scientific merits of observing these weird and wonderful galaxies, they were also—very unusually—selected as Hubble targets because of their visual appeal to the general public!


Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton

Release Date: October 31, 2022


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Hubble #Galaxy #Galaxies #Arp248 #WildsTriplet #Virgo #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Sunday, October 30, 2022

Reflection Nebula NGC 7023: Wide-field View (ground-based image)

Reflection Nebula NGC 7023: Wide-field View (ground-based image)

A wide-field image of the region around NGC 7023 constructed from Digitized Sky Survey 2 data. The field of view is approximately 2.8 degrees x 2.9 degrees.

Distance: 1,400 light years


Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and Digitized Sky Survey 2

Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (European Space Agency/Hubble)

Release Date: December 1, 2009


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Hubble #IrisNebula #ReflectionNebula #NGC7023 #Caldwell4 #Dust #Star #HD200775 #Cepheus #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Zoom on Dusty Reflection Nebula: NGC 7023 | Hubble

Zoom on Dusty Reflection Nebula: NGC 7023 | Hubble

Zooming in on NGC 7023, or the Iris Nebula, a reflection nebula located in the constellation of Cepheus, the King. With bright light from the nearby HD 200775 illuminating it from above, the dust in the nebula resembles thick mounds of billowing cotton. It is actually made up of tiny particles of solid matter. Both background and foreground stars are dotted throughout the image.

Researchers studying the object are particularly interested in the region to the left and slightly above center in the image, where dusty filaments appear redder than is expected.

Distance: 1,400 light years


Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO), S. Brunier, Digitized Sky Survey 2, Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona (Board of Regents) and European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble

Duration: 56 seconds

Release Date: February 17, 2016


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Hubble #Nebula #IrisNebula #ReflectionNebula #NGC7023 #Caldwell4 #Dust #Star #HD200775 #Cepheus #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

A Blushing Dusty Nebula: NGC 7023 | Hubble

A Blushing Dusty Nebula: NGC 7023 | Hubble

This close-up of an area in the northwest region of the large Iris Nebula seems to be clogged with cosmic dust. With bright light from the nearby star HD 200775 illuminating it from above, the dust resembles thick mounds of billowing cotton. It is actually made up of tiny particles of solid matter, with sizes from ten to a hundred times smaller than those of the dust grains we find at home. Both background and foreground stars are dotted throughout the image. Researchers studying the object are particularly interested in the region to the left and slightly above center in the image, where dusty filaments appear redder than is expected.

Distance: 1,400 light years

North is down, East is right. The field of view is 3.3 arcminutes. The image is a composite of four images obtained through blue, green, near-infrared and H-alpha filters.


Credit: NASA & European Space Agency (ESA)

Release Date: December 1, 2009


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Hubble #Nebula #IrisNebula #ReflectionNebula #NGC7023 #Caldwell4 #Dust #Star #HD200775 #Cepheus #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Zoom in on Elliptical Galaxy ESO 306-17 | Hubble

Zoom in on Elliptical Galaxy ESO 306-17 | Hubble

When zooming in closely on ESO 306-17, one can see faint clusters of stars through the bright shine of the galaxy's large halo. These are globular clusters—tightly bound groups of stars that can often fend off cannibalism from larger, "bully" galaxies. Studying these surrounding clusters will prove helpful to astronomers in their pursuit to put the pieces of ESO 306-17's history together.

Distance: 500 million light years


Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble

Duration: 56 seconds

Release Date: February 17, 2016


#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Stars #GlobularClusters #Galaxy #ESO30617 #Elliptical #Columba #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #STScI #GSFC #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Large & Bright Elliptical Galaxy ESO 306-17 in Columba | Hubble

Large & Bright Elliptical Galaxy ESO 306-17 in Columba | Hubble


This image from the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope highlights the large and bright elliptical galaxy called ESO 306-17 in the southern sky.

Distance: 500 million light years

In this image, it appears that ESO 306-17 is surrounded by other galaxies but the bright galaxies at bottom left are thought to be in the foreground, not at the same distance in the sky. In reality, ESO 306-17 lies fairly abandoned in an enormous sea of dark matter and hot gas.

Researchers are also using this image to search for nearby ultra-compact dwarf galaxies. Ultra-compact dwarfs are mini versions of dwarf galaxies that have been left with only their core due to interaction with larger, more powerful galaxies. Most ultra-compact dwarfs discovered to date are located near giant elliptical galaxies in large clusters of galaxies, so it will be interesting to see if researchers find similar objects in fossil groups.


Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and Michael West (European Southern Observatory)

Release Date: March 4, 2010


#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Galaxy #ESO30617 #Elliptical #Columba #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #STScI #GSFC #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Views of Earth from China Space Station | CMSA

Views of Earth from China Space Station | CMSA

The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) shared video clips of Earth from the China Space Station on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022. Enjoy!

Learn more: http://en.cmse.gov.cn


Credit: China Global Television Network (CGTN)

Duration: 4 minutes

Release Date: October 30, 2022


#NASA #Space #Earth #China #中国 #Shenzhou14 #神舟十四号 #Taikonauts #Astronauts #ChenDong #LiuYang #刘洋 #CaiXuzhe #王亚平 #Tiangong #天宫 #ChinaSpaceStation #CNSA #CMSA #国家航天局 #Science #Technology #Engineering #STEM #Education #International #UNOOSA #UnitedNations #HD #Video

Saturday, October 29, 2022

The Coma Galaxy Cluster: Wide-field View (ground-based image)

The Coma Galaxy Cluster: Wide-field View (ground-based image)

NGC 4921 is the small circular galaxy below and a little to the right of the center of the image. This is a wide-field image of the region around the Coma Galaxy Cluster (Abell 1656) constructed from the images in the Digitized Sky Survey. The field-of-view is approximately 2.7 x 2.85 degrees.

Distance: 300 million light years


Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and the Digitized Sky Survey 2

Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Release Date: February 5, 2009


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Galaxy #NGC4921 #Abell1656 #ComaGalaxyCluster #ComaBerenices #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #STScI #GSFC #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education