Dwarf Galaxy UGCA 281 | Hubble

UGCA 281 is a blue compact dwarf galaxy located in the constellation of Canes Venatici. Within it, two giant star clusters appear brilliant white and are swaddled by greenish hydrogen gas clouds. These clusters are responsible for most of the recent star formation in UGCA 281; the rest of the galaxy is comprised of older stars and appears redder in color. The reddish objects in the background are background galaxies that appear through the diffuse dwarf galaxy.

The image is a composite using both ultraviolet light and visible light, gathered with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the LEGUS team
Release Date: May 17, 2018

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Dwarf Galaxy DDO 68: Star formation | Hubble

The dwarf galaxy DDO 68, also known as UGC 5340, lies about 40 million light-years away from Earth. Due to its proximity it became one of the 50 targets of LEGUS.

In UGC 5340, a pocket of rapid star birth appears in the lower right corner. This region of star formation was probably triggered by a gravitational interaction with an unseen companion galaxy. But star formation is present across the entire body of UGC 5340, and the relatively young stars are responsible for the galaxy’s blue-white color.

An image of this galaxy was already released back in 2014. This newly-processed image now also shows ultraviolet radiation Hubble captured from the galaxy.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the LEGUS team
Release Date: May 17, 2018
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Spiral Galaxy Messier 106 | Hubble

Messier 106, also known as NGC 4258, is a relatively nearby spiral galaxy, a little over 20 million light-years away. This makes it one of the nearest spiral galaxies.
Despite carrying his name, Messier 106 was neither discovered nor cataloged by the renowned 18th-century astronomer Charles Messier. Discovered by his assistant, Pierre Méchain, the galaxy was never added to the Messier catalog in his lifetime. Along with six other objects discovered but not logged by the pair, Messier 106 was posthumously added to the catalog in the 20th century.

An image of this galaxy was already released back in 2013. This newly-processed image now also shows ultraviolet radiation Hubble captured from the galaxy.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the LEGUS team
Release Date: May 17, 2018

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Galaxy Messier 66—member of the Leo Triplet | Hubble

The spiral galaxy Messier 66 is located at a distance of about 35 million light-years in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). Together with Messier 65 and NGC 3628, Messier 66 is a member of the Leo Triplet, a trio of interacting spiral galaxies.

Like all the galaxies in LEGUS, Messier 66 is undergoing vigorous star and star-cluster formation. One of the goals of LEGUS is to sample star-forming regions across each galaxy. Because the galaxies are relatively close to Earth, Hubble can resolve individual stars.

An image of this galaxy was already released back in 2010. This newly-processed image now also shows ultraviolet radiation Hubble captured from the galaxy.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the LEGUS team
Release Date: May 17, 2018
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Wave of star formation in Galaxy Messier 96 | Hubble

Messier 96, also known as NGC 3368, is a spiral galaxy about 35 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). It is of about the same mass and size as the Milky Way. It was first discovered by astronomer Pierre Méchain in 1781, and added to Charles Messier’s famous catalog of astronomical objects just four days later.

A wave of star formation is occurring along the dark filaments that make up the spiral arms. The fledgling stars illuminate the surrounding hydrogen gas, making the stars appear pink. Star birth begins at the inner spiral arms and moves outward. The milky white regions in the center of these galaxies represent the glow of countless stars.

An image of this galaxy was already released back in 2015. This newly-processed image now also shows ultraviolet radiation Hubble captured from the galaxy.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the LEGUS team
Release Date: May 17, 2018

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The glowing spiral arms of Galaxy NGC 6744 | Hubble

This image shows the galaxy NGC 6744, about 30 million light-years away. It is one of 50 galaxies observed as part of the Hubble Space Telescope’s Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS), the sharpest, most comprehensive ultraviolet-light survey of star-forming galaxies in the nearby Universe, offering an extensive resource for understanding the complexities of star formation and galaxy evolution.

The image is a composite using both ultraviolet light and visible light, gathered with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the LEGUS team
Release Date: May 17, 2018

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Hubble shows the local Universe in ultraviolet

Astronomers Release Most Complete Ultraviolet-Light Survey of Nearby Galaxies | NASA/ESA
May 17, 2018: Capitalizing on the unparalleled sharpness and spectral range of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers is releasing the most comprehensive, high-resolution ultraviolet-light survey of nearby star-forming galaxies.

Image Description:
These six images represent the variety of star-forming regions in nearby galaxies. The galaxies are part of the Hubble Space Telescope's Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS), the sharpest, most comprehensive ultraviolet-light survey of star-forming galaxies in the nearby universe. The LEGUS survey combines new Hubble observations with archival Hubble images for 50 nearby star-forming spiral and dwarf galaxies, offering a large and extensive resource for understanding the complexities of star formation and galaxy evolution. Astronomers are releasing the star catalogs for each of the LEGUS galaxies and cluster catalogs for 30 of the galaxies, as well as images of the galaxies themselves. The catalogs provide detailed information on young, massive stars and star clusters, and how their environment affects their development.

The six images consist of two dwarf galaxies (UGC 5340 and UGCA 281) and four large spiral galaxies (NGC 3368, NGC 3627, NGC 6744, and NGC 4258). The images are a blend of ultraviolet light and visible light from Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys.

All of the galaxies are undergoing vigorous star and star-cluster formation. One of the goals of LEGUS is to sample star-forming regions across each galaxy. Because the galaxies are relatively close to Earth, Hubble can resolve individual stars.

The most intense and most recent star birth in the dwarf galaxies is concentrated away from the center. In UGC 5340, a pocket of rapid star birth appears in the lower right corner, and may have been triggered by a gravitational interaction with an unseen companion galaxy. Star formation is present across the entire body of UGC 5340, and the relatively young stars are responsible for the galaxy's blue-white color.

In UGCA 281, two giant star clusters appear brilliant white and are swaddled by greenish hydrogen gas clouds. These clusters are responsible for most of the recent star formation in UGCA 281; the rest of the galaxy is comprised of older stars and appears redder in color than UGC 5340. The reddish objects in the images of the dwarf galaxies are background galaxies that appear through these diffuse objects.

In the spiral galaxies, a wave of star formation is occurring along the dark filaments that make up the spiral arms. The fledgling stars illuminate the surrounding hydrogen gas, making the stars appear pink. Star birth begins at the inner spiral arms and moves outward. The milky white regions in the center of these galaxies represent the glow of countless numbers of stars.

The star clusters in these galaxies range in age from 1 million to roughly 500 million years old. These stellar groupings are as much as 10 times more massive than the largest clusters seen in our Milky Way galaxy.

The galaxies' stars that can be detected in the images range from the size of our Sun to more than 100 times our Sun's mass. They are between 1 million and several billion years old.

The six galaxies are between 19 million and 42 million light-years from Earth.

They were observed between January 2014 and July 201

The Full Story
The researchers combined new Hubble observations with archival Hubble images for 50 star-forming spiral and dwarf galaxies in the local universe, offering a large and extensive resource for understanding the complexities of star formation and galaxy evolution. The project, called the Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS), has amassed star catalogs for each of the LEGUS galaxies and cluster catalogs for 30 of the galaxies, as well as images of the galaxies themselves. The data provide detailed information on young, massive stars and star clusters, and how their environment affects their development.

"There has never before been a star cluster and a stellar catalog that included observations in ultraviolet light," explained survey leader Daniela Calzetti of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "Ultraviolet light is a major tracer of the youngest and hottest star populations, which astronomers need to derive the ages of stars and get a complete stellar history. The synergy of the two catalogs combined offers an unprecedented potential for understanding star formation."

How stars form is still a vexing question in astronomy. "Much of the light we get from the universe comes from stars, and yet we still don't understand many aspects of how stars form," said team member Elena Sabbi of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. "This is even key to our existence—we know life wouldn't be here if we didn’t have a star around."

The research team carefully selected the LEGUS targets from among 500 galaxies, compiled in ground-based surveys, located between 11 million and 58 million light-years from Earth. Team members chose the galaxies based on their mass, star-formation rate, and abundances of elements that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. The catalog of ultraviolet objects collected by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft also helped lay the path for the Hubble study.

The team used Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys over a one-year period to snap visible- and ultraviolet-light images of the galaxies and their most massive young stars and star clusters. The researchers also added archival visible-light images to provide a complete picture.

The star cluster catalogs contain about 8,000 young clusters whose ages range from 1 million to roughly 500 million years old. These stellar groupings are as much as 10 times more massive than the largest clusters seen in our Milky Way galaxy.

The star catalogs comprise about 39 million stars that are at least five times more massive than our Sun. Stars in the visible-light images are between 1 million and several billion years old; the youngest stars, those between 1 million and 100 million years old, shine prominently in ultraviolet light.

The Hubble data provide all of the information to analyze these galaxies, the researchers explained. "We also are offering computer models to help astronomers interpret the data in the star and cluster catalogs," Sabbi said. "Researchers, for example, can investigate how star formation occurred in one specific galaxy or a set of galaxies. They can correlate the properties of the galaxies with their star formation. They can derive the star-formation history of the galaxies. The ultraviolet-light images may also help astronomers identify the progenitor stars of supernovas found in the data."

One of the key questions the survey may help astronomers answer is the connection between star formation and the major structures, such as spiral arms, that make up a galaxy.

"When we look at a spiral galaxy, we usually don't just see a random distribution of stars," Calzetti said. “It's a very orderly structure, whether it's spiral arms or rings, and that's particularly true with the youngest stellar populations. On the other hand, there are multiple competing theories to connect the individual stars in individual star clusters to these ordered structures.

"By seeing galaxies in very fine detail—the star clusters—while also showing the connection to the larger structures, we are trying to identify the physical parameters underlying this ordering of stellar populations within galaxies. Getting the final link between gas and star formation is key for understanding galaxy evolution."

Team member Linda Smith of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Space Telescope Science Institute, added: "We're looking at the effects of the environment, particularly with star clusters, and how their survival is linked to the environment around them."

The LEGUS survey will also help astronomers interpret views of galaxies in the distant universe, where the ultraviolet glow from young stars is stretched to infrared wavelengths due to the expansion of space. "The data in the star and cluster catalogs of these nearby galaxies will help pave the way for what we see with NASA's upcoming infrared observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, developed in partnership with ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)," Sabbi said.

Webb observations would be complementary to the LEGUS views. The space observatory will penetrate dusty stellar cocoons to reveal the infrared glow of infant stars, which cannot be seen in visible- and ultraviolet-light images. "Webb will be able to see how star formation propagates over a galaxy," Sabbi continued. "If you have information on the gas properties, you can really connect the points and see where, when, and how star formation happens."

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.

Credit:
NASA, ESA, and D. Calzetti (University of Massachusetts) and the LEGUS team
Release Date: May 17, 2018

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Coastal South America | International Space Station

The Rio de la Plata and the Atlantic coasts of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil are pictured from the International Space Station.

Rio de la Plata is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay and the Paraná rivers. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean, forming a funnel-shaped indentation on the southeastern coastline of South America. Depending on the geographer, the Río de la Plata may be considered a river, an estuary, a gulf or a marginal sea. For those who consider it a river—as is the case mostly in Argentina—it is the widest river in the world, with a maximum width of about 220 kilometers (140 mi). (Source: Wikipedia)

Credit: NASA/JSC
Release Date: May 12, 2018

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Astronauts Spacewalk Ready | International Space Station

Watch Today's Spacewalk on NASA TV: http://nasa.gov/nasatv

NASA astronauts Ricky Arnold (top) and Drew Feustel (bottom) are pictured inside U.S. spacesuits for a fit check verification ahead of a pair of spacewalks.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: May 7, 2018

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Spacewalk Prep | International Space Station

Watch Today's Spacewalk on NASA TV: http://nasa.gov/nasatv
NASA astronauts Ricky Arnold (left) and Drew Feustel are pictured inside their U.S. spacesuits for a fit check verification ahead of a pair of spacewalks. Norishige Kanai (center), from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, assisted the duo in and out of the spacesuits during the sizing process.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Image Date: May 7, 2018

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Amazon River | International Space Station

Drew: "The mighty Amazon River shares its history with us from high above on the International Space Station where the former tracks in the landscape are revealed."

The Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge of water in the world, and the second in length. The river enters the Atlantic Ocean in north-eastern Brazil in a broad estuary about 240 kilometers (150 mi) wide. The mouth of the main stem is 80 kilometers (50 mi). The width of the Amazon is between 1.6 and 10 kilometers (1.0 and 6.2 mi) at low stage, but expands during the wet season to 48 kilometers (30 mi) or more. Because of its vast dimensions, it is sometimes called "The River Sea". (Source: Wikipedia)

Credit: U.S. Astronaut A.J. (Drew) Feustel
Release Date: May 15, 2018

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Chesapeake Bay Area | International Space Station

Springtime in the Chesapeake Bay region of the eastern United States.

The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary in the District of Columbia and the U.S. states of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, lying inland from the Atlantic Ocean and surrounded to the west by the North American mainland and to the east by the Delmarva Peninsula. With its northern portion in Maryland and the southern part in Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay is a very important feature for the ecology and economy of those two states, as well as others. More than 150 major rivers and streams flow into the bay's 64,299-square-mile (166,534 km2) drainage basin, which covers parts of six states (New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia) and all of Washington, D.C.

The word Chesepiooc is an Algonquian word referring to a village "at a big river". It is the seventh oldest surviving English place-name in the U.S., first applied as "Chesepiook" by explorers heading north from the Roanoke Colony into a Chesapeake tributary in 1585 or 1586.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Image Credit: U.S. Astronaut Ricky Arnold
‏Release Date: May 14, 2018

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Earth & Moon | NASA's Mars Cube One

A Pale Blue Dot via CubeSat | NASA JPL
First image captured by one of NASA's Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats
The image, which shows both the CubeSat's unfolded high-gain antenna at right and the Earth and its moon in the center, was acquired by MarCO-B on May 9. Distance: Over 1 million kilometers from Earth
May 15, 2018: NASA's Voyager 1 took a classic portrait of Earth from several billion miles away in 1990. Now a class of tiny, boxy spacecraft, known as CubeSats, have just taken their own version of a "pale blue dot" image, capturing Earth and its moon in one shot.

NASA set a new distance record for CubeSats on May 8 when a pair of CubeSats called Mars Cube One (MarCO) reached 621,371 miles (1 million kilometers) from Earth. One of the CubeSats, called MarCO-B (and affectionately known as "Wall-E" to the MarCO team) used a fisheye camera to snap its first photo on May 9. That photo is part of the process used by the engineering team to confirm the spacecraft's high-gain antenna has properly unfolded.

As a bonus, it captured Earth and its moon as tiny specks floating in space.

"Consider it our homage to Voyager," said Andy Klesh, MarCO's chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL built the CubeSats and leads the MarCO mission. "CubeSats have never gone this far into space before, so it's a big milestone. Both our CubeSats are healthy and functioning properly. We're looking forward to seeing them travel even farther."

The MarCO spacecraft are the first CubeSats ever launched to deep space. Most never go beyond Earth orbit; they generally stay below 497 miles (800 kilometers) above the planet. Though they were originally developed to teach university students about satellites, CubeSats are now a major commercial technology, providing data on everything from shipping routes to environmental changes.

The MarCO CubeSats were launched on May 5 along with NASA's InSight lander, a spacecraft that will touch down on Mars and study the planet's deep interior for the first time. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, will attempt to land on Mars on Nov. 26. JPL also leads the InSight mission.

Mars landings are notoriously challenging due to the Red Planet's thin atmosphere. The MarCO CubeSats will follow along behind InSight during its cruise to Mars. Should they make it all the way to Mars, they will radio back data about InSight while it enters the atmosphere and descends to the planet's surface. The high-gain antennas are key to that effort; the MarCO team have early confirmation that the antennas have successfully deployed, but will continue to test them in the weeks ahead.

InSight won't rely on the MarCO mission for data relay. That job will fall to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. But the MarCOs could be a pathfinder so that future missions can "bring their own relay" to Mars. They could also demonstrate a number of experimental technologies, including their antennas, radios and propulsion systems, which will allow CubeSats to collect science in the future.

Later this month, the MarCOs will attempt the first trajectory correction maneuvers ever performed by CubeSats. This maneuver lets them steer towards Mars, blazing a trail for CubeSats to come.

For more information about MarCO, visit:
www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/marco.php
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/insight/appendix/mars-cube-one/

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Release Date: May 15, 2018

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A Sunny Day | NASA SDO

May 15, 2018: Each and every day NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observes our Sun and relays observational data to scientists on Earth in an effort to understand the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth. SDO is helping researchers understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously.

SDO's goal is to understand, driving towards a predictive capability, the solar variations that influence life on Earth and humanity's technological systems by determining how the Sun's magnetic field is generated and structured, and also how this stored magnetic energy is converted and released into the heliosphere and geospace in the form of solar wind, energetic particles, and variations in the solar irradiance.

This image of the Sun was taken on May 15, 2018, by SDO.

Image Credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory
Image Date: May 15, 2018
Release Date: May 15, 2018

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ExoMars: Ready for Science | European Space Agency

May 15, 2018: The European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter mission arrived at Mars in October 2016. After a year spent carefully adjusting its position, the spacecraft is now beginning its science operations. The Trace Gas Orbiter’s instruments will be able to look through the atmosphere to identify trace gases—in particular methane—which could indicate signs of past or even present life. The orbiter will also act as a relay for rovers on the Martian surface.

Learn more: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Duration: 3 minutes, 32 seconds
Release Date: May 15, 2018

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Andros, Bahamas | International Space Station

Andros is the largest archipelago in the Bahamas (100 miles long and 40 miles wide) and one of the least explored. Andros in total has an area greater than all the other 700 Bahamian islands combined. The land area of Andros consists of hundreds of small islets and cays connected by mangrove estuaries and tidal swamplands, together with three major islands: North Andros, Mangrove Cay, and South Andros. (Source: WIkipedia)

The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country consisting of more than 700 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean; north of Cuba and Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti); northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands; southeast of the U.S. state of Florida and east of the Florida Keys. Its capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence. (Source: Wikipedia)

Image Credit: U.S. Astronaut Scott Tingle
‏Release Date: May 15, 2018

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