A Galactic Gem | ESO

Distance: 65 million light years from Earth
The European Southern Observatory's FORS2 instrument captures stunning details of spiral galaxy NGC 3981
FORS2, an instrument mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, has observed the spiral galaxy NGC 3981 in all its glory. The image was captured as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems Program, which makes use of the rare occasions when observing conditions are not suitable for gathering scientific data. Instead of sitting idle, the ESO Cosmic Gems Program allows ESO’s telescopes to be used to capture visually stunning images of the southern skies.

This wonderful image shows the resplendent spiral galaxy NGC 3981 suspended in the inky blackness of space. This galaxy, which lies in the constellation of Crater (the Cup), was imaged in May 2018 using the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT).

FORS2 is mounted on Unit Telescope 1 (Antu) of the VLT at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Amongst the host of cutting-edge instruments mounted on the four Unit Telescopes of the VLT, FORS2 stands apart due to its extreme versatility. This ”Swiss Army knife” of an instrument is able to study a variety of astronomical objects in many different ways—as well as being capable of producing beautiful images like this one.

The sensitive gaze of FORS2 revealed NGC 3981’s spiral arms, strewn with vast streams of dust and star-forming regions, and a prominent disc of hot young stars. The galaxy is inclined towards Earth, allowing astronomers to peer right into the heart of this galaxy and observe its bright centre, a highly energetic region containing a supermassive black hole. Also shown is NGC 3981’s outlying spiral structure, some of which appears to have been stretched outwards from the galaxy, presumably due to the gravitational influence of a past galactic encounter.

NGC 3981 certainly has many galactic neighbors. Lying approximately 65 million light years from Earth, the galaxy is part of the NGC 4038 group, which also contains the well-known interacting Antennae Galaxies. This group is part of the larger Crater Cloud, which is itself a smaller component of the Virgo Supercluster, the titanic collection of galaxies that hosts our own Milky Way galaxy.

NGC 3981 is not the only interesting feature captured in this image. As well as several foreground stars from our own galaxy, the Milky Way, FORS2 also captured a rogue asteroid streaking across the sky, visible as the faint line towards the top of the image. This particular asteroid has unwittingly illustrated the process used to create astronomical images, with the three different exposures making up this image displayed in the blue, green and red sections of the asteroid’s path.

This image was taken as part of ESO’s Cosmic Gems program, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach. The program makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations. In case the data collected could be useful for future scientific purposes, these observations are saved and made available to astronomers through ESO’s science archive.

More information
ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It has 15 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a strategic partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-meter Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Release Date: September 12, 2018

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Pulsar Wind from a Neutron Star: Artist's Impression

This is an illustration of a pulsar wind nebula produced by the interaction of the outflow particles from the neutron star with gaseous material in the interstellar medium that the neutron star is plowing through. Such an infrared-only pulsar wind nebula is unusual because it implies a rather low energy of the particles accelerated by the pulsar’s intense magnetic field. This hypothesized model would explain the unusual infrared signature of the neutron star as detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

Credits: NASA, ESA, and N. Tr’Ehnl (Pennsylvania State University)
Release Date: September 17, 2018

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Never Before Seen Features Around a Neutron Star | Hubble

Image: Artist's Impression/illustration
Sept. 17, 2018: An unusual infrared light emission from a nearby neutron star detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, could indicate new features never before seen. One possibility is that there is a dusty disk surrounding the neutron star; another is that there is an energetic wind coming off the object and slamming into gas in interstellar space the neutron star is plowing through.

Although neutron stars are generally studied in radio and high-energy emissions, such as X-rays, this study demonstrates that new and interesting information about neutron stars can also be gained by studying them in infrared light, say researchers.

The observation, by a team of researchers at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania; Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey; and the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona could help astronomers better understand the evolution of neutron stars—the incredibly dense remnants after a massive star explodes as a supernova. Neutron stars are also called pulsars because their very fast rotation (typically fractions of a second, in this case 11 seconds) causes time-variable emission from light-emitting regions.

A paper describing the research and two possible explanations for the unusual finding appears Sept. 17, 2018 in the Astrophysical Journal.

“This particular neutron star belongs to a group of seven nearby X-ray pulsars— nicknamed ‘the Magnificent Seven’—that are hotter than they ought to be considering their ages and available energy reservoir provided by the loss of rotation energy,” said Bettina Posselt, associate research professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Pennsylvania State and the lead author of the paper. “We observed an extended area of infrared emissions around this neutron star—named RX J0806.4-4123—the total size of which translates into about 200 astronomical units (approximately 18 billion miles) at the assumed distance of the pulsar.”

This is the first neutron star in which an extended signal has been seen only in infrared light. The researchers suggest two possibilities that could explain the extended infrared signal seen by the Hubble. The first is that there is a disk of material—possibly mostly dust—surrounding the pulsar.

“One theory is that there could be what is known as a ‘fallback disk’ of material that coalesced around the neutron star after the supernova,” said Posselt. “Such a disk would be composed of matter from the progenitor massive star. Its subsequent interaction with the neutron star could have heated the pulsar and slowed its rotation. If confirmed as a supernova fallback disk, this result could change our general understanding of neutron star evolution.”

The second possible explanation for the extended infrared emission from this neutron star is a “pulsar wind nebula.”

“A pulsar wind nebula would require that the neutron star exhibits a pulsar wind,” said Posselt. “A pulsar wind can be produced when particles are accelerated in the electrical field that is produced by the fast rotation of a neutron star with a strong magnetic field. As the neutron star travels through the interstellar medium at greater than the speed of sound, a shock can form where the interstellar medium and the pulsar wind interact. The shocked particles would then emit synchrotron radiation, causing the extended infrared signal that we see. Typically, pulsar wind nebulae are seen in X-rays and an infrared-only pulsar wind nebula would be very unusual and exciting.”

Using NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers will be able to further explore this newly opened discovery space in the infrared to better understand neutron star evolution.

In addition to Posselt, the research team included George Pavlov and Kevin Luhman at Pennsylvania State; Ünal Ertan and Sirin Çaliskan at Sabanci University; and Christina Williams at the University of Arizona. The research was supported by NASA, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, the U.S. National Science Foundation, Pennsylvania State, the Penn State Eberly College of Science, and the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium.

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.

Credits: NASA, ESA, and B. Posselt (Pennsylania State University)
Release Date: September 17, 2018
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Super Typhoon Mangkhut Slams China and the Philippines

Around the same time Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina, another dangerous tropical cyclone was wreaking havoc on the other side of the globe. On September 15, 2018, Super Typhoon Mangkhut tore through the northern Philippines, battering the country's most populous island of Luzon with destructive Category 5-level winds, 40-foot waves, and torrential rain.

Known locally as "Ompong" in the Philippines, Mangkhut is the strongest storm seen on Earth so far in 2018. On September 12, Mangkhut was packing one-minute sustained of 180 mph (285 km/h), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported. Winds were only slightly lower, around 165 mph, as the storm made landfall in Cagayan Province, making Mangkhut the strongest storm to hit the Philippines since Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the island nation in 2013.

News outlets said Mangkhut killed at least 60 people in the Philippines and four people in China after it slammed into southern China as a weaker, but still powerful storm. On September 16, Mangkhut lashed Hong Kong with 121 mph winds, the strongest typhoon to hit the city in nearly 40 years.

This visible satellite image from Japan's Himawari-8 geostationary satellite, shows Mangkhut on September 14 before the eye of the storm barreled through the northern Philippines.

Credit: JAXA/JMA/Seán Doran
Image Date: September 14, 2018
Release Date: September 17, 2018
#NASA #Earth #Space #Satellite #Planet #Atmosphere #Weather #Meteorology #SuperTyphoon #Typhoon #Mangkhut #Ompong #Luzon #Philippines #HongKong #香港 #Hainan #海南省 #中国 #Pacific #Ocean #SouthChinaSea #Himawari8 #Japan #日本 #JAXA #JMA #STEM #Education

Galactic knots and bursts | Hubble

In the northern constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice's Hair) lies the impressive Coma Cluster—a structure of over a thousand galaxies bound together by gravity. Many of these galaxies are elliptical types, as is the brighter of the two galaxies dominating this image: NGC 4860 (center). However, the outskirts of the cluster also host younger spiral galaxies that proudly display their swirling arms. Again, this image shows a wonderful example of such a galaxy in the shape of the beautiful NGC 4858, which can be seen to the left of its bright neighbor and which stands out on account of its unusual, tangled, fiery appearance.

NGC 4858 is special. Rather than being a simple spiral, it is something called a “galaxy aggregate”, which is, just as the name suggests, a central galaxy surrounded by a handful of luminous knots of material that seem to stem from it, extending and tearing away and adding to or altering its overall structure. It is also experiencing an extremely high rate of star formation, possibly triggered by an earlier interaction with another galaxy. As we see it, NGC 4858 is forming stars so frantically that it will use up all of its gas long before it reaches the end of its life. The color of its bright knots indicates that they are formed of hydrogen, which glows in various shades of bright red as it is energized by the many young, hot stars lurking within.

This scene was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), a powerful camera designed to explore the evolution of stars and galaxies in the early Universe.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date: September 17, 2018

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An explosive phoenix | ESO

This European Southern Observatory image shows a dwarf galaxy in the southern constellation of Phoenix named, for obvious reasons, the Phoenix Dwarf.

The Phoenix Dwarf is unique in that it cannot be classified according to the usual scheme for dwarf galaxies; while its shape would label it as a spheroidal dwarf galaxy—which do not contain enough gas to form new stars—studies have shown the galaxy to have an associated cloud of gas nearby, hinting at recent star formation, and a population of young stars.

The gas cloud does not lie within the galaxy itself, but is still gravitationally bound to it—meaning that it will eventually fall back into the galaxy over time. Since the cloud is close by, it’s likely that the process that flung it outwards it is still ongoing. After studying the shape of the gas cloud, astronomers suspect the most likely cause of the ejection to be supernova explosions within the galaxy.

The data to create this image was selected from the ESO archive as part of the Hidden Treasure competition.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Release Date: September 17, 2018

+European Southern Observatory (ESO)

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Hurricane Florence: Landfall | International Space Station

U.S. Astronaut Ricky Arnold: "Hurricane Florence makes landfall this morning."

Credit: NASA Astronaut Ricky Arnold/JSC
Release Date: September 14, 2018
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Landfall of Hurricane Florence | International Space Station

Sept. 14, 2018: Cameras outside the International Space Station captured views of Hurricane Florence on Sept. 14 at 7:41 a.m. EDT minutes after the storm made landfall.

NASA satellites track the storm: https://go.nasa.gov/2CEmDGQ

Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina packing winds of 90 miles an hour. The National Hurricane Center said Florence is moving very slowly to the west at only 6 miles an hour, then is expected to turn to the southwest, increasing the threat for historic storm surge and catastrophic flooding to coastline areas and inland cities in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Credit: NASA/JSC
Duration: 4 minutes, 49 seconds
Capture Date: September 14, 2018

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Hurricane Florence Makes Landfall | NOAA

Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina at 7:15 a.m. ET on September 14, 2018, as a Category 1 storm. The GOES East satellite captured this geocolor image of the massive storm at 7:45 a.m. ET, shortly after it moved ashore.

The National Hurricane Center reported Florence had sustained winds of 90 mph at landfall and was moving slowly westward at 6 mph. The storm is expected to slowly begin weakening later today and this evening, but will continue to have significant impacts across the Carolinas.

Life-threatening storm surges and hurricane-force winds are expected to continue even as Florence moves inland, while very heavy rainfall, upwards of 20 inches in some locations, will cause catastrophic flooding across portions of North and South Carolina into the weekend.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce that focuses on the conditions of the oceans, major waterways, and the atmosphere.

This geocolor enhanced imagery was created by NOAA's partners at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA).

Credit: NOAA
Image Date: September 14, 2018

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NASA's Space to Ground: Above the Storm

Week of Sept. 14, 2018: NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. Japan is poised to launch its HTV-7 resupply ship, nicknamed the Kounotori, loaded with over five tons of cargo to the International Space Station on Friday, U.S. time. Back on Earth, a new crew is preparing for its launch from Kazakhstan next month to the orbital lab.

JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) H-IIB rocket is set to blast off from the Tanegashima Space Center Friday at 4:59 p.m. EDT and send the Kounotori cargo craft on a four-day ride to the station. Commander Drew Feustel and will be in the Cupola Tuesday, with Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor as his backup, to command the Canadarm2 robotic arm to capture the Kounotori at 7:30 a.m. The duo trained Thursday morning on a computer and practiced rendezvous procedures and robotics maneuvers.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Duration: 2 minutes, 34 seconds
Release Date: September 14, 2018

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SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch: Telstar 18 Vantage Mission

The Falcon 9 Rocket’s 60th Successful Mission

Liftoff at 14-minute mark
SpaceX launched its second heavyweight Telstar telecommunications satellite from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida early Monday morning, Sept 10, 2018. It then brought the Falcon 9 rocket’s first-stage booster down for a landing on SpaceX's East Coast drone ship, named "Of Course I Still Love You", located hundreds of miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.

The SpaceX mission successfully placed the 15,600-pound Telstar 18 Vantage satellite into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) for Canadian-based Telesat. Telstar 18V will provide constant broadband communications services to China, Mongolia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Ocean region.

Credit: SpaceX
Location: Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States
Duration: 49 minutes
Capture Date: September 10, 2018

#SpaceX #Space #Satellite #Launch #Falcon9 #Block5 #Rocket #Telstar18 #Vantage #Telesat #Canada #SSL #MaxarTechnologies #Commercial #Communications #Droneship #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #AirForce #Florida #UnitedStates #Photography #STEM #Education #HD #Video

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch: Telstar 18 Vantage Mission

The Falcon 9 Rocket’s 60th Successful Mission

SpaceX launched its second heavyweight Telstar telecommunications satellite from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida early Monday morning, Sept 10, 2018. It then brought the Falcon 9 rocket’s first-stage booster down for a landing on SpaceX's East Coast drone ship, named "Of Course I Still Love You", located hundreds of miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.

The SpaceX mission successfully placed the 15,600-pound Telstar 18 Vantage satellite into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) for Canadian-based Telesat. Telstar 18V will provide constant broadband communications services to China, Mongolia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Ocean region.

Credit: SpaceX
Location: Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States
Image Date: September 10, 2018

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"The Sun, Our Living Star" Planetarium Show | ESO

The Sun, Our Living Star tells the story of our nearest star—our planet’s powerhouse, the source of energy that drives Earth’s winds and weather, and the ball of light that allows the very existence of life. 

The Sun, Our Living Star premiered at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Supernova planetarium from September 7, 2018 and is also available for free download from the ESO website.

This video is a Full HD conversion from the original 4K Planetarium format. Download the free show in 4K resolution here:
https://www.eso.org/public/videos/The-Sun-show/
English, German and Japanese narrations are available and more languages are planned.

The Sun, Our Living Star reveals the impact our star has on every aspect of our lives here on Earth. Explore the Sun’s role in allowing and maintaining life, from photosynthesis to humanity. Discover how the Sun dictates our days, seasons and years. Delve into the history of the Sun’s impact on human religion and culture. Learn about the Sun’s dynamic nature—what appears as a flat disk in the sky is in fact a violent and evolving celestial body, burning 600 million tons of hydrogen every second. The Sun, Our Living Star allows viewers to experience the Sun in a new way, with never-before-seen images of its turbulent surface in immersive fulldome format, revealing its power and variability in breathtaking detail.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Matsopoulos Astronomy
Duration: 24 minutes, 43 seconds
Release Date: September 7, 2018

Film Director: Theofanis Matsopoulos
Music & Sound Effects: Konstantino Polizois
3D Animation and Graphics: Theofanis Matsopoulos, Luis Calçada & Martin Kornmesser
Producer: Theofanis Matsopoulos & the European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Executive Producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen
Script and Scientific Advice: Lars Lindberg Christensen, Ryan Wyatt, Nicolas Matsopoulos, Adam Hadhazy, Rebecca Davies, Carl Mundy & Paola Amico
Narration: Sara Mendes Da Costa
Audio mastering: George Deligiannis

#ESO #Astronomy #Sun #Star #Ultraviolet #Earth #SolarSystem #Astrophysics #Planetarium #Munich #München #Bavaria #Bayern #Germany #Deutschland #Europe #Poster #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Poster for "The Sun, Our Living Star" | ESO

Poster for the European Southern Observatory planetarium show "The Sun, Our Living Star" showing the detailed structure of the Sun's surface.

Learn more about the show here:
https://supernova.eso.org/programme/detail/es1005/

The ESO Supernova planetarium is located 2 km north-east of Garching and about 15 km north-east of Munich, Germany in the “Forschungszentrum” area.

Credit: ESO/M. Druckmüller
Release Date: September 6, 2018
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The Sun: Our Living Star | ESO

Image from the European Southern Observatory planetarium show "The Sun, Our Living Star" showing the detailed structure of the Sun's surface.

Learn more about the show here:
https://supernova.eso.org/programme/detail/es1005/

The ESO Supernova planetarium is located 2 km north-east of Garching and about 15 km north-east of Munich, Germany in the “Forschungszentrum” area.

Credit: ESO/M. Druckmüller
Release Date: September 6, 2018

#ESO #Astronomy #Sun #Star #Ultraviolet #Earth #SolarSystem #Astrophysics #Planetarium #Munich #München #Bavaria #Bayern #Germany #Deutschland #Europe #STEM #Education

California Dreaming | International Space Station

ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst: "California dreaming. One of my favourite orbits is down along the West Coast of USA, from Alaska to the Andes. We fly this route once a day."

"California dreaming. Einer meiner Lieblingsorbits geht von Alaska entlang der Westküste der USA bis über die Anden. Wir fliegen diese Route jeden Tag einmal."

Follow Alexander and the Horizons mission:
http://bit.ly/AlexanderGerstESA and on http://bit.ly/HorizonsBlogESA

Credit: ESA/NASA-A.Gerst
Image Date: June 21, 2018

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #Planet #California #Orbit #UnitedStates #CSA #Canadarm2 #Robotics #Astronaut #AlexanderGerst #Horizons #Europe #Germany #Deutschland #Expedition56 #Human #Spaceflight #Spacecraft #Photography #STEM #Education