Glowing Dust of The Phantom Galaxy | James Webb Space Telescope

Glowing Dust of The Phantom Galaxy | James Webb Space Telescope

Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628 and the Phantom Galaxy) is a large spiral galaxy in the equatorial constellation Pisces. It is about 32 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy contains two clearly defined spiral arms and is therefore used as an archetypal example of a grand design spiral galaxy. The galaxy's low surface brightness makes it the most difficult Messier object for amateur astronomers to observe. [Wikipedia]

Judy Schmidt: "Colorful glowing dust in NGC628/M74. Can confirm something dark and scary might be going on in this galaxy. 😆 Further awesomeness from Dr. Janice Lee and the PHANGS (Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS) Team's instantly public JWST program."

Technical details:

Squeezing some color out of the various filters showing all the glowing dust in the center of NGC628.

Red (screen layer mode): MIRI F2100W

Orange: MIRI F1130W

Cyan: MIRI F770W

Extra overall brightness in grayscale: MIRI F1000W

Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

Processing: Judy Schmidt, Dr. Janice Lee & The PHANGS Team

Release Date: July 18, 2022

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Galaxy #Spiral #Messier74 #NGC628 #Pisces #Constellation #Science #JamesWebb #WebbTelescope #JWST #Telescope #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #Europe #CSA #Canada #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #STEM #Education

A Symphony of Colors in the Tarantula Nebula | Hubble

 A Symphony of Colors in the Tarantula Nebula | Hubble

The Tarantula is situated 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) in the Southern sky and is clearly visible to the naked eye as a large milky patch. Astronomers believe that this smallish irregular galaxy is currently going through a violent period in its life. It is orbiting around the Milky Way and has had several close encounters with it. It is believed that the interaction with the Milky Way has caused an episode of energetic star formation—part of which is visible as the Tarantula Nebula.

Just above the center of the image there is a huge cluster of very hot stars called R136. The stars in R136 are also among the most massive stars we know. R136 is also a very young cluster, its oldest stars being "just" 5 million years old or so. Its smallest stars, however, are still forming, so astronomers observe R136 to try to understand the early stages of stellar evolution. Near the lower edge of the image we find the star cluster Hodge 301. Hodge 301 is almost 10 times older than R136. Some of the stars in Hodge 301 are so old that they have already exploded as supernovae. The shockwave from this explosion has compressed the gas in the Tarantula into the filaments and sheets that are seen around the cluster.

This mosaic of the Tarantula Nebula consists of images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and was created by 23-year-old amateur astronomer Danny LaCrue. The image was constructed by 15 individual exposures taken through three narrow-band filters allowing light from ionized oxygen (501 nm, shown as blue), hydrogen-alpha (656 nm, shown as green) and ionized sulphur (672 nm, shown as red). The exposure time for the individual WFPC2 images vary between 800 and 2800 seconds in each filter. The Hubble data have been superimposed onto images taken through matching narrow-band filters with the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory, Chile. Additional image processing was done by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Center.

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA, European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Danny LaCrue

Release Date: December 15, 2004

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #LMC #Galaxy #Stars #StarClusterR136 #Nebula #30Doradus #TarantulaNebula #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #WFPC2 #Observatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

Explore the Tarantula Nebula

Explore the Tarantula Nebula

The Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is a large H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), or Nubecula Major is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

Video Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

Science Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Lennon and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI), J. Anderson, S. E. de Mink, R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and N. Walborn (STScI), N. Bastian (Excellence Cluster, Munich), L. Bedin (INAF, Padua), E. Bressert (ESO), P. Crowther (University of Sheffield), A. de Koter (University of Amsterdam), C. Evans (UKATC/STFC, Edinburgh), A. Herrero (IAC, Tenerife), N. Langer (AifA, Bonn), I. Platais (JHU), and H. Sana (University of Amsterdam)

Duration: 2 minutes, 8 seconds

Release Date: December 31, 2014

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #LMC #Galaxy #Nebula #30Doradus #TarantulaNebula #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #Observatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Zoom into the Tarantula Nebula

Zoom into the Tarantula Nebula

The Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is a large H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), or Nubecula Major is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

Video Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI), European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Science Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Lennon and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI), J. Anderson, S. E. de Mink, R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and N. Walborn (STScI), N. Bastian (Excellence Cluster, Munich), L. Bedin (INAF, Padua), E. Bressert (ESO), P. Crowther (University of Sheffield), A. de Koter (University of Amsterdam), C. Evans (UKATC/STFC, Edinburgh), A. Herrero (IAC, Tenerife), N. Langer (AifA, Bonn), I. Platais (JHU), and H. Sana (University of Amsterdam)

Duration: 50 seconds

Release Date: Dec. 31, 2014

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #LMC #Galaxy #Nebula #30Doradus #TarantulaNebula #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #Observatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Tarantula Nebula (Infrared) | Hubble

The Tarantula Nebula (Infrared) | Hubble

This Hubble image shows a cosmic creepy-crawly known as the Tarantula Nebula in infrared light. This region is full of star clusters, glowing gas, and thick dark dust. Created using observations taken as part of the Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project (HTTP), this image was snapped using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project (HTTP) is scanning and imaging many of the many millions of stars within the Tarantula, mapping out the locations and properties of the nebula's stellar inhabitants. These observations will help astronomers to piece together an understanding of the nebula's skeleton, viewing its starry structure.

Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Sabbi (STScI)

Image Date: January 9, 2014

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Hubble #Nebula #TerantulaNebula #Dorado #Constellation #Science #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Ring-shaped Nebula of The Large Magellanic Cloud Region | ESO

Ring-shaped Nebula of The Large Magellanic Cloud Region | ESO

Turbulent region around the ring-shaped nebula DEM L 299 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way system. It was produced by combining three monochromatic images obtained in December 2001 with the Wide-Field-Imager (WFI) at the ESO/MPG 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory. The sky field measures 33.3 x 33.0 arcmin ; the original pixel size (in the FullRes version) is 0.238 arcsec. North is up and East is left. The colored rings seen near some of the brighter stars in the field result from light reflections in the telescope optics.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO) 

Release Date: December 10, 2004

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #LMC #Galaxy #Nebula #DEML299 #TarantulaNebula #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #LaSilla #Observatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

New View of Spiral Galaxy NGC 7496 | James Webb Space Telescope & Hubble

New View of Spiral Galaxy NGC 7496 | James Webb Space Telescope & Hubble

This beautiful new image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7496, which lies over 24 million light-years away in the constellation Grus. It combines optical (Hubble), radio (ALMA), and infrared (James Webb) telescope data. The Grus constellation, whose name is Latin for crane, is one of four constellations collectively known as the Southern Birds. The others are Pavo, Phoenix and Tucana, which depict a peacock, phoenix, and toucan respectively. The rest of the night sky is also home to a flock of ornithological constellations, including an eagle (Aquilla), swan (Cygnus), crow (Corvus), and dove (Columba). 

This image comes from a collection of observations delving into the relationship between young stars and the cold, dense clouds of gas in which they form. In addition to observations with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys, the astronomers behind this project gathered data using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), one of the largest radio telescopes in the world—including the James Webb Space Telescope.

As well as shedding light on the speed and efficiency of star formation in a variety of galactic environments, this project is also creating a treasury of data incorporating both Hubble and ALMA observations. This treasure trove of data from two of the world’s most capable observatories will contribute to wider research into star formation, as well as paving the way for future science with the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Judy Schmidt: "As I work through trying out different ways to combine the data [from the Hubble & Webb space telescopes], this method stood out as particularly pretty, even if it lacks immediate scientific clarity. The glowing strands and flocks of dust, which would normally be dark in visible light imagery, are instead bright and glowing with infrared light from JWST.

Data from the PHANGS-HST program were used to create this image:

https://bit.ly/3ofDJ2R

More on PHANGS here: phangs.stsci.edu

Technical Info:

Processing notes and filter combinations:

JWST Filter Combination:

Cyan: [mathematical operation] NIRCam F335M-(NIRCam F300M+NIRCam F360W)

Orange: MIRI F770W

Luminosity (grayscale): MIRI F770W

JWST data are overlaid on HST data with a Photoshop screen layer mode.

Credit: NASA/European Space Agency (ESA)/Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)/Canadian Space Agency (CSA)/J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team

Processing: Judy Schmidt

Release Date: July 18, 2022

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Hubble #Galaxy #NGC7496 #Spiral #Grus #Constellation #Science #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #JudySchmidt #CitizenScience #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

China Space Station Wentian Lab Module Moved to Launch Pad in Hainan

China Space Station Wentian Lab Module Moved to Launch Pad in Hainan

Another mission for the construction of China's Space Station has been unveiled. The Long March 5B carrier rocket with the Wentian lab module, one of two new space station modules being added this year, was moved to the launch pad at China's southern island province of Hainan on July 18, 2022.

Credit: China Global Television Network (CGTN)

Duration: 2 minutes, 27 seconds

Release Date: July 18, 2022

#NASA #Space #China #中国 #Wentian #CSS #ChinaSpaceStation #Taikonauts #Astronauts #ChenDong #LiuYang #CaiXuzhe #王亚平 #Tiangong #天宫 #CNSA #CMSA #国家航天局 #Science #Technology #Engineering #UNOOSA #HumanSpaceflight #STEM #Education #HD #Video

SpaceX CRS-25 Cargo Dragon Docking | International Space Station

SpaceX CRS-25 Cargo Dragon Docking | International Space Station

The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship (CRS-25) carrying over 5,800 pounds of new science experiments and crew supplies docked with the International Space Station on Saturday, July 16, 2022. The spacecraft is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbiting outpost before it returns to Earth with research and return cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida. 

NASA Flight Engineers Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines spent Monday, July 18, 2022, unloading some of the science experiments and crew supplies delivered. The duo transferred time-critical research samples into the orbital lab to begin exploring a variety of space phenomena to benefit humans on and off the Earth. Some of the new experiments include a human immune system study, a protein production investigation, and a cancer treatment experiment.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Image Date: July 16, 2022

#NASA #Space #ISS #SpaceX #Dragon #Spacecraft #CommercialResupply #CRS25 #Astronauts #LaunchAmerica #Research #Science #Technology #HumanSpaceflight #Europe #Russia #Japan #Canada #Expedition67 #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education

'Black Hole Police' Spot Extragalactic Black Hole | European Southern Observatory

'Black Hole Police' Spot Extragalactic Black Hole | European Southern Observatory

ESOcast 255 Light: The "black hole police", a team of astronomers known for debunking black hole discoveries, reported finding a "needle in a haystack". After searching nearly 1,000 stars outside our galaxy, they found that one of them has a stellar-mass black hole as a companion. This short video summarizes the discovery.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Duration: 1 minute, 40 seconds

Release Date: July 18, 2022

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #LMC #Galaxy #TarantulaNebula #BinarySystem #VFTS243 #BlackHoles #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #Telescope #Observatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Zooming in on Binary System VFTS 243: A Hot Blue Star & Black Hole | ESO

Zooming in on Binary System VFTS 243: A Hot Blue Star & Black Hole | ESO

In this video, we get to fly out from our home galaxy and into the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. The LMC is the home of one of the brightest known nebulae, the Tarantula Nebula, that was discovered in the mid-18th century. The Tarantula Nebula hosts the binary system VFTS 243, where this video eventually ends. The system might seem like a lone hot blue star, but the other component is in fact invisible to us: a black hole, weighing at least nine times the mass of our Sun, and about 200,000 times smaller than its stellar companion.

A team of international experts, renowned for debunking several black hole discoveries, have found a stellar-mass black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud. "For the first time, our team got together to report on a black hole discovery, instead of rejecting one," says study leader Tomer Shenar. Moreover, they found that the star that gave rise to the black hole vanished without any sign of a powerful explosion. The discovery was made thanks to six years of observations obtained with the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Very Large Telescope (VLT).

Stellar-mass black holes are formed when massive stars reach the end of their lives and collapse under their own gravity. In a binary, a system of two stars revolving around each other, this process leaves behind a black hole in orbit with a luminous companion star. The black hole is ‘dormant’ if it does not emit high levels of X-ray radiation, which is how such black holes are typically detected. 

Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)/R. Gendler, ESO/M.-R. Cioni/VISTA Magellanic Cloud survey. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit. Music: John Dyson

Duration: 50 seconds

Release Date: July 18, 2022

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #LMC #Galaxy #TarantulaNebula #BinarySystem #VFTS243 #BlackHoles #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #Telescope #Observatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Dusty Iris Nebula | Hubble

The Dusty Iris Nebula | 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 centre in the image, where dusty filaments appear redder than is expected.

Technical Info: Data from the following proposal were used to create this image.

"The Exciting Wavelength of Extended Red Emission"

Red: ACS/WFC F850LP

Green: ACS/WFC F625W

Blue: ACS/WFC F475W

North is 169.96° clockwise from up.

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)

Processing: Judy Schmidt

Release Date: June 14, 2020

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

Merging Galaxies Nicknamed "The Angel Wing" | Hubble

Merging Galaxies Nicknamed "The Angel Wing" | Hubble

A close-up look at two merging galaxies in the VV689 system—nicknamed "The Angel Wing" system—in this image from the NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope. In this view, the focus is placed on the system itself, allowing a closer look at its unique morphology.

Judy Schmidt: "It's easy to see how it became known as the Angel Wing system. With nearly complete bilateral symmetry, it's hard not to see some kind of animal like an angel or bird wings."

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Keel.

Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt

Release Date: April 18, 2022

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Hubble #Galaxies #Collision #Galactic #VV689 #AngelWing #Leo #Constellation #Science #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #GalaxyZoo #RadioGalaxyZoo #CitizenScience #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

China's First Space Telescope Under Development | CGTN

China's First Space Telescope Under Development | CGTN

China is developing the prototype of the country's first space telescope Xuntian, or Chinese Survey Space Telescope, also known as the Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST). It will maintain a similar orbit to China's Space Station (CSS) to allow docking and crew servicing. The 10-ton, bus-sized space telescope has an aperture of 2 meters (6.6 foot) and state-of-the-art detectors. It is expected to have a field of view 300–350 times larger than the 32-year old Hubble Space Telescope. This will allow the telescope to image up to 40 percent of the sky using its 2.5 gigapixel camera over ten years. The space telescope will be launched after the construction of China's Space Station is completed later in 2022.

Credit: China Global Television Network (CGTN)

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: July 18, 2022

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #China #中国 #Xuntian #CSST #巡天 #巡天号空间望远镜 #SurveyTelescope #Constellations #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Science #Astrophysics #Physics #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #Research #International #STEM #Education #HD #Video

SpaceX Starlink Mission: July 17, 2022 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

SpaceX Starlink Mission: July 17, 2022 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

On Sunday, July 17, 2022, at 10:20 a.m. ET, SpaceX launched 53 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This was the 13th flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Dragon’s first crew demonstration mission, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, SXM-7, and now 10 Starlink missions.

Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)

Image Date: July 17, 2022

#NASA #Space #Earth #Orbit #LEO #SpaceX #Falcon9 #Rocket #Satellites #Starlink #Broadband #Internet #ElonMusk #GwynneShotwell #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #CommercialSpace #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #SpaceForce #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Galactic Gravitational Lensing | Hubble

Galactic Gravitational Lensing | Hubble

This intriguing observation from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a gravitationally lensed galaxy with the long-winded identification SGAS J143845+145407. Gravitational lensing has resulted in a mirror image of the galaxy at the center of this image, creating a captivating centerpiece.

Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive celestial body—such as a galaxy cluster—causes a sufficient curvature of spacetime for the path of light around it to be visibly bent, as if by a lens. Appropriately, the body causing the light to curve is called a gravitational lens, and the distorted background object is referred to as being "lensed". Gravitational lensing can result in multiple images of the original galaxy, as seen in this image, or in the background object appearing as a distorted arc or even a ring. Another important consequence of this lensing distortion is magnification, allowing astronomers to observe objects that would otherwise be too far away or too faint to be seen.

Hubble has a special flair for detecting lensed galaxies. The telescope's sensitivity and crystal-clear vision allow it to see faint and distant gravitational lenses that cannot be detected with ground-based telescopes because of the blurring effect of Earth's atmosphere. Hubble was the first telescope to resolve details within lensed images of galaxies, and is capable of imaging both their shape and internal structure.

This particular lensed galaxy is from a set of Hubble observations that take advantage of gravitational lensing to peer inside galaxies in the early Universe. The lensing reveals details of distant galaxies that would otherwise be unobtainable, and this allows astronomers to determine star formation in early galaxies. This in turn gives scientists a better insight into how the overall evolution of galaxies has unfolded.  

Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA, J. Rigby

Release Date: July 18, 2022

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Hubble #GravitationalLensing #Galaxy #SGASJ143845145407 #Bootes #Constellation #Science #Astrophysics #Physics #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #ESA #Europe #STEM #Education