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Birth of a Star System: Disc around Young Star AB Aurigae | ESO
This image shows the disc around the young AB Aurigae star, where the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has spotted signs of planet birth. Close to the center of the image, in the inner region of the disc, we see the ‘twist’ (in very bright yellow) that scientists believe marks the spot where a planet is forming. This twist lies at about the same distance from the AB Aurigae star as Neptune from the Sun.
Distance: about 500 light years
The image was obtained with the VLT’s Spectro-Polarimetric High-Contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) instrument in polarized light.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Boccaletti et al.
The 'Ghost Head Nebula' is one of a chain of star-forming regions lying south of the 30 Doradus nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Two bright regions (the 'eyes of the ghost'), named A1 (left) and A2 (right), are very hot, glowing 'blobs' of hydrogen and oxygen. The bubble in A1 is produced by the hot, intense radiation and powerful stellar wind from a single massive star. A2 has a more complex appearance due to the presence of more dust, and it contains several hidden, massive stars. The massive stars in A1 and A2 must have formed within the last 10,000 years since their natal gas shrouds are not yet disrupted by the powerful radiation of the newly born stars.
Distance:170,000 light years
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, & Mohammad Heydari-Malayeri (Observatoire de Paris, France)
Looking Back at NASA’s Copernicus Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (1972-1981)
This vintage segment on NASA’s Copernicus mission comes from a 1973 edition of “The Science Report,” a long-running film series produced by the U.S. Information Agency.
The heaviest and most complex space telescope of its time, Copernicus launched into orbit on Aug. 21, 1972. Initially known as Orbiting Astronomical Observatory C, it was renamed to honor the 500th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), the Polish astronomer who formulated a model of the solar system with the Sun in the central position instead of Earth.
Fitted with the largest ultraviolet telescope ever orbited at the time as well as four co-aligned X-ray instruments, Copernicus was arguably NASA’s first dedicated multi-wavelength astronomy observatory.
The UV telescope produced a treasure trove of information about interstellar gas and the ionized outflows of hot stars. Copernicus measured the UV light of stars to sample the gases between them, finding evidence that most of it comes in the form of molecular hydrogen.
The X-ray experiment discovered several long-period pulsars, including X Persei. Pulsars—typically spinning neutron stars—swing a beam of radiation in our direction each time they rotate, usually at tens to thousands of times a second. Oddly, the X Persei pulsar takes a leisurely 14 minutes per spin. The mission performed long-term monitoring of other pulsars and bright sources.
Copernicus returned UV and X-ray observations for 8.5 years before its retirement in 1981—data that appear in more than 650 scientific papers. Its instruments studied some 450 unique objects targeted by more than 160 investigators in the United States and 13 other countries.
RCW 120, also known as Sharpless 2-3, is an emission nebula and star-forming region located in the constellation Scorpius, about 4,300 light-years away from Earth. The glowing nebula was captured here by the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab.
This HII region shines in the red color of ionized hydrogen gas. Immense heat generated from young, massive stars within energizes the gas, that then releases light in deep red and infrared wavelengths. The dark lanes in the nebula are less energized areas and thus do not appear to glow despite being made of the same material. Within the gas, bright stars are a common sight in emission nebulae, and are responsible for fusing together light elements to form many of the heavier elements in the cosmos, such as silicon and iron. RCW 120, however, houses an unusual embryonic star—one that is expected to become one of the brightest in our galaxy.
Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab)
Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
This visible-light wide-field image of the region around the Helix Nebula was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The nebula appears prominently at the center of the image and many faint galaxies are also visible on careful inspection.
Distance:700 light years
The field of view is approximatelly 2.9 x 2.9 degrees.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Digitized Sky Survey 2
The European Southern Observatory's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) has captured this unusual view of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a planetary nebula located 700 light-years away.
The colored picture was created from images taken through Y, J and K infrared filters. While bringing to light a rich background of stars and galaxies, the telescope's infrared vision also reveals strands of cold nebular gas that are mostly obscured in visible images of the Helix.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/VISTA/J. Emerson
Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit
This composite image is a view of the colorful Helix Nebula taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope and the Mosaic II Camera on the 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The object is so large that both telescopes were needed to capture a complete view.
The Helix is a planetary nebula, the glowing gaseous envelope expelled by a dying, sun-like star. The Helix resembles a simple doughnut as seen from Earth. However, looks can be deceiving. New evidence suggests that the Helix consists of two gaseous disks nearly perpendicular to each other.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University), and M. Meixner, P. McCullough, and G. Bacon ( Space Telescope Science Institute)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada | International Space Station
The city of Montreal, in the province of Quebec in Canada, as seen by European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard the International Space Station for her Minerva Mission.
"Hello Canada! Waving down to our Canadian friends today while marveling at this beautiful scenery & metropolitan areas around Toronto, Montreal & Vancouver."
Roscosmos Flight Engineers: Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov (Russia)
NASA Flight Engineers: Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins (USA)
European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer: Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy)
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.
Two overlapping spiral galaxies are pictured in this image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. The two galaxies, which have the uninspiring names SDSS J115331 and LEDA 2073461, lie more than a billion light-years from Earth. Despite appearing to collide in this image, the alignment of the two galaxies is likely just by chance—the two are not actually interacting. While these two galaxies might simply be ships that pass in the night, Hubble has captured a dazzling array of interacting galaxies in the past.
This image is one of many Hubble observations delving into highlights of the Galaxy Zoo project. Originally established in 2007, the Galaxy Zoo project and its successors are massive citizen science projects which crowdsource galaxy classifications from a pool of hundreds of thousands of volunteers. These volunteers classify galaxies imaged by robotic telescopes and are often the first to ever set eyes on an astronomical object.
Over the course of the original Galaxy Zoo project, volunteers discovered a menagerie of weird and wonderful galaxies such as unusual 3-armed spiral galaxies and colliding ring galaxies. The astronomers coordinating the project applied for Hubble time to observe the most unusual inhabitants of the Galaxy Zoo—but true to the project’s crowdsourced roots, the list of targets was chosen by a public vote.
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, W. Keel
It is not rockets and satellites that make NASA soar. It’s people. See the scientists and engineers who are studying Moon rocks, building tools, working aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and training astronauts in preparation for landing humans on the surface of the Moon through NASA’s Artemis missions.
A newly formed star lights up the surrounding cosmic clouds to create the blue reflection nebula IC 2631 at the center of this striking panorama of gas and dust clouds in the southern constellation of Chameleon. This picture was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Distance: about 500 light years
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Digitized Sky Survey 2
A newly formed star lights up the surrounding cosmic clouds in this close up look at an image from the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. Dust particles in the vast clouds that surround the star HD 97300 diffuse its light, like a car headlight in enveloping fog, and create the blue reflection nebula IC 2631. Although HD 97300 is in the spotlight for now, the very dust that makes it so hard to miss heralds the birth of additional, potentially scene-stealing, future stars.
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