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Nature likes spirals—from the whirlpool of a hurricane, to pinwheel-shaped protoplanetary disks around newborn stars, to the vast realms of spiral galaxies across our universe.
Now astronomers are bemused to find young stars that are spiraling into the center of a massive cluster of stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
Flight VA258: On Tuesday, September 7th, 2022 at 6:45 pm local time, an Ariane 5 launcher, operated by Arianespace, successfully lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana (South America), carrying the EUTELSAT KONNECT VHTS telecommunications satellite.
With an instantaneous throughput of 500 Gbps, EUTELSAT KONNECT VHTS will provide high-speed internet access throughout Europe, especially in isolated regions with poor coverage, delivering service on a par with fiber-optic networks in terms of performance and cost, thus making a significant contribution to bridging the digital divide.
EUTELSAT KONNECT VHTS will also address the broadband connectivity needs of fixed and mobile telecommunications networks on land, sea or in the air.
EUTELSAT KONNECT VHTS was built in France by Thales Alenia Space around the Spacebus NEO all-electric propulsion platform. It carries a payload using new technologies developed with the support of the French Government, via the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) and the “Investing in the Future” program (PIA), together with the European Space Agency (ESA). In particular, the payload includes the most powerful digital processor in the world, which combines agile capacity allocation, optimized spectrum use and support, and gradual deployment of network coverage on the ground.
The Ariane 5 heavy-lift launcher is an ESA program carried out in cooperation between public institutions and industry across 12 European partner states. The launches are operated by Arianespace.
ArianeGroup is the lead contractor for the development and production of Ariane 5, as well as being responsible for launcher preparation operations up to lift-off.
Three Ariane 5 launches remain, including the JUICE science mission to Jupiter, before Ariane 6 takes up the baton, supporting Europe’s institutional missions and meeting the growing needs of the commercial market.
This wide-field image shows the patch of sky around the star cluster NGC 3572 and its associated gas clouds. This view was created from photographs forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The spikes and blue circles around the stars in this picture are artifacts of the telescope and the photographic process.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Digitized Sky Survey 2
The Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile has captured one of the best images so far of star cluster NGC 3572, a gathering of young stars, and its spectacular surroundings. This video sequence takes a close look at how the clouds of gas and dust around the cluster have been sculpted into whimsical bubbles, arcs and the odd features known as elephant trunks by the stellar winds flowing from the bright stars. The brightest of these cluster stars are heavier than the Sun and will end their short lives as supernova explosions.
Distance: about 9,000 light-years
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/G. Beccari
This zoom sequence starts with a broad panorama of the southern sky and closes in on a region of star formation centered on the cluster NGC 3572. The final detailed view was obtained using the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile. It shows how the clouds of gas and dust around the cluster have been sculpted into whimsical bubbles, arcs and the odd features known as elephant trunks by the stellar winds flowing from the bright stars.
Distance: about 9,000 light-years
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/G. Beccari/Nick Risinger
The Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile has captured one of the best images of the star cluster NGC 3572, a gathering of young stars, and its spectacular surroundings. This image shows how the clouds of gas and dust around the cluster have been sculpted into whimsical bubbles, arcs and the odd features known as elephant trunks by the stellar winds flowing from the bright stars. The brightest of these cluster stars are heavier than the Sun and will end their short lives as supernova explosions.
Distance: about 9,000 light-years
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/G. Beccari
The image is a color composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2), and shows the region surrounding 2XMM J160050.7-514245, nicknamed “Apep”. The field of view is approximately 2.4 x 2.0 degrees.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Digitized Sky Survey 2
ESOcast 185 Light: The VISIR camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) captured this stunning image of a newly-discovered massive binary star system. Nicknamed Apep after an ancient Egyptian deity, it could be the first gamma-ray burst progenitor to be found in our galaxy.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Directed by: Nico Bartmann
Editing: Nico Bartmann
Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi Shida
Written by: Sara Rigby and Calum Turner
Footage and photos: European Southern Observatory, Digitized Sky Survey 2, F. Kamphues, N. Risinger, Callingham et al., NAOJ, L. Calçada, NASA, SDO, M. Kornmesser
This zoom video starts with a wide view of the Milky Way and ends with a close-up look at the serpentine swirls of dust surrounding a newly-discovered massive binary star system. Nicknamed Apep after an ancient Egyptian deity, it could be the first gamma-ray burst progenitor to be found in our galaxy.
Distance: about 8,000 light years
The reddish pinwheel shown in this final image of this video is data from the VISIR instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), and shows the spectacular plumes of dust surrounding Apep. The blue sources at the center of the image are a triple star system—which consists of a binary star system and a companion single star bound together by gravity. Though only two star-like objects are visible in the image, the lower source is in fact an unresolved binary Wolf-Rayet star. The triple star system was captured by the NACO adaptive optics instrument on the VLT.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/ Digitized Sky Survey 2/N. Risinger
The VISIR instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) captured this stunning image of a massive binary star system. Nicknamed Apep after an ancient Egyptian deity, it could be the first gamma-ray burst progenitor to be found in our galaxy.
Distance: about 8,000 light years
Apep’s stellar winds have created the dust cloud surrounding the system, which consists of a binary star with a fainter companion. With 2 Wolf-Rayet stars orbiting each other in the binary, the serpentine swirls surrounding Apep are formed by the collision of two sets of powerful stellar winds, which create the spectacular dust plumes seen in the image.
The reddish pinwheel in this image is data from the VISIR instrument on European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, and shows the spectacular plumes of dust surrounding Apep. The blue sources at the center of the image are a triple star system—which consists of a binary star system and a companion single star bound together by gravity. Though only two star-like objects are visible in the image, the lower source is in fact an unresolved binary Wolf-Rayet star. The triple star system was captured by the NACO adaptive optics instrument on the VLT.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Callingham et al.
Some of the heftiest stars in Westerlund 2 are carving deep cavities in material surrounding them by unleashing torrents of ultraviolet light and high speed streams of charged particles, known as stellar winds. These are etching away the enveloping hydrogen gas cloud in which the stars were born and are responsible for the weird and wonderful shapes of the clouds of gas and dust in this image.
Image 2
These pillars are composed of dense gas and dust are a few light-years tall and point to the central cluster. They are thought to be incubators for new stars. Besides sculpting the gaseous terrain, intense radiation from the most brilliant of the cluster stars is creating a successive generation of baby stars.
Image 3
These stellar foetuses have not yet ignited the hydrogen in their cores to light-up as stars. However, Hubble’s near-infrared vision allows astronomers to identify these fledglings. The brilliant blue stars seen throughout the image are mostly in the foreground.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team
Astronauts Pose for Dinnertime Portrait | International Space Station
(Clockwise from left) Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Kjell Lindgren, all from NASA, and Samantha Cristoforetti from the European Space Agency (ESA), pose for a portrait during dinnertime in the Unity module of the International Space Station.
Expedition 67 Crew
Commander Oleg Artemyev (Russia)
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.
This fulldome clip, for use by planetariums, explores the image of star cluster Westerlund 2, taken by the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope and released to celebrate its 25th year in orbit in 2015. The clip is rendered for uni-directional domes.
Credit: NASA & European Space Agency, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), L. Calcada (ESO and ESA/Hubble) and the Westerlund 2 Science Team
Flight through Star Cluster Westerlund 2 — Extended Version | Hubble
This video shows a flight through Hubble’s close-up view of star cluster Westerlund 2, released to celebrate the telescope's 25th year in orbit back in 2015.
Distance: about 20,000 light years
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, G. Bacon, L. Frattare, Z. Levay, and F. Summers (Viz3D Team, STScI), and J. Anderson (STScI)
Acknowledgment: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team, and ESO
Flight through Star Cluster Westerlund 2 — Fast Version | Hubble
This video shows a flight through Hubble’s close-up view of star cluster Westerlund 2, released to celebrate the telescope's 25th year in orbit back in 2015.
Distance: about 20,000 light years
Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Bacon, L. Frattare, Z. Levay, and F. Summers (Viz3D Team, STScI), and J. Anderson (STScI)
Acknowledgment: NASA, European Space Agency, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team, and European Southern Observatory
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