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In this huge image of part of the southern constellation of Norma (The Carpenter’s Square) wisps of crimson gas are illuminated by rare, massive stars that have only recently ignited and are still buried deep in thick dust clouds. These scorching-hot, very young stars are only fleeting characters on the cosmic stage and their origins remain mysterious. The vast nebula where these giants were born, known as RCW 106, is captured here in fine detail by the European Southern Observatory’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST), at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The brightest part appears just above the center of the image.
Many other interesting objects are also captured in this wide-field image. For example the filaments to the right of the image are the remnants of an ancient supernova (SNR G332.4-00.4, also known as RCW 103), and the glowing red filaments at the lower left surround an unusual and very hot star (RCW 104, surrounding the Wolf–Rayet star WR 75). Patches of dark obscuring dust are also visible across the entire cosmic landscape.
NASA's Quesst Mission: Fall 2022 Update | Armstrong Flight Research Center
The X-59 research aircraft is the centerpiece of NASA's Quesst mission. It is designed to fly supersonic without creating a loud sonic boom to people on the ground. In this edition of Inside the Quesst (Fall 2022) see the latest manufacturing updates, learn about recent wind tunnel testing in Japan and access a new supersonic STEM toolkit!
Globular Star Cluster Messier 54: Wide-field View | ESO
This visible-light wide-field image of the region around the globular star cluster Messier 54 was created from photographs forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The globular star cluster Messier 54 cluster appears at the center.
Distance:90,000 light years
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Digitized Sky Survey 2
This image from the VLT Survey Telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in northern Chile shows the globular cluster Messier 54. This cluster looks very similar to many others, but it has a secret. Messier 54 does not belong to the Milky Way, but actually is part of a small satellite galaxy, the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. This unusual parentage has allowed astronomers to use the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to test whether unexpectedly low levels of the element lithium in stars are also found in stars outside the Milky Way.
Globular Star Cluster Messier 54: Close-up View | ESO
This video gives a close-up view of an image from the VLT Survey Telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in northern Chile showing the globular cluster Messier 54. This cluster looks very similar to many others, but it has a secret. Messier 54 does not belong to the Milky Way, but actually is part of a small satellite galaxy, the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. This unusual parentage has allowed astronomers to use the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to test whether unexpectedly low levels of the element lithium are also found in stars outside the Milky Way.
NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Explores the Jezero Crater Delta | JPL
NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover has arrived at an ancient delta in Jezero Crater, one of the best places on the Red Planet to search for potential signs of ancient life. The delta is an area where scientists surmise that a river once flowed billions of years ago into a lake and deposited sediments in a fan shape.
Rachel Kronyak, a member of the Perseverance science operations team, guides the viewer through this Martian panorama and its intriguing sedimentary rocks. It is the most detailed view ever returned from the Martian surface, consisting of 2.5 billion pixels and generated from 1,118 individual Mastcam-Z images. Those images were acquired on June 12, 13, 16, 17, and 20, 2022 (the 466th, 467th, 470th, 471st, and 474th Martian day, or sol, of Perseverance’s mission).
In this panorama, an area called Hogwallow Flats is visible, as is Skinner Ridge, where two rock core samples were taken.
The color enhancement in this image improves the visual contrast and accentuates color differences. This makes it easier for the science team to use their everyday experience to interpret the landscape.
Zooming in on Globular Star Cluster Messier 54 | Hubble
This video takes you on a journey past the center of the Milky Way and far out the other side to the globular cluster Messier 54. This cluster looks very similar to many others, but it has a secret. Messier 54 does not belong to the Milky Way, but actually is part of a small satellite galaxy, the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. The final close-up view comes from the VLT Survey Telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in northern Chile.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
The First Globular Cluster Found outside The Milky Way | Hubble
The object shown in this beautiful Hubble image, dubbed Messier 54, could be just another globular cluster, but this dense and faint group of stars was in fact the first globular cluster found that is outside our galaxy. Discovered by the famous astronomer Charles Messier in 1778, Messier 54 belongs to a satellite of the Milky Way called the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy.
Messier had no idea of the significance of his discovery at the time, and it was not until over two centuries later, in 1994, that astronomers found Messier 54 to be part of the miniature galaxy and not our own. Current estimates indicate that the Sagittarius Dwarf, and hence the cluster, is situated almost 90,000 light-years away—more than three times as far from the center of our galaxy than the Solar System.
Ironically, even though this globular cluster is now understood to lie outside the Milky Way, it will actually become part of it in the future. The strong gravitational pull of our galaxy is slowly engulfing the Sagittarius Dwarf, which will eventually merge with the Milky Way creating one much larger galaxy.
This picture is a composite created by combining images taken with the Wide Field Channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Light that passed through a yellow-orange (F606W) was colored blue and light passing through a near-infrared filter (F814W) was colored red. The total exposure times were 3460 s and 3560 s, respectively and the field of view is approximately 3.4 by 3.4 arcminutes.
An Audience of Stellar Flashbulbs: Messier 107 in Ophiuchus | Hubble
The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope has captured a crowd of stars that looks rather like a stadium darkened before a show, lit only by the flashbulbs of the audience’s cameras. Yet the many stars of this object, known as Messier 107, are not a fleeting phenomenon, at least by human reckoning of time—these ancient stars have gleamed for many billions of years.
Messier 107 is one of more than 150 globular star clusters found around the disc of the Milky Way galaxy. These spherical collections each contain hundreds of thousands of extremely old stars and are among the oldest objects in the Milky Way. The origin of globular clusters and their impact on galactic evolution remains somewhat unclear, so astronomers continue to study them through pictures such as this one obtained by Hubble.
As globular clusters go, Messier 107 is not particularly dense. Visually comparing its appearance to other globular clusters, such as Messier 53 or Messier 54 reveals that the stars within Messier 107 are not packed as tightly, thereby making its members more distinct like individual fans in a stadium's stands.
Messier 107 can be found in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer) and is located about 20,000 light-years from the Solar System.
This picture was obtained with the Wide Field Camera of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The field of view is approximately 3.4 by 3.4 arcminutes.
A Remarkable Double Cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud: NGC 1850 | Hubble
Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our neighboring dwarf galaxies, this young globular-like star cluster is surrounded by a pattern of filamentary nebulosity that is thought to have been created during supernova blasts. It consists of a main globular cluster in the center and a younger, smaller cluster, seen below and to the right, composed of extremely hot, blue stars and fainter, red T-Tauri stars. This wide variety of stars allows a thorough study of star formation processes.
Distance: 180,000 light years
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA), NASA and Martino Romaniello (European Southern Observatory, Germany)
Tour: Supernova 1987A Pulsar Wind Nebula | NASA Chandra
Astronomers have found evidence for the existence of a neutron star at the center of Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A), which scientists have been seeking for over three decades.
Four hundred years ago a "new star" appeared in the western sky, rivaling the brilliance of the nearby planets. In fact this 'new star' was a supernova, now named Kepler's supernova, and was the last such object seen to explode in our Milky Way galaxy. Seen here are some of its remains.
Distance:13,000 light years
This image was taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) with filters onboard to isolate visible light emitted by hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen in the remnant but let through starlight from foreground and background stars. The image reveals in Kepler's supernova remnant the detailed knots, which are dense clumps that form behind the outward moving shock wave, and filamentary ribbons, which reveal where the shock wave is encountering lower-density, more uniform interstellar material.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
This dark, tangled web is an object named SNR 0454-67.2. It formed in a very violent fashion—it is a supernova remnant, created after a massive star ended its life in a cataclysmic explosion and threw its constituent material out into surrounding space. This created the messy formation we see in this NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope image, with threads of red snaking amidst dark, turbulent clouds.
Distance:163,000 light years
SNR 0454-67.2 is situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf spiral galaxy that lies close to the Milky Way. The remnant is likely the result of a Type Ia supernova explosion; this category of supernovae is formed from the death of a white dwarf star, which grows and grows by siphoning material from a stellar companion until it reaches a critical mass and then explodes.
As they always form via a specific mechanism—when the white dwarf hits a particular mass—these explosions always have a well-known luminosity, and are thus used as markers (standard candles) for scientists to obtain and measure distances throughout the Universe.
On February 24, 1987, observers in the southern hemisphere noticed a new object in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Today, we know this object as Supernova 1987A, and it was one of the brightest supernova seen in hundreds of years. Coupled with its relative proximity at about 160,000 light years from Earth, Supernova 1987A became one of the best opportunities ever for astronomers to study the phases before, during, and after the death of a star.
Since its discovery, telescopes around the world and in space have observed Supernova 1987A. This includes NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which has looked at this object repeatedly during its 23 years of science operations.
From 1999 until 2013, Chandra data showed an expanding ring of X-ray emission that had been steadily getting brighter. This was produced by the blast wave from the original explosion that had been bursting through and heating the ring of gas surrounding the supernova.
In the past few years, there have been striking changes in the Chandra data. This provides evidence that the explosion’s blast wave has moved beyond the ring into a region with less dense gas. This represents the end of an era for SN 1987A. Since astronomers do not know exactly lies beyond the ring, they will be watching carefully what happens next.
Over the next few thousand years, the expanding shell of hot gas will continue to glow in X rays. Eventually after rumbling across several thousand light years, the shell will disperse. By doing this, the supernova spreads the heavy elements created in the star and possibly triggers the formation of new stars from a cold interstellar cloud. Using data from Chandra and other telescopes, astronomers will continue to learn more about the details of this very important process that is responsible for life as we know it.
Supernova Remnant DEM L249: Aftermath of a Cosmic Cataclysm | Hubble
This image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope shows the tattered remnant of a supernova—a titanic explosion marking the end of the life of a dying star. This object—known as DEM L249—is thought to have been created by a Type 1a supernova during the death throes of a white dwarf. While white dwarfs are usually stable, they can slowly accrue matter if they are part of a binary star system. This accretion of matter continues until the white dwarf reaches a critical mass and undergoes a catastrophic supernova explosion, ejecting a vast amount of material into space in the process.
DEM L249 lies in the constellation Mensa and is within the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way only 160,000 light-years from Earth. The LMC is an ideal natural laboratory where astronomers can study the births, lives, and deaths of stars, as this region is nearby, oriented towards Earth, and contains relatively little light-absorbing interstellar dust. The data in this image were gathered by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, and were obtained during a systematic search of the LMC for the surviving companions of white dwarf stars which have gone supernova.
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, Y. Chu
Supernova Remnant N103B in the Large Magellanic Cloud | Hubble
This image, taken with the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope, shows the supernova remnant SNR 0509-68.7, also known as N103B (top of the image). N103B was a Type Ia supernova, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud—a neighboring galaxy of the Milky Way. Owing to its relative proximity to Earth, astronomers observe the remnant to search for a potential stellar survivor of the explosion.
Distance:150,000 light years
The orange-red filaments visible in the image show the shock fronts of the supernova explosion. These filaments allow astronomers to calculate the original center of the explosion. The filaments also show that the explosion is no longer expanding as a sphere, but is elliptical in shape. Astronomers assume that part of material ejected by the explosion hit a denser cloud of interstellar material, which slowed its speed. The shell of expanding material being open to one side supports this idea.
The gas in the lower half of the image and the dense concentration of stars in the lower left are the outskirts of the star cluster NGC 1850.
