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Saturday, October 08, 2022

Bright Quasar 3C 273—Distance: 2.5 Billion Light Years | Hubble

Bright Quasar 3C 273—Distance: 2.5 Billion Light Years | Hubble

Quasars are capable of emitting hundreds or even thousands of times the entire energy output of our galaxy, making them some of the most luminous and energetic objects in the entire Universe. Of these very bright objects, 3C 273 is the brightest in our skies. If it was located 30 light-years from our own planet—roughly seven times the distance between Earth and Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to us after the Sun—it would still appear as bright as the Sun in the sky.

This image from Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) is likely one of the best of the ancient and brilliant quasar 3C 273, which resides in a giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). Its light has taken some 2.5 billion years to reach us. Despite this great distance, it is still one of the closest quasars to our home. It was the first quasar ever to be identified, and was discovered in the early 1960s by astronomer Allan Sandage.

The term quasar is an abbreviation of the phrase “quasi-stellar radio source”, as they appear to be star-like on the sky. In fact, quasars are the intensely powerful centers of distant, active galaxies, powered by a huge disc of particles surrounding a supermassive black hole. As material from this disc falls inwards, some quasars— including 3C 273—have been observed to fire off super-fast jets into the surrounding space. In this picture, one of these jets appears as a cloudy streak, measuring some 200,000 light-years in length.

WFPC2 was installed on Hubble during shuttle mission STS-61. It is the size of a small piano and was capable of seeing images in the visible, near-ultraviolet, and near-infrared parts of the spectrum.

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA

Release Date: November 18, 2013

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #AGN #Quasar #3C273 #Galaxy #Jet #BlackHole #Virgo #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Giant Eliptical Galaxy M87: Radio/X-ray/Optical View | Hubble

Giant Eliptical Galaxy M87: Radio/X-ray/Optical View | Hubble

This image is a composite of visible (or optical), radio, and X-ray data of the giant elliptical galaxy, M87. M87 lies at a distance of 54 million light-years and is the largest galaxy in the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Bright jets moving at close to the speed of light are seen at all wavelengths coming from the massive black hole at the center of the galaxy. It has also been identified with the strong radio source, Virgo A, and is a powerful source of X-rays as it resides near the center of a hot, X-ray emitting cloud that extends over much of the Virgo cluster. The extended radio emission consists of plumes of relativistic (extremely hot) gas from the jets rising into the X-ray emitting cluster medium.

The optical data of M87 were obtained with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys in visible and infrared filters (data courtesy of P. Cote (Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics) and E. Baltz (Stanford University)). Wide-field optical data of the center of the Virgo Cluster were also provided by R. Gendler (Copyright Robert Gendler 2006). The X-ray data were acquired from the Chandra X-ray Observatory's AXAF CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), and were provided by J. Forman (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) et al. The radio data were obtained by W. Cotton and also archive processing using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array (NRAO/VLA) near Socorro, New Mexico.

Credits: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and Z. Levay (STScI)

Science Credit: Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/W. Cotton; X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/W. Forman et al.; Optical: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and R. Gendler

Release Date: August 5, 2008

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #ChandraXrayObservatory #Galaxy #M87 #Elliptical #Jet #BlackHole #VirgoCluster #Virgo #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescopes #GSFC #STScI #NRAO #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Zooming into the Black Hole Jet in Elliptical Galaxy M87 | Hubble

Zooming into the Black Hole Jet in Elliptical Galaxy M87 | Hubble

This video begins with a view of the stars and galaxies in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). We zoom into the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87, which lies near the center of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. A high-speed jet of hot plasma is buried deep inside the galaxy. A supermassive black hole ejects the jet at nearly the speed of light.

This NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope time-lapse video captures the movement of the jet over a timespan of 13 years.

Distance: 54 million light years

Credits:

NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and G. Bacon/Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Constellation Region of Galaxy M87 Credit: A. Fujii

Galaxy M87 Credit: R. Gendler

Hubble View of M87 Jet Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Meyer, W. Sparks, J. Biretta, J. Anderson, S.T. Sohn, and R. van der Marel (STScI), C. Norman (Johns Hopkins University), and M. Nakamura (Academia Sinica), and G. Bacon (STScI)

Duration: 46 seconds

Release Date: February 17, 2016

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Stars #GlobularStarClusters #Galaxy #M87 #Elliptical #Jet #BlackHole #VirgoCluster #Virgo #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #Infrared #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #Timelapse #HD #Video

A Cosmic Searchlight: Black Hole-powered Jet from Galaxy M87 | Hubble

A Cosmic Searchlight: Black Hole-powered Jet from Galaxy M87 | Hubble

Streaming out from the center of the galaxy M87 like a cosmic searchlight is one of nature's most amazing phenomena, a black-hole-powered jet of electrons and other sub-atomic particles traveling at nearly the speed of light. In this Hubble telescope image, the blue jet contrasts with the yellow glow from the combined light of billions of unseen stars and the yellow, point-like clusters of stars that make up this galaxy. Lying at the center of M87, the monstrous black hole has swallowed up matter equal to 2 billion times our Sun's mass. M87 is 54 million light-years from Earth.

Credit: The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) and NASA/European Space Agency (ESA)

Release Date: July 6, 2000

Lord of The Stars: Monstrous Elliptical Galaxy M87 | Hubble

Lord of The Stars: Monstrous Elliptical Galaxy M87 | Hubble

The monstrous elliptical galaxy M87 is the home of several trillion stars, a supermassive black hole, and family of 13,000 globular star clusters. M87 is the dominant galaxy at the center of the neighboring Virgo Cluster of galaxies, which contains some 2,000 galaxies.

Distance: 54 million light years

Amid the smooth yellow population of older stars, the two features that stand out most in this Hubble Space Telescope image of M87 are its soft blue jet and the myriad of starlike globular clusters scattered throughout the image. The jet is a black-hole-powered stream of material that is being ejected from the core of the galaxy.

As gaseous material from the center of the galaxy accretes onto the black hole, the resultant energy released produces a fire-hose stream of subatomic particles that are accelerated to velocities near the speed of light.

Being in the center of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, M87 may have accumulated some of its globular clusters by gravitationally pulling them from nearby dwarf galaxies that seem to be devoid of globulars today.

The 120,000-light-year-diameter galaxy lies at a distance of 54 million light-years from the Sun in the spring constellation Virgo.

This image was made from data taken in 2003 and 2006 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The image is a composite of individual filtered data that cover the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Acknowledgment: P. Cote (Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics) and E. Baltz (Stanford University)

Release Date: August 5, 2008

Friday, October 07, 2022

NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 Mission: New Launch Week Photos

NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 Mission: New Launch Week Photos

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft was launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata (Japan), and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina (Russia) onboard, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission is the fifth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikini have begun a six month mission onboard the orbital outpost.

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.

Learn more about the important research being operated on ISS:

https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

Credit: SpaceX

Image Dates: October 2-5, 2022

#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #SpaceX #Falcon9 #Rocket #SpacexCrew5 #CrewDragon #Spacecraft #Astronauts #NicoleMann #JoshCassada #KoichiWakata #Cosmonaut #AnnaKikina #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition68 #JAXA #Japan #日本 #Russia #Россия #UnitedStates #Science #STEM #Education

Waxing Crescent Moon above the Atlantic Ocean | International Space Station

Waxing Crescent Moon above the Atlantic Ocean | International Space Station

The waxing crescent Moon is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 267 miles above the Atlantic Ocean southwest of South Africa during an orbital sunrise.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Release Date: Sept. 30, 2022

#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #Science #Sunrise #AtlanticOcean #Astronauts #Cosmonauts #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Russia #Россия #JAXA #Japan #日本 #CSA #Canada #JSC #UnitedStates #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition68 #STEM #Education

A New Crew Launches to the Interantional Space Station | This Week @NASA

A New Crew Launches to the International Space Station | This Week @NASA

October 7, 2022: Launching a new crew to the International Space Station, the plan moving forward for Artemis I, and Webb’s new look at a pair of galaxies . . . a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!

The hatch of SpaceX’s Crew-5 “Endurance” Crew Dragon spacecraft, with NASA astronauts Nicole Aunapu Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata (Japan) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina (Russia), was opened on October 6, 2022, at 6:49 p.m. EDT/22:49 UTC. Crew-5 is SpaceX’s fifth operational mission for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikina have joined the Expedition 68 crew of NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Frank Rubio, and Jessica Watkins, Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA), and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin. For a short time, the number of crew on the space station will increase to 11 people until Crew-4 departs.

Credits: NASA

Producer: Andre Valentine

Editor: Lacey Young

Music: Universal Production Music

Duration: 1 minute, 49 seconds

Release Date: October 7, 2022

#NASA #Space #ISS #ArtemisI #JWST #Roscosmos #JAXA #SpaceX #SpacexCrew5 #CrewDragon #Astronauts #NicoleMann #JoshCassada #KoichiWakata #Cosmonaut #AnnaKikina #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition68 #Japan #Russia #UnitedStates #Science #STEM #Education #HD #Video

A Trio of Galaxies: Fulldome Video | Hubble

A Trio of Galaxies: Fulldome Video | Hubble

Distance: 120 million light years

Note: The full dome video display format is designed for projection systems in planetariums.

Credit: NASA & European Space Agency (ESA)

Acknowledgment: Theofanis N. Matsopoulos

Release Date: Feb 17, 2016

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Galaxies #HCG90 #NGC7173 #NGC7174 #NGC7176 #Elliptical #Spiral #PiscisAustrinus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #Fulldome #HD #Video

Panning on a Galactic Trio: NGC 7173, NGC 7174 & NGC 7176 | Hubble

Panning on a Galactic Trio: NGC 7173, NGC 7174 & NGC 7176 | Hubble

Panning on NGC 7173, NGC 7174 and NGC 7176, a trio of galaxies in the Hickson Compact Group 90.

Distance: 120 million light years

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

Duration: 26 seconds

Release Date: February 17, 2016

A Galactic Trio | Hubble

A Galactic Trio | Hubble

The three pictured galaxies—NGC 7173 (middle left), NCG 7174 (middle right) and NGC 7176 (lower right)—are part of the Hickson Compact Group 90, named after astronomer Paul Hickson, who first catalogued these small clusters of galaxies in the 1980s. NGC 7173 and NGC 7176 appear to be smooth, normal elliptical galaxies without much gas and dust. In stark contrast, NGC 7174 is a mangled spiral galaxy, barely clinging to independent existence as it is ripped apart by its close neighbors. The strong tidal interaction surging through the galaxies has dragged a significant number of stars away from their home galaxies. These stars are now spread out, forming a tenuous luminous component in the galaxy group.

Distance: 120 million light years

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and R. Sharples (University of Durham, U.K.)

Release Date: March 3, 2009

Panning across Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Holmberg II | Hubble

Panning across Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Holmberg II | Hubble

This video shows a close-up view of dwarf irregular galaxy Holmberg II, as seen by the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy is dominated by huge bubbles of glowing gas which are the location of ongoing star formation.

Distance: 11 million light years

Credit: NASA & European Space Agency (ESA)

Duration: 36 seconds

Release Date: February 17, 2016

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Galaxy #HolmbergII #Dwarf #Irregular #UrsaMajor #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Zooming in on Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Holmberg II | Hubble

Zooming in on Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Holmberg II | Hubble

This video shows the location of dwarf irregular galaxy Holmberg II in the night sky. The galaxy is dominated by huge bubbles of glowing gas, which are visible in the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope image which the zoom sequence ends on.

Distance: 11 million light years

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Digitized Sky Survey 2

Release Date: February 17, 2016

Holmberg II: A Dwarf Irregular Galaxy | Hubble

Holmberg II: A Dwarf Irregular Galaxy | Hubble

The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope has captured this image of dwarf irregular galaxy Holmberg II. The galaxy is dominated by huge bubbles of glowing gas, which are sites of ongoing star formation.

Distance: 11 million light years

As high-mass stars form in dense regions of gas and dust they expel strong stellar winds that blow away the surrounding material. The cavities are also blown clear of gas by the shock waves produced in supernovae, the violent explosions that mark the end of the lives of massive stars.

Credit: NASA & European Space Agency (ESA)

Release Date: September 29, 2011

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Galaxy #HolmbergII #Dwarf #Irregular #UrsaMajor #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

NASA's Space to Ground: Einstein's Happiest Thought | Week of Oct. 7, 2022

NASA's Space to Ground: Einstein's Happiest Thought | Week of Oct. 7, 2022

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. The hatch of SpaceX’s Crew-5 “Endurance” Crew Dragon spacecraft, with NASA astronauts Nicole Aunapu Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata (Japan) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina (Russia), was opened on October 6, 2022, at 6:49 p.m. EDT/22:49 UTC. Crew-5 is SpaceX’s fifth operational mission for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Learn more about the important research being operated on ISS:

https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 3 minutes, 54 seconds

Release Date: October 7, 2022

#NASA #Space #ISS #Roscosmos #JAXA #SpaceX #SpacexCrew5 #CrewDragon #Astronauts #NicoleMann #JoshCassada #KoichiWakata #Cosmonaut #AnnaKikina #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition68 #Japan #日本 #Russia #Россия #JSC #UnitedStates #Science #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Sunset in Mordor | Hubble

Sunset in Mordor | Hubble

Don’t be fooled by the title; the mysterious, almost mystical bright light emerging from these thick, ominous clouds is actually a telltale sign of star formation. Here, a very young star is being born in the guts of the dark cloud LDN 43—a massive blob of gas, dust, and ices, gathered 520 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer).

Stars are born from cosmic dust and gas, which floats freely in space until gravity forces it to bind together. The hidden newborn star in this image, revealed only by light reflected onto the plumes of the dark cloud, is named RNO 91. It is what astronomers call a pre-main sequence star, meaning that it has not yet started burning hydrogen in its core.

The energy that allows RNO 91 to shine comes from gravitational contraction. The star is being compressed by its own weight until, at some point, a critical mass will be reached and hydrogen, its main component, will begin to fuse together, releasing huge amounts of energy in the process. This will mark the beginning of adulthood for the star. But even before this happens the adolescent star is bright enough to shine and generate powerful stellar winds, emitting intense X-ray and radio emission.

RNO 91 is a variable star around half the mass of the Sun. Astronomers have been able to observe the existence of a dusty, icy disc surrounding it, stretching out to over 1,700 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. It is believed that this disc may host protoplanets—planets in the process of being formed—and will eventually evolve into a fully-fledged planetary system.

This image is based on data gathered by the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Judy Schmidt.

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA

Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

Release Date: August 5, 2013

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Star #RNO91 #LDN43 #Nebula #DarkNebula #Ophiuchus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

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