Hubble Spots Twin Debris Trails from Asteroid Struck by NASA's DART Spacecraft

Hubble Spots Twin Debris Trails from Asteroid Struck by NASA's DART Spacecraft

Aftermath of First-of-Its-Kind Test Intrigues Astronomers

On Sept. 26, 2022, NASA conducted a first-of-its-kind experiment, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), designed to intentionally smash a spacecraft into a small asteroid in the world’s first-ever in-space test for planetary defense. NASA declared the mission was successful in altering the orbit of Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos. However, there is still much to learn about the system.

Follow-up observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are already revealing the clearest image of a stunning surprise—a newly developed second tail of ejecta.

A bright blue spot is at the left-center of the image, which has a black background. The spot is the Didymos-Dimorphos system after impact from the DART spacecraft. The center bright spot has 3 diffraction spikes extending from its core at the 1 o’clock, 7 o’clock, and 10 o’clock positions. There is a small amount of dusty haze just below the southern pole of the center dot. Two tails of ejecta that appear as white streams of material extend out from the center at the 2 o’clock and 3 o’clock positions.

Two tails of dust ejected from the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system are seen in new images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, documenting the lingering aftermath of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact. 

The DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, a small moonlet of Didymos, on Sept. 26 in a planetary defense test to change Dimorphos’ orbit by crashing into it. Current data show that DART shortened Dimorphos’ original 11 hour and 55 minute orbit around Didymos by about 32 minutes. 

Repeated observations from Hubble over the last several weeks have allowed scientists to present a more complete picture of how the system’s debris cloud has evolved over time. The observations show that the ejected material, or “ejecta,” has expanded and faded in brightness as time went on after impact, largely as expected. The twin tail is an unexpected development, although similar behavior is commonly seen in comets and active asteroids. The Hubble observations provide the best-quality image of the double-tail to date.

Following impact, Hubble made 18 observations of the system. Imagery indicates the second tail formed between Oct. 2 and Oct. 8.

The relationship between the comet-like tail and other ejecta features seen at various times in images from Hubble and other telescopes is still unclear, and is something the Investigation Team is currently working to understand. The northern tail is newly developed. In the coming months, scientists will be taking a closer look at the data from Hubble to determine how the second tail developed. There are a number of possible scenarios the team will investigate.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble and Webb science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Release Date: October 20, 2022

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Hubble #DARTMission #Spacecraft #Asteroids #Dimorphos #Didymos #TwinTails #Earth #PlanetaryDefense #Test #SolarSystem #JHUAPL #SpaceTelescopes #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #STEM #Education

Meet IXPE: NASA’s Newest Set of X-ray Eyes on the Universe

Meet IXPE: NASA’s Newest Set of X-ray Eyes on the Universe

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission was launched Dec. 9, 2021, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In space, IXPE explores the leftovers of exploded stars, black holes, and more by looking at a special property of light called polarization.

IXPE transmits scientific data several times a day to a ground station operated by the Italian Space Agency in Malindi, Kenya. The data flows from the Malindi station to IXPE’s Mission Operations Center at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and then to IXPE’s Science Operations Center at NASA Marshall for processing and analysis. IXPE’s scientific data will be publicly available from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Research Center at the NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The Marshall science operations team also coordinates with mission operations team at LASP to schedule science observations. The mission plans to observe more than 30 planned targets during its first year. The mission will study distant supermassive black holes with energetic particle jets that light up their host galaxies. IXPE will also probe the twisted space-time around stellar-mass black holes and measure their spin. Other planned targets include different types of neutron stars, such as pulsars and magnetars. The science team has also reserved about a month to observe other interesting objects that may appear in the sky or brighten unexpectedly.

IXPE is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. Ball Aerospace, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft operations.

Learn more about IXPE here:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ixpe/index.html

Credit: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)

Duration: 4 minutes

Release Date: November 24, 2021

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #SpaceObservatory #Stars #NeutronStars #Pulsars #Magnetars #SupernovaRemnants #CassiopeiaA #SNR #BlackHoles #IXPE #Xray #MSFC #UnitedStates #Italy #Italia #ASI #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA’S IXPE Helps Unlock the Secrets of Famous Exploded Star: Cassiopeia A

NASA’S IXPE Helps Unlock the Secrets of Famous Exploded Star: Cassiopeia A

For the first time, astronomers have measured and mapped polarized X-rays from the remains of an exploded star, using NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). The findings, which come from observations of a stellar remnant called Cassiopeia A, shed new light on the nature of young supernova remnants, which accelerate particles close to the speed of light.

Launched on Dec. 9, 2021, IXPE, a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, is the first satellite that can measure the polarization of X-ray light with this level of sensitivity and clarity.

All forms of light—from radio waves to gamma rays—can be polarized. Unlike the polarized sunglasses we use to cut the glare from sunlight bouncing off a wet road or windshield, IXPE’s detectors maps the tracks of incoming X-ray light. Scientists can use these individual track records to figure out the polarization, which tells the story of what the X-rays went through.

Cassiopeia A (Cas A for short) was the first object IXPE observed after it began collecting data. One of the reasons Cas A was selected is that its shock waves—like a sonic boom generated by a jet—are some of the fastest in the Milky Way. The shock waves were generated by the supernova explosion that destroyed a massive star after it collapsed. Light from the blast swept past Earth more than three hundred years ago.

This composite image shows the Cas A supernova remnant, a structure resulting from the explosion of a star in the Cassiopeia constellation. The blues represent data from the Chandra Observatory, the turquoise is from NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (called IXPE), and the gold is courtesy of the Hubble Telescope.

Image Credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO, IXPE: NASA/MSFC/J. Vink et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI

Release Date: October 19, 2022

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #CassiopeiaA #SupernovaRemnant #SNR #Cassiopeia #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescopes #IXPE #Xray #ChandraXrayObservatory #STScI #GSFC #MSFC #UnitedStates #Italy #Italia #ASI #STEM #Education

NASA's NEOWISE Mission: Revealing Changes in the Universe | JPL

NASA's NEOWISE Mission: Revealing Changes in the Universe | JPL

New time-lapse movies from NASA’s NEOWISE mission give astronomers the opportunity to see objects, like stars and black holes, as they move and change over time. The videos include previously hidden brown dwarfs, a feeding black hole, a dying star, a star-forming region, and a brightening star. They combine more than 10 years of NEOWISE observations and 18 all-sky images, enabling a long-term analysis and a deeper understanding of the universe.

0:44 – NEOWISE all-sky scan animation

1:03 – Feeding black hole

1:14 – Pulsing star reaches the end of its life

1:21 – Protostars in star-forming region

1:34 – Brown dwarf moves across the sky

2:00 – Unexplained stellar brightening

The NEOWISE mission uses a space telescope to hunt for asteroids and comets, including those that could pose a threat to Earth. Launched in December 2009 as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, the space telescope was originally designed to survey the sky in infrared, detecting asteroids, stars and some of the faintest galaxies in space. WISE did so successfully until completing its primary mission in February 2011. 

Observations resumed in December 2013, when the telescope was taken out of hibernation and re-purposed for the NEOWISE project as an instrument to study near-Earth objects, or NEOs, as well as more distant asteroids and comets.

For more information on the NEOWISE mission go to: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/neowise

For more NEOWISE data go to:  https://neowise.ipac.caltech.edu/

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

WISE-NEOWISE movies compiled by Dan Caselden

Duration: 2 minutes, 14 seconds

Release Date: October 18, 2022

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #WISE #NEOWISE #SpaceTelescope #Infrared #Stars #BlackHoles #Protostars #BrownDwarfs #Asteroids #Comets #PlanetaryDefense #SolarSystem #Cosmos #Universe #JPL #Caltech #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover: New Panorama at “Paraitepuy Pass” | JPL

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover: New Panorama at “Paraitepuy Pass” | JPL

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured 146 images with its Mast Camera (Mastcam) on August 14, 2022. These images were used to create a panorama of the area informally known as “Paraitepuy Pass” in Gale Crater on Mars. 

Celebrating 10 Years on Mars!

Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Rover Name: Curiosity

Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life. 

Launch: November 6, 2011

Landing: August 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars

For more about Curiosity:

https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/home/

For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit: mars.nasa.gov

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Acknowledgement: SciNews

Duration: 1 minute, 44 seconds

Release Date: October 19, 2022

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #ParaitepuyPass #Astrobiology #Geology #CuriosityRover #MountSharp #GaleCrater #Robotics #Technology #Engineering #JPL #California #UnitedStates #JourneyToMars #STEM #Education #Panorama #HD #Video

The Pillars of Creation: Close-up View | James Webb Space Telescope

The Pillars of Creation: Close-up View | James Webb Space Telescope

The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of color in the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. The pillars look like arches and spires rising out of a desert landscape, but are filled with semi-transparent gas and dust, and ever changing. This is a region where young stars are forming—or have barely burst from their dusty cocoons as they continue to form.

Image Description: This vertical image has layers of semi-opaque rusty red colored gas and dust that starts at the bottom left and goes toward the top right. There are three prominent pillars rising toward the top right. The left pillar is the largest and widest. The peaks of the second and third pillars are set off in darker shades of brown and have red outlines.

Protostars are the scene-stealers in this Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image. These are the bright red orbs that sometimes appear with eight diffraction spikes. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually begin shining brightly.

Along the edges of the pillars are wavy lines that look like lava. These are ejections from stars that are still forming. Young stars periodically shoot out jets that can interact within clouds of material, like these thick pillars of gas and dust. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years.

Although it may appear that near-infrared light has allowed Webb to “pierce through” the background to reveal great cosmic distances beyond the pillars, the interstellar medium stands in the way, like a drawn curtain.

This is also the reason why there are no distant galaxies in this view. This translucent layer of gas blocks our view of the deeper universe. Plus, dust is lit up by the collective light from the packed “party” of stars that have burst free from the pillars. It’s like standing in a well-lit room looking out a window—the interior light reflects on the pane, obscuring the scene outside and, in turn, illuminating the activity at the party inside.

Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation will help researchers revamp models of star formation. By identifying far more precise star populations, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these clouds over millions of years.

The Pillars of Creation is a small region within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away.

Webb’s NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA)/Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI); J. DePasquale, A. Koekemoer, A. Pagan (STScI)

Release Date: October 19, 2022

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebula #EagleNebula #PillarsOfCreation #Infrared #SerpensCauda #Constellation #JamesWebb #SpaceTelescope #JWST #NIRCam #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

The Pillars of Creation: Hubble & Webb Showcase

The Pillars of Creation: Hubble & Webb Showcase

The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope made the Pillars of Creation famous with its first image in 1995, but revisited the scene in 2014 to reveal a sharper, wider view in visible light, shown above at left.

A new, near-infrared-light view from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope, at right, helps us peer through more of the dust in this star-forming region. The thick, dusty brown pillars are no longer as opaque and many more red stars that are still forming come into view.

While the pillars of gas and dust seem darker and less penetrable in Hubble’s view, they appear more diaphanous in Webb’s.

The background of this Hubble image is like a sunrise, beginning in yellows at the bottom, before transitioning to light green and deeper blues at the top. These colors highlight the thickness of the dust all around the pillars, which obscures many more stars in the overall region.

In contrast, the background light in Webb’s image appears in blue hues, which highlights the hydrogen atoms, and reveals an abundance of stars spread across the scene. By penetrating the dusty pillars, Webb also allows us to identify stars that have recently—or are about to—burst free. Near-infrared light can penetrate thick dust clouds, allowing us to learn so much more about this incredible scene.

Both views show us what is happening locally. Although Hubble highlights many more thick layers of dust and Webb shows more of the stars, neither shows us the deeper universe. Dust blocks the view in Hubble’s image, but the interstellar medium plays a major role in Webb’s. It acts like thick smoke or fog, preventing us from peering into the deeper universe, where countless galaxies exist.

The pillars are a small region within the Eagle Nebula, a vast star-forming region 6,500 light-years from Earth.

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Webb, NASA, ESA, , STScI, J. DePasquale, A. Koekemoer, A. Pagan, N. Bartmann

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: October 19, 2022

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebula #EagleNebula #PillarsOfCreation #Infrared #SerpensCauda #Constellation #JamesWebb #SpaceTelescope #JWST #NIRCam #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Panning across The Pillars of Creation | James Webb Space Telescope

Panning across The Pillars of Creation | James Webb Space Telescope

The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of color in the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. The pillars look like arches and spires rising out of a desert landscape, but are filled with semi-transparent gas and dust, and ever changing. This is a region where young stars are forming—or have barely burst from their dusty cocoons as they continue to form.

Protostars are the scene-stealers in this Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image. These are the bright red orbs that sometimes appear with eight diffraction spikes. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually begin shining brightly.

Along the edges of the pillars are wavy lines that look like lava. These are ejections from stars that are still forming. Young stars periodically shoot out jets that can interact within clouds of material, like these thick pillars of gas and dust. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years.

Although it may appear that near-infrared light has allowed Webb to “pierce through” the background to reveal great cosmic distances beyond the pillars, the interstellar medium stands in the way, like a drawn curtain.

This is also the reason why there are no distant galaxies in this view. This translucent layer of gas blocks our view of the deeper universe. Plus, dust is lit up by the collective light from the packed “party” of stars that have burst free from the pillars. It’s like standing in a well-lit room looking out a window—the interior light reflects on the pane, obscuring the scene outside and, in turn, illuminating the activity at the party inside.

Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation will help researchers revamp models of star formation. By identifying far more precise star populations, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these clouds over millions of years.

The Pillars of Creation is a small region within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away.

Webb’s NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), J. DePasquale, A. Koekemoer, A. Pagan, N. Bartmann   

Duration: 45 seconds

Release Date: October 19, 2022

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebula #EagleNebula #PillarsOfCreation #Infrared #SerpensCauda #Constellation #JamesWebb #SpaceTelescope #JWST #NIRCam #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Hubble (left) & Webb (right) Showcase The Pillars of Creation: A Comparison

Hubble (left) & Webb (right) Showcase The Pillars of Creation: A Comparison

The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope made the Pillars of Creation famous with its first image in 1995, but revisited the scene in 2014 to reveal a sharper, wider view in visible light, shown above at left.

A new, near-infrared-light view from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope, at right, helps us peer through more of the dust in this star-forming region. The thick, dusty brown pillars are no longer as opaque and many more red stars that are still forming come into view. While the pillars of gas and dust seem darker and less penetrable in Hubble’s view, they appear more diaphanous in Webb’s.

Image Description: Two images of the Pillars of Creation, a star-forming region in space. At left, Hubble’s visible-light view shows darker pillars that rise from the bottom to the top of the screen, ending in three points. Webb’s near-infrared image at right shows the same pillars, but they are semi-opaque and rusty red-colored.

The background of the Hubble image is like a sunrise, beginning in yellows at the bottom, before transitioning to light green and deeper blues at the top. These colors highlight the thickness of the dust all around the pillars, which obscures many more stars in the overall region.

In contrast, the background light in Webb’s image appears in blue hues, which highlights the hydrogen atoms, and reveals an abundance of stars spread across the scene. By penetrating the dusty pillars, Webb also allows us to identify stars that have recently—or are about to—burst free. Near-infrared light can penetrate thick dust clouds, allowing us to learn so much more about this incredible scene.

Both views show us what is happening locally. Although Hubble highlights many more thick layers of dust and Webb shows more of the stars, neither shows us the deeper universe. Dust blocks the view in Hubble’s image, but the interstellar medium plays a major role in Webb’s. It acts like thick smoke or fog, preventing us from peering into the deeper universe, where countless galaxies exist.

The pillars are a small region within the Eagle Nebula, a vast star-forming region 6,500 light-years from Earth.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI); J. DePasquale, A. Koekemoer, A. Pagan (STScI).

Release Date: October 19, 2022

#NASA #Astronomy #Hubble #Space #Science #Stars #Nebula #EagleNebula #PillarsOfCreation #Infrared #SerpensCauda #Constellation #JamesWebb #SpaceTelescopes #HST #JWST #NIRCam #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Tour The Pillars of Creation | James Webb Space Telescope

Tour The Pillars of Creation | James Webb Space Telescope

This video tours areas of Webb’s near-infrared light view of the Pillars of Creation. This area is brimming with gas and dust—essential ingredients for star formation. Glowing, bright red wavy lines appear at the edges of some pillars, revealing where stars are ejecting material as they form. The bright red orbs are newly formed stars that have burst into view.

Distant galaxies typically make appearances in Webb’s images, but not this one. A translucent layer of gas and dust is drawn like a curtain, allowing the stars to take centerstage. Webb’s near-infrared image will help researchers update their models of star formation. Over time, we will learn how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years.

Read more about Webb's near-infrared image of the Pillars of Creation: https://go.nasa.gov/3EPPiXW

Credits:

Video: Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI) 

Science: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA)/Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) 

Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Duration: 1 minute, 12 seconds

Release Date: October 19, 2022

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebula #EagleNebula #PillarsOfCreation #Infrared #SerpensCauda #Constellation #JamesWebb #SpaceTelescope #JWST #NIRCam #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Zoom into The Pillars of Creation | James Webb Space Telescope

Zoom into The Pillars of Creation | James Webb Space Telescope

The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of color in the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. The pillars look like arches and spires rising out of a desert landscape, but are filled with semi-transparent gas and dust, and ever changing. This is a region where young stars are forming—or have barely burst from their dusty cocoons as they continue to form.

Protostars are the scene-stealers in this Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image. These are the bright red orbs that sometimes appear with eight diffraction spikes. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually begin shining brightly.

Along the edges of the pillars are wavy lines that look like lava. These are ejections from stars that are still forming. Young stars periodically shoot out jets that can interact within clouds of material, like these thick pillars of gas and dust. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years.

Although it may appear that near-infrared light has allowed Webb to “pierce through” the background to reveal great cosmic distances beyond the pillars, the interstellar medium stands in the way, like a drawn curtain.

This is also the reason why there are no distant galaxies in this view. This translucent layer of gas blocks our view of the deeper universe. Plus, dust is lit up by the collective light from the packed “party” of stars that have burst free from the pillars. It’s like standing in a well-lit room looking out a window—the interior light reflects on the pane, obscuring the scene outside and, in turn, illuminating the activity at the party inside.

Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation will help researchers revamp models of star formation. By identifying far more precise star populations, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these clouds over millions of years.

The Pillars of Creation is a small region within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away.

Webb’s NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA)/Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI); European Southern Observatory (ESO), NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, T.A.Rector, B.A.Wolpa, ESA/Hubble, J. DePasquale, A. Koekemoer, A. Pagan, N. Bartmann, M. Zamani  

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: October 19, 2022

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebula #EagleNebula #PillarsOfCreation #Infrared #SerpensCauda #Constellation #JamesWebb #SpaceTelescope #JWST #NIRCam #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Pillars of Creation: A Star-Filled Portrait | James Webb Space Telescope

The Pillars of Creation: A Star-Filled Portrait | James Webb Space Telescope

The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of color in the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. The pillars look like arches and spires rising out of a desert landscape, but are filled with semi-transparent gas and dust, and ever changing. This is a region where young stars are forming—or have barely burst from their dusty cocoons as they continue to form.

Image Description: This vertical image has layers of semi-opaque rusty red colored gas and dust that starts at the bottom left and goes toward the top right. There are three prominent pillars rising toward the top right. The left pillar is the largest and widest. The peaks of the second and third pillars are set off in darker shades of brown and have red outlines.

Protostars are the scene-stealers in this Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image. These are the bright red orbs that sometimes appear with eight diffraction spikes. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually begin shining brightly.

Along the edges of the pillars are wavy lines that look like lava. These are ejections from stars that are still forming. Young stars periodically shoot out jets that can interact within clouds of material, like these thick pillars of gas and dust. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years.

Although it may appear that near-infrared light has allowed Webb to “pierce through” the background to reveal great cosmic distances beyond the pillars, the interstellar medium stands in the way, like a drawn curtain.

This is also the reason why there are no distant galaxies in this view. This translucent layer of gas blocks our view of the deeper universe. Plus, dust is lit up by the collective light from the packed “party” of stars that have burst free from the pillars. It’s like standing in a well-lit room looking out a window—the interior light reflects on the pane, obscuring the scene outside and, in turn, illuminating the activity at the party inside.

Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation will help researchers revamp models of star formation. By identifying far more precise star populations, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these clouds over millions of years.

The Pillars of Creation is a small region within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away.

Webb’s NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA)/Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI); J. DePasquale, A. Koekemoer, A. Pagan (STScI)

Release Date: October 19, 2022

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebula #EagleNebula #PillarsOfCreation #Infrared #SerpensCauda #Constellation #JamesWebb #SpaceTelescope #JWST #NIRCam #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Panning Across Interacting Galaxies in Columba | Hubble

Panning Across Interacting Galaxies in Columba | Hubble

The two interacting galaxies making up the pair known as Arp-Madore 608-333 seem to float side by side in this image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. Though they appear serene and unperturbed, the two are subtly warping one another through a mutual gravitational interaction that is disrupting and distorting both galaxies. This drawn-out galactic interaction was captured by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.

The interacting galaxies in Arp-Madore 608-333 were captured as part of an effort to build up an archive of interesting targets for more detailed future study with Hubble, ground-based telescopes, and the NASA/European Space Agency (ESA)/Canadian Space Agency (CSA) James Webb Space Telescope. To build up this archive, astronomers scoured existing astronomical catalogues for a list of targets spread throughout the night sky. By so doing, they hoped to include objects that had already been identified as interesting and that would be easy for Hubble to observe no matter which direction it was pointing.

Deciding how to award Hubble observing time is a drawn-out, competitive and difficult process, and the observations are allocated so as to use every last second of Hubble time available. However, there is a small but persistent fraction of time—around 2-3%—that goes unused as Hubble turns to point at new targets. Snapshot programs, such as the one which captured Arp-Madore 608-333, exist to fill this gap and take advantage of the moments between longer observations. As well as creating beautiful images such as this, these snapshot programs enable astronomers to gather as much data as possible with Hubble.

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/U.S. Department of Energy/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/National Science Foundation (NSF)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), J. Dalcanton

Release Date: October 3, 2022

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Panning across Terzan 1 Star Cluster, Take 2 | Hubble

Panning across Terzan 1 Star Cluster, Take 2 | Hubble

Terzan 1 is a globular cluster that lies about 22,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. It is one of 11 globular clusters that were discovered by the Turkish-Armenian astronomer Agop Terzan between 1966 and 1971 when he was working in France, based mostly at Lyon Observatory.

Somewhat confusingly, the 11 Terzan globular clusters are numbered from Terzan 1 to Terzan 12. This is due to an error made by Terzan in 1971, when he rediscovered Terzan 5—a cluster he had already discovered and reported back in 1968—and named it Terzan 11. He published its discovery alongside those of Terzan 9, 10 and 12. He quickly realized his mistake, and attempted to have Terzan 12 renamed as Terzan 11. Unfortunately, he did not make it clear that Terzan 5 and Terzan 11 were one and the same, although another astronomer, Ivan Robert King, did publish a note to try and clear up the confusion. Nowadays, most papers recognize the original Terzan 5 and Terzan 12, and accept the oddity that there is no Terzan 11. There have, however, been instances of confusion in the scientific literature over the past few decades.

Terzan 1 is not a new target for Hubble—an image of the cluster was released back in 2015, taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). That instrument was replaced by the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) during the 2009 Hubble servicing mission. WFC3 has both superior resolving power and a wider field of view than WFPC2, and the improvement is obvious in this fantastically detailed image. 

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, R. Cohen

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: October 10, 2022

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Panning across a Turbulent Stellar Nursery: Herbig–Haro Objects HH1&2 | Hubble

Panning across a Turbulent Stellar Nursery: Herbig–Haro Objects HH1&2 | Hubble

The lives of newborn stars are tempestuous, as this new image of the Herbig–Haro objects HH 1 and HH 2 from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope depicts. Both objects are in the constellation Orion and lie around 1,250 light-years from Earth. HH 1 is the luminous cloud above the bright star in the upper right of this image, and HH 2 is the cloud in the bottom left. While both Herbig–Haro objects are visible, the young star system responsible for their creation is lurking out of sight, swaddled in the thick clouds of dust at the center of this image. However, an outflow of gas from one of these stars can be seen streaming out from the central dark cloud as a bright jet. Meanwhile, the bright star between that jet and the HH 1 cloud was once thought to be the source of these jets, but it is now known to be an unrelated double star that formed nearby.

Herbig–Haro objects are glowing clumps found around some newborn stars, and are created when jets of gas thrown outwards from these young stars collide with surrounding gas and dust at incredibly high speeds. In 2002, Hubble observations revealed that parts of HH 1 are moving at more than 400 kilometers per second!

This scene from a turbulent stellar nursery was captured with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 using 11 different filters at infrared, visible, and ultraviolet wavelengths. Each of these filters is sensitive to just a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, and they allow astronomers to pinpoint interesting processes that emit light at specific wavelengths.

In the case of HH 1/2, two groups of astronomers requested Hubble observations for two different studies. The first delved into the structure and motion of the Herbig–Haro objects visible in this image, giving astronomers a better understanding of the physical processes occurring when outflows from young stars collide with surrounding gas and dust. The second study instead investigated the outflows themselves to lay the groundwork for future observations with the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope. Webb, with its ability to peer past the clouds of dust enveloping young stars, will revolutionize the study of outflows from young stars.

[Image description: Two wispy, gaseous clouds occupy the corners of this image, HH 1 in the upper right, and HH 2 in the lower left. Both are light blue and surrounded by dimmer multi-colored clouds, while the background is dark black due to dense gas. A very bright orange star lies just to the lower left of HH 1, and beyond that star is a narrow jet, emerging from the dark center of the field.]

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, B. Reipurth, B. Nisini

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: October 18, 2022

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #LightWavelengths #Infrared #Ultraviolet #Visible #HerbigHaroObjects #HH1 #HH2 #Jets #Orion #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #STScI #GSFC #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA's SpaceX Crew-4: Final Departure Photos | International Space Station

NASA's SpaceX Crew-4: Final Departure Photos | International Space Station

SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts pose for a portrait in their pressure suits before boarding the Dragon Freedom crew ship, undocking from the International Space Station, and returning to Earth completing a 170-day space research mission. From left are Mission Specialist Jessica Watkins, Pilot Bob Hines, Commander Kjell Lindgren (all three NASA astronauts), and Mission Specialist Samantha Cristoforetti from the European Space Agency (ESA)

The eleven Expedition 68 crew members aboard the International Space Station pose for a portrait. In the front row from left, are Russian cosmonauts Anna Kikina, Sergey Prokopyev, and Dmitri Petelin. In the next row, are astronauts Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). In the back, are NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins, Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Frank Rubio, Josh Cassada, and Nicole Mann. A symbolic key, representing the traditional change of command ceremony, that Cristoforetti earlier handed over to Prokopyev, floats in the center of the frame, as he begins his spaceflight as Expedition 68 Commander.

The SpaceX Crew-4 mission insignia, affixed to the vestibule between the Harmony module's space-facing port and the Dragon Freedom crew ship, is surrounded by the signatures of Crew-4 members Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Samantha Cristoforetti. Credit: NASA/Kjell Lindgren

NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Jessica Watkins, also a SpaceX Crew-4 Mission Specialist, signs her name around the Crew-4 mission insignia

NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Bob Hines, also the SpaceX Crew-4 Pilot, signs his name around the Crew-4 mission insignia

NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren, also the SpaceX Crew-4 Commander, signs his name around the Crew-4 mission insignia

NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Commander Samantha Cristoforetti, also a SpaceX Crew-4 Mission Specialist, signs her name around the Crew-4 mission insignia

SpaceX Dragon Endurance crew ship is pictured docked to the forward port of the International Space Station's Harmony module

The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft with NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins, as well as European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti inside undocked from the space-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module on October 14, 2022, to complete a nearly six-month science mission. These are final crew photos on the International Space Station ahead of their successful landing that same day. 

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.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/Kjell Lindgren

Image Dates: October 12-14, 2022

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