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Exploring the Cosmic Jewels of Irregular Dwarf Galaxy Sextans A | Mayall Telescope
CosmoView Episode 29: The dwarf galaxy Sextans A is a cosmic jewelry box filled with bright young stars. Located around 4.4 million light-years from Earth, it has been contorted by several supernova explosions that give it a peculiar square shape. The galaxy overflows with young, blue stars and red-hued star-forming regions. This glittering image was taken at the 4-meter Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.
Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, P. Marenfeld
Data obtained and processed by: P. Massey (Lowell Obs.), G. Jacoby, K. Olsen, & C. Smith (AURA/NSF)
Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
The Cosmic Jewels of Irregular Dwarf Galaxy Sextans A | Mayall Telescope
This glittering image captured by the 4-meter Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, shows the irregular dwarf galaxy Sextans A, which lies around 4.4 million light-years from Earth. This galaxy, which is only a fraction of the size of the Milky Way, has been contorted by successive waves of supernova explosions into the roughly square shape we see from Earth—a cosmic jewelry box filled with bright young stars.
Sextans A is displayed in style in this gorgeous image, which showcases the irregular shape of this dwarf galaxy. Irregular galaxies such as Sextans A do not have the regular appearance of spiral or elliptical galaxies, but instead display a range of weird and wonderful shapes. These galaxies are relatively small, and they are often susceptible to distortions resulting from close encounters or collisions with larger galaxies—sometimes leading to their irregular shapes. Sextans A is particularly small, measuring only about 5,000 light-years across.
Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)
Data Obtained & Processed by: P. Massey (Lowell Obs.), G. Jacoby, K. Olsen, & C. Smith (AURA/NSF)
Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
Why is our Sun so active now? No one is certain. An increase in surface activity was expected because our Sun is approaching solar maximum in 2025. However, last month our Sun sprouted more sunspots than in any month during the entire previous 11-year solar cycle—even dating back to 2002. The picture is a composite of images taken every day from January to June 2023 by NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory.
Showing a high abundance of sunspots, large individual spots can be tracked across the Sun's disk, left to right, over about two weeks. As a solar cycle continues, sunspots typically appear closer to the equator. Sunspots are just one way that our Sun displays surface activity. NASA also tracks solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that expel particles out into the Solar System. Since these particles can affect astronauts and electronics, we most closely monitor these surface disturbances. Conversely, solar activity can have very high aesthetic value in the Earth's atmosphere when they trigger aurora.
Image Credit: NASA, Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO)
Dark Shrouds in Orion: LDN 1622 | Mayall Telescope
The shadowy clouds of LDN 1622 are pictured in this observation from the 4-meter Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) in Arizona, produced through a program of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab.
LDN 1622 is a dark nebula, so called because these dense interstellar clouds of gas and dust blot out light from background objects, appearing as ink-dark clouds against a backdrop of stars. This enigmatic cosmic cloud lies 1,300 light-years from Earth in the nearby Orion complex, a star-forming region thronging with young stars and other dark nebulae.
Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)/T. A. Rector
Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
Pan of Serene Supernova Aftermath: Galaxy UGC 11860 | Hubble
The spiral galaxy UGC 11860 seems to float serenely against a field of background galaxies in this image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. UGC 11860 lies around 184 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus, and its untroubled appearance is deceiving; this galaxy recently played host to an almost unimaginably energetic stellar explosion.
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko, J. D. Lyman
Planet Mars Images: July 9-10, 2023 | NASA's Perseverance Rover | JPL
Mars2020 - sol 654
Mars2020 - sol 848
Mars2020 - sol 847
Mars2020 - sol 846
Mars2020 - sol 843
Mars2020 - sol 847
Timekeeping on Mars
Sol (borrowed from the Latin word for sun) is a solar day on Mars; that is, a Mars-day. A sol is the apparent interval between two successive returns of the Sun to the same meridian (sundial time) as seen by an observer on Mars. It is one of several units for timekeeping on Mars.
A sol is slightly longer than an Earth day. It is approximately 24 hours, 39 minutes, 35 seconds long. A Martian year is approximately 668 sols, equivalent to approximately 687 Earth days or 1.88 Earth years.
NASA's Mars Curiosity and Perseverance rovers all counted the sol of touchdown as "Sol 0."
2+ Years on Mars (2021-2023)
Mission Name: Mars 2020
Rover Name: Perseverance
Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth.
Mars Helicopter (Ingenuity)
Launch: July 30, 2020
Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars
For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit: mars.nasa.gov
Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University/Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS)
The Evolution of Supergiant Star Eta Carinae | Hubble
Hubblecast 122 Light: This Hubblecast explores the various observations the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope has made of the Eta Carinae in various wavelengths. Eta Carinae is located 7,500 light-years away in the constellation Carina. It is within the Carina Nebula, a giant star-forming region in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way.
NASA's X-59 Supersonic Research Aircraft Prepared for Testing
NASA’s X-59 was moved to Run Stall 5. Technicians check out the X-59 supersonic aircraft as it sits near the runway at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California.
NASA’s X-59 aircraft is parked near the runway at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, on June 19, 2023. This is where the X-59 will be housed during ground and initial flight tests.
NASA's X-59 supersonic research aircraft parked inside the hangar with a head-on view
NASA’s X-59 research aircraft has moved from its construction site to the flight line—or the space between the hangar and the runway—at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, on June 16, 2023. This milestone kicks off a series of ground tests to ensure the X-59 is safe and ready to fly.
The X-59 is designed to fly faster than Mach 1 while reducing the resulting sonic boom to a thump for people on the ground. NASA will evaluate this technology during flight tests as part of the agency’s Quesst mission, which helps enable commercial supersonic air travel over land.
For more information about NASA's quiet supersonic mission, visit:
Zooming in on Star Formation in the Southern Milky Way | ESO
This zoom sequence takes the viewer deep into the spectacular southern Milky Way in the constellation of Carina (The Keel). We see two regions where stars are forming, the very rich cluster NGC 3603 and its surroundings and the strange glowing gas clouds known as NGC 3576. The final detailed views come from images taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.
The star cluster NGC 3603 is located 20,000 light-years away in the Carina–Sagittarius spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The collection of glowing gas clouds, known as NGC 3576, lies only about half as far from Earth.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/G. Beccari/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)
A Close-up Look at Star Formation in the Southern Milky Way | ESO
This pan video gives a close-up view of a spectacular mosaic of images from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile that shows two dramatic star formation regions in the southern Milky Way. The first is of these, on the left, is dominated by the star cluster NGC 3603, located 20,000 light-years away, in the Carina–Sagittarius spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The second object, on the right, is a collection of glowing gas clouds known as NGC 3576 that lies only about half as far from Earth.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/G. Beccari
This mosaic of images from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows two dramatic star formation regions in the southern Milky Way. The first of these, on the left, is dominated by the star cluster NGC 3603, located about 20,000 light-years away, in the Carina–Sagittarius spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The second object, on the right, is a collection of glowing gas clouds known as NGC 3576 that lies only about half as far from Earth.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/G. Beccari
The Eta Aquariids meteor shower was captured in this stunning image by astrophotographer Petr Horálek. It was taken near San Pedro de Atacama, a Chilean town about 50 km away from the Chajnantor observatory site, where APEX and ALMA, astronomical facilities co-owned by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), are located. The Eta Aquariids meteors are caused by leftover debris from Halley’s comet and make up the bright, arrow-like darts of light in the photo.
The luminous object towards the bottom of the sky is Venus. Above it, arranged in a satisfying line, are several planets in conjunction. Directly above Venus is Jupiter, followed by the bright red Mars, and then Saturn. Conjunctions such as this are rare, often occurring decades apart. The planets also trace the zodiacal light, the faint glow stretching like a pillar, up towards the bright stellar-dense center of the Milky Way, our home galaxy.
Zodiacal light is often seen from dark sites like ESO observatories just after sunset, or before sunrise, and is the reflected sunlight from dust particles in the plane of the Solar System. The dust comes from asteroids, passing comets, and even from other inner Solar System planets, such as Mars. Here we see the zodiacal light paired with the red sunset over the mountains and volcanoes surrounding the Chajnantor site, a spectacular backdrop to this dreamy night sky.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/P. Horalek
Red Giant Star U Camelopardalis Blows a Bubble | Hubble
A bright star is surrounded by a tenuous shell of gas in this unusual image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. U Camelopardalis, or U Cam for short, is a star nearing the end of its life. As it begins to run low on fuel, it is becoming unstable. Every few thousand years, it coughs out a nearly spherical shell of gas as a layer of helium around its core begins to fuse. The gas ejected in the star’s latest eruption is clearly visible in this picture as a faint bubble of gas surrounding the star.
U Cam is an example of a carbon star. This is a rare type of star whose atmosphere contains more carbon than oxygen. Due to its low surface gravity, typically as much as half of the total mass of a carbon star may be lost by way of powerful stellar winds.
Located in the constellation of Camelopardalis (The Giraffe), near the North Celestial Pole, U Cam itself is actually much smaller than it appears in Hubble’s picture. In fact, the star would easily fit within a single pixel at the center of the image. Its brightness, however, is enough to overwhelm the capability of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys making the star look much bigger than it really is.
The shell of gas, which is both much larger and much fainter than its parent star, is visible in intricate detail in Hubble’s portrait. While phenomena that occur at the ends of stars’ lives are often quite irregular and unstable, the shell of gas expelled from U Cam is almost perfectly spherical.
The image was produced with the High Resolution Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble, NASA and H. Olofsson (Onsala Space Observatory)
A Tour of Giant Star AG Carinae in Carina | Hubble
Space Sparks Episode 3: This video showcases AG Carinae—a star in the constellation Carina. It is classified as a luminous blue variable (LBV) and is one of the most luminous stars in the Milky Way. It shines with the brilliance of 1 million suns. AG Carinae is a few million years old and resides 20,000 light-years away. This giant star is waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self-destruction. The star is surrounded by an expanding shell of gas and dust—a nebula—that is shaped by the powerful winds emanating from the star. The nebula is about five light-years wide, equal to the distance from here to our nearest star, Alpha Centauri.
AG Carinae is formally classified as a Luminous Blue Variable because it is hot (blue), very luminous, and variable. Such stars are quite rare because there are not many stars that are so massive. Luminous Blue Variable stars continuously lose mass in the final stages of their life, during which a significant amount of stellar material is ejected into the surrounding interstellar space, until enough mass has been lost that the star has reached a stable state.
AG Carinae is surrounded by a spectacular nebula, formed by material ejected by the star during several of its past outbursts. The nebula is approximately 10,000 years old, and the observed velocity of the gas is approximately 70 kilometers per second. While this nebula looks like a ring, it is in fact a hollow shell rich in gas and dust, the center of which has been cleared by the powerful stellar wind travelling at roughly 200 kilometers per second. The gas (composed mostly of ionised hydrogen and nitrogen) is visible to us in these images as a thick bright red ring, which appears doubled in places—possibly the result of several outbursts colliding into each other. The dust, here visible in blue, has formed in clumps, bubbles and filaments that are shaped by the stellar wind.
Scientists who observed the star and its surrounding nebula note that the ring is not perfectly spherical; it appears to have a bipolar symmetry, indicating that the mechanism producing the outburst may have been caused by the presence of a disc in the center, or that the star is not alone but might have a companion (known as a binary star). An alternative and simpler theory is that the star rotates very fast (as many massive stars have been found to do).
This video showcases the 31st anniversary image from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Flight to Maisie's Galaxy: 3D Time Travel| James Webb Space Telescope
This 3D visualization portrays about 5,000 galaxies within a small portion of the CEERS (Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science) Survey, which gathered data from a region known as the Extended Groth Strip. As the camera flies away from our viewpoint, each second amounts to traveling 200 million light-years into the data set, and seeing 200 million years further into the past. The appearances of the galaxies change, reflecting the fact that more distant objects are seen at earlier times in the universe, when galaxies were less developed. The video ends at Maisie’s Galaxy, which formed only 390 million years after the big bang, or about 13.4 billion years ago.
Video Credits: Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
Visualization:
Frank Summers (STScI), Greg Bacon (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Leah Hustak (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Science:
Steve Finkelstein (UT Austin), Rebecca Larson (RIT), Micaela Bagley (UT Austin)
Duration: 1 minute, 16 seconds Release Date: July 10, 2023
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