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Saturday, July 15, 2023

Wide-field View: Star-forming Region LHA 120–N 44 | ESO

Wide-field View: Star-forming Region LHA 120–N 44 | ESO

This visible-light wide-field image of the area around the star-forming region LHA 120–N 44 surrounding the star cluster NGC 1929, was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The superbubble appears close to the center and several other star formation regions are visible in the surrounding sky. The field of view is approximately three degrees across.

Lying within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way, this region of star formation features a colossal superbubble of material expanding outwards due to the influence of the cluster of young stars at its heart that sculpts the interstellar landscape and drives forward the nebula’s evolution.

Distance: 170,000 light years

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Digitized Sky Survey 2

Release Date: July 20, 2011

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebulae #Nebula #LHA120N44 #SuperbubbleComplexN44 #StarClusters #StarCluster #NGC1929 #Dorado #Constellation #Galaxies #DwarfGalaxy #LargeMagellanicCloud #LMC #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #VeryLargeTelescope #Chile #SouthAmerica #Europe #STEM #Education

Zooming in on a Superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud | ESO

Zooming in on a Superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud | ESO

This video sequence starts with a wide-field view of the southern Milky Way and the two Magellanic Clouds. As we zoom in, we can see many of the clusters and star formation regions within the Large Magellanic Cloud. In the final sequence we close in on one region, around the star cluster NGC 1929, which features a huge superbubble. This detailed view was captured by the FORS instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Digitized Sky Survey 2/R Gendler/S. Brunier

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: Nov. 27, 2015

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebulae #Nebula #LHA120N44 #SuperbubbleComplexN44 #StarClusters #StarCluster #NGC1929 #Dorado #Constellation #Galaxies #DwarfGalaxy #LargeMagellanicCloud #LMC #Universe #VLT #ParanalObservatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Superbubble Complex N44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud | Gemini Observatory

Superbubble Complex N44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud | Gemini Observatory

Known as the N44 superbubble complex, this cloudy tempest is dominated by a vast bubble about 325 by 250 light-years across. A cluster of massive stars inside the cavern has cleared away gas to form a distinctive mouth-shaped hollow shell. While astronomers do not agree on exactly how this bubble has evolved, for as long as 10 million years, they do know that the central cluster of massive stars is responsible for the cloud’s unusual appearance. It is likely that the explosive death of one or more of the cluster’s most massive and short-lived stars played a key role in the formation of the large bubble.

This image provides one of the most detailed views ever obtained of this relatively large region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, located some 150,000 light-years away and visible from the Southern Hemisphere. The image captures light of specific colors that reveal the compression of material and the presence of gases (primarily excited hydrogen gas and lesser amounts of oxygen and “shocked” sulfur) in the cloud. Multiple smaller bubbles appear in the image as bulbous growths clinging to the central superbubble.

Most of these regions were probably formed as part of the same process that shaped the central cluster. Their formation could also have been “sparked” by compression as the central stars pushed the surrounding gas outward. Our view into this cavern is believed to be like looking through an elongated tube, which gives the object its monstrous mouth-like appearance.

Credit: International Gemini Observatory

Release Date: Jan. 4, 2006

#NASA #NOIRLab #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebulae #Nebula #LHA120N44 #SuperbubbleComplexN44 #StarClusters #StarCluster #NGC1929 #Dorado #Constellation #Galaxies #DwarfGalaxy #LargeMagellanicCloud #LMC #Cosmos #Universe #GeminiObservatory #GeminiSouthTelescope #CerroPachón #Chile #SouthAmerica #NSF #AURA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Superbubble LHA 120-N 44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud | ESO

Superbubble LHA 120-N 44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud | ESO

The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has been used to obtain this view of the nebula LHA 120-N 44 surrounding the star cluster. Lying within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way, this region of star formation features a colossal superbubble of material expanding outwards due to the influence of the cluster of young stars at its heart that sculpts the interstellar landscape and drives forward the nebula’s evolution.

Distance: 170,000 light years

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Manu Mejias

Release Date: July 20, 2011

Red Bloom of The Gum Nebula above Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile

Red Bloom of The Gum Nebula above Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile

Below the southern skies, the telescopes of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, bask in the starlight of the brilliant Milky Way. Speckled with multi-colored stars, our home galaxy in this image stretches down into the city-lit horizon, just grazing past the 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope (left) and the 1.5-meter SMARTS Telescope (right).

The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds that accompany our home galaxy are seen to the left of the Blanco telescope. In between the telescopes blooms a deep shade of red that permeates through the tendrils of the Milky Way. This is the Gum Nebula, an emission nebula that blazes with the light of gas ionized by its host stars about 1,400 light years from Earth. From our perspective it holds a bountiful number of cosmic objects, from globular clusters, to the Vela Pulsar, and even to an 11,000-year-old supernova remnant.

Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)/T. Slovinský

Image Date: June 14, 2023

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #MilkyWayGalaxy #Nebulae #GumNebula #Gum12 #EmissionNebula #VelaPulsar #PSRJ08354510 #SupernovaRemnant #Galaxies #MagellanicClouds #SMC #LMC #Cosmos #Universe #CTIO #VíctorBlancoTelescope #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #Chile #SouthAmerica #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS

Comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS

Comet C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) was just spotted in March 2023, another comet found by the NASA funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). On July 1, 2023, this Comet ATLAS reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun. Days later the telescopic comet was captured in this frame sporting a pretty greenish coma and faint, narrow ion tail against a background of stars in the far northern constellation Ursa Minor. This comet's closest approach to Earth is still to come though. On August 18 this visitor to the inner Solar System will be a mere 3 light-minutes or so from our fair planet. Based on its inclination to the ecliptic plane and orbital period of about 85 years C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) is considered a Halley-type comet.

Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett

Dan's website:

https://www.astrobin.com/users/h2ologg/

Image Date: July 1, 2023

Release Date: July 14, 2023

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Sun #Earth #Comets #CometC2023E1 #CometATLAS #Perihelion #UrsaMinor #Constellation #SolarSystem #Astrophotography #DanBartlett #Astrophotographer #CitizenScience #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #APoD

Friday, July 14, 2023

Celebrating the Webb Space Telescope’s First Year of Science | This Week @NASA

Celebrating the Webb Space Telescope’s First Year of Science | This Week @NASA

Celebrating the Webb Space Telescope’s first year of science, testing remote possibilities of a NASA humanoid robot, and a fleet of clean new rides for Artemis astronauts . . . a few of the stories to tell you about This Week at NASA!

Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Video Producer, Editor & Narrator: Andre Valentine

Duration: 2 minutes, 49 seconds

Release Date: July 14, 2023

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #ArtemisProgram #CrewVehicles #Astronauts #InterstellarClouds #Nebulae #RhoOphiuchiCloudComplex #Infrared #Ophiuchus #Constellation #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #JWST #Cosmos #Universe #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA Orion Crew Modules for Artemis II, Artemis III & Artemis IV Moon Missions

NASA Orion Crew Modules for Artemis II, Artemis III & Artemis IV Moon Missions

FriendsofNASA.org: The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s crewed Artemis II (right), Artemis III (left) and Artemis IV (center) Moon missions are stationed next to each other inside the high bay of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 22, 2023. Each capsule is in a different stage of production as technicians and engineers prepare the spacecraft to carry astronauts to and around the Moon on their upcoming flights.

Technicians recently installed the heat shield on the Artemis II crew module, and teams are preparing to conduct acoustic testing later this summer. Once complete, the crew module will be joined with its service module in preparation to fly four astronauts around the Moon.

The Artemis III crew module, which will carry the next astronauts to step foot on the lunar surface from Earth to their human landing system and return them home, was removed from the clean room inside the high bay to complete a series of pressure and leak tests. The Artemis IV crew module arrived at the spaceport in February and is in the early stages of the assembly process.

Learn more about the NASA Artemis Program:

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis

Learn more about the Artemis II Mission:

https://www.nasa.gov/subject/14152/artemis-ii-was-exploration-mission-2/

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Orion/Artemis_II

Image Credit: NASA/Marie Reed

Release Date: July 13, 2023

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Earth #Moon #MoonToMars #Mars #Artemis #ArtemisII #ArtemisIII #ArtemisIV #OrionSpacecraft #Astronauts #Science #HumanSpaceflight #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #Spaceport #KSC #Florida #UnitedStates #Europe #ESA #STEM #Education

Fires Rage in British Columbia, Canada | NASA Aqua Earth Satellite

Fires Rage in British Columbia, Canada | NASA Aqua Earth Satellite

In July 2023, a combination of unusual heat, dry lightning, and drought fueled major outbreaks of fire in Canada. According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC), nearly 600 out-of-control fires burned throughout the country on July 13, 2023, with about half of these raging in British Columbia or Alberta.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on July 12, 2023. Dense plumes of smoke billowing from several of the largest fires streamed east, prompting Environment Canada to issue air quality warnings for several communities in British Columbia, Alberta, and the Northwest Territories.

Several blazes in British Columbia have produced smoke-infused storm clouds known as pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) in recent weeks, though the features are not apparent in this image. Scientists track these towering, heat-generated storms closely because they loft smoke high in the atmosphere where fast-moving upper-level winds spread the smoke widely.

“We observed 14 pyroCbs with satellites on July 9-10 alone—several in British Columbia and some in Quebec,” said David Peterson, an atmospheric scientist with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. “This surge in activity has made 2023 the most active year for pyroCbs both in Canada and worldwide since we began tracking their numbers closely about a decade ago.” As of July 13, with about six weeks left in the Canadian fire season, Peterson and colleagues had observed 90 pyroCbs in Canada and 104 worldwide in 2023. The previous records, both set in 2021, were 50 for Canada and 100 worldwide.

That is not the only remarkable aspect of the fires in Canada. More than 1.2 million hectares (3 million acres) had burned in British Columbia as of July 12 , 2023, roughly 30 times the average for that point in the year.

The large amount of burned area in British Columbia contributed to record-breaking burned area totals at a national scale. Across Canada, fires had charred 9.4 million hectares as of July 12, an area about the size of the state of Indiana. That is well ahead of the 7.1 million hectares burned in 1997, the second-highest year on the CIFFC record. A major outbreak of fire in eastern Canada in June also contributed to the high numbers.

Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC): https://ciffc.ca

NASA's Aqua Satellite: https://aqua.nasa.gov/

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview

Story Credit: Adam Voiland

Release Date: July 12, 2023

#NASA #Space #Earth #Planet #Satellites #Science #Atmosphere #Weather #Meteorology #Canada #BritishColumbia #Alberta #Wildfires #Fires #Smoke #Clouds #Pyrocumulonimbus #PyroCb #AquaSatellite #MODIS #EarthObservingSystem #EarthObservation #Climate #ClimateChange #GlobalHeating #Environment #RemoteSensing #STEM #Education

Large Magellanic Cloud: Large & Small Stars in Harmonious Coexistence | Hubble

Large Magellanic Cloud: Large & Small Stars in Harmonious Coexistence | Hubble

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a star forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This sharp image reveals a large number of low-mass infant stars coexisting with young massive stars.

Distance: ~160,000 light years

Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA)

Release Date: August 14, 2006

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Stars #Nebulae #StarFormation #Nebula #LH95 #Dorado #Constellation #LMC #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #HST #HubbleSpaceTelescope #STScI #GSFC #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

The Milky Way & Magellanic Cloud: Southern Hemisphere View 'Down Under'

The Milky Way & Magellanic Cloud: Southern Hemisphere View 'Down Under'

Two galaxies are easily visible in this night sky image above Australia—The Milky Way and an irregular dwarf galaxy, called the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), located about 160,000 light years away. Orbiting The Milky Way Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud satellite galaxy is a member of the Local Group. The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes our Milky Way.

Two galaxies are easily visible in this night sky image above Australia—The Milky Way and irregular dwarf galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), located about 160,000 light years away. Orbiting The Milky Way Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud satellite galaxy is a member of the Local Group. The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way.

Astrophotographer Mark Wright: "Place to yourself . . . The beach was completely isolated with perfectly clear skies on my last night of camping. I'd been looking for conditions like this for the whole week, and it all came good at the very end. Needless to say I spent the whole night imaging! (and paid the price afterwards)"

From the glowing arc of the Milky Way to dozens of intricate constellations, the unaided human eye should be able to perceive several thousand stars on a clear, dark night. Unfortunately, growing light pollution has robbed about 30% of people around the globe and approximately 80% of people in the United States of the nightly view of their home galaxy. Source: Globe at Night—a citizen science program run by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab.

The Fading Milky Way

Light pollution is a growing environmental problem that threatens to erase the night sky before its time. A recent study revealed that perhaps two-thirds of the world's population can no longer look upwards at night and see the Milky Way—a hazy swath of stars that on warm summer nights spans the sky from horizon to horizon.

The Milky Way is dimming, not because the end of the Universe is near, but rather as a result of light pollution: the inadvertent illumination of the atmosphere from street lights, outdoor advertising, homes, schools, airports and other sources. Every night billions of bulbs send their energy skyward where microscopic bits of matter—air molecules, airborne dust, and water vapor droplets—reflect much of the wasted light back to Earth.

(Source: NASA)

Learn more:

International Dark-Sky Association

https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution

Globe at Night

https://www.globeatnight.org

Night Sky Network (NASA/JPL)

https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

Tourism Australia: https://www.australia.com

Image Credit: Mark Wright

Mark's website:

https://www.facebook.com/people/TreeHaus-Nature-Imagery/100058710082643/

Location: Squeaky Beach, Wilsons Promontory, state of Victoria, Australia

Image Date: February 24, 2023

Release Date: July 8, 2023

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Galaxies #MilkyWayGalaxy #Galaxy #LargeMagellanicCloud #LMC #Stars #LightPollution #NOIRLab #GlobeAtNight #NightSkyNetwork #CitizenScience #Astrophotographer #MarkWright #Astrophotography #Cosmos #Universe #SolarSystem #Earth #SqueakyBeach #WilsonsPromontory #Victoria #Australia #STEM #Education

NASA's Space to Ground: Watershed Moment | Week of July 14, 2023

NASA's Space to Ground: Watershed Moment | Week of July 14, 2023

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. Note: Northrop Grumman’s 19th commercial resupply mission is launching no earlier than Tuesday, August 1, 2023.

Follow Expedition 69 updates here:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 69 Crew (July 2023)

Station Commander: Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos (Russia)

Roscosmos (Russia): Flight Engineers Dmitri Petelin & Andrey Fedyaev

Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

NASA: Flight Engineers Frank Rubio, Stephen Bowen, Warren Hoburg

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 Station:

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

For more information about STEM on Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 3 minutes

Release Date: July 13, 2023

#NASA #Space #ISS #Earth #Science #Astronauts #FrankRubio #LongDurationSpaceflight #StephenBowen #WoodyHoburg #SultanAlneyadi #UAE #MBRSC #Cosmonauts #HumanSpaceflight #Technology #Russia #Роскосмос #Microgravity #SpaceResearch #SpaceLaboratory #UnitedStates #Expedition69 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

India's Chandrayaan-3 Robotic Moon Lander Mission Launch | ISRO

India's Chandrayaan-3 Robotic Moon Lander Mission Launch | ISRO

A GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle (LVM3-M4) successfully launched the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission, from the Second Launch Pad (SLP) of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, India, on July 14, 2023, at 09:05 UTC (14:35 local time). Chandrayaan-3, ISRO’s third lunar exploration mission, consists of a propulsion module, a lander and a rover.

After reaching the moon, Chandrayaan-3 is planned to land about 70.9 degrees south of the lunar equator. Chandrayaan-3 is India's effort to become the fourth country, after the United States, Russia and China, to successfully soft-land on the Moon.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft would also be the first to land at the lunar south pole, an area of special interest for space agencies and private space companies because of the presence of water ice that could support future surface activities.

Credit: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

Release Date: July 14, 2023

#NASA #ISRO #Space #Astronomy #Science #Moon #SouthPole #India #LVM3Rocket #Chandrayaan3Mission #Chandrayaan3Spacecraft #Chandrayaan3Orbiter #Chandrayaan3Lander #Robotics #Technology #SatishDhawanSpaceCentre #Sriharikota #AndhraPradesh #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #STEM #Education #BhāratGaṇarājya

India's Chandrayaan-3 Robotic Moon Lander Mission Launch | ISRO

India's Chandrayaan-3 Robotic Moon Lander Mission Launch | ISRO

Credit: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

Acknowledgement: SciNews

Duration: 4 minutes, 30 seconds

Release Date: July 14, 2023

Thursday, July 13, 2023

India's Chandrayaan-3 Robotic Moon Lander Mission: Prepared for Launch | ISRO

India's Chandrayaan-3 Robotic Moon Lander Mission: Prepared for Launch | ISRO

Chandrayaan-3, which means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, is expected to take off aboard a Launch Vehicle Mark III rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota in southern Andhra Pradesh state at 2:30 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET) on July 14, 2023.

After reaching the Moon, the Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander is planned to touchdown about 70.9 degrees south of the lunar equator. Chandrayaan-3 is India's effort to become the fourth country, after the United States, Russia and China, to successfully soft-land on the Moon.

Image Credit: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

Image Release Dates: July 5-11, 2023

#NASA #ISRO #Space #Astronomy #Science #Earth #Moon #SouthPole #India #LVM3Rocket #Chandrayaan3Mission #Chandrayaan3Spacecraft #Chandrayaan3Orbiter #Chandrayaan3Lander #Robotics #Engineering #Technology #SatishDhawanSpaceCentre #Sriharikota #AndhraPradesh #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #STEM #Education #BhāratGaṇarājya

Ribbons & Pearls: Spiral Galaxy NGC 1398 in Fornax | ESO

Ribbons & Pearls: Spiral Galaxy NGC 1398 in Fornax | ESO

This picture shows spectacular ribbons of gas and dust wrapping around the pearly center of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1398. This galaxy is located in the constellation of Fornax (The Furnace), approximately 65 million light-years away.

Rather than beginning at the very middle of the galaxy and swirling outwards, NGC 1398’s graceful spiral arms stem from a straight bar, formed of stars, that cuts through the galaxy’s central region. Most spiral galaxies—around two thirds—are observed to have this feature, but it is not yet clear whether or how these bars affect a galaxy’s behavior and development.

This image comprises data gathered by the FOcal Reducer/low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument, mounted on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal Observatory, Chile. It shows NGC 1398 in striking detail, from the dark lanes of dust mottling its spiral arms, through to the pink-hued star-forming regions sprinkled throughout its outer regions.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: Jan. 1, 2018

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #ESO #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC1398 #BarredSpiralGalaxy #Fornax #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

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