Narrated Tour of NASA Fermi Space Telescope's 14-Year Gamma-Ray Time-Lapse

Narrated Tour of NASA Fermi Space Telescope's 14-Year Gamma-Ray Time-Lapse

The cosmos comes alive in an all-sky time-lapse video made from 14 years of data acquired by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Our Sun, occasionally flaring into prominence, serenely traces a path though the sky against the backdrop of high-energy sources within our galaxy and beyond.

Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light. This video shows the intensity of gamma rays with energies above 200 million electron volts (MeV) detected by Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) between August 2008 and August 2022. For comparison, visible light has energies between 2 and 3 electron volts. Brighter colors mark the locations of more intense gamma-ray sources.

The video presents the sky in two different views. The rectangular view shows the entire sky with the center of our galaxy in the middle. This highlights the central plane of the Milky Way, which glows in gamma rays produced from cosmic rays striking interstellar gas and starlight. It is also flecked with many other sources, including neutron stars and supernova remnants. Above and below this central band, we are looking out of our galaxy and into the wider universe, peppered with bright, rapidly changing sources.

Most of these are actually distant galaxies, and they are better seen in a different view centered on our galaxy’s north and south poles. Each of these galaxies, called blazars, hosts a central black hole with a mass of a million or more Suns. Somehow, the black holes produce extremely fast-moving jets of matter, and with blazars we’re looking almost directly down one of these jets, a view that enhances their brightness and variability.

Many of these galaxies are extremely far away. For example, the light from a blazar known as 4C +21.35 has been traveling for 4.6 billion years, which means that a flare up we see today actually occurred as our Sun and solar system were beginning to form. Other bright blazars are more than twice as distant, and together provide striking snapshots of black hole activity throughout cosmic time.

Not seen in the time-lapse are many short-duration events that Fermi studies, such as gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful cosmic explosions. This is a result of processing data across several days to sharpen the images.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and NASA/DOE/LAT Collaboration

Producer: Scott Wiessinger (Rothe Ares Joint Venture)

Science writer: Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park)

Visualizer: Seth Digel (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Narrator: Judith Racusin (NASA/GSFC)

Scientist: Judith Racusin (NASA/GSFC)

Duration: 6 minutes

Release Date: Dec. 20, 2023

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #NeutronStars #SupernovaRemnants #Blazars #BlackHoles #Galaxies #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophysics #Physics #GammaRaySpaceTelescope #FermiMission #GSFC #UnitedStates #France #STEM #Education #Timelapse #HD #Video

Recientemente: Un nuevo viaje para una misión a un asteroide

Recientemente: Un nuevo viaje para una misión a un asteroide

Recientemente en la NASA, la versión en español de las cápsulas This Week at NASA, te informa semanalmente de lo que está sucediendo en la NASA. 

Ciencia de la NASA: https://ciencia.nasa.gov

Para obtener más información sobre la ciencia de la NASA, suscríbete al boletín semanal: https://www.nasa.gov/suscribete

Credit: NASA en Español

Duration: 2 minutes, 25 seconds

Release Date: Jan. 2, 2024 

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #OSIRISRExMission #OSIRISAPEXMission #OSIRISAPEXSpacecraft #Asteroids #RocketEngine #3DPrinting #SpaceTechnology #CSA #Canada #CNES #France #JSC #GSFC #UArizona #UnitedStates #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #STEM #Education #HD #Video

X-Class: A Guide to Solar Flares | NASA Goddard

X-Class: A Guide to Solar Flares | NASA Goddard

Flares happen when the powerful magnetic fields in and around the sun reconnect. They are usually associated with active regions, often seen as sun spots, where the magnetic fields are strongest. Flares are classified according to their strength. The smallest ones are B-class, followed by C, M and X, the largest. Similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes, each letter represents a ten-fold increase in energy output. So an X is 10 times an M and 100 times a C. Within each letter class, there is a finer scale from 1 to 9. C-class flares are too weak to noticeably affect Earth. M-class flares can cause brief radio blackouts at the poles and minor radiation storms that might endanger astronauts. Although X is the last letter, there are flares more than 10 times the power of an X1, so X-class flares can go higher than 9.

The most powerful flare on record was in 2003, during the last solar maximum. It was so powerful that it overloaded the sensors measuring it. They cut-out at X28. A powerful X-class flare like that can create long lasting radiation storms, which can harm satellites and even give airline passengers, flying near the poles, small radiation doses. X flares also have the potential to create global transmission problems and world-wide blackouts. 

Learn more about solar flares:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/solarcycle25/2022/06/10/solar-flares-faqs/

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Duration: 3 minutes

Release Date: Aug. 9, 2011

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #SpaceWeather #Sun #Star #Solar #SolarFlares #XClassFlares #Ultraviolet #Plasma #MagneticField #Radiation #Astrophysics #Heliophysics #Physics #Spacecraft #Satellite #HumanSpaceflight #SDO #GSFC #NOAA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Sun Emits X5.0 Class Solar Flare | NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

The Sun Emits X5.0 Class Solar Flare | NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

The Sun emitted a X5.0 class solar flare on December 31, 2023, peaking at 21:55 UTC. Solar flares are sudden explosions of energy in the Sun’s atmosphere that can release a lot of radiation into space. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

Learn more about solar flares:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/solarcycle25/2022/06/10/solar-flares-faqs/

Video Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory movies courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams

Acknowledgement: SciNews

Duration: 1 minutes, 23 seconds

Release Date: Jan. 2, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #SpaceWeather #Sun #Star #Solar #SolarFlare #X5Flare #Ultraviolet #Science #Plasma #MagneticField #Astrophysics #Heliophysics #Physics #Spacecraft #Satellite #SDO #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Sunrise over Earth | International Space Station

Sunrise over Earth | International Space Station

As the International Space Station orbited over the southern Indian Ocean, an astronaut looked eastward and captured this photo of the Sun rising above Earth’s horizon.

This edge-on photo of Earth’s limb reveals several atmospheric layers. The lowest layer, known as the troposphere, appears orange and red as these wavelengths of light are scattered by particles of dust, smoke, and smog. Directly above the troposphere is the stratosphere. This blue layer is usually cloud-free and extends as much as 50 kilometers (30 miles) above Earth’s surface. The region directly above the stratosphere is known as the mesosphere.

The Sun—the focal point in this image—is front and center in NASA’s Heliophysics Big Year. This “big year” celebration began with the annular solar eclipse in October 2023 and continues with a total solar eclipse in April 2024. It concludes with the Parker Solar Probe’s closest approach to the Sun in December 2024.

The total solar eclipse in April 2024 will pass over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. In addition to putting on an impressive show, the eclipse offers research opportunities including the chance for scientists to study the Sun’s effect on Earth’s ionosphere. This is the region spanning from about 80–600 kilometers (50–400 miles) above Earth’s surface, overlapping with the top of the atmosphere and the beginning of space. It is where the space station and other satellites in low Earth orbit hang out, and where radio and GPS signals bounce around.

During a solar eclipse, astronauts on the space station can sometimes see the Moon’s shadow passing over Earth. Views of sunrises are much more common with astronauts witnessing as many as 16 sunrises every 24 hours.

Astronaut photograph ISS070-E-1178 was acquired on September 29, 2023, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 170 millimeters. The image was provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 70 crew. It has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed.

Image Credit: NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

Image Date: Sept. 29, 2023

Caption Credit: Kathryn Hansen

Release Date: Jan. 1, 2024

#NASA #Space #Science #ISS #Planet #Earth #Sun #Sunrise #OrbitalSunrise #Atmosphere #IndiaOcean #Astronauts #Cosmonauts #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceTechnology #UnitedStates #Russia #Роскосмос #JAXA #Japan #SpaceResearch #SpaceLaboratory #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #Expedition70 #InternationalCooperation #STEM #Education

What's Up for January 2024 | Skywatching Tips from NASA | JPL

What's Up for January 2024 | Skywatching Tips from NASA | JPL

Here are examples of skywatching highlights for January 2024. The year 2024 kicks off with the Quadrantid meteors, and great Moon-planet pairings. Plus, did you know the stars shift in the sky by four minutes each day?

The Quadrantids peak during early-January each year and are considered to be one of the best annual meteor showers.

Lear more about the Quadrantids Meteor Shower: 

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/meteors-meteorites/quadrantids/

Find events & clubs: NASA's Night Sky Network: https://science.nasa.gov/skywatching/night-sky-network/

Skywatching resources from NASA: https://science.nasa.gov/skywatching

Make your own Moon phases calendar and calculator with this activity: https://go.nasa.gov/3MI65iL

0:00 Intro 

0:15 Quadrantid meteor shower

0:54 Moon & planet highlights

2:12 4-minute-per-day rule

3:46 January Moon phases

Video Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Duration: 4 minutes

Release Date: Jan. 2, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Skywatching #Earth #Moon #Planets #Jupiter #Meteors #Quadrantids #MeteorShower #Bolides #Asteroids #SolarSystem #Stars #Constellations #MilkyWayGalaxy #JPL #Caltech #Skywatching #UnitedStates #Canada #Mexico #NorthernHemisphere #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Near-Earth Asteroids Found to Date | Planetary Defense January 2024 | NASA 360

Near-Earth Asteroids Found to Date | Planetary Defense January 2024 | NASA 360

What do we know about the asteroids and comets in Earth's neighborhood? Planetary defense—including finding, tracking, and characterizing these near-Earth objects—is part of our mission. Here is what we have discovered so far.

Explore more about NASA's planetary defense efforts: www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense

Credit: NASA 360

Duration: 1 minute, 13 seconds

Release Date: Jan. 2, 2024

#NASA #Space #Earth #Planet #PlanetaryDefense #January2024 #Asteroids #AsteroidBelt #Comets #NEO #NEA #SolarSystem #Science #Technology #DARTMission #JHUAPL #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

India Successfully Launches X-ray Astronomy Satellite: XPoSat | ISRO

India Successfully Launches X-ray Astronomy Satellite: XPoSat | ISRO

For the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) PSLV-C58 mission, a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in the “DL” configuration (PSLV-DL/2PSOM-XL+ S139) launched the X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat), from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-SHAR) in Sriharikota, India, on January 1, 2024, at 03:40 UTC (09:10 IST). XPoSat is ISRO’s first dedicated scientific satellite to carry out research in space-based polarization measurements of X-ray emissions from celestial sources.

The 469-kilogram satellite carries two instruments to conduct X-ray polarimetry measurements. Astronomers plan to use the data collected by XPoSat to study neutron stars, black holes and supernovae.

The highlight of 2024 for ISRO, though, will be a series of test flights for its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program. The agency conducted the first such test in October, launching an uncrewed capsule on a suborbital flight to test its launch abort system.

“2024 is going to be the year of Gaganyaan,” S. Somanath, chairman of ISRO, said after the launch, starting with additional abort tests. “This year we are expecting two more such test flights of the test vehicle, followed by the unmanned mission.” This would be an orbital test of the Gaganyaan spacecraft without a crew on board.

Such a schedule implies the first crewed Gaganyaan flight for India would take place no earlier than 2025.

Credit: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

Acknowledgements: SciNews, SpaceNews

Capture Date: Jan. 1, 2024

#NASA #ISRO #Space #Astronomy #Science #Satellites #Rocket #PSLV #PSLVC58 #XPoSat #XrayPolarimeterSatellite #Astrophysics #Universe #SatishDhawanSpaceCentre #SDSC #Sriharikota #India #BhāratGaṇarājya #SpaceTechnology #Engineering #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Stars & The Milky Way | Joshua Tree National Park

Stars & The Milky Way | Joshua Tree National Park

A silhouetted Joshua tree against a night sky landscape featuring our Milky Way galaxy. Joshua Tree National Park is an American national park in southeastern California, east of San Bernardino and Los Angeles and north of Palm Springs. It is named after the Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) native to the Mojave Desert.

Joshua Tree National Park

https://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm

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

Image Credit: U.S. National Park Service/Anna Cirimele

Image Date: July 17, 2023

Release Date: Dec. 31, 2023

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #MilkyWayGalaxy #Stars #LightPollution #Astrophotographer #AnnaCirimele #Astrophotography #CitizenScience #Skywatching #Cosmos #Universe #SolarSystem #Earth #JoshuaTrees #JoshuaTreeNationalPark #NPS #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Meteor over Paranal Observatory in Chile: Starting the New Year with a Bang

Meteor over Paranal Observatory in Chile: Starting the New Year with a Bang

Happy New Year from the European Southern Observatory (ESO)! Firework displays are used to mark the beginning of the New Year all over the world, so we thought we would bring you our own, space-themed display to kick things off in 2024. This is a time-lapse video of the night sky above ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Cerro Paranal, Chile. Look closely, and you will catch a glimpse of an extraterrestrial firework, otherwise known as a meteor. 

Meteors are objects from outer space that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere at high speeds. Often called “shooting stars” or “fireballs”, they create dazzling displays as they crash through our gaseous atmosphere, heating up as a result of friction with the air. In this sped-up time-lapse, captured in June last year, the meteor left behind a trail of smoke that slowly dispersed in the atmosphere. There are estimates that about 44 tons of meteoric material fall into Earth’s atmosphere each day—six times the amount of fireworks used in the famed Sydney Harbor display on New Year’s Eve.

The year 2023 marked a significant milestone for the Very Large Telescope (VLT), our flagship facility celebrated its 25th birthday. Comprising four 8.2-meter Unit Telescopes, two of which are visible in the showcased video, and four 1.8-meter Auxiliary Telescopes, one of which is in the foreground, the VLT remains a sharp eye on the sky. 

What is in store for 2024? Expect more groundbreaking discoveries and some exciting upgrades on the horizon. As the VLT continues to push the boundaries of astronomical exploitation, 2024 will likely be brimming with cosmic revelations and advancements.

Video Credit: B. Häußler/ESO

Duration: 21 seconds

Release Date: Jan. 1, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Planet #Earth #Atmosphere #Meteors #Bolides #SolarSystem #MilkWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #VLT #ParanalObservatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #Europe #STEM #Education #Astrophotography #Timelapse #HD #Video

First Sunrise & Workday of 2024 on China's Tiangong Space Station

First Sunrise & Workday of 2024 on China's Tiangong Space Station

Happy New Year! Shenzhou-17 is the sixth crew of three astronauts on a mission to the China Space Station (CSS) and the youngest crew ever. Shenzhou-17 is also the twelfth crewed and seventeenth flight overall of China's Shenzhou spaceflight program. Astronaut Hongbo Tang, commander of the Shenzhou-17 mission, was part of the first batch of Chinese astronauts launched into orbit aboard the Shenzhou-12 mission to China's space station in June 2021. He is the first to visit China's space station twice. 

The three members of the Shenzhou-17 crew have stayed in orbit for over 60 days. They have successfully completed assigned tasks, including moving equipment out of the space station for space experiments, managing equipment and facilities, and maintaining experimental facilities for long-term scientific research.

The three Shenzhou-17 astronauts are expected to spend about six months on China's Tiangong Space Station. The Shenzhou-17 crew launched to the station on October 26, 2023. Shenzhou-17 is the sixth spaceflight to the station.

Shenzhou-17 Crew:

Hongbo Tang (Commander)

Shengjie Tang (Mission Specialist)

Xinlin Jiang (Mission Specialist)

Video Credit: China Manned Space Agency/China National Space Administration (CNSA)/CNSA Watcher

Duration: 2 minutes

Release Date: Jan. 1, 2024

#NASA #Space #China #中国 #Shenzhou17 #神舟十七号 #Taikonauts #Astronauts #HappyNewYear2024 #HongboTang #ShengjieTang #XinlinJiang #SpaceLaboratory #CSS #ChinaSpaceStation #TiangongSpaceStation #中国空间站 #CMSA #国家航天局 #Science #SpaceTechnology #HumanSpaceflight #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Happy New Year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center

Happy New Year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center!

A new year dawns here on the Space Coast with more rockets, more science, and more wildlife in 2024!

From our spaceport family to yours, we wish you a healthy and Happy New Year!

Learn more about the Kennedy Space Center:

https://www.nasa.gov/kennedy/

Learn about Center Director Janet Petro: 

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/biographies/petro.html

Credit: Kennedy Space Center (KSC) 

Release Date: Jan. 1, 2024

#NASA #NASAKennedy #KSC #HappyNewYear2024 #Space #Science #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #Earth #Moon #ArtemisProgram #MoonToMars #Research #SwampWorks #Robotics #LaunchServicesProgram #LSP #SpaceX #Spaceport #SpaceCoast #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Reflection Nebula IC426 in Orion | Mayall Telescope

Reflection Nebula IC426 in Orion | Mayall Telescope

IC 426 is a reflection nebula in the constellation of Orion. Reflection nebulae often look a ghostly bluish color because they reflect scattered light from bright stars nearby (the red light is absorbed by dust in the nebula). Mintaka, the westernmost star in the belt of Orion, is thought to be the star illuminating IC 426.

The Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope is a four-meter (158 inches) reflector telescope in Arizona named after the American observational astronomer of the same name. The telescope saw first light on February 27, 1973, and was the second-largest in the world at that time

Credit: T. A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

Release Date: June 30, 2020

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebulae #Nebula #IC426 #ReflectionNebula #Star #Mintaka #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #KittPeakNationalObservatory #KPNO #MayallTelescope #Arizona #NSF #AURA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Einstein Rings: Cosmic 'Funhouse Mirrors' | Hubble Science | NASA Goddard

Einstein Rings: Cosmic 'Funhouse Mirrors' | Hubble Science | NASA Goddard

An Einstein Ring can be explained by a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, which causes light shining from a faraway galaxy to be warped by the gravity of an object between its source and the observer. This effect was first theorized by Albert Einstein in 1912, and later worked into his theory of general relativity.

In this video, Dr. Brian Welch explains this fascinating phenomenon of nature, and goes over how important Hubble is to exploring the mysteries of the universe.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Video Credit: M. Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble)

Producer & Director: James Leigh

Editor: Lucy Lund

Director of Photography: James Ball

Additional Editing & Photography: Matthew Duncan

Executive Producers: James Leigh & Matthew Duncan

Production & Post: Origin Films 

Duration: 2 minutes, 19 seconds

Release Date: March 14, 2023

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Astrophysics #EinsteinRings #Physics #AlbertEinstein #GravitationalLensing #OpticalIllusions #Cosmos #Universe #HST #SpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Pan of Einstein Ring: Distant Galactic Light | Hubble Space Telescope

Pan of Einstein Ring: Distant Galactic Light | Hubble Space Telescope

In this image, we are looking at a very distant galaxy that lies 19.5 billion light-years from Earth. A much closer luminous red galaxy that is a (relatively) small 2.7 billion light-years away is also present. Furthermore, there is a third galaxy that appears to be fairly close to the second. 

The central bright dot in this image is one of the closer galaxies, known by the lengthy—but informative—name of SDSS J020941.27+001558.4 (galaxy names in this format provide precise information about their location in the sky). The other bright dot above it—that appears to be intersecting a curving crescent of light—is SDSS J020941.23+001600.7, the second closer galaxy. And finally, that curving crescent of light itself is the ‘lensed’ light from the very distant galaxy. This is known as HerS J020941.1+001557. It is an interesting example of a phenomenon known as an Einstein ring.

Image Description: A field full of distant galaxies on a dark background. Most of the galaxies are very small, but there are a few larger galaxies and some stars where detail can be made out. In the very center there is an elliptical galaxy with a brightly glowing core and a broad disc. A reddish, warped ring of light, thicker at one side, surrounds its core. A small galaxy intersects the ring as a bright dot.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Nayyeri, L. Marchetti, J. Lowenthal, N. Bartmann  

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: Dec. 22, 2023

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Galaxies #HerSJ0209411001557 #SDSSJ020941270015584 #SDSSJ020941230016007 #Astrophysics #EinsteinRings #Physics #AlbertEinstein #GravitationalLensing #OpticalIllusions #Cosmos #Universe #HST #SpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Einstein Ring: Distant Galactic Light | Hubble Space Telescope

Einstein Ring: Distant Galactic Light | Hubble Space Telescope

What are we looking at when we study this image? A very distant galaxy that lies 19.5 billion light-years from Earth? Or a much closer luminous red galaxy that is a (relatively) small 2.7 billion light-years away? Or a third galaxy that appears to be fairly close to the second? The answer, perhaps confusingly, is that we are looking at all three. More precisely, we are looking at light emitted from all of those galaxies, even though the most distant galaxy lies directly behind the first as seen from Earth. In fact, it is that very alignment that makes the particular visuals in this image possible.

The central bright dot in this image is one of the closer galaxies, known by the lengthy—but informative—name of SDSS J020941.27+001558.4 (galaxy names in this format provide precise information about their location in the sky). The other bright dot above it—that appears to be intersecting a curving crescent of light—is SDSS J020941.23+001600.7, the second closer galaxy. And finally, that curving crescent of light itself is the ‘lensed’ light from the very distant galaxy. This is known as HerS J020941.1+001557, and it is also an interesting example of a phenomenon known as an Einstein ring.

Einstein rings occur when light from a very distant object is bent (or ‘lensed’) about a massive intermediate (or ‘lensing)’ object. This is possible because spacetime, the fabric of the Universe itself, is bent by mass, and therefore light travelling through spacetime is as well. This is much too subtle to be observed on a local level, but sometimes becomes clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales, for example, when the light emitted from a galaxy is bent around another galaxy or galaxy cluster. When the lensed object and the lensing object line up just so, the result is the distinctive Einstein ring shape, which appears as a full or partial circle of light around the lensing object, depending on how precise the alignment is. This partial Einstein ring is of particular interest as it was identified thanks to a citizen science project—Space Warps—meaning that members of the public enabled the discovery of this object!

Image Description: A field full of distant galaxies on a dark background. Most galaxies are very small, but there are a few larger galaxies and stars where detail can be made out. In the very center there is an elliptical galaxy with a brightly glowing core and a broad disc. A reddish, warped ring of light, thicker at one side, surrounds its core. A small galaxy intersects the ring as a bright dot.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Nayyeri, L. Marchetti, J. Lowenthal

Release Date: Jan. 1, 2024

#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Galaxies #HerSJ0209411001557 #SDSSJ020941270015584 #SDSSJ020941230016007 #Astrophysics #EinsteinRings #Physics #AlbertEinstein #GravitationalLensing #OpticalIllusions #Cosmos #Universe #HST #SpaceTelescope #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education