Saturday, January 06, 2024

The First Artemis Robotic Launch to The Moon | This Week @NASA

The First Artemis Robotic Launch to The Moon This Week @NASA 

Week of January 5, 2024: The first Artemis robotic launch to the Moon, an Artemis lunar robotic rover is halfway built, and an up-close look at a volcanic moon . . . 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

Release Date: Jan. 6, 2024


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #ArtemisProgram #Moon #SouthPole #MonsMouton #WaterIce #Astrobotic #PeregrineLunarLander #Robotics #SpaceTechnology #SpaceExploration #Jupiter #Io #SolarSystem #ULA #VulcanRocket #CLPS #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Friday, January 05, 2024

Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander: Preparing for Launch | NASA CLPS

Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander: Preparing for Launch | NASA CLPS









As part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and Artemis program, United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Astrobotic are currently targeting 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, for the first commercial robotic launch to the Moon’s surface. Carrying NASA science, liftoff of ULA’s Vulcan rocket and Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander will happen from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Launch of Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface. 

Learn more about Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander (Adobe PDF):

https://www.astrobotic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Peregrine-Launch_Info_Packet-Web-1.pdf

Learn about NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) - Astrobotic's Peregrine Mission One:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercial-lunar-payload-services/ 


Image Credits: United Launch Alliance (ULA), NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Image Date: Jan. 5, 2024


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #ArtemisProgram #Moon #SouthPole #MonsMouton #WaterIce #Astrobotic #PeregrineLunarLander #Robotics #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #DeepSpace #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #ULA #VulcanRocket #CLPS #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

NASA's Hydrogen-seeking Instrument Headed to The Moon

NASA's Hydrogen-seeking Instrument Headed to The Moon


The Neutron Spectrometer System is a science instrument capable of indirectly detecting potential water present in the lunar soil at the landing site of Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lander, as a result of the water in the exhaust deposited by the lander’s engines. After landing, the system will measure any changes in the characteristics of the lunar soil over the course of a lunar day.

As part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and Artemis program, United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Astrobotic are targeting 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, for the first commercial robotic launch to the Moon’s surface. Carrying NASA science, liftoff of ULA’s Vulcan rocket and Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander will happen from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Through Artemis, NASA is working with multiple CLPS initiative vendors to establish a regular cadence of payload deliveries to the Moon to perform experiments, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities to help NASA explore the lunar surface. With CLPS, as well as with human exploration near the lunar South Pole, NASA will establish a long-term cadence of Moon missions in preparation for sending the first astronauts to Mars.

Learn more about Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander (Adobe PDF):

https://www.astrobotic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Peregrine-Launch_Info_Packet-Web-1.pdf

Learn about NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) - Astrobotic's Peregrine Mission One:

https://www.nasa.gov/commercial-lunar-payload-services/ 


Credit: NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC)

Duration: 2 minutes

Release Date: Jan. 5, 2023 


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #ArtemisProgram #Moon #SouthPole #MonsMouton #Hydrogen #WaterIce #Astrobotic #PeregrineLunarLander #DeepSpace #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #CLPS #NASAAmes #ARC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Birthplaces of Stars in The Whirlpool Galaxy | Max Planck Institute

The Birthplaces of Stars in The Whirlpool Galaxy | Max Planck Institute

An international research team led by astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) has meticulously mapped expansive cold and dense gas regions, the future stellar nurseries, in a galaxy outside the Milky Way with unprecedented detail. Utilizing the NOEMA interferometer, these observations cover a vast expanse within the galaxy, providing insight into varying conditions conducive to star formation. The data marks a ground-breaking achievement in this type of measurement, allowing researchers, for the first time, to scrutinize the early phases of star formation beyond the Milky Way on scales as minute as individual gas clouds birthing stars.

This video belongs to the MPIA press release of the same name and shows an animation of the distribution of diazenylium and hydrogen cyanide within the Whirlpool Galaxy. Starting from an overview of the galaxy captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, the animation zooms in on the central region. Subsequently, overlays of the signatures of both molecules are presented. While their intensity uniformly increases and decreases across the spiral arms, the brightness of hydrogen cyanide emission rises more significantly in the central area than diazenylium.

MPIA Press Release:

https://www.mpia.de/news/science/2023-17-whirlpool-galaxy-swan


Credits: Thomas Müller (HdA/MPIA); molecular data: S. Stuber et al. (MPIA); background image: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Duration: 26 seconds

Release Date: Jan. 5, 2024


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Galaxies #Galaxy #M51 #WhirlpoolGalaxy #SpiralGalaxy #NGC5194 #CanesVenatici #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #MPIA #Deutschland #Germany #Europe #STEM #Education #Animation #HD #Video

The Pillars of Creation | Hubble’s Inside The Image | NASA Goddard

The Pillars of Creation Hubble’s Inside The Image | NASA Goddard

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken over 1.5 million observations over the years. One of them is the incredible image of The Pillars of Creation.

The Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, situated in the Serpens constellation, stand as celestial marvels. Composed of interstellar gas and dust, these towering structures captivate astronomers and stargazers alike. Shaped by the potent forces of stellar winds and radiation, the pillars, resembling cosmic sentinels, showcase vibrant hues. Functioning as crucibles for stellar birth, they facilitate the creation of new stars in a delicate dance of destruction and formation. The Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula offer a captivating spectacle, inviting observers to contemplate the profound dynamics at play within our ever-evolving cosmic tapestry.

In this video, Dr. Jennifer Wiseman explains this breathtaking image and how important Hubble is to exploring the mysteries of the universe.


Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center 

Producer, Director & Editor: James Leigh

Director of Photography: James Ball

Executive Producers: James Leigh & Matthew Duncan

Production & Post: Origin Films 

Video Credits:

Hubble Space Telescope Animation

ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen) 

Light Echo Animation

NASA/ESA/Hubble - M. Kornmesser

Duration: 3 minutes

Release Date: Jan. 5, 2024


#NASA #Astronomy #Hubble #Space #Science #Stars #Nebula #EagleNebula #PillarsOfCreation #Infrared #SerpensCauda #Constellation #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #Cosmos #Universe #ESA #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Trapezium Cluster: At the Heart of The Orion Nebula

The Trapezium Cluster: At the Heart of The Orion Nebula

Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at the heart of the Orion Nebula, are four hot, massive stars known as the Trapezium. Gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius, they dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster. Ultraviolet ionizing radiation from the Trapezium stars, mostly from the brightest star Theta-1 Orionis C powers the complex star forming region's entire visible glow. 

About three million years old, the Orion Nebula Cluster was even more compact in its younger years and a dynamical study indicates that runaway stellar collisions at an earlier age may have formed a black hole with more than 100 times the mass of the Sun. The presence of a black hole within the cluster could explain the observed high velocities of the Trapezium stars. The Orion Nebula's distance of some 1,500 light-years would make it one of the closest known black holes to planet Earth. 

The Trapezium Cluster was discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1617.


Image Credit & Copyright: Fred Zimmer, Telescope Live

Fred's Website: https://telescope.live/user/24785

Release Date: Jan. 5, 2023


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #Trapezium #TrapeziumCluster #Nebulae #Nebula #OrionStarCluster #OrionNebula #Orion #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #STEM #Education #APoD

Thursday, January 04, 2024

Ax-3 Crew Send-off | Axiom Space | International Space Station

Ax-3 Crew Send-off | Axiom Space | International Space Station


"Prior to entering quarantine, Axiom Space employees came together to celebrate the Ax-3 crew. Crew send-off is a tradition that pays tribute to the dedication and tireless efforts of the Axiom Team leading a human spaceflight mission. God Speed Ax-3 Crew!"

"Ax-3 will be the first all-European commercial astronaut mission to launch to the ISS—redefining the pathway to low-Earth orbit (LEO) and helping chart a course toward Axiom Station, the world’s first commercial space station."

"As part of Ax-3, Türkiye is sending its first astronaut to space in a larger effort to expand the nation’s space exploration capabilities and establish a national human spaceflight program. Ax-3 will also be the first commercial spaceflight mission for an ESA-sponsored astronaut. For Italy, the Ax-3 mission represents a whole-of-country effort to expand its access to space for the purposes of research, development, and innovation."

"The Ax-3 crewmembers are Commander Michael López-Alegría of the U.S. and Spain, Pilot Walter Villadei of the Italian Air Force, and Mission Specialists Alper Gezeravcı of Türkiye and Marcus Wandt of Sweden and the European Space Agency (ESA). A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Ax-3 crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) no earlier than January 2024 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida."

"Axiom Space is guided by the vision of a thriving home in space that benefits every human, everywhere. The leader in providing space infrastructure as a service, Axiom offers end-to-end missions to the International Space Station today while privately developing its successor – a permanent commercial destination in Earth’s orbit that will sustain human growth off the planet and bring untold benefits back home."

More information about Axiom can be found at www.axiomspace.com


Video Credit: Axiom Space

Duration: 2 minutes

Release Date: Jan. 4, 2024 


#NASA #Space #ISS #AxiomSpace #Ax3Mission #Ax3 #AX3Crew #TeamAxiom #Astronauts #MichaelLópezAlegría #WalterVilladei #AlperGezeravcı #MarcusWandt #SpaceX #CrewDragon #Falcon9Rocket #CommercialSpace #Science #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #UnitedStates #ESA #Italy #Türkiye #Sweden #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Mighty Star Merak in Ursa Major

Mighty Star Merak in Ursa Major

Astrophotographer Greg Parker: "Front and center here is the bright star Merak in the asterism of the Big Dipper—in the constellation of Ursa Major. It’s one of the Dipper’s pointer stars, showing the way to the North Star. Some 80 light years from us, Merak is the 2nd brightest star in Ursa Major. Compared to the Sun, it’s nearly 3 times as big, but owing to its considerably greater luminosity, it’s much brighter than our home star. Note that to the right of Merak, just below a bright orange star, 'Broken Engagement Ring' is another asterism."


Image Credit: Greg Parker  

Caption Credit: Greg Parker, Jim Foster  

Location: New Forest Observatory in Hampshire, England, UK Coordinates: 51.063202, -1.308000

Release Date: Dec. 27, 2023


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Star #Merak #Asterism #UrsaMajor #Constellation #BigDipper #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #GregParker #Astrophotographer #CitizenScience #NewForestObservatory #Hampshire #England #UK #USRA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #EPoD

30 Doradus B Supernova Remnant | NASA Space Telescopes

30 Doradus B Supernova Remnant | NASA Space Telescopes

A colorful, festive image shows different types of light containing the remains of not one, but at least two, exploded stars. This supernova remnant is known as 30 Doradus B (30 Dor B for short) and is part of a larger region of space where stars have been continuously forming for the past 8 to 10 million years. It is a complex landscape of dark clouds of gas, young stars, high-energy shocks, and superheated gas, located 160,000 light-years away from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

X-rays from Chandra have provided evidence for at least two explosions tied to the supernova remnant 30 Doradus B.

Typically, there is only one supernova associated with a supernova remnant.

30 Doradus B is found in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbor galaxy to the Milky Way.

This new image of 30 Doradus B contains X-rays, optical, and infrared data.

The new image of 30 Dor B was made by combining X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple), optical data from the Blanco 4-meter telescope in Chile (orange and cyan), and infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (red). Optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was also added in black and white to highlight sharp features in the image.

A team of astronomers led by Wei-An Chen from the National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, have used over two million seconds of Chandra observing time of 30 Dor B and its surroundings to analyze the region. They found a faint shell of X-rays that extends about 130 light-years across. (For context, the nearest star to the Sun is about 4 light-years away). The Chandra data also reveals that 30 Dor B contains winds of particles blowing away from a pulsar, creating what is known as a pulsar wind nebula.

When taken together with data from Hubble and other telescopes, the researchers determined that no single supernova explosion could explain what is being seen. Both the pulsar and the bright X-rays seen in the center of 30 Dor B likely resulted from a supernova explosion after the collapse of a massive star about 5,000 years ago. The larger, faint shell of X-rays, however, is too big to have resulted from the same supernova. Instead, the team thinks that at least two supernova explosions took place in 30 Dor B, with the X-ray shell produced by another supernova more than 5,000 years ago. It is also quite possible that even more happened in the past.

This result can help astronomers learn more about the lives of massive stars, and the effects of their supernova explosions.

Image Description:

The entire image is awash in intricate clouds, and swathes of superheated gas. At our upper left-hand corner is a thick, coral pink and wine-colored cloud with a texture resembling cotton candy. At our lower and upper right is a network of deep red clouds that resemble streaks of thick red syrup floating in water. A layer of wispy blue cloud appears to be present across the entire image, but is most evident at our lower left which is free of overlapping gas. Glowing pink, orange, and purple specks of light, which are stars, dot the image.

In the center of the frame is a bright purple and pink cloud, aglow with brilliant white dots, and streaked with lightning-like veins. This is 30 Doradus B, which is delineated by a faint shell of X-rays identified by Chandra. Within this supernova remnant are high energy shocks and winds of particles blowing away from a pulsar.

Learn more about Chandra:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission/chandra-x-ray-observatory/


Image Credits: 

X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./L. Townsley et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI/HST; Infrared: NASA/JPL/CalTech/SST; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt, N. Wolk, K. Arcand

Release Date: Jan. 3, 2024


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Chandra #Xray #Hubble #Spitzer #Stars #30DoradusB #Supernova #SupernovaRemnant #LMC #Dorado #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescopes #GSFC #STScI #JPL #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Hubble Observes Exoplanet Atmosphere Changing Over 3 Years | NASA/ESA

Hubble Observes Exoplanet Atmosphere Changing over 3 Years | NASA/ESA

By combining several years of observations from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope along with conducting computer modeling, astronomers have found evidence for massive cyclones and other dynamic weather activity swirling on a hot, Jupiter-sized planet 880 light-years away. 

This video shows the temperature forecast spanning 130 exoplanet-days, across sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight, for the exoplanet WASP-121 b, also known as Tylos. The brighter yellow regions depict areas on the day side of the exoplanet where the temperature soars well above 2000 Kelvins because of its close proximity to its host star, roughly 2.6% of the distance between Earth and the Sun. Owing to the extreme temperature difference between the day and night sides, astronomers suspect evaporated iron and other heavy metals escaping into the higher layers of atmosphere on the day side partially fall back onto lower layers, making it rain iron on the night side. These heavy metals also escape the planet's gravity from the upper atmosphere.

It only takes WASP-121 b roughly 30 hours to complete an orbit around its star.

The Jupiter-sized planet WASP-121 b is no place to call home. For starters, it orbits very close to a star that is brighter and hotter than the Sun. The planet is so dangerously close to its star that its upper atmosphere reaches a blazing 3,400 degrees Fahrenheit—hotter than a steel blast furnace.

A torrent of ultraviolet light from the host star is heating the planet's upper atmosphere. This is causing the magnesium and iron gas to escape into space. Powerful gravitational tidal forces from the star have altered the planet's shape so that it appears more football shaped. By combining several years of Hubble Space Telescope observations with computer modelling, astronomers have found evidence for massive cyclones swirling on the hellish planet. The cyclones are repeatedly created and destroyed due to the large temperature difference between the star-facing side and dark night-time side of the exoplanet.

An international team of astronomers assembled and reprocessed Hubble observations of the exoplanet made in the years 2016, 2018 and 2019. This provided them with a unique dataset that allowed them not only to analyze the atmosphere of WASP-121 b, but also to compare the state of the exoplanet’s atmosphere across several years. They found clear evidence that the observations of WASP-121 b were varying in time. The team then used sophisticated modelling techniques to demonstrate that these temporal variations could be explained by weather patterns in the exoplanet's atmosphere, as seen here.


Video Credit: NASA, ESA, Q. Changeat et al., M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)

Duration: 1 minute, 24 seconds

Release Date: Jan. 4, 2024 

#NASA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Exoplanet #WASP121b #Tylos #Planet #Atmosphere #Weather #Meteorology #Puppis #Constellation #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #Universe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #Animation #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros | Palomar Observatory

The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros | Palomar Observatory

The Rosette star formation region is located about 5,000 light years from Earth in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is an H II region near one end of a giant molecular cloud that is about 65 light years in size.

Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center managed for NASA by Caltech.


Image Credit: Palomar/Caltech/DSS


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #FlameNebula #NGC2237 #RosetteNebula #Monoceros #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #PalomarObservatory #OpticalTelescope #DSS #NSF #SanDiegoCounty #PalomarMountain #Caltech #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Wednesday, January 03, 2024

Aurora over Iceland | Earth Science

Aurora over Iceland | Earth Science

Astrophotographer Carlos Di Nallo: "Shown [here] is an eye-catching aurora I observed near Nesjahverfi, Iceland on October 13, 2023. These colorful curtains, a result of a geomagnetic storm on October 12, dominated the northern horizon for several hours. Note that the curtain pattern is formed by parallel rays that are more or less oriented with the direction of the geomagnetic field lines."

The Colors of the Aurora (U.S. National Park Service)

https://www.nps.gov/articles/-articles-aps-v8-i1-c9.htm

Technical details: Canon 6D camera; Canon 17/40 lens; 17 mm, f4.5; 15 seconds exposure; ISO 6400.


Image Credit: Carlos Di Nallo    

Location: Nesjahverfi, Iceland 

Coordinates: 64.3134, -15.2300

Release Date: January 1, 2024


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Earth #Planet #Atmosphere #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #MagneticField #Magnetosphere #SolarWind #Sun #CME #Iceland #Ísland #Nesjahverfi #CarlosDiNallo #Photography #Astrophotography #STEM #Education #EPoD

Earth Aurora, Atmospheric Glow & Stars | International Space Station

Earth Aurora, Atmospheric Glow & Stars | International Space Station


An aurora and an atmospheric glow crown Earth's horizon beneath a starry sky in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above the Canadian province of Quebec.

Follow Expedition 70 Updates:

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

Expedition 70 Crew

Station Commander: Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (Denmark)

Roscosmos (Russia): Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov

JAXA: Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa (Japan)

NASA: Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara (USA)

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


Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Image Date: Jan. 1, 2024


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #ISS #Earth #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #Atmosphere #Quebec #Canada #Astronauts #LoralOHara #JasminMoghbeli #UnitedStates #AndreasMogensen #Europe #SatoshiFurukawa #JAXA #Japan #日本 #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition70 #STEM #Education

Moon & Earth Blues | International Space Station

Moon & Earth Blues | International Space Station


The near Full Moon is pictured just above Earth's atmosphere in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan.

Follow Expedition 70 Updates:

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

Expedition 70 Crew

Station Commander: Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (Denmark)

Roscosmos (Russia): Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov

JAXA: Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa (Japan)

NASA: Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara (USA)

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


Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Image Date: Dec. 26, 2023


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #ISS #ISS25 #Moon #FullMoon #Earth #PacificOcean #Astronauts #LoralOHara #JasminMoghbeli #UnitedStates #AndreasMogensen #Europe #SatoshiFurukawa #JAXA #Japan #日本 #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition70 #STEM #Education

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