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Wide-field View: Dragon’s Egg Nebula & HD 148937 Binary Star System | ESO
Thousands of stars fill the frame. Most of them are small dots in white, bluish or red, but four larger ones surrounded by blue halos appear on the left and right margins of the image. The background is dark, with hazy, reddish, cloud-like structures covering most of it. There is a bright reddish structure in the center of the image. It is approximately the size of the larger stars, shaped like an egg tilted to the right, and has a bright white star in its center.
This wide-field view, created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2, shows the rich star clouds in the constellation of Norma (the Carpenter’s Square) in our Milky Way galaxy. The beautiful nebula NGC 6164/6165, also known as the Dragon’s Egg, appears in the center of the image.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Digitized Sky Survey 2
Clash of Stars Solves Stellar Mystery in Binary Star System HD 148937 | ESO
Nine years’ worth of data from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) and other telescopes has revealed the mysterious past of an unusual pair of stars. The study reveals odd differences between these stars for a binary system—one of the stars appears younger and, unlike the other, is magnetic. The pair is also surrounded by a nebula hundreds of times younger than them. Astronomers believe this couple was originally a trio, in which two of the stars were much closer than the third and eventually clashed, violently merging into a younger, magnetic star. This event also released the nebula that now surrounds the stars. This video summarizes the discovery.
Video Credits: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Directed by: Angelos Tsaousis and Martin Wallner
Editing: Angelos Tsaousis
Written by: Elena Reiriz Martínez, Louisa Spillman, Davor Curic
Footage and photos: ESO/Luis Calçada, Martin Kornmesser, Angelos Tsaousis, Babak Tafreshi, Mahdi Zamani, VPHAS+ team
Scientific consultants: Paola Amico, Mariya Lyubenova
Acknowledgments: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit (CASU)
Artist's Animation: The Violent History of Stellar Pair HD 148937 | ESO
This animation shows the violent event that changed the fate of the stellar system HD 148937. Originally, the system had at least three stars, two of them close together and another one much more distant, until one day the two inner stars clashed and merged. This violent event created a new, larger and magnetic star, now in pair with the more distant one. The merger also released the materials that created the spectacular nebula now surrounding the stars.
While the animations of the merger event and the birth of the nebula are artist’s impressions, the view of the nebula at the end is based on a real image from the VLT Survey Telescope, hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal site.
In a new study using ESO data, astronomers have shown that the two stars are unusually different from each other—one appears much younger and, unlike the other, is magnetic. Moreover, the nebula is significantly younger than either star at its heart, and is made up of gases normally found deep within a star and not on the outside. These clues together helped solve the mystery of the HD 148937 system—there were most likely three stars in the system until two of them clashed and merged, creating a new, larger and magnetic star. This violent event also created the spectacular nebula that now surrounds the remaining stars.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser/VPHAS+ team Acknowledgement: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit (CASU)
Zooming into The Dragon's Egg Nebula & HD 148937 Binary Star System | ESO
This zoom video transports us from a broad view of the Milky Way in the sky all the way to the cloudy nebula NGC 6164/6165 (also known as the Dragon’s Egg), home to the fascinating star system HD 148937 right at its center. Using nine years’ of data from the European Southern Observatory’s’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer and other telescopes, astronomers have inferred that this pair of stars used to be a trio, until two fatally merged into one younger, magnetic star, releasing the stunning nebula you see in this video.
Distance: 4,000 light years
Nebula NGC 6164/6165 surrounding the HD 148937 star system as seen in visible light. Most of the image is taken up by a cloud-like structure shaped like an egg, slightly tilted to the right. It is colored in shades of orange and pink, with certain areas brighter than others. In a gap at its center, a white sphere shines brightly, with white, blue and green rays coming out of it. Surrounding the cloud are stars of different sizes and colors over a dark background.
In a new study using ESO data, astronomers have shown that the two stars are unusually different from each other—one appears much younger and, unlike the other, is magnetic. Moreover, the nebula is significantly younger than either star at its heart, and is made up of gases normally found deep within a star and not on the outside. These clues together helped solve the mystery of the HD 148937 system—there were most likely three stars in the system until two of them clashed and merged, creating a new, larger and magnetic star. This violent event also created the spectacular nebula that now surrounds the remaining stars.
Credits: ESO/L. Calçada, N. Risinger, DSS, VPHAS+ team.
3D View: The Dragon's Egg Nebula & HD 148937 Binary Star System | ESO
This 3D animation of the beautiful nebula NGC 6164/6165, also known as the Dragon’s Egg, imagines what it might feel like to fly close to these swirling clouds of gas and dust and approach the star pair HD 148937 at its heart. This video is based on a real image from the VLT Survey Telescope, hosted at ESO’s Paranal site, but the 3D view is not real—the location of the stars shown here is only indicative.
Nebula NGC 6164/6165 surrounding the HD 148937 star system as seen in visible light. Most of the image is taken up by a cloud-like structure shaped like an egg, slightly tilted to the right. It is colored in shades of orange and pink, with certain areas brighter than others. In a gap at its center, a white sphere shines brightly, with white, blue and green rays coming out of it. Surrounding the cloud are stars of different sizes and colors over a dark background. Distance: 4,000 light years
This image, taken with the VLT Survey Telescope hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory, shows the beautiful nebula NGC 6164/6165, also known as the Dragon’s Egg. The nebula is a cloud of gas and dust surrounding a pair of stars called HD 148937.
In a new study using ESO data, astronomers have shown that the two stars are unusually different from each other—one appears much younger and, unlike the other, is magnetic. Moreover, the nebula is significantly younger than either star at its heart, and is made up of gases normally found deep within a star and not on the outside. These clues together helped solve the mystery of the HD 148937 system—there were most likely three stars in the system until two of them clashed and merged, creating a new, larger and magnetic star. This violent event also created the spectacular nebula that now surrounds the remaining stars.
Credits: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/M. Kornmesser, VPHAS+ team
Acknowledgement: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit (CASU)
The Dragon's Egg Nebula & HD 148937 Binary Star System | ESO
Nebula NGC 6164/6165 surrounding the HD 148937 star system as seen in visible light. Most of the image is taken up by a cloud-like structure shaped like an egg, slightly tilted to the right. It is colored in shades of orange and pink, with certain areas brighter than others. In a gap at its center, a white sphere shines brightly, with white, blue and green rays coming out of it. Surrounding the cloud are stars of different sizes and colors over a dark background. Distance: 4,000 light years
This image, taken with the VLT Survey Telescope hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory, shows the beautiful nebula NGC 6164/6165, also known as the Dragon’s Egg. The nebula is a cloud of gas and dust surrounding a pair of stars called HD 148937.
In a new study using ESO data, astronomers have shown that the two stars are unusually different from each other—one appears much younger and, unlike the other, is magnetic. Moreover, the nebula is significantly younger than either star at its heart, and is made up of gases normally found deep within a star and not on the outside. These clues together helped solve the mystery of the HD 148937 system—there were most likely three stars in the system until two of them clashed and merged, creating a new, larger and magnetic star. This violent event also created the spectacular nebula that now surrounds the remaining stars.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/VPHAS+ team
Acknowledgement: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit (CASU)
Artemis II Moon Mission: Orion Spacecraft Testing | NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
On April 4, 2024, a team lifts the Artemis II Orion spacecraft into a vacuum chamber inside the Operations and Checkout Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will undergo electromagnetic compatibility and interference testing.
The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis II mission is photographed inside the Final Assembly and System Testing cell at the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, March 15, 2024.
NASA's Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II Moon Mission is undergoing altitude chamber testing at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This puts the spacecraft through conditions as close as possible to the environment it will experience in the vacuum of deep space.
Four astronauts will venture around the Moon in the Orion spacecraft on Artemis II. It will be the first crewed mission on NASA's path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through the Artemis campaign.
Check the NASA Artemis II Mission page for updates:
How does a comet tail change? It depends on the comet. The ion tail of Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks has been changing markedly, as detailed in the featured image sequenced over nine days from March 6 to 14, 2024 (top to bottom). On particular days, the comet's ion tail was relatively long and complex, but not every day. Reasons for tail changes include the rate of ejection of material from the comet's nucleus, the strength and complexity of the passing solar wind, and the rotation rate of the comet. Over the course of a week, apparent changes even include a change of perspective from the Earth. In general, a comet's ion tail will point away from the Sun, as gas expelled is pushed out by the Sun's wind.
12P/Pons–Brooks is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 71 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with an orbital period between 20 and 200 years. It is also one of the brightest known periodic comets, reaching an absolute visual magnitude ~5 in its approach to perihelion.
Comet Pons-Brooks was discovered at Marseilles Observatory in July 1812 by Jean-Louis Pons.
The greenish coma of this comet has become relatively easy to observe in small telescopes.
Black Brant IX Sounding Rockets Fire for Solar Eclipse Science | NASA Wallops
NASA Engineer Cindy Fuentes Rosal waves goodbye to a Black Brant IX sounding rocket launching from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. The rocket was part of a series of three launches for the Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission to study the disturbances in the electrified region of Earth’s atmosphere known as the ionosphere created when the Moon eclipses the Sun. The rockets launched before, during, and after peak local eclipse time on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Three Black Brant IX sounding rocket launches at Wallops are presented in the images here.
Black Brant IX sounding rockets are produced by Magellan Aerospace in Canada.
EPIC Solar Eclipse View (GIF): The Deep Space Climate Observatory | NOAA/NASA
Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR): Celebrating The 9-Year Anniversary (2015-2024)
From one million miles away, NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s DSCOVR satellite captured these spectacular views of the total solar eclipse that swept across a narrow portion of the North American continent from Mexico’s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada on April 8, 2024. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of Central America and Europe.
This is NOAA's first operational deep space satellite and became its primary system of warning Earth in the event of solar magnetic storms.
On Feb. 11, 2015, DSCOVR was finally lofted into space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. After a journey of about 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) to the L1 Lagrange Point, the satellite and its Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). At L1—four times farther than the orbit of the Moon—the gravitational pull of the Sun and Earth cancel out, providing a stable orbit and a continuous view of Earth. These images were made by combining information from EPIC’s red, green, and blue bands. (Bands are narrow regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to which a remote sensing instrument responds. When EPIC collects data, it takes a series of 10 images at different bands—from ultraviolet to near-infrared.)
Top Astronomical Discoveries of The World’s Largest Telescope Array (ALMA) | ESO
Chasing Starlight 9: Celebrating ALMA's 10th Anniversary! Travel to the world’s largest telescope array. Made up of 66 antennas, the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) has been observing the sky at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths for 10 years now.
Join European Southern Observatory astronomer, Suzanna Randall, in the latest episode of Chasing Starlight, to find out about some of the greatest discoveries of this telescope.
00:00 Introduction
00:21 Trip to Chile
01:28 What does ALMA observe?
02:11 Taking the first image of a black hole
03:48 Looking at the birthplace of stars
04:50 Studying nearby galaxies
05:33 Revealing the details of planet formation
06:51 Doing astrochemistry
07:26 What else are scientists observing with ALMA?
EPIC Solar Eclipse Views: The Deep Space Climate Observatory | NOAA/NASA
Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR): Celebrating The 9-Year Anniversary (2015-2024)
From one million miles away, NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s DSCOVR satellite captured these spectacular views of the total solar eclipse that swept across a narrow portion of the North American continent from Mexico’s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada on April 8, 2024. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of Central America and Europe.
This is NOAA's first operational deep space satellite and became its primary system of warning Earth in the event of solar magnetic storms.
On Feb. 11, 2015, DSCOVR was finally lofted into space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. After a journey of about 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) to the L1 Lagrange Point, the satellite and its Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). At L1—four times farther than the orbit of the Moon—the gravitational pull of the Sun and Earth cancel out, providing a stable orbit and a continuous view of Earth. These images were made by combining information from EPIC’s red, green, and blue bands. (Bands are narrow regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to which a remote sensing instrument responds. When EPIC collects data, it takes a series of 10 images at different bands—from ultraviolet to near-infrared.)
Pan of Arp 122: A "Herculean" Galactic Merger | Hubble Space Telescope
This Hubble image features Arp 122, a peculiar galaxy that is made up of two galaxies—NGC 6040, the tilted, warped spiral galaxy and LEDA 59642, the round, face-on spiral—that are in the middle of a collision in the constellation Hercules. This dramatic cosmic encounter is located at the very safe distance of roughly 570 million light-years from Earth. Peeking in at the corner is the elliptical galaxy NGC 6041, a central member of the galaxy cluster that Arp 122 resides in, but otherwise not participating in this monster merger.
Image Description: Two spiral galaxies are merging together at the right side of the image. One is seen face-on and is circular in shape. The other seems to lie in front of the first one. This galaxy is seen as a disc tilted away from the viewer and it is partially warped. In the lower-left corner, cut off by the frame, a large elliptical galaxy appears as light radiating from a point. Many small galaxies cover the background.
Galactic collisions and mergers are monumentally energetic and dramatic events, but they take place on a very slow timescale. For example, the Milky Way is on track to collide with its nearest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), but these two galaxies have a good four billion years to go before they actually meet. The process of colliding and merging will not be a quick one either. It may take hundreds of millions of years to unfold. These collisions take so long because of the truly massive distances involved.
Galaxies are composed of stars and their solar systems, dust and gas. In galactic collisions, therefore, these constituent components may experience enormous changes in the gravitational forces acting on them. In time, this completely changes the structure of the two (or more) colliding galaxies, and sometimes ultimately results in a single, merged galaxy. This may well be what results from the collision pictured in this image. Galaxies that result from mergers are thought to have a regular or elliptical structure, as the merging process disrupts more complex structures (such as those observed in spiral galaxies). It would be fascinating to know what Arp 122 will look like once this collision is complete . . . but that will not happen for a long, long time.
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, N. Bartmann
Eclipse Moon Shadow & Soyuz MS-24 Crew Departure | International Space Station
The Moon's shadow, or umbra, is pictured covering portions of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine in this photograph from the International Space Station as it soared into the solar eclipse from 261 miles above.
The Moon's shadow, or umbra, is pictured covering portions of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine in this photograph from the International Space Station as it soared into the solar eclipse from 261 miles above.
The Moon's shadow, or umbra, is pictured covering portions of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine in this photograph from the International Space Station as it soared into the solar eclipse from 261 miles above.
The Moon's shadow, or umbra, is pictured covering portions of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine in this photograph from the International Space Station as it soared into the solar eclipse from 261 miles above.
Orbiting 260 miles above the Northeastern coast of the United States, the Expedition 71 crew experienced the 2024 solar eclipse from space. Pictured here is the umbra, or the Moon's shadow, passing over Earth. Aboard the International Space Station to witness the celestial event was NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Tracy Dyson of tyhe United States, as well as cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin of Russia.
The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft is pictured moments after undocking from the International Space Station's Rassvet module. Aboard the Soyuz crew ship for the ride back to Earth were NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Russia, and cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus. The orbital outpost was soaring 261 miles above northeast China at the time of this photograph.
The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft is pictured moments after undocking from the International Space Station's Rassvet module. Aboard the Soyuz crew ship for the ride back to Earth were NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Russia, and cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus.
The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft is pictured docked to the International Space Station's Rassvet module as it soared into an orbital sunset 260 miles above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Costa Rica. Aboard the Soyuz crew ship and waiting to undock from Rassvet for the ride back to Earth were NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus.
The Moon's shadow, or umbra, is pictured covering portions of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine in these photographs from the International Space Station as it soared into the solar eclipse from 261 miles above.
The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft is also pictured moments before and after undocking from the International Space Station's Rassvet module. Aboard the Soyuz crew ship for the ride back to Earth were NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Russia, and cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus.
Solar Eclipse 2024: High-res Orbital View | NOAA GOES-East Weather Satellite
NOAA’s GOES-East weather satellite had a front row seat and unique view of the 2024 solar eclipse, sending back data and imagery every five minutes as the path of totality spanned across North America.
This is a series of high-res images from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-16) capturing the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Fifty-five images stitched together (with transitions) beginning at 16:10 UTC and ending at 20:35 UTC.
The Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison SSEC tracked the eclipse in near real-time using GOES-East Advanced Baseline Imager and Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) instrument to view of the Earth as well as the Sun behind it:
The GOES-East and GOES-West satellites provide continuous observation of the atmosphere and weather from Hawaii to Eastern Canada. These images were captured by the Advanced Baseline Imager instrument aboard GOES-East, sending images back to Earth every 5 minutes.
GOES-EAST is the first of the GOES-R series of satellites operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).