Friday, May 24, 2024

New Planet Mars Images: May 2024 | NASA Mars Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers

New Planet Mars Images: May 2024 | NASA Mars Curiosity & Perseverance Rovers

MSL - sol 4191
Mars 2020 - sol 1155
Mars 2020 - sol 1155
Mars 2020 - sol 1149 - Sunspots detected from Martian surface
MSL - sol 4187
Mars 2020 - Sol 1152
MSL - sol 4191
MSL - sol 4184

Support FriendsofNASA.org

Celebrating 11+ Years on Mars (2012-2024)
Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
Rover Name: Curiosity
Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life. 
Launch: Nov. 6, 2011
Landing Date: Aug. 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars

Celebrating 3+ Years on Mars
Mission Name: Mars 2020
Rover Name: Perseverance
Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for return to Earth.
Launch: July 30, 2020    
Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars

For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit: mars.nasa.gov

Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
Processing: Kevin M. Gill
Image Release Dates: May 14-23, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #Astrobiology #Geology #CuriosityRover #MSL #MountSharp #GaleCrater #PerseveranceRover #Mars2020 #JezeroCrater #Robotics #SpaceTechnology #SpaceEngineering #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #CitizenScience #KevinGill #STEM #Education

Five New Images from Europe's Euclid Space Telescope

Five New Images from Europe's Euclid Space Telescope

The European Space Agency’s Euclid space mission has released five unprecedented new views of the Universe. These never-before-seen images demonstrate Euclid’s ability to unravel secrets of the cosmos.

"Scientists are now equipped to hunt for rogue planets, to study mysterious matter through lensed galaxies, and explore the evolution of the Universe. Join us as we explore these groundbreaking discoveries and what they mean for the future of space exploration."


Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)

Duration: 6 minutes

Release Date: May 24, 2024

#NASA #ESA #ESAEuclid #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #Galaxy #Galaxies #GalaxyClusters #Cosmos #Universe #EST #EuclidSpaceTelescope #SpaceTelescope #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Canada's Dextre Robot & Waxing Gibbous Moon | International Space Station

Canada's Dextre Robot & Waxing Gibbous Moon | International Space Station

Dextre infographic: A closer look at the Canadian versatile robot
Canadarm2's Latching End Effector (LEE) illustration

The International Space Station's Dextre, the fine-tuned robotic hand, attached to the Canadarm2 robotic arm dominates the frame with the waxing gibbous Moon (at top) in the background and the Indian Ocean 259 miles below. The International Space Station's Dextre, the fine-tuned robotic hand, attached to the Canadarm2 robotic arm dominates the frame with the waxing gibbous Moon (at top) in the background and the Indian Ocean 259 miles below.

The 17-meter-long (55+ feet) Canadarm2 robotic arm, with the 3.7m (12 feet) high Dextre fine-tuned robotic hand attached. Canadarm2 and Dextre are part of Canada's contribution to the International Space Station (ISS). Canadarm2 was extensively involved in the assembly of the orbiting laboratory.

Dextre tackles the tough or routine jobs that need to be done in the harsh environment of space. The Station's robotic assistant allows astronauts to spend more time doing scientific experiments instead of performing risky spacewalks. 

Dextre's body was designed to move in many different ways. Each of its arms has seven joints that can move up and down, go from side to side, and rotate. This large range of motion means Dextre can actually carry out more complex movements than a human arm. Each hand has a retractable motorized wrench, a camera and lights for close-up viewing, and a retractable connector to provide power, data and video connection. The robot can carefully grip delicate equipment without causing damage. For example, it can successfully manipulate small safety caps, cables and wires with minute precision—all while being controlled from Earth, hundreds of kilometers away. Dextre can can ride on the end of Canadarm2 to move from each worksite or be ferried on the Mobile Base System to work almost anywhere on the ISS. 

The robot is operated by ground control teams at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) headquarters outside Montreal, Quebec, and at NASA.

Discover more about Canadian space robotics:

The International Space Station (ISS) Program’s greatest accomplishment is as much a human achievement as it is a technological one—how best to plan, coordinate, and monitor the varied activities of the Program’s many organizations.

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the 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.

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Image Date: May 19, 2024

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #SpaceTechnology #Moon #WaxingGibbous #Earth #Canada #CSA #Canadarm2 #Dextre #Robotics #Robots #Expedition70 #Earth #IndianOcean #HumanSpaceflight #InternationalCooperation #JSC #UnitedStates #Infographic #STEM #Education

Aurora over Slovakia

Aurora over Slovakia









Slovakia is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and Czechia to the northwest.

On Earth, auroras are mainly created by particles originally emitted by the Sun in the form of solar wind. When this stream of electrically charged particles gets close to our planet, it interacts with the magnetic field, which acts as a gigantic shield. While it protects Earth’s environment from solar wind particles, it can also trap a small fraction of them. Particles trapped within the magnetosphere—the region of space surrounding Earth in which charged particles are affected by its magnetic field—can be energized and then follow the magnetic field lines down to the magnetic poles. There, they interact with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the upper layers of the atmosphere, creating the flickering, colorful lights visible in the polar regions here on Earth.

Earth auroras have different names depending on the pole they occur at. Aurora Borealis, or the northern lights, is the name given to auroras around the north pole and Aurora Australis, or the southern lights, is the name given for auroras around the south pole.

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

Image Credit: Ondrej Králik
Image Date: May 10, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Planet #Earth #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #MagneticField #Magnetosphere #SolarWind #Sun #Star #Astrophotography #OndrejKrálik #Astrophotographer #Slovakia #Slovenská #Europe #STEM #Education

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744: Wide-field View | Euclid Space Telescope

Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744: Wide-field View | Euclid Space Telescope

Here, the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope captures NGC 6744, one of the largest spiral galaxies beyond our local patch of space. It is a typical example of the type of galaxy currently forming most of the stars in the nearby Universe, making it a wonderful archetype to study with Euclid.

Euclid’s large field-of-view covers the entire galaxy, revealing not only spiral structures on larger scales but also capturing exquisite detail on small spatial scales, and at a combination of wavelengths. This detail includes feather-like lanes of dust emerging as ‘spurs’ from the spiral arms.

Euclid’s observations will allow scientists to count individual stars within NGC 6744 and to also trace the wider distribution of stars and dust in the galaxy, as well as mapping the dust associated with the gas that fuels new star formation. Forming stars is the main way galaxies grow and evolve, so these investigations are central to understanding galactic evolution—and why our Universe looks the way it does today.

Euclid scientists are using this dataset to understand how dust and gas are linked to star formation; map how different stellar populations are distributed throughout galaxies and where stars are currently forming; and unravel the physics behind the structure of spiral galaxies, something that is still not fully understood after decades of study. Spiral structure is important in galaxies, as spiral arms move and compress gas to foster star formation (most occurs along these arms). However, the exact role of spirals in coordinating ongoing star formation remains unclear. As the aforementioned ‘spurs’ along NGC 6744’s arms are only able to form in a strong enough spiral, these features therefore provide important clues as to why galaxies look and behave as they do.

The dataset will also allow scientists to identify clusters of old stars (globular clusters) and hunt for new dwarf galaxies around NGC 6744. In fact, Euclid has already found a new dwarf ‘satellite galaxy’ of NGC 6744—a surprise given that this galaxy has been intensively studied in the past.

Image Description: A spiral galaxy against a dark background speckled with bright dots. The clockwise spiral has many arms, not fully distinguishable from one another, extending out from a bright central spot. There is a thin cloudy structure right above the galaxy, in the outskirts of its furthest reaching arm. In the bottom left of the image, two bright dots are surrounded by a halo of light.


Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA 

Image Processing: J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

Release Date: May 23, 2024


#NASA #ESA #ESAEuclid #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #NGC6744 #SpiralGalaxy #Pavo #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #EST #EuclidSpaceTelescope #Infrared #SpaceTelescope #Europe #STEM #Education

Center of NGC 6744 Spiral Galaxy in Pavo | Euclid Space Telescope

Center of NGC 6744 Spiral Galaxy in Pavo | Euclid Space Telescope

This new image from the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope is a higher resolution close-up cutout from a larger frame featuring the spiral galaxy NGC 6744. The frame shows the galaxy’s bulge and disc in detail. The central bulge is composed mostly of older, lower-mass stars, while the spiral arms host a diversity of stars. Most of NGC 6744’s star formation occurs in these arms, and this is marked by trails of bright, hot, blue-hued stars.

Image Description: The image shows a galaxy with many arms spiraling out from a bright center. The center is a bright sphere. Bright beams extend upwards and downwards to the arms. Dark vein-like structures run through-out the different arms. Stars are dotted throughout the image in an evenly distributed way.


Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA 

Image Processing: J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

Release Date: May 23, 2024


#NASA #ESA #ESAEuclid #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #NGC6744 #SpiralGalaxy #Pavo #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #EST #EuclidSpaceTelescope #Infrared #SpaceTelescope #Europe #STEM #Education

Close-up View of Galaxies in Dorado Group | Euclid Space Telescope

Close-up View of Galaxies in Dorado Group | Euclid Space Telescope

This image from the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope is a higher resolution, close-up cutout from a larger frame of the Dorado Group, and shows two of the group’s constituent dwarf galaxies (visible to the upper left in the wider frame). The Dorado Group lies 62 million light-years away in the constellation of Dorado.

Image Description: An elongated bright cloudy ellipse, tilted at a 45-degree angle in front a black background dotted with small white stars and galaxies. Above the ellipse floats a smaller, cloudy ellipsoid.


Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA 

Image Processing: J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

Release Date: May 23, 2024


#NASA #ESA #ESAEuclid #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Galaxies #DoradoGroup #GalaxyClusters #Dorado #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #EST #EuclidSpaceTelescope #Infrared #SpaceTelescope #Europe #STEM #Education

The Dorado Group of Galaxies | Euclid Space Telescope

The Dorado Group of Galaxies | Euclid Space Telescope

The Dorado Group of galaxies is one of the richest galaxy groups in the southern hemisphere. Here, the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope captures signs of galaxies evolving and merging ‘in action’, with beautiful tidal tails and shells visible as a result of ongoing interactions. Since Dorado is a lot younger than other clusters (like Fornax), several of its constituent galaxies are still forming stars and remain in the stage of interacting with one another, while others show signs of having merged relatively recently. In size, it sits between larger galaxy clusters and smaller galaxy groups, making it a useful and fascinating object to study with Euclid. The Dorado Group lies 62 million light-years away in the constellation of Dorado.

This dataset is enabling scientists to study how galaxies evolve and collide over time in order to improve our models of cosmic history and understand how galaxies form within halos of dark matter. This new image demonstrates Euclid’s versatility. A wide array of galaxies is visible here, from very bright to very faint. Thanks to Euclid’s unique combination of large field-of-view and high spatial resolution, for the first time we can use the same instrument and observations to deeply study tiny (small objects the size of star clusters), wider (the central parts of a galaxy) and extended (tidal merger tails) features over a large part of the sky.

Scientists are also using Euclid observations of the Dorado Group to answer questions that previously could only be explored using painstakingly small snippets of data. This includes compiling a full list of the individual clusters of stars (globular clusters) around the galaxies seen here. Once we know where these clusters are, we can use them to trace how the galaxies formed and study their history and contents. Scientists will also use these data to hunt for new dwarf galaxies around the Group, as it did previously with the Perseus cluster.


Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA 

Image Processing: J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

Release Date: May 23, 2024


#NASA #ESA #ESAEuclid #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxy #Galaxies #DoradoGroup #GalaxyClusters #Dorado #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #EST #EuclidSpaceTelescope #Infrared #SpaceTelescope #Europe #STEM #Education

Galaxy NGC 6744’s Disrupted Spiral Arm | Euclid Space Telescope

Galaxy NGC 6744’s Disrupted Spiral Arm | Euclid Space Telescope

This image from the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope is a higher resolution, close-up cutout from a larger frame featuring the spiral galaxy NGC 6744. This frame shows one of the galaxy’s disrupted spiral arms, a result of a recent interaction with the companion dwarf galaxy seen to the right. This interaction caused massive, hot stars to form, as marked by patches of blue.

Image Description: Hundreds of stars and galaxies are spread over this image against a dark sky. A stream of stars veiled by a thin fog-like substance curves from a cloud in the bottom to the upper right. At the end of this stream of stars sits a cloudy ellipse. A bright yellow star with eight diffraction spikes emerges from a cloud in the bottom of the image.


Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA 

Image Processing: J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

Release Date: May 23, 2024


#NASA #ESA #ESAEuclid #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC6744 #SpiralGalaxy #SpiralArm #DwarfGalaxy #InteractingGalaxies #Cosmos #Universe #EST #EuclidSpaceTelescope #Infrared #SpaceTelescope #Europe #STEM #Education

Close-up View of Bright Star near Abell 2764 | Euclid Space Telescope | ESA

Close-up View of Bright Star near Abell 2764 | Euclid Space Telescope | ESA

This image from the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope is a smaller, close-up cutout from a larger frame featuring the galaxy cluster Abell 2764. It focuses on a bright star lying near to the cluster: V*BP-Phoenicis/HD 1973, a star within our galaxy and in the southern hemisphere that is nearly bright enough to be seen by the human eye. Euclid’s design and observing capabilities mean that the space telescope can observe very faint objects lying very close to such bright stars without being blinded by the ambient starlight.

Image Description: Hundreds of stars and galaxies are spread over this image against a dark sky. One very big bright star sits in the left of the image. This star has six diffraction spikes coming from a central light-halo. The rest of the image has tiny dot-like stars, and some elliptical galaxies can be distinguished as bright haloes around even brighter dots.


Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA 

Image Processing: J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

Release Date: May 23, 2024


#NASA #ESA #ESAEuclid #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #StarHD197 #Galaxy #Galaxies #GalaxyClusters #Abell276 #Phoenix #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #EST #EuclidSpaceTelescope #Infrared #SpaceTelescope #Europe #STEM #Education

Close-up View: Stellar Nursery Messier 78 | Euclid Space Telescope | ESA

Close-up View: Stellar Nursery Messier 78 | Euclid Space Telescope | ESA

This new image from the European Space Agency’s Euclid space mission is a higher resolution, close-up cutout from a larger frame featuring Messier 78, a vibrant nursery of star formation enveloped in a shroud of interstellar dust, and its surroundings. Messier 78 lies 1,300 light-years away in the constellation of Orion within our Milky Way galaxy. 

The image illustrates how newly forming stars create a 'cavity' in the surrounding molecular cloud by generating winds of charged particles. The colors relate to ionized atomic hydrogen (the main component of the cloud; blue) and the absorption and scattering of light by dust grains (red).

Image Description: The image shows hundreds of stars with a number brighter than others. The stars seem to light up their cloud-like surroundings in purple. A darker structure spans the image in an arch from upper left to bottom right. The bottom of this arch runs into dense clouds forming the darkest part of the image.


Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA Image Processing: J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi
Release Date: May 23, 2024

#NASA #ESA #ESAEuclid #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #StellarNursery #Messier78 #Orion #Cosmos #Universe #EST #EuclidSpaceTelescope #Infrared #SpaceTelescope #Europe #STEM #Education

Star-forming Region Messier 78 | Euclid Space Telescope | ESA

Star-forming Region Messier 78 | Euclid Space Telescope | ESA

This new Euclid space telescope image from the European Space Agency features the Messier 78 reflection nebula (the central and brightest region), a vibrant nursery of star formation enveloped in a shroud of interstellar dust. The image is the first of this young star-forming region at this width and depth. Messier 78 lies 1,300 light-years away in the constellation of Orion within our Milky Way galaxy. 

Euclid has used its infrared camera to expose hidden regions of star formation for the first time, mapping Messier 78's complex filaments of gas and dust in detail. This is the first time we have been able to see smaller, sub-stellar sized objects in Messier 78; the dark clouds of gas and dust usually hide them from view, but Euclid’s infrared ‘eyes’ can see through these obscuring clouds to explore within.

Euclid’s sensitive instruments can detect objects just a few times the mass of Jupiter, and its visible and infrared instruments—the visible instrument (VIS) and Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) cameras—reveal over 300,000 new objects in this field of view alone. Scientists are using this data to study the amount and ratio of stars and sub-stellar objects here. This is the key to understanding the dynamics of how star populations form and change over time. Sub-stellar objects like brown dwarfs and free-floating or ‘rogue’ planets are also one possible candidate for dark matter. While our current knowledge suggests that there are not enough of these objects to solve the mystery of dark matter in the Milky Way, it remains an open question, and one that Euclid seeks to answer by probing a significant fraction of our galaxy.

Also visible to the top of the frame is the bright nebula NGC 2071, and a third filament of star formation towards the bottom of the image (with a ‘traffic light’-like appearance). This lower region is a dark nebula producing lower-mass stars, all arranged along elongated filaments in space.

Image Description: A filamentary orange veil covers a bright region of star formation. The background is dark, stippled with stars and galaxies ranging from small bright dots to starry shapes. The foreground veil spans from upper left to the bottom right and resembles a seahorse. Bright stars light up the ‘eye’ and ‘chest’ regions of the seahorse with purple light. Within the tail, three bright spots sit in a traffic-light like formation.


Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA Image Processing: J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

Release Date: May 23, 2024


#NASA #ESA #ESAEuclid #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #StellarNursery #Messier78 #Orion #Cosmos #Universe #EST #EuclidSpaceTelescope #Infrared #SpaceTelescope #Europe #STEM #Education

First Full-Color Images | Europe's Euclid Space Telescope

First Full-Color Images | Europe's Euclid Space Telescope

Today, the European Space Agency’s Euclid space mission released five new images that demonstrate Euclid’s abilities. Euclid will enable scientists to search for planets, to use lensed galaxies to study dark matter and energy, and to explore the evolution of the Universe.


Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA Image Processing: J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: May 23, 2024  


#NASA #ESA #ESAEuclid #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Nebulae #Galaxy #Galaxies #GalaxyClusters #Cosmos #Universe #EST #EuclidSpaceTelescope #SpaceTelescope #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

City Lights of India | International Space Station

City Lights of India | International Space Station

An atmospheric glow blankets Earth's horizon and a web of city lights interconnect across India in this photograph from the International Space Station as it soared 256 miles above the subcontinent. In the foreground, the Russian Soyuz MS-25 crew ship is pictured docked to the Prichal docking module which is itself attached to the Nauka science module.

Follow Expedition 70 Updates: 


Expedition 70 Crew
Station Commander: Oleg Kononenko (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)
NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominik, Mike Barrett, Jeanette Epps

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.

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

Image Date: May 14, 2024


#NASA #Space #ISS #Stars #Planet #Earth #Atmosphere #Airglow #India #BhāratGaṇarājya #ISRO #Cities #Night #Astronauts #Cosmonauts #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Russia #Россия #HumanSpaceflight #Science #SpaceTechnology #Engineering #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

A Tour of Galaxy Pictor A's 'Death Star' Black Hole | NASA Chandra

A Tour of Galaxy Pictor A's 'Death Star' Black Hole | NASA Chandra


The Universe produces phenomena that often surpass what science fiction can conjure.

The Star Wars franchise has featured the fictitious "Death Star." It can shoot powerful beams of radiation across space. The Universe, however, produces phenomena that often surpass what science fiction can conjure.

The Pictor A galaxy is one such impressive object. This galaxy, located nearly 500 million light years from Earth, contains a supermassive black hole at its center. A huge amount of gravitational energy is released as material swirls towards the event horizon, the point of no return for infalling material. This energy produces an enormous beam, or jet, of particles traveling at nearly the speed of light into intergalactic space. A giant jet spanning continuously for over 570,000 light years is seen blasting out of the galaxy Pictor A. By comparison, the entire Milky Way is about 100,000 light years in diameter. Because of its relative proximity and Chandra's ability to make detailed X-ray images, scientists can look at detailed features in the jet and test ideas of how the X-ray emission is produced.

To obtain images of this jet, scientists used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory at various times over 15 years. Chandra's X-ray data (blue) have been combined with radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (red) in this new composite image.

By studying the details of the structure seen in X-rays and radio waves, scientists seek to gain a deeper understanding of these huge collimated blasts.

In addition to the prominent jet seen pointing to the right in the image, researchers report evidence for another jet pointing in the opposite direction, known as a "counterjet". While tentative evidence for this counterjet had been previously reported, these new Chandra data confirm its existence. The relative faintness of the counterjet compared to the jet is likely due to the motion of the counterjet away from the line of sight to the Earth.

The detailed properties of the jet and counterjet observed with Chandra show that their X-ray emission likely comes from electrons spiraling around magnetic field lines, a process called synchrotron emission. In this case, the electrons must be continuously re-accelerated as they move out along the jet. How this occurs is not well understood

The researchers ruled out a different mechanism for producing the jet's X-ray emission. In that scenario, electrons flying away from the black hole in the jet at near the speed of light move through the sea of cosmic background radiation (CMB) left over from the hot early phase of the Universe after the Big Bang. When a fast-moving electron collides with one of these CMB photons, it can boost the photon's energy up into the X-ray band.

The X-ray brightness of the jet depends on the power in the beam of electrons and the intensity of the background radiation. The relative brightness of the X-rays coming from the jet and counterjet in Pictor A do not match what is expected in this process involving the CMB, and effectively eliminate it as the source of the X-ray production in the jet.

A paper describing these results is available online: 

https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.08392 

The authors are Martin Hardcastle from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, Emil Lenc from the University of Sydney in Australia, Mark Birkinshaw from the University of Bristol in the UK, Judith Croston from the University of Southampton in the UK, Joanna Goodger from the University of Hertfordshire, Herman Marshall from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, Eric Perlman from the Florida Institute of Technology, Aneta Siemiginowska from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA, Lukasz Stawarz from Jagiellonian University in Poland and Diana Worrall from the University of Bristol.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.


Credits:

X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Hertfordshire/M.Hardcastle et al., 

Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA

Duration: 2 minutes, 34 seconds

Release Date: Feb. 26, 2016


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Galaxies #BlackHoles #PictorA #BlackHole #Jets #Pictor #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #NASAChandra #ChandraObservatory #SpaceTelescope #Xray #MSFC #VLBA #NRAO #UnitedStates #Infographic #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Pictor A Galaxy: Blast from Black Hole in a Galaxy Far, Far Away | NASA Chandra

Pictor A Galaxy: Blast from Black Hole in a Galaxy Far, Far Away | NASA Chandra

This labeled composite image shows jets in X-rays (blue) and radio waves (red), including the location of the supermassive black hole, the jet and the counterjet. Also labeled is a "radio lobe" where the jet is pushing into surrounding gas and a "hotspot" caused by shock waves—akin to sonic booms from a supersonic aircraft—near the tip of the jet.

The Star Wars franchise has featured the fictitious "Death Star." It can shoot powerful beams of radiation across space. The Universe, however, produces phenomena that often surpass what science fiction can conjure.

The Pictor A galaxy is one such impressive object. This galaxy, located nearly 500 million light years from Earth, contains a supermassive black hole at its center. A huge amount of gravitational energy is released as material swirls towards the event horizon, the point of no return for infalling material. This energy produces an enormous beam, or jet, of particles traveling at nearly the speed of light into intergalactic space. A giant jet spanning continuously for over 570,000 light years is seen blasting out of the galaxy Pictor A. By comparison, the entire Milky Way is about 100,000 light years in diameter. Because of its relative proximity and Chandra's ability to make detailed X-ray images, scientists can look at detailed features in the jet and test ideas of how the X-ray emission is produced.

To obtain images of this jet, scientists used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory at various times over 15 years. Chandra's X-ray data (blue) have been combined with radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (red) in this new composite image.

By studying the details of the structure seen in X-rays and radio waves, scientists seek to gain a deeper understanding of these huge collimated blasts.

In addition to the prominent jet seen pointing to the right in the image, researchers report evidence for another jet pointing in the opposite direction, known as a "counterjet". While tentative evidence for this counterjet had been previously reported, these new Chandra data confirm its existence. The relative faintness of the counterjet compared to the jet is likely due to the motion of the counterjet away from the line of sight to the Earth.

The detailed properties of the jet and counterjet observed with Chandra show that their X-ray emission likely comes from electrons spiraling around magnetic field lines, a process called synchrotron emission. In this case, the electrons must be continuously re-accelerated as they move out along the jet. How this occurs is not well understood

The researchers ruled out a different mechanism for producing the jet's X-ray emission. In that scenario, electrons flying away from the black hole in the jet at near the speed of light move through the sea of cosmic background radiation (CMB) left over from the hot early phase of the Universe after the Big Bang. When a fast-moving electron collides with one of these CMB photons, it can boost the photon's energy up into the X-ray band.

The X-ray brightness of the jet depends on the power in the beam of electrons and the intensity of the background radiation. The relative brightness of the X-rays coming from the jet and counterjet in Pictor A do not match what is expected in this process involving the CMB, and effectively eliminate it as the source of the X-ray production in the jet.

A paper describing these results is available online: 

https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.08392 

The authors are Martin Hardcastle from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, Emil Lenc from the University of Sydney in Australia, Mark Birkinshaw from the University of Bristol in the UK, Judith Croston from the University of Southampton in the UK, Joanna Goodger from the University of Hertfordshire, Herman Marshall from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, Eric Perlman from the Florida Institute of Technology, Aneta Siemiginowska from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA, Lukasz Stawarz from Jagiellonian University in Poland and Diana Worrall from the University of Bristol.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.


Credits:

X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Hertfordshire/M.Hardcastle et al., 

Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA

Release Date: Feb. 2, 2016


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Galaxies #BlackHoles #PictorA #BlackHole #Jets #Pictor #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #NASAChandra #ChandraObservatory #SpaceTelescope #Xray #MSFC #VLBA #NRAO #UnitedStates #Infographic #STEM #Education