China Chang'e-6 Moon Science Mission: Far Side & NASA Lunar Orbiter Images

China Chang'e-6 Moon Science Mission: Far Side & NASA Lunar Orbiter Images

Chang'e-6 Far Side South Pole Image

Chang'e-6 Far Side South Pole Image

The coordinates of the Chang'e 6 landing site are latitude 36.1 degrees south latitude, 208.3 degrees east longitude with a horizontal accuracy of plus or minus 30 meters. 

NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) image of China Chang'e-6 Moon Lander. This independently confirmed the successful landing of Chang'e-6 on the Moon's Far Side South Pole-Aitken Basin on June 2, 2024 with support from China's Queqiao-2 Lunar Relay Satellite.

NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) image of China Chang'e-6 Moon Lander on Far Side South Pole-Aitken Basin 

This before and after animation of NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) images shows the appearance of the Chang’e 6 lander. The increased brightness of the terrain surrounding the lander is due to disturbance from the lander’s engines and is similar to the blast zone seen around other lunar landers. The before image is from March 3, 2022, and the after image is from June 7, 2024.

Chang'e-6 Moon Lander with Ascender on top on June 3, 2024: View from min-rover

China Chang'e-6 Moon Mission Lander Poster: Celebrating June 2, 2024 Far Side South Pole Landing

The ascender of China's Chang'e-6 probe successfully lifted off from the Moon's surface on June 4, 2024, carrying samples collected from the Moon's far side south pole—for the first time in human lunar exploration history. The Chang'e-6 probe—consisting of an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner, like its predecessor Chang'e-5—was launched on May 3, 2024. After a month-long journey, Chang'e-6's lander-ascender combination touched down at the designated landing area in the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on Sunday, June 2, 2024. The lander is on the rim of an eroded, 55-yard-diameter (about 50 meters) crater.

The SPA basin (43°±2° south latitude, 154°±4° west longitude) is a large impact crater on the far side of the Moon. At roughly 2,500 km (1,600 mi) in diameter and between 6.2 and 8.2 km (3.9–5.1 mi) deep, it is the largest, oldest, and deepest basin recognized on the Moon.

The Chang’e 6 landing site is situated toward the southern edge of the Apollo basin (about 306 miles or 492 km in diameter, centered at 36.1 degrees south latitude, 208.3 degrees east longitude). Basaltic lava erupted south of Chaffee S crater about 3.1 billion years ago and flowed downhill to the west until it encountered a local topographic high, likely related to a fault. Several wrinkle ridges in this region have deformed and raised the mare surface. The landing site sits about halfway between two of these prominent ridges. This basaltic flow also overlaps a slightly older flow (about 3.3 billion years old), visible further west, but the younger flow is distinct because it has higher iron oxide and titanium dioxide abundances.

The Chang'e-6 ascender rendezvoused and docked with the orbiter-returner combination and transferred the lunar samples to the returner on June 6, 2024. The combination is flying around the Moon, waiting for the right time to return. Near the Earth, the returner will re-enter the atmosphere carrying the lunar samples. It is scheduled to land at the Siziwang Banner landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia region around June 25, 2024.

In 2020, Chang'e-5 was the first lunar sample-return mission since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976. The mission made China the third country to return samples from the Moon after the United States and the Soviet Union.

Image Credits: CLEP-China Lunar Exploration Program/NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

Image Dates: June 2-7, 2024

#NASA #CNSA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Science #China #中国 #Moon #Change6 #嫦娥六号 #LunarSampleReturn #FarSide #SouthPole #Queqiao2Satellite #SpaceTechnology #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #InternationalCooperation #France #CNES #Italy #ASI #Sweden #LRO #GSFC #UnitedStates #History #STEM #Education

Spacecraft: Orbital Nighttime | International Space Station

Spacecraft: Orbital Nighttime | International Space Station

An out-of-frame Moon creates a lens flare and illuminates the SpaceX Dragon perched atop the International Space Station. Photo taken looking out Starliner’s window.

Technical details: 1/1.3 s exposure, 2000 ISO, f1.4, 24mm lens

An aurora streams below Boeing's Starliner spacecraft docked to the forward port on the Harmony module as the International Space Station soared 266 miles above the Indian Ocean southwest of Australia.

Nine astronauts and cosmonauts are living aboard the International Space Station following the arrival of two crewmates, veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on Thursday, June 6, 2024.

Follow Expedition 71 Updates: 

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

Expedition 71 Crew

Station Commander: Oleg Kononenko (Russia)

Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)

NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominick, 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)/NASA Astronaut Matthew Dominick

Image Dates: June 15 & 18, 2024

#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #Science #Astronauts #OrbitalNight #SpaceXDragon #BoeingStarliner #CFTCrew #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceTechnology #SpaceLaboratory #Engineering #UnitedStates #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #InternationalCooperation #Expedition71 #STEM #Education

Robots at Work: Canadarm2 & Dextre | International Space Station

Robots at Work: Canadarm2 & Dextre | International Space Station

The Canadarm2 robotic arm with Dextre, its fine-tuned robotic hand attached, extends from the International Space Station while orbiting 263 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.

Dextre, the fine-tuned robotic hand attached to the Canadarm2 robotic arm, extends from the International Space Station while orbiting 259 miles above the Pacific Ocean southwest of Baja California.

The 17-meter-long (55+ feet) Canadarm2 robotic arm, with the 3.7m (12 feet) high Dextre fine-tuned robotic hand attached is pictured here. 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:

https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/iss/robotics/default.asp

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 Dates: June 9-14, 2024

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Engineering #SpaceTechnology #Earth #Canada #CSA #Canadarm2 #Dextre #Robotics #Robots #Expedition71 #HumanSpaceflight #InternationalCooperation #JSC #UnitedStates #Infographics #STEM #Education

Zooming to Newly Awakened Black Hole in Galaxy SDSS1335+0728 | ESO

Zooming to Newly Awakened Black Hole in Galaxy SDSS1335+0728 | ESO

This video zooms into the galaxy SDSS1335+0728. In late 2019 it suddenly started shining brighter than ever before and was classified as having an active galactic nucleus (AGN). This is the first time the awakening of a massive black hole has been observed in real time.

Images shown here were taken with different telescopes at different times. They have been blended together to create this zoom.

This research was presented in a paper entitled “SDSS1335+0728: The awakening of a ∼ 106M⊙ black hole” published in Astronomy & Astrophysics (https://aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202347957).

Link: https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso2409/eso2409a.pdf

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser, N. Risinger, SDSS, Space Engine

Release Date: June 18, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Astrophysics #Galaxies #GalaxySDSS13350728 #BlackHoles #AGN #Virgo #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

New Discovery: Massive Galactic Black Hole Awakening [Artist Animation] | ESO

New Discovery: Massive Galactic Black Hole Awakening [Artist Animation] | ESO

This animation shows the growing disc of material around the massive black hole at the center of the galaxy SDSS1335+0728. In late 2019 this galaxy suddenly started shining brighter than ever before and was classified as having an active galactic nucleus (AGN), powered by the central black hole feeding off the surrounding material.

This artist’s impression shows a ring of dark yellow clouds surrounding a brighter yellow region on a dark background, including an especially bright white dot at its center. Bright yellow, red, white, and blue stars dot the image.

Astronomers have used data from several space and ground-based observatories, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), to track how the galaxy’s brightness has varied. In a study out today, they conclude that they are witnessing changes never seen before in a galaxy—likely the result of the sudden awakening of the massive black hole at its core.

“Imagine you’ve been observing a distant galaxy for years, and it always seemed calm and inactive,” says Paula Sánchez Sáez, an astronomer at ESO in Germany and lead author of the study accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. 

“Suddenly, its [core] starts showing dramatic changes in brightness, unlike any typical events we've seen before.” This is what happened to SDSS1335+0728, which is now classified as having an ‘active galactic nucleus’ (AGN)—a bright compact region powered by a massive black hole—after it brightened dramatically in December 2019.

Like supernova explosions or tidal disruption events—when a star gets too close to a black hole and is torn apart—it can make galaxies suddenly light up. However, these brightness variations typically last only a few dozen or, at most, a few hundreds of days. SDSS1335+0728 is still growing brighter today, more than four years after it was first seen to ‘switch on’. Moreover, the variations detected in the galaxy, located 300 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, are unlike any seen before, pointing astronomers towards another explanation.

Massive black holes—with masses over one hundred thousand times that of our Sun—exist at the center of most galaxies, including the Milky Way. “These giant monsters usually are sleeping and not directly visible,” explains co-author Claudio Ricci, from the Diego Portales University, also in Chile. “In the case of SDSS1335+0728, we were able to observe the awakening of the massive black hole, [which] suddenly started to feast on gas available in its surroundings, becoming very bright.”

“[This] process (...) has never been observed before,” Hernández García says. Previous studies reported inactive galaxies becoming active after several years, but this is the first time the process itself—the awakening of the black hole—has been observed in real time. Ricci, who is also affiliated with the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University, China, adds: “This is something that could happen also to our own Sgr A*, the massive black hole (...) located at the center of our galaxy," but it is unclear how likely this is to happen. 

Follow-up observations are still needed to rule out alternative explanations. Another possibility is that we are seeing an unusually slow tidal disruption event, or even a new phenomenon. If it is in fact a tidal disruption event, this would be the longest and faintest such event ever observed. “Regardless of the nature of the variations, [this galaxy] provides valuable information on how black holes grow and evolve,” Sánchez Sáez says. 

This research was presented in a paper entitled “SDSS1335+0728: The awakening of a ∼ 106M⊙ black hole” published in Astronomy & Astrophysics (https://aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202347957).

Link: https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso2409/eso2409a.pdf

Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Release Date: June 18, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Astrophysics #Galaxies #GalaxySDSS13350728 #BlackHoles #AGN #Virgo #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #ParanalObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education #Art #Animation #Visualization #HD #Video

The Pleiades Star Cluster in Pink | NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

The Pleiades Star Cluster in Pink | NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

The Seven Sisters, also known as the Pleiades, seem to float on a bed of feathers in this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Clouds of dust sweep around the stars, swaddling them in a cushiony veil.

The Pleiades, located more than 400 light-years away in the Taurus constellation, are the subject of many legends and writings. Greek mythology holds that the flock of stars was transformed into celestial doves by Zeus to save them from a pursuant Orion. The 19th-century poet Alfred Lord Tennyson described them as "glittering like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid."

This star cluster was born when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, about one hundred million years ago. It is significantly younger than our 5-billion-year-old sun. The brightest members of the cluster, also the highest-mass stars, are known in Greek mythology as two parents, Atlas and Pleione, and their seven daughters, Alcyone, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, Celaeno and Asterope. There are thousands of additional lower-mass members, including many stars like our sun. 

This infrared image from Spitzer highlights the "tangled silver braid" mentioned in the poem by Tennyson. This spider-web like network of filaments, colored yellow, green and red in this view, is made up of dust associated with the cloud through which the cluster is traveling. The densest portion of the cloud appears in yellow and red, and the more diffuse outskirts appear in green hues. One of the parent stars, Atlas, can be seen at the bottom, while six of the sisters are visible at top.

This famous open cluster is easily visible with the naked eye.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/J. Stauffer (SSC-Caltech)

Release Date: April 12, 2007

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #StarClusters #ThePleiades #SevenSisters #Messier45 #M45 #OpenStarCluster #BrownDwarfStars #Taurus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #NASASpitzer #SpitzerSpaceTelescope #SST #Infrared #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

The Pleiades Star Cluster in Taurus | Kitt Peak National Observatory

The Pleiades Star Cluster in Taurus | Kitt Peak National Observatory

This very bright open cluster has a large angular extent, making it a great binocular object. If you viewed this object through a large telescope, you would only see a few stars, not the entire cluster. Perhaps the most famous open cluster, this is easily visible with the naked eye. In fact, many children with great eyesight look toward this cluster and mistake it for the Little Dipper. When you view this cluster through binoculars, it does in fact look like a measuring cup.

M45, or the Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters, are all names for this cluster. In Greek mythology, the Seven Sisters were the daughters of Atlas and Pleione, and the half-sisters of Hyades. It is interesting to note that when counting the brightest stars in this cluster, most people only come up with six. Some versions of the mythology describe a missing sister, the reason why we do not see a seventh bright star is unknown.The bright blue, massive stars that make up this cluster are less than 100 million years old.

This image was taken as part of Advanced Observing Program (AOP) program at Kitt Peak Visitor Center during 2014.

Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Tad Denton/Adam Block

Release Date: June 25, 2014

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #StarClusters #ThePleiades #SevenSisters #Messier45 #M45 #OpenStarCluster #BrownDwarfStars #Taurus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #AOP #Telescope #Optical #KittPeak #Tucson #Arizona #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

The Pleiades: Closest Star Cluster to Earth | Kitt Peak National Observatory

The Pleiades: Closest Star Cluster to Earth | Kitt Peak National Observatory

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona. The Pleiades are an open cluster easily visible to the naked eye. The cluster is dominated by several hot, luminous and massive stars. The blue nebulosity surrounding the brightest stars are due to blue light from the stars scattering off of dust grains in the interstellar gas between us and the stars. The cluster is also known as the 'Seven Sisters'. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), V (green), and I (red) filters. In this image, North is right, East is up.

The Pleiades is located approximately 440 light-years away towards the constellation of Taurus (The Bull). The cluster’s central region spans about eight light-years, with the diameter of The Pleiades as a whole estimated at 43 light-years. The Pleiades is a very prominent sight to the unaided eye during winter in the Northern Hemisphere, while in summer the cluster is best seen by observers in southern latitudes.  

Most of the cluster’s members are very young, hot blue stars formed within the last 100 million years. So far, about 1,000 stars have been confirmed. The hint of bluish nebulosity around the brightest stars originates from a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that the cluster is passing through at the moment. The tiny particles of dust scatter the blue light from the nearest stars more favorably than other colors, so the region appears to twinkle in blue. The cluster contains many brown dwarfs, or failed stars. These objects, though more massive than planets, do not possess enough mass to ignite nuclear fusion reactions in their cores and burst into life as bright stars.

Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Richard Cool (University of Arizona) and WIYN

Release Date: June 30, 2020

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #StarClusters #ThePleiades #SevenSisters #Messier45 #M45 #OpenStarCluster #BrownDwarfStars #Taurus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #WIYNTelescope #Optical #KittPeak #Tucson #Arizona #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

The Sun: Prominences & Filaments

The Sun: Prominences & Filaments

This colorized and digitally sharpened image of the Sun is composed of frames recording emission from hydrogen atoms in the solar chromosphere on May 15, 2024. Approaching the maximum of Solar Cycle 25, a multitude of planet-dwarfing active regions and twisting, snake-like solar filaments are seen to sprawl across the surface of the active Sun. Suspended in the active regions' strong magnetic fields, the filaments of plasma lofted beyond the Sun's edge appear as bright solar prominences. The large prominences seen near 4 o'clock, and just before 9 o'clock around the solar limb are post flare loops from two powerful X-class solar flares that both occurred on that day. In fact, the 4 o'clock prominence is associated with the monster active region AR 3664 just rotating off the Sun's edge.

Image Credit & Copyright: Steen Søndergaard

Release Date: June 15, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Star #Sun #SolarProminences #SolarEruptions #SolarFilaments #Plasma #Corona #Chromosphere #SolarCycle25 #SolarMaximum #Heliophysics #Ultraviolet #SolarSystem #Astrophotography #SteenSøndergaard #Astrophotographer #STEM #Education #APoD

Seeing both sides of the Sun at once | Europe's Proba-2 & Solar Orbiter Missions

Seeing both sides of the Sun at once | Europe's Proba-2 & Solar Orbiter Missions

This video shows the Sun as seen from Earth orbit by the European Space Agency’s Proba-2 mission on the left, and as seen from the opposite side of the Sun by the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter mission on the right. The two spacecraft carry an almost-identical imager instrument that takes photos of the Sun in ultraviolet light. The images shown here were measured by Proba-2’s SWAP (Sun Watcher using Active Pixel System detector and Image Processing) imager and Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument at a wavelength of 17.4 nanometers.

By watching the side of the Sun facing away from Earth, Solar Orbiter has allowed us to track the monster active region AR3664 as it rotates in and out of Earth’s view. AR3664 was very active in May 2024, producing many powerful solar flares and sending out highly energetic particles and large amounts of material in so-called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). It was responsible for the beautiful aurorae seen on Earth on May 10–12, and on May 20 Solar Orbiter saw it produce the largest solar flare of the current solar cycle (class X12). 

“Solar Orbiter’s position, in combination with other missions watching the Sun from Earth’s side, gives us a 360-degree view of the Sun for an extended period of time. This will only happen three more times in the future of Solar Orbiter, so we are in a unique situation to observe active regions on the far side that will then rotate into Earth’s view,” explains Daniel Müller, Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at the European Space Agency (ESA).

The European Space Agency's sun-watching spacecraft monitors the Sun's behavior to better understand the influence of space weather on our home planet. The ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission, in partnership with NASA, is orbiting the Sun from closer than ever before and is providing the first high resolution images of the Sun's poles.

Learn more here: 

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Can_t_stop_won_t_stop_Solar_Orbiter_shows_the_Sun_raging_on

Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI

Acknowledgement: D. Berghmans

Duration: 26 seconds

Release Date: June 18, 2024

#NASA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Earth #SpaceWeather #Aurorae #Sun #Star #Heliophysics #ActiveRegion #AR3664 #Sunspots #Proba2 #SolarOrbiter #Satellites #Spacecraft #Europe #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Boeing Starliner over Egypt's Mediterranean Coast | International Space Station

Boeing Starliner over Egypt's Mediterranean Coast | International Space Station

The Starliner spacecraft on NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test is pictured docked to the Harmony module's forward port as the International Space Station orbited 262 miles above Egypt's Mediterranean coast.

Expedition 71 Crew

Station Commander: Oleg Kononenko (Russia)

Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)

NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominick, 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: June 13, 2024

#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #Egypt #NileRiver #Africa #MediterraneanSea #BoeingStarliner #Astronauts #SuniWilliams #BarryWilmore #Science #SpaceTechnology #SpaceLaboratory #Engineering #UnitedStates #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #InternationalCooperation #Expedition71 #STEM #Education #مصر

The Sound of Space Data: Crab Nebula Sonification | NASA/JPL

The Sound of Space Data: Crab Nebula Sonification | NASA/JPL

This video is a sonification of X-ray light emitted by the Crab Nebula. The data was obtained by NASA’s NuSTAR and Chandra space observatories, whose teams turned the data into sound to enable people to audibly perceive different features of the Crab Nebula, making it more accessible for the visually impaired.

In this sonification, X-ray wavelengths from NuSTAR (represented as unique colors) are mapped to musical pitches and sounds. Red, yellow, purple, blue, and white are mapped to notes from low to high. For Chandra, brightness in the X-ray data corresponds with pitch and volume, and a bell sound indicates the position of the pulsar at the center of the nebula.

The Crab Nebula is what remains of a star that exploded as a supernova. The explosion that created the Crab Nebula was visible from Earth in the year 1054, when it was recorded by Chinese astronomers. Most of the star’s mass was pushed into space, creating a wide debris field that continues to expand. 

The rest of the stellar material collapsed into a dense object called a pulsar. The pulsar’s rapid rotation and strong magnetic field accelerate particles and shoot them into space.The particles emit high-energy X-rays that NuSTAR can detect, but as they travel outward, they collide with the debris scattered by the supernova, causing them to slow down and lose their energy. This is why NuSTAR only sees light from a relatively small region close to the pulsar. Lower energy X-rays detected by Chandra can be seen farther out.

More information on NuStar: 

nustar.caltech.edu

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CXC/SAO

Duration: 1 minute, 15 seconds

Release Date: June 17, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Nebula #CrabNebula #NGC1952 #Taurus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophysics #Xrays #NASAChandra #SpaceTelescopes #NASAMarshall #MSFC #NUSTAR #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Sonification #HD #Video

Distant Merging Quasars at Cosmic Dawn Discovered | Gemini North Telescope

Distant Merging Quasars at Cosmic Dawn Discovered | Gemini North Telescope

Cosmoview Episode 82: With the help of the GNIRS instrument on the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab, a team of astronomers have discovered a double-record-breaking pair of quasars. Not only are they the most distant pair of merging quasars ever found, but also the only pair confirmed in the bygone era of the Universe’s earliest formation.

Galaxy mergers fuel the formation of quasars—extremely luminous galactic cores where gas and dust falling into a central supermassive black hole emit enormous amounts of light. So when looking back at the early Universe astronomers would expect to find numerous pairs of quasars in close proximity to each other as their host galaxies undergo mergers. However, they have been surprised to find exactly none—until now.

Cosmic Dawn spanned from about 50 million years to one billion years after the Big Bang. During this period the first stars and galaxies began appearing, filling the dark Universe with light for the first time. The arrival of the first stars and galaxies kicked off a new era in the formation of the cosmos known as the Epoch of Reionization.

The Epoch of Reionization, which took place within Cosmic Dawn, was a period of cosmological transition. Beginning roughly 400 million years after the Big Bang, ultraviolet light from the first stars, galaxies and quasars spread throughout the cosmos, interacting with the intergalactic medium and stripping the Universe’s primordial hydrogen atoms of their electrons in a process known as ionization. The Epoch of Reionization was a critical epoch in the history of the Universe that marked the end of the cosmic dark ages and seeded the large structures we observe in our local Universe today.

To understand the exact role that quasars played during the Epoch of Reionization, astronomers are interested in finding and studying quasars populating this early and distant era. 

Since 2002 Gemini North has also been known as the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope. Dr. Gillett, who died in April 2001, was one of the primary visionaries of the Gemini telescopes. He was instrumental in assuring that the design of Gemini's twin 8-meter telescopes would make major scientific contributions to astronomy.

Learn more here: https://www.gemini.edu

Video Credit:

Images and Videos: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Garlick/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava)/T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab)/D. de Martin (NSF NOIRLab)/M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)/ESA/Hubble/NASA/M. Kornmesser/N. Bartmann (NSF NOIRLab)

Duration: 1 minute, 20 seconds

Release Date: June 7, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Quasars #EarlyUniverse #CosmicDawn  #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #InternationalGeminiObservatory #GeminiNorthTelescope #Optical #GNIRS #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #Maunakea #Hawaii #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Animation #HD #Video

Pan of The Crab Nebula: A New View | James Webb Space Telescope

Pan of The Crab Nebula: A New View | James Webb Space Telescope

The NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope dissected the Crab Nebula’s structure, aiding astronomers as they continue to evaluate leading theories about the supernova remnant’s origins. With the data collected by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), a team of scientists were able to closely inspect several of the Crab Nebula’s major components.

For the first time ever, astronomers mapped the warm dust emission throughout this supernova remnant. Represented here as fluffy magenta material, the dust grains form a cage-like structure that is most apparent toward the lower left and upper right portions of the remnant. Filaments of dust are also threaded throughout the Crab’s interior and sometimes coincide with regions of doubly ionized sulphur (sulphur III), colored in green. Yellow-white mottled filaments, which form large loop-like structures around the supernova remnant’s center, represent areas where dust and doubly ionized sulphur overlap.

The dust’s cage-like structure helps constrain some, but not all of the ghostly synchrotron emission represented in blue. The emission resembles wisps of smoke, most notable toward the Crab’s center. The thin blue ribbons follow the magnetic field lines created by the Crab’s pulsar heart—a rapidly rotating neutron star.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University)

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: June 17, 2024

#NASA #ESA #JWST #Astronomy #Space #Star #NeutronStar #Nebula #CrabNebula #NGC1952 #M1 #Taurus #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #Infrared #SpaceTelescope #UnfoldTheUniverse #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #CSA #Canada #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Crab Nebula: A New View | James Webb Space Telescope

The Crab Nebula: A New View | James Webb Space Telescope

The NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope dissected the Crab Nebula’s structure, aiding astronomers as they continue to evaluate leading theories about the supernova remnant’s origins. With the data collected by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), a team of scientists were able to closely inspect several of the Crab Nebula’s major components.

For the first time ever, astronomers mapped the warm dust emission throughout this supernova remnant. Represented here as fluffy magenta material, the dust grains form a cage-like structure that is most apparent toward the lower left and upper right portions of the remnant. Filaments of dust are also threaded throughout the Crab’s interior and sometimes coincide with regions of doubly ionized sulphur (sulphur III), colored in green. Yellow-white mottled filaments, which form large loop-like structures around the supernova remnant’s center, represent areas where dust and doubly ionized sulphur overlap.

The dust’s cage-like structure helps constrain some, but not all of the ghostly synchrotron emission represented in blue. The emission resembles wisps of smoke, most notable toward the Crab’s center. The thin blue ribbons follow the magnetic field lines created by the Crab’s pulsar heart—a rapidly rotating neutron star.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University)

Release Date: June 17, 2024

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Pan of Nebula RCW 7 in Puppis: A Stellar Nursery of Protostars | Hubble

Pan of Nebula RCW 7 in Puppis: A Stellar Nursery of Protostars | Hubble

Named RCW 7, this nebula is located just over 5,300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Puppis. It is a visually striking collection of interstellar gas and dust. 

Nebulae are areas of space that are rich in the raw material needed to form new stars. Under the influence of gravity, parts of these molecular clouds collapse until they coalesce into protostars, surrounded by spinning discs of leftover gas and dust. In the case of RCW 7, the protostars forming  here are particularly massive, giving off strongly ionizing radiation and fierce stellar winds that have transformed it into what is known as a H II region.

H II regions are filled with hydrogen ions—where H I refers to a normal hydrogen atom, H II is hydrogen that has lost its electron. The ultraviolet radiation from the massive protostars excites the hydrogen, causing it to emit light and giving this nebula its soft pinkish glow. Here Hubble is studying a particular massive protostellar binary named IRAS 07299-1651, still in its glowing cocoon of gas in the curling clouds towards the top of the nebula. To expose this star and its siblings, this image was captured using the Wide Field Camera 3 in near-infrared light. The massive protostars here are brightest in ultraviolet light, but they emit plenty of infrared light. This can pass through much of the gas and dust around them and be seen by Hubble. Many of the other, larger-looking stars in this image are not part of the nebula, but sit between it and our Solar System.

The creation of an H II region marks the beginning of the end for a molecular cloud. Over only a few million years, the radiation and winds from the massive stars gradually disperse the gas—even more so as the most massive stars come to the end of their lives in supernova explosions. Only a fraction of the gas will be incorporated into new stars in this nebula with the rest being spread throughout the galaxy to eventually form new molecular clouds.

Image Description: Clouds of gas and dust with many stars. The clouds form a flat blue background towards the bottom, and become more thick and smoky towards the top. They are lit on one side by stars in the nebula. A thick arc of gas and dust reaches around from the top, where it is brightly lit by many stars in and around it, to the bottom where it is dark and obscuring. Other large stars lie between the clouds and the viewer.

Video Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Tan (Chalmers University & University of Virginia), R. Fedriani (Institute for Astrophysics of Andalusia)

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: June 17, 2024

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