My Universe

APEX Turns its Eye to Dark Clouds in Taurus This image from the...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:48:09 +0900

APEX Turns its Eye to Dark Clouds in Taurus

This image from the APEX telescope, of part of the Taurus Molecular Cloud, shows a sinuous filament of cosmic dust more than ten light-years long. In it, newborn stars are hidden, and dense clouds of gas are on the verge of collapsing to form yet more stars. The cosmic dust grains are so cold that observations at submillimetre wavelengths, such as these made by the LABOCA camera on APEX, are needed to detect their faint glow. This image shows two regions in the cloud: the upper-right part of the filament shown here is Barnard 211, while the lower-left part is Barnard 213.

The submillimetre-wavelength observations from the LABOCA camera on APEX, which reveal the heat glow of the cosmic dust grains, are shown here in orange tones. They are superimposed on a visible-light image of the region, which shows the rich background of stars. The bright star above the filament is φ Tauri.

Credit: ESO/APEX

Silicate Crystal Formation in the Disk of an Erupting Star This...

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 02:24:00 +0900

Silicate Crystal Formation in the Disk of an Erupting Star

This artist’s concept illustrates how silicate crystals like those found in comets can be created by an outburst from a growing star. The image shows a young sun-like star encircled by its planet-forming disk of gas and dust. The silicate that makes up most of the dust would have begun as non-crystallized, amorphous particles.

Streams of material are seen spiraling from the disk onto the star increasing its mass and causing the star to brighten and heat up dramatically. The outburst causes temperatures to rise in the star’s surrounding disk.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Cool Clouds of Carina Observations made with the APEX...

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 02:12:46 +0900

The Cool Clouds of Carina

Observations made with the APEX telescope in submillimetre-wavelength light at a wavelength of 870 µm reveal the cold dusty clouds from which stars form in the Carina Nebula. This site of violent star formation, which plays host to some of the highest-mass stars in our galaxy, is an ideal arena in which to study the interactions between these young stars and their parent molecular clouds.

The APEX observations, made with its LABOCA camera, are shown here in orange tones, combined with a visible light image from the Curtis Schmidt telescope at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory. The result is a dramatic, wide-field picture that provides a spectacular view of Carina’s star formation sites. The nebula contains stars equivalent to over 25 000 Suns, and the total mass of gas and dust clouds is that of about 140 000 Suns.

Credit: ESO/APEX/T. Preibisch et al. (Submillimetre); N. Smith, University of Minnesota/NOAO/AURA/NSF (Optical)

VLT Observations of Gamma-ray Burst Reveal Surprising...

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 02:06:10 +0900

VLT Observations of Gamma-ray Burst Reveal Surprising Ingredients of Early Galaxies

This artist’s impression shows two galaxies in the early Universe. The brilliant explosion on the left is a gamma-ray burst. The light from the burst travels through both galaxies on its way to Earth (outside the frame to the right). Analysis of observations of the light from this gamma-ray burst made using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have shown that these two galaxies are remarkably rich in heavier chemical elements.

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Antennae Galaxies composite of ALMA and Hubble observations The...

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:04:09 +0900

Antennae Galaxies composite of ALMA and Hubble observations

The Antennae Galaxies (also known as NGC 4038 and 4039) are a pair of distorted colliding spiral galaxies about 70 million light-years away, in the constellation of Corvus (The Crow). This view combines ALMA observations, made in three different wavelength ranges during the observatory’s early testing phase, with visible-light observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

The Hubble image is the sharpest view of this object ever taken and serves as the ultimate benchmark in terms of resolution. ALMA observes at much longer wavelengths which makes it much harder to obtain comparably sharp images. However, when the full ALMA array is completed its vision will be up to ten times sharper than Hubble.

Credit: B. Saxton, (NRAO/AUI/NSF), ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Visible light image: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

The star cluster NGC 2100 in context This image shows the...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 03:48:54 +0900

The star cluster NGC 2100 in context

This image shows the dramatic surroundings of the star cluster NGC 2100 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The picture is dominated by the Tarantula Nebula, the most active star formation region in the Local Group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way. This picture was created from images taken in visible light by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope.

Credit: ESO

The Running Chicken Nebula This new image from the Wide Field...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 03:41:00 +0900

The Running Chicken Nebula

This new image from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope shows the Running Chicken Nebula, a cloud of gas and newborn stars that lies around 6500 light-years away from us in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur). Officially called IC 2944, or the Lambda Centauri Nebula, its strange nickname comes from the bird-like shape of its brightest region. The star Lambda Centauri itself lies just outside the field of view.

Credit: ESO

Cosmic Exclamation Point VV 340, also known as Arp 302, provides...

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 01:24:00 +0900

Cosmic Exclamation Point

VV 340, also known as Arp 302, provides a textbook example of colliding galaxies seen in the early stages of their interaction. The edge-on galaxy near the top of the image is VV 340 North and the face-on galaxy at the bottom of the image is VV 340 South. Millions of years later these two spirals will merge — much like the Milky Way and Andromeda will likely do billions of years from now. Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) are shown here along with optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, blue). VV 340 is located about 450 million light years from Earth.

Credit:

X-ray: NASA/CXC/IfA/D.Sanders et al
Optical: NASA/STScI/NRAO/A.Evans et al

Herschel paints new story of galaxy evolution A galaxy accretes...

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 01:05:00 +0900

Herschel paints new story of galaxy evolution

A galaxy accretes mass from rapid, narrow streams of cold gas. These filaments provide the galaxy with continuous flows of raw material to feed its star-forming at a rather leisurely pace.

This theoretical scenario for galaxy formation is based on the numerical simulations presented by Dekel et al., 2009 (Nature, 457, 451D). However, the actual process of stream accretion onto a galaxy has never been directly observed and it remains speculative.

Credits: ESA–AOES Medialab

Into the Depths of the Lagoon Nebula Swirling dust clouds and...

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:55:51 +0900

Into the Depths of the Lagoon Nebula

Swirling dust clouds and bright newborn stars dominate the view in this image of the Lagoon nebula from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope. Also known as Messier 8 and NGC 6523, astronomers estimate it to be between 4000 and 6000 light years away, lying in the general direction of the center of our galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius.

The Lagoon nebula was first noted by the astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil in 1747, and a few decades later became the 8th entry in Charles Messiers famous catalog of nebulae. It is of particular interest to stargazers as it is only one of two star-forming nebulae that can be seen with the naked eye from northern latitudes, appearing as a fuzzy grey patch.

The glowing waters of the Lagoon, as seen in visible light, are really pools of hot gas surrounding the massive, young stars found here. Spitzers infrared vision looks past the gas to show the dusty basin that it fills. Here we see the central regions of the Lagoon with green showing the glow of carbon-based dust grains, and red highlighting the thermal glow of the hottest dust.

The various columns of dust all seem to point inwards towards the central depths of the Lagoon. These structures are being sculpted by the intense glow of giant, young stars found at the nebulas core. Within these clouds of dust and gas, a new generation of stars is forming.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Reflection Nebula NGC 1999 This wide-field panorama of star...

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:23:00 +0900

Reflection Nebula NGC 1999

This wide-field panorama of star formation was captured with the National Science Foundation’s Mayall 4-meter telescope on Kitt Peak. Located in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter), the image show a portion of one of Orion’s giant molecular clouds (known as “Orion A”) where new stars are forming.

The bright object in the bottom-left corner is the reflection nebula NGC 1999, which contains the young star V380 Orionis. A small, triangle shaped patch of dusty material is seen in silhouette against the reflection nebula. NGC 1999 lies at the center of a network of nebulous filaments which billow out and away like the spokes of a bicycle wheel.

Many other smaller nebulous patches in this image mark small reflection nebulae, Herbig-Haro objects, and stellar jets. The rich detail in this image reveals one of the most fascinating areas of the night sky.

Credit: STScI/NOAO/NSF/U. Alaska/NASA

Daybreak at Gale Crater This computer-generated view depicts...

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 01:07:48 +0900

Daybreak at Gale Crater

This computer-generated view depicts part of Mars at the boundary between darkness and daylight, with an area including Gale Crater beginning to catch morning light.

Northward is to the left. Gale is the crater with a mound inside it near the center of the image. NASA has selected Gale as the landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory mission. The mission’s rover will be placed on the ground in a northern portion of Gale crater in August 2012.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Feeling the Strain A galaxy being stretched out of shape has...

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 22:38:50 +0900

Feeling the Strain

A galaxy being stretched out of shape has been imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Known as NGC 2146, it has been severely warped and deformed so that an immense dusty arm of glittering material now lies directly in front of the centre of the galaxy, as seen in the image.

NGC 2146 is classified as a barred spiral due to its shape, but the most distinctive feature is the dusty spiral arm that has looped in front of the galaxy’s core as seen from our perspective. The forces required to pull this structure out of its natural shape and twist it up to 45 degrees are colossal. The most likely explanation is that a neighbouring galaxy is gravitationally perturbing it and distorting the orbits of many of NGC 2146’s stars. It is probable that we are currently witnessing the end stages of a process which has been occurring for tens of millions of years.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

VLT Looks into The Eyes of the Virgin The Eyes are about 50...

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 22:30:47 +0900

VLT Looks into The Eyes of the Virgin

The Eyes are about 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) and are some 100 000 light-years apart. The nickname comes from the apparent similarity between the cores of this pair of galaxies — two white ovals that resemble a pair of eyes glowing in the dark when seen in a moderate-sized telescope.

But although the centres of these two galaxies look similar, their outskirts could not be more different. The galaxy in the lower right, known as NGC 4435, is compact and seems to be almost devoid of gas and dust. In contrast, in the large galaxy in the upper left (NGC 4438) a lane of obscuring dust is visible just below its nucleus, young stars can be seen left of its centre, and gas extends at least up to the edges of the image.

Credit: ESO/Gems project

Vesta Sizes Up This composite image shows the comparative sizes...

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:15:47 +0900

Vesta Sizes Up

This composite image shows the comparative sizes of nine asteroids. Up until now, Lutetia, with a diameter of 81 miles (130 kilometers), was the largest asteroid visited by a spacecraft, which occurred during a flyby. Vesta dwarfs all other small bodies in this image.

Asteroid Vesta also is considered a protoplanet because it’s a large body that almost became a planet and has a diameter of approximately 330 miles (530 kilometers).

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JAXA/ESA

Hubble view of Supernova 1987A This colour-composite image shows...

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:30:00 +0900

Hubble view of Supernova 1987A

This colour-composite image shows the remnant of the famous supernova 1987A as observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. SN1987A resides in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, and it was first observed from Earth 24 years ago. At a distance of only 160,000 light years, this backyard supernova has become a ‘local’ laboratory for close-up studies of stellar demise.

The image shows the remnant of the supernova surrounded by rings of material that were ejected before the explosion and, on a larger scale, by diffuse clouds of gas.

Copyright: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA/ESA)

VISTA Finds Star Clusters Galore Using data from the VISTA...

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:24:33 +0900

VISTA Finds Star Clusters Galore

Using data from the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, an international team of astronomers has discovered 96 new open clusters hidden by the dust in the Milky Way. Thirty of these clusters are shown in this mosaic. These tiny and faint objects were invisible to previous surveys, but they could not escape the sensitive infrared detectors of the world’s largest survey telescope, which can peer through the dust. This is the first time so many faint and small clusters have been found at once. The images are made using infrared light in the following bands: J (shown in blue), H (shown in green), and Ks (shown in red).

Credit: ESO/J. Borissova

A Spiral in Leo The most distinctive features of the bright...

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 01:20:00 +0900

A Spiral in Leo

The most distinctive features of the bright galaxy NGC 3521 are its long spiral arms that are dotted with star-forming regions and interspersed with veins of dust. The arms are rather irregular and patchy, making NGC 3521 a typical example of a flocculent spiral galaxy. These galaxies have “fluffy” spiral arms that contrast with the sweeping arms of grand-design spirals such as the famous Whirlpool galaxy or M 51, discovered by Charles Messier.

NGC 3521 is bright and relatively close-by, and can easily be seen with a small telescope such as the one used by Messier to catalogue a series of hazy and comet-like objects in the 1700s. Strangely, the French astronomer seems to have missed this flocculent spiral even though he identified several other galaxies of similar brightness in the constellation of Leo. — 10 August 2011

Credit: ESO

The Necklace Nebula A giant cosmic necklace glows brightly in...

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:46:00 +0900

The Necklace Nebula

A giant cosmic necklace glows brightly in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. The object, aptly named the Necklace Nebula, is a recently discovered planetary nebula, the glowing remains of an ordinary, Sun-like star. The nebula consists of a bright ring, measuring 12 trillion miles across, dotted with dense, bright knots of gas that resemble diamonds in a necklace. The knots glow brightly due to absorption of ultraviolet light from the central stars.

The Necklace Nebula is located 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagitta (the Arrow). In this composite image, taken on July 2, 2011, Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 captured the glow of hydrogen (blue), oxygen (green), and nitrogen (red).

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Photo

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:07:13 +0900