Beethoven Symphony 7 + Hubble images
Beautiful music from Beethoven + beautiful images from Hubble telescope = 8 beautiful minutes

(Source: youtube.com)

Uranus as seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in 2005.

Credit:

NASA, ESA, and M. Showalter (SETI Institute)

via abcstarstuff

A spiral galaxy with a secret

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope - with a little help from an amateur astronomer - has produced one of the best views yet of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 106. Located a little over 20 million light-years away, practically a neighbour by cosmic standards, Messier 106 is one of the brightest and nearest spiral galaxies to our own.

 Despite its appearance, which looks much like countless other galaxies, Messier 106 hides a number of secrets. Thanks to this image, which combines data from Hubble with observations by amateur astronomers Robert Gendler and Jay GaBany, they are revealed as never before.

At its heart, as in most spiral galaxies, is a supermassive black hole, but this one is particularly active. Unlike the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, which pulls in wisps of gas only occasionally, Messier 106’s black hole is actively gobbling up material. As the gas spirals towards the black hole, it heats up and emits powerful radiation. Part of the emission from the centre of Messier 106 is produced by a process that is somewhat similar to that in a laser - although here the process produces bright microwave radiation [1].

As well as this microwave emission from Messier 106’s heart, the galaxy has another startling feature - instead of two spiral arms, it appears to have four. Although the second pair of arms can be seen in visible light images as ghostly wisps of gas, as in this image, they are even more prominent in observations made outside of the visible spectrum, such as those using X-ray or radio waves.

Unlike the normal arms, these two extra arms are made up of hot gas rather than stars, and their origin remained unexplained until recently. Astronomers think that these, like the microwave emission from the galactic centre, are caused by the black hole at Messier 106’s heart, and so are a totally different phenomenon from the galaxy’s normal, star-filled arms.

The extra arms appear to be an indirect result of jets of material produced by the violent churning of matter around the black hole. As these jets travel through the galactic matter they disrupt and heat up the surrounding gas, which in turn excites the denser gas in the galactic plane and causes it to glow brightly. This denser gas closer to the centre of the galaxy is tightly-bound, and so the arms appear to be straight. However, the looser disc gas further out is blown above or below the disc in the opposite direction from the jet, so that the gas curves out of the disc — producing the arching red arms seen here.

Despite carrying his name, Messier 106 was neither discovered nor catalogued by the renowned 18th century astronomer Charles Messier. Discovered by his assistant, Pierre Méchain, the galaxy was never added to the catalogue in his lifetime. Along with six other objects discovered but not logged by the pair, Messier 106 was posthumously added to the Messier catalogue in the 20th century.

Amateur astronomer Robert Gendler retrieved archival Hubble images of M 106 to assemble a mosaic of the centre of the galaxy. He then used his own and fellow astrophotographer Jay GaBany’s observations of M 106 to combine with the Hubble data in areas where there was less coverage, and finally, to fill in the holes and gaps where no Hubble data existed.

The centre of the galaxy is composed almost entirely of Hubble data taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys, Wide Field Camera 3, and Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 detectors. The outer spiral arms are predominantly HST data colourised with ground-based data taken by Gendler’s and GaBany’s 12.5-inch and 20-inch telescopes, located at very dark remote sites in New Mexico, USA.

Gendler was a prizewinner in the recent Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition. Another prizewinner, André van der Hoeven, entered a different version of Messier 106, combining Hubble and NOAO data.

via europeinspace

Let this serve as a reminder to all that we are living truly in the golden age of amateur (otherwise known as “backyard”) astronomy. The ability to contribute to such discoveries aids not only to our knowledge of the active universe around us, but also as another etched observation into astronomical history. Citizen science, ya’ll.

“The gorgeous Orion Nebula is home to tens of what could be fledgling planetary systems. In this image, six of these modest “smudges” with big potential are highlighted (from top down): 132-1832, 206-446, 180-331, 106-417, 231-838 and 181-825.

Within the awe-inspiring, gaseous folds of Orion, researchers have identified two different types of discs around young and forming stars: those that lie close to the brightest star in the cluster (Theta 1 Orionis C) and those farther away from it. This bright star heats up the gas in the nearby discs, causing them to shine brightly. The discs that are farther away do not receive enough of the energetic radiation from the star to set the gas ablaze; thus, they can only be detected as a dark silhouette against the background of the bright nebula, as the dust that surrounds these discs absorbs background visible light. In these silhouetted discs, astronomers are better able to study the properties of the dust grains that are thought to bind together and possibly form planets like our own.

The brighter discs are indicated by a glowing cusp in the excited material and facing the bright star, but which we see at a random orientation within the nebula, so some appear edge on, and others face on, for instance. Other interesting features enhance the look of these captivating objects, such as emerging jets of matter and shock waves. The dramatic shock waves are formed when the stellar wind from the nearby massive star collides with the gas in the nebula, sculpting boomerang shapes or arrows or even, in the case of 181-825, a space jellyfish!”

Credit:

NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA), the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team and L. Ricci (ESO)

via abcstarstuff

Dreaming of Galaxies. Here’s to James Webb.

The building 29 cleanroom at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland is a tinkerer’s dream. There, in an assortment of expensive pieces, rests NASA’s preeminent project of discovery: the James Webb Space Telescope.

Under development by NASA and Northrop Grumman engineers, the tennis court-sized telescope is currently slated for launch in 2018. When it takes its position in a solar orbit 930,000 miles from Earth — four times the distance to the moon — James Webb will grant a peerless gaze at the universe the likes of which we’ve never seen.

The Top 5 Awesome Things About The James Webb Space Telescope

Just two years ago, the outlook for James Webb wasn’t nearly so optimistic. In July 2011, the United States House of Representatives’ appropriations committee on Commerce, Justice, and Science moved to cancel the project, contending that the project was “billions of dollars over budget and plagued by poor management.” For a time, it appeared that James Webb would go the unfortunate way of the Superconducting Super Collider: mothballed and left incomplete, a billion-dollar reminder of what could have been. But in November 2011, cooler heads prevailed. James Webb survived.

Space scientists across a spectrum of disciplines are now firmly looking forward to the future. Astronomers hope to use James Webb to identify the first stars that formed in the wake of the Big Bang, to examine the evolution of dark energy, as well as to study the physical and chemical properties of foreign planets and solar systems, potentially picking out the building blocks of life. Key to these aims is James Webb’s chosen method of stargazing: infrared imaging.

Infrared imaging focuses on wavelengths of light within the infrared spectrum — usually 700 nm to 1 mm. Those lengths are very short in absolute terms, but still far longer than visible light. A big benefit of focusing on infrared light is that it’s emitted by almost any source, provided said source is not cooled to absolute zero. It also has the ability to pass through astronomical gas and dust without being scattered, granting clearer images.

When light travels extremely far distances on the order of billions of light years, it shifts to the infrared spectrum. This means that James Webb, with its large, collecting array of mirrors, will be perfectly positioned to gather this light and peer farther into the galaxy, and thus back in time, than ever before.

As Stacy Palen, director of the Ott Planetarium at Weber State University recently stated on Science Friday, we may find more, much more, than we’ve bargained for.

JWST | Planetary Science

“One of the great things about these discovery machines is that you think you know what it’s capabilities are, and you think you know what it’s gonna see. But when it comes right down to it, we’ve never looked at the Universe at this resolution in the infrared before, and we’ve never had this quality of data before, and we’ve never been able to look at this level of detail. And so I think the surprises are gonna be fabulous as we start to open a window that’s always been closed.”

Back in 1990, James Webb’s remarkable predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, was launched into orbit a mere 374 miles from Earth. Since then, it’s far surpassed its original stated goals, delivering soaring, captivating images of the cosmos and functioning as perhaps the single most useful scientific instrument ever produced. Any astronomer in the world can submit a project proposal and request time on the telescope. Ideas and submissions constantly pour in, a torrent that has resulted in over 10,000 scientific papers based on Hubble data. This “science for the people” approach is slated to continue with James Webb. And of course, we’ll also be privy to even more dazzling photographs.

“The reason that the Hubble Space Telescope images were so staggeringly beautiful when we saw them was because the resolution of the telescope was so high, Palen told Science Friday. “And James Webb, because it’s a larger telescope, is going to give us even more detail”.

Nothing extraordinary comes without costs. James Webb, like Hubble, is slated to run well beyond original budgetary estimates, a fact which — as mentioned earlier — almost got the project canned. But this is expected. When building state-of-the-art machines to gaze far into the unknown, you often experience unforeseen snags. Attempting to do something that’s never been done before is rarely easy. Such actions can, however, deliver astounding results.

Stay Curious! Watch: “Hubble Gotchu” via Milky J

Here is an incredible picture taken by hubble 

(source)

Now apart for the obvious… let’s breakdown what makes this picture so cool (pointed out by this month’s issue of Astronomy)

FIRST:

you’ve got a wicked amount of gravitational lensing going on. If you don’t know what gravitational lensing you’re missing out ‘cause it’s basically the coolest thing ever but in a nutshell it means that there is so much mass in between us and a distant galaxy that the light gets totally warped to look like it’ not even a galaxy! That’s why all of these galaxies here are so odd looking! They don’t actually look like that their light has just been bent on it’s journey to us! HOW COOL IS THAT!? You can read more about gravitational lensing here.

AS IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH THIS PICTURE ALSO GO THIS!

YEP! That’s a galaxy whose light was gravitationally lensed to look like a space invader… but that’s not the coolest part about this galaxy….

See those two? The space invader and the other one? THEY ARE THE SAME GALAXY! THE LIGHT JUST GOT BENT IN TWO DIRECTIONS! AGAIN ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF WHY GRAVITATIONAL LENSING IS SO AMAZING! 

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!

See that dripping purple stuff? THAT IS GAS THAT GOT RIPPED OUT OF THE GALAXY AND IS GLOWING BECAUSE IT’S SO HOT FROM THE COLLISION THAT CAUSED IT TO BE RIPPED OUT! Not awesome enough? Consider the size of the galaxy compared to the length of the gas. THINK HOW FAR THAT STRETCHES!

Here’s the original picture again with no circles for your viewing pleasure  

and here’s a source to back up everything I said 

via imagineatoms

How a Hubble Image Goes from Photons to Finished Beauty

How does raw data from the Hubble Space Telescope end up to become a finished gorgeous color image, like the one of Arp 274, above? It’s an interesting process, because the cameras on Hubble do not take color pictures.

Continue Reading

via thenewenlightenmentage

I’ve seen a few videos about this process before. Certainly changes the way you view these Hubble images and provides a deeper respect for the level of attention and work put in to deliver such awe-inspiring moments captured amongst space and time.

(via astronautjimblows)

Hubble Space Telescope will have two chances in the next few years to hunt for Earth-sized planets by using a special alignment with Proxima Centauri. There have been previous attempts before but were unsuccessful. Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our Sun and is known as a red dwarf. Since red dwarf’s are smaller than our own and they are also the most common, 10 for every 1 sun of ours, they are a candidate most likely harboring Earth-sized planets.

The rare alignment that will happen in October 2014 and February 2016 is when Proxima Centauri will pass in front of two stars. This will allow astronomers to look for a microlensing effect during the rare alignment. Microlensing will allow astronomers to precisely measure the mass, temperature, diameter, intrinsic brightness, and longevity. Furthermore, they can measure the mass by looking at the background stars and see how much they offset from their real positions in the sky. The offset is a result of the gravitational field warping space and since Proxmia Centauri is the closest star to Earth the area in the sky where we can see this gravitational warping is the larger than distant stars. This will be exciting to see what planets may be hiding around Proxima Centauri!

http://www.penny4nasa.org/take-action/

via penny4nasa

Bits and Pieces of the Carina Nebula

This is a series of close-up views of the complex gas structures in a small portion of the Carina Nebula. The nebula is a cold cloud of predominantly hydrogen gas. It is laced with dust, which makes the cloud opaque. The cloud is being eroded by a gusher of ultraviolet light from young stars in the region. They sculpt a variety of fantasy shapes, many forming tadpole-like structures. In some frames, smaller pieces of nebulosity can be seen freely drifting, such as the 2.3-trillion-mile-long structure at upper right. The most striking feature is a 3.5-trillion-mile-long horizontal jet in the upper left frame. It is being blasted into space by a young star hidden in the tip of the pillar-like structure. A bowshock has formed near the tip of the jet.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio

via spaceplasma

(Source: asonlynasacan)

Hubble Reveals the Ring Nebula’s True Shape

In this composite image, visible-light observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are combined with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble an amazing  view of the famous Ring Nebula.

Called a planetary nebula, the Ring Nebula is the glowing remains of a Sun-like star.

The object is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. The Hubble observations reveal that the nebula’s shape is more complicated than astronomers thought. The blue gas in the nebula’s center is actually a football-shaped structure that pierces the red doughnut-shaped material. Hubble also uncovers the detailed structure of the dark, irregular knots of dense gas embedded along the inner rim of the ring. The knots look like spokes in a bicycle. The Hubble images have allowed the research team to match up the knots with the spikes of light around the bright, main ring, which are a shadow effect.

(Source: electricspacekoolaid)

Hubble finds dead stars “polluted” with planetary debris

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has found signs of Earth-like planets in an unlikely place: the atmospheres of a pair of burnt-out stars in a nearby star cluster. The white dwarf stars are being polluted by debris from asteroid-like objects falling onto them. This discovery suggests that rocky planet assembly is common in clusters, say researchers.

The stars, known as white dwarfs — small, dim remnants of stars once like the Sun — reside 150 light-years away in the Hyades star cluster, in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull). The cluster is relatively young, at only 625 million years old.

Astronomers believe that all stars formed in clusters. However, searches for planets in these clusters have not been fruitful — of the roughly 800 exoplanets known, only four are known to orbit stars in clusters. This scarcity may be due to the nature of the cluster stars, which are young and active, producing stellar flares and other outbursts that make it difficult to study them in detail.

Hubble’s spectroscopic observations identified silicon in the atmospheres of two white dwarfs, a major ingredient of the rocky material that forms Earth and other terrestrial planets in the Solar System. This silicon may have come from asteroids that were shredded by the white dwarfs’ gravity when they veered too close to the stars. The rocky debris likely formed a ring around the dead stars, which then funnelled the material inwards.

The debris detected whirling around the white dwarfs suggests that terrestrial planets formed when these stars were born. After the stars collapsed to form white dwarfs, surviving gas giant planets may have gravitationally nudged members of any leftover asteroid belts into star-grazing orbits.

Besides finding silicon in the Hyades stars’ atmospheres, Hubble also detected low levels of carbon. This is another sign of the rocky nature of the debris, as astronomers know that carbon levels should be very low in rocky, Earth-like material.

This new study suggests that asteroids less than 160 kilometres across were gravitationally torn apart by the white dwarfs’ strong tidal forces, before eventually falling onto the dead stars.

Image credit:  NASA, ESA, STScI, and G. Bacon (STScI)

(Source: distant-traveller, via distant-traveller)

The Night Sky | Astronomical Societies & Public Observing

Our friendly, neighborhood science blogger ikenbot posted a brief “FYI” promoting the importance of astronomy organizations to the amateur astronomer (see below):

If you’re really serious about your amateur astronomy I recommend you take the time out to do a bit of research on what are the public organizations for astronomy in your area. In it you’ll learn what scopes to use, how to read charts, find asterisms, constellations, and so much more.

Find your local astronomy clubs/club and see which one is more convenient for you. Once you feel you’ve learned enough to handle your own telescope of your choice, you can buy one based on your taste and the suggestions and recommendations of the experts in the club.

I wholeheartedly agree and must express that you need not be an amateur astronomer to become involved or attend these events, as the best way to increase awareness of our place in space and aid in the public understanding of science is to attend for yourself, bring a friend and share this with others.

The York Astronomical Society

In my hometown of York, PA, the YCAS hosts these monthly events at two locations: the Planetarium at the York Learning Center , and the YCAS Observatory at John Rudy Park.

The Planetarium

The most recent show I viewed with my son was called “Max Goes to the Moon”, in which Max (the dog) and a young girl named Tori take the first trip to the Moon since the Apollo era. Along the way, the story sets the stage for the more sophisticated science of the topics including “Phases of the Moon,” “Wings in Space?,” and “Frisbees and Curve Balls on the Moon” — all thoughtfully explained so that grownups and children can learn together about science. Toward the end, Max and Tori’s trip proves so inspiring to people back on Earth that all the nations of the world come together to build a great Moon colony from which “the beautiful views of Earth from the Moon made everyone realize that we all share a small and precious planet.” You can view the trailer here. (description via YCAS)

Programs range from an introduction to the night sky, telescopes 101, current skywatching tips/advisories, astronomy/cosmology history and interchanging programs to promote a better understanding of science and the importance of astronomy in our culture.

Prices for shows are not the same everywhere. Here, it’s $4 for adults, $3 for children under 18 and seniors. The funds and donations allow the YCAS to flourish through the aid of public interest.

Scouts: Merit Badge Astronomy Workshop

In this two hour class, 15 to 40 scouts will learn there’s more to the night sky than bright dots on a black background. Investigate the stars and other celestial bodies and learn about the tools and methods used by astronomers to study what’s beyond our sight.

Programs are offered Monday through Thursday nights, 6:30 to 8:30 pm. The fee is $8 per scout. There is no charge for the adults chaperoning the scouts; there should be one chaperone for every five scouts. The money raised from these programs goes towards the cost of using the planetarium and developing other astronomy programs for the community. See image (2), above, of the Astronomy Merit Badge.

The Observatory

The YCAS owns 4 research-grade telescopes: a 13.1” f/4.5 Coultier Dobsonian; 12” Meade SCT computerized goto telescope; 10” SCT Meade telescope; 4.5” Newtonian telescope; 4” Astro-Physics Refractor telescope; Celestron NexStar i 8 GoTo telescope with GPS; two 8” Dobsonian telescopes; Coronado PST Solar Telescope; and a single 12’ dish antenna for radio astronomy, and associated electronic recording equipment.

This caliber of equipment has enabled views of galaxies such as Andromeda, Whirlpool and Sombrero; nebula’s such as the Ring, Orion and Crab nebula, along with pristine views of the planets such as recently captured Saturn (below via a CCD display, courtesy of YCAS Member and Hubble Space Telescope Commanding Astronomer, Mike Wenz, pictured above as well) along with many other celestial objects.

During peak viewing times for comet PANSTARRS, a special observing night was held for the public to witness the setting of the fuzzy beauty. Click here to view my published post on the event.The photo below was taken by another amateur astronomer and YCAS member who is also a member of the Planetary Society as well.

Let me just state that I am not a member of the YCAS. i began going nearly 3 years ago while learning to effectively use my Edmund Scientific Astroscan. From the moment I set up my equipment I was approached by stargazers in the form of parents, children, grandparents and other amateur astronomers to check out the scope, talk science/space and enjoy the night sky. Ever since, it’s provided me a place to volunteer (other than tumblr) where I can share my passion for the cosmos and pass on information to the public alongside veteran astronomers who become preoccupied with calibrating their scopes and equipment while attempting to field questions at the same time.

I encourage all of you to look into your local astronomical societies and attend these public observing opportunities to learn, engage and educate. Ad astra.

sagansense.

Starbirth in the Carina Nebula (High Res)

(Source: infinity-imagined)

Since 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has been transmitting images of the distant universe back to Earth. As part of this 23 year anniversary, NASA has unveilled to the public a new photo of the beloved Horsehead Nebula, located approximately 1,500 million light years from Earth. Where the visible light images of the Horsehead Nebula reveal a dark and mostly opaque horse head figure, this infrared image makes the nebula look much more fragile. With this knowledge, astronomers have estimated that because of radiation from a nearby star — which is causing visible erosion — the nebula likely will be non-existent in 5 million years.

We humans cannot see infrared radiation with our eyes or with standard cameras, which are designed to detect optical light. To observe these distant objects, NASA has developed infrared-sensitive telescopes or instruments, such as the Wide Field Camera on Hubble which was fitted in 2009. This relatively new addition of infrared viewing capability is a small sample of what is on the horizon for astronomical study. The James Webb Space Telescope — set to launch in 2018 — will expand upon this technology and has a mission objective that includes observing the most distant objects in The Universe. This task simply isn’t possible using standard cameras, and astronomers will have to rely upon infrared technology accordingly.

Watch the SpaceRip (spacerip.com) video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr0lkUwOULQ

Read more about the Horsehead Nebula: http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/hubble-23-year-anniversary-horsehead-nebula-130419.htm

(Source: pennyfournasa)