Beowulf        Posted at 2023-05-19 17:43:49(79Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3254, observed using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). WFC3 has the capacity to observe ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light, and this image is a composite of observations taken in the visible and infrared. In this image, NGC 3254 looks like a typical spiral galaxy, viewed side-on. However, NGC 3254 has a fascinating secret that it is hiding in plain sight — it is a Seyfert galaxy, meaning that it has an extraordinarily active core, known as an active galactic nucleus, which releases as much energy as the rest of the galaxy put together.  Seyfert galaxies are not rare — about 10% of all galaxies are thought to be Seyfert galaxies. They belong to the class of “active galaxies” — galaxies that have supermassive black holes at their centres that are actively accreting material, which releases vast amounts of radiation as it is accreted. There is a second, far more active, type of active galaxy that is known as a quasar. The active cores of Seyfert galaxies, such as NGC 3254, are brightest when observed in light outside the visible spectrum. At other wavelengths, this image would look very different, with the galaxy’s core shining extremely brightly. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al. & Beowulf  | |
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| Jase1Posted at 2023-05-20 18:50:19(79Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  Astronomers have located a distant, Earth-sized planet that could be covered with more volcanoes than any body in our solar system. The exoplanet, described for the first time Tuesday in the journal Nature, may also have water on its surface, signaling that it might support life. Called LP 791-18 d, the newly discovered world is roughly 90 light-years away from Earth in the Crater constellation in the Milky Way galaxy. It’s orbiting a dim red dwarf star—which is cooler and smaller than the sun—along with at least two other planets, named LP 791-18 b and c. Though astronomers haven’t directly observed any eruptions, they say the exoplanet is a “particularly likely candidate” for volcanic activity due to the gravity of its more massive neighbor, LP 791-18 c, says study co-author Ian Crossfield, an astronomer at the University of Kansas, to Reuters’ Will Dunham. This force squeezes and deforms the distant world, producing friction and heat beneath its surface, which could lead to volcanic eruptions. The same phenomenon occurs between Jupiter and its moon Io, the most volcanically active body in our solar system. Scientists used an array of telescopes and observatories to study the far-off planet, including the now-decommissioned Spitzer Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Based on their analysis, they suspect LP 791-18 d may be a bit larger than Earth in mass and size—and perhaps even more volcanically active than Io. As LP 791-18 d orbits its red dwarf, the same side always faces the star, a state astronomers describe as being “tidally locked.” As a result, the planet’s star-facing side is likely a desert, where it’s too hot and dry for water to persist. But the amount of suspected volcanic activity suggests the world might have an atmosphere, and if so, water could condense on the cooler side that faces away from the star. Astronomers say a large glacier might exist on the planet’s dark side, per Reuters. But it’s the in-between areas on the planet’s surface, where the dark and light sides meet, that could really intrigue scientists. In these milder regions, ice from the dark-side glacier may be melting into liquid water. These places could be “a bit like Iceland,” says Björn Benneke, an astronomer at the University of Montreal, to the Toronto Star’s Kevin Jiang. “You [might] have lots of ice, but also volcanic activity underneath.” Some astrobiologists believe that volcanic or tectonic activity is necessary to support life on planets. That’s because these natural occurrences stir up elements that are important for life, such as carbon, and may also emit gases that help create an atmosphere. This theory is still up for debate, however. Even so, the evidence of volcanic activity on LP 791-18 d gives astronomers hope that they might “one day find signs of life on another planet,” says study co-author Karen Collins, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, in a statement. The team believes life is possible on this supposedly volcanic world, because it sits within the so-called habitable zone around its star, also known as the Goldilocks zone. In this region, conditions are just right for liquid water to exist on a planet’s surface. Researchers have already gotten the green light to study the neighboring planet LP 791-18 c with the James Webb Space Telescope, and they’re hopeful they could use also the high-tech observatory to glean further insights into the newly discovered world. And, even if it turns out LP 791-18 d does not have any volcanoes or evidence of habitability, astronomers will still be happy to have simply examined a new planet. “People study Jupiter still, but they don’t do it because they think there are aliens living there,” says Crossfield in a statement. “People study asteroids, just because we can and because we learn new things. Lots of exoplanet science is just about learning interesting things about the universe.” | |
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| BeowulfPosted at 2023-05-21 17:47:46(79Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  In this picture, our home galaxy the Milky Way stretches across the sky above the landscape of the Chilean Andes. In the foreground, the roads of ESO’s La Silla Observatory are packed with state-of-the-art astronomical telescopes pointing towards, and far beyond, the Milky Way. Several multinational telescopes are captured in this frame. The ESO 3.6-metre telescope stands on the central pedestal and is mounted with the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) — the best exoplanet finder on Earth. Just next to the main dome, the smaller one once hosted the Coudé Auxiliary Telescope (CAT) which used to feed the powerful Coudé Echelle Spectrograph; they are now both decommissioned. At the foot of this pedestal lies the French Rapid Action Telescope for Transient Objects (TAROT) which follows up on highly energetic events called gamma-ray bursts. These are also studied by the Swiss 1.2-metre Leonhard Euler Telescope in the dome on the left, but its focus lies on the search for exoplanets. Further out in the right, one can spot the Swedish–ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST) that was decommissioned in 2003 and replaced by the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment telescope (APEX) on the Chajnantor Plateau. A map of all the La Silla facilities can be found here. The high density of instruments on the roads of La Silla shows how desirable this location is for astronomical observations. It is far from brightly lit cities — the dramatic effect of dim brake lights of a single car can be seen on the left — and lies at a high altitude. Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi & Beowulf | |
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| BikerBoy25Posted at 2023-05-26 14:19:37(78Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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| BeowulfPosted at 2023-05-27 18:01:55(78Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  A spectacular lunar halo — known as a 22° halo — formed in the sky above ESO’s La Silla Observatory. The optical phenomenon is a result of moonlight interacting with millions of ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere, forming a ring with an apparent radius of approximately 22° around the moon. It is also known as the “moon ring” or “winter halo”. While this is a beautiful sight, it creates conditions which are not optimal for astronomical observations. Clouds and the bright light of the moon affect the quality and accuracy of astronomical observations. However, that does not diminish the allure of this ethereal sight, and in fact some stars remain visible. Notably, Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, can be seen at the top edge of the image, just left of the centre. Credit: ESO/Y. Beletsky & Beowulf | |
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| Jase1Posted at 2023-05-28 21:34:35(78Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  With the appearance close to the Big Dipper of Supernova 2023ixf, backyard telescopes are being pointed to the northern sky after dark to glimpse the violent death of a massive star. We’re just seeing it now, but it actually happened 20 million years ago. That’s how long the light from the supernova has taken to reach us from the Pinwheel Galaxy where SN 2023ixf resides. Or, rather, did reside. It’s been gone a very, very long time. A supernova is rare to see and observations of them are fleeting. So much so that every time anyone mentions Betelgeuse—the famous red giant star in Orion in our own galaxy that in 2019 began acting strangely—there’s only one question people want to know the answer to. When will Betelgeuse explode as a supernova? The answer is rather disappointing: within about 100,000 years. However, despite its rarity as a cosmic event in real-time, the supernova stage is inevitable for giant stars. It’s also thought to be a key reason why life exists on Earth. Here’s everything you need to know about supernovas: Supernovae Defined A supernova explosion is the final and sensational self-destruction of a massive supergiant star that can outshine galaxies. They can briefly have the power of up to 100 billion stars. Some classes of stars are destined to go supernova. Other will not ever go supernova. Exploding Stars There are two types of star that go supernova. SN 2023ixf is the first kind—a high mass star whose core collapses. For that to happen to a star, it must be about eight times larger than our sun. As the star exhausts its hydrogen and helium fuel in the core it begins to fuse heavier elements like oxygen and carbon, thus increasing in density as its forms an iron core within layers of gas. As it reaches a mass it can’t support, a repulsive force triggers an explosive release of energy, pushing the star’s layers into space. That’s a Type II supernovae. That’s SN 2023ixf. All that’s left behind is the collapsed core of the massive supergiant star—a neutron star. That’s what will happen now to SN 2023ixf. Two Of A Kind Another kind of supernova, a Type Ia, is by two white dwarf stars—the super-dense cores of dying stars—that orbit each other. In these binary star systems the stars are thought to get so close that hydrogen is sometimes deposited onto one of the star’s surface by the other until it ignites to causes a nova explosion. They’re hard to detect, so for now theoretical, but the gravitational waves these explosions emit will be detectable by NASA’s upcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. That will be a groundbreaking mission, though it’s not scheduled to launch until 2037. Near-Earth Supernovae about 20 million light-years from Earth, we’re in absolutely no danger from SN 2023ixf. It’s reckoned that the “kill zone” around a supernova is about 50 light-years. Within that, any planets might be subject to gamma rays that destroy the ozone layer, with ultraviolet radiation from the sun then extinguishing life. The closest star to the solar system likely to go supernova in the future is indeed Betelgeuse, but it’s at least 550 light-years distant. So we’re currently safe—though there is evidence that Earth was hit by the effects of supernovae about 1.7 to 3.2 million years ago, and also 6.5 to 8.7 million years ago.  Bringers of life On a cosmic scale, supernovae are much more than just an immediate threat to life. According to NASA, supernovae explosions heat the interstellar medium—the empty space between stars—and spread heavy elements throughout a galaxy. In fact, a lot of heavy elements necessary for life are created by the nuclear reactions inside stars, which are then spewed into the cosmos during a supernova explosion. The biggest explosions that ever take place in space, the demise of a massive star is both destructive and creative, and the reason our universe is how it is. So don’t feel bad for the star that became SN 2023ixf. Its demise was written in the stars. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes. | |
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| BeowulfPosted at 2023-05-29 14:11:06(77Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  Sometimes dramatic events are needed to create something stunning. This beautiful structure of filaments and clouds in the southern constellation of Vela are all that remains of a massive star that died in a powerful explosion known as supernova. This is a small section of a larger image taken using the wide-field camera OmegaCAM at the VLT Survey Telescope (VST). Hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in the Chilean desert, the VST is one of the best telescopes in the world to take large images of the sky in visible light. Even though bright stars populate this image, it's hard to not be captivated by the pink gaseous clouds filling up the frame. Some tiny, others thicker, the filaments stretch outwards like tentacles. As they intertwine and cling together, an intricate network is formed which mixes with blurred clouds. But how did they come to be like this? Around 11 000 years ago, a massive star exploded as a supernova, ejecting its outer layers. The explosion also generated shock waves which traveled outwards, compressing the gas around the star and creating the intricate network visible in the image. The result of such explosions are called supernova remnants. At 800 light years away from Earth, the Vela supernova remnant is one of the closest known to us. Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ team. Acknowledgement: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit & Beowulf | |
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| Jase1Posted at 2023-05-30 13:04:47(77Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  NASA released new jaw-dropping images of the universe in stunning detail. The images were enhanced using data from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The images show two galaxies, a star cluster, and a nebula light-years away. NASA has shared more dazzling images of the universe. Four new images, released last week, provide a peek at two galaxies, a nebula, and a star cluster. The images were made possible by data collected from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Hubble Space Telescope. "Each image combines Chandra's X-rays — a form of high-energy light — with infrared data from previously released Webb images, both of which are invisible to the unaided eye," NASA said in a statement accompanying the release. Take a look at each cosmic wonder in stunning detail below. The colorful cluster NGC 346 is a city of stars  Star clusters are like massive cities, but for stars. They can consist of hundreds to millions of stars that all form within regions of interstellar gas and dust called molecular clouds. Thanks to the James Webb Telescope, you can see this gas and dust as a purple and pink mist permeating the bright and brilliant stars in the image above. "The Chandra data also reveal young, hot, and massive stars that send powerful winds outward from their surfaces," NASA said. Finally, you can spot a supernova remnant in this photo. See it? According to NASA, it's the purple cloud on the upper left of the image. The beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1672 shows off its black holes and neutron stars NGC 1672 is a spiral galaxy about 60 million light-years from Earth.  Astronomers classify it as a "barred" spiral galaxy due to its shape, which includes, straight "barred" arms of stars near its center. The arms of other spirals twist more as they approach the core. The mesmerizing spiral galaxy M74 looks like a work of art  M74 is sometimes called the Phantom Galaxy because it is relatively dim — and harder to see with small telescopes than some other galaxies. "Webb outlines gas and dust in the infrared while Chandra data spotlights high-energy activity from stars at X-ray wavelengths," NASA said. "Hubble optical data showcases additional stars and dust along the dust lanes." The majestic Eagle Nebula M16 looks ghostly Messier 16 (M16), also called the Eagle Nebula, is roughly 6,500 light-years away. The image depicts the region of the sky called the "Pillars of Creation," which includes dense clouds of dust and gas, seen here, containing young stars.  "The Webb image shows the dark columns of gas and dust shrouding the few remaining fledgling stars just being formed," NASA said. "The Chandra sources, which look like dots, are young stars that give off copious amounts of X-rays." | |
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| BeowulfPosted at 2023-05-30 17:39:42(77Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  This stunning photograph shows some of the antennas comprising the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), all observing a panoramic view of the Milky Way’s centre. There is far more to ALMA than shown here; the array can span distances of up to 16 kilometres and is formed of 66 individual antennas! Some features visible in the sky include Crux (The Southern Cross) just above and to the right of the nearest antenna, and the Carina Nebula slightly further to the right. Astronomers use ALMA to peer into gigantic star-forming molecular clouds, and to observe galaxies forming at the very edge of the observable Universe. The green lights visible on the telescopes are a normal part of their operation, but in this scene they also cast an ethereal, otherworldly glow over the Chilean site. Credit: P. Horálek/ESO & Beowulf | |
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| Jase1Posted at 2023-05-31 10:47:39(77Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  Don’t worry, no planets were harmed in the making of this Picture of the Week! The powerful laser beams seen here are installed in one of the four 8.2-m telescopes of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. They allow astronomers to obtain very sharp images of the cosmos by correcting the blur caused by turbulence in the atmosphere, but how? The lasers are tuned to a very specific colour that excites sodium atoms floating 90 km above the ground, making them glow. This creates artificial “stars” high up in the sky, whose rapid twinkling is monitored in real time by special sensors. Then, instructions are sent to the telescope’s deformable secondary mirror, which quickly reshapes itself to counteract the atmospheric distortion. And all of this happens at millisecond speeds! This technique, known as adaptive optics, can also use real stars as a reference to measure the turbulence. But there isn’t always a bright enough star right next to the object one wants to observe, and this is when artificial laser stars come in Credit:Zdeněk Bardon/ESO | |
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| BeowulfPosted at 2023-05-31 17:32:43(77Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  NGC 5189 is a planetary nebula with an oriental twist. Similar in appearance to a Chinese dragon, these red and green cosmic fireworks are the last swansong of a dying star. At the end of its life, a star with a mass less than eight times that of the Sun will blow its outer layers away, giving rise to a planetary nebula. Some of these stellar puffballs are almost round, resembling huge soap bubbles or giant planets (hence the name), but others, such as NGC 5189 are more intricate. In particular, this planetary nebula exhibits a curious “S”-shaped profile, with a central bar that is most likely the projection of an inner ring of gas discharged by the star, seen edge on. The details of the physical processes producing such a complex symmetry from a simple, spherical star are still the object of astronomical controversy. One possibility is that the star has a very close (but unseen) companion. Over time the orbits drift due to precession and this could result in the complex curves on the opposite sides of the star visible in this image. This image has been taken with the New Technology Telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, using the now decommissioned EMMI instrument. It is a combination of exposures taken through different narrowband filters, each designed to catch only the light coming from the glow of a given chemical element, namely hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Credit: ESO & Beowulf | |
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| Jase1Posted at 2023-06-01 19:19:34(77Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  To understand the early years of the Moon’s life, it’s vital to understand what lies at our satellite’s center. Confirming NASA's finding in 2011, a new study agrees that the Moon’s inner core is likely solid iron. This study helps us understand the Moon’s past, including its one robust magnetic field and past volcanic mysteries. While NASA is busy sending astronauts back to the Moon’s surface, other astronomers are trying to figure out what lies beneath that surface A new study from Université Côte d’Azur, along with contributions from other French astronomy institutions, confirms a long-held theory that the Moon’s inner core is made of iron, just like Earth’s. Our study of the inner composition of the Moon began back toduringthe Apollo missions of the late 1960s and early 70s, when NASA astronauts recorded seismic data to unlock some lingering lunar mysteries.  This study, which was published in the journal Nature last month, revisits this data in combination with various other points of information—including lunar laser ranging experiments and measurements from other space missions (such as NASA’s GRAIL mission)—to create an accurate interior profile of the Moon. Astronomers ran this profile through a modeling application to test multiple scenarios and see which ones matched up with real-world data. These models all but confirmed that the Moon’s core was most likely solid iron, a theory first put forward by NASA in 2011. Back then, NASA estimated the Moon’s solid inner core was roughly 240 km in radius, and this data confirms a likely radius of 258 km. NASA also concluded that the Moon’s core would weigh in at about 8,000 kilograms per cubic meter. The scientists at Université Côte d’Azur estimated a very close 7,822 kilograms per cubic meter.  But this study does more than just fact check NASA’s previous work. It also puts forward the idea that, before the Moon’s interior became solid, it experienced what’s known as lunar mantle overturn—a process by which denser material falls toward the core’s center while lighter, warmer material rises through the mantle. This could explain how traces of iron found on the lunar surface today likely arrived via volcanic activity in the satellite’s distant past. Knowing about this solid iron core is important for understanding the Moon’s formation, as well as the formation of the early Solar System as a whole. Not long after the Moon came into being some 4.5 billion years ago, Earth’s one and only satellite had a magnetic field just like its planetary host. However, a little more than a billion years later, that magnetic field began to decline. Because magnetic fields are produced in part by convection, which can take place in a celestial body’s core, it’s important to understand exactly what’s in that core to truly grasp the Moon’s geologic past. Hopefully, once NASA finally puts boots back on the Moon, we’ll be able to make some on-site observations and finally confirm the inner machinations of our closest celestial neighbour. | |
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| Jase1Posted at 2023-06-02 15:34:47(77Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  The BlackGEM array, consisting of three new telescopes located at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, has begun operations. The telescopes will scan the southern sky to hunt down the cosmic events that produce gravitational waves, such as the mergers of neutron stars and black holes. Some cataclysmic events in the Universe, such as the collision of black holes or neutron stars, create gravitational waves, ripples in the structure of time and space. Observatories like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo Interferometer are designed to detect these ripples. But they cannot pinpoint their origin very accurately nor see the fleeting light that results from the collisions between neutron stars and black holes. BlackGEM is dedicated to quickly scanning large areas of the sky to precisely hunt down gravitational-wave sources using visible light. “With BlackGEM we aim to scale up the study of cosmic events with both gravitational waves and visible light,” says Paul Groot of Radboud University in the Netherlands, the project’s Principal Investigator. “The combination of the two tells us much more about these events than just one or the other.” By detecting both gravitational waves and their visible counterparts, astronomers can confirm the nature of gravitational-wave sources and determine their precise locations. Using visible light also allows for detailed observations of the processes that occur in these mergers, such as the formation of heavy elements like gold and platinum. To date, however, only one visible counterpart to a gravitational-wave source has ever been detected. Furthermore, even the most advanced gravitational-wave detectors such as LIGO or Virgo cannot precisely identify their sources; at best, they can narrow the location of a source down to an area of approximately 400 full moons in the sky. BlackGEM will efficiently scan such large regions at high enough resolution to consistently locate gravitational-wave sources using visible light. BlackGEM’s three constituent telescopes were built by a consortium of universities: Radboud University, the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy, and KU Leuven in Belgium. The telescopes are each 65 centimetres in diameter and can investigate different areas of the sky simultaneously; the collaboration eventually aims to expand the array to 15 telescopes, improving its scanning coverage even more. BlackGEM is hosted at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, making it the first array of its kind in the southern hemisphere. “Despite the modest 65-centimetre primary mirror, we go as deep as some projects with much bigger mirrors, because we take full advantage of the excellent observing conditions at La Silla,” says Groot. Once BlackGEM precisely identifies a source of gravitational waves, larger telescopes such as ESO’s Very Large Telescope or the future ESO Extremely Large Telescope can carry out detailed follow-up observations, which will help to shed light on some of the most extreme events in the cosmos. In addition to its search for the optical counterparts to gravitational waves, BlackGEM will also perform surveys of the southern sky. Its operations are fully automated, meaning the array can quickly find and observe ‘transient’ astronomical events, which appear suddenly and quickly fade out of view. This will give astronomers deeper insight into short-lived astronomical phenomena such as supernovae, the huge explosions that mark the end of a massive star’s life. “Thanks to BlackGEM, La Silla now has the potential to become a major contributor to transient research,” says Ivo Saviane, site manager at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. “We expect to see many outstanding results contributed by this project, which will expand the reach of the site for both the scientific community and the public at large.” | |
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| BeowulfPosted at 2023-06-02 17:37:58(77Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  A curtain of stars surrounds the 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) in this new Ultra High Definition photograph from the ESO Ultra HD Expedition[1]. It was captured on the first night of shooting at ESO's La Silla Observatory, which sits at 2400 metres above sea level on the outskirts of the Chilean Atacama Desert. The majestic telescope enclosure aligns perfectly with the Milky Way’s central region — the brightest section and the area which obscures the galactic centre. The distinctive octagonal enclosure that houses the NTT stands tall in this image — silhouetted against the glittering cosmos above and almost appearing to consume the Milky Way. This telescope housing was considered a technological breakthrough when completed in 1989. Visible to the left of the Milky Way is the bright orange star Antares at the heart of Scorpius (The Scorpion). Saturn can be seen as the brightest point to the upper left of Antares and Alpha and Beta Centauri glow in the upper right of the image. The Southern Cross (Crux) and the Coalsack dark nebula are also visible looming above Alpha and Beta Centauri. La Silla was ESO’s first observatory, inaugurated in 1969. The NTT pictured above was the first telescope in the world to have a computer-controlled main mirror and broke new ground for telescope engineering and design paving the way for ESO's Very Large Telescope. Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi & Beowulf | |
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| Jase1Posted at 2023-06-05 10:17:11(76Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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| New James Webb Telescope image of NGC 5068 galaxy released  With the power of the James Webb Space Telescope, we can peer into the mysterious hearts of galaxies. And that's exactly what you're seeing here, in this new image from Webb of the galaxy NGC 5068. NGC 5068 is located about 17 million light-years from Earth. For perspective, the Milky Way's neighborhood of galaxies called the Local Group, is 5 million light-years away. So, this galaxy is beyond what we might consider close. Each individual dot of white light you can see is a star, per Mashable. NASA said there are thousands upon thousands of stars in this image. And many of them are hanging out at the galaxy's center, which you can see in the upper left as a bright bar of white light. This region appears so bright because that's where most of the stars are concentrated. That's also where all the action is.  Most galaxies have an ultra-bright center due to warm dust that's heated by massive bursts of star formation, according to the Harvard Smithsonian. And it's this star formation that astronomers are interested in studying more with the help of JWST. In fact, NGC 5068 is just one in a series of other galaxies Webb is observing for a project to help us better understand star formation. Webb has also taken images of the spiral galaxy IC 5332:  And the heart of galaxy M74, aka the "Phantom Galaxy":  The James Webb Space Telescope has the advantage of seeing in the infrared. Infrared wavelengths are too long for the human eye to detect. But they're especially important for studying in space because they allow JWST to peer past obstructive visual light that would otherwise block our ability to see into the hearts of galaxies and their bustling environments of star formation. "By observing the formation of stars in nearby galaxies, astronomers hope to kick-start major scientific advances with some of the first available data from Webb," NASA said. | |
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| Jase1Posted at 2023-06-05 15:49:13(76Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  This Picture of the Week shows a long exposure image of the BlackGEM telescopes, located at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The whitish star trails in the sky are an effect due to the Earth’s rotation on its axis around the southern celestial pole, which gives the impression of the stars’ movement over the course of several hours. To the right hand side of the central telescope the Milky Way is visible, seen here as a particularly bright region, densely packed with streaks of starlight. As these streaks move in circles across the night sky, the viewer gets a sense of tumbling around inside a giant washing machine, as they peer out at the scene through the fisheye lens. BlackGEM, which recently started operating, is an array of three 0.65-metre optical telescopes, which can point at different regions of the sky, searching for some of the most dramatic events in the Universe like merging neutron stars and black holes. As these events unfold they send out ripples in spacetime, known as gravitational waves, which can be picked up by observatories like LIGO and Virgo. BlackGEM can then pinpoint the light sources from the afterglow of these events, allowing for more detailed follow-up observations of these cataclysmic collisions. Credit: Zdeněk Bardon/ESO | |
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| BeowulfPosted at 2023-06-05 17:25:07(76Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  Thanks to the dark and clear conditions at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, capturing stunning images of the Milky Way is relatively commonplace for visiting photographers. However, despite the favourable conditions, producing beautiful and detailed images such as this is not easy — as ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek discovered when taking this unusual photograph of the La Silla Observatory main building, which hosts the hotel, the canteen and other facilities. Petr took 52 individual shots to assemble this composite, moving and rearranging various pieces of furniture and himself — the coffee-drinking stargazer featured in the image — as he did so. Petr worked into the early hours, with only the low light of the corridor to disturb him. However, just as he prepared for the final few shots, all the chefs arrived, turning on a plethora of bright lights and ruining the photo. Petr had to return before 5:15 the next morning in order to finish his image! Such dedication and patience are important qualities for an astrophotographer — and what appears to be a beautifully peaceful moment was in fact the result of much hard work behind the scenes. Credit: ESO/P. Horálek & Beowulf | |
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| Jase1Posted at 2023-06-07 17:13:47(76Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  Summary of the observed Kepler TTV rates compared with simulated TTV recovery rates to provide a final occurrence rate of hot and warm Jupiters with nearby companions. Panel (a): our full sample in period–radius space, shown in the context of Kepler planetary candidates. Panel (b): distribution of systems with Jupiter-sized planets that show detectable TTVs. Panel (c): simulated recovery rate of Jupiter-mass planets with observed TTVs. Panel (d): final combined result for the occurrence rate of Jupiter-sized planets with nearby companions as a function of the orbital period. Credit: The Astronomical Journal (2023). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/acbf3f Research led by an Indiana University astronomer challenges longstanding beliefs about the isolation of "hot Jupiters" and proposes a new mechanism for understanding the exoplanets' evolution. While our Jupiter is far away from the sun, hot Jupiters are gas giant planets that closely orbit stars outside our solar system for an orbital period of less than 10 days. Previous studies suggested they rarely have any nearby companion planets, leading scientists to believe that hot Jupiters formed and evolved through a violent process that expelled other planets from the area as they moved closer to their host stars. The research team's findings reveal that hot Jupiters do not always orbit alone. "Our research shows that at least a fraction of hot Jupiters cannot form through a violent process," said Songhu Wang, assistant professor of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences. "This is a significant contribution to advance our understanding of hot Jupiter formation, which can help us learn more about our own solar system." The study has been published in The Astronomical Journal, and Wang presented the results of the research at the June 2023 meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Researchers analyzed the full, four-year data set for hot and warm Jupiters from NASA's Kepler Mission. Warm Jupiters have a longer orbital period that ranges from 10 to 300 days. Researchers used transit timing variations to determine that at least 12% of hot Jupiters and 70% of warm Jupiters have a nearby planetary companion orbiting their host stars. Wang and his collaborators combined their results with existing observational constraints to propose a new framework for explaining the evolution of hot and warm Jupiters and why some have companion planets. They determined that the makeup of hot and warm Jupiter systems depends on the occurrence of gas giants in the system, which impacts how much the planets interact and migrate. The findings provide a launching point into future research about exoplanets and our solar system's planets. "The ultimate goal for astronomers is to set our solar system into the bigger picture—'Are we unique?'" Wang said. "This helps us to understand why we don't have a hot Jupiter in our solar system." Additional collaborators are Dong-Hong Wu, lecturer in the Department of Physics at Anhui Normal University, and Malena Rice, 51 Pegasi b Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and incoming professor at Yale University. Wang has long been interested in the configurations and demographics of exoplanets. He uses observational research to try to understand their dynamics and origins, helping astronomers better understand how our solar system fits into a larger cosmic context. | |
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| BeowulfPosted at 2023-06-10 18:00:36(76Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  Nestled amongst the vast clouds of star-forming regions like this one lie potential clues about the formation of our own Solar System. This week’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features AFGL 5180, a beautiful stellar nursery located in the constellation of Gemini (The Twins). At the centre of the image, a massive star is forming and blasting cavities through the clouds with a pair of powerful jets, extending to the top right and bottom left of the image. Light from this star is mostly escaping and reaching us by illuminating these cavities, like a lighthouse piercing through the storm clouds. Stars are born in dusty environments and although this dust makes for spectacular images, it can prevent astronomers from seeing stars embedded in it. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument is designed to capture detailed images in both visible and infrared light, meaning that the young stars hidden in vast star-forming regions like AFGL 5180 can be seen much more clearly. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. C. Tan (Chalmers University & University of Virginia), R. Fedriani (Chalmers University) & Beowulf Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt | |
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| Jase1Posted at 2023-06-12 13:37:58(75Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  It might look like there’s not a lot going on in this Picture of the Week, but looks can be deceiving. Far off in the distance, huddled together like penguins in an Antarctic storm, sit the 66 high-precision antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Operated by ESO together with international partners, ALMA is designed to study the light emitted by the coldest objects in the Universe, such as vast cold clouds in interstellar space. Stretching out either side of the antennas is the empty landscape of the Chajnantor plateau. Sitting at 5,000 m above sea level in the Chilean Andes, this remote location is one of the driest places on Earth. It’s this dryness that makes it the perfect place for observing the signals from the cold Universe which would otherwise be heavily absorbed by water vapour in our atmosphere. ALMA is what’s known as an interferometer, meaning that its individual antennas work together, acting to form a more powerful telescope that can discern details smaller than what can be seen with the individual antennas. Depending on what observations are being carried out, the antennas are arranged in different configurations. The further away they are, the finer the details they can see; more compact configurations, on the other side, offer better sensitivity and are ideal when observing diffuse extended objects. Here the antennas are in one of the most compact configurations, but the distance between them can be as great as 16 kilometres! ESO | |
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| BeowulfPosted at 2023-06-13 08:48:52(75Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  The Very Large Telescope has captured another member of the Leo I group of galaxies, in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). The galaxy Messier 95 stands boldly face-on, offering an ideal view of its spiral structure. The spiral arms form an almost perfect circle around the galactic centre before they spread out, creating a mane-like effect of which any lion would be proud. Another, perhaps even more striking, feature of Messier 95 is its blazing golden core. It contains a nuclear star-forming ring, almost 2000 light-years across, where a large proportion of the galaxy’s star formation takes place. This phenomenon occurs mostly in barred spiral galaxies such as Messier 95 and our home, the Milky Way In the Leo I group, Messier 95 is outshone by its brother Messier 96 (see potw1143). Messier 96 is in fact the brightest member of the group and — as “leader of the pride” — also gives Leo I its alternative name of the M 96 group. Nevertheless, Messier 95 also makes for a spectacular image. Stop press! By coincidence Messier 95 is the host of a probable supernova that was first spotted on 17 March 2012. Discovery details are here. And as another coincidence both supernova and galaxy are currently very close to the brilliant planet Mars amongst the stars of Leo. Please note that the observations used to make this Picture of the Week were taken before the supernova occurred, and therefore the supernova itself does not appear in this image. Credit: ESO & Beowulf | |
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| suedwestgabberPosted at 2023-06-14 01:27:49(75Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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| Fantastic thread. I have to come back when I have more time.... I start reading and completely forget about the other things I have to do  | |
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| BeowulfPosted at 2023-06-14 18:14:49(75Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  It’s impossible to miss the star in this ESO Picture of the Week — beaming proudly from the centre of the frame is the massive multiple star system Tau Canis Majoris, the brightest member of the Tau Canis Majoris Cluster (NGC 2362) in the eponymous constellation of Canis Major (The Great Dog). Tau Canis Majoris aside, the cluster is populated by many young and less attention-seeking stars that are only four or five million years old, all just beginning their cosmic lifetimes. The Tau Canis Majoris Cluster is an open cluster — a group of stars born from the same molecular cloud. This means that all of the cluster’s inhabitants share a common chemical composition and are loosely bound together by gravity. Having been born together, they make an ideal stellar laboratory to test theories of stellar evolution, the chain of events that leads from a star’s birth in a cool, dense cloud of gas through to its eventual death. Though the stars in this image were all created at the same time, their various different masses mean they will lead very different lives. As Tau Canis Majoris is one of the most massive and short-lived types of star, it will burn through its nuclear fuel long before its smaller companions, which will keep on shining for billions of years. This image was created as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems programme, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach. The programme makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations. All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO’s science archive. Credit: ESO & Beowulf | |
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| Jase1Posted at 2023-06-15 12:44:51(75Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  An international team led by Stefan Pelletier, a Ph.D. student at Université de Montréal's Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets have made a detailed study of the extremely hot giant exoplanet WASP-76 b. Using the MAROON-X instrument on the Gemini-North Telescope, the team was able to identify and measure the abundance of 11 chemical elements in the atmosphere of the planet. Those include rock-forming elements whose abundances are not even known for giant planets in the solar system such as Jupiter or Saturn. The team's study is published in the journal Nature. "Truly rare are the times when an exoplanet hundreds of light years away can teach us something that would otherwise likely be impossible to know about our own solar system," said Pelletier. "This is the case with this study." A big, hot, strange world WASP-76 b is a strange world. It reaches extreme temperatures because it is very close to its parent star, a massive star 634 light-years away in the constellation of Pisces: approximately 12 times closer than Mercury is to the sun. With a mass similar to that of Jupiter, but almost six times bigger by volume, it is quite "puffy." Since its discovery by the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) program in 2013, many teams have studied it and identified various elements in its atmosphere. Notably, in a study also published in Nature in March 2020, a team found an iron signature and hypothesized that there could be iron rain on the planet. Aware of these studies, Pelletier became motivated to obtain new, independent observations of WASP-76 b using the MAROON-X high-resolution optical spectrograph on the Gemini-North 8-meter Telescope in Hawai'i, part of the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF's NOIRLab. "We recognized that the powerful new MAROON-X spectrograph would enable us to study the chemical composition of WASP-76 b with a level of detail unprecedented for any giant planet," says UdeM astronomy professor Björn Benneke, co-author of the study and Stefan Pelletier's Ph.D. research supervisor. A composition similar to the sun's Within the sun, the abundances of almost all elements in the periodic table are known with great accuracy. In the giant planets in our solar system, however, that's true for only a handful of elements, whose compositions remain poorly constrained. And this has hampered understanding of the mechanisms governing the formation of these planets. As it is so close to its star, WASP-76 b has a temperature well above 2,000°C. At these degrees, many elements that would normally form rocks here on Earth (like magnesium and iron) are vaporized and present in gaseous form in the upper atmosphere. Studying this peculiar planet enables unprecedented insight into the presence and abundance of rock-forming elements in giant planets, since in colder giant planets like Jupiter these elements are lower in the atmosphere and impossible to detect. The abundance of many elements measured by Pelletier and his team in the exoplanet's atmosphere—such as manganese, chromium, magnesium, vanadium, barium and calcium—matches those of its host star as well as of our own sun very closely. These abundances are not random: they are the direct product of the Big Bang, followed by billions of years of stellar nucleosynthesis, so scientists measure roughly the same composition in all stars. It is, however, different from the composition of rocky planets like Earth, which are formed in a more complex manner. The results of this new study indicate that giant planets could maintain an overall composition that reflects that of the protoplanetary disk from which they formed.  The Gemini-North Telescope, seen here, was used by Stefan Pelletier and colleagues to assess the atmospheric composition of the ultra-hot exoplanet WASP-76 b. Credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA /P.Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava). Depletion of other elements very interesting However, other elements were depleted in the planet compared to the star—a result Pelletier found particularly interesting. "These elements that appear to be missing in WASP-76 b's atmosphere are precisely those that require higher temperatures to vaporize, like titanium and aluminum, " he said. "Meanwhile, the ones that matched our predictions, like manganese, vanadium, or calcium, all vaporize at slightly lower temperatures." The discovery team's interpretation is that the observed composition of the upper atmospheres of giant planets can be extremely sensitive to temperature. Depending on an element's temperature of condensation, it will be in gas form and present in the upper part of the atmosphere, or condense into liquid form where it will sink to deeper layers. When in gas form, it plays an important role in absorbing light and can be seen in astronomers' observations. When condensed, it cannot be detected by astronomers and becomes completely absent from their observations. "If confirmed, this finding would mean that two giant exoplanets that have slightly different temperatures from one another could have very different atmospheres, " said Pelletier. "Kind of like two pots of water, one at -1°C that is frozen, and one that is at +1°C that is liquid. For example, calcium is observed on WASP-76 b, but it may not be on a slightly colder planet." First detection of vanadium oxide Another interesting finding by Pelletier's team is the detection of a molecule called vanadium oxide. This is the first time it has been unambiguously detected on an exoplanet, and is of great interest to astronomers because they know it can have a big impact on hot giant planets. "This molecule plays a similar role to ozone in Earth's atmosphere: it is extremely efficient at heating up the upper atmosphere," explained Pelletier. "This causes the temperatures to increase as a function of altitude, instead of decreasing as is typically seen on colder planets." One element, nickel, is clearly more abundant in the exoplanet's atmosphere than what the astronomers were expecting. Many hypotheses could explain that; one is that WASP-76 b could have accreted material from a planet similar to Mercury. In our solar system, the small rocky planet is enriched with metals like nickel because of how it was formed. Pelletier's team also found that the asymmetry in iron absorption between the east and west hemispheres of WASP-76 b reported in previous studies is similarly present for many other elements. This means the underlying phenomenon causing this is thus probably a global process such as a difference in temperature or clouds being present on one side of the planet but not the other, rather than being the result of condensation into liquid form as was previously suggested. Confirming and leveraging lessons learned Pelletier and his team are very keen to learn more about this exoplanet and other ultra-hot giant planets, in part to confirm their hypothesis about the vastly different atmospheres that could prevail on planets differing slightly in temperature. They also hope other researchers will leverage what they learned from this giant exoplanet and apply it to better our understanding of our own solar system planets and how they came to be. "Generations of researchers have used Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune's measured abundances for hydrogen and helium to benchmark formation theories of gaseous planets," said Benneke. "Likewise, the measurements of heavier elements such as calcium or magnesium on WASP-76 b will help further understanding the formation of gaseous planets. | |
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| BeowulfPosted at 2023-06-16 10:09:48(75Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  The Hubble Space Telescope captured this beautiful image of NGC 6326, a planetary nebula with glowing wisps of outpouring gas that are lit up by a central star nearing the end of its life. When a star ages and the red giant phase of its life comes to an end, it starts to eject layers of gas from its surface leaving behind a hot and compact white dwarf. Sometimes this ejection results in elegantly symmetric patterns of glowing gas, but NGC 6326 is much less structured. This object is located in the constellation of Ara, the Altar, about 11 000 light-years from Earth. Planetary nebulae are one of the main ways in which elements heavier than hydrogen and helium are dispersed into space after their creation in the hearts of stars. Eventually some of this outflung material may form new stars and planets. The vivid red and blue hues in this image come from the material glowing under the action of the fierce ultraviolet radiation from the still hot central star. This picture was created from images taken using the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The red light was captured through a filter letting through the glow from hydrogen gas (F658N). The blue glow comes from ionised oxygen and was recorded through a green filter (F502N). The green layer of the image, which shows the stars well, was taken through a broader yellow filter (F555W). The total exposure times were 1400 s, 360 s and 260 s respectively. The field of view is about 30 arcseconds across. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA & Beowulf | |
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