The Tulip Nebula
Image Credit &
Copyright:
J-P Metsävainio
(Astro Anarchy)
Explanation:
Framing a bright emission region
this telescopic view
looks out along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the
nebula rich constellation
Cygnus
the Swan.
Popularly called the Tulip Nebula the glowing cloud of
interstellar gas and dust is also found in the
1959 catalog
by astronomer Stewart Sharpless
as
Sh2-101.
About 8,000 light-years distant and 70 light-years across
the complex and beautiful nebula blossoms at the center of this
composite image.
Red, green, and blue hues
map emission
from ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms.
Ultraviolet radiation from young, energetic stars
at the edge of the Cygnus
OB3 association, including
O star HDE 227018,
ionizes the atoms
and powers the emission from the Tulip Nebula.
HDE 227018 is the bright star very near the blue
arc at the cosmic tulip's center.
Glowing across the electromagnetic spectrum,
microquasar Cygnus X-1 and a curved shock front created
by its powerful jets lie
toward the top and right.
Welcome to a Comet
Image Credit:
ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA
Explanation:
The Rosetta Mission
lander is safely on a comet.
One of Philae's feet appears at the bottom left of this
spectacular image of the surface
of C67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Still a
happy lander,
Philae bounced twice before settling
and returning images from the surface,
traveling a kilometer or so after initially touching
at the
targeted site Agilkia.
A
surface panorama suggests that the lander has
come to rest tilted and near a shadowing wall,
with its solar panels getting less illumination that hoped.
Philae's
science instruments
are working as planned and
data is being relayed during communications windows,
when the Rosetta spacecraft is above the
lander's new horizon.
Descent to a Comet
Image Credit:
ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROLIS
Explanation:
Yesterday, the
first soft landing
on a comet took place some
500 million kilometers from planet Earth as the
Rosetta mission
lander Philae settled on the nucleus of
C67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
The landing site, dubbed Agilkia, is located near the center of
this remarkable image
snapped by Philae's ROLIS (ROsetta Lander Imaging System)
camera.
Taken from a distance of about 3 kilometers
the image has a resolution of about 3 meters per pixel at
the surface.
After Philae's
release from the orbiter, its seven-hour long
descent was made
without propulsion or guidance.
Following its descent the lander is in place,
though its anchoring harpoon system did not fire.
For 2.5 days the lander is intended to conduct its main
science mission returning
extensive images and data.
An extended surface mission may be possible
if sunlight and dust conditions allow solar panels to
recharge Philae's battery.
Philae Attempts Comet Nucleus Landing
Image Credit:
ESA
Explanation:
Today humanity will make its first attempt to land a probe on the nucleus of a comet.
As
the day progresses, the
Philae (fee-LAY) lander will separate from the
Rosetta spacecraft and head down to the surface of
Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Since the texture of the comet's surface is unknown and its surface gravity is surely low,
Philae will then attempt to harpoon itself down, something that has never been done before.
Featured here is an artist's illustration of
dishwasher-sized
Philae as it might look on
Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko's surface,
along with explanation
balloons
detailing onboard scientific instruments.
Many people on a blue planet
across the Solar System will be eagerly awaiting
news and
updates.
Whether
Philae actually lands,
whether it
lands
on a smooth patch, whether the harpoons take hold,
and how far the
robotic lander sinks into the surface should all become known as events unfold today.
Orion in Gas, Dust, and Stars
Image Copyright:
Roberto Colombari,
Robert Gendler &
Federico Pelliccia;
Data:
DSS PLOSS II
Explanation:
The constellation of Orion holds much more than three stars in a row.
A deep exposure shows everything from dark nebulae to star clusters,
all embedded in an extended
patch of
gaseous wisps in the greater
Orion
Molecular
Cloud
Complex.
T
he brightest three stars
on the far left are indeed the
famous three stars that make up the
belt of Orion.
Just below
Alnitak, the lowest of the
three belt stars, is the
Flame Nebula, glowing with
excited hydrogen gas and immersed in filaments of dark brown dust.
Below and left of the frame center and just to the right of
Alnitak lies the
Horsehead Nebula, a
dark indentation of
dense dust that has perhaps the most recognized nebular shapes on the sky.
On the upper right lies
M42, the
Orion Nebula,
an energetic caldron of
tumultuous gas,
visible to the
unaided eye,
that is giving birth to a
new open cluster of stars.
Immediately to the left of
M42
is a prominent bluish reflection nebula sometimes called the
Running Man that houses many bright
blue stars.
The
featured image covers an area with objects that are roughly 1,500
light years away and spans about 75 light years.
The Protoplanetary Disk of HL Tauri from ALMA
Image Credit:
ALMA
(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO),
NSF
Explanation:
Why does this giant disk have gaps?
The exciting and probable answer is: planets.
A mystery is how planets massive enough to create these gaps formed so quickly, since the
HL Tauri
star system is only about one million years old.
The picture on which the
gaps were discovered was taken with the new
Atacama Large Millimeter Array
(
ALMA) of telescopes in
Chile.
ALMA imaged the protoplanetary disk, which spans about 1,500 light-minutes across, in
unprecedented detail, resolving features as small as 40 light minutes.
The low energy light used by
ALMA
was also able to peer through an intervening haze of gas and dust.
The HL Tauri system lies about 450
light years from Earth.
Studying
HL Tauri
will likely give insight into
how our own Solar System formed and evolved.
The Cat's Eye Nebula from Hubble
Image Credit:
NASA,
ESA,
HEIC, and
The Hubble Heritage Team
(STScI/AURA)
Explanation:
To some, it may look like a cat's eye.
The
alluring Cat's Eye
nebula, however, lies three thousand light-years from Earth across interstellar space.
A classic
planetary
nebula, the Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) represents a final, brief
yet
glorious phase in the life of a sun-like star.
This nebula's dying central star may have produced the simple,
outer pattern of dusty
concentric shells
by
shrugging off
outer
layers in a series of regular convulsions.
But the formation of the beautiful, more complex
inner structures is
not well understood.
Seen so clearly in
this digitally sharpened Hubble Space Telescope image,
the truly cosmic eye is over half a light-year across.
Of course,
gazing into this Cat's Eye,
astronomers may well be seeing
the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own
planetary nebula
phase of evolution ... in about
5 billion years.
Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660
Image Credit:
Gemini Observatory, AURA,
Travis Rector
(Univ. Alaska Anchorage)
Explanation:
NGC 660 is featured in
this cosmic snapshot,
a sharp composite of broad and narrow band filter image data from
the Gemini North telescope
on Mauna Kea.
Over 20 million light-years away and swimming within
the boundaries of the
constellation Pisces,
NGC 660's peculiar appearance marks it as
a polar ring galaxy.
A rare galaxy type, polar ring galaxies have a substantial population
of stars, gas, and dust
orbiting in rings nearly perpendicular
to the plane of the galactic disk.
The bizarre-looking
configuration could have been caused by the chance capture
of material from a passing galaxy by a disk galaxy, with the captured
debris eventually strung out in a rotating ring.
The violent gravitational interaction would account
for the myriad pinkish star forming regions scattered along NGC 660's
ring.
The
polar ring component can also be used
to explore the shape of the galaxy's otherwise unseen
dark matter
halo by calculating the
dark matter's gravitational
influence on the rotation of the ring and disk.
Broader than the disk, NGC 660's ring spans over 50,000 light-years.
The Map of Dione
Image Credit:
Map -
Paul Schenk
(LPI),
Image Data -
Cassini,
ISS,
JPL,
ESA,
NASA
Explanation:
This cylindrical projection global map is
one
of six new color maps
of Saturn's midsized icy moons,
constructed using 10 years of image data from the
Cassini spacecraft.
Discovered by Cassini (the astronomer) in 1684,
Dione is about 1,120 kilometers across.
Based on data extending
from infrared to ultraviolet,
the full resolution of this latest space-age map is 250 meters per pixel.
The remarkable brightness difference between the
tidally locked
moon's lighter leading hemisphere (right) and
darker trailing hemisphere clearly stands out.
Like other Saturn moons orbiting within the broad E-ring, Dione's
leading hemisphere is kept shiny as it picks up a coating of
the faint ring's icy material.
The E-ring material is
constantly replenished by
geysers on moon
Enceladus' south pole.
Lighter, younger surface fractures
also appear to cross the dark, cratered trailing hemisphere.
Titan Beyond the Rings
Image Credit:
Cassini Imaging Team,
ISS,
JPL,
ESA,
NASA
Explanation:
When orbiting Saturn, be sure to watch for breathtaking superpositions of moons and rings.
One such picturesque vista was visible recently to the robot
Cassini spacecraft
now orbiting Saturn.
In 2006 April, Cassini
captured Saturn's
A and
F
rings stretching in front of
cloud-shrouded Titan.
Near the rings and appearing just above Titan was
Epimetheus, a moon which orbits just outside the
F ring.
The dark space in the
A ring is called the
Encke Gap, although several thin knotted ringlets and even the small moon
Pan orbit there.
Sh2-155: The Cave Nebula
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Bill Snyder
(Bill
Snyder Photography)
Explanation:
This
colorful skyscape features the dusty
Sharpless
catalog emission region
Sh2-155,
the Cave Nebula.
In the composite image, data taken through
narrowband filters tracks
the glow of ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in
red, green, and blue hues.
About 2,400 light-years away, the scene lies
along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy
toward the royal northern constellation
of Cepheus.
Astronomical explorations of the region reveal that it has
formed at the boundary of the massive Cepheus B molecular cloud
and the hot, young stars of the Cepheus OB 3
association.
The bright rim of
ionized
interstellar gas is energized by
radiation from the hot stars, dominated
by the bright star just above picture center.
Radiation driven
ionization fronts are likely triggering collapsing cores
and new star formation within.
Appropriately sized for a stellar nursery, the cosmic cave is
over 10 light-years across.
The Double Dust Disks of HD 95086
Illustration Credit:
Spitzer Space Telescope,
JPL,
NASA
Explanation:
What do other star systems look like?
To help find out, astronomers are carrying out
detailed observations of nearby stars in infrared light to see which have
dust disks that might be forming planets.
Observations by
NASA's
Spitzer Space Telescope and
ESA's
Herschel Space Observatory
have found that
planetary system HD 95086
has two dust disks: a hot one near the parent star and a cooler one farther out.
An artist's illustration of how the system might appear is
featured here,
including hypothetical planets with large rings that orbit between the disks.
The planets may have created the large gap between the
disks by absorbing and deflecting
dust with their gravity.
HD 95086 is a blue
star about 60 percent more massive than our Sun
that lies about 300 light years from Earth and is visible with binoculars toward the
constellation of
Carina.
Studying the
HD 95086 system
may help astronomers better understand the formation and evolution of our own
Solar System
as well as the
Earth.
Source of all Images
