Topic: Galaxies

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope takes image of Horsehead Nebula in the Orion Molecular Cloud

April 21, 2013 |

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – Astronomers have used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to photograph the iconic Horsehead Nebula in a new, infrared light to mark the 23rd anniversary of the famous observatory’s launch aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24th, 1990.

Looking like an apparition rising from whitecaps of interstellar foam, the iconic Horsehead Nebula has graced astronomy books ever since its discovery more than a century ago. The nebula is a favorite target for amateur and professional astronomers.

NASA’s Hubble Space telescope takes pic of Horsehead Nebula. (Credit:NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))

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NASA Hubble Space Telescope sees Glow Worm like Galaxy

March 24, 2013 |

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – This charming and bright galaxy, known as IRAS 23436+5257, was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It is located in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia, which is named after an arrogant, vain, and yet beautiful mythical queen.

The twisted, wormlike structure of this galaxy is most likely the result of a collision and subsequent merger of two galaxies.

Galaxy IRAS 23436+5257. (Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt)

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NASA reports data from Planck Spacecraft reveals Universe Older than previously thought

March 22, 2013 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – Europe’s Planck spacecraft has obtained the most accurate and detailed map ever made of the oldest light in the universe. The map results suggest the universe is expanding more slowly than scientists thought, and is 13.8 billion years old, 100 million years older than previous estimates.

The data also show there is less dark energy and more matter in the universe than previously known.

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NASA reports Herschel Space Observatory to end Mission

March 9, 2013 |

Written by Whitney Clavin
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – The Herschel space observatory is expected to exhaust its supply of liquid helium coolant in the coming weeks, after spending more than three years studying the cool universe and surpassing the expectations of the international team of scientists involved.

Herschel is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission with important participation from NASA. The telescope was launched on May 14th, 2009. With a main mirror 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) across, it is the largest, most powerful infrared telescope ever flown in space.

The Herschel infrared observatory has an unprecedented view on the cold universe, bridging the gap between what can be observed from the ground and earlier infrared space missions, and bringing to light previously unseen star-forming regions and galaxies enshrouded in dust. (Image credit: ESA – C. Carreau)

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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lead U.S. Science Team to study Dark Energy and Dark Matter

February 18, 2013 |

Written by Whitney Clavin
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected three NASA-nominated science teams to participate in their planned Euclid mission, including one team led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.

NASA is a partner in the Euclid mission, a space telescope designed to probe the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter. Euclid is currently scheduled to launch in 2020.

This artist’s concept shows the Euclid spacecraft. The telescope will launch to an orbit around the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. The Lagrange point is a location where the gravitational pull of two large masses, the sun and Earth in this case, precisely equals the force required for a small object, such as the Euclid spacecraft, to maintain a relatively stationary position behind Earth as seen from the sun. (Image credit: ESA/C. Carreau)

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NASA Hubble Space Telescope takes image of two puzzling galaxies in the Constellation of Centaurus

January 7, 2013 |

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – The Universe loves to fool our eyes, giving the impression that celestial objects are located at the same distance from Earth. A good example can be seen in this spectacular image produced by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxies NGC 5011B and NGC 5011C are imaged against a starry background.

Located in the constellation of Centaurus, the nature of these galaxies has puzzled astronomers. NGC 5011B (on the right) is a spiral galaxy belonging to the Centaurus Cluster of galaxies lying 156 million light-years away from the Earth.

This image of galaxies NGC 5011B and NGC 5011C in the Constellation of Centaurus was taken with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys using visual and infrared filters. (ESA/Hubble & NASA)

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NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope searches for Gigantic Galaxy Clusters

December 8, 2012 |

Written by Whitney Clavin
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Our solar system, with its colorful collection of planets, asteroids and comets, is a fleck in the grander cosmos. Hundreds of billions of solar systems are thought to reside in our Milky Way galaxy, which is itself just a drop in a sea of galaxies.

The rarest and largest of galaxy groupings, called galaxy clusters, can be the hardest to find. That’s where NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) can help. The mission’s all-sky infrared maps have revealed one distant galaxy cluster and are expected to uncover thousands more.

A galaxy cluster 7.7 billion light-years away has been discovered using infrared data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/WIYN/Subaru)

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NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope sees infrared light from Stray Stars

October 25, 2012 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – A new study using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope suggests a cause for the mysterious glow of infrared light seen across the entire sky. It comes from isolated stars beyond the edges of galaxies.

These stars are thought to have once belonged to the galaxies before violent galaxy mergers stripped them away into the relatively empty space outside of their former homes.

New research from scientists using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope suggests that a mysterious infrared glow across our whole sky is coming from stray stars torn from galaxies. When galaxies grow, they merge and become gravitationally tangled in a violent process that results in streams of stars being ripped away from the galaxies. Such streams, called tidal tails, can be seen in this artist’s concept. Scientists say that Spitzer is picking up the collective glow of stars such as these, which linger in the spaces between galaxies. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UC Irvine)

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NASA uses Supercomputer Simulations to Uncover Secrets of Merging Black Holes

October 1, 2012 |

Written by Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – According to Einstein, whenever massive objects interact, they produce gravitational waves — distortions in the very fabric of space and time — that ripple outward across the universe at the speed of light.

While astronomers have found indirect evidence of these disturbances, the waves have so far eluded direct detection. Ground-based observatories designed to find them are on the verge of achieving greater sensitivities, and many scientists think that this discovery is just a few years away.

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope takes deepest image of the Universe to date

September 26, 2012 |

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD - Like photographers assembling a portfolio of best shots, astronomers have assembled a new, improved portrait of mankind’s deepest-ever view of the universe.

Called the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photo was assembled by combining 10 years of NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a patch of sky at the center of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The XDF is a small fraction of the angular diameter of the full moon.

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