Topic: Milky Way

NASA’s reports Astronomers have found Green Galaxy churning out Stars

May 5, 2013 |

Written by Whitney Clavin
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Astronomers have spotted the “greenest” of galaxies, one that converts fuel into stars with almost 100-percent efficiency.

The findings come from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer in the French Alps.

“This galaxy is remarkably efficient,” said Jim Geach of McGill University in Canada, lead author of a new study appearing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “It’s converting its gas supply into new stars at the maximum rate thought possible.”

The tiny red spot in this image is one of the most efficient star-making galaxies ever observed, converting gas into stars at the maximum possible rate. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/IRAM)

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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’s Hubble Space Telescope proves that everything is not as it appears

January 28, 2013 |

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – Globular clusters are roughly spherical collections of extremely old stars, and around 150 of them are scattered around our galaxy. Hubble is one of the best telescopes for studying these, as its extremely high resolution lets astronomers see individual stars, even in the crowded core.

The clusters all look very similar, and in Hubble’s images it can be quite hard to tell them apart – and they all look much like NGC 411, pictured below.

Open cluster NGC 411 located in the Small Magellanic Cloud. (Photo credit ESA/Hubble & NASA)

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope sees Star forming regions in Large Magellanic Cloud

January 24, 2013 |

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – Nearly 200,000 light-years from Earth, the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, floats in space, in a long and slow dance around our galaxy.

Vast clouds of gas within it slowly collapse to form new stars. In turn, these light up the gas clouds in a riot of colors, visible in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Star forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud. (Credit: ESA/NASA/Hubble)

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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 Kepler space telescope helps astronomers determine that our Galaxy has Billions of Planets

January 6, 2013 |

Written by Whitney Clavin
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Look up at the night sky and you’ll see stars, sure. But the sky is also filled with planets — billions and billions of them at least.

That’s the conclusion of a new study by astronomers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which provides yet more evidence that planetary systems are the cosmic norm. The team made their estimate while analyzing planets orbiting a star called Kepler-32 — planets that are representative, they say, of the vast majority of planets in our galaxy and thus serve as a perfect case study for understanding how most of these worlds form.

An assortment of planets beyond our solar system is depicted in this artist’s concept. (Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures image of super thin galaxy

December 26, 2012 |

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD -Like finding a silver needle in the haystack of space, the NASA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of the spiral galaxy IC 2233, one of the flattest galaxies known.

Typical spiral galaxies like the Milky Way are usually made up of three principal visible components: the disk where the spiral arms and most of the gas and dust is concentrated; the halo, a rough and sparse sphere around the disk that contains little gas, dust or star formation; and the central bulge at the heart of the disk, which is formed by a large concentration of ancient stars surrounding the Galactic Center.

Hubble Space Telescope takes image of spiral galaxy IC 2233.

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures image of young looking stars in constellation of Ara

November 7, 2012 |

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – The NASA Hubble Space Telescope offers an impressive view of the center of globular cluster NGC 6362. The image of this spherical collection of stars takes a deeper look at the core of the globular cluster, which contains a high concentration of stars with different colors.

Tightly bound by gravity, globular clusters are composed of old stars, which, at around 10 billion years old, are much older than the sun. These clusters are fairly common, with more than 150 currently known in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and more which have been spotted in other galaxies.

Image of the center of globular cluster NGC 6362 showing unexpected young looking stars. (Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA)

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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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