Tag Archive for 'Halo'

Images of the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud are overlaid on a map of the surrounding Galactic halo. The smaller structure is a wake created by the Large Magellanic Cloud’s motion through this region. The larger light-blue feature corresponds to a high density of stars observed in the northern hemisphere of our Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / JPL-Caltech / Conroy et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03385-7.

Astronomers Create New Map of Milky Way’s Halo

Apr 22, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using data ESA’s Gaia mission and NASA’s Near Earth Object Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) have created a map of the outermost...

This image from the eROSITA X-ray telescope shows the energetic Universe. As eROSITA scans the sky, the energy of the collected photons is measured with an accuracy ranging from 2% - 6%. To generate this image, in which the whole sky is projected onto an ellipse (so-called Aitoff projection) with the center of the Milky Way in the middle and the body of our Galaxy running horizontally, photons have been color-coded according to their energy (red for energies 0.3-0.6 keV, green for 0.6-1 keV, blue for 1-2.3 keV). The red diffuse glow away from the galactic plane is the emission of the hot gas in the vicinity of the Solar System (the Local Bubble). Along the plane itself, dust and gas absorb the lowest energy X-ray photons, so that only high-energy emitting sources can be seen, and their color appears blue in the image. The hotter gas close to the Galactic center, shown in green and yellow, carries imprinted the history of the most energetic processes in the life of the Milky Way, such as supernova explosions, driving fountains of gas out of the plane, and, possibly, past outburst from the now dormant supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way. Piercing through this turbulent, hot diffuse medium, are hundreds of thousands of X-ray sources, which appear mostly white in the image, and uniformly distributed over the sky. Among them, distant active galactic nuclei are visible as point sources, while clusters of galaxies reveal themselves as extended X-ray nebulosities. In total, about one million X-ray sources have been detected in this image. Image credit: Jeremy Sanders, Hermann Brunner & the eSASS team / Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics / Eugene Churazov & Marat Gilfanov, IKI.

Astronomers Detect Large-Scale X-Ray Bubbles in Milky Way’s Halo

Dec 31, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the eROSITA X-ray telescope onboard the Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory have detected X-ray-emitting bubbles that extend approximately...

The positions and orbits of the newly-discovered high-velocity stars. Image credit: Xiao Kong, China’s National Astronomical Observatories.

Almost Six Hundred New High-Velocity Stars Spotted in Milky Way

Dec 29, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

Using data from the Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) and ESA’s star-mapping satellite Gaia, astronomers have discovered...

An artist’s impression of what the Milky Way might look like seen from above. The colored rings show the rough extent of the Heracles galaxy. The yellow dot shows the position of the Sun. Image credit: Danny Horta-Darrington, Liverpool John Moores University / NASA / JPL-Caltech / SDSS.

Astronomers Find ‘Fossil Galaxy’ Hidden in Depths of Milky Way

Dec 8, 2020 by News Staff

A small satellite galaxy, named Heracles, collided with our Milky Way Galaxy about 10 billion years ago and its remnants account for about one third of...

As the Universe evolves, matter concentrations are surrounded by gas halos getting hotter and bigger. Image credit: D. Nelson / Illustris Collaboration.

Universe is Getting Hotter, Says New Study

Nov 10, 2020 by News Staff

The mean temperature of gas across the Universe has increased more than 10 times over the last 10 billion years and reached about 2 million Kelvin today,...

Our Milky Way Galaxy is surrounded by an enormous halo of plasma (seen in blue in this artists’ rendition). Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss / Ohio State / A. Gupta et al.

Milky Way’s Halo is Disk-Like and Clumpy, Study Shows

Oct 20, 2020 by News Staff

Using X-ray data from NASA’s HaloSat minisatellite, astronomers have found that our Milky Way Galaxy is surrounded by a clumpy halo of hot gases that...

The Magellanic Stream in zenithal equal-area coordinates: (a) observed H I data for the Magellanic Stream, with the line-of-sight velocity indicated by the color scale and the relative gas column density indicated by the brightness; the points represent the sightlines with ultraviolet-absorption-line observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, colored by their line-of-sight velocity; these points show the extent of the ionized gas associated with the stream; (b) the results of the model including the Magellanic Corona and the Milky Way’s hot corona; gas originating in the disks of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is shown in the model, without separating neutral gas from ionized gas; this affects the morphology of the stream, causing the model to appear smoother and less fragmented than the data; however, the model reproduces the current spatial location and velocity of both clouds, and the velocity gradient of the gas along the stream; the Milky Way disk and background are extracted from real H I images. Image credit: Lucchini et al, doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2663-4.

Huge Halo of Warm Gas around Magellanic Clouds is Key to Formation of Magellanic Stream

Sep 9, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Australia and the United States has found that a halo of warm ionized gas surrounding the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds...

This image shows the location of the 43 quasars Lehner et al used to probe Andromeda’s gaseous halo. These quasars are scattered far behind the halo, allowing scientists to probe multiple regions. Looking through the immense halo at the quasars’ light, the team observed how this light is absorbed by the halo and how that absorption changes in different regions. By tracing the absorption of light coming from the background quasars, the astronomers are able to probe the halo’s material. Image credit: NASA / ESA / E. Wheatley, STScI.

Astronomers Create Map of Andromeda Galaxy’s Gaseous Halo

Aug 28, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have found that a halo of diffuse plasma around the Andromeda galaxy, which is located 2.5 million...

An artist’s impression of the thin stream of stars torn from the Phoenix globular cluster, wrapping around the Milky Way (left). Wan et al targeted bright red giant stars (right) to measure the chemical composition of the disrupted Phoenix globular cluster. Image credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions / S5 Collaboration.

Ancient Globular Cluster Was Tidally Disrupted by Milky Way Two Billion Years Ago

Jul 30, 2020 by News Staff

The Phoenix stellar stream, a thin over-density of stars in the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy originally identified by the Dark Energy Survey, is composed...

Milky Way’s Halo Hotter than Previously Thought

Jun 2, 2020 by News Staff

Using deep X-ray observations from ESA’s XMM-Newton Observatory, astronomers have discovered that Milky Way’s halo — a large cloud of ionized...

A simulated galaxy image from the FIRE-2 project, representing a structure spanning more than 200,000 light-years, shows the prominent plumes of young blue stars born in gas that was originally rotating and then blown radially outward by supernova explosions. Image credit: Sijie Yu / University of California Irvine.

Stars Born in Outflows May Populate Halos of Milky Way-Like Galaxies

Apr 20, 2020 by News Staff

Clusters of supernovas can cause the birth of scattered, eccentrically orbiting stars in outer halos of Milky Way-mass galaxies, according to new research...

This Hubble image shows Messier 104. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA.

Strikingly Metal-Rich Halo of Messier 104 Suggests Turbulent Past

Feb 21, 2020 by News Staff

Messier 104, a lenticular galaxy located 28 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, now has a new chapter in its story — an extended...

This image shows the ancient dwarf star J0815+4729 (center). Image credit: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD / SDSS.

Astronomers Find Huge Amount of Oxygen in Ancient Dwarf Star

Jan 24, 2020 by News Staff

Using high-resolution spectroscopic observations from the High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) on the 10-m Keck I telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory,...

This illustration depicts a gas halo surrounding a quasar in the early Universe. The quasar, in orange, has two powerful jets and a supermassive black hole at its center, which is surrounded by a dusty disk. The halo of glowing hydrogen is represented in blue. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

VLT Spots Huge Halos of Cool Hydrogen around Active Galaxies in Early Universe

Dec 20, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have spotted enormous hydrogen halos around 12 quasars — a type of active galaxy which shines...

An artist’s impression of a carbon halo around a young star-forming galaxy. Image credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

ALMA Spots Carbon Halos around Early Star-Forming Galaxies

Dec 17, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted huge clouds of carbon gas around several young starburst galaxies...

NGC 4631 is seen edge-on, with its disk of stars shown in pink; the filaments, shown in green and blue, extend beyond the disk into the galaxy’s extended halo; green indicates filaments with their magnetic field pointing roughly toward us and blue with the field pointing away; this phenomenon, with the field alternating in direction, has never before been seen in the halo of a galaxy. This VLA image shows a companion galaxy -- a small elliptical galaxy called NGC 4627 -- just above NGC 4631. Image credit: Jayanne English, University of Manitoba / Silvia Carolina Mora-Partiarroyo & Marita Krause of the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy / Maria Patterson & Rene Walterbos, New Mexico State University / Arpad Miskolczi, University of Bochum / NRAO.

Astronomers Spot Huge Magnetic Structures in ‘Whale Galaxy’

Nov 28, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have captured a new image of the edge-on barred spiral galaxy NGC 4631 (also known as ‘Whale...

This illustration envisions the Milky Way Galaxy’s gas recycling above and below its stellar disk. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Player, STScI.

Milky Way Galaxy Accretes More Gas Than Expected

Oct 11, 2019 by News Staff

Using data gathered by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have calculated the mass inflow and outflow rates of cool ionized gas around our...

An artist’s impression of FRB 181112 traveling through the halo of a massive galaxy 4 billion light-years from Earth. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Fast Radio Burst Exposes Halo of Massive Galaxy

Sep 30, 2019 by News Staff

In November 2018, CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) detected a new fast radio burst, an enigmatic blast of cosmic radio waves...

An artist’s concept showing the gaseous halo surrounding a galaxy, illuminated by a narrow band of ultraviolet light called Lyman alpha emission. Image credit: T. Klein, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Giant Gaseous Halo Surrounds Young Star-Forming Galaxy

Jul 26, 2018 by News Staff

Q2343-BX418, a young star-forming galaxy located about 10 billion light years away from Earth, is surrounded by an enormous halo of gas, according to new...

This diagram shows how scientists determined the size of the halo of the Andromeda Galaxy. Because the gas in the halo is dark, astronomers measured it by using the light from distant quasars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Field, STScI / N. Lehner & J.C. Howk, University of Notre Dame / B. Wakker, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

NASA’s Hubble Sees Huge Gaseous Halo around Andromeda Galaxy

May 8, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that a nearly invisible halo of hot plasma...