Tag Archive for 'NASA'

This image shows a region near the center of our Milky Way Galaxy in X-ray and radio light. At the bottom of the image, near the center, is a brilliant, tangled knot of material that resembles a paint splatter. This is the brightest region in the image, and it contains the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*. The lower third of the image resembles an angry firestorm. Streaks of red and orange are scattered in every direction, as if a legion of embers from a fire crackled and popped into the air all at once. Flame-like structures lick toward the center from our right. Much of the image is infused with wispy blue clouds showing X-rays detected by Chandra. At a few points, the wispy blue clouds seem to form into balls of teal colored light and are known as dust halos. They are caused by X-rays from bright X-ray sources reflecting off dust surrounding the sources. These dust halos resemble underwater lights glowing in a cloudy swimming pool at night. Rising up from Sagittarius A* in the center of the image is a pillar of blue light referred to as a chimney. This chimney of hot gas is surrounded by red clouds that are filled with stars, presenting themselves as tiny red flecks. Near the top of the blue pillar is a streak of light blue, outlined by an illustrated, gray box. This streak is referred to as the chimney exhaust vent. Just to our left is another illustrated box that shows the close-up image of the chimney vent as observed by Chandra. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Universe of Chicago / Mackey et al. / NRF / SARAO / MeerKAT / SAO / N. Wolk.

Milky Way’s Center is Venting, Astronomers Say

May 17, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered an ‘exhaust vent’ funneling hot gas away from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive...

HP Tau, a trio of dazzling stars some 550 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus, blaze brilliantly from the hollowed-out cavity of a reflection nebula in the new Hubble image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Duchene, Universite de Grenoble I / Gladys Kober, NASA & Catholic University of America.

Hubble Space Telescope Spots Triple-Star System in Taurus

May 16, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Hubble team has released a stunning image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the triple-star star system HP Tau. HP Tau, a trio of dazzling...

The galaxy system ZS7. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / J. Dunlop / D. Magee / P. G. Pérez-González / H. Übler / R. Maiolino.

Webb Detects Ongoing Merger of Two Supermassive Black Holes in Early Universe

May 16, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found evidence for an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their central black holes —...

These views of Jupiter, captured by Juno during its 59th close flyby of the giant planet on March 7, 2024, provide a good look at Jupiter’s colorful belts and swirling storms, including the Great Red Spot. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt.

Amalthea: Juno Captures Solar System’s Reddest Object

May 15, 2024 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno orbiter captured these views of the tiny, red moon Amalthea and its parent planet and during a close flyby on March 7, 2024. These views...

Permanently shadowed regions in the north polar region of Ceres; the color indicates the maximum obliquity at which a location is in shadow through an entire orbit. Image credit: Schorghofer et al., doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ad3639.

Planetary Scientists Create Map of Ceres’ Cold Traps

May 13, 2024 by News Staff

The dwarf planet Ceres hosts permanently shadowed areas in its polar regions, and these regions are an interesting analog to Mercury and the Moon. Ceres’...

This Hubble image shows part of NGC 4753, a lenticular galaxy some 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Kelsey.

Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on Center of NGC 4753

May 13, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

NGC 4753 is featured with a bright white core and surrounding defined dust lanes around its nucleus. This Hubble image shows part of NGC 4753, a lenticular...

Representation of Cassini’s orbits used to calculate Titan’s gravity; the colored part of the orbits shows the distance from Cassini to Titan with the smallest distance in red; the cross-section of Titan shows the moon’s different layers with the ocean in blue; Saturn with rings and ring shadows can be seen in the background. Image credit: Britt Griswold, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Cassini Observations Suggest Underground Ocean on Titan

May 10, 2024 by News Staff

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, harbors an internal low-density ocean of water or ammonia, according to an analysis of archival data from NASA’s Cassini...

The NASA visualization tracks a camera as it approaches, briefly orbits, and then crosses the event horizon -- the point of no return -- of a supersized black hole similar in mass to the one at the center of our Galaxy. Image credit: J. Schnittman & B. Powell, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

New NASA Visualization Shows Supermassive Black Hole’s Event Horizon

May 9, 2024 by News Staff

Thanks to a new visualization produced on a NASA supercomputer, you can plunge into the event horizon, a black hole’s point of no return. “People...

This artist’s concept shows the possible locations of iron revealed in XRISM’s X-ray spectrum of NGC 4151. Image credit: Conceptual Image Lab, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

XRISM Detects Iron in Accretion Disk around NGC 4151’s Supermassive Black Hole

May 8, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

NGC 4151 is a spiral galaxy located some 62 million light-years away in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. This artist’s concept shows the...

An artist’s impression of 55 Cancri e. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / R. Crawford, STScI.

Webb Detects Secondary Atmosphere on 55 Cancri e

May 8, 2024 by News Staff

Gas bubbling up from a lava-covered surface on the super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cancri e may feed an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide,...

This Hubble image shows NGC 4951, a spiral galaxy some 49 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Thilker, Johns Hopkins University / Gladys Kober, NASA & Catholic University of America.

NGC 4951: Hubble Space Telescope Captures Active Seyfert Galaxy

May 7, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced a spectacular image of NGC 4951, a spiral galaxy with an active galactic center in...

This Hubble image shows UGC 9684, a spiral galaxy located 240 million light-years away in the constellation of Boötes. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / C. Kilpatrick.

Hubble Snaps Striking New Photo of UGC 9684

May 6, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released an incredibly beautiful photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the spiral galaxy UGC 9684. This Hubble image shows UGC...

Rendering of the likely view on a Hycean world. Image credit: Shang-Min Tsai / UCR.

Webb Probably Didn’t Detect Biosignature Gas on K2-18b

May 2, 2024 by News Staff

In 2023, astronomers reported a tentative detection of dimethyl sulfide — which is predominately produced by marine microbes on Earth and regarded...

Mastcam mosaic from the Sol 1686 rover location looking behind the rover (downslope) at the transition point between the Sutton Island and Blunts Point Murray members. Images from Sols 1685-1689 display sedimentary textures of dark-toned manganese-rich sandstones and nearby rocks. Dashed line boxes in the large mosaic are shown as insets along the bottom of figure. Small red outlines show the approximate locations and extent of ChemCam observations. Throughout this transition area, dark-toned sandstones (presumably manganese-rich based on ChemCam observations at three locations) overlie light-toned materials. Insets from left to right: (a) Denning Brook, a manganese-rich fine-grained dark-toned sandstone ChemCam observation; (b) and (c) two light-toned blocks with cross-stratified textures, highlighted with yellow lines, 6 m away from Denning Brook and to the upper left in the large mosaic; (d) dark-toned materials (center of mosaic); and (E1) Newport Ledge, (E2) AEGIS post 1685a, (E3) Sugarloaf Mountain, three thin planar laminated dark-toned sandstones. Image credit: NASA / Caltech-JPL / MSSS.

Manganese-Rich Sandstones Point to Earth-Like Environment on Ancient Mars

May 2, 2024 by News Staff

In May 2017, NASA’s Curiosity rover observed higher than usual amounts of manganese in the lakebed rocks within Gale crater, Mars. These sedimentary...

This Webb image shows NGC 6440, a globular cluster located 27,625 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / P. Freire / M. Cadelano / C. Pallanca.

Webb Explores Stellar Population of NGC 6440

May 1, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

NGC 6440 is a typical massive, obscured and contaminated globular cluster formed and orbiting within the bulge of our Milky Way Galaxy. This Webb image...

This artist’s concept shows what WASP-43b could look like. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Ralf Crawford, STScI.

Webb Maps Weather on Hot Jupiter WASP-43b

Apr 30, 2024 by News Staff

WASP-43b is cloudy on the nightside and clear on the dayside, with equatorial winds howling around the planet at 8,050 km per hour (5,000 mph). This artist’s...

At the bottom of this Webb/NIRCam image a small portion of the Horsehead nebula is seen close-in, as a curved wall of thick, smoky gas and dust. Above the nebula various distant stars and galaxies can be seen up to the top of the image. Image credit: NASA / CSA / ESA / Webb / K. Misselt, University of Arizona / A. Abergel, IAS, University Paris-Saclay & CNRS.

Webb Captures Best Ever Images of Horsehead Nebula

Apr 30, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured the most detailed images yet of one of the most distinctive objects in our...

Collins et al. estimated flow through 3 million river segments, identifying locations around the world marked by intense human water use, including parts of the Colorado, Amazon, Orange, and Murray-Darling river basins, shown as gray here. Image credit: NASA.

New Study Provides Estimates of How Much Water Courses through Earth’s Rivers

Apr 30, 2024 by News Staff

Accurate assessment of global river flows and stores is critical for informing water management practices, but current estimates of global river flows...

This Hubble image shows IC 776, a dwarf galaxy around 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Sun.

Hubble Space Telescope Finds ‘Complex’ Galaxy in Virgo Cluster

Apr 29, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Hubble team has released a beautiful new image of the dwarf galaxy IC 776, which is found in the constellation of Virgo. This Hubble image shows IC...

This Hubble image shows Messier 76, a planetary nebula some 3,400 light-years away in the constellation of Perseus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI.

Hubble Celebrates 34th Birthday with Brilliant Image of Messier 76

Apr 24, 2024 by News Staff

Messier 76, also known as M76, NGC 650/651 or the Little Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula located approximately 3,400 light-years away in the northern...

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