http://www.redorbit.com/images/1/images-of-the-day/gallery/3/universe-2 http://www.redorbit.com/media/themes/redorbit/images/logo_160x80.gif http://www.redorbit.com/ 160 80 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-052312.jpg 2012-05-23 11:34:10
Image Credit: NASA/Alan Ault]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-052212.jpg 2012-05-22 11:16:47
On Nov. 3, 2010, a supernova was discovered in the galaxy UGC 5189A, located about 160 million light years away. Using data from the All Sky Automated Survey telescope in Hawaii taken earlier, astronomers determined this supernova exploded in early October 2010 (in Earth\'s time-frame).

This composite image of UGC 5189A shows X-ray data from Chandra in purple and optical data from Hubble Space Telescope in red, green and blue. SN 2010jl is the very bright X-ray source near the top of the galaxy.

A team of researchers used Chandra to observe this supernova in December 2010 and again in October 2011. The supernova was one of the most luminous that has ever been detected in X-rays.

In optical light, SN 2010jl was about ten times more luminous than a typical supernova resulting from the collapse of a massive star, adding to the class of very luminous supernovas that have been discovered recently with optical surveys. Different explanations have been proposed to explain these energetic supernovas including (1) the interaction of the supernova\'s blast wave with a dense shell of matter around the pre-supernova star, (2) radioactivity resulting from a pair-instability supernova (triggered by the conversion of gamma rays into particle and anti-particle pairs), and (3) emission powered by a neutron star with an unusually powerful magnetic field.

In the first Chandra observation of SN 2010jl, the X-rays from the explosion\'s blast wave were strongly absorbed by a cocoon of dense gas around the supernova. This cocoon was formed by gas blown away from the massive star before it exploded.

In the second observation taken almost a year later, there is much less absorption of X-ray emission, indicating that the blast wave from the explosion has broken out of the surrounding cocoon. The Chandra data show that the gas emitting the X-rays has a very high temperature -- greater than 100 million degrees Kelvin – strong evidence that it has been heated by the supernova blast wave.

The energy distribution, or spectrum, of SN 2010jl in optical light reveals features that the researchers think are explained by the following scenario: matter around the supernova has been heated and ionized (electrons stripped from atoms) by X-rays generated when the blast wave plows through this material. While this type of interaction has been proposed before, the new observations directly show, for the first time, that this is happening.

This discovery therefore supports the idea that some of the unusually luminous supernovas are caused by the blast wave from their explosion ramming into the material around it.

In a rare example of a cosmic coincidence, analysis of the X-rays from the supernova shows that there is a second unrelated source at almost the same location as the supernova. These two sources strongly overlap one another as seen on the sky. This second source is likely to be an ultraluminous X-ray source, possibly containing an unusually heavy stellar-mass black hole, or an intermediate mass black hole.

These results were published in a paper appearing in the May 1st, 2012 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The authors were Poonam Chandra (Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Canada), Roger Chevalier and Christopher Irwin (University of Virginia, Charlottsville, VA), Nikolai Chugai (Institute of Astronomy of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia), Claes Fransson (Stockholm University, Sweden), and Alicia Soderberg (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA).

Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Royal Military College of Canada/P.Chandra et al); Optical: NASA/STScI ]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-052112.jpg 2012-05-21 11:23:03
The bright blue star cluster at center left is among hundreds of primeval globular star clusters that came together to build up the galaxy. This particular cluster survives today as the globular cluster M4 in Scorpius. Astronomers used Hubble to find the oldest burned-out stars - called white dwarfs - in the cluster. The dwarfs serve as \'clocks\' for calculating the cluster\'s age based on temperature. The cluster - chock full young and blue-white stars in this artwork - probably started forming several hundred million years after the big bang.

At right of center, the hub of the galaxy is beginning to form. Lanes of dark dust encircle a young supermassive black hole. An extragalactic jet of high-speed material beams into space from the young black hole, which is engorging itself on stars, gas and dust. A string of supernova explosions from the most massive stars in the cluster creates pink bubbles of hot gas around each star cluster.

Credit: NASA/ESA and Adolf Schaller]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-052012.jpg 2012-05-20 11:35:04
Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit relayed some information about photographic techniques used to achieve the images: “My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.”

A total of 46 images photographed by the astronaut-monitored stationary camera in the Cupola were combined to create this composite. Other locations on the orbital outpost were used by the crew to mount cameras to achieve other composites.

Credit: NASA, Don Pettit]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-051912.jpg 2012-05-19 12:18:02
The galaxy, spanning some 100 000 light-years, is seen exactly edge-on, and reveals its thick plane of dust and interstellar gas. While initially thought to look like our own Milky Way if seen from the side, more detailed surveys revealed the existence of filaments of dust and gas escaping the plane of the galaxy into the halo over hundreds of light-years. They can be clearly seen here against the bright background of the galaxy halo, expanding into space from the disc of the galaxy.

Astronomers believe these filaments to be the result of the ejection of material due to supernovae or intense stellar formation activity. By lighting up when they are born, or exploding when they die, stars cause powerful winds that can blow dust and gas over hundreds of light-years in space.

A few foreground stars from the Milky Way shine brightly in the image, while distant elliptical galaxies can be seen in the lower right of the image.

NGC 891 is part of a small group of galaxies bound together by gravity.

A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Image Processing Competition by contestant Nick Rose. Hidden Treasures is an initiative to invite astronomy enthusiasts to search the Hubble archive for stunning images that have never been seen by the general public.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA. Acknowledgement: Nick Rose]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-051812.jpg 2012-05-18 11:08:13
Cygnus-X is an extremely active region of massive-star birth some 4500 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus, the Swan.

Using Herschel’s far-infrared eyes, astronomers can seek out regions where dust has been gently heated by stars, pointing them to dense clumps of gas where new generations of stars are forming.

Bright white areas highlight zones where large stars have recently formed out of turbulent clouds, especially evident in the chaotic network of filaments seen in the right-hand portion of the image.

Here, dense knots of gas and dust mark intersections where filaments meet and collapse to form new stars, and where bubble-like structures are carved by their immense radiation.

In the center of the image, fierce radiation and powerful stellar winds from stars undetected at Herschel’s wavelengths have partly cleared and heated interstellar material, which then glows blue in this representation.

The left-hand part of the scene is dominated by a pillar of gas whose shape resembles that of the neck of a swan.

Below and to the right, a shell of gas and dust has likely been ejected from a supergiant star at its center, but which is not seen directly in this image.

Strings of compact red objects scattered throughout the scene map the cold seeds of future generations of stars.

The image highlights the unique capabilities of Herschel to probe the birth of large stars and their influence on the surrounding interstellar material with a level of detail at far-infrared wavelengths that has never before been available.

Credits: ESA/PACS/SPIRE/Martin Hennemann & Frédérique Motte, Laboratoire AIM Paris-Saclay, CEA/Irfu – CNRS/INSU – Univ. Paris Diderot, France.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-051712.jpg 2012-05-17 11:12:13
Jets of water ice and vapor emanating from the south pole of Enceladus, which hint at subsurface sea rich in organics, and liquid hydrocarbons ponding on the surface on the surface of Titan make these two of the most fascinating moons in the Saturnian system.

Enceladus (313 miles, or 504 kilometers across) is in the center of the image. Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across) glows faintly in the background beyond the rings. This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Enceladus and the Saturn-facing side of Titan. The northern, sunlit side of the rings is seen from just above the ringplane.

The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 12, 2012. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 600,000 miles (1 million kilometers) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 36 degrees. Image scale is 4 miles (6 kilometers) per pixel on Enceladus.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-051612.jpg 2012-05-16 10:57:20
The starry mist streaking across this image obtained by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the central part of the dwarf galaxy known as NGC 2366. The most obvious feature in this galaxy is a large nebula visible in the upper-right part of the image, an object listed just a few entries prior in the New General Catalogue as NGC 2363.

A nearby yellowish swirl is not in fact part of the nebula. It is a spiral galaxy much further away, whose light is shining right through NGC 2366. This is possible because galaxies are not solid objects. While we see the stars because they shine brightly, galaxies are overwhelmingly made up of the empty space between them. Hubble’s high-resolution image illustrates this perfectly: the stars are small points of light surrounded by the darkness of space.

The splendid interconnected objects of NGC 2366 and NGC 2363 are located about 10 million light-years away in the constellation of Camelopardalis (the Giraffe). As a dwarf galaxy, NGC 2366’s size is in the same ballpark as the two main satellite galaxies of our Milky Way, named the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Like the Magellanic clouds, NGC 2366\'s lack of well-defined structure leads astronomers to further classify it as an irregular galaxy.

Although NGC 2366 might be small by the standards of galaxies, many of its stars are not, and the galaxy is home to numerous gigantic blue stars. The blue dots scattered throughout the galaxy speak to the burst of star formation that the galaxy has undergone in recent cosmic time. A new generation of these stellar titans has lit up the nebula NGC 2363.

In gas-rich star-forming regions, the ultraviolet radiation from young, big, blue stars excites the hydrogen gas, making it glow. NGC 2363, as well as other, smaller patches seen throughout Hubble’s image, serve as the latest formation sites for stellar giants.

Imaged through green and infrared filters, these nebulae take on a blueish tinge in this image, though the actual color is a shade of red.

This image was produced from two adjacent fields observed by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The field of view is approximately 5.5 arcminutes across, which is equivalent to a little over a fifth of the diameter of the full Moon. Although this is comparatively large by the standard of Hubble’s images, NGC 2366 is much too faint to observe with the naked eye.
Notes

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

Image credit: NASA & ESA]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-051512.jpg 2012-05-15 11:12:37
In this image, the left half of the visible disk of Rhea faces in the direction of Rhea\'s orbital motion around Saturn, while the right side faces the trailing direction. It is not unusual for large icy Saturnian satellites to exhibit hemispheric albedo (reflectivity) and color differences. These differences are likely related to systematic regional changes in surface composition or the sizes and mechanical structure of grains making up the icy soil. Such large-scale variations can arise from numerous processes, such as meteoritic debris preferentially hitting one side of Rhea. The differences can also arise from \"magnetic sweeping,\" a process that happens when ions that are trapped in Saturn\'s magnetic field drag over and implant themselves in Rhea\'s icy surface. The slightly reddish false-color hues near Rhea\'s poles identify subtle composition changes that might be caused by differences in the surface exposure to meteoric debris falling into the moon or implantation of ions. These differences could vary by latitude. They suggest that at least some of the color differences are exogenic, or derived externally.

This view was captured during Cassini\'s March 2, 2010 flyby of Rhea. To create the false-color view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. This \"color map\" was then superimposed over a clear-filter image that preserves the relative brightness across the body.

This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Rhea (1528 kilometers, 949 miles across). North is up. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 35,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) from Rhea and at a sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 3 degrees. Image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA\'s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-051412.jpg 2012-05-14 11:02:21
The starry mist streaking across this image obtained by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the central part of the dwarf galaxy known as NGC 2366. The most obvious feature in this galaxy is a large nebula visible in the upper-right part of the image, an object listed just a few entries prior in the New General Catalogue as NGC 2363.

A nearby yellowish swirl is not in fact part of the nebula. It is a spiral galaxy much further away, whose light is shining right through NGC 2366. This is possible because galaxies are not solid objects. While we see the stars because they shine brightly, galaxies are overwhelmingly made up of the empty space between them. Hubble’s high-resolution image illustrates this perfectly: the stars are small points of light surrounded by the darkness of space.

The splendid interconnected objects of NGC 2366 and NGC 2363 are located about 10 million light-years away in the constellation of Camelopardalis (the Giraffe). As a dwarf galaxy, NGC 2366’s size is in the same ballpark as the two main satellite galaxies of our Milky Way, named the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Like the Magellanic clouds, NGC 2366\'s lack of well-defined structure leads astronomers to further classify it as an irregular galaxy.

Although NGC 2366 might be small by the standards of galaxies, many of its stars are not, and the galaxy is home to numerous gigantic blue stars. The blue dots scattered throughout the galaxy speak to the burst of star formation that the galaxy has undergone in recent cosmic time. A new generation of these stellar titans has lit up the nebula NGC 2363.

In gas-rich star-forming regions, the ultraviolet radiation from young, big, blue stars excites the hydrogen gas, making it glow. NGC 2363, as well as other, smaller patches seen throughout Hubble’s image, serve as the latest formation sites for stellar giants.

Imaged through green and infrared filters, these nebulae take on a blueish tinge in this image, though the actual colour is a shade of red.

This image was produced from two adjacent fields observed by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The field of view is approximately 5.5 arcminutes across, which is equivalent to a little over a fifth of the diameter of the full Moon. Although this is comparatively large by the standard of Hubble’s images, NGC 2366 is much too faint to observe with the naked eye.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

Image credit: NASA & ESA]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-051312.jpg 2012-05-13 11:09:31
Supermassive black holes are believed to reside in the hearts of all large galaxies. When gas falls upon these monsters, the materials are accelerated and heated around the black hole, releasing great torrents of energy. In the process, active black holes often generate colossal jets that blast out twin streams of heated matter.

Inflows of gas into a galaxy also fuel the formation of new stars. In a new study of distant galaxies, Herschel helped show that star formation and black hole activity increase together, but only up to a point. Astronomers think that if an active black hole flares up too much, it starts spewing radiation that prevents raw material from coalescing into new stars.

This artistically modified image of the local galaxy Arp 220, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, helps illustrate the Herschel results. The bright core of the galaxy, paired with an overlaid artist\'s impression of jets emanating from it, indicate that the central black hole\'s activity is intensifying. As the active black hole continues to rev up, the rate of star formation will, in turn, be suppressed in the galaxy. Astronomers want to further study how star formation and black hole activity are intertwined.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-051212.jpg 2012-05-12 11:27:05
NASA\'s Spitzer Space Telescope was able to detect a super Earth\'s direct light for the first time using its sensitive heat-seeking infrared vision.

Seen here in this artist\'s concept, the planet is called 55 Cancri e. It\'s a toasty world that rushes around its star every 18 hours. It orbits so closely -- about 25 times closer than Mercury is to our sun -- that it is tidally locked with one face forever blisters under the heat of its sun. The planet is proposed to have a rocky core surrounded by a layer of water in a \"supercritical\" state, where it is both liquid and gas, and then the whole planet is thought to be topped by a blanket of steam.

Spitzer was able to see the light of the planet by watching it slip behind its star in what is called an occultation. Because the planet is brighter relative to its star when viewed in infrared light, Spitzer was able to measure the slight drop in total brightness that occurred as the planet disappeared from view. This technique, pioneered by Spitzer in 2005, has since been performed by other telescopes, including NASA\'s Hubble and Kepler space telescopes. The method can be used to obtain information about a planet\'s temperature, and in some cases, its composition.

In this current study, the Spitzer data revealed that 55 Cancri e is very dark and that its sun-facing side is blistering hot at 2,000 kelvins or 3,140 degrees Fahrenheit.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-051112.jpg 2012-05-11 11:22:34
Credit: NASA/SDO]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-051012.jpg 2012-05-10 11:22:14
Credit: T.A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage and WIYN/AURA/NSF]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-050912.jpg 2012-05-09 11:26:24
Using the Hubble Space Telescope for the biggest survey to date of the chemical composition of the atmospheres of white dwarf stars, the researchers found that the most frequently occurring elements in the dust around these four white dwarfs were oxygen, magnesium, iron and silicon – the four elements that make up roughly 93 per cent of the Earth.

However an even more significant observation was that this material also contained an extremely low proportion of carbon, which matched very closely that of the Earth and the other rocky planets orbiting closest to our own Sun.

This is the first time that such low proportions of carbon have been measured in the atmospheres of white dwarf stars polluted by debris. Not only is this clear evidence that these stars once had at least one rocky exoplanet which they have now destroyed, the observations must also pinpoint the last phase of the death of these worlds.

The atmosphere of a white dwarf is made up of hydrogen and/or helium, so any heavy elements that come into their atmosphere are dragged downwards to their core and out of sight within a matter of days by the dwarf’s high gravity. Given this, the astronomers must literally be observing the final phase of the death of these worlds as the material rains down on the stars at rates of up to 1 million kilograms every second.

Not only is this clear evidence that these stars once had rocky exoplanetary bodies which have now been destroyed, the observations of one particular white dwarf, PG0843+516, may also tell the story of the destruction of these worlds.

This star stood out from the rest owing to the relative overabundance of the elements iron, nickel and sulphur in the dust found in its atmosphere.

Iron and nickel are found in the cores of terrestrial planets, as they sink to the center owing to the pull of gravity during planetary formation, and so does sulphur thanks to its chemical affinity to iron.

Therefore, researchers believe they are observing White Dwarf PG0843+516 in the very act of swallowing up material from the core of a rocky planet that was large enough to undergo differentiation, similar to the process that separated the core and the mantle of the Earth.

The study entitled “The chemical diversity of exo-terrestrial planetary debris around white dwarfs” by B. T. Gänsicke, D. Koester, J. Farihi, J. Girven, S.G.Parsons, and E. Breedt is accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Professor Boris Gänsicke of the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick, who led the study, said the destructive process which caused the discs of dust around these distant white dwarfs is likely to one day play out in our own solar system.

“What we are seeing today in these white dwarfs several hundred light years away could well be a snapshot of the very distant future of the Earth.

“As stars like our Sun reach the end of their life, they expand to become red giants when the nuclear fuel in their cores is depleted.

“When this happens in our own solar system, billions of years from now, the Sun will engulf the inner planets Mercury and Venus.

“It’s unclear whether the Earth will also be swallowed up by the Sun in its red giant phase - but even if it survives, its surface will be roasted.

“During the transformation of the Sun into a white dwarf, it will lose a large amount of mass, and all the planets will move further out.

“This may destabilize the orbits and lead to collisions between planetary bodies as happened in the unstable early days of our solar system. This may even shatter entire terrestrial planets, forming large amounts of asteroids, some of which will have chemical compositions similar to those of the planetary core.

“In our solar system, Jupiter will survive the late evolution of the Sun unscathed, and scatter asteroids, new or old, towards the white dwarf.

“It is entirely feasible that in PG0843+516 we see the accretion of such fragments made from the core material of what was once a terrestrial exoplanet.”

The University of Warwick led team surveyed more than 80 white dwarfs within a few hundred light years, using the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope.

Credits: Mark A. Garlick for University of Warwick]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-050812.jpg 2012-05-08 11:19:13
Credit: NASA, S. Gezari (The Johns Hopkins University), and J. Guillochon (University of California, Santa Cruz)]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-050712.jpg 2012-05-07 11:04:08
Credit: ESO/APEX (MPIfR/ESO/OSO)/T. Stanke et al./Igor Chekalin/Digitized Sky Survey 2]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-050612.jpg 2012-05-06 13:52:56
Researchers used Chandra to discover a new ultraluminous X-ray source, or ULX. These objects give off more X-rays than most binary systems, in which a companion star orbits the remains of a collapsed star. These collapsed stars form either a dense core called a neutron star or a black hole. The extra X-ray emission suggests ULXs contain black holes that might be much more massive than the ones found elsewhere in our galaxy.

A paper describing these results will appear in the May 10, 2012, issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

Image Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Curtin University/R. Soria et al., Optical: NASA/STScI/ Middlebury College/F. Winkler et al.]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-050512.jpg 2012-05-05 13:37:43
This image shows the Optical Telescope Element Simulator, or OSIM, wrapped in a silver blanket on a platform, being lowered into the Space Environment Simulator vacuum chamber via crane to be tested to withstand the cold temperatures of space.

Image Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-050412.jpg 2012-05-04 11:20:56
The preplanetary nebula phase is a short period in the cycle of stellar evolution, and has nothing to do with planets. Over a few thousand years, the hot remains of the aging star in the center of the nebula heat it up, excite the gas, and make it glow as a subsequent planetary nebula. The short lifespan of preplanetary nebulae means there are relatively few of them in existence at any one time. Moreover, they are very dim, requiring powerful telescopes to be seen. This combination of rarity and faintness means they were only discovered comparatively recently. The Egg Nebula, the first to be discovered, was first spotted less than 40 years ago, and many aspects of this class of object remain shrouded in mystery.

At the center of this image, and hidden in a thick cloud of dust, is the nebula’s central star. While we can’t see the star directly, four searchlight beams of light coming from it shine out through the nebula. It is thought that ring-shaped holes in the thick cocoon of dust, carved by jets coming from the star, let the beams of light emerge through the otherwise opaque cloud. The precise mechanism by which stellar jets produce these holes is not known for certain, but one possible explanation is that a binary star system, rather than a single star, exists at the center of the nebula.

The onion-like layered structure of the more diffuse cloud surrounding the central cocoon is caused by periodic bursts of material being ejected from the dying star. The bursts typically occur every few hundred years.

The distance to the Egg Nebula is only known very approximately, the best guess placing it at around 3,000 light-years from Earth. This in turn means that astronomers do not have any accurate figures for the size of the nebula (it may be larger and further away, or smaller but nearer).

This image is produced from exposures in visible and infrared light from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.

Credits: ESA/Hubble, NASA]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-050312.jpg 2012-05-03 11:19:08
An accurate determination of Phoebe\'s density -- a forthcoming result from the flyby -- will help Cassini mission scientists understand how much of the little moon is comprised of ices.

This spectacular view was obtained at a phase, or Sun-Phoebe-spacecraft, angle of 84 degrees, and from a distance of approximately 32,500 kilometers (20,200 miles). The image scale is approximately 190 meters (624 feet) per pixel. No enhancement was performed on this image.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA\'s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute ]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-050212.jpg 2012-05-02 11:35:39
Credits: ESA/AOES]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-050112.jpg 2012-05-01 11:13:34
In this image, infrared data from WISE and a past all-sky survey mission, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), have been combined. Color is used to show similar observations taken almost thirty years apart; the recent WISE data are color-coded green and red, while the older IRAS data are blue.

The picture reveals that the newfound dusty star, called WISE J180956.27–330500.2, was not seen at all by IRAS, which surveyed the sky in 1983 (it is the only bright star in this field that does not have a corresponding blue halo). Astronomers say the star has brightened by a factor of 100. This appears to have been caused by a sudden eruption in the star around 15 years ago. Dust freshly created in this event is heated by starlight and glows at infrared wavelengths.

The image also demonstrates that WISE and its state-of-the-art technology produced, as expected, much crisper images than its predecessors. The blue IRAS data show both stars, and, higher up in the picture, interstellar dust.

Data from IRAS show 12-micron infrared light (blue); data from WISE show 12- and 22-micron infrared light (green and red, respectively).

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-043012.jpg 2012-04-30 11:24:03
The results are based on observations taken over six years by the PLANET (Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork) collaboration, which was founded in 1995. The study concludes that there are far more Earth-sized planets than bloated Jupiter-sized worlds. This is based on calibrating a planetary mass function that shows the number of planets increases for lower mass worlds. A rough estimate from this survey would point to the existence of more than 10 billion terrestrial planets across our galaxy.

The results were published in the Jan. 12, 2012, issue of the British science journal Nature.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Kornmesser (ESO)]]> 0 http://www.redorbit.com/media/gallery/universe/iod-universe-042912.jpg 2012-04-29 10:56:56
Credit: ESO]]> 0