Matt308
Glock Perfection
And they want to let this instrument die. Shame on all of those morons who are not willing to take a risk to ensure such an important scientific tool is not maintained. Shame on you.
Hubble photo's
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Lucky13
Forum Mascot
*speechless*
- Thread starter
- #23
syscom3
Pacific Historian
Stellar fireworks are ablaze in galaxy, Hubble shows
HUBBLE ESA INFORMATION CENTRE NEWS RELEASE
Posted: July 9, 2007
Nearly 12.5 million light-years away in the dwarf galaxy NGC 4449 a veritable stellar "fireworks" is on display - here shown in exquisite detail through the eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Hundreds of thousands of vibrant blue and red stars are visible in this new image of galaxy NGC 4449 taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Hot bluish white clusters of massive stars are scattered throughout the galaxy, interspersed with numerous dustier reddish regions of current star formation. Massive dark clouds of gas and dust are silhouetted against the flaming starlight.
NGC 4449 has been forming stars since several billion years ago, but currently it is experiencing a star formation event at a much higher rate than in the past. This unusual explosive and intense star formation activity qualifies as a starburst. At the current rate, the gas supply that feeds the stellar production would only last for another billion years or so.
Starbursts usually occur in the central regions of galaxies, but NGC 4449 has a more widespread star formation activity, since the very youngest stars are observed both in the nucleus and in streams surrounding the galaxy.
A "global" starburst like NGC 4449 resembles primordial star forming galaxies which grew by merging with and accreting smaller stellar systems. Since NGC 4449 is close enough to be observed in great detail, it is the ideal laboratory for the investigation of what may have occurred during galactic formation and evolution in the early Universe.
It's likely that the current widespread starburst was triggered by interaction or merging with a smaller companion. NGC 4449 belongs to a group of galaxies in the constellation Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs. Astronomers think that NGC 4449's star formation has been influenced by interactions with several of its neighbours.
This image was taken in November 2005 by an international science team led by Alessandra Aloisi of European Space Agency (ESA)/the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore. Other team members include Francesca Annibali (STScI), Claus Leitherer (STScI), Jennifer Mack (STScI), Marco Sirianni (ESA/STScI), Monica Tosi (INAF-OAB), and Roeland van der Marel (STScI).
Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys observed the NGC 4449 in blue, visible, infrared, and Hydrogen-alpha light.
Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Stellar fireworks are ablaze in dwarf galaxy
HUBBLE ESA INFORMATION CENTRE NEWS RELEASE
Posted: July 9, 2007
Nearly 12.5 million light-years away in the dwarf galaxy NGC 4449 a veritable stellar "fireworks" is on display - here shown in exquisite detail through the eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Hundreds of thousands of vibrant blue and red stars are visible in this new image of galaxy NGC 4449 taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Hot bluish white clusters of massive stars are scattered throughout the galaxy, interspersed with numerous dustier reddish regions of current star formation. Massive dark clouds of gas and dust are silhouetted against the flaming starlight.
NGC 4449 has been forming stars since several billion years ago, but currently it is experiencing a star formation event at a much higher rate than in the past. This unusual explosive and intense star formation activity qualifies as a starburst. At the current rate, the gas supply that feeds the stellar production would only last for another billion years or so.
Starbursts usually occur in the central regions of galaxies, but NGC 4449 has a more widespread star formation activity, since the very youngest stars are observed both in the nucleus and in streams surrounding the galaxy.
A "global" starburst like NGC 4449 resembles primordial star forming galaxies which grew by merging with and accreting smaller stellar systems. Since NGC 4449 is close enough to be observed in great detail, it is the ideal laboratory for the investigation of what may have occurred during galactic formation and evolution in the early Universe.
It's likely that the current widespread starburst was triggered by interaction or merging with a smaller companion. NGC 4449 belongs to a group of galaxies in the constellation Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs. Astronomers think that NGC 4449's star formation has been influenced by interactions with several of its neighbours.
This image was taken in November 2005 by an international science team led by Alessandra Aloisi of European Space Agency (ESA)/the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore. Other team members include Francesca Annibali (STScI), Claus Leitherer (STScI), Jennifer Mack (STScI), Marco Sirianni (ESA/STScI), Monica Tosi (INAF-OAB), and Roeland van der Marel (STScI).
Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys observed the NGC 4449 in blue, visible, infrared, and Hydrogen-alpha light.
Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Stellar fireworks are ablaze in dwarf galaxy
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Lucky13
Forum Mascot
Sombrero Galaxy....
Whirlpool Galaxy....
Lucky13
Forum Mascot
I just thought that this might be interesting....
SKY-MAP.ORG
SKY-MAP.ORG
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- #26
syscom3
Pacific Historian
Todays amazing Hubble picture:
Finding blue blobs in space sounds like an encounter with an alien out of a science fiction movie.
But the Hubble Space Telescope's powerful vision has resolved strange objects nicknamed "blobs"
and found them to be brilliant blue clusters of stars born in the swirls and eddies of a galactic
smashup 200 million years ago.
The findings are being reported by Duilia de Mello of the Catholic University of America, Washington,
D.C. and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. and her colleagues at the 211th meeting
of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
Such "blue blobs"-weighing tens of thousands of solar masses-have never been seen in detail
before in such sparse locations, say researchers. They are more massive than most open clusters
found inside galaxies but a fraction of the mass of globular star clusters that orbit a galaxy.
Because the orphan stars don't belong to any particular galaxy, the heavier elements produced in
their fusion furnaces may easily be expelled back into intergalactic space. This may offer clues as
to how the early universe was "polluted" with heavier elements early in its history, say researchers.
The mystery is that the "blue blobs" are found along a wispy bridge of gas strung among three
colliding galaxies, M81, M82, and NGC 3077, residing approximately 12 million light-years from
Earth. This is not the place astronomers expect to find star clusters: in the "abyssal plain" of
intergalactic space. "We could not believe it, the stars were in the middle of nowhere," says de Mello.
The "blue blobs" are clumped together in a structure called Arp's Loop, along the tenuous gas
bridge. The gas filaments were considered too thin to accumulate enough material to actually
build these many stars, says de Mello. But Hubble reveals the "blue blobs" contain the equivalent
of five Orion Nebulae.
After finding that these "blobs" were resolved into stars, the team used the Hubble image to
measure an age for the clusters of less than 200 million years with many stars as young and
even younger than 10 million years. Not coincidentally, 200 million years is the estimated age of
the galactic collision that created the tidal gas streamers, pulled between the galaxies like taffy.
De Mello and her team propose that the star clusters in this diffuse structure might have formed
from gas collisions and subsequent turbulence, which enhanced locally the density of the gas
streams. Galaxy collisions were much more frequent in the early universe, so "blue blobs" should
have been common. After the stars burned out or exploded, the heavier elements forged in their
nuclear furnaces would have been ejected to enrich intergalactic space.
Radio observations with the Very Large Array of radio telescopes in Socorro, New Mexico, gave a
detailed map of the intergalactic bridge that revealed knots of denser gas. Studies with the 3.5-meter
WIYN telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona mapped the optical light glow of hydrogen along the
bridge. Observations with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) ultraviolet space telescope
revealed an ultraviolet glow at the knots, and that earned them the nickname "blue blobs."
But GALEX did not have the resolution to see individual stars or clusters. Only Hubble's Advanced
Camera for Surveys at last revealed the point sources of the ultraviolet radiation.
Finding blue blobs in space sounds like an encounter with an alien out of a science fiction movie.
But the Hubble Space Telescope's powerful vision has resolved strange objects nicknamed "blobs"
and found them to be brilliant blue clusters of stars born in the swirls and eddies of a galactic
smashup 200 million years ago.
The findings are being reported by Duilia de Mello of the Catholic University of America, Washington,
D.C. and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. and her colleagues at the 211th meeting
of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
Such "blue blobs"-weighing tens of thousands of solar masses-have never been seen in detail
before in such sparse locations, say researchers. They are more massive than most open clusters
found inside galaxies but a fraction of the mass of globular star clusters that orbit a galaxy.
Because the orphan stars don't belong to any particular galaxy, the heavier elements produced in
their fusion furnaces may easily be expelled back into intergalactic space. This may offer clues as
to how the early universe was "polluted" with heavier elements early in its history, say researchers.
The mystery is that the "blue blobs" are found along a wispy bridge of gas strung among three
colliding galaxies, M81, M82, and NGC 3077, residing approximately 12 million light-years from
Earth. This is not the place astronomers expect to find star clusters: in the "abyssal plain" of
intergalactic space. "We could not believe it, the stars were in the middle of nowhere," says de Mello.
The "blue blobs" are clumped together in a structure called Arp's Loop, along the tenuous gas
bridge. The gas filaments were considered too thin to accumulate enough material to actually
build these many stars, says de Mello. But Hubble reveals the "blue blobs" contain the equivalent
of five Orion Nebulae.
After finding that these "blobs" were resolved into stars, the team used the Hubble image to
measure an age for the clusters of less than 200 million years with many stars as young and
even younger than 10 million years. Not coincidentally, 200 million years is the estimated age of
the galactic collision that created the tidal gas streamers, pulled between the galaxies like taffy.
De Mello and her team propose that the star clusters in this diffuse structure might have formed
from gas collisions and subsequent turbulence, which enhanced locally the density of the gas
streams. Galaxy collisions were much more frequent in the early universe, so "blue blobs" should
have been common. After the stars burned out or exploded, the heavier elements forged in their
nuclear furnaces would have been ejected to enrich intergalactic space.
Radio observations with the Very Large Array of radio telescopes in Socorro, New Mexico, gave a
detailed map of the intergalactic bridge that revealed knots of denser gas. Studies with the 3.5-meter
WIYN telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona mapped the optical light glow of hydrogen along the
bridge. Observations with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) ultraviolet space telescope
revealed an ultraviolet glow at the knots, and that earned them the nickname "blue blobs."
But GALEX did not have the resolution to see individual stars or clusters. Only Hubble's Advanced
Camera for Surveys at last revealed the point sources of the ultraviolet radiation.
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Konigstiger205
Staff Sergeant
Too bad we won't be around when mankind will explore these things....so much to explore and to find out...
Lucky13
Forum Mascot
You may not be fellas, I intend to live forever....
- Thread starter
- #29
syscom3
Pacific Historian
You may not be fellas, I intend to live forever....
Your words on this forum will allow to you live in "spirit" forever
Matt308
Glock Perfection
Did you guys read about the latest optical telescope that is being built that is about 150ft across. It is made up of mirrored components each controlled individually to properly align as a single collection lens and manipulated by computer feedback to minimize vibrations. I want to say it was being built someplace in Europe. It is supposed to have 10 times the resolution of Hubble from a terrestrial telescope. The design itself was a marvel.
- Thread starter
- #31
syscom3
Pacific Historian
Is it going to the observatory in Chili? Perhaps Hawaii?
Matt308
Glock Perfection
No. Dang it, I wish I could remember. I read it in Popular Science I think. I'll look.
Matt308
Glock Perfection
Scrapyard Ape
Airman
Typical of PS.... no information on where, when, or even IF it will be built.
Matt308
Glock Perfection
That's because it is not the full article. 
I admit there is alot of BS in that mag. Here is some more from the actual article.
Built by European Southern Observatory. Site to be chosen by late 2008 (southern hemisphere). Contstruction starts 2010. Fully operational 2017. $81.3M in design and $1.1B in construction. Who knows, perhaps someone's pipe dream or an overzealous contractor chasing European gov't funds. Note that they have been given 57M euro.
The European ELT
I admit there is alot of BS in that mag. Here is some more from the actual article.
Built by European Southern Observatory. Site to be chosen by late 2008 (southern hemisphere). Contstruction starts 2010. Fully operational 2017. $81.3M in design and $1.1B in construction. Who knows, perhaps someone's pipe dream or an overzealous contractor chasing European gov't funds. Note that they have been given 57M euro.
The European ELT
Lucky13
Forum Mascot
Any news how things are going with Hubble's successor the James Webb Space Telescope, which is supposedly going to see objects 400 times fainter than those visible with Earth-based telescopes—potentially snagging a peek at objects 15 billion light-years away and compared to the Hubble which can "only" see objects 60 times fainter than those visible with Earth-based telescopes.
- Thread starter
- #37
syscom3
Pacific Historian
Lucky13
Forum Mascot
Cheers Sys, appreciated! 
- Thread starter
- #39
syscom3
Pacific Historian
NGC 6302
Butterfly Emerges from Stellar Demise in Planetary Nebula NGC 6302
This celestial object looks like a delicate butterfly. But it is far from serene.
What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour -- fast enough to travel from Earth to the moon in 24 minutes!
A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the center of this fury. It has ejected its envelope of gases and is now unleashing a stream of ultraviolet radiation that is making the cast-off material glow. This object is an example of a planetary nebula, so-named because many of them have a round appearance resembling that of a planet when viewed through a small telescope.
The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), a new camera aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, snapped this image of the planetary nebula, catalogued as NGC 6302, but more popularly called the Bug Nebula or the Butterfly Nebula. WFC3 was installed by NASA astronauts in May 2009, during the servicing mission to upgrade and repair the 19-year-old Hubble telescope.
NGC 6302 lies within our Milky Way galaxy, roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The glowing gas is the star's outer layers, expelled over about 2,200 years. The "butterfly" stretches for more than two light-years, which is about half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.
The central star itself cannot be seen, because it is hidden within a doughnut-shaped ring of dust, which appears as a dark band pinching the nebula in the center. The thick dust belt constricts the star's outflow, creating the classic "bipolar" or hourglass shape displayed by some planetary nebulae.
The star's surface temperature is estimated to be about 400,000 degrees Fahrenheit, making it one of the hottest known stars in our galaxy. Spectroscopic observations made with ground-based telescopes show that the gas is roughly 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is unusually hot compared to a typical planetary nebulae.
The WFC3 image reveals a complex history of ejections from the star. The star first evolved into a huge red-giant star, with a diameter of about 1,000 times that of our Sun. It then lost its extended outer layers. Some of this gas was cast off from its equator at a relatively slow speed, perhaps as low as 20,000 miles an hour, creating the doughnut-shaped ring. Other gas was ejected perpendicular to the ring at higher speeds, producing the elongated "wings" of the butterfly-shaped structure. Later, as the central star heated up, a much faster stellar wind, a stream of charged particles travelling at more than 2 million miles an hour, plowed through the existing wing-shaped structure, further modifying its shape.
The image also shows numerous finger-like projections pointing back to the star, which may mark denser blobs in the outflow that have resisted the pressure from the stellar wind.
The nebula's outer edges are largely due to light emitted by nitrogen, which marks the coolest gas visible in the picture. WFC3 is equipped with a wide variety of filters that isolate light emitted by various chemical elements, allowing astronomers to infer properties of the nebular gas, such as its temperature, density, and composition.
The white-colored regions are areas where light is emitted by sulfur. These are regions where fast-moving gas overtakes and collides with slow-moving gas that left the star at an earlier time, producing shock waves in the gas (the bright white edges on the sides facing the central star). The white blob with the crisp edge at upper right is an example of one of those shock waves.
NGC 6302 was imaged on July 27, 2009 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in ultraviolet and visible light. Filters that isolate emissions from oxygen, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur from the planetary nebula were use
Butterfly Emerges from Stellar Demise in Planetary Nebula NGC 6302
This celestial object looks like a delicate butterfly. But it is far from serene.
What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour -- fast enough to travel from Earth to the moon in 24 minutes!
A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the center of this fury. It has ejected its envelope of gases and is now unleashing a stream of ultraviolet radiation that is making the cast-off material glow. This object is an example of a planetary nebula, so-named because many of them have a round appearance resembling that of a planet when viewed through a small telescope.
The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), a new camera aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, snapped this image of the planetary nebula, catalogued as NGC 6302, but more popularly called the Bug Nebula or the Butterfly Nebula. WFC3 was installed by NASA astronauts in May 2009, during the servicing mission to upgrade and repair the 19-year-old Hubble telescope.
NGC 6302 lies within our Milky Way galaxy, roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The glowing gas is the star's outer layers, expelled over about 2,200 years. The "butterfly" stretches for more than two light-years, which is about half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.
The central star itself cannot be seen, because it is hidden within a doughnut-shaped ring of dust, which appears as a dark band pinching the nebula in the center. The thick dust belt constricts the star's outflow, creating the classic "bipolar" or hourglass shape displayed by some planetary nebulae.
The star's surface temperature is estimated to be about 400,000 degrees Fahrenheit, making it one of the hottest known stars in our galaxy. Spectroscopic observations made with ground-based telescopes show that the gas is roughly 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is unusually hot compared to a typical planetary nebulae.
The WFC3 image reveals a complex history of ejections from the star. The star first evolved into a huge red-giant star, with a diameter of about 1,000 times that of our Sun. It then lost its extended outer layers. Some of this gas was cast off from its equator at a relatively slow speed, perhaps as low as 20,000 miles an hour, creating the doughnut-shaped ring. Other gas was ejected perpendicular to the ring at higher speeds, producing the elongated "wings" of the butterfly-shaped structure. Later, as the central star heated up, a much faster stellar wind, a stream of charged particles travelling at more than 2 million miles an hour, plowed through the existing wing-shaped structure, further modifying its shape.
The image also shows numerous finger-like projections pointing back to the star, which may mark denser blobs in the outflow that have resisted the pressure from the stellar wind.
The nebula's outer edges are largely due to light emitted by nitrogen, which marks the coolest gas visible in the picture. WFC3 is equipped with a wide variety of filters that isolate light emitted by various chemical elements, allowing astronomers to infer properties of the nebular gas, such as its temperature, density, and composition.
The white-colored regions are areas where light is emitted by sulfur. These are regions where fast-moving gas overtakes and collides with slow-moving gas that left the star at an earlier time, producing shock waves in the gas (the bright white edges on the sides facing the central star). The white blob with the crisp edge at upper right is an example of one of those shock waves.
NGC 6302 was imaged on July 27, 2009 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in ultraviolet and visible light. Filters that isolate emissions from oxygen, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur from the planetary nebula were use
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vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
WOW!
