Astronomy and Stars
Discussions about astronomy and stars. As we look further out what can we find in the universe beyond Earth's atmosphere?
2,173 topics in this forum
-
- 0 replies
- 669 views
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has discovered a new population of exceptionally bright and young star clusters at the heart of a head-on collision between two galaxies. The orbiting telescope also discovered a rotating, pinwheel-shaped disk at the center of the collision. In the Hubble photo, the disk resembles a full spiral galaxy, seen face on. Yet the disk is only ten thousand light-years across, about 1/20 the diameter of the whole galaxy. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 763 views
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has provided astronomers with their clearest look yet at a vast cloud of gas being heated by the birth of a new star. Called Herbig-Haro object #2 (HH-2), the cloud is heated by shock waves from jets of high speed gas being ejected from a newborn star. Because the star itself is embedded in a dusty cocoon, HH-2 provides the only visible clues to physical processes occurring in the young star. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 662 views
Citing "teamwork and dedication in the development of the world's largest star catalog to be used in pointing the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)", NASA has given its Public Service Group Achievement Award to The Guide Star Catalog Group at Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Dr. Barry Lasker, Chief of the Catalogs and Surveys Branch, accepted this award on behalf of the group in a ceremony at Goddard Space Flight Center on March 30. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 687 views
Dr. Riccardo Giacconi, former Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), has been awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal for his outstanding leadership in development of the STScI. The medal is awarded annually to individuals whose distinguished accomplishments contributed significantly to the NASA mission. It is the highest honor that NASA confers on a non-government individual. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 672 views
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has selected 15 new scientists for the Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The awardees were selected from a pool of 134 applications from highly-qualified candidates worldwide. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 588 views
Astronomers announced today the discovery of a double nucleus in the active galaxy Markarian 315. The discovery was made from images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The findings may solve a decade-old mystery about the nature of a jet-like feature in Markarian 315, a so-called Seyfert galaxy, and appear to confirm one mechanism for producing an active galactic nucleus. (Seyfert galaxies are spiral galaxies with very bright nuclei that may be powered by massive black holes that are accreting matter.) View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 704 views
This is an image of a small portion of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1991. The Cygnus Loop marks the edge of a bubble-like, expanding blast wave from a colossal stellar explosion which occurred about 15,000 years ago. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 705 views
Astronomer Laura Danly of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has taken a major step in solving a 3 year old mystery by measuring, for the first time, the distance to a high-velocity cloud of cool hydrogen gas. The results show conclusively that the cloud, and presumably others like it, dwell in the "halo" of our Milky Way Galaxy, rather than being between galaxies or in our own stellar neighborhood. (The halo is a spherical region surrounding the spiral disk of our galaxy). View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 819 views
This is a NASA Hubble Space Telescope picture of a recently-formed "planetary nebula," known as Hen 1357. This expanding cloud of gas was ejected from the aging star in the center. Much of the gas is concentrated in a ring which appears tilted 35 degrees. Besides the big clumps in the ring, HST's detailed images reveal many smaller clumps and wisps of gas, indicating turbulent motions and other activity in the nebula. Two bubbles of gas seen above and below the ring have burst open at their ends, allowing gas from inside to escape. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 695 views
Astronomer John S. Mulchaey, of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and fellow team members announced today the discovery of a huge concentration of mysterious "dark matter" with the ROSAT X-ray observatory satellite. ROSAT is an acronym for Roentgen Satellite, a joint project of Germany, NASA, and the U.K.) View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Discovers Protoplanetary Disks Around Newly Formed Stars
by HubbleSite- 0 replies
- 609 views
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered the strongest evidence yet that many stars form planetary systems. Dr. C. Robert O'Dell of Rice University, Houston, Texas and colleagues have used Hubble to discover extended disks of dust around 15 newly formed stars in the Orion Nebula, a starbirth region 1,500 light-years away. Such disks are a prerequisite for the formation of solar Systems like our own. "These images provide the best evidence for planetary systems," said O'Dell. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
Looking far away and far back in time, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has found some suspected ancestors of today's galaxies. The Hubble pictures reveal that star-forming galaxies were far more prevalent in the clusters of the younger universe than in modern clusters of galaxies near us today. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 642 views
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have gotten their best look yet at the disk of material that surrounds and is being pulled into a suspected black hole. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 651 views
Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope an international team of astronomers Is uncovering intriguing new details about the most distant galaxy known, located more than ten billion light-years away. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 634 views
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has photographed a striking mirror-image of a very distant galaxy. The observations might unlock the secrets of the dark matter mystery which has puzzled astronomers for decades. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 674 views
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is allowing several teams of astronomers to explore Io [EYE-oh] at a level of detail not possible since a pair of Voyager spacecraft flew by the small moon 13 years ago. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 667 views
Six amateur astronomers will have a rare opportunity to use NASA'S Hubble Space Telescope to conduct original research. Officials at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) announced today that the observations were chosen from proposals submitted by amateur astronomers across the nation. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 733 views
Patricia A. Parker, Head of the Operations Division at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, has received a 1992 Goddard Exceptional Achievement Award for her "outstanding leadership and management in the execution and enhancement of the science operations of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 1.1k views
Observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have given a tantalizing glimpse of the time soon after galaxies formed, suggesting that these huge Systems of stars formed over a wider span of time than once believed. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 663 views
A "serendipitous" survey of the heavens with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is uncovering remote and unusual galaxies never before resolved by optical telescopes on Earth. HST reveals an unusual variety of shape and structure in these distant galaxies, which previously appeared as fuzzy blobs in ground-based sky surveys. These tantalizing early results may lead to a much clearer understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 637 views
Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST), an international team of astronomers has taken a major first step in redetermining the expansion rate of the universe. This rate, known as the Hubble Constant, is one of two critical numbers needed for making a precise determination of the size and age of the universe. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 595 views
This artist's illustration shows three steps in the merger of a pair of white dwarf stars. The illustration depicts how planets may form around massive white dwarfs and is based upon theoretical studies by astronomers Mario Livio, Jim Pringle, and Rex Saffer of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 636 views
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with what may be their first direct view of an immense ring of dust which fuels a massive black hole at the heart of the spiral galaxy M51, located 20 million light-years away. Surprisingly, they found that the ring is standing almost perpendicularly to the relatively flat spiral galaxy, like a top spinning on its side with respect to the floor. Even more surprising is the discovery of a secondary ring or dust lane which is contrary to all expectations. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 592 views
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has revealed a new class of object in the universe -- a grouping of gigantic star clusters produced by the collision of galaxies. Images of the core of the peculiar galaxy Arp 220 show that stars are produced at a furious rate from the dust and gas supplied by the interaction of two galaxies. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite, -
- 0 replies
- 596 views
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revealed an unusual and fascinating new optical jet in the nucleus of the elliptical galaxy NOC 3862. View the full article
Last reply by HubbleSite,