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Stellar Fireworks Are Ablaze in Galaxy NGC 4449
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By NASA
4 min read
NASA, JAXA XRISM Mission Looks Deeply Into ‘Hidden’ Stellar System
The Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory has captured the most detailed portrait yet of gases flowing within Cygnus X-3, one of the most studied sources in the X-ray sky.
Cygnus X-3 is a binary that pairs a rare type of high-mass star with a compact companion — likely a black hole.
Cygnus X-3 is a high-mass binary consisting of a compact object (likely a black hole) and a hot Wolf-Rayet star. This artist’s concept shows one interpretation of the system. High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy indicates two gas components: a heavy background outflow, or wind, emanating from the massive star and a turbulent structure — perhaps a wake carved into the wind — located close to the orbiting companion. As shown here, a black hole’s gravity captures some of the wind into an accretion disk around it, and the disk’s orbital motion sculpts a path (yellow arc) through the streaming gas. During strong outbursts, the companion emits jets of particles moving near the speed of light, seen here extending above and below the black hole. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center “The nature of the massive star is one factor that makes Cygnus X-3 so intriguing,” said Ralf Ballhausen, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Maryland, College Park, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s a Wolf-Rayet star, a type that has evolved to the point where strong outflows called stellar winds strip gas from the star’s surface and drive it outward. The compact object sweeps up and heats some of this gas, causing it to emit X-rays.”
A paper describing the findings, led by Ballhausen, will appear in a future edition of The Astrophysical Journal.
“For XRISM, Cygnus X-3 is a Goldilocks target — its brightness is ‘just right’ in the energy range where XRISM is especially sensitive,” said co-author Timothy Kallman, an astrophysicist at NASA Goddard. “This unusual source has been studied by every X-ray satellite ever flown, so observing it is a kind of rite of passage for new X-ray missions.”
XRISM (pronounced “crism”) is led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA, along with contributions from ESA (European Space Agency). NASA and JAXA developed the mission’s microcalorimeter spectrometer instrument, named Resolve.
Observing Cygnus X-3 for 18 hours in late March, Resolve acquired a high-resolution spectrum that allows astronomers to better understand the complex gas dynamics operating there. These include outflowing gas produced by a hot, massive star, its interaction with the compact companion, and a turbulent region that may represent a wake produced by the companion as it orbits through the outrushing gas.
XRISM’s Resolve instrument has captured the most detailed X-ray spectrum yet acquired of Cygnus X-3. Peaks indicate X-rays emitted by ionized gases, and valleys form where the gases absorb X-rays; many lines are also shifted to both higher and lower energies by gas motions. Top: The full Resolve spectrum, from 2 to 8 keV (kiloelectron volts), tracks X-rays with thousands of times the energy of visible light. Some lines are labeled with the names of the elements that produced them, such as sulfur, argon, and calcium, along with Roman numerals that refer to the number of electrons these atoms have lost. Bottom: A zoom into a region of the spectrum often dominated by features produced by transitions in the innermost electron shell (K shell) of iron atoms. These features form when the atoms interact with high-energy X-rays or electrons and respond by emitting a photon at energies between 6.4 and 7 keV. These details, clearly visible for the first time with XRISM’s Resolve instrument, will help astronomers refine their understanding of this unusual system. JAXA/NASA/XRISM Collaboration In Cygnus X-3, the star and compact object are so close they complete an orbit in just 4.8 hours. The binary is thought to lie about 32,000 light-years away in the direction of the northern constellation Cygnus.
While thick dust clouds in our galaxy’s central plane obscure any visible light from Cygnus X-3, the binary has been studied in radio, infrared, and gamma-ray light, as well as in X-rays.
The system is immersed in the star’s streaming gas, which is illuminated and ionized by X-rays from the compact companion. The gas both emits and absorbs X-rays, and many of the spectrum’s prominent peaks and valleys incorporate both aspects. Yet a simple attempt at understanding the spectrum comes up short because some of the features appear to be in the wrong place.
That’s because the rapid motion of the gas displaces these features from their normal laboratory energies due to the Doppler effect. Absorption valleys typically shift up to higher energies, indicating gas moving toward us at speeds of up to 930,000 mph (1.5 million kph). Emission peaks shift down to lower energies, indicating gas moving away from us at slower speeds.
Some spectral features displayed much stronger absorption valleys than emission peaks. The reason for this imbalance, the team concludes, is that the dynamics of the stellar wind allow the moving gas to absorb a broader range of X-ray energies emitted by the companion. The detail of the XRISM spectrum, particularly at higher energies rich in features produced by ionized iron atoms, allowed the scientists to disentangle these effects.
“A key to acquiring this detail was XRISM’s ability to monitor the system over the course of several orbits,” said Brian Williams, NASA’s project scientist for the mission at Goddard. “There’s much more to explore in this spectrum, and ultimately we hope it will help us determine if Cygnus X-3’s compact object is indeed a black hole.”
XRISM is a collaborative mission between JAXA and NASA, with participation by ESA. NASA’s contribution includes science participation from CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
Download additional images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
By Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Nov 25, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
5 Min Read Hats Off to NASA’s Webb: Sombrero Galaxy Dazzles in New Image
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring. Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI In a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a galaxy named for its resemblance to a broad-brimmed Mexican hat appears more like an archery target.
In Webb’s mid-infrared view of the Sombrero galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104), the signature, glowing core seen in visible-light images does not shine, and instead a smooth inner disk is revealed. The sharp resolution of Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) also brings into focus details of the galaxy’s outer ring, providing insights into how the dust, an essential building block for astronomical objects in the universe, is distributed. The galaxy’s outer ring, which appeared smooth like a blanket in imaging from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, shows intricate clumps in the infrared for the first time.
Image A: Sombrero Galaxy (MIRI Image)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring. This image includes filters representing 7.7-micron light as blue, 11.3-micron light as green, and 12.8-micron light as red. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Image B: Sombrero Galaxy (Hubble and Webb Image)
Image Before/After Researchers say the clumpy nature of the dust, where MIRI detects carbon-containing molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, can indicate the presence of young star-forming regions. However, unlike some galaxies studied with Webb, including Messier 82, where 10 times as many stars are born than the Milky Way galaxy, the Sombrero galaxy is not a particular hotbed of star formation. The rings of the Sombrero galaxy produce less than one solar mass of stars per year, in comparison to the Milky Way’s roughly two solar masses a year.
Even the supermassive black hole, also known as an active galactic nucleus, at the center of the Sombrero galaxy is rather docile, even at a hefty 9-billion-solar masses. It’s classified as a low luminosity active galactic nucleus, slowly snacking on infalling material from the galaxy, while sending off a bright, relatively small, jet.
Also within the Sombrero galaxy dwell some 2,000 globular clusters, collections of hundreds of thousands of old stars held together by gravity. This type of system serves as a pseudo laboratory for astronomers to study stars — thousands of stars within one system with the same age, but varying masses and other properties is an intriguing opportunity for comparison studies.
In the MIRI image, galaxies of varying shapes and colors litter the background of space. The different colors of these background galaxies can tell astronomers about their properties, including how far away they are.
The Sombrero galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
Video: Sombrero Galaxy Fade (Spitzer, Webb, Hubble)
A Bright Future Ahead
Stunning images like this, and an array of discoveries in the study of exoplanets, galaxies through time, star formation, and our own solar system, are still just the beginning. Recently, scientists from all over the world applied for observation time with Webb during its fourth year of science operations, which begins in July 2025.
General Observer time with Webb is more competitive than ever. A record-breaking 2,377 proposals were submitted by the Oct. 15, 2024, deadline, requesting about 78,000 hours of observation time. This is an oversubscription rate, the ratio defining the observation hours requested versus the actual time available in one year of Webb’s operations, of around 9 to 1.
The proposals cover a wide array of science topics, with distant galaxies being among the most requested observation time, followed by exoplanet atmospheres, stars and stellar populations, then exoplanet systems.
The Space Telescope Science Institute manages the proposal and program selection process for NASA. The submissions will now be evaluated by a Telescope Allocation Committee, a group of hundreds of members of the worldwide astronomical community, on a dual-anonymous basis, with selections announced in March 2025.
While time on Webb is limited, data from all of Webb’s programs is publicly archived, immediately after it’s taken, or after a time of exclusive access, in the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) so it can be used by anyone in the world.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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Hubble easily resolves some of the Sombrero galaxy’s roughly 2,000 globular clusters.
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Last Updated Nov 25, 2024 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
A new mid-infrared image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features the Sombrero galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104). The signature, glowing core seen in visible-light images does not shine, and instead a smooth inner disk is revealed. The sharp resolution of Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) also brings into focus details of the galaxy’s outer ring, providing insights into how the dust, an essential building block for astronomical objects in the Universe, is distributed. The galaxy’s outer ring shows intricate clumps in the infrared for the first time.
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This artist’s concept shows a closeup of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is one of the Milky Way galaxy’s nearest neighbors. Credits:
NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) A story of survival is unfolding at the outer reaches of our galaxy, and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is witnessing the saga.
The Large Magellanic Cloud, also called the LMC, is one of the Milky Way galaxy’s nearest neighbors. This dwarf galaxy looms large on the southern nighttime sky at 20 times the apparent diameter of the full Moon.
Many researchers theorize that the LMC is not in orbit around our galaxy, but is just passing by. These scientists think that the LMC has just completed its closest approach to the much more massive Milky Way. This passage has blown away most of the spherical halo of gas that surrounds the LMC.
Now, for the first time, astronomers been able to measure the size of the LMC’s halo – something they could do only with Hubble. In a new study to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers were surprised to find that it is so extremely small, about 50,000 light-years across. That’s around 10 times smaller than halos of other galaxies that are the LMC’s mass. Its compactness tells the story of its encounter with the Milky Way.
“The LMC is a survivor,” said Andrew Fox of AURA/STScI for the European Space Agency in Baltimore, who was principal investigator on the observations. “Even though it’s lost a lot of its gas, it’s got enough left to keep forming new stars. So new star-forming regions can still be created. A smaller galaxy wouldn’t have lasted – there would be no gas left, just a collection of aging red stars.”
This artist’s concept shows the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC, in the foreground as it passes through the gaseous halo of the much more massive Milky Way galaxy. The encounter has blown away most of the spherical halo of gas that surrounds the LMC, as illustrated by the trailing gas stream reminiscent of a comet’s tail. Still, a compact halo remains, and scientists do not expect this residual halo to be lost. The team surveyed the halo by using the background light of 28 quasars, an exceptionally bright type of active galactic nucleus that shines across the universe like a lighthouse beacon. Their light allows scientists to “see” the intervening halo gas indirectly through the absorption of the background light. The lines represent the Hubble Space Telescope’s view from its orbit around Earth to the distant quasars through the LMC’s gas. NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
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Though quite a bit worse for wear, the LMC still retains a compact, stubby halo of gas – something that it wouldn’t have been able to hold onto gravitationally had it been less massive. The LMC is 10 percent the mass of the Milky Way, making it heftier than most dwarf galaxies.
“Because of the Milky Way’s own giant halo, the LMC’s gas is getting truncated, or quenched,” explained STScI’s Sapna Mishra, the lead author on the paper chronicling this discovery. “But even with this catastrophic interaction with the Milky Way, the LMC is able to retain 10 percent of its halo because of its high mass.”
A Gigantic Hair Dryer
Most of the LMC’s halo was blown away due to a phenomenon called ram-pressure stripping. The dense environment of the Milky Way pushes back against the incoming LMC and creates a wake of gas trailing the dwarf galaxy – like the tail of a comet.
“I like to think of the Milky Way as this giant hairdryer, and it’s blowing gas off the LMC as it comes into us,” said Fox. “The Milky Way is pushing back so forcefully that the ram pressure has stripped off most of the original mass of the LMC’s halo. There’s only a little bit left, and it’s this small, compact leftover that we’re seeing now.”
As the ram pressure pushes away much of the LMC’s halo, the gas slows down and eventually will rain into the Milky Way. But because the LMC has just gotten past its closest approach to the Milky Way and is moving outward into deep space again, scientists do not expect the whole halo will be lost.
Only with Hubble
To conduct this study, the research team analyzed ultraviolet observations from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at STScI. Most ultraviolet light is blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere, so it cannot be observed with ground-based telescopes. Hubble is the only current space telescope tuned to detect these wavelengths of light, so this study was only possible with Hubble.
The team surveyed the halo by using the background light of 28 bright quasars. The brightest type of active galactic nucleus, quasars are believed to be powered by supermassive black holes. Shining like lighthouse beacons, they allow scientists to “see” the intervening halo gas indirectly through the absorption of the background light. Quasars reside throughout the universe at extreme distances from our galaxy.
This artist’s concept illustrates the Large Magellanic Cloud’s (LMC’s) encounter with the Milky Way galaxy’s gaseous halo. In the top panel, at the middle of the right side, the LMC begins crashing through our galaxy’s much more massive halo. The bright purple bow shock represents the leading edge of the LMC’s halo, which is being compressed as the Milky Way’s halo pushes back against the incoming LMC. In the middle panel, part of the halo is being stripped and blown back into a streaming tail of gas that eventually will rain into the Milky Way. The bottom panel shows the progression of this interaction, as the LMC’s comet-like tail becomes more defined. A compact LMC halo remains. Because the LMC is just past its closest approach to the Milky Way and is moving outward into deep space again, scientists do not expect the residual halo will be lost. NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
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The scientists used data from Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) to detect the presence of the halo’s gas by the way it absorbs certain colors of light from background quasars. A spectrograph breaks light into its component wavelengths to reveal clues to the object’s state, temperature, speed, quantity, distance, and composition. With COS, they measured the velocity of the gas around the LMC, which allowed them to determine the size of the halo.
Because of its mass and proximity to the Milky Way, the LMC is a unique astrophysics laboratory. Seeing the LMC’s interplay with our galaxy helps scientists understand what happened in the early universe, when galaxies were closer together. It also shows just how messy and complicated the process of galaxy interaction is.
Looking to the Future
The team will next study the front side of the LMC’s halo, an area that has not yet been explored.
“In this new program, we are going to probe five sightlines in the region where the LMC’s halo and the Milky Way’s halo are colliding,” said co-author Scott Lucchini of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. “This is the location where the halos are compressed, like two balloons pushing against each other.”
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
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Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
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Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Fox, L. Jenkins, S. Van Dyk, A. Filippenko, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, D. de Martin (ESA/Hubble), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble) This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features NGC 1672, a barred spiral galaxy located 49 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Dorado. This galaxy is a multi-talented light show, showing off an impressive array of different celestial lights. Like any spiral galaxy, shining stars fill its disk, giving the galaxy a beautiful glow. Along its two large arms, bubbles of hydrogen gas shine in a striking red light fueled by radiation from infant stars shrouded within. Near the galaxy’s center are some particularly spectacular stars embedded within a ring of hot gas. These newly formed and extremely hot stars emit powerful X-rays. Closer in, at the galaxy’s very center, sits an even brighter source of X-rays, an active galactic nucleus. This X-ray powerhouse makes NGC 1672 a Seyfert galaxy. It forms as a result of heated matter swirling in the accretion disk around NGC 1672’s supermassive black hole.
See more images of NGC 1672.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Fox, L. Jenkins, S. Van Dyk, A. Filippenko, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, D. de Martin (ESA/Hubble), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)
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