Infinity Cosmos

  NASA-supported researchers have conducted a groundbreaking study using simulations to delve into the origins of objects in the asteroid belt, shedding light on their formation and evolution. The study, detailed in The Planetary Science Journal, focuses on understanding the composition and distribution of S- and C-complex objects within the belt. The research team, led by Rogerio Deienno from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, utilized data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which extensively explored Vesta, the second most massive object in the asteroid belt after Ceres. Vesta, with a composition akin to S-complex objects, provides a key constraint for the simulations. The simulations revealed insights into the early dynamics of the asteroid belt, suggesting that its total mass during the solar system's formation was significantly lower than previously estimated. Specifically, the team found that if the initial mass of the asteroid belt had been larger, there wo...

  On February 3, NASA's Juno spacecraft, equipped with the JunoCam instrument, captured a striking image of two volcanic plumes ascending above the horizon of Jupiter’s moon Io. Taken from a distance of approximately 2,400 miles (3,800 kilometers), this snapshot offers a close-up view of the active geological processes shaping Io's rugged surface. Infrared imagery from NASA's Juno probe is shedding new light on Io, Jupiter's most volcanic moon. Recent discoveries reveal the extensive distribution of lava lakes across Io's surface, offering unprecedented insights into its volcanic activity. Juno's Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), provided by the Italian Space Agency, played a crucial role in capturing these findings by detecting infrared signatures. Published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment on June 20, the research marks a significant step forward in understanding the geological processes at work on Io. Io has fascinated astronomers since it...

  A visually striking collection of interstellar gas and dust is captured in this latest image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Named RCW 7, this nebula is located over 5,300 light-years away in the constellation Puppis. Nebulae, such as RCW 7, are rich in the raw materials needed to form new stars. Under the influence of gravity, parts of these molecular clouds collapse, coalescing into very young, developing stars known as protostars. These protostars remain surrounded by spinning discs of leftover gas and dust. In RCW 7, the forming protostars are particularly massive, emitting strong ionizing radiation and fierce stellar winds that transform the nebula into an H II region. H II regions are characterized by hydrogen ions; H I denotes a normal hydrogen atom, whereas H II is hydrogen that has lost its electron, becoming an ion. Ultraviolet radiation from the massive protostars excites the hydrogen in the nebula, causing it to emit light, resulting in the nebula's soft pin...

  NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has successfully resumed operations and captured its first new images after switching to an alternate operating mode that uses one gyroscope (gyro). The spacecraft returned to science operations on June 14, following several weeks offline due to an issue with one of its gyros, which are essential for controlling and orienting the telescope. The newly captured image showcases NGC 1546, a nearby galaxy located in the constellation Dorado. The galaxy’s orientation offers a striking view of its dust lanes, which are illuminated and backlit by the core of the galaxy. The dust absorbs light from the core, giving it a rusty-brown hue, while the core itself shines brightly with a yellowish light indicative of an older star population. Regions of active star formation, characterized by a brilliant blue color, are visible through the dust. Additionally, several background galaxies can be seen, including an edge-on spiral just to the left of NGC 1546. Hubble’s ...

  Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory through launch, Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) recently unveiled a significant discovery. Scientists were astonished when NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope focused on a group of young stars known as WL 20. Despite being studied since the 1970s with at least five other telescopes, it was Webb’s unparalleled resolution and specialized instruments that revealed WL 20S to be a binary star system, formed about 2 million to 4 million years ago. This discovery, using Webb's MIRI, was announced at the 244th meeting of the American Astronomical Society on June 12. MIRI not only identified the twin stars but also detected matching jets of gas streaming from their north and south poles. "Our jaws dropped," said Mary Barsony, lead author of the study. "We thought we knew this source well, but MIRI's capabilities showed us otherwise. It’s like having brand new eyes." Further observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter...

  This image by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) shows different structural details of the Crab Nebula. The supernova remnant comprises several components, including doubly ionized sulfur (green), warm dust (magenta), and synchrotron emission (blue). Yellow-white mottled filaments within the Crab’s interior represent areas where dust and doubly ionized sulfur coincide. The observations were taken as part of General Observer program 1714. A team of scientists utilized NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to investigate the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. By employing the telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), the team is shedding new light on the complex history of this celestial phenomenon. A Supernova from the Past. The Crab Nebula is the result of a core-collapse supernova, which marks the violent death of a massive s...

  This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the globular cluster NGC 2005. Located about 750 light-years from the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), this cluster provides unique insights into galaxy evolution and the history of our universe. The Hubble Space Telescope, a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), has captured a striking image of the globular cluster NGC 2005. Located approximately 750 light-years from the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), this cluster stands out due to its unique properties in comparison to its surrounding environment. The LMC itself is the Milky Way’s largest satellite galaxy, situated around 162,000 light-years from Earth. Globular clusters are densely packed collections of stars, often containing tens of thousands or even millions of stars. The intense gravitational forces within these clusters ensure their stability, allowing them to exist for billions of years. As such, they often consist of very ol...

  A NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of a region of the Great Nebula in Orion, one of the closest areas of recent star formation, offers a glimpse into cosmic creation. The nebula, a vast gas cloud 1,500 light-years away, is illuminated by young, hot stars. Many fainter stars are encircled by dust and gas disks, slightly over twice the Solar System's diameter. A plume of gas in the upper left reveals material ejected from a newly formed star. The image, taken on December 29, 1993, spans 1.6 light-years and uses color to depict emissions: red for Nitrogen, green for Hydrogen, and blue for Oxygen. In 1993 — Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have provided the most compelling evidence yet that planet formation is a common occurrence in our galaxy. A team led by Dr. C. Robert O'Dell of Rice University has uncovered clear indications that disks of dust, the essential material for planet formation, are present around many stars in the Orion Nebula, a prominent star-forming...

  Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, seen in this animation based on Voyager 1 and Hubble images, has swirled for hundreds of years, exemplifying how large-scale patterns and organization can arise from innumerable microscopic interactions. HA few centuries ago, the swirling polychromatic chaos of Jupiter’s atmosphere spawned the immense vortex that we call the Great Red Spot. From the frantic firing of billions of neurons in your brain comes your unique and coherent experience of reading these words. As pedestrians each try to weave their path on a crowded sidewalk, they begin to follow one another, forming streams that no one ordained or consciously chose. The world is full of such emergent phenomena: large-scale patterns and organization arising from innumerable interactions between component parts. And yet there is no agreed scientific theory to explain emergence. Loosely, the behavior of a complex system might be considered emergent if it can’t be predicted from the properties of the p...

  In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope captured a breathtaking image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4414, marking a significant achievement in the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale. This remarkable effort was spearheaded by Dr. Wendy Freedman from the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, along with an international team of astronomers who meticulously observed NGC 4414 over 13 different occasions spanning two months. The team utilized Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) to capture images through three distinct color filters. By studying these images and carefully measuring the brightness of variable stars within NGC 4414, the astronomers were able to accurately determine the galaxy's distance from Earth. Their findings revealed that NGC 4414 is situated 19.1 megaparsecs, or approximately 60 million light-years, away. This measurement, along with similar data from nearby galaxies, significantly enhances our understandi...

  The specks in this image are from charged particles of a solar storm hitting Curiosity's camera, as it captures dust devils and wind gusts on Mars. Curiosity's navigation camera captured black-and-white streaks and specks caused by energetic particles from a solar storm hitting the image detector. A recent extreme solar storm not only produced auroras but also provided insights into the radiation future astronauts might face on Mars. With the Sun entering a solar maximum earlier this year, Mars scientists have been expecting significant solar storms. Over the past month, NASA's Mars rovers and orbiters have observed a series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections, leading to Martian auroras. This has offered a unique opportunity to study these events in deep space and assess potential radiation exposure for astronauts. The most significant event occurred on May 20, with a solar flare estimated to be an X12 based on data from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. This flare se...

During the week of May 8 – 15, 2024, the active region AR13664 on the Sun unleashed numerous X-class and M-class flares, accompanied by Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) on May 8 and 9. This culminated in a significant geomagnetic storm on May 11, 2024. Aditya-L1's remote sensing payloads, SoLEXS and HEL1OS, captured these events on May 8-9, while the in-situ payloads, ASPEX and MAG, recorded them on May 10-11 as the spacecraft passed through L1. ISRO, along with Chandrayaan-2, XPoSat, and the USO-PRL ground-based facility, reported these observations. U nfortunately, Aditya-L1's Solar Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) and Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) were in baking and calibration modes respectively during May 10-11, but resumed observations on May 14 after completing their intended operations. Observations by Chandrayaan-2, XPoSat, and ground-based facilities supported these findings. SUIT Observations. SUIT (Solar Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope) captured images o...

  Westerlund 1, the largest and closest super star cluster to Earth, is offering astronomers a deeper understanding of star formation thanks to new data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The cluster, which lies about 13,000 light-years away, is a galactic powerhouse where stars are vigorously being produced. This revelation comes from the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open Clusters Survey (EWOCS), led by Italian astronomers. Chandra’s 12-day observation has tripled the known X-ray sources in the cluster, identifying nearly 6,000 sources, including many young stars and a halo of hot gas. Westerlund 1, aged between 3 and 5 million years, provides a unique laboratory for studying the impact of a super star cluster’s environment on star and planet formation. With a mass between 50,000 and 100,000 Suns, this cluster sheds light on an era when the Milky Way was bustling with star formation. The findings are detailed in a paper published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, with further stud...

  Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves play a crucial role in the dynamics of the solar atmosphere, particularly in the processes of wave propagation, energy transfer, and heating of the solar chromosphere and corona. The phenomenon of mode conversion—where one type of MHD wave transforms into another—can significantly affect these processes. This typically occurs in regions where the Alfvén speed matches the sound speed, such as at a 3D magnetic null point. Observation Overview. Report on the direct extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging of mode conversion from a fast-mode to a slow-mode MHD wave near a 3D null point. These observations were made using data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA). An incident fast EUV wavefront, triggered by an adjacent eruptive flare, was observed to propagate laterally through a neighboring pseudostreamer. As this fast wave traversed the null point, a slow-mode wave emerged, propagating both upward along the open magne...

  The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a breathtaking image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3059, located approximately 57 million light-years from Earth. This observation was part of an extensive study conducted in May 2024 using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. The study focused on various galaxies, employing a range of specialized filters to capture different wavelengths of light. Filters play a crucial role in astronomical observations. They can be either narrow-band or wide-band, each serving unique scientific purposes. Narrow-band filters are particularly valuable as they allow only specific wavelengths associated with certain physical and chemical processes to pass through. One such example is the H-alpha emission at 656.46 nanometers, a wavelength indicative of newly forming stars. This emission is captured using the F657N filter, also known as the H-alpha filter, which reveals the pinkish star-forming regions in the galaxy. In addition to the narrow-band H-alpha f...

This infographic compares three classes of stars in our galaxy: Sunlike G stars, less massive and cooler K dwarfs, and even fainter, cooler reddish M dwarfs. The habitable zone varies for each star type. In our solar system, the habitable zone starts just beyond Venus's orbit and nearly reaches Mars.   Exoplanets are common in our galaxy, with some even residing in the so-called habitable zone of their star. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been diligently observing a few of these small, potentially habitable planets, and astronomers are now hard at work analyzing the data collected by Webb. To shed light on the challenges of studying these distant worlds, we invite Drs. Knicole Colón and Christopher Stark, two Webb project scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, to share their insights. “A potentially habitable planet is often defined as a planet similar in size to Earth that orbits within the ‘habitable zone’ of its star, a region where the planet could maintain te...

  Gravitational wave astronomy has been one of the most exciting developments in recent years, ever since the LIGO consortium officially detected the first gravitational wave (GW) in 2016. This groundbreaking discovery opened up a new window into the universe, allowing astronomers to explore questions previously beyond reach. However, despite detecting 90 GW candidates since 2016, researchers have struggled to determine the exact galaxies from which these waves originate. A new paper from Dutch researchers proposes a novel strategy using gravitational lensing to narrow down the search for the birthplace of GWs. Gravitational waves are believed to result from merging black holes, events so cataclysmic they distort space-time, creating ripples in gravity that can travel billions of light-years. Detecting these faint signals is challenging, and current detectors like LIGO can only pinpoint a general area in the sky, which may contain billions of galaxies. Without knowing the precise g...

  NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of two solar flares—seen as bright flashes near the center—on June 1. These images show extreme ultraviolet light, highlighting the hot material in flares, colorized in blue and gold. On Saturday, June 1, 2024, the Sun unleashed two powerful solar flares, peaking at 4:48 a.m. and 2:36 p.m. ET. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which continuously monitors the Sun, captured stunning images of these events. Solar flares are intense bursts of energy capable of impacting radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and posing risks to spacecraft and astronauts. The first flare, occurring early in the morning, was classified as an X1.4 flare, while the second, in the afternoon, was classified as an X1.0 flare. The X-class denotes the most powerful flares, with the number indicating the strength within this category. For more information on how space weather can affect Earth, visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Cent...