Hubble spots galaxies in close encounter

ESA - Hubble Space Telescope.org logo.

20 June 2013

 Hubble image of Arp 142

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this vivid image of a pair of interacting galaxies known as Arp 142. When two galaxies stray too close to each other they begin to interact, causing spectacular changes in both objects. In some cases the two can merge — but in others, they are ripped apart.

Just below the centre of this image is the blue, twisted form of galaxy NGC 2936, one of the two interacting galaxies that form Arp 142 in the constellation of Hydra. Nicknamed "the Penguin" or "the Porpoise" by amateur astronomers, NGC 2936 used to be a standard spiral galaxy before being torn apart by the gravity of its cosmic companion.

The area around merging galaxy duo Arp 142 (ground-based image)

The remnants of its spiral structure can still be seen — the former galactic bulge now forms the "eye" of the penguin, around which it is still possible to see where the galaxy's pinwheeling arms once were. These disrupted arms now shape the cosmic bird's "body" as bright streaks of blue and red across the image. These streaks arch down towards NGC 2936's nearby companion, the elliptical galaxy NGC 2937, visible here as a bright white oval. The pair show an uncanny resemblance to a penguin safeguarding its egg.

The effects of gravitational interaction between galaxies can be devastating. The Arp 142 pair are close enough together to interact violently, exchanging matter and causing havoc.

3D visualisation of Arp 142

In the upper part of the image are two bright stars, both of which lie in the foreground of the Arp 142 pair. One of these is surrounded by a trail of sparkling blue material, which is actually another galaxy. This galaxy is thought to be too far away to play a role in the interaction — the same is true of the galaxies peppered around the body of NGC 2936. In the background are the blue and red elongated shapes of many other galaxies, which lie at vast distances from us — but which can all be seen by the sharp eye of Hubble.

Zooming in on Arp 142

This pair of galaxies is named after the American astronomer Halton Arp, the creator of the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a catalogue of weirdly-shaped galaxies that was originally published in 1966. Arp compiled the catalogue in a bid to understand how galaxies evolved and changed shape over time, something he felt to be poorly understood. He chose his targets based on their strange appearances, but astronomers later realised that many of the objects in Arp's catalogue were in fact interacting and merging galaxies [1].

Zoom and 3D visualisation of Arp 142

This image is a combination of visible and infrared light, created from data gathered by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 3 (WFC3).

Looking through the eye of Hubble

Notes:

[1] The birth and evolution of various sets of merging galaxies was the subject of the book Cosmic Collisions – The Hubble Atlas of Merging Galaxies, produced by Springer and the European Southern Observatory. The book is illustrated with a range of stunning Hubble Space Telescope images.

More information:

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

Links:

Hubblecast 67: Of galaxies and penguins — Arp 142: http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/heic1311a/

Images of Hubble: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/category/spacecraft/

Cosmic Collisions – The Hubble Atlas of Merging Galaxies: http://www.cosmiccollisions.org/

Hubble Heritage site: http://heritage.stsci.edu/2013/23

NASA press release: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2013/23

Images, Text, Credits: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/Digitized Sky Survey 2/Videos: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon, L. Frattare, Z. Levay, and F. Summers (Viz 3D Team, STScI)/Digitized Sky Survey 2//Hubble and M. Kornmesser.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Dusty Surprise Around Giant Black Hole

ESO - European Southern Observatory logo.

20 June 2013

 Artist's impression of the surroundings of the supermassive black hole in NGC 3783

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer has gathered the most detailed observations ever of the dust around the huge black hole at the centre of an active galaxy. Rather than finding all of the glowing dust in a doughnut-shaped torus around the black hole, as expected, the astronomers find that much of it is located above and below the torus. These observations show that dust is being pushed away from the black hole as a cool wind — a surprising finding that challenges current theories and tells us how supermassive black holes evolve and interact with their surroundings.

Over the last twenty years, astronomers have found that almost all galaxies have a huge black hole at their centre. Some of these black holes are growing by drawing in matter from their surroundings, creating in the process the most energetic objects in the Universe: active galactic nuclei (AGN). The central regions of these brilliant powerhouses are ringed by doughnuts of cosmic dust [1] dragged from the surrounding space, similar to how water forms a small whirlpool around the plughole of a sink. It was thought that most of the strong infrared radiation coming from AGN originated in these doughnuts.

Wide-field view of the region around galaxy NGC 3783

But new observations of a nearby active galaxy called NGC 3783, harnessing the power of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile [2], have given a team of astronomers a surprise. Although the hot dust — at some 700 to 1000 degrees Celsius — is indeed in a torus as expected, they found huge amounts of cooler dust above and below this main torus [3].

As Sebastian Hönig (University of California Santa Barbara, USA and Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany), lead author of the paper presenting the new results, explains, “This is the first time we’ve been able to combine detailed mid-infrared observations of the cool, room-temperature dust around an AGN with similarly detailed observations of the very hot dust. This also represents the largest set of infrared interferometry for an AGN published yet.”

The active galaxy NGC 3783 in the constellation of Centaurus

The newly-discovered dust forms a cool wind streaming outwards from the black hole. This wind must play an important role in the complex relationship between the black hole and its environment. The black hole feeds its insatiable appetite from the surrounding material, but the intense radiation this produces also seems to be blowing the material away. It is still unclear how these two processes work together and allow supermassive black holes to grow and evolve within galaxies, but the presence of a dusty wind adds a new piece to this picture.

In order to investigate the central regions of NGC 3783, the astronomers needed to use the combined power of the Unit Telescopes of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Using these units together forms an interferometer that can obtain a resolution equivalent to that of a 130-metre telescope.

Another team member, Gerd Weigelt (Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany), explains, “By combining the world-class sensitivity of the large mirrors of the VLT with interferometry we are able to collect enough light to observe faint objects. This lets us study a region as small as the distance from our Sun to its closest neighbouring star, in a galaxy tens of millions of light-years away. No other optical or infrared system in the world is currently capable of this.”

Outflow from active galaxy NGC 3783 (artist’s impression)

These new observations may lead to a paradigm shift in the understanding of AGN. They are direct evidence that dust is being pushed out by the intense radiation. Models of how the dust is distributed and how supermassive black holes grow and evolve must now take into account this newly-discovered effect.

Hönig concludes, “I am now really looking forward to MATISSE, which will allow us to combine all four VLT Unit Telescopes at once and observe simultaneously in the near- and mid-infrared — giving us much more detailed data.” MATISSE, a second generation instrument for the VLTI, is currently under construction.

Notes:

[1] Cosmic dust consist of silicate and graphite grains — minerals also abundant on Earth. The soot from a candle is very similar to cosmic graphite dust, although the size of the grains in the soot are ten or more times bigger than typical grain sizes of cosmic graphite grains.

[2] The VLTI is formed from a combination of the four 8.2-metre VLT Unit Telescopes, or the four moveable 1.8-metre VLT Auxiliary Telescopes. It makes use of a technique known as interferometry, in which sophisticated instrumentation combines the light from several telescopes into one observation. Although it usually does not produce actual images, this technique dramatically increases the level of detail that can be measured in the resulting observations, comparable to what a space telescope with a diameter of over 100 metres would measure.

[3] The hotter dust was mapped using the AMBER VLTI instrument at near-infrared wavelengths and the newer observations reported here used the MIDI instrument at wavelengths between 8 and 13 microns in the mid-infrared.

More information:

This research was presented in a paper entitled “Dust in the Polar Region as a Major Contributor to the Infrared Emission of Active Galactic Nuclei”, by S. Hönig et al., to appear in the Astrophysical Journal on 20 June 2013.

The team is composed of S. F. Hönig (University of California in Santa Barbara, USA [UCSB]; Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany), M. Kishimoto (Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany [MPIfR]), K. R. W. Tristram (MPIfR), M. A. Prieto (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain), P. Gandhi (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Kanawaga, Japan; University of Durham, United Kingdom), D. Asmus (MPIfR), R. Antonucci (UCSB), L. Burtscher (Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany), W. J. Duschl (Institut für Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany) and G. Weigelt (MPIfR).

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning the 39-metre European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Links:

Research paper: http://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1327/eso1327a.pdf

Photos of the VLT: http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/paranal/

Information on the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI): http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/telescopes/vlti/

Images, Text, Credits: ESO/M. Kornmesser/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin/IAU and Sky & Telescope/Video: ESO/M. Kornmesser.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Adjustment of the orbit of the International Space Station

ISS - International Space Station patch.

June 19, 2013

In accordance with the program of ballistic support the International Space Station on June 19 held its operational orbit correction of flying cargo vehicle (THC), "Progress M-20M", scheduled for launch in July.

According to the ballistic Service Mission Control Center TsNIIMash maneuver to raise the orbit of the ISS passed normally.

International Space Station (ISS)

The parameters of the ISS orbit after maneuvers:

     - Minimum height above the surface of the Earth - 412.155 km;
     - Maximum height above the surface of the Earth - 439.300 km;
     - Period - 92.824 minutes;
     - The inclination - 51.668 degrees.

ISS orbit correction was performed using the main engines of the European cargo spacecraft ATV-4 "Albert Einstein", whose engines were included in 17 hours 05 minutes Moscow time and worked for 407.5 seconds. As a result, ISS has received an additional boost of 1 meter per second, and the average height of its orbit was 415.752 kilometers.

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=20164

Image, Text, Credits: Press Service of the Russian Federal Space Agency / ROSCOSMOS / NASA / Translation: Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Progress M-19M completed flight

ROSCOSMOS - Russian Vehicles patch.

June 19, 2013

June 19 at 17:40 MSK (Moscow time) in a predetermined area of the South Pacific produced flooding combustible residues cargo vehicle (THC) Progress M-19M. At 16:52 MSK, in accordance with the program laid down in the ship's onboard computer specialists Mission Control Center (MCC) FSUE TsNIIMash, to "space truck" was included on the inhibition of the propulsion system, then began a controlled reduction of the THC from orbit.

Progress-M cargo spacecraft

Progress M-19M was launched to the International Space Station from the Baikonur cosmodrome April 24, 2013, after delivering cargo of food, fuel, water and equipment.

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=20163

Image, Text, Credit: Press Service of the Russian Federal Space Agency / ROSCOSMOS / NASA / Translation: Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

Billion-Pixel View of Mars Comes From Curiosity Rover

NASA - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) patch.

June 19, 2013

 Billion-Pixel View From Curiosity at Rocknest, Raw Color

This is a reduced version of panorama from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with 1.3 billion pixels in the full-resolution version. It shows Curiosity at the "Rocknest" site where the rover scooped up samples of windblown dust and sand. Curiosity used three cameras to take the component images on several different days between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012. Viewers can explore this image with pan and zoom controls at http://mars.nasa.gov/bp1/. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

A billion-pixel view from the surface of Mars, from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, offers armchair explorers a way to examine one part of the Red Planet in great detail.

The first NASA-produced view from the surface of Mars larger than one billion pixels stitches together nearly 900 exposures taken by cameras onboard Curiosity and shows details of the landscape along the rover's route.

The 1.3-billion-pixel image is available for perusal with pan and zoom tools at: http://mars.nasa.gov/bp1/ .

The full-circle scene surrounds the site where Curiosity collected its first scoops of dusty sand at a windblown patch called "Rocknest," and extends to Mount Sharp on the horizon.

"It gives a sense of place and really shows off the cameras' capabilities," said Bob Deen of the Multi-Mission Image Processing Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "You can see the context and also zoom in to see very fine details."

Deen assembled the product using 850 frames from the telephoto camera of Curiosity's Mast Camera instrument, supplemented with 21 frames from the Mastcam's wider-angle camera and 25 black-and-white frames -- mostly of the rover itself -- from the Navigation Camera. The images were taken on several different Mars days between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012. Raw single-frame images received from Curiosity are promptly posted on a public website at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/ . Mars fans worldwide have used those images to assemble mosaic views, including at least one gigapixel scene.

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)"Curiosity". Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The new mosaic from NASA shows illumination effects from variations in the time of day for pieces of the mosaic. It also shows variations in the clarity of the atmosphere due to variable dustiness during the month while the images were acquired.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity and the rover's 10 science instruments to investigate the environmental history within Gale Crater, a location where the project has found that conditions were long ago favorable for microbial life.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates Curiosity's Mastcam. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington and built the Navigation Camera and the rover.

More information about the mission is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

For more information about the Multi-Mission Image Processing Laboratory, see: http://www-mipl.jpl.nasa.gov/mipex.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA / JPL / Guy Webster.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Cassini Probe to Take Photo of Earth From Deep Space

NASA / ESA - Cassini Mission to Saturn patch.

June 19, 2013

NASA's Cassini spacecraft, now exploring Saturn, will take a picture of our home planet from a distance of hundreds of millions of miles on July 19. NASA is inviting the public to help acknowledge the historic interplanetary portrait as it is being taken.

Earth will appear as a small, pale blue dot between the rings of Saturn in the image, which will be part of a mosaic, or multi-image portrait, of the Saturn system Cassini is composing.

"While Earth will be only about a pixel in size from Cassini's vantage point 898 million (1.44 billion kilometers) away, the team is looking forward to giving the world a chance to see what their home looks like from Saturn," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "We hope you'll join us in waving at Saturn from Earth, so we can commemorate this special opportunity."

Image above: This simulated view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the expected positions of Saturn and Earth on July 19, 2013, around the time Cassini will take Earth's picture. Cassini will be about 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away from Earth at the time. That distance is nearly 10 times the distance from the sun to Earth. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Cassini will start obtaining the Earth part of the mosaic at 5:27 p.m. EDT (2:27 p.m. PDT or 21:27 UTC) and end about 15 minutes later, all while Saturn is eclipsing the sun from Cassini's point of view. The spacecraft's unique vantage point in Saturn's shadow will provide a special scientific opportunity to look at the planet's rings. At the time of the photo, North America and part of the Atlantic Ocean will be in sunlight.

Unlike two previous Cassini eclipse mosaics of the Saturn system in 2006, which captured Earth, and another in 2012, the July 19 image will be the first to capture the Saturn system with Earth in natural color, as human eyes would see it. It also will be the first to capture Earth and its moon with Cassini's highest-resolution camera. The probe's position will allow it to turn its cameras in the direction of the sun, where Earth will be, without damaging the spacecraft's sensitive detectors.

"Ever since we caught sight of the Earth among the rings of Saturn in September 2006 in a mosaic that has become one of Cassini's most beloved images, I have wanted to do it all over again, only better," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. "This time, I wanted to turn the entire event into an opportunity for everyone around the globe to savor the uniqueness of our planet and the preciousness of the life on it."

Porco and her imaging team associates examined Cassini's planned flight path for the remainder of its Saturn mission in search of a time when Earth would not be obstructed by Saturn or its rings. Working with other Cassini team members, they found the July 19 opportunity would permit the spacecraft to spend time in Saturn's shadow to duplicate the views from earlier in the mission to collect both visible and infrared imagery of the planet and its ring system.

Image above: North America and part of the Atlantic Ocean are expected to be illuminated when NASA's Cassini spacecraft takes a snapshot of Earth on July 19, 2013. This view is a close-up simulation. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"Looking back towards the sun through the rings highlights the tiniest of ring particles, whose width is comparable to the thickness of hair and which are difficult to see from ground-based telescopes," said Matt Hedman, a Cassini science team member based at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and a member of the rings working group. "We're particularly interested in seeing the structures within Saturn's dusty E ring, which is sculpted by the activity of the geysers on the moon Enceladus, Saturn's magnetic field and even solar radiation pressure."

This latest image will continue a NASA legacy of space-based images of our fragile home, including the 1968 "Earthrise" image taken by the Apollo 8 moon mission from about 240,000 miles (380,000 kilometers) away and the 1990 "Pale Blue Dot" image taken by Voyager 1 from about 4 billion miles (6 billion kilometers) away.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, and designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras. The imaging team consists of scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

To learn more about the public outreach activities associated with the taking of the image,visit: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/waveatsaturn

For more information about Cassini, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens

Images (mentioned), Text, Credit: NASA.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

CERN - EuCARD-2 kicks off

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

June 18, 2013

Last week CERN hosted a number of events that focused on research and development for particle accelerators.

On Monday speakers presented the results of the EuCARD project – a common research-and-development venture of 39 partners involved in accelerator sciences and technologies in Europe. In a 2-day workshop experts discussed the future of accelerators, predicting their technical needs for the next 50 years. Then on Thursday and Friday, EuCARD-2 – an R&D project for the next generation of accelerators – was officially launched.

Image above: EuCARD-2 aims to foster new ideas for next-generation particle accelerators (Image: Anna Pantelia/CERN).

The project, coordinated by Maurizio Vretenar from CERN, will last four years, managing a budget of €23.4 million of which one third is from the European Commission. “This project builds on the success of EuCARD in joining large laboratories with the intellectual potential of small institutes and universities,” says Vretenar. “EuCARD-2 aims to become an important actor in fostering new ideas and technologies for the future of accelerators and in enhancing their impact on the society."

EuCARD-2 will focus on two objectives: research and development for the next generation of accelerators for research; and multidisciplinary collaborations to bring this technology to other fields of application such as health, energy and environment. The project involves a total of 40 laboratories and universities in 14 countries in Europe as well as CERN.

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

CERN - To discover the secrets of matter. (Image: CERN)

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 20 Member States.

Related links:

EuCARD project: http://eucard.web.cern.ch/eucard/index.html

EuCARD-2: http://eucard2.web.cern.ch/EuCARD2/index.html

Workshop experts, the future of accelerators: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2013/06/accelerator-physicists-take-long-view-eucard13

European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN): http://home.web.cern.ch/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN /  Marina Giampietro.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch