Official Space is Awesome Thread

[Argonne69]

This star cluster is surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas and dust, the raw material for new star formation. The nebula, located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina, contains a central cluster of huge, hot stars, called NGC 3603.

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, R. O'Connell, F. Paresce, E. Young, WFC3 Science Oversight Committee, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScl/AURA)
 

[Cwing]

Great photos in this thread.

[Argonne69]

It looks like an abstract painting, but this image taken by the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa reveals ~1,000 multi-light-year-long strands of cosmic ray particles in the center of the Milky Way. 

 

 

Image: Northwestern University/SAORO/Oxford University
 

[Nard_S]

Great stuff here.

[Argonne69]

With a little assist from gravitational lensing, the Hubble Space Telescope was able to spot the oldest known star to date, Earendel. The star is 13 billion years old, and formed a mere 800 million years after the Big Bang.

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, B. Welch, D. Coe, A. Pagan

 

[Argonne69]

Buzz Aldrin sets up the seismometer.

 

 

Image: NASA

 

[Argonne69]

A small, dense cloud of gas and dust (CB 130-3) in the constellation Serpens blocks out the center of this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. CB 130-3 is known as a dense core, a compact agglomeration of gas and dust. Dense cores are the birthplaces of stars.

 

 

Image: ESA/Hubble, NASA, STScI, C. Britt, T. Huard, and A. Pagan
 

[Argonne69]

Globular cluster NGC 6355 is a galactic globular cluster that resides in our Milky Way galaxy's inner regions. It ~50,000 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. Globular clusters are stable, tightly bound groups of tens of thousands to millions of stars. 

 

 

Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, E. Noyola, R. Cohen
 

[Argonne69]

Astronomers have released a giant survey of the Milky Way as part of an ambitious project called the "Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey." The images contain 3.32 billion objects, most of which are stars. It took two years, and 21,400 shots, to capture an astonishing view.

 

 

Image: DECaPS2, DOE, FNAL, DECam, CTIO, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA, M. Zamani, and D. De Martin

 

A portion of the larger image.

 

 

Image: DECaPS2, DOE, FNAL, DECam, CTIO, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA, M. Zamani, and D. De Martin

 

Have fun with the viewer: https://decaps.legacysurvey.org/viewer

 

Edited January 22, 2023 by Argonne69

[Argonne69]

The Webb telescope team has detected water ice and frozen complex molecules (methane, ammonia, and methanol) in a molecular cloud ~630 light-years away. The frigid findings are the deepest, coldest yet found in such a cloud. Molecular clouds are large, dark, dusty regions of space that often act as stellar nurseries, as they host the ingredients necessary for star formation. The clouds also host organic molecules. Last year, researchers looking at a molecular cloud near the center of our galaxy found building blocks of RNA.

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, and M. Zamani
 

[Argonne69]

Lol. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captures an interesting image, a bear looking up from the surface of the Red Planet. The search for life on other planets is over.

 

 

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
 

[Argonne69]

The crew of Apollo 11 captures the Earthrise just after lifting off from the lunar surface on their journey home.

 

 

Image: NASA
 

[Argonne69]

LEDA 58109 (upper right) is flanked by two further galactic objects to its lower left, an active galactic nucleus (AGN) SDSS J162558.14+435746.4 that partially obscures the galaxy SDSS J162557.25+435743.5, which appears to poke out to the right behind the AGN.

 

 

Image: ESA/Hubble, NASA, W. Keel
 

[Argonne69]

The Webb Space Telescope captures spiral galaxy LEDA 2046648. The galaxy is over one billion light-years away in the constellation Hercules. Behind LEDA is a field of more distant galaxies, ranging from spiral shapes to pinpoints of light in the distant universe.

 

 

Image: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, A. Martel
 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Argonne69

[Argonne69]

Astronomers directly measured the mass of a lone white dwarf using the Hubble Space Telescope for the first time. The dwarf, LAWD 37, is the core remnant of a star that burned out ~1 billion years ago.  It's located ~15 light-years away. The team of astronomers watched light from a background star briefly bend around the dwarf as the latter transited in front of the former. Based on how much of the background light was lensed by the dwarf, they were able to determine its mass. The stellar remnant is now about 56% the mass of our Sun. Our Sun will become a white dwarf at the end of its life.

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, P. McGill, K. Sahu, J. Depasquale

 

Illustration: NASA, ESA, A. Feild

[Argonne69]

Spiral galaxy IC 5063, partially obscured by dust. It is located 156 million light-years away. 

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, A. Barth, J. Dalcanton, DECaM Legacy Survey, J. Schmidt

 

[Argonne69]

Spiral galaxy Arp 288 is located in the constellation Virgo. 

 

 

Image: J. Schmidt

 

[Argonne69]

Solar plasma tornados! 

 

 

 

[Argonne69]

The Northern Lights over the Lofoten Island peaks in Norway.

 

 

Image: D. Haring
 

[Argonne69]

Galaxy SDSS-1237659936978568047. 

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, Hubble, J. Schmidt

 

[Argonne69]

Quiz time. 

 

How many men traveled to the Moon, but did not step foot on it? 

 

[Nard_S]

14 minutes ago, Argonne69 said:

Quiz time. 

 

How many men traveled to the Moon, but did not step foot on it? 

 

I'm guessing 7.

[Soloman1]

54 minutes ago, Argonne69 said:

Quiz time. 

 

How many men traveled to the Moon, but did not step foot on it? 

 

 

12 angry men.

[Argonne69]

1 hour ago, Soloman1 said:

 

12 angry men.

 

Lol. Incorrect. 

 

[Argonne69]

2 hours ago, Nard_S said:

I'm guessing 7.

 

Incorrect. 

 

[Nard_S]

13 minutes ago, Argonne69 said:

 

Incorrect. 

 

I would say that's the minimum that went and did not walk.

Think it's less than 12, more than 7.

[Soloman1]

Someone better tell NASA. lol

 

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/890/who-has-walked-on-the-moon/

[Nard_S]

I counted 12. That is incorrect?

[Argonne69]

8 hours ago, Soloman1 said:

Someone better tell NASA. lol

 

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/890/who-has-walked-on-the-moon/

 

The question was how many men have traveled to the Moon, but not walked on it. Yes, a dozen astronauts have walked on the lunar surface, but how many traveled to the Moon and did not step foot on it?

 

[Soloman1]

I don't understand the question. Do you mean landed on the moon and didn't exit the lander?

 

Is orbiting the moon considered to have traveled to the moon?

Edited February 16, 2023 by Soloman1