Latest news with #ShawnDomagal-Goldman
United News of India
02-05-2025
- Science
- United News of India
NASA's SPHEREx space telescope begins mapping entire sky
Los Angeles, May 2 (UNI) NASA announced Thursday that its SPHEREx space observatory has officially begun science operations, marking a major step toward uncovering new insights into the origins of the universe, the evolution of galaxies, and the building blocks of life in the Milky Way. SPHEREx will take approximately 3,600 images per day over the next two years as it systematically surveys the entire sky. Launched on March 11, SPHEREx has spent the last six weeks undergoing checkouts, calibrations, and other activities to ensure it is working as it should, according to NASA. With science operations now underway, SPHEREx will chart the positions of hundreds of millions of galaxies in three dimensions. Its goal is to address some of the most profound questions in cosmology, such as how the universe began and how its large-scale structure evolved. "This new observatory is adding to the suite of space-based astrophysics survey missions leading up to the launch of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Together with these other missions, SPHEREx will play a key role in answering the big questions about the universe we tackle at NASA every day," said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The observatory will complete more than 11,000 orbits over its 25 months of planned survey operations, circling Earth about 14-and-a-half times a day, according to NASA. UNI XINHUA GNK
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Celebrate Hubble's 35th Birthday with Four New Images from the Orbiting Telescope
For centuries, one of the biggest challenges in astronomy has been our planet's atmosphere. While it helps distribute heat from the Sun and provides the pressure and oxygen we need to survive, it gets in the way of starlight. Fluctuations in the air distort the light coming from space and mess with ground-based observations. It's the reason the stars appear to twinkle in the night sky. They send their light our way in a more or less steady stream of photons, but it gets wiggled a little at the finish line, as it travels through the atmosphere on the way to our eyes. Ground-based telescopes use a variety of systems including deformable mirrors and artificial laser-based reference stars to correct for atmospheric distortion in real time. They're also often built at high altitudes, at the tops of mountains, to get above as much of the atmosphere as possible. The SOFIA Observatory (short for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) went as far as strapping a telescope to a modified Boeing 747 and flying at altitudes up to 45,000 feet during observations. But if you want truly clear images, you have to make like the crew of The Ark (streaming now on Peacock) and get off the Earth. That's why the Hubble Space Telescope, the world's most beloved orbiting telescope, has been the gold standard for decades. Today, Hubble celebrates its 35th birthday. The 24,000-pound Hubble Space Telescope launched into orbit 35 years ago, on April 24, 1990, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. When the first data came back from above the atmosphere, scientists on the ground quickly realized something was wrong. Instead of the crisp, clear images astronomers were expecting, everything came back blurry. Hubble's primary mirror had a small but important flaw. The edges had been ground too flat by a fraction the width of a human hair. It was enough that the mirror couldn't focus light correctly. Fortunately, NASA had already been working on an upgraded camera to be installed by astronauts at a later date. Before the updated camera went into orbit, it was modified with corrective optics to balance the flaw in the mirror and return the crisp images astronomers were looking for. An array of smaller mirrors also helped to focus light from the mirror as it was sent to the telescope's other instruments. Astronauts carried out a total of five service missions to Hubble, upgrading or repairing instruments, between 1993 and 2009. While other orbiting telescopes have been launched in recent years, Hubble remains the most recognizable and longstanding orbital observatory in history. 'Hubble opened a new window to the universe when it launched 35 years ago. Its stunning imagery inspired people across the globe, and the data behind those images revealed surprises about everything from early galaxies to planets in our own solar system,' said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a statement. Hubble was designed to last 15 years and provide cutting edge views of the cosmos. Thirty-five years later it's still trucking along, though it's feeling its age. Parts have broken down and the telescope is now limping along on a single gyro, instead of its original three. That hasn't stopped it from continuing to send back stunning new images of everything from our closest planetary neighbors to distant galaxies. To celebrate Hubble's 35th anniversary in orbit, NASA released a set of four new images highlighting the breathtaking capabilities of the world's favorite telescope. The above mosaic includes a closeup of Mars (top left) as it was in late December 2024; icy clouds can be seen hovering at the poles, at a distance of 61 million miles. At upper right, outflows of radiation and stellar winds from a dense white dwarf create the sprawling beauty of the nebula NGC 2899. A star forming region in the Rosette Nebula can be seen swirling hydrogen gas and dust in the lower left; and the spiral galaxy NGC 5355 can be seen at lower right, patches of star formation punctuating its landscape and a bright bar of stars, gas, and dust spans its center. Hubble's three-and-a-half-decade lifetime has allowed astronomers to observe cosmic objects over extended periods to see how they change and evolve over time. In addition to peering at the very edges of the observable universe, Hubble has investigated things like seasonal changes of solar system planets, expanding supernovae, pulsars, and more. The telescope has made more than 1.7 million observations of roughly 55,000 targets, resulting in thousands of scientific publications. More than that, it changed the way we visualize and think about the universe, and our place within it. See the distant cosmos up close in The Ark, .
Forbes
25-04-2025
- Science
- Forbes
NASA Drops Stunning New Images To Honor Hubble's 35th — And Looks Ahead
Exactly 35 years ago this week, the Hubble Space Telescope was released from the Space Shuttle Discovery cargo hatch. After a stuttering start, it became one of humankind's most treasured inventions, sending back images after jaw-dropping images and revealing the universe as it really is. To celebrate its 35th anniversary, NASA has published four spectacular new images. In celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's launch into orbit, ... More astronomers aimed the legendary telescope at a selection of photogenic space targets, stretching from inside our solar system to the nebulae found in interstellar space, to far-flung galaxies. The four new images published this week to celebrate its birthday are of Mars, planetary nebula NGC 2899, the Rosette Nebula and barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335. All images use the latest image processing techniques that weren't available when the data was originally collected. According to NASA, Hubble has made more than 1.7 million observations of about 55,000 celestial objects, creating more than 400 terabytes of data. Its observations have been used by scientists to write over 22,000 scientific papers. The four new images follow a steady stream of newly processed Hubble images published last week, including new versions of Hubble classics NGC 346, the Sombrero Galaxy and the iconic Eagle Nebula. Planetary nebula NGC 2899, one of the Hubble Space Telescope's 35th Anniversary images. 'Hubble opened a new window to the universe when it launched 35 years ago,' said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a press statement. 'Its stunning imagery inspired people across the globe, and the data behind those images revealed surprises about everything from early galaxies to planets in our own solar system.' NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured in exquisite detail galaxy NGC 5335 for one of its 35th ... More Anniversary images. It wasn't a great start for Hubble. Its first images were blurry — a result of an unexpected flaw in its eight-foot diameter primary mirror — which was fixed in 1993 by NASA astronauts. Further servicing missions followed until 2009. That final servicing mission left it with six gyroscopes — the tech that allows it to accurately point at objects — but a series of glitches last year left it with just one working gyro. It's now slower and less flexible than before (it can no longer study Venus, for example, or the moon) — but, for now, it's still usable. Dark clouds in the Rosette Nebula, one of the Hubble Space Telescope's 35th Anniversary images. It's ... More 100 light-years across and located 5,200 light-years from the sun. Hubble was designed to last for 15 years. 'The fact that it is still operating today is a testament to the value of our flagship observatories and provides critical lessons for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which we plan to be serviceable in the spirit of Hubble,' said Domagal-Goldman. There are plans for a successor — the Habitable Worlds Observatory — a large ultraviolet, optical and infrared space telescope to replace Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope. It will be designed to seek out signs of life beyond our solar system — identifying and examining Earth-like planets orbiting other stars to determine if they could show signs of hosting life — as well as be a general purpose observatory with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. HWO will be NASA's next flagship astrophysics mission after the $3.5-billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled to launch by May 2027, though NASA said yesterday it wants it to launch as early as October 2026.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Hubble celebrates 35 years with new images from our solar system and beyond
Thirty-five years after its launch into space, the Hubble Space Telescope is still wowing us with its views of the universe, and the cosmic mysteries it is helping unlock. On April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off from Kennedy Space Center, carrying the new Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit. Now, 35 years later, NASA and the European Space Agency are celebrating the mission's milestone 35th anniversary by releasing amazing new images. "Hubble opened a new window to the universe when it launched 35 years ago. Its stunning imagery inspired people across the globe, and the data behind those images revealed surprises about everything from early galaxies to planets in our own solar system," Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters, said in a press release. "The fact that it is still operating today is a testament to the value of our flagship observatories, and provides critical lessons for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which we plan to be serviceable in the spirit of Hubble," Domagal-Goldman added. Hubble has provided us with incredible imagery of planets, moons, and other objects in our own solar system. It has also given us insights into planets around other stars as well, by allowing astronomers to observe exoplanets as they form, capture starlight filtering through an alien world's atmosphere, and even detect the signatures of water vapour and organic chemicals on planets in their star's 'habitable zone'. Until the James Webb Space Telescope turned on in 2022, it had also given us our deepest and most spectacular looks into the cosmos. DON'T MISS: Here are the latest images from the telescope, to celebrate this anniversary. A fresh look at a neighbouring world In late December 2024, as Mars was just over 91 million kilometres away and approaching its January opposition — its closest approach to Earth in a couple of years — Hubble turned towards it to grab two views, revealing the major features of the Red Planet. Two Hubble images of Mars, taken on December 28 and December 29, 2024, show the planet over 17 hours apart. With Mars' 24 hour and 37 minute day, these images do not capture the full globe of the planet, but do reveal its major features to us. (NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)) "In the left image, the bright orange Tharsis plateau is visible with its chain of dormant volcanoes. The largest volcano, Olympus Mons, pokes above the clouds at the 10 o'clock position near the northwest limb. At an elevation of 70,000 feet, it is 2.5 times the height of Mt. Everest above sea level. Valles Marineris, Mars' 2,500-mile-long canyon system, is a dark, linear, horizontal feature near center left," NASA said. "In the right image, high-altitude evening clouds can be seen along the planet's eastern limb. The 1,400-mile-wide Hellas basin, an ancient asteroid impact feature, appears far to the south. Most of the hemisphere is dominated by the classical 'shark fin' feature, Syrtis Major." Moth-like remnant of dead stars Planetary nebula NGC 2899, imaged on January 8, 2025. (NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)) "This object has a diagonal, bipolar, cylindrical outflow of gas. This is propelled by radiation and stellar winds from a nearly 40,000-degree-Fahrenheit white dwarf at the center," NASA explained. "In fact, there may be two companion stars that are interacting and sculpting the nebula, which is pinched in the middle by a fragmented ring or torus — looking like a half-eaten donut. It has a forest of gaseous 'pillars' that point back to the source of radiation and stellar winds. The colors are from glowing hydrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies approximately 4,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Vela." RELATED: A dark, dusty stellar nursery A small region of the Rosette Nebula, just four light years across compared to the full 100 ly span of this feature, captured by Hubble on December 27, 2024. (NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)) "Dark clouds of hydrogen gas laced with dust are silhouetted across the image. The clouds are being eroded and shaped by the seething radiation from the cluster of larger stars in the center of the nebula (NGC 2440)," NASA stated in the image release. "An embedded star seen at the tip of a dark cloud in the upper right portion of the image is launching jets of plasma that are crashing into the cold cloud around it. The resulting shock wave is causing a red glow. The colors come from the presence of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen." Exquisite flocculence Flocculent barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335, located in the constellation Virgo. (NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)) "NGC 5335 is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy with patchy streamers of star formation across its disk. There is a striking lack of well-defined spiral arms that are commonly found among galaxies, including our Milky Way," says NASA. "A notable bar structure slices across the center of the galaxy. The bar channels gas inwards toward the galactic center, fueling star formation. Such bars are dynamic in galaxies and may come and go over two-billion-year intervals. They appear in about 30 percent of observed galaxies, including our Milky Way." MORE FROM SPACE: Stellar sculptors Star cluster NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud features gas and dust being sculpted into beautiful form by stellar winds. (ESA/Hubble and NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)) "This new image showcases the dazzling young star cluster NGC 346. Although both the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble have released images of NGC 346 previously, this image includes new data and is the first to combine Hubble observations made at infrared, optical, and ultraviolet wavelengths into an intricately detailed view of this vibrant star-forming factory," the European Space Agency said. "The inhabitants of this cluster are stellar sculptors, carving out a bubble within the nebula. NGC 346's hot, massive stars produce intense radiation and fierce stellar winds that pummel the billowing gas of their birthplace, dispersing the surrounding nebula. The nebula, named N66, is the brightest example of an H II (pronounced 'H-two') region in the Small Magellanic Cloud. H II regions are set aglow by ultraviolet light from hot, young stars like those in NGC 346. The presence of this nebula indicates the young age of the star cluster, as an H II region shines only as long as the stars that power it — a mere few million years for the massive stars pictured here." Although the younger and more powerful James Webb Space Telescope is providing us with its own views of the universe, even after 35 years, Hubble still fills an important role in our observations of the cosmos. Whereas Webb views space in the infrared — wavelengths of light too long for our eyes to pick up — Hubble collects light from ultraviolet through the visible part of the spectrum and into the near infrared. Therefore, Hubble gives us a look at the depths of space that is much closer to how our own eyes would see it. Click here to view the video
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Space photo of the day for April 24, 2025
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Now the most well-recognized and scientifically productive astronomical observatory in history, the Hubble Space Telescope first reached Earth orbit 35 years ago on April 24, 1990. A day later, as this photo shows, the STS-31 crew aboard space shuttle Discovery released Hubble, beginning a three-a-half-decade legacy. Though it probably doesn't need an introduction, the Hubble Space Telescope is a 24,000-pound (10,900 kilograms), 43.5-foot-long (13.2 meters) observatory that to date has made nearly 1.7 million observations, looking at about 55,000 astronomical targets, resulting in over scientific 22,000 papers and over 1.3 million citations (as of February 2025). "Hubble opened a new window to the universe when it launched 35 years ago. Its stunning imagery inspired people across the globe, and the data behind those images revealed surprises about everything from early galaxies to planets in our own solar system," said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a statement. The Hubble Space Telescope is in low Earth orbit, 320 miles (515 kilometers) above the planet, placing it above most of the atmosphere. Its orbit is inclined at 28.5 degrees to the equator and it completes one trip around the Earth in about 95 minutes. Of course, the targets that the Hubble Space Telescope looks at are considerably more distant. One of, if not the farthest object that Hubble has imaged is galaxy GN-z11, located about 13.4 billion light-years away from Earth. Hubble's 35-year (to date) story is not just about the observations it has made — other orbiting observatories have returned stunning shots of our universe and made numerous discoveries. What sets Hubble apart is that 35 years ago, its mission almost ended before it began. As is now famously known, an unexpected flaw was discovered in Hubble's nearly eight-foot-diameter (2.4 m) primary mirror. Fortunately, the telescope was designed to be serviced on orbit, and astronauts came to the rescue on the first of five space shuttle servicing missions in December 1993 to improve Hubble's vision with corrective optics. You can read about the challenges facing the Hubble Space Telescope from this point forward and see some its stand out images from the past 35 years. You can also learn if we could still send astronauts to service the Hubble.
