Latest news with #nebula
Khaleej Times
29-07-2025
- Science
- Khaleej Times
Look: Cat's paw in the sky? UAE astronomers capture larger-than-Moon-size nebula
If you're an avid cat person and also into astronomy, then you're in for a treat, as UAE astronomy officials just spotted the most adorable nebula — the Cat's Paw. Photographed from the skies of Abu Dhabi's desert, the nebula was captured under challenging conditions, after 10 gruelling hours. The cosmic wonder, made up from gas and dust, was situated in the Scorpius constellation, according to the Al-Khatem Astronomical Observatory. The nebula's unique shape is not the only stunning thing about it. Its apparent size is also slightly larger than the full moon, while its actual size is such that light, travelling at 300,000 kilometres per second, would take 320 years to cross it from one end to the other. The large emission nebula is also a birthplace for stars. An emission nebula is a cloud of gas and dust in space that glows as a result of energised electrons recombining with atoms, emitting light in the process. These nebulae are often associated with star formation, where young, hot stars emit ultraviolet radiation that ionizes the surrounding gas. The light captured in the image in 2025 was emitted from the nebula 4,370 years ago. So why is it named the Cat's Paw? You guessed it! It originates from the shape of a cat's paw. The red colour of the nebula, situated in the digital pads of the cat paw shape, indicates the presence of hydrogen gas. Meanwhile the blue colour, located inside the paw and inner pad, indicates the presence of oxygen gas. Capturing method Capturing the nebula was not an easy task, as its maximum altitude above the horizon is 30 degrees, making it significantly affected by light pollution and atmospheric interference. The nebula was observed by Osama Ghanam, Anas Mohammed and Khalfan Al Nuaimi. Meanwhile, the image was captured by Mohammed Odeh and processed by Haitham Hamdi. Two telescopes were used to capture the image, along with a colour camera and a light pollution filter. The light pollution level at the observation site was Bortle 6. It took approximately 9.75 hours to capture it, which consisted of 195 images, each with a 3-minute exposure. Ninety-two images were taken with the 5-inch telescope, and 103 images with the 4-inch telescope.
Washington Post
17-07-2025
- Science
- Washington Post
The Hubble telescope zooms in on the galaxy next door. Explore it like never before.
Cloudy blob or massive galaxy? For most of human existence, no one knew what they were looking at when they noticed the cloud-like 'nebula' in the constellation of Andromeda. The 18th-century astronomer Charles Messier included it in a catalogue of celestial objects, the 31st entry on his list, and it came to be known as M31. Many astronomers assumed this and other nebulae were clouds of dust and gas. The influential Harvard astronomer Harlow Shapley believed there was only one galaxy, our Milky Way, and that M31 and other nebulae were within it — and, in the cosmic scheme of things, not so far away. 2:16 Astronomers deployed the Hubble over the course of a decade to conduct 600 separate observations to produce an extraordinary mosaic of the great spiral galaxy. (Brian Monroe and Drea Cornejo/The Washington Post) But some scientists speculated that the nebulae might be separate galaxies of stars at a great distance. This led to the 'Great Debate' about the scale of the universe. It was resolved early in the 20th century due to a crucial discovery by Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a 'human computer' at Harvard College Observatory. She realized that stars known as Cepheid variables get brighter and dimmer in a pattern that reveals their absolute luminosity and thus their distance from Earth. Astronomer Edwin Hubble made the next leap when he identified a Cepheid variable star in Andromeda. 'Var!' he wrote on a photographic plate that, a century later, is kept secure in a fireproof vault at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California. The discovery proved Hubble's conjecture that the nebula was a galaxy outside the Milky Way. The universe kept getting vaster and vaster. Hubble (the astronomer) had observed Andromeda with a 100-inch telescope (that's the diameter of the mirror) on Mount Wilson in Southern California. Two and a half decades later, on Palomar Mountain farther to the south, astronomers began looking at the universe with a 200-inch telescope. And then came Hubble (the telescope). It was launched in 1990 with an infamous flaw in the mirror, called a 'spherical aberration,' that made stars look like squashed spiders. Astronauts visited and installed a second, smaller mirror that precisely corrected the flaw. The Hubble became the world's most famous telescope, enjoyed four more repair visits and is still a workhorse, in demand by astronomers. Today we know there are at least 100 billion galaxies. An illustration of the predicted merger between our Milky Way and Andromeda, as it will unfold over the next several billion years. (ESA/Z. Levay/ R. van der Marel/STScI/T. Hallas/ A. Mellinger/NASA) Stitching together a gift from the stars The new Hubble mosaic offers insights about the history of Andromeda, including evidence that it has been disturbed by collisions with galaxies in the past, said Benjamin Williams, an astronomer at the University of Washington and the lead scientist on the project. The Hubble has a small field of view — like looking into space through a narrow straw — and thus it can't possibly see the whole of Andromeda in a single observation. To accomplish the mosaic, astronomers aimed the Hubble at Andromeda during more than 1,000 of the telescope's orbits of Earth. The resolution is so sharp that astronomers have been able to catalogue 200 million individual stars in Andromeda. 'Pictures like this remind us that we live in an incredible universe,' said NASA's Wiseman. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement For many years the consensus has been that Andromeda and the Milky Way will someday merge. A recent report in Nature Astronomy says there's only a 50-50 chance over the next 10 billion years. In any case, the stars will mostly just be ships passing in the night. 'Stars don't crash into each other,' Williams said. 'The size of the star compared to the distances between the stars is very, very small.' The inescapable question for anyone studying Andromeda is whether there's life there, and intelligent life. Anyone staring at images of a galaxy, a cluster of galaxies or one of the Hubble 'deep field' images showing thousands of galaxies, is presented with evidence that the Earth is a minuscule element in the cosmic scheme of things. 'It's just so beautiful, and causes us to keep asking the big questions,' said Amber Straughn, a NASA astrophysicist, referring to the Andromeda mosaic. 'Can't you imagine that there might be another advanced civilization there among the trillion stars, who have also built a telescope and are looking back at us?' About this story Editing by Lynh Bui and Christian Font. Additional development by Dylan Moriarty. Video editing by Drea Cornejo. Photo editing by Maya Valentine. Copy editing by Briana R. Ellison.
CBS News
01-07-2025
- Science
- CBS News
First close-up view of "cotton candy" nebula captured by world's largest cosmic telescope
The world's largest telescope captured a deep-space nebula — an interstellar cloud of gas and dust that can produce new stars — in stunning detail, providing the first close-up view to date of the cosmic phenomenon. Scientists recently unveiled images from Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a new station located in the Andes Mountains of Chile and funded by the United States, which houses a powerful telescope containing the biggest digital camera on the planet. Its precision allows the telescope to peer far into space, with galaxies tens of millions of light-years away from Earth among the subjects of the observatory's debut portraits of cosmos. Also pictured is the "cotton candy" nebula, which earned that nickname because of its bright pink and blue pattern. This annotated image offers a closer look at the region surrounding the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae. NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Officially, the swirling mass is called the Trifid Nebula, and it exists about 5,000 light-years from Earth, according to the Rubin Observatory. Nearby is the Lagoon Nebula, another colorful cloud, which is located about 4,000 light-years away and appears alongside Trifid in the observatory's latest images. Both are in the constellation Sagittarius, according to the Rubin Observatory. Zoomed-in views of the nebulae are seen in a video shared by the observatory, showcasing the Trifid and Lagoon formations at a scale never seen before. The composite image was created from more than 678 different exposures taken over a 7-hour period by the camera that powers the observatory's massive telescope. The Trifid nebula, nicknamed the "cotton candy" nebula because of its colorful swirls, is pictured in this screenshot from a video shared by the Vera Rubin Observatory. NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory The telescope's long-term mission is set to begin later this year, when it will perform nightly scans of the sky for the next decade in an effort to learn more about the early universe and some of its properties that still are not well-understood, like dark energy. Brian Stone, the chief of staff at the National Science Foundation who currently performs the duties of the foundation's director, said in a statement that the Rubin Observatory is expected to "capture more information about our Universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined." "Through this remarkable scientific facility, we will explore many cosmic mysteries, including the dark matter and dark energy that permeate the Universe," his statement said.
ABC News
23-06-2025
- Science
- ABC News
First images from Vera C. Rubin Observatory released, giving a taste of what's to come
A stunning nebula and a sky dotted full of bright stars and dancing galaxies are in the first set of three images released by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The ground-based telescope, which uses the world's largest digital camera, promises to revolutionise entire fields of astronomy with its wide angle and powerful lens. The images are a taster of what is expected to be unveiled at 1AM AEST Tuesday morning in a live stream that will also include ultra-high definition video. According to astronomers, even these first previews are unlike anything they've ever seen before. Rachel Webster, an astrophysicist at the University of Mebourne, said she was stunned by the vast scale of each picture. One of Rubin's early pictures is of the Lagoon and Trifid nebulas, two huge regions of interstellar gas some 5,200 and 9,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. The image is a composite built from 678 different pictures, captured over a seven-hour period. Jonti Horner, astrophysicist at the University of Southern Queensland, said the nebulas are one of the "jewels of the night sky" that amateur astronomers often turn their telescopes towards. Professor Horner said that the detail was "breathtaking". While other big space telescopes can achieve this level of detail, Professor Webster said they can't do it with the wide angle Rubin enjoys. "Here, we've got the depth of a big telescope with a very big field of view, and that's very exciting." Professor Webster said that the colours can tell astronomers about the physical processes happening in the nebulas. Pink, for instance, indicates a lot of hydrogen. "There's lots of stars in the pink areas and those are hot young stars," Professor Webster said. But what sets Rubin's imagery apart is the orange regions around the nebulas. Professor Webster said the orange likely indicates dust — but she's not seen an image like it before. "This is not surprising, but you don't normally see this large scale." The other two pictures Rubin has released both look beyond our galaxy to the Virgo Cluster. This is a group of galaxies 55 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. The entire group spans about 8 degrees across the sky, making it too wide for most high-power telescopes to snap in one image. But, as Swinburne University astrophysicist Tania Barone pointed out, Rubin is designed to see the whole thing in detail. Part of this important context is the way the galaxies interact with one another, connected by faintly glowing strings of stars. "Often when you look at images that don't go quite as deep, all the galaxies look isolated," Dr Barone said. "It's only when you get this really beautiful deep imaging that you see the trails and connections between them and the way that they're merging." One Rubin image shows three merging galaxies in a corner, with clear connections in between each. "We're seeing this cosmic dance in motion as they intertwine and merge," Dr Barone said. While the bright stars with their telltale points and the swirling galaxies might draw the most attention, it's the indistinct, pale smudges that Dr Webster is excited by. Some of these smudges might be faint Milky Way objects, while others could be unusual galaxies without bright, massive centres. "For a long time people have speculated on crouching giants, which are amorphous collections of stars that don't have big nuclei in them," Dr Webster said. There are also features in the images she can't immediately identify — such as a cluster of three galaxies to the left of the image. "I just look at it and I think: what on Earth is going on there?" Dr Webster said. "I've never seen a galaxy that looks like that before." The official unveiling happens at 1am (AEST) this Tuesday, June 24. If you are keen, you can watch the unveiling live on the telescope's website or rug up and go to a watch party in Melbourne, Sydney or Perth. The Rubin Observatory, which is run by the US but based in Chile, will take photographs of the night sky every few seconds for the next 10 years. With its 8.4 metre mirror and 3,000kg camera, the observatory will be able to document the entire night sky every few days. This means it will be able to spot very subtle changes happening quickly — opening up new fields of research into astrophysics and dark matter. "We're going to get these really nice, beautiful, clear images of the whole southern sky," Dr Barone said. But it will also be useful for finding things much closer, like asteroids and Solar System objects. The observatory is set to start its 10-year survey later this year, but astronomers are expecting exciting results from it straightaway. "Within the first 12 months, there'll be some super results," Professor Webster said. They're also not expecting its job to be done after its initial decade. "If I'm still talking to journalists in 20 years time, we'll still be talking about Vera Rubin," Professor Horner said. "It'll still be delivering new results, even then."
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Ominous 'Chamaeleon' is hiding a stellar secret: Space photo of the week
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. QUICK FACTS What it is: The Chamaeleon I star-forming cloud Where it is: 522 light-years away, in the constellations Chamaeleon, Apus, Musca, Carina and Octans When it was shared: June 10, 2025 Stars form within dark molecular clouds of gas and dust called nebulae, but it's rare to capture these stellar nurseries clearly. A dramatic new image from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) in Chile unveils the Chamaeleon I dark cloud — the closest such place to the solar system — in unprecedented detail. The dark patches exposed in the new image give Chamaeleon I an ominous look, but within the thick veils of interstellar dust are pockets of light created by newly formed stars. Chamaeleon I is approximately 2 billion years old and is home to around 200 to 300 stars. Those young stars, now emerging from swirling gaseous plumes, are lighting up three nebulae — Cederblad 110 (at the top of the image), the C-shaped Cederblad 111 (center) and the orange Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula (bottom). In astronomy, the word "nebula" is used to describe a diverse range of objects. It was initially used to describe anything fuzzy in the sky that wasn't a star or a planet, and it also refers to planetary nebulae, shells of gas ejected from dying stars. Related: 28 gorgeous nebula photos that capture the beauty of the universe However, these three are reflection nebulae, which glow brightly only because they're illuminated by starlight. That's in contrast to the famous Orion Nebula, which emits its own light because the intense radiation of stars within or near the nebula energizes its gas, according to NASA. MORE SPACE PHOTOS —James Webb telescope takes best look at 'Sombrero Galaxy' in 244 years —Pink 'raindrops' on the sun captured in greatest detail ever —Violent galaxies seen 'jousting' near the dawn of time Chamaeleon I is just one part of the expansive Chamaeleon Cloud Complex — imaged in 2022 by the Hubble Space Telescope — which includes the smaller Chamaeleon II and III clouds. Chamaeleon I has been imaged many times before, most recently by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2023. What makes this new image stand out is its spectacular detail. Mounted on the National Science Foundation's Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, DECam's 570-megapixel sensor reveals an intriguing faint red path of nebulosity between Cederblad 110 and Cederblad 111. Formed when streams of gas ejected by young stars collided with slower-moving clouds of gas, they're known as Herbig-Haro objects and are embedded throughout Chamaeleon I. For more sublime space images, check out our Space Photo of the Week archives.
