Pic of the Week: Jellyfish Galaxy JO206 

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Image (Credit): The jellyfish galaxy JO206 trails across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. (ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team)

This week’s image is from the Hubble Space Telescope. It shows the jellyfish galaxy JO206, which is about 700 million light-years away. A close-up of the galaxy iteself is provided below.

Here is more about the image from the European Space Agency (ESA):

[Galaxy JO206 is] showcasing a colorful star-forming disk surrounded by a pale, luminous cloud of dust. A handful of foreground bright stars with crisscross diffraction spikes stands out against an inky black backdrop at the bottom of the image…

Jellyfish galaxies are so-called because of their resemblance to their aquatic namesakes. In the bottom right of this image, long tendrils of bright star formation trail the disk of JO206, just as jellyfish trail tentacles behind them. The tendrils of jellyfish galaxies are formed by the interaction between galaxies and the intra-cluster medium, a tenuous superheated plasma that pervades galaxy clusters. As galaxies move through galaxy clusters, they ram into the intracluster medium, which strips gas from the galaxies and draws it into the long tendrils of star formation.

The tentacles of jellyfish galaxies give astronomers a unique opportunity to study star formation under extreme conditions, far from the influence of the galaxy’s main disk. Surprisingly, Hubble revealed that there are no striking differences between star formation in the disks of jellyfish galaxies and star formation in their tentacles, which suggests the environment of newly formed stars has only a minor influence on their formation.

Image (Credit): Close-up of the jellyfish galaxy JO206 from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. (ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team)

Space Stories: Habitable Zone Planets, Satellite Interference, and Extraterrestrial Communication

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Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the Milky Way Galaxy. (NASA JPL)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—ScienceDaily: “One-third of Galaxy’s Most Common Planets Could be in Habitable Zone“

In a new analysis based on the latest telescope data, University of Florida astronomers have discovered that two-thirds of the planets around these ubiquitous small stars could be roasted by these tidal extremes, sterilizing them. But that leaves one-third of the planets — hundreds of millions across the galaxy — that could be in a goldilocks orbit close enough, and gentle enough, to hold onto liquid water and possibly harbor life.

—Space Telescope Science Institute: “Astronomers are Reducing Satellite Interference in Hubble Images“

When the Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990, there were about 470 artificial satellites orbiting Earth. By 2000, that number doubled. But by 2023, the rising number has grown almost exponentially to nearly 8,000 satellites. For Hubble this means that satellites photobomb about 10% of its exposures on celestial targets…Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland have developed tools for cleaning up this clutter. Hubble observations consist of more than just one exposure. And so, artifacts can be identified and subtracted between exposures because they are not in the same place on a detector.

—BGR: “Aliens Might be Trying to Contact Us from Within the Milky Way, Study Claims“

A new study seems to think alien signals could be emitting from the heart of the Milky Way, attempting to make contact with humankind. The study focuses on the use of data from a groundbreaking mission known as the Breakthrough Listen Investigation for Periodic Spectral Signals (BLIPSS), which looks for repeating patterns that could be key to unlocking connections with extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy.

Pic of the Week: The Jellyfish Galaxy

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Image (Credit): The massive galaxy JO204. (NASA)

This week’s image is from the Hubble Space Telescope. You are looking at JO204, also called the “jellyfish galaxy” because of its tendrils. It is about 600 million light-years away. It is an impressive sight.

Here is a little more on the galaxy from NASA:

While the delicate ribbons of gas beneath JO204 may look like floating jellyfish tentacles, they are in fact the outcome of an intense astronomical process known as ram pressure stripping. Ram pressure is a particular type of pressure exerted on a body when it moves relative to a fluid. An intuitive example is the sensation of pressure you experience when you are standing in an intense gust of wind – the wind is a moving fluid, and your body feels pressure from it. An extension of this analogy is that your body will remain whole and coherent, but the more loosely bound things – like your hair and your clothes – will flap in the wind. The same is true for jellyfish galaxies. They experience ram pressure because of their movement against the intergalactic medium that fills the spaces between galaxies in a galaxy cluster. The galaxies experience intense pressure from that movement, and as a result their more loosely bound gas is stripped away. This gas is mostly the colder and denser gas in the galaxy – gas which, when stirred and compressed by the ram pressure, collapses and forms new stars in the jellyfish’s beautiful tendrils.

A Day in Astronomy: The Hubble Space Telescope is Launched

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Image (Credit): The Hubble Space Telescope orbits with Earth in the background. (NASA)

On this day in 1990, NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery launched the Hubble Space Telescope. We do not think of the shuttles anymore as we discuss reusable rockets, but the shuttles were the first reusable spacecraft-launching vehicles.

After some initial problems, the Hubble became a critical component in the exploration of the universe. Some of the telescope’s amazing images are shown below.

It is still going strong, even though its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is the more powerful of the two. Launched in late 2021, the JWST has expanded on some of Hubble’s earlier work. The pair are a powerful team.

Here are a few interesting facts about Hubble:

  • Hubble has made more than 1.5 million observations since its mission began in 1990.
  • Astronomers using Hubble data have published more than 19,000 scientific papers, making it one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built. Those papers have been cited in other papers over 1.1 million times.
  • Hubble has no thrusters. To change angles, it uses Newton’s third law by spinning its wheels in the opposite direction. It turns at about the speed of a minute hand on a clock, taking 15 minutes to turn 90 degrees.
  • Hubble has peered back into the very distant past, to locations more than 13.4 billion light-years from Earth.
  • Hubble’s mirror is about 7.9 feet (2.4 m) across. It was so finely polished that if you scaled it to be the diameter of the Earth, you would not find a bump more than 6 inches (15 cm) tall.
Image (Credit): The Carina Nebula. (NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Image (Credit): NGC 3603. (NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration)
Image (Credit): The Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33. (NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI))

Good Article: Telescope Mishaps on Earth and in the Heavens

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Image (Copy): The Wyoming Infrared Observatory (WIRO). (WIRO)

The New York Times had a good article on various mishaps related to telescopes here on Earth (such as WIRO above) as well as those now floating in space. The story, “From Bullets to ‘Bird Residue,’ the Many Trials of Telescopes,” shares stories about various natural (bird poop) and man-made (dropped tool) events that have left their marks on astronomy.

We have all heard about the misshaped mirror on the Hubble Space Telescope as well as micrometeors hitting the James Webb Space Telescope, but have you heard about the employee who shot and hammered the primary mirror at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas?

Take a look at the article. You will find plenty of stories to amuse you as well as give you pause.