Pic of the Week: Galaxy M83

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Galaxy M83 shown in both X-ray and Optical Light. (X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/AURA/STScI, Hubble Heritage Team, W. Blair (STScI/Johns Hopkins University) and R. O’Connell (University of Virginia); Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/A. Jubett, L. Frattare and P. Edmonds)

This week’s image is from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. It shows galaxy Messier 83 (M83), which is located approximately 15 million light-years from Earth. It is part of a study analyzing Chandra data from 2000 to 2014.

NASA provides more information on a recent study involving supernova remnants being studied by astronomers:

In the composite image, Messier 83, or M83, is shown to have a spiral structure, viewed straight on. At the center is a brilliant white and yellow pool of light. From that light, spiral arms of hot pink cloud corkscrew out in wide, sweeping arches. The galaxy is covered in a faint grey haze, and flecked with red, green, blue, white, and yellow dots.

Over a 14-year period from 2000 to 2014, astronomers pointed NASA’s X-ray observatory at the M83 galaxy. They discovered that about half of the X-ray sources believed to be supernova remnants, the aftermath of stellar explosions, were exhibiting dramatic changes in brightness. This result was entirely unexpected.

Those changes in brightness are highlighted in the timelapse videos. In each video, a series of static images flashes by, focused on one of the two X-ray sources once believed to be supernova remnants. In the videos, the X-ray sources appear as bright blue blobs with glowing cores. But in each image, taken months or years apart, the shapes change, as does the intensity of the blue color, and the brightness of the core. By presenting the substantively different images of the same objects one after another in quick succession, short timelapse videos are created.

The most likely explanation for the changes in brightness is that the team has uncovered a population of stellar survivors, stars that lived through an orbiting partner’s destruction in a supernova explosion. Material is being pulled from the surviving star onto the black hole or neutron star that formed in the supernova, a process known to cause rapid changes in X-ray brightness.

Go to the NASA link for images of two supernova remnants within galaxy M83.

Pic of the Week: Dwarf Irregular Galaxy ESO 490-017

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Image of the dwarf irregular glaxy ESO 490-017 (top center) captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA, ESA, R. Tully (University of Hawaii); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America))

This week’s image is from the Hubble Space Telescope. It shows the dwarf irregular galaxy ESO 490-017 as a mist of stars in the upper center of the image (hence the term “irregular”). The galaxy is about 23 million light-years away and only 12,000 light years across, compared to the 100,000 light-year diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy. If you look carefully, you can spot a variety of regular galaxies in the background that blend in with the stars in the foreground.

Pic of the Week: Saturn at Night

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): View of Saturn provided by the Cassini spacecraft. (NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute, Mindaugas Macijauskas)

This week’s image of Saturn comes from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited the planet for 13 years. Even after seeing so many images of Saturn, the spacecraft continued to surprise us with new and unique views.

Here is a little more about the image from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Telescopic views of Saturn and its beautiful rings often make it the star of star parties. But this stunning view of the outer gas gaint planet’s rings and night side just isn’t possible from telescopes in the vicinity of planet Earth. Peering out from the inner Solar System they can only bring Saturn’s day side into view. In fact, this image of Saturn’s slender sunlit crescent with the planet’s night shadow cast across its broad and complex ring system was captured by the robot spacecraft Cassini. After a seven year long journey from planet Earth, Cassini called Saturn orbit home for 13 years (from 2004 – 2017) before it was directed to dive into the atmosphere of the gas giant on September 15, 2017. This magnificent mosaic is composed of frames recorded by Cassini’s wide-angle camera only two days before its grand final plunge. And Saturn’s night will not be seen again until another spaceship from Earth calls.

Pic of the Week: The Crystal Ball Nebula

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Image (Credit): An image of NGC 1514, also called the Crystal Ball Nebula, as captured by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. (International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)

This week’s image is from the Gemini North telescope located on the summit of Maunakea in Hawaii. NGC 1514, or the Crystal Ball Nebula, is about 1,500 light-years away. It was first discovered in 1790 by German–British astronomer William Herschel, who classified it as a planetary nebula.

Here is a little more about the nebula from NOIRLab:

Planetary nebulae form when a low- or intermediate-mass star ejects its outer layers near the end of its life, forming a somewhat spherical cloud of gas. They typically have smoother, spherical shapes, making the Crystal Ball Nebula unique for its bumpy shells of gas. As the central star casts away this gas, its inner core is exposed. Radiation from the core energizes the gas, giving it a scorching temperature and chromatic glow…While it may appear in this image as if there is a single shining light source at the heart of the Crystal Ball Nebula, as Herschel saw, it actually contains two stars. These two stars orbit each other with a period of around nine years — the longest known for any binary pair within a planetary nebula. Scientists believe that one of these stars, which was once several times more massive than our Sun, released its outer layers while in the throes of death. As the progenitor star and its binary companion orbit each other, they mold the expanding shell of gas with their strong, asymmetrical winds, forming the lumpy layers we see today.

Pic of the Week: Crescent Mars

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Image (Credit): Mars as captured on May 15, 2026 by NASA’s Psyche mission as it approached the planet for a gravity assist. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

This week’s image comes from the Psyche spacecraft that is utilizing Martian gravity for its flight plan on its way to the asteroid Psyche in the asteroid belt. This image of a crescent Mars is one of many drive-by photos for both science and our enjoyment.

Here is more on this Martian part of the mission from NASA:

Because Psyche approached Mars from a high phase angle, the planet appeared as a thin crescent in the days running up to the close approach, lit by sunlight reflecting off its surface. In observations from the spacecraft’s multispectral imager, the crescent appeared brighter and extended farther around the planet’s disk than anticipated because of the strong scattering of sunlight through the planet’s dusty atmosphere. As Psyche passed from Mars’ nighttime skies to daytime, it took a rapid series of pictures of the surface around the time of closest approach.

“We’ve captured thousands of images of the approach to Mars and of the planet’s surface and atmosphere at close approach. This dataset provides unique and important opportunities for us to calibrate and characterize the performance of the cameras, as well as test the early versions of our image processing tools being developed for use at the asteroid Psyche,” said Jim Bell, the Psyche imager instrument lead at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe. “As the spacecraft continues its journey after the flyby, we’ll continue calibration imaging of Mars for the rest of the month as it recedes into the distance.”