Pic of the Week: Pa 30 – The Temporary Star

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Composite image of circular nebula Pa 30. (X-ray: (Chandra) NASA/CXC/U. Manitoba/C. Treyturik, (XMM-Newton) ESA/C. Treyturik; Optical: (Pan-STARRS) NOIRLab/MDM/Dartmouth/R. Fesen; Infrared: (WISE) NASA/JPL/Caltech/; Image Processing: Univ. of Manitoba/Gilles Ferrand and Jayanne English)

This week’s image is a circular nebula that first appears more than 800 years ago, shocking those observing it on Earth at the time and lasting for about 185 days. The circular nebula, called Pa 30, is shown above as a composite of multiple telescopes, including the Chandar X-ray Observatory, which is now facing a threat to its funding.

Hear is more from NASA concerning this image:

X-ray observations by ESA’s XMM-Newton (blue) show the full extent of the nebula and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (cyan) pinpoints its central source. The nebula is barely visible in optical light but shines bright in infrared light, collected by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Space Explorer (red and pink). Interestingly, the radial structure in the image consists of heated sulfur that glows in visible light, observed with the ground-based Hiltner 2.4 m telescope at the MDM Observatory (green) in Arizona, USA, as do the stars in the background by Pan-STARRS (white) in Hawaii, USA.

Studies of the composition of the different parts of the remnant have led scientists to believe that it was formed in a thermonuclear explosion, and more precisely a special kind of supernova called a sub-luminous Type Iax event. During this event two white dwarf stars merged, and typically no remnant is expected for this kind of explosion. But incomplete explosions can leave a kind of ‘zombie’ star, such as the massive white dwarf star in this system. This very hot star, one of the hottest stars in the Milky Way (about 200 000 degrees Celsius), has a fast stellar wind with speeds up to 16,000 km/h. The combination of the star and the nebula makes it a unique opportunity for studying such rare explosions.

Pic of the Week: The Total Solar Eclipse

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Image (Credit): Chicagoans watch the April 8, 2024 eclipse. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

The image of the week relates to the Total Solar Eclipse that captured the nation’s attention. Goofy glasses like the ones shown in The Chicago Tribune (above) and Wired magazine (below) were worn across the country to watch this rare event.

Image (Credit): Eclipse watchers in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Pic of the Week: The Gediz Vallis Channel

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Panoramic shot of Mar’s Gediz Vallis channel taken by the Curiosity rover. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

This week’s image comes from NASA’s Curiosity rover in the Gediz Vallis channel. It is a 360-degree panorama shot from back on February 3. The rover has diligently continued its exploration of the Martian surface since it first landed in 2012.

In terms of this latest rover location, NASA stated:

NASA’s Curiosity rover has begun exploring a new region of Mars, one that could reveal more about when liquid water disappeared once and for all from the Red Planet’s surface. Billions of years ago, Mars was much wetter and probably warmer than it is today. Curiosity is getting a new look into that more Earth-like past as it drives along and eventually crosses the Gediz Vallis channel, a winding, snake-like feature that – from space, at least – appears to have been carved by an ancient river.

That possibility has scientists intrigued. The rover team is searching for evidence that would confirm how the channel was carved into the underlying bedrock. The formation’s sides are steep enough that the team doesn’t think the channel was made by wind. However, debris flows (rapid, wet landslides) or a river carrying rocks and sediment could have had enough energy to chisel into the bedrock. After the channel formed, it was filled with boulders and other debris. Scientists are also eager to learn whether this material was transported by debris flows or dry avalanches.

Pic of the Week: Preparing for the Total Solar Eclipse

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: New York Department of Economic Development

This week’s image comes from the great state of New York, which is advertising the upcoming Total Solar Eclipse on April 8.

New York is one of the state’s that will experience the eclipse, and the New York Department of Economic Development is not missing the chance to ensure everyone knows this.

A handy map also provides the timing of the eclipse in each city.

Credit: New York Department of Economic Development

Pic of the Week: Tightly Bound Herbig-Haro 46/47

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): JWST view of actively forming stars known as Herbig-Haro 46/47. (NASA, ESA, CSA)

This week’s image, released last year, is from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It shows two forming stars in what is called Herbig-Haro 46/47.

Here is a full explanation of what you are seeing from NASA:

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light. Look for them at the center of the red diffraction spikes. The stars are buried deeply, appearing as an orange-white splotch. They are surrounded by a disk of gas and dust that continues to add to their mass.

Herbig-Haro 46/47 is an important object to study because it is relatively young – only a few thousand years old. Stars take millions of years to fully form. Targets like this also give researchers insight into how stars gather mass over time, potentially allowing them to model how our own Sun, a low-mass star, formed.

The two-sided orange lobes were created by earlier ejections from these stars. The stars’ more recent ejections appear in a thread-like blue, running along the angled diffraction spike that covers the orange lobes.

Actively forming stars ingest the gas and dust that immediately surrounds them in a disk (imagine an edge-on circle encasing them). When the stars “eat” too much material in too short a time, they respond by sending out two-sided jets along the opposite axis, settling down the star’s spin, and removing mass from the area. Over millennia, these ejections regulate how much mass the stars retain.

Don’t miss the delicate, semi-transparent blue cloud. This is a region of dense dust and gas, known as a nebula. Webb’s crisp near-infrared image lets us see through its gauzy layers, showing off a lot more of Herbig-Haro 46/47, while also revealing a deep range of stars and galaxies that lie far beyond it. The nebula’s edges transform into a soft orange outline, like a backward L along the right and bottom.

The blue nebula influences the shapes of the orange jets shot out by the central stars. As ejected material rams into the nebula on the lower left, it takes on wider shapes, because there is more opportunity for the jets to interact with molecules within the nebula. Its material also causes the stars’ ejections to light up.

Over millions of years, the stars in Herbig-Haro 46/47 will fully form – clearing the scene.