Pic of the Week: Jellyfish Galaxy JO206 

Posted on by onespaceman2000
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 Quote: NASA and Another Type of Tourism

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): OceanGate’s Titan submersible. (Associated Press)

“OceanGate is doing for deep sea exploration, discovery, and research what companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, World View, and Virgin Galactic are doing for space exploration and discovery…I look forward to supporting OceanGate’s effort to document the Titanic and its role as a deep ocean artificial reef when I join the expedition as a crewmember this summer.“

-Statement by NASA planetary scientist Alan Stern in an OceanGate press release from March 2022. Dr. Stern is best known for his role as the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The press release also discusses NASA’s assistance to OceanGate in the development of the Titan submersible that is still lost in the Atlantic after a mission to take tourists to see the late Titanic. While Dr. Stern mentions exploration and discovery, this was simply tourism gone wrong. Tourism is a lucrative aspect of the four space companies listed above, but it is not without its risks. Fortunately, Dr. Stern had a good trip last summer, and we can only hope the five individuals on the Titan will also return safely to the surface.

Space Stories: Mapping with Pulsars, Rocky Exoplanets, and Words from the Pope

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Vela pulsar, a neutron star that was formed when a massive star collapsed. (X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Toronto/M.Durant et al; Optical: DSS/Davide De Martin)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Universe Today: “Pulsars Could Help Map the Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way“

Last year, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)—an international consortium of astronomers and observatories—announced they had taken the first images of Sag A*, which came just two years after the release of the first-ever images of an SMBH (M87). In 2014, the European members of the EHT launched another initiative known as BlackHoleCam to gain a better understanding of SMBHs using a combination of radio imaging, pulsar observations, astrometry, and GR. In a recent paper, the BHC initiative described how they tested GR by observing pulsars orbiting Sgr A*.

—Max Planck Institute for Astronomy: “Searching for an Atmosphere on the Rocky Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c“

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an MPIA-led group of astronomers searched for an atmosphere on rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c. Although the planet is nearly identical in size and temperature to Venus, its atmosphere has turned out to be very different. By analysing the heat emitted from the planet, they conclude it may only have a tenuous atmosphere with minimal carbon dioxide. However, this measurement is also consistent with a barren rocky planet without any significant atmosphere. This work contributes to our understanding of how the atmospheres of rocky planets orbiting low-mass stars can withstand their strong stellar winds and intense UV radiation.

—Catholic News Service: “Pope Francis to Young Astronomers: Keep Love and Wonder Alive“

Pope Francis sent a letter to young astronomy scholars Tuesday encouraging them to maintain their “sense of wonder” and surprise throughout their research. While praising the “great discoveries” of astronomy, he urged the researchers never to lose sight of other important realities such as love and friendship.

A Day in Astronomy: Sally Ride and Valentina Tereshkova

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: The San Diego Union

On this day in 1983, astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, traveling aboard the shuttle Challenger. And 20 years earlier on the same date, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first Russian female in space, returned to Earth aboard Vostok 6, after orbiting the planet 48 times. She still remains the only woman to travel into space on a solo mission.

Image (Credit): Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (New Mexico Museum of Space History)

Podcast: Should We Be Talking to the Stars (or Exoplanets, to be More Precise)?

Posted on by onespaceman2000

I recommend you tune into another episode from The Planetary Society’s podcast Planetary Radio. In the episode, Space Policy Edition: The Policy Implications of Active SETI, we hear a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of an active SETI program, and whether we can even cease outreach to the neighboring systems given what has already been transmitted and the nature of our world today.

The guest on the episode is Jacob Haqq Misra, Senior Research Investigator at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. He is the author of a new book, Sovereign Mars: Transforming Our Values Through Space Settlement, though his main points related to our SETI program.

For instance, whether or not people support an active or passive SETI program often depends on whether we believe in benevolent or destructive aliens. Of course, the matter is unknowable until it happens, yet fraught with fears based on what we know about ourselves and our own exploration.

The discussion also discussed the presentation of SETI in films, such as Contact, as well as the definition of intelligence itself, be it whales (remember Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home?) or even ChatGPT. And we are already past the point of turning off our “active outreach” given that interested aliens are probably looking for both bio-signatures and techno-signatures, which we are creating without any thought. Astronomers are currently searching for such signatures among the exoplanets, so it would make sense the same type of search is being focused on our solar system.

Plenty of food for thought. Enjoy the show.

Credit: University Press of Kansas