Nipon Scope

06/04/2024

30/08/2023

Our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week features the protostellar object OH 339.88-1.26, which lies 8 900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ara.

The dark vertical streak at the centre of this image hides OH 339.88-1.26, which is an astrophysical maser. A maser is essentially a laser that produces coherent light at microwave wavelengths.

Such objects can occur naturally in astrophysical situations, in environments ranging from the north pole of Jupiter to star-forming regions such as the one pictured here.

This image comes from a set of Hubble observations that peer into the hearts of regions where massive stars are born to constrain the nature of massive protostars and test theories of their formation. Astronomers turned to Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to explore five intermediate-mass protostars at infrared wavelengths.

Read more about it here: https://ow.ly/Vui350PEQ0N

📷 ESA - European Space Agency / Hubble Space Telescope & NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration J. Tan

30/08/2023

Hubble images a glittering, star-studded globular cluster: https://astronomynow.com/2023/08/06/hubble-images-a-glittering-star-studded-globular-cluster/

18/06/2023

Our features the cluster Westerlund 2, a giant cluster of about 3000 stars with a sparkling centerpiece.

Past research found that the material encircling stars near the cluster’s centre is mysteriously devoid of the large, dense clouds of dust that would be expected to become planets in a few million years.

Their absence is caused by the cluster’s most massive and brightest stars that erode and disperse the discs of gas and dust of neighbouring stars.

Read more about it here: https://ow.ly/cG0850OQygC

📷 NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration ESA - European Space Agency the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team

22/05/2023

Our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week brings you a jellyfish galaxy adrift.

This galaxy lies over 900 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, and is one of several jellyfish galaxies that Hubble has been studying over the past two years.

Astronomers using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 studied the trailing tendrils of this galaxy in detail, as they are a particularly extreme environment for star formation.

Surprisingly, they found that star formation in the ‘tentacles’ of jellyfish galaxies was not noticeably different from star formation in the galaxy disc.

Read more here: http://ow.ly/U4ZV50OsYAS

📷 ESA - European Space Agency / Hubble Space Telescope & NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team

16/05/2023

Our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week features the densely packed globular cluster NGC 6325. ✨This group of stars lies around 26 000 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus.

Globular clusters are tightly bound collections of stars with anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of members.

They can be found in all types of galaxies, and act as natural laboratories for astronomers studying star formation.

However, astronomers inspected this particular cluster not to understand star formation, but to search for a hidden monster, an intermediate-mass black hole.

At least some of these densely packed globular clusters — including perhaps NGC 6325 — could have a black hole lurking at the centre.

Read more about it here: http://ow.ly/s2wJ50OmuEV

📷 ESA - European Space Agency / Hubble Space Telescope & NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration E. Noyola, R. Cohen