Hubble Space Telescope Captures Butterfly Nebula #HubbleSpaceTelescope #nebula #butterfly - http://clapway.com/2015/08/27/hubble-space-telescope-butterfly-nebula123/

Pretty strange and mysterious things occur in space. Take for example, the awe-inspiring mixture of interstellar gas and dust seen in the “Pillars of Creation.” The photo, taken on April 1, 1995, has quite a reputation among astronomers and layfolk alike. Unsurprisingly, it was named by Space.com as one of the top ten photographs taken by NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope. A new photo of Twin Jet Nebula, however, looks like it might give the “Pillars of Creation” a run for its money.

Hubble Space Telescope Captures Stunning Image of Twin Jet Nebula

This time around, Hubble was able to capture a shot of a “dying, binary star” or Twin Jet Nebula. According to Gizmodo, the photo was released to the public today, and features the nebula’s “two shimmering lobes” that somewhat resemble the wings of a butterfly (at least a galactic one).

The nebula, or PN M2-9, was discovered in 1947 by Rudolph Minkowski, a German-American Astronomer. The glowing and “expanding shells of gas” that can be seen stretching outwards from the center are indicative of the final stages of life for an old star. During this phase, the star would have ejected its outer layers to expose its core; the rainbow colors you can see so well in the picture are caused when the core illuminates these layers.

This photo, in particular, depicts a bipolar nebula (two stars) – each of which have the same mass as the sun. The butterfly-wing effect is mostly likely caused by the movement of the two central stars – consisting of a white dwarf and its partner star – as they navigate around each other. According to CBS News, this white dwarf star is thought to be orbiting its partner star, which helps to pull the ejected gas, moving at speeds close to 620,000 miles an hour, from the dying star into the formation of two lobes.

In describing the photo, NASA states:

“Within the wings, starting from the star system and extending horizontally outwards like veins are two faint blue patches.”

Based on the information gathered from this picture and through observations, astronomers believe that the nebula was created roughly 1,200 years ago – a very short time, considering the over timeline of space and the universe.

More on Hubble? Click here.

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Hubble Space Telescope Captures Butterfly Nebula

Witness the Last Breath of the Dying Star Known as Herschel 36 - http://clapway.com/2015/08/03/witness-the-last-breath-of-the-dying-star-known-as-herschel-36-123/

If you’ve ever wondered what a dying star looks like right when it’s about to bite the dust, wonder no more: NASA has just released an image taken by its Hubble Space Telescope which reveals the bright star known as Herschel 36 in its final death throes, a process that the agency says generally takes tens of thousands of years.

What Does a Dying Star Look Like?

The picture posted by NASA shows Herschel 36 surrounded by a gas cloud that left its core exposed for the photograph. Emanating from the gas cloud are radiant wisps of orange and blue hues, creating a truly spectacular sight. These colors are the result of ultraviolet light powering the gas cloud that surrounds the dying star, and match the colors seen within the Ring Nebula. Because the images combine optical light and infrared light, people can see right into the heart of the nebula to witness a spectacle that has taken tens of thousands of years to transpire.

Herschel 36: The Central Star of the Lagoon Nebula Messier 8

The dying star Herschel 36 is located in the Lagoon Nebula, and it is the central star of that nebula. It is classified as a blue star, and is known to be the youngest main sequence star that has been observed to date. Main sequence stars are stars that contain helium atoms at their cores, atoms that were formed as a result of the fusion of hydrogen atoms. It is estimated that about 90% of all the stars in the universe are main sequence stars, including our own sun. The dying star Herschel 36 can be found within the stellar neighborhood of the Sagittarius constellation.

The Significance of a Dying Star

A dying star is important to take note of, because of the possible outcomes of a star’s death. If the star is about 1.4 times bigger than the size of our own sun, it collapses into a white dwarf because it is unable to support itself against the forces of its own gravity. If the star is up to three times bigger than our sun, its death results in a neutron star. Any bigger than that, however, and the chances are that the gravitational forces at work are too great for the star to overcome, and it collapses in on itself, forming a black hole. One of the most fascinating possible outcomes of a dying star, though, is if it goes through a supernova and expels excess mass into the universe, as such an event is known to be one of the brightest sights in the night sky.

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Stars and all things intergalactic are an adventure unto themselves. Give your kids an at-home space-related adventure:

 

Witness the Last Breath of the Dying Star Known as Herschel 36

NASA"s New Horizons Probe Reveals Many "Faces" Of Pluto - http://clapway.com/2015/06/14/nasas-new-horizons-probe-reveals-many-faces-of-pluto-765/

It still might be news to some folks that Pluto has many “faces,” but those who were uninitiated before can now understand the planet a little bit better. It seems that the many faces of Pluto have now just become visible in a collection of brand new images captured by NASA’s New Horizon’s probe. The probe happens to be only 4 weeks away from a historical first-time close encounter with the small, blue planet.

WHAT DO THESE PHOTOS OF PLUTO REVEAL?

Video footage of the new images of Pluto illustrate a full 360 degree panorama of the planet’s entire surface. These photographs show us sections of the planet that are both light, dark, and several shades of gray in between, which might tell us there are more surface features to soon be discovered.

NASA called these pictures “the best views ever obtained of the Pluto system.” Hal Weaver, New Horizons Project Scientist, says that the surface of Pluto is extremely nuanced and complex. “Now, we want to start to learn more about what these various surface units might be and what’s causing them,” he says. “By early July we will have spectroscopic data to help pinpoint that.”

ABOUT NEW HORIZONS & LONG RANGE RECONNAISSANCE IMAGER

The distance New Horizons has traveled in order to reach Pluto is nearly 3 billion miles, which were covered in just under 10 years. This New Horizons probe is the first of its kind to ever take on a close physical study of the planet, and it is already beating the Hubble Space Telescope in terms of image quality. Much of the thanks goes to the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), which took the new images. LORRI uses a specific technique called deconvolution, which makes the planet look non-spherical. The lack of sphericity is also due to Pluto’s big variations in surface brightness. Additionally, the contrast in these images has been “stretched to bring out additional details.”

DECONVOLUTION

The deconvolution process and technique has been employed by the New Horizons team to examine the surface markings on the planet of Pluto, including one bright area at one pole that some scientists believe is a polar cap. The process of deconvolution in its past has created “false details,” otherwise known as artifacts, in the pictures. As a result, the spacecraft team will need to be careful as they review the images produced with this technique.

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NASA"s New Horizons Probe Reveals Many "Faces" Of Pluto

Loneliness is universal truths in the universe. How universal? - http://clapway.com/2015/06/08/lonely-stars-lead-us-to-a-type-ia-supernova-234/

Loneliness is universal truths in the universe. How universal? The Hubble Space telescope (HST) reveals that even stars can get lonely. And in that loneliness, lonely stars–far away from their parent galaxies–just might die. A lonely death, at that.

Hubble Space Telescope Reveals 3 Lonely Stars

The Hubble Space Telescope reveals images of three different stars getting separated form the galaxies in which they belong and end up dying from the isolation that prevents them from sustaining their energies. Talk about pack animals. When stars are removed from their parent galaxies, survival is shaky if not impossible.

The three massive stars were discovered between 2008 and 2010 thanks to the now infamous Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. These three stars went supernova in isolation, in-between galaxies. This is odd because usually stars supernova within galaxies of billions of other stars–never quite this alone.

The Emptiness Within Our Galaxies

Today, scientists know very little about the dark, empty spaces that sits between galaxies. Maybe even less than they know about very star-filled galaxies. The separation of stars from their galaxies is actually a pretty rare occurrence. These intracluster stars would have been 300-million-lightyears away from their closest neighbors.

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Supernovae Explosion Properties

These three stars were involved in a Type Ia supernovae. A Type Ia supernova is a kind of stellar explosion in which a smaller star is absorbed by a bigger one. Lead by lead researcher Melissa Graham, researchers are the University of California, Berkeley described that the lower-mass white dwarf may have gotten too close and was then broken by the bigger star. A transfer of mass occurred that caused the the Type Ida supernova. In the past, Graham has also previously studied intraclusters of stars and how Type Ia supernovae can occur.

Understandably, stars that are bigger in size tend to explode more and are more easily visible in their supernova explosions. Smaller stars sort of gradually run out of energy and die out that way. This is precisely what happened to the three lonely stars.

Lonely Stars Lead Us to a Type Ia Supernova

3 Supernovae Explode In Space - http://clapway.com/2015/06/06/3-supernovae-explode-in-space-123/

According to images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, 3 supernovae that were originally discovered several years ago have exploded in space, after they had been flung from their home galaxies millions or even billions of years prior.

A large majority of supernovae can be discovered inside galaxies surrounded by hundreds of billions of stars, one of which may just explode per century per galaxy.

 

What can these isolated stars tell us?

These isolated supernovae were discovered in between galaxies, and the rarity of these supernovae give us a key clue as to what lives in the expansive space in the middle of galaxies. These findings will also be able to assist astronomers in comprehending exactly how galaxy clusters first originally came together and how they evolved throughout the universe’s history.

The existence of the isolated pockets made study leader Melissa Graham think of the star Thrial – a fictional star which is located a million light years away from any other star, in the fictional novel Against a Dark Background penned by author Ian Banks.

Graham’s findings

Planets that are surrounding these intracluster stars saw their demise by the explosions. However, they would have left a night sky completely devoid of shining stars, Graham says. “We have provided the best evidence yet that intracluster stars truly do explode as Type Ia supernovae,” Graham said, going on to say that hostless supernovae can lead us to the population of other intracluster stars.

In addition, Graham and her colleagues stumbled upon a 4th exploding star, found by CFHT. This star apparently was inside of a red, round region that may be a galaxy small in size or a globular cluster. If it is indeed true that the supernova is part of the globular cluster, it would be the first time a supernova has exploded within the confines of these pocket-sized, compact clusters consisting of less than one million stars. All 4 supernovae were in galaxy clusters that were nearly a billion light years from Earth.

Other kinds of explosions

A Type II supernova explosion involves a star which has 9 times the solar mass, at the very least. When the star’s fuel is close to disappearing, the star will flare up and burst due to the core collapse. Types 1b and 1c involve the same type of star. A more lethal kind of explosion is the hypernova, which has an energy 50 times more powerful than other supernovas, and can result in a black hole.

3 Supernovae Explode In Space

Washington, D.C.: Nasty Star Provides Clues to Star Death - http://clapway.com/2015/05/23/washington-d-c-nasty-star-provides-clues-to-star-death123/

Recent news from the Hubble Space Telescope website is telling us about a great big “nasty star” in the galaxy that is cannibalizing from its smaller neighbor and generally not behaving as a good Wolf-Rayet star is supposed to.

 

Wolf-Rayet Stars on their Way to Supernova

A Wolf-Rayet star is a giant star, more than 20 times larger than our own Sun and they are in the last stages of their lives before going supernova. These types of stars are running out of fuel. The last elements it starts to burn have more atoms and thus create more radiation and heat. Solar winds blowing from the sun can travel up to 5.4-million miles per hour. Eventually, the winds strip off the outer layers of gas, leaving the core, which succumbs to gravity, creating a supernova.

What scientists normally see with a Wolf-Rayet star is that it is paired with a smaller, unseen star that it leeches fuel from in the form of hydrogen, helium, oxygen and so forth. These stars puff up as they begin to lack hydrogen for fuel and become susceptible to gravitational stripping. The stars expand as the elements holding it together start to be burned as fuel. The process of gases leeching away usually creates an image of twin hemispheres of gas emanating from opposite ends of the star.

 

The NaSt1 “Nasty Star”

In the case of the nasty star, pictures from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are showing a disk of gas that is more pancake-shaped surrounding the star. The circle of gas is estimated to be 2-trillion miles across. That is about 1,000 times larger than our own solar system.

The nasty star got its nickname from the official name of NaSt1, which is the designation in honor of the two astronomers who first spotted the star in 1963, Charles Stephenson and Jason Nassau. Researchers have more recently been observing the nasty star as it provides unusual circumstances. In universal time, this phenomenon is short lived, with the gas disk travel only being visible for perhaps ten-thousand years and there aren’t many examples around for study.

 

Reason for the Strange Disk Shape

Astronomer Jon Mauerhan, the NaSt1 study leader, from the University of California-Berkeley Department of Astronomy, explains that this new information from Hubble shows what is likely a pair of Wolf-Rayet stars wherein the larger star is siphoning hydrogen from the smaller one, and the occurrence is extremely rare. He states that the larger star cannibalizing the smaller one makes the nasty star nickname a fitting one. Studying this event of aggressive expansion from the stars can help astronomers understand how stars are formed and how they die.

The results of the research were recently published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society’s online edition.

Washington, D.C.: Nasty Star Provides Clues to Star Death