Superbubble



A superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way located about 160,000 light years from Earth can be seen in this image. Many new stars, some of them very massive, are forming in the star cluster NGC 1929, which is embedded in the nebula N44, so named because it is the 44th nebula in a catalog of such objects in the Magellanic Clouds. The massive stars produce intense radiation, expel matter at high speeds, and race through their evolution to explode as supernovas. The winds and supernova shock waves carve out huge cavities called superbubbles in the surrounding gas. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) show hot regions created by these winds and shocks, while infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) outline where the dust and cooler gas are found. The optical light from the 2.2-m Max-Planck-ESO telescope (yellow) in Chile shows where ultraviolet radiation from hot, young stars is causing gas in the nebula to glow.

A long-running problem in high-energy astrophysics has been that some superbubbles in the LMC, including N44, give off a lot more X-rays than expected from models of their structure. These models assume that hot, X-ray emitting gas has been produced by winds from massive stars and the remains of several supernovas. A Chandra study published in 2011 showed that there are two extra sources of N44’s X-ray emission not included in these models: supernova shock waves striking the walls of the cavities, and hot material evaporating from the cavity walls. The Chandra observations also show no evidence for an enhancement of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in the cavities, thus ruling out this possibility as a third explanation for the bright X-ray emission. Only with long observations making full use of the capabilities of Chandra has it now become possible to distinguish between different sources of the X-rays produced by superbubbles.


Oracle going into the water...

 The Oracle AC72 is being put together and getting ready for the water. It is already being called BatZilla, after the DOGZilla name given to the Tri from the past AC series. I would love to be there to see this monster, the wing is 135 feet (About 45 meters) and is quite something to see. The report is that the rudders have foils as do the main dagger-boards. So we will see if this animal will fly. In any case, this is an incredible engineering creation.

AC72

AC72

AC45 Foiling

As time ticks by, the America’s Cup next big boats are coming off the assembly line and hitting the water. The first to splash was Team New Zealand and now Oracle is getting ready to splash their AC72. The one question now is will these monsters be foiling cats? Oracle has played with a foil on the AC45, but will the 72’s be foiling as well? I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Mars Song

"For the first time in history, a recorded song has been beamed back to Earth from another planet. Students, special guests and news media gathered at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., today to hear "Reach for the Stars" by musician will.i.am after it was transmitted from the surface of Mars by the Curiosity rover. "

You may have heard about this, it is really a silly thing... It serves no purpose other than to draw attention to Mars. I wonder if any student will sign up for advanced math or physics because they heard this song??? The people who study science would study it anyway, taking the time to send and receive a song from Mars does nothing to further science. What this shows is the absolute limit that Americans must take to try to get young school students to actually study. My opinion is that America is going down the stupidity hole and will never come out. It was a plan by the people in charge to make the 'average' American as stupid as possible so that they would not understand the crap that the power brokers do. I just think that maybe somewhere in this world I could go and feel that the people around me are not delusional, irrational people.

Kepler-47 B and C

Coming less than a year after the announcement of the first circumbinary planet, Kepler-16b, NASA's Kepler mission has discovered multiple transiting planets orbiting two suns for the first time. This system, known as a circumbinary planetary system, is 4,900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

This discovery proves that more than one planet can form and persist in the stressful realm of a binary star and demonstrates the diversity of planetary systems in our galaxy.

Astronomers detected two planets in the Kepler-47 system, a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other every 7.5 days from our vantage point on Earth. One star is similar to the sun in size, but only 84 percent as bright. The second star is diminutive, measuring only one-third the size of the sun and less than 1 percent as bright.

"In contrast to a single planet orbiting a single star, the planet in a circumbinary system must transit a 'moving target.' As a consequence, time intervals between the transits and their durations can vary substantially, sometimes short, other times long," said Jerome Orosz, associate professor of astronomy at San Diego State University and lead author of the paper. "The intervals were the telltale sign these planets are in circumbinary orbits."

The inner planet, Kepler-47b, orbits the pair of stars in less than 50 days. While it cannot be directly viewed, it is thought to be a sweltering world, where the destruction of methane in its super-heated atmosphere might lead to a thick haze that could blanket the planet. At three times the radius of Earth, Kepler-47b is the smallest known transiting circumbinary planet.

The outer planet, Kepler-47c, orbits its host pair every 303 days, placing it in the so-called "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of a planet. While not a world hospitable for life, Kepler-47c is thought to be a gaseous giant slightly larger than Neptune, where an atmosphere of thick bright water-vapor clouds might exist.

"Unlike our sun, many stars are part of multiple-star systems where two or more stars orbit one another. The question always has been -- do they have planets and planetary systems? This Kepler discovery proves that they do," said William Borucki, Kepler mission principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "In our search for habitable planets, we have found more opportunities for life to exist."

To search for transiting planets, the research team used data from the Kepler space telescope, which measures dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars. Additional ground-based spectroscopic observations using telescopes at the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin helped characterize the stellar properties. The findings are published in the journal Science.

"The presence of a full-fledged circumbinary planetary system orbiting Kepler-47 is an amazing discovery," said Greg Laughlin, professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Science at the University of California in Santa Cruz. "These planets are very difficult to form using the currently accepted paradigm, and I believe that theorists, myself included, will be going back to the drawing board to try to improve our understanding of how planets are assembled in dusty circumbinary disks."

Ames manages Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed the Kepler mission development.

AC Worlds

With the end of the August AC Worlds, we can look back on a fun and exciting series. The venue has lived up to the hype and from what I was told, the viewing was great. Either from shore or on a boat, the course allowed so many to see what the AC is meant to be. The Uggg moment must be the crash of the Oracle cat into the committee boat on the start of the first fleet race of the second to last day. That was a big mistake and though the damage wasn’t bad, it still was enough to send the boat to shore. Of course the wing sails had a hard time as well and the repair crews must spend a lot of time fixing those carbon wings.

Mars up close

With more images coming back from the Mars rover, we are starting to see high detail pictures of the landing site and the target of future exploration. Looking at these new images, it seems the geology of Mars shows the stratification of the rock, possibly caused by water sedimentation. Of course winds can also transport and deposit material to make layers in the geology. But this is the reason to study Mars, to answer these questions.

Bandon Beach

Since I was in the southern Oregon area this weekend, I had to head out to one of the nicest beaches in the area. The small beach town of Bandon, at the mouth of the Coquille River is a typical Oregon community. When I would come to this small town as a child, there was a cheese factory which made cheese from all the local dairy farms. But the factory is long gone and the town is now a ‘vacation’ town with several golf courses in the area.

But for me the draw is the strip of beach on the south side of the town and river. Many large rock formations jut out of the sea and the beach forming an interesting landscape and many opportunities to climb and poke around in.

The water is cold but wading around some of the close in rocks or walking out to the large Sea Stacks in ankle deep water is fun. Poking around there bases you can find crabs, sea amenities, muscles clinging to the rock and lots of barnacles.  

The beach can be wind swept, but this weekend it was very pleasant and few people. This is a place where you can just sit on some drift wood and relax. The town itself is not a hot bed of activity and there are few attractions if fishing is not your thing.  But I come for the beach and that alone…

Bridge north or Coos Bay

Bandon is about twenty miles south of Coos Bay, the largest town in the area, and the drive is quite pleasant with lots of views and scenery.

Trip to my past...

This last weekend I drove to the very small ‘town’ that my father grew up in. It is not really a town per say, but more an intersection where a train once stopped and a bend in the road. Hence the name Broadbent. Of course it could also be from the meander the small river took and created a large pocket of very good farm land in a small valley. In any case, this small town is where my father was born and lived till he left for school and the greater world. The old family farm house and barn are still there as are the cows and horses. There really is nothing else except farms and it must have been quite a boring place, at least by today’s standards.

Not terribly far from the small town, up the river about five miles was a small park which our family would go to when we visited the area. The draw was the park was on a bend in the river and this provided a nice swimming hole. The bend produced a small beach area and the river had a deeper section that was nice to swim in. The river never flowed fast in the summer so it was quite a nice little place to spend an afternoon. It looks about the same today as I remembered it, but in general it seems smaller. The trail seems short, the river seems narrow and the area seems to be just not as expansive as a small child would see it. In any case it was a nice trip down those memory filled lanes of my past.

The Right Stuff....

l'Hydroptere DCNS

The 60-ft French foiling tri l'Hydroptere DCNS sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge in the wee hours of Wednesday morning to spend a little time in a place where they might actually find some wind. Skipper Alain Thébault and his crew have been frustrated by a lack of the blowy stuff in L.A. as they wait for a weather window to make their attempt on the L.A.-to-Honolulu TransPac record.

America’s Cup races this weekend

If you haven’t heard, the America’s Cup races, well the pre-races are this weekend in San Francisco. As anyone who has sailed in the bay in summer knows, the wind can be quite strong and on any given weekend a number of boats will be damaged. As for the AC45 cats running around on the bay, those wing-sails are a blessing and a curse. They make the boats very fast but it is hard to de-power them when the conditions get tough. On most sail boats, the sail can be adjusted to ‘spill’ air and de-power the sails. The wing is not able to de-power the same as a ‘soft’ sail and the result is the cats flip. What is good about the wing is that they are extremely efficient and allow the boats to sail very fast.

This gives this America’s Cup series something new and adds excitement. The old keel boats could at times be very slow and to watch them is not very exciting. But the bay is a great place to sail, with great conditions and excellent viewing. It is a shame that sailing in America is relegated to an almost non-existent coverage in the media. Other parts of the world follow the sailing action, but the US is far behind in that. What America wants is something that makes money and can be scene by many spectators (make more money) and is simple to follow.  Foot ball, Basketball, Baseball, car racing (not F1), golf are simple to understand. Put the ball in the hole or basket, drive in circles, no need to understand what is happening. Sailing take skill and tactics, there is no defined course to a mark, it is done away from shore and crowds can take hours or even days to finish a race and it is not easily covered by TV. So Americans can’t be bothered to invest some time to watch or to even follow a long off shore race. To bad…..

The JP Morgan Racing AC45 boat skippered by Ben Ainslie, of Great Britain, sails past the China Team AC45 boat that flipped over during a practice on San Francisco Bay for the America's Cup World Series sailing event in San Francisco, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2012.

Team Korea goes over

NASA's Curiosity high-resolution landing video

This movie from NASA's Curiosity rover shows most of the high-resolution frames acquired by the Mars Descent Imager between the jettison of the heat shield and touchdown. The video, obtained on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT), covers the last two-and-a-half minutes before touchdown in Gale Crater.
Audio recorded from mission control can be heard, counting down the critical events.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=150964561

The Orion nebula

Thousands of stars are forming in the cloud of gas and dust known as the Orion nebula. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image. Some of them have never been seen in visible light. I can never get tired of looking at this object, it seems every time I see it there is more detail. Looking through a telescope you only see some color and mostly it appears greenish. a photo really brings the colors out and this one is very nice.

Cat's Eye

The Cat's Eye Nebula, one of the first planetary nebulae discovered, also has one of the most complex forms known to this kind of nebula. Eleven rings, or shells, of gas make up the Cat's Eye.

Cosmic Collision?

Chance Alignment Between Galaxies Mimics a Cosmic Collision

A Long Long Way DOWN...........

Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, Expedition 32 commander, participates in a session of extravehicular activity (EVA) to continue outfitting the International Space Station. During the five-hour, 51-minute spacewalk, Padalka and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko (out of frame), flight engineer, moved the Strela-2 cargo boom from the Pirs docking compartment to the Zarya module to prepare Pirs for its eventual replacement with a new Russian multipurpose laboratory module. The two spacewalking cosmonauts also installed micrometeoroid debris shields on the exterior of the Zvezda service module and deployed a small science satellite.

Today's drive

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has begun driving from its landing site, which scientists have named for the late author Ray Bradbury.  Today's drive confirmed the health of Curiosity's mobility system and produced the rover's first wheel tracks on Mars.

The panorama shows evidence of a successful first test drive for NASA's Curiosity rover. On Aug. 22, 2012, the rover made its first move, going forward about 15 feet (4.5 meters), rotating 120 degrees and then reversing about 8 feet (2.5 meters). Curiosity is about 20 feet (6 meters) from its landing site, now named Bradbury Landing. Visible in the image are the rover's first track marks. A small 3.5-inch (9-centimeter) rock can be seen where the drive began, which engineers say was partially under one of the rear wheels. Scour marks left by the rover's descent stage during landing can be seen to the left and right of the wheel tracks.

America's Cup

With the smaller AC 45's in San Francisco for some 'friendly' racing, the new big AC 72's are starting to be launched. This is the front of the Artemis AC72, the Oracle72 will launch next week and the New Zealand72 was launched last week. I would love to see these big cats on the water, the smaller 45 foot one are already great to watch, but to see a  72 foot cat speeding along would be great. I will have to go to the City and get a first hand look at these amazing craft. The true America's Cup will be next year, but the run up will have a lot of racing and testing of the big cats. Should be a good year to come for sailing in SF.

Curiosity

The rear right wheel of NASA's Curiosity as rover drivers turned the wheels in place at the landing site on Mars. Engineers wiggled the wheels as a test of the rover's steering and anticipate embarking on Curiosity's first drive in the next couple of days.

Risotto in California

This last weekend I took a short trip back to see my parents. As always, cooking becomes a focus of activity. Though my mother is Italian (from Italy, not the American Italian types) she is not an avid cook. She was more than happy to have me cook for her. On the first night I made a simple roasted fish with a nice tangy Salsa Verdi. But the second night I decided to make Risotto.

We went to the market, which could be a whole other blog, and we picked up some nice big wild caught prawns. We had all the other ingredients to make the rice so we only picked up the shrimp and wine. Risotto is actually quite easy to make, just takes a little time and the best ingredients. Of course we have to have the Arborio rice, an onion, a piece of fennel, some spices and a little butter and oil.

 

Basic process is to cook the rice slowly by adding liquid slowly. For the cooking liquid, I took the shrimp shells (after removing them from the washed shrimp, and fry them with two tablespoons of butter. When the shells turn bright pink, I pour in water to make the cooking liquid. We used about one liter of liquid in the cooking process. As the shells simmered, I added some Saffron threads (just a few). As the liquid started to cook, I finely chopped the onion (not in a food processor, use a knife) into a fine dice and I also chopped the fennel into a equal sized dice.

I used a deep wide heavy pan, added two tablespoons of butter and one once of olive oil. Once heated to the point the butter was melting, but not browning, I added the onion and fennel. As they cooked, I added a teaspoon of Paprika and more Saffron threads and stirred. When the onion was translucent, I added the rice, one and one half cups, to the onion/fennel and stirred. Cooking the rice in the butter/oil will make the cooking process better.

When the rice turns opaque and is crisp but not brown, start to ladle in the liquid. You may strain the shells out first to make it easier but keep the liquid on a low heat. About 4 ounces at first, if it is still a little dry, add a little more liquid. As the liquid cooks off, add more, one ladle at a time. Stir the rice often so it doesn’t burn or brown. After about 15 minutes, the rice should be thickened, continue to add liquid and taste the rice, it should be becoming soft. If the rice is completely soft then it is done, but ad this point there should be a little hardness still. Add a little salt and the shrimp. Stir in more liquid and let cook for about 5 more minutes, stirring as you go. You don’t have to over stir the rice, be careful not to over stir and break the rice up.

Taste and when the rice is just soft through, it is finished, turn off heat, add a little more salt if needed and grated cheese if you wish. There should be no liquid in the rice, it should be creamy, not watery. Server at once.

30 Doradus Nebula

The 30 Doradus Nebula is 170,000 light-years from Earth. What at first was thought to be only one cluster in the core of the massive star-forming region 30 Doradus has been found to be a composite of two clusters that differ in age by about one million years.

The entire 30 Doradus complex has been an active star-forming region for 25 million years, and it is currently unknown how much longer this region can continue creating new stars. Smaller systems that merge into larger ones could help to explain the origin of some of the largest known star clusters.

X-Rays Shine From Heated Material Falling Into A Black Hole

A Vampire Star and Its Victim

This is an interesting story on binary stars, I studied these stars and am quite familiar with the processes at work. I think most people don't realize that most stars have a companion star.

The universe is a diverse place, and many stars are quite unlike the Sun. An international team has used the VLT to study what are known as O-type stars, which have very high temperature, mass, and brightness. These stars have short and violent lives and play a key role in the evolution of galaxies. They are also linked to extreme phenomena such as gamma-ray bursts and "vampire stars," where a smaller companion star sucks matter off the surface of its larger neighbor.
"These stars are absolute behemoths," said Hugues Sana (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands), the lead author of the study. "They have 15 or more times the mass of our Sun and can be up to a million times brighter. These stars are so hot that they shine with a brilliant blue-white light and have surface temperatures over 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit."
The astronomers studied a sample of 71 O-type single stars and stars in pairs (binaries) in six nearby young star clusters in the Milky Way. Most of the observations in their study were obtained using ESO telescopes, including the VLT.
By analyzing the light coming from these targets in greater detail than before, the team discovered that 75 percent of all O-type stars exist inside binary systems, a higher proportion than previously thought, and the first precise determination of this number. More importantly, though, they found that the proportion of these pairs that are close enough to interact (through stellar mergers or transfer of mass by so-called vampire stars) is far higher than anyone had thought, which has profound implications for our understanding of galaxy evolution.
O-type stars make up just a fraction of a percent of the stars in the universe, but the violent phenomena associated with them mean they have a disproportionate effect on their surroundings. The winds and shocks coming from these stars can both trigger and stop star formation, their radiation powers the glow of bright nebulae, their supernovae enrich galaxies with the heavy elements crucial for life, and they are associated with gamma-ray bursts, which are among the most energetic phenomena in the universe. O-type stars are therefore implicated in many of the mechanisms that drive the evolution of galaxies.
"The life of a star is greatly affected if it exists alongside another star," said Selma de Mink of the Space Telescope Science Institute, in Baltimore, Md., a co-author of the study. "If two stars orbit very close to each other they may eventually merge. But even if they don't, one star will often pull matter off the surface of its neighbor."
Mergers between stars, which the team estimates will be the ultimate fate of around 20 to 30 percent of O-type stars, are violent events. But even the comparatively gentle scenario of vampire stars, which accounts for a further 40 to 50 percent of cases, has profound effects on how these stars evolve.
Until now, astronomers mostly considered that closely orbiting massive binary stars were the exception, something that was only needed to explain exotic phenomena such as X-ray binaries, double pulsars, and black hole binaries. The new study shows that to properly interpret the universe, this simplification cannot be made: these heavyweight double stars are not just common, their lives are fundamentally different from those of single stars.
For instance, in the case of vampire stars, the smaller, lower-mass star is rejuvenated as it sucks the fresh hydrogen from its companion. Its mass will increase substantially and it will outlive its companion, surviving much longer than a single star of the same mass. The victim star, meanwhile, is stripped of its envelope before it has a chance to become a luminous red supergiant. Instead, its hot, blue core is exposed. As a result, the stellar population of a distant galaxy may appear to be much younger than it really is: both the rejuvenated vampire stars, and the diminished victim stars become hotter, and bluer in color, mimicking the appearance of younger stars. Knowing the true proportion of interacting high-mass binary stars is therefore crucial to correctly characterize these faraway galaxies.
"The only information astronomers have on distant galaxies is from the light that reaches our telescopes. Without making assumptions about what is responsible for this light we cannot draw conclusions about the galaxy, such as how massive or how young it is. This study shows that the frequent assumption that most stars are single can lead to the wrong conclusions," concluded Sana.
Understanding how big these effects are, and how much this new perspective will change our view of galactic evolution, will need further work. Modeling binary stars is complicated, so it will take time before all these considerations are included in models of galaxy formation.
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2012/33/full/

Cassiopeia A

This stunning false-color picture shows off the many sides of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. It is made up of images taken by three of NASA's Great Observatories, using three different wavebands of light. Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope are colored red; visible data from the Hubble Space Telescope are yellow; and X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are green and blue.

Located 10,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Cassiopeia, Cassiopeia A is the remnant of a once massive star that died in a violent supernova explosion 325 years ago. It consists of a dead star, called a neutron star, and a surrounding shell of material that was blasted off as the star died. This remnant marks the most recent supernova in our Milky Way galaxy, and is one of the most studied objects in the sky.

Each Great Observatory highlights different characteristics of this celestial orb. While Spitzer reveals warm dust in the outer shell about a few hundred degrees Kelvin (80 degrees Fahrenheit) in temperature, Hubble sees the delicate filamentary structures of hot gases about 10,000 degrees Kelvin (18,000 degrees Fahrenheit). Chandra probes unimaginably hot gases, up to about 10 million degrees Kelvin (18 million degrees Fahrenheit). These extremely hot gases were created when ejected material from Cassiopeia A smashed into surrounding gas and dust. Chandra can also see Cassiopeia A's neutron star (turquoise dot at center of shell).

Blue Chandra data were acquired using broadband X-rays (low to high energies); green Chandra data correspond to intermediate energy X-rays; yellow Hubble data were taken using a 900 nanometer-wavelength filter, and red Spitzer data are from the telescope's 24-micron detector.

Messier 81

The perfectly picturesque spiral galaxy known as Messier 81, or M81, looks sharp in this new composite from NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes and NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. M81 is a "grand design" spiral galaxy, which means its elegant arms curl all the way down into its center. It is located about 12 million light-years away in the Ursa Major constellation and is one of the brightest galaxies that can be seen from Earth through telescopes.

The colors in this picture represent a trio of light wavelengths: blue is ultraviolet light captured by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer; yellowish white is visible light seen by Hubble; and red is infrared light detected by Spitzer. The blue areas show the hottest, youngest stars, while the reddish-pink denotes lanes of dust that line the spiral arms. The orange center is made up of older stars.

The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared

size of a galaxy. In fact, it is part of the photogenic Sombrero Galaxy one of the largest galaxies in the nearby Virgo Cluster of Galaxies that obscures the mid-section of the Sombrero Galaxy in optical light actually glows brightly in infrared light. The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as M104, spans about 50,000 light years across and lies 28 million light years away. M104 can be seen with a small telescope in the direction of the constellation of Virgo.

Massive Star Cluster Awash with Red Supergiants

The sky is a jewelry box full of sparkling stars in these infrared images. The crown jewels are 14 massive stars on the verge of exploding as supernovae.

These hefty stars reside in one of the most massive star clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy. The bluish cluster is inside the white box in the large image, which shows the star-studded region around it. A close-up of the cluster can be seen in the inset photo.

These large stars are a tip-off to the mass of the young cluster. Astronomers estimate that the cluster is at least 20,000 times as massive as the Sun. Each red supergiant is about 20 times the Sun's mass.

The larger color-composite image was taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope for the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey

Abell 1689

Our Neighbor Andromeda

The immense Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31 or simply M31, is captured in full in this new image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The mosaic covers an area equivalent to more than 100 full moons, or five degrees across the sky. WISE used all four of its infrared detectors to capture this picture (3.4- and 4.6-micron light is colored blue; 12-micron light is green; and 22-micron light is red). Blue highlights mature stars, while yellow and red show dust heated by newborn, massive stars.
Andromeda is the closest large galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy, and is located 2.5 million light-years from our sun. It is close enough for telescopes to spy the details of its ringed arms of new stars and hazy blue backbone of older stars. Also seen in the mosaic are two satellite galaxies, known as M32, located just a bit above Andromeda to the left of center, and the fuzzy blue M110, located below the center of the great spiral arms. These satellites are the largest of several that are gravitationally bound to Andromeda.

The Andromeda galaxy is larger than our Milky Way and contains more stars, but the Milky Way is thought to perhaps have more mass due to its larger proportion of a mysterious substance called dark matter. Both galaxies belong to our so-called Local Group, a collection of more than 50 galaxies, most of which are tiny dwarf systems. In its quest to map the whole sky, WISE will capture the entire Local Group.

Vivid View of Tycho's Supernova Remnant

This composite image of the Tycho supernova remnant combines infrared and X-ray observations obtained with NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space observatories, respectively, and the Calar Alto observatory, Spain. It shows the scene more than four centuries after the brilliant star explosion witnessed by Tycho Brahe and other astronomers of that era.

The explosion has left a blazing hot cloud of expanding debris (green and yellow). The location of the blast's outer shock wave can be seen as a blue sphere of ultra-energetic electrons. Newly synthesized dust in the ejected material and heated pre-existing dust from the area around the supernova radiate at infrared wavelengths of 24 microns (red). Foreground and background stars in the image are white.

Orion's Rainbow of Infrared Light

This new view of the Orion nebula highlights fledgling stars hidden in the gas and clouds. It shows infrared observations taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel mission, in which NASA plays an important role.
A star forms as a clump of this gas and dust collapses, creating a warm glob of material fed by an encircling disk. These dusty envelopes glow brightest at longer wavelengths, appearing as red dots in this image. In several hundred thousand years, some of the forming stars will accrete enough material to trigger nuclear fusion at their cores and then blaze into stardom.

The nebula is found below the three belt stars in the famous constellation of Orion the Hunter, which appears at night in northern latitudes during fall and then throughout winter. At a distance of around 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the nebula cannot quite be seen with the naked eye. Binoculars or a small telescope, however, are all it takes to get a good look in visible light at this stellar factory.
Spitzer is designed to see shorter infrared wavelengths than Herschel. By combining their observations, astronomers get a more complete picture of star formation. The colors in this image relate to the different wavelengths of light, and to the temperature of material, mostly dust, in this region of Orion. Data from Spitzer show warmer objects in blue, with progressively cooler dust appearing green and red in the Herschel datasets. The more evolved, hotter embryonic stars thus appear in blue.
The combined data traces the interplay of the bright, young stars with the cold and dusty surrounding clouds. A red garland of cool gas also notably runs through the Trapezium, the intensely bright region that is home to four humungous blue-white stars, and up into the rich star field.

Mount Sharp on Mars

This is a portion of the first color 360-degree panorama from NASA's Curiosity rover, made up of thumbnails, which are small copies of higher-resolution images. The mission's destination, a mountain at the center of Gale Crater called Mount Sharp, can be seen in the distance, to the left, beginning to rise up. The mountain's summit will be imaged later. Blast marks from the rover's descent stage are in the foreground.

Gale Crater

This full-resolution image shows part of the deck of NASA's Curiosity rover taken from one of the rover's Navigation cameras looking toward the back left of the rover.

On the left of this image, part of the rover's power supply is visible. To the right of the power supply can be seen the pointy low-gain antenna and side of the paddle-shaped high-gain antenna for communications directly to Earth. The rim of Gale Crater is the lighter colored band across the horizon. The effects of the descent stage's rocket engines blasting the ground can be seen on the right side of the image, next to the rover.