Astronomy and Stars
Discussions about astronomy and stars. As we look further out what can we find in the universe beyond Earth's atmosphere?
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This is an artist's concept of the near stellar environment of the star Beta Pictoris. This illustration is based upon recent observations made with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. View the full article
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This black and white picture of Jupiter, taken in green light at 1:14 a.m. on the 11th March, 1991 by the Planetary Camera on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows a wealth of fine detail in the clouds that cover the planet. The Great Red Spot is seen at the lower right, also on the right near the equator the satellite Europa is disappearing behind the limb of the planet. The dark 'j' shaped clouds along the equator are the result of a pattern of intense jet streams in the Jovian atmosphere. This picture is as sharp as the Voyager pictures taken five days before the closest approach in 1979. View the full article
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Observations of a massive, unstable star called Eta Carinae, made with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC) aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope HST, reveal surprising and complex new structure in a dusty nebula surrounding the star. New details include a jet of material flowing away from the star and a regularly spaced set of wave-like features. The results are being reported on May 17, 1991 at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Writer's Workshop in Baltimore Md. View the full article
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Citing "exceptional accomplishments and contributions to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) project," NASA has given awards to Dr. Rodger Doxsey, Chief of the Science and Engineering Systems Division at Space Telescope Science Institute (ST ScI), James Crocker, Head of STScI's Operations Division, and to the team of astronomers and engineers which implemented the early engineering tests on the space observatory. View the full article
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The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has selected 12 new scientists for the Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The awardees were selected from a pool of 115 highly-qualified candidates from 24 countries. View the full article
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has begun a long-term program to monitor seasonal and interannual changes that occur on the surface and in the atmosphere of the planet Mars. This program will allow for a better understanding of the martian climate and processes involved in surface changes, and may eventually allow scientists to characterize global weather patterns on Mars, which will be an important prerequisite for a manned expedition to the red planet. View the full article
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The accompanying movie shows the Saturn white spot, a great storm in the equatorial region of Saturn, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field/Planetary Camera in November 1990. The white spot was discovered by amateur astronomers in September, 1990. Such storms are rare: the last one in the equatorial region occurred in 1933. The movie contains one complete rotation of Saturn. The storm extends completely around the planet, in some places it appears as great masses of clouds and in others as well organized turbulence. View the full article
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Astronomers today presented pictures taken with the Hubble Space Telescope of the heart of M15, a dense cluster of stars within our own Galaxy. The pictures show for the first time that M15 is in the process of recovering from a deep implosion of its core regions, caused by a massive gravitational instability. Many other star clusters may have experienced a similar collapse, in which their central stars crowd into a compact aggregate, causing a sharp rise in central density. This process may also happen in the dense centers of galaxies, where it may lead to the formation of massive black holes. The analysis of the Hubble images was presented by Dr. Tod R. Lauer of the Nat…
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Astronomers today presented pictures taken with the Hubble Space Telescope of the heart of M15, a dense cluster of stars within our own Galaxy. The pictures show for the first time that M15 is in the process of recovering from a deep implosion of its core regions, caused by a massive gravitational instability. Many other star clusters may have experienced a similar collapse, in which their central stars crowd into a compact aggregate, causing a sharp rise in central density. This process may also happen in the dense centers of galaxies, where it may lead to the formation of massive black holes. The analysis of the Hubble images was presented by Dr. Tod R. Lauer of the Nat…
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Recent observations of the remnants of Supernova 1987A, conducted with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have provided an unexpected bonus - an accurate determination of the absolute distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located in the southern hemisphere. View the full article
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided a detailed view of a ten thousand light-year long jet of plasma which has been ejected from the core of a galaxy 270 million light-years away. Observations made with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera (FOC) reveal that the jet has an unusual braided structure, like a twisted pair of wires. "This is the first time that such a structure has been seen in an optical jet," says F. Duccio Macchetto, ESA's Principal Investigator on the FOC and Head of the Science Programs Division at the Space Telescope Science Institute. View the full article
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Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute have new evidence for explaining the mysterious X-ray background that permeates the universe. Astronomers Antonella Fruscione, Richard Griffiths and John Mackenty have found a number of "star-burst" galaxies which could help to account for the X- ray background. This at least rivals the contribution from quasars, which are known to account for about 30% of the background. View the full article
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Saturn
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This color image of Saturn was taken with the HST's Wide Field /Planetary Camera (WF/PC) in the wide field mode at 8:25 A.M. EDT, August 26, 1990, when the planet was at a distance of 1.39 billion kilometers (860 million miles) from Earth. View the full article
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This enlargement of the Saturn image reveals unprecedented detail in atmospheric features at the northern polar hood. Saturn's north pole is presently tilted toward Earth by 24 degrees. View the full article
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has successfully completed the first stage of a cosmic detective hunt for a rare star, called a nova, which erupted half a century ago. HST's needle-in-the-haystack search has provided astronomers with an unprecedented view of the crowded inner region of a globular star cluster located about 70,000 light-years away. View the full article
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided an unprecedented, detailed view of highly energetic events in the core of a galaxy 30 million light-years away. The observations are a first step in HST's search for super-massive black holes at the nuclei of active galaxies. View the full article
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has obtained the clearest pictures ever of our solar system's most distant and enigmatic object: the planet Pluto. The observations were made with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera. View the full article
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has peered into the inner core of the nearby so-called "symbiotic star", R Aquarii, to reveal dramatic new details of the exploding star. The observations were made with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera. View the full article
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has obtained the most detailed and highest resolution optical images of the radio galaxy PKS 0521-36. The observations were made with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera. View the full article
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed the inner core surrounding the icy nucleus of Comet Levy more clearly than can be done with ground-based telescopes The image was taken September 27th with the HST's Wide Field/Planetary Camera, when the comet was at a distance of about 160,000,000 kilometers (100,000,000 miles) from Earth. View the full article
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This photograph, made with the Wide Field/Planetary Camera on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, reveals the detailed structure of a newly discovered jet of material streaming away from a young star in the Orion Nebula. View the full article
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This composite image shows the location of a one-light-year square region in the Orion Nebula which was imaged by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The area is near the edge of a cavity of ionized hydrogen, which is heated by ultraviolet radiation from a star cluster at the center of the nebula. View the full article
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Recent images made with the Wide Field Camera on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have revealed the structure of a thin sheet of gas located at the edge of the famous "Great Nebula" in Orion, an estimated 1500 light years from Earth. Astronomers, who compare the appearance of this sheet of gas with that of a rippled window curtain, report that this emission traces the boundary between the hot, diffuse interior of the nebula and an adjacent dense cool cloud. The sheet is seen in light emitted by atoms of gaseous sulfur (shown in red in the photograph). This emission is strongest under conditions which are intermediate between those in the interior of nebula and those in the d…
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The energy source needed to create and maintain the galactic jet in galaxy PKS 0521-36 is generated deep within the core of the galaxy, and is far too small to resolved. The favored mechanism behind these cosmic fireworks is a spinning, massive black hole. The hole is fueled by a continual in-fall of nearby gas and stars. This gravitational accretion process is far more efficient at converting mass to energy than thermonuclear fusion processes which power individual stars. The extraordinary high pressure and temperature generated near the hole would cause some of the in-falling gas to be ejected along the direction of the black hole's spinning axis to create the galactic …
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The European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera on board NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided a fascinating close-up view of Supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud. View the full article
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