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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:01:14 At the start of this new year, we look back at close-up pictures and solar flare data recorded by the ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission over the last three years. See and hear for yourself how the number of flares and their intensity increase, a clear sign of the Sun approaching the peak of the 11-year solar cycle.
This video combines ultraviolet images of the Sun's outer atmosphere (the corona, yellow) taken by Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument, with the size and locations of solar flares (blue circles) as recorded by the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) instrument. The accompanying audio is a sonification based on the detected flares and the spacecraft's distance to the Sun.
Solar Orbiter moves on an elliptical path around the Sun, making a close approach to our star every six months. We can see this in the video from the spacecraft's perspective, with the Sun moving closer and farther over the course of each year. In the sonification, this is represented by the low background humming that loudens as the Sun gets closer and becomes quieter as it moves further away. (There are some abrupt shifts in distance visible in the video, as it skips over dates where one or both instruments were inactive or collecting a different type of data.)
The blue circles represent solar flares: bursts of high-energy radiation of which STIX detects the X-rays. Flares are sent out by the Sun when energy stored in 'twisted' magnetic fields (usually above sunspots) is suddenly released. The size of each circle indicates how strong the flare is, with stronger flares sending out more X-rays. We can hear the flares in the metallic clinks in the sonification, where the sharpness of the sound corresponds to how energetic the solar flare is.
Many thanks to Klaus Nielsen (DTU Space / Maple Pools) for making the sonification in this video. If you would like to hear more sonifications and music by this artist, please visit: https://linktr.ee/maplepools
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, operated by ESA.
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home Hubble Spots a Spiral in the… Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More 35th Anniversary 2 min read
Hubble Spots a Spiral in the Celestial River
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 1637. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker The subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is NGC 1637, a spiral galaxy located 38 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus, the River.
This image comes from an observing program dedicated to studying star formation in nearby galaxies. Stars form in cold, dusty gas clouds that collapse under their own gravity. As young stars grow, they heat their nurseries through starlight, winds, and powerful outflows. Together, these factors play a role in controlling the rate at which future generations of stars form.
NGC 1637 holds evidence of star formation scattered throughout its disk, if you know where to look. The galaxy’s spiral arms have pockets of pink clouds, many with bright blue stars. The pinkish color comes from hydrogen atoms excited by ultraviolet light from young, massive stars forming within the clouds. This contrasts with the warm yellow glow of the galaxy’s center, which is home to a densely packed collection of older, redder stars.
The stars that set their cloudy birthplaces aglow are comparatively short-lived, and many of these stars will explode as supernovae just a few million years after they’re born. In 1999, NGC 1637 played host to a supernova named SN 1999EM, lauded as the brightest supernova seen that year. When a massive star expires as a supernova, the explosion outshines its entire home galaxy for a short time. While a supernova marks the end of a star’s life, it can also jump start the formation of new stars by compressing nearby clouds of gas, beginning the stellar lifecycle anew.
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Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
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Last Updated Dec 05, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Spiral Galaxies Stars Supernovae View the full article
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By NASA
ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun The spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is IC 3225. It looks remarkably as if it was launched from a cannon, speeding through space like a comet with a tail of gas streaming from its disk behind it. The scenes that galaxies appear in from Earth’s point of view are fascinating; many seem to hang calmly in the emptiness of space as if hung from a string, while others star in much more dynamic situations!
Appearances can be deceiving with objects so far from Earth — IC 3225 itself is about 100 million light-years away — but the galaxy’s location suggests some causes for this active scene, because IC 3225 is one of over 1,300 members of the Virgo galaxy cluster. The density of galaxies in the Virgo cluster creates a rich field of hot gas between them, called ‘intracluster medium’, while the cluster’s extreme mass has its galaxies careening around its center in some very fast orbits. Ramming through the thick intracluster medium, especially close to the cluster’s center, places enormous ‘ram pressure’ on the moving galaxies that strips gas out of them as they go.
As a galaxy moves through space, the gas and dust that make up the intracluster medium create resistance to the galaxy’s movement, exerting pressure on the galaxy. This pressure, called ram pressure, can strip a galaxy of its star-forming gas and dust, reducing or even stopping the creation of new stars. Conversely, ram pressure can also cause other parts of the galaxy to compress, which can boost star formation. IC 3225 is not so close to the cluster core right now, but astronomers have deduced that it has undergone ram pressure stripping in the past. The galaxy looks compressed on one side, with noticeably more star formation on that leading edge (bottom-left), while the opposite end is stretched out of shape (upper-right). Being in such a crowded field, a close call with another galaxy may also have tugged on IC 3225 and created this shape. The sight of this distorted galaxy is a reminder of the incredible forces at work on astronomical scales, which can move and reshape entire galaxies!
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home Hubble Sees a Celestial… Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 2 min read
Hubble Sees a Celestial Cannonball
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy IC 3225. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun The spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is IC 3225. It looks remarkably as if it was launched from a cannon, speeding through space like a comet with a tail of gas streaming from its disk behind it. The scenes that galaxies appear in from Earth’s point of view are fascinating; many seem to hang calmly in the emptiness of space as if hung from a string, while others star in much more dynamic situations!
Appearances can be deceiving with objects so far from Earth — IC 3225 itself is about 100 million light-years away — but the galaxy’s location suggests some causes for this active scene, because IC 3225 is one of over 1,300 members of the Virgo galaxy cluster. The density of galaxies in the Virgo cluster creates a rich field of hot gas between them, called ‘intracluster medium’, while the cluster’s extreme mass has its galaxies careening around its center in some very fast orbits. Ramming through the thick intracluster medium, especially close to the cluster’s center, places enormous ‘ram pressure’ on the moving galaxies that strips gas out of them as they go.
As a galaxy moves through space, the gas and dust that make up the intracluster medium create resistance to the galaxy’s movement, exerting pressure on the galaxy. This pressure, called ram pressure, can strip a galaxy of its star-forming gas and dust, reducing or even stopping the creation of new stars. Conversely, ram pressure can also cause other parts of the galaxy to compress, which can boost star formation. IC 3225 is not so close to the cluster core right now, but astronomers have deduced that it has undergone ram pressure stripping in the past. The galaxy looks compressed on one side, with noticeably more star formation on that leading edge (bottom-left), while the opposite end is stretched out of shape (upper-right). Being in such a crowded field, a close call with another galaxy may also have tugged on IC 3225 and created this shape. The sight of this distorted galaxy is a reminder of the incredible forces at work on astronomical scales, which can move and reshape entire galaxies!
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 24, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
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Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
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By NASA
Christy Hansen’s journey with NASA spans more than two decades and is marked by roles that have shaped her into a leader in space exploration. Now serving on a six-month rotation as the deputy manager for NASA’s CLDP (Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program) at Johnson Space Center in Houston, she brings 25 years of human spaceflight experience and a global perspective on Earth sciences to her role.
Prior to her rotation, she served as the Artemis deputy mission manager in the Moon to Mars Program Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington, where she supported Artemis missions and facilitated the integration of science and utilization activities into the mission architecture and planning.
Hansen now leverages her vast expertise to advance NASA’s commercial space initiatives and support the agency’s long-term goals.
Christy Hansen serves a six-month rotation as deputy manager for NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA/Bill Hrybyk She is no stranger to Johnson. From 1999 to 2010, Hansen worked as an operations engineer in Johnson’s Flight Operations Directorate, focusing on astronaut training and flight control. She developed procedures, planned spacewalks, and trained astronauts to work in space suits with specialty tools on Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and Hubble Space Telescope missions. She was instrumental in supporting real-time operations as a flight controller for space station assembly missions and the final mission to service Hubble in 2009.
In 2010, Hansen became the operations manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland for the Robotic Refueling Mission, a technology demonstration payload that flew to the orbiting laboratory on STS-135. By 2012 she transitioned to airborne science project management at Goddard, leading multiple missions including Operation IceBridge’s first deployment to Antarctica. Her work focused on studying changes in Earth’s ice sheets and sea ice in Greenland and Antarctica, where she collaborated with scientists, engineers, and managers to design aircraft-based Earth science missions.
Christy Hansen at Antarctica’s geographic south pole in 2012. Faced with her husband’s diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 2014, Hansen drew on her vast experience and passion for engineering to solve a deeply personal issue on the ground. Combining her technical expertise and pioneering spirit, she led an effort to bring eye-gaze technology to Goddard, enabling individuals with neurodegenerative disabilities to continue working without the use of their hands or voice.
Her husband, Dave Parker, an engineer at Goddard who worked on all hubble servicing missions and tech demo payloads on the space station, was determined to keep working even when he could not use his arms, legs, hands, or voice. Together, they researched and pushed for this capability, ensuring that the technology could help many others in similar situations.
After collaborating with Goddard information technology and the commercial-off-the-shelf Tobi eye gaze company, they managed to implement the system within a year. Parker worked for a year and a half using this technology and supported the real-time installation of space station hardware he helped design from his hospital bed before passing away in March 2021.
Hansen continues to work with NASA’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity to make this a standard accommodation option.
In her new role, she aims to support the development of an innovative acquisition strategy that fosters a robust commercial low Earth orbit environment. “I look forward to working with the CLDP team and our stakeholders to develop a creative and smart approach that enables a commercially led and operated low Earth orbit destination,” she said. “This includes fostering an open dialogue across disciplines, including critical tech authorities, programs, our industry and international partners, and Johnson and headquarters leadership. We can only go great places together.”
Her background in human spaceflight and science missions has given her a unique perspective. “I truly enjoy building partnerships and working across broad teams to achieve amazing goals,” she said. “This diversity of experience gave me an understanding of the critical goals, priorities, and culture of our key NASA stakeholders – and how we must integrate and work together to achieve the NASA mission.”
Through her career, she has learned to be open to new ideas and ways of doing things. “Be curious and proactively create space for all voices to be heard; there is more than one way to do things, and you must be open and receptive to different communication styles and experiences,” she said. “I lean on my broad experiences wherever I go.”
Christy Hansen at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland during her time as the project manager for NASA’s Operation IceBridge. NASA/Bill Hrybyk For young girls interested in a career in space, her advice is clear: “Go, go, go! You will face challenges and hurdles, but human spaceflight and NASA need your ideas, experiences, and energy. You uniquely bring momentum in a way others cannot – so don’t compare yourself to others. Study and do what you love – as that will get you through the hard times.”
Looking ahead, she is eager to help make space accessible and affordable to all, enabling a broader and diverse field of future flyers. “These destinations will enable critical science, human research, and tech development – important steppingstones to help us achieve our goals of landing on the Moon again and ultimately going to Mars,” she said. “No matter how dynamic and challenging our work is, my passion for human spaceflight and the NASA mission is inherently part of me.”
The agency’s commercial strategy for low Earth orbit will provide the government with reliable and safe services at a lower cost and enable the agency to focus on Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for Mars while also continuing to use low Earth orbit as a training and proving ground for those deep space missions.
Learn more about NASA’s commercial space strategy at:
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/commercial-space/
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