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ESA and NASA join forces to understand climate change
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By NASA
El viceministro de Políticas para la Defensa del Ministerio de Defensa de Perú, César Medardo Torres Vega, el administrador de la NASA, Bill Nelson, y el director de la Comisión Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Aeroespacial del Perú (CONIDA), mayor general Roberto Melgar Sheen, se reúnen en Lima, Perú, el 14 de noviembre de 2024, donde EE. UU. y Perú firmaron un memorando de entendimiento acordando estudiar una potencial campaña de cohetes sonda.Crédito: Embajada de EE. UU. en Perú Read this release in English here.
La NASA y la Comisión Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Aeroespacial del Perú (CONIDA) sentaron las bases para una posible campaña de varios años de duración para el lanzamiento de pequeños cohetes científicos desde Perú, conjuntamente con Estados Unidos.
Ambos países firmaron el jueves un memorando de entendimiento no vinculante que incluye capacitación en seguridad, un estudio de factibilidad conjunto para la posible campaña, y asistencia técnica para CONIDA en lanzamientos de cohetes sonda. Los cohetes sonda son pequeños cohetes de bajo costo que proporcionan acceso suborbital al espacio.
“Estamos entusiasmados de analizar la posibilidad de lanzar nuevamente cohetes sonda desde Perú”, dijo el administrador de la NASA, Bill Nelson, quien firmó en nombre de Estados Unidos. “Este acuerdo profundiza nuestra colaboración internacional con Perú y la investigación científica que llevamos a cabo debido a la ubicación del país en el ecuador magnético. Juntos iremos más lejos”.
El mayor general Roberto Melgar Sheen, jefe institucional de CONIDA, firmó en nombre de Perú. Brian Nichols, subsecretario de Asuntos del Hemisferio Occidental del Departamento de Estado de EE. UU., y Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, embajadora de EE. UU. en Perú, también participaron, entre otros funcionarios peruanos. El evento tuvo lugar durante la semana del Foro de Cooperación Económica Asia-Pacífico que comenzó el 9 de noviembre en Lima.
Durante su visita a Perú, Nelson también discutió la importancia de las asociaciones y la colaboración internacionales en el espacio y celebró la firma de los Acuerdos Artemis por parte de Perú a principios de este año.
Estados Unidos y Perú tienen una larga historia de cooperación espacial. La NASA llevó a cabo campañas de cohetes sonda en la base de lanzamiento Punta Lobos de CONIDA en 1975 y 1983.
La NASA utiliza cohetes sonda para transportar instrumentos científicos al espacio en vuelos suborbitales para recopilar importantes datos científicos y poner a prueba prototipos de instrumentos. Con ellos se obtienen datos de incalculable valor que mejoran nuestra comprensión de la atmósfera y el clima de la Tierra, nuestro sistema solar y el universo, y se ponen a prueba equipamientos para viajes espaciales más profundos.
Comprender la atmósfera de la Tierra y cómo es influenciada por el Sol es crucial para proteger los recursos terrestres y espaciales de los que dependemos todos los días, desde la red eléctrica hasta los datos meteorológicos e incluso la navegación.
Para obtener más información sobre las asociaciones internacionales de la NASA (en inglés), visita:
https://www.nasa.gov/oiir
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Meira Bernstein / Elizabeth Shaw
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The laser that transmits between NASA’s Psyche spacecraft and Earth-based observatories for the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment successfully reaches its target thanks, in part, to a vibration isolation platform developed by Controlled Dynamics Inc., and supported by several Space Technology Mission Directorate programs. NASA/JPL-Caltech One year ago today, the future of space communications arrived at Earth as a beam of light from a NASA spacecraft nearly 10 million miles away. That’s 40 times farther than our Moon. That’s like using a laser pointer to track a moving dime from a mile away. That’s pretty precise.
That laser — transmitted from NASA’s DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) technology demonstration — has continued to hit its target on Earth from record-breaking distances.
“NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications features many novel technologies that are needed to precisely point and track the uplink beacon and direct the downlink laser,” said Bill Klipstein, DSOC project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
One of the technologies aiding that extremely precise pointing was invented by a small business and fostered by NASA for more than a decade.
Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On (Not!)
Part of the challenge with the precision pointing needed for DSOC was isolating the laser from the spacecraft’s vibrations, which would nudge the beam off target. Fortunately for NASA, Controlled Dynamics Inc. (CDI), in Huntington Beach, California, offered a solution to this problem.
The company had a platform designed to isolate orbiting experiments from vibrations caused by their host spacecraft, other payloads, crew movements, or even their own equipment. Just as the shocks on a car provide a smoother ride, the struts and actuators on CDI’s vibration isolation platform created a stable setting for delicate equipment.
This idea needed to be developed and tested first to prove successful.
The Path to Deep Space Success
NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate started supporting the platform’s development in 2012 under its Game Changing Development program with follow-on support from the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program. The technology really began to take off — pun intended — under NASA’s Flight Opportunities program. Managed out of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, Flight Opportunities rapidly demonstrates promising technologies aboard suborbital rockets and other vehicles flown by commercial companies.
Early flight tests in 2013 sufficiently demonstrated the platform’s performance, earning CDI’s technology a spot on the International Space Station in 2016. But the flight testing didn’t end there. A rapid series of flights with Blue Origin, UP Aerospace, and Virgin Galactic put the platform through its paces, including numerous boosts and thruster firings, pyrotechnic shocks, and the forces of reentry and landing.
“Flight Opportunities was instrumental in our development,” said Dr. Scott Green, CDI’s co-founder and the platform’s principal investigator. “With five separate flight campaigns in just eight months, those tests allowed us to build up flight maturity and readiness so we could transition to deep space.”
The vibration isolation platform developed by Controlled Dynamics Inc., and used on the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment conducted numerous tests through NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, including this flight aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity in February 2019. Virgin Galactic The culmination of NASA’s investments in CDI’s vibration isolation platform was through its Technology Demonstration Missions program, which along with NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program supported NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications.
On Oct. 13, 2023, DSOC launched aboard the Psyche spacecraft, a mission managed by JPL. The CDI isolation platform provided DSOC with the active stabilization and precision pointing needed to successfully transmit a high-definition video of Taters the cat and other sample data from record-breaking distances in deep space.
“Active stabilization of the flight laser transceiver is required to help the project succeed in its goal to downlink high bandwidth data from millions of miles,” said Klipstein. “To do this, we need to measure our pointing and avoid bumping into the spacecraft while we are floating. The CDI struts gave us that capability.”
The Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration’s flight laser transceiver is shown at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in April 2021. The transceiver is mounted on an assembly of struts and actuators — developed by Controlled Dynamics Inc. — that stabilizes the optics from spacecraft vibrations. Several Space Technology Mission Directorate programs supported the vibration isolation technology’s development. NASA/JPL-Caltech Onward Toward Psyche
The Psyche spacecraft is expected to reach its namesake metal-rich asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter by August 2029. In the meantime, the DSOC project team is celebrating recognition as one of TIME’s Inventions of 2024 and expects the experiment to continue adding to its long list of goals met and exceeded in its first year.
By Nancy Pekar
NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s EMIT collected this hyperspectral image of the Amazon River in northern Brazil on June 30 as part of an effort to map global ecosystem biodiversity. The instrument was originally tasked with mapping minerals over deserts; its data is now being used in research on a diverse range of topics. NASA/JPL-Caltech The imaging spectrometer measures the colors of light reflected from Earth’s surface to study fields such as agriculture, hydrology, and climate science.
Observing our planet from the International Space Station since July 2022, NASA’s EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) mission is beginning its next act.
At first the imaging spectrometer was solely aimed at mapping minerals over Earth’s desert regions to help determine the cooling and heating effects that dust can have on regional and global climate. The instrument soon added another skill: pinpointing greenhouse gas emission sources, including landfills and fossil fuel infrastructure.
Following a mission extension this year, EMIT is now collecting data from regions beyond deserts, addressing topics as varied as agriculture, hydrology, and climate science.
Imaging spectrometers like EMIT detect the light reflected from Earth, and they separate visible and infrared light into hundreds of wavelength bands — colors, essentially. Scientists use patterns of reflection and absorption at different wavelengths to determine the composition of what the instrument is observing. The approach echoes Isaac Newton’s prism experiments in 1672, in which the physicist discovered that visible light is composed of a rainbow of colors.
Perched on the International Space Station, NASA’s EMIT can differentiate between types of vegetation to help researchers understand the distribution and traits of plant communities. The instrument collected this data over the mid-Atlantic U.S. on April 23.NASA/JPL-Caltech “Breakthroughs in optics, physics, and chemistry led to where we are today with this incredible instrument, providing data to help address pressing questions on our planet,” said Dana Chadwick, EMIT’s applications lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
New Science Projects
In its extended mission, EMIT’s data will be the focus of 16 new projects under NASA’s Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) program, which funds science investigations at universities, research institutions, and NASA.
For example, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service are exploring how EMIT can assess climate-smart agricultural practices. Those practices — winter cover crops and conservation tillage — involve protecting cropland during non-growing seasons with either living plants or dead plant matter to prevent erosion and manage nitrogen.
Imaging spectrometers are capable of gathering data on the distribution and characteristics of plants and plant matter, based on the patterns of light they reflect. The information can help agricultural agencies incentivize farmers to use sustainable practices and potentially help farmers manage their fields.
“We’re adding more accuracy and reducing error on the measurements we are supplying to end users,” said Jyoti Jennewein, an Agricultural Research Service research physical scientist based in Fort Collins, Colorado, and a project co-lead.
The USGS-USDA project is also informing analytical approaches for NASA’s future Surface Biology and Geology-Visible Shortwave Infrared mission. The satellite will cover Earth’s land and coasts more frequently than EMIT, with finer spatial resolution.
Looking at Snowmelt
Another new project will test whether EMIT data can help refine estimates of snowpack melting rates. Such an improvement could inform water management in states like California, where meltwater makes up the majority of the agricultural water supply.
Imaging spectrometers like EMIT measure the albedo of snow — the percentage of solar radiation it’s reflecting. What isn’t reflected is absorbed, so the observations indicate how much energy snow is taking in, which in turn helps with estimates of snow melt rates. The instruments also discern what’s affecting albedo: snow-grain size, dust or soot contamination, or both.
For this work, EMIT’s ability to measure beyond visible light is key. Ice is “pretty absorptive at near-infrared and the shortwave infrared wavelengths,” said Jeff Dozier, a University of California, Santa Barbara professor emeritus and the project’s principal investigator.
Other ROSES-funded projects focus on wildflower blooming, phytoplankton and carbon dynamics in inland waters, ecosystem biodiversity, and functional traits of forests.
Dust Impacts
Researchers with EMIT will continue to study the climate effects of dust. When lofted into the air by windstorms, darker, iron-filled dust absorbs the Sun’s heat and warms the surrounding air, while lighter-colored, clay-rich particles do the opposite. Scientists have been uncertain whether airborne dust has overall cooling or warming effects on the planet. Before EMIT, they could only assume the color of particles in a region.
The EMIT mission is “giving us lab-quality results, everywhere we need to know,” said Natalie Mahowald, the mission’s deputy principal investigator and an Earth system scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Feeding the data into Earth system computer models, Mahowald expects to get closer to pinpointing dust’s climate impact as Earth warms.
Greenhouse Gas Detection
The mission will continue to identify point-source emissions of methane and carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gases most responsible for climate change, and observations are available through EMIT’s data portal and the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center.
The EMIT team is also refining the software that identifies and measures greenhouse-gas plumes in the data, and they’re working to streamline the process with machine-learning automation. Aligning with NASA’s open science initiative, they are sharing code with public, private, and nonprofit organizations doing similar work.
“Making this work publicly accessible has fundamentally pushed the science of measuring point-source emissions forward and expanded the use of EMIT data,” said Andrew Thorpe, the JPL research technologist heading the EMIT greenhouse gas effort.
More About EMIT
The EMIT instrument was developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California. Launched to the International Space Station in July 2022, EMIT is on an extended three-year mission in which it’s supporting a range of research projects. EMIT’s data products are available at the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center for use by other researchers and the public.
To learn more about the mission, visit:
https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit/
How the new NISAR satellite will track Earth’s changing surface A planet-rumbling Greenland tsunami seen from above News Media Contacts
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4 min read NASA and Forest Service Use Balloon to Help Firefighters Communicate
Article 12 mins ago 9 min read The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: Fall 2024
On September 18, 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shared the first images…
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By NASA
Earth Observer Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 5 min read
Updates on NASA Field Campaigns
Snippets from The Earth Observer’s Editor’s Corner
PACE-PAX
PACE–PAX had as its primary objective to gather data to validate measurements from NASA’s PACE mission. A secondary objective was validation of observations by the European Space Agency’s recently launched Earth Cloud, Aerosol, and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission. The operations spanned Southern and Central California and nearby coastal regions, logging 81 flight hours for the NASA ER-2, which operated out of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) in Edwards, CA, and 60 hours for the Twin Otter aircraft, which was operated by the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) at the Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, CA) out of Marina Municipal Airport in Marina, CA – see Photo.
Photo. The Twin Otter aircraft operated out of the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) during the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem–Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE–PAX) campaign. The image shows the Twin Otter aircraft missing the approach at Marina Airport to check instrument performance on the aircraft against identical instrumentation on an airport control tower. Photo credit: NASA NASA’s ER-2 aircraft flies at an altitude of approximately 20 km, well above the troposphere. PACE–PAX researchers used the unique high-altitude vantage point to make observations of the atmosphere, ocean, and land surface in a similar manner to that of PACE. In so doing, they can verify the accuracy of data gathered by the satellite in orbit. Meanwhile, the Twin Otter flew at a much lower altitude in the atmosphere (~3 km). The instrumentation onboard the Twin Otter was used to sample and measure cloud droplet size, aerosol size, and the amount of light scattered or absorbed by the particles. These aircraft observations are the same atmospheric properties that PACE observes from its broader vantage point in polar orbit. In addition to the PACE and aircraft observations, the R/V Shearwater operated 15 day trips out of Santa Barbara, CA, gathering additional surface-based observations along with other vessels and floats.
Field campaigns, such as PACE–PAX, are designed to collect measurements at different scales and conditions for comparison to satellite observations. When it comes to doing this successfully, timing is everything. PACE–PAX observations were carefully coordinated so that the two aircraft were in flight and taking observations at the same time, so observations were being obtained at the surface (e.g., on the ship) as well as the satellite passing overhead. This takes a tremendous amount of effort on the part of the organizers.
BlueFlux
BlueFlux was set up to study the wetland ecosystems of South Florida. Wetland ecosystems represent the ever-changing line between land and sea, and are exceptionally vulnerable to climate disturbances, such as sea level rise and tropical cyclones. As these threats intensify, wetland ecology – and its role as a critical sink of CO2 – faces an uncertain future.
BlueFlux observations will contribute to the development of a new, remote-sensing data product called “Daily Flux Predictions for South Florida,” which will help research teams led by Ben Poulter [GSFC] explain and quantify the changing relationship between wetlands and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations (GHG). The goal is to refine global GHG budget analyses and provide regional stakeholders with information to evaluate how Florida’s wetlands are responding to natural and anthropogenic pressures in real time.
The “Daily Flux Predictions for South Florida” product will use retrievals of surface spectral reflectance captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites to estimate the rate at which various gasses are exchanged between Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. Such flux measurements in coastal wetlands are historically limited on account of the relative inaccessibility of these ecosystems. To contribute to a more robust understanding of how Florida’s coastal ecology fits into the carbon cycle, BlueFlux conducted a series of airborne fieldwork deployments out of the Miami Homestead Air Reserve Base and the Miami Executive Airport in Miami-Dade County, which are adjacent to the eastern border of the Everglades National Park. The full study region – broadly referred to as South Florida – is narrowly defined by the wetland ecosystems that extend from Lake Okeechobee and its Northern estuaries to the saltwater marshland and mangrove forests along the state’s southernmost shore.
Flux measurements were made along each flight track using a payload known as the CARbon Airborne Flux Experiment (CARAFE) flying at between about 90 m and 3000 m. The researchers configured airborne observations, along with additional ground-based flux measurements, to match the spatial and temporal resolution of spectra collected by MODIS sensors, which produce surface reflectance retrievals at a 500 m daily resolution. Mirroring the scale of MODIS observations was necessary to both train the flux product’s underlying machine-learning algorithms and validate the accuracy of predictions made using satellite data alone. Data collected during BlueFlux fieldwork campaigns is available to the general public through NASA’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). The “Daily Flux Predictions for South Florida” data product will also be accessible through NASA’s ORNL DAAC by early 2025.
Steve Platnick
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home NASA’s Hubble Sees… 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 5 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Sees Aftermath of Galaxy’s Scrape with Milky Way
This artist’s concept shows a closeup of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is one of the Milky Way galaxy’s nearest neighbors. Credits:
NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) A story of survival is unfolding at the outer reaches of our galaxy, and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is witnessing the saga.
The Large Magellanic Cloud, also called the LMC, is one of the Milky Way galaxy’s nearest neighbors. This dwarf galaxy looms large on the southern nighttime sky at 20 times the apparent diameter of the full Moon.
Many researchers theorize that the LMC is not in orbit around our galaxy, but is just passing by. These scientists think that the LMC has just completed its closest approach to the much more massive Milky Way. This passage has blown away most of the spherical halo of gas that surrounds the LMC.
Now, for the first time, astronomers been able to measure the size of the LMC’s halo – something they could do only with Hubble. In a new study to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers were surprised to find that it is so extremely small, about 50,000 light-years across. That’s around 10 times smaller than halos of other galaxies that are the LMC’s mass. Its compactness tells the story of its encounter with the Milky Way.
“The LMC is a survivor,” said Andrew Fox of AURA/STScI for the European Space Agency in Baltimore, who was principal investigator on the observations. “Even though it’s lost a lot of its gas, it’s got enough left to keep forming new stars. So new star-forming regions can still be created. A smaller galaxy wouldn’t have lasted – there would be no gas left, just a collection of aging red stars.”
This artist’s concept shows the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC, in the foreground as it passes through the gaseous halo of the much more massive Milky Way galaxy. The encounter has blown away most of the spherical halo of gas that surrounds the LMC, as illustrated by the trailing gas stream reminiscent of a comet’s tail. Still, a compact halo remains, and scientists do not expect this residual halo to be lost. The team surveyed the halo by using the background light of 28 quasars, an exceptionally bright type of active galactic nucleus that shines across the universe like a lighthouse beacon. Their light allows scientists to “see” the intervening halo gas indirectly through the absorption of the background light. The lines represent the Hubble Space Telescope’s view from its orbit around Earth to the distant quasars through the LMC’s gas. NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
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Though quite a bit worse for wear, the LMC still retains a compact, stubby halo of gas – something that it wouldn’t have been able to hold onto gravitationally had it been less massive. The LMC is 10 percent the mass of the Milky Way, making it heftier than most dwarf galaxies.
“Because of the Milky Way’s own giant halo, the LMC’s gas is getting truncated, or quenched,” explained STScI’s Sapna Mishra, the lead author on the paper chronicling this discovery. “But even with this catastrophic interaction with the Milky Way, the LMC is able to retain 10 percent of its halo because of its high mass.”
A Gigantic Hair Dryer
Most of the LMC’s halo was blown away due to a phenomenon called ram-pressure stripping. The dense environment of the Milky Way pushes back against the incoming LMC and creates a wake of gas trailing the dwarf galaxy – like the tail of a comet.
“I like to think of the Milky Way as this giant hairdryer, and it’s blowing gas off the LMC as it comes into us,” said Fox. “The Milky Way is pushing back so forcefully that the ram pressure has stripped off most of the original mass of the LMC’s halo. There’s only a little bit left, and it’s this small, compact leftover that we’re seeing now.”
As the ram pressure pushes away much of the LMC’s halo, the gas slows down and eventually will rain into the Milky Way. But because the LMC has just gotten past its closest approach to the Milky Way and is moving outward into deep space again, scientists do not expect the whole halo will be lost.
Only with Hubble
To conduct this study, the research team analyzed ultraviolet observations from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at STScI. Most ultraviolet light is blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere, so it cannot be observed with ground-based telescopes. Hubble is the only current space telescope tuned to detect these wavelengths of light, so this study was only possible with Hubble.
The team surveyed the halo by using the background light of 28 bright quasars. The brightest type of active galactic nucleus, quasars are believed to be powered by supermassive black holes. Shining like lighthouse beacons, they allow scientists to “see” the intervening halo gas indirectly through the absorption of the background light. Quasars reside throughout the universe at extreme distances from our galaxy.
This artist’s concept illustrates the Large Magellanic Cloud’s (LMC’s) encounter with the Milky Way galaxy’s gaseous halo. In the top panel, at the middle of the right side, the LMC begins crashing through our galaxy’s much more massive halo. The bright purple bow shock represents the leading edge of the LMC’s halo, which is being compressed as the Milky Way’s halo pushes back against the incoming LMC. In the middle panel, part of the halo is being stripped and blown back into a streaming tail of gas that eventually will rain into the Milky Way. The bottom panel shows the progression of this interaction, as the LMC’s comet-like tail becomes more defined. A compact LMC halo remains. Because the LMC is just past its closest approach to the Milky Way and is moving outward into deep space again, scientists do not expect the residual halo will be lost. NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
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The scientists used data from Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) to detect the presence of the halo’s gas by the way it absorbs certain colors of light from background quasars. A spectrograph breaks light into its component wavelengths to reveal clues to the object’s state, temperature, speed, quantity, distance, and composition. With COS, they measured the velocity of the gas around the LMC, which allowed them to determine the size of the halo.
Because of its mass and proximity to the Milky Way, the LMC is a unique astrophysics laboratory. Seeing the LMC’s interplay with our galaxy helps scientists understand what happened in the early universe, when galaxies were closer together. It also shows just how messy and complicated the process of galaxy interaction is.
Looking to the Future
The team will next study the front side of the LMC’s halo, an area that has not yet been explored.
“In this new program, we are going to probe five sightlines in the region where the LMC’s halo and the Milky Way’s halo are colliding,” said co-author Scott Lucchini of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. “This is the location where the halos are compressed, like two balloons pushing against each other.”
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contacts:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Ann Jenkins, Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
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Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
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