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    Category Astronomy/Space

    New Hubble Mosaic of the Orion Nebula

    March 18, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This composite image of the Kleinmann-Low Nebula, part of the Orion Nebula complex, is composed of several pointings of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in optical and near-infrared light. Infrared light allows to peer through the dust of the nebula and to see the stars therein. The revealed stars are shown with a bright red colour in the image. Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble

    This composite image of the Kleinmann-Low Nebula, part of the Orion Nebula complex, is composed of several pointings of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in optical and near-infrared light. Infrared light allows to peer through the dust of the nebula and to see the stars therein. The revealed stars are shown with a bright red colour in the image.
    Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble

    In the search for rogue planets and failed stars astronomers using Hubble have created a new mosaic image of the Orion Nebula. During their survey of the famous star formation region, they found what may be the missing piece of a cosmic puzzle; the third, long-lost member of a star system that had broken apart.

    The Orion Nebula is the closest star formation region to Earth, only 1400 light-years away...

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    The Rotation Axes of Stars tell us about how they were Born

    March 18, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Numerical simulation of the fragmentation of a cluster of stars up to the formation of stars (left) with a zoom on the most central part of the cluster (right). The inclination axes of the masses similar to those observed by the Kepler satellite (in cluster NGC 6791) align in this simulation when the kinetic energy of the original cloud is comparable to the ambient turbulent energy. © E.Corsaro & Y.-N Lee

    Numerical simulation of the fragmentation of a cluster of stars up to the formation of stars (left) with a zoom on the most central part of the cluster (right). The inclination axes of the masses similar to those observed by the Kepler satellite (in cluster NGC 6791) align in this simulation when the kinetic energy of the original cloud is comparable to the ambient turbulent energy. © E.Corsaro & Y.-N Lee

    Using asteroseismology, an international team including CEA, CNRS and Université Grenoble-Alpes discovered a surprising alignment of the rotation axes of stars in open clusters, shedding light on the conditions in which stars are formed in our galaxy...

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    Scientists Identify a Black Hole Choking on Stardust

    March 17, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    In this artist's rendering, a thick accretion disk has formed around a supermassive black hole following the tidal disruption of a star that wandered too close. Stellar debris has fallen toward the black hole and collected into a thick chaotic disk of hot gas. Flashes of X-ray light near the center of the disk result in light echoes that allow astronomers to map the structure of the funnel-like flow, revealing for the first time strong gravity effects around a normally quiescent black hole. Credit: NASA/Swift/Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State University

    In this artist’s rendering, a thick accretion disk has formed around a supermassive black hole following the tidal disruption of a star that wandered too close. Stellar debris has fallen toward the black hole and collected into a thick chaotic disk of hot gas. Flashes of X-ray light near the center of the disk result in light echoes that allow astronomers to map the structure of the funnel-like flow, revealing for the first time strong gravity effects around a normally quiescent black hole. Credit: NASA/Swift/Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State University

    Data suggest black holes swallow stellar debris in bursts...

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    Gigantic Jupiter-type Planet reveals Insights into how Planets Evolve

    March 17, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An image of the HD 106906 stellar debris disk, created by Erika Nesvold's simulation, showing the ring of rocky and icy planet-forming material rotating around the star. (The star is removed from the image, masked by the black circle.) The different hues represent gradients of brightness in the disk material; yellow is the brightest and blue the dimmest. Credit: Erika Nesvold/Carnegie Institution for Science

    An image of the HD 106906 stellar debris disk, created by Erika Nesvold’s simulation, showing the ring of rocky and icy planet-forming material rotating around the star. (The star is removed from the image, masked by the black circle.) The different hues represent gradients of brightness in the disk material; yellow is the brightest and blue the dimmest. Credit: Erika Nesvold/Carnegie Institution for Science

    Astrophysicists get rare peek at a baby solar system 300 light-years away. An enormous young planet ~300 light-years from Earth has given astrophysicists a rare glimpse into planetary evolution. The planet, known as HD 106906b, was discovered in 2014 by a team of scientists from the U.S., the Netherlands and Italy...

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