Category Astronomy/Space

The left panel shows a false-color image of PGC 1000714. The right panel shows a B-I color index map that reveals both the outer ring (blue) and diffuse inner ring (light green). Credit: Ryan Beauchemin

Approximately 359 million light-years away from Earth, there is a galaxy with an innocuous name (PGC 1000714) that doesn’t look quite like anything astronomers have observed before. New research provides a 1st description of a well-defined elliptical-like core surrounded by 2 circular rings- a galaxy that appears to belong to a class of rarely observed, Hoag-type galaxies.

“Less than 0.1% of all observed galaxies are Hoag-type galaxies,” says Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil, grad student at Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, University of Minnesota Twin Cities and University of Minnesota Duluth...

Hubble Frontier Fields view of Abell 2744. Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz, M. Mountain, A. Koekemoer, and the HFF Team (STScI).

Astronomers have found 76 new ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in the massive galaxy cluster designated Abell 2744 (also known as Pandora’s Cluster). The discovery updates the current census of galaxies in this cluster and could help better understand the nature of UDGs in general. UDGs are extremely-low-density galaxies. The largest UDGs have sizes similar the Milky Way but have only about 1% as many stars as our home galaxy. The mystery of UDGs is still baffling scientists as they try explain why these faint but large galaxies are not ripped apart by the tidal field of their host clusters...

Interstellar filaments in Polaris Copyright ESA and the SPIRE & PACS consortia, Ph. André (CEA Saclay) for the Gould’s Belt Survey Key Programme Consortium, and A. Abergel (IAS Orsay) for the Evolution of Interstellar Dust Key Programme Consortium

Just as the new calendar year begins, and with it a feeling of new beginnings, so this network of dust and gas shows a portion of sky where star birth is yet to take hold. This region is in Polaris, 490 light-years away. It was imaged by ESA’s Herschel space observatory in 2011; a colour composite is presented here. It shows several tens of tangled interstellar filaments. Such filaments can stretch for tens of light-years through space and can precede the onset of star formation, with newborn stars often found in the densest parts.

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A satellite is ejected from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Small Satellite Orbital Deployer on the ISS

A satellite was ejected from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Small Satellite Orbital Deployer on the International Space Station on Dec. 19, 2016. The satellite is actually 2 small satellites that, once at a safe distance from the station, separated from each other, but were still connected by a 100m-long Kevlar tether. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson helped the JAXA ground team to deploy the satellite, Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite (STARS-C). Once deployed, STARS-C will point toward Earth and use a spring system and gravitational forces to separate, pushing one satellite closer to the planet...