Milky Way tagged posts

A sequence of snapshots from a simulation showing a red giant star tunneling through a high density gas clump. The star is moving downward in the illustration, as indicated by the bow-shaped “onion skin” surfaces of constant density. Soon after the star plunges into the clump, it develops a high temperature “blister” at the point of impact and a full turbulent wake behind it. Credit: Georgia Tech

This part image of the Milky Way has been released to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). The APEX telescope in Chile has mapped the full area of the Galactic Plane visible from the southern hemisphere for the first time at submillimeter wavelengths — between infrared light and radio waves — and in finer detail than recent space-based surveys. The APEX data, at a wavelength of 0.87 millimeters, shows up in red and the background blue image was imaged at shorter infrared wavelengths by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope as part of the GLIMPSE survey. The fainter extended red structures come from complementary observations made by ESA’s Planck satellite. The full-resolution image is available on the ESO web page: https://www.eso...

This composite image shows the size and location of the Smith Cloud on the sky. The cloud appears in false-color, radio wavelengths as observed by the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. The visible-light image of the background star field shows the cloud’s location in the direction of the summer constellation Aquila. The cloud is 15 degrees across in angular size — the width of an outstretched hand at arm’s length. The apparent size of the full moon is added for comparison. Credit: B. Saxton and F. Lockman (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and A. Mellinger

White dwarf stars in the early Milky Way. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Calamida and K. Sahu (STScI), and the SWEEPS Science Team; Credit for Ground-based Image: A. Fujii