@kellylepo@astrodon.social
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kellylepo

@kellylepo@astrodon.social

Astronomer | Science communicator | Adult Lisa Simpson
Education and Outreach Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute supporting JWST
Personal account — Views are my own

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sundogplanets, to random
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The barn swallows are back in my barn!!! I'm so happy to see them!

kellylepo,
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@sundogplanets I grew up on a little hobby farm, and I always loved the barn swallows that nested in our hundred-year-old barn.

They were beautiful but also very aggressive. None of our working cats dared go near their nests.

kellylepo, to random
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

Baby stars are messy eaters. This diagram from a review article illustrates the complex interplay between protostars, magnetic fields, and the surrounding gas on large and small scales.

Stars form in cold, dusty clouds of mostly hydrogen gas. As they grow, stars pull in more mass from disks, permeated with magnetic fields. The fields twist around the star, channeling some gas into the star and some into jets above and below the disk.
1/

📷 Frank et al. 2014
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014prpl.conf..451F/abstract

A two-panel illustration showing the envelope scale area around a forming star at 100 astronomical units and 500 astronomical units. The 100 astronomical unit panel shows the area around a clump in the jet. A line traces a backwards C shape that fills most of the panel. The line is labeled "bow shock". To the left are a series of x and o shapes representing the pileup of gas. The o shapes are labeled "forbidden lines" the x shapes are labeled "H alpha emitting layer". Wavy lines show UV light traveling away from the shock. The 500 AU panel shows a wider view of the disk, jet, and cavity carved by the variable-velocity, clumpy, precessing jet. The flared disk extends horizontally and flares up vertically, creating a wedge shape. The edge of the disk is labeled "cavity wall". Clumps of material extend above and below the disk in a line at its center. The clumps are slightly misaligned from each other horizontally. An area at the edge of one clump is labeled "spur shock" the area at the edge of the topmost clump is labeled "bow shock"
An illustration showing the 1 parsec scale area in a molecular cloud forming many new stars. There are two darker areas. The one at the bottom right is labeled “core” and has three hourglass-shaped cavities carved out by new stars. The dark area at upper right is labeled "cluster". It has four hourglass-shaped cavities. They are labeled "active outflows". Two larger hourglass-shaped light areas are at the top of the frame. They are labeled "fossil outflow cavities". The lighter areas at the outer edge of the frame are filled with abstract, wavey lines. They are labeled "turbulence on large and small scales." Solid wavy lines with arrows are labeled “Alven waves driven by turbulence”

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

Here is Herbig-Haro 211, imaged in near-infrared light by JWST. We can see the bipolar outflows, and the dark, dusty disk that surrounds the forming star.

📷 ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, Tom Ray (Dublin)
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2023/141/01H9NWH9JEBFPKVD3M1RRTGGQJ

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

This creates some gorgeous objects, like Herbig-Haro 46/47, a pair of jets launched by a tightly bound pair of protostars. The stars are located in the center of the red spikes in the center of this JWST image. The jets carve out the reddish cavities inside of the nebula that surrounds it.
2/

📷 NASA, ESA, CSA
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2023/131/01H53089T1FMZZN48VD4Z73FRC

kellylepo, (edited )
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

Another beautiful jet from a protostar, Herbig-Haro 34, seen in this Hubble image. The thin red jet emerges from a nebula and collides with the surrounding gas, creating the blue shock seen in the lower left.

📷 ESA/Hubble & NASA
https://esahubble.org/images/potw1551a/

kellylepo, (edited )
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And we can see evidence of these stellar outflows in wider views of star-forming nebulas like in this image of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula.

Here we are looking at a filter that highlights molecular hydrogen. It shows the mess of stellar outflows, jets, and shocks as the outflows collide with the surrounding gas.

📷 NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Reiter

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/057/01GKMHY46FF99Z4QNKQGQ519JN

kellylepo, to space
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To celebrate here is a collection of images, videos, interactives, activities, and background resources about black holes from NASA's Universe of Learning.

https://universe-of-learning.org/informal-educators/science-resources/black-holes

kellylepo, to Astronomy
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

I came across this delightful video this afternoon when going through some old slides and paused what I was doing to watch the whole thing.

Here is a supercut of 18 astronomy visualizations from @spacetelescope, using computer simulations and Hubble images to create 3D flythroughs of objects in space.

https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/videos/01GF6S1W92D6DYX1PZ1T7S86MT

A montage of a series of 18 astronomy visualizations, showing a camera panning around 3D recreations of 2D space images. They include: The Bubble Nebula: Winds & Radiation from a Massive Star. A Flight Through the CANDELS Ultra Deep Survey Field. A Rose of Galaxies: Interacting Galaxies Arp 273. Sculpture Garden of Gas and Dust: Core of the Lagoon Nebula. Stellar Greetings from Globular Cluster M79. Hickson Compact Group 40: A Flight Through Interacting Galaxies. The Red Bubble: Supernova Remnant SNR 0509-67.5. Exploring the Structure of the Ring Nebula. Star Clusters in Collision. Supernova 1987A. Eta Carinae: The Great Eruption of a Massive Star. A Horse of a Different Color: The Gaseous Landscape of the Horsehead Nebula in Infrared. Celestial Fireworks: Star Cluster Westerlund 2. Flight Through the Orion Nebula in Visible Light. Crash of the Titans: Milky Way & Andromeda Collision. Celestial Snow Angel: Star-forming Region. Sharpless 2-106. Flyby of the Whirlpool Galaxy. Cosmic Reef: NGC 2014 & NGC 2020.

spacetelescope, to random
@spacetelescope@astrodon.social avatar

Transmission spectra are used to study the “fingerprints” of an exoplanet’s atmosphere. WASP-39 b’s spectrum marked the first time sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide were clearly detected in an exoplanet’s atmosphere.

How the James Webb Space Telescope studies exoplanets: https://bit.ly/49MLvHr

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@spacetelescope WASP-39 b is 700 light-years away. We don't actually know what it looks like, because it's too far away to resolve an image. The star and the planet combine into a single point of light.

And yet, we know that there is potassium, water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere of the gas giant planet 🤯

Exoplanet science is wild!

spacetelescope, to random
@spacetelescope@astrodon.social avatar

mapped the weather on an exoplanet 280 light-years away, where it’s cloudy on the nightside and clear on the dayside—with equatorial winds howling around the planet at 5,000 miles per hour. (1/6)

video/mp4

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@spacetelescope A spinning globe with a gradient colors, showing the temperature map of a planet, with colors that range from blue (about 600˚C), through pink(about 1000˚C), to yellow (about 1400˚C). The hottest yellow point is centered at the equator and spreads through the mid latitudes of one side of the globe. The coolest blue point is centered at the equator and spreads almost to the poles on the opposite side of the globe. Between them is a ring of pink from pole to pole.

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@croyle @spacetelescope WASP-43b is a hot Jupiter. Like Jupiter, it's atmosphere is made of hydrogen and helium, with small amounts of other atoms and molecules.

The winds in the thick atmosphere transport heat away from the hot side of the planet that is always facing its star to the cooler side of its planet that is always facing away from its star.

More info:
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-117

kellylepo, to Astronomy
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

Look how tiny JWST's view of the sky is, especially compared to Euclid's wide field of view.

took an image of the very top of the Horsehead Nebula, focusing in on a region that transitions from a dense, warm area of gas and dust (blue) to an area of hot, ionized gas (red).

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-119

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

A comparison of the NIRCam near-infrared and the MIRI mid-infrared views of the top of the Horsehead Nebula

In the NIRCam image, the blue clouds show the warm glow of the nebula, filled with molecules like hydrogen, methane, and water ice. The red whisps are mostly atomic and molecular hydrogen.

In the MIRI image, we see the glowing dust made of silicate particles and soot-like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules.

📷 https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2024/119/01HV4BAFBCNVV1VFQ4XMASPGV9?news=true
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2024/119/01HV6KVHFVCAEDBK9AXCYX46VJ?news=true

Video fades between two images, the JWST NIRCam view of the top of the Horsehead Nebula, and the MIRI view of the Horsehead Nebula. The two images do not perfectly overlap. The MIRI image covers the area in the bottom left corner of the NIRCam image and extends down and to the left. NIRCam Image: A clumpy dome of blueish-gray clouds rises about a third of the way from the bottom. Above it, streaky, translucent red wisps brush upward to about halfway up the image. The top half of the image is the black background of space with one prominent, bright white star with Webb’s 8-point diffraction spikes. Additional stars and galaxies are scattered throughout the image, although very few are seen through the thick clouds at bottom and all are significantly smaller than the largest star. MIRI Image: The image is more than half-filled from the bottom up by a small section of the Horsehead Nebula. Streaky clouds of white, gray and blue resemble a foamy wave crashing at the seashore. The nebula stops at a textured, fuzzy-looking edge that follows a slight curve. Above it a small number of distant stars and galaxies lie on a dark but multi-colored background.

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@nSonic Yes! The "spiky" things in the background are stars, the little ovals and spirals are galaxies, and the dots could be either faint stars or distant galaxies.

kellylepo, to random
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

Millennial telescope tries to celebrate 34th birthday, but instead goes into safe mode because of gyroscope issues (relatable).

The same gyroscope that was causing issues back in November is acting up again, so Hubble has paused science operations while operators troubleshoot the issue. If needed, Hubble can operate with only one of its three remaining gyroscopes, with reduced observing efficiency.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-pauses-science-due-to-gyro-issue/

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

... And it's back. resumed science operations yesterday.

It's using all three gyroscopes, all of the instruments are online, and it's taking science observations. Huzzah!

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-pauses-science-due-to-gyro-issue/

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

If you want to celebrate Hubble's return to science operations, you can check out what it is observing right now:

https://spacetelescopelive.org/hubble

Important to note: The images are from ground-based surveys and are not live feeds from the telescope. They show the area of the current target, pulled from Hubble's observation scheduling database.

kellylepo, (edited ) to space
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Happy Birthday ! It was launched April 24, 1990 on the Space Shuttle Discovery.

This year's anniversary image is of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, or M76.

M76 is a planetary nebula, a glowing cloud of gas ejected by a sun-like star at the end of its lifetime. The central bar structure is actually a ring seen edge-on. This was likely sculpted by a binary companion star. Two lobes extend from the bar to the left and right of the ring.

More: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-013

kellylepo, (edited )
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

A video tour of 's 34th anniversary image of M76, the Little Dumbbell Nebula.

🎞️ https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/videos/2024/013/01HVPERG96SK2NTF0MHGFRB7FD?news=true

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@conflummoxed The Dumbbell Nebula (M 27) is 2.1 light years or 12.5 trillion miles across 😀

It's not physically that much bigger, but it is closer to us, so it appears bigger in the sky.

Here are two images taken by amateur astronomer David Arditti using the same equipment on the same night, so you can see the relative sizes.

📷 https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/2008JBAA..118..357A

kellylepo, to random
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Good news from Voyager 1.

NASA teams were able to move code that was on a section of corrupted memory in one of the spacecraft's computers. Now it's sending back usable engineering data for the first time since November 2023.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024/04/22/nasas-voyager-1-resumes-sending-engineering-updates-to-earth/

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@garygouldsberry Yep. Voyager 1 and 2 were launched 46 years ago. Their vintage 70s computers are constantly irradiated, they don't have a lot of power anymore, and it takes more than 22 hours to send a signal to the spacecraft and another 22 hours to see if it worked. Yet they are still mostly working. Hats off to the folks at JPL who make this possible.

kellylepo, to random
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A behind the scenes look at the recent press release on finding asteroid trails in 's back catalog of images.

The first image is uncalibrated. Most of the dots and streaks are from cosmic rays, high-energy particles from space, hitting the detector. The long streaks running across the middle top of the image are from the asteroid.

The post explains the choices Visuals Developer Joe DePasquale made to get to the second full-color image that ran with the release.

https://illuminateduniverse.org/2024/04/19/asteroids-photobomb-the-universe/

spacetelescope, to random
@spacetelescope@astrodon.social avatar

Cataloging asteroids is tricky because they are faint and they don't stop to be photographed as they zip along their orbits around the Sun. Astronomers recently used a trove of archived Hubble images to snag a largely unseen population of smaller asteroids in their tracks. (1/6)

kellylepo,
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@WardMB @spacetelescope The asteroid is photobombing the image. As Hubble was taking images of this galaxy in different filters, an asteroid in our solar system streaked in front of Hubble's view, creating the slightly wavy white line.

Each exposure was 10-20 minutes long.

Does that help?

mcnees, to random
@mcnees@mastodon.social avatar

Astronomer Nancy Grace Roman was born OTD in 1925.

After early work in spectral classification and galactic evolution, she became NASA's first Chief of Astronomy and did foundational work planning and overseeing development of the Hubble Space Telescope.

It's no exaggeration to say that her work made the Hubble possible.

Images: NASA

A color photo of the Hubble Space Telescope, taken by the crew of one of the shuttle missions. The Hubble is a mostly silver cylindrical tube, with the bright blue and white curve of the Earth below. One end has a raised flap, and two thin arms sporting small dishes extend from the sides.

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@mcnees Here is a recent video about Nancy Grace Roman produced by STScI
https://youtu.be/3yK_EVdO1r4

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