@kellylepo@astrodon.social
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

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

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

kellylepo, to Astronomy
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

Remember Zoozve? The quasi-moon of Venus featured on Radiolab that was named after a typo on a map of the Solar System?

Now is your chance to name one of Earth’s quasi-moons. The IAU and Radiolab are holding a contest — they will pick the top 10 names, which then go to a popular vote.

More info: https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau2406/

#astronomy #space

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

And if you have not listened to the original episode, you should. It is delightful.

https://radiolab.org/podcast/zoozve

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

NASA confirms that #Hubble will switch to one-gyroscope mode after the increasingly erratic behavior of gyro 3 caused the observatory to repeatedly go into safe mode.

Hubble will continue doing great science, but with somewhat reduced efficiency. It will need more time to slew and lock onto science targets. There is also a limit to the fraction of the sky it can observe at any one time (although it will have access to the full sky over the course of a year).

More: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasa-to-change-how-it-points-hubble-space-telescope/

1/

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

The reduced tracking speed means that Hubble will not be able to observe objects closer than Mars (which it doesn't do that often).

The reduced areas of the sky it can point to means that it will be more difficult for Hubble to make time-constrained observations, like exoplanet transits, and follow up on transient events like supernovas. Which is a bummer.

2/

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

More on Hubble's one-gyro mode:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/observatory/design/hubble-one-gyro-mode/

3/

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@GlennEJP I think, based on what I heard in today's press conference, they are keeping the second good gyro powered on, but I don't have any of the technical details.

kellylepo, to baltimore
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

Folks in ! Join us for Astronomy on Tap tomorrow — Wednesday, May 29 at Guilford Hall. Doors open at 7pm.

Come hear free, accessible, and fun talks from local astronomers about gas in galaxies, think deep thoughts about time, and see how we are exploring the universe in mid-infrared light with MIRI.

Plus, free swag and trivia!

kellylepo, to Astronomy
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

The summer 2024 NASA's Astrophoto Challenge is now open! This summer's target: Cassiopeia A.

Make your own images with real NASA data using a simple, online tool. Then, submit your image. Standout entries are featured on the website and get comments from expert judges.

I find all of your technicolor space images delightful. Please go make some weird space pictures:
https://mo-www.cfa.harvard.edu/OWN/astrophoto/index.html

#astronomy #space #astrodon #STEM

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

For more science background, ideas of how to do this activity with a group, and other resources on supernovas, check out the recording of the NASA's Universe of Learning Science Briefing webinar on the Astrophoto Challenge and Cassiopeia A.

It features a delightful discussion of what we know about Cas A through observations and computer models by Danny Milisavljevic and Salvatore Orlando.

https://www.universe-of-learning.org/contents/events/science-briefings/2024/science-briefing-cassiopeia-a

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

Here is my very quick, and not scientifically meaningful, but aesthetic rendering of Cas A.

kellylepo, to random
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

While JWST was originally designed to see some of the first galaxies to form after the Big Bang, astronomers also use it to observe objects in our cosmic backyard.

Learn how JWST is exploring our solar system to answer questions like:
• How was the solar system formed?
• Where did the chemicals necessary for life on Earth come from?
• What are the icy small bodies in the outer solar system made of?
• How are planets around other stars like planets in our solar system?

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/articles/exploring-our-solar-system-with-webb

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@pavsmith Right now, the current record holder for the furthest confirmed galaxy is from the JWST JADES survey. It has a redshift of 13.2, which corresponds to about 320 million years after the Big Bang.
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/early-highlights/nasas-webb-reaches-new-milestone-in-quest-for-distant-galaxies

From what I understand, this sets the galaxies seen so far by JWST in the early universe, but they are probably not the first galaxies.

More news on early galaxies:
https://webbtelescope.org/news/news-releases?Tag=First%20Galaxies

D_J_Nathanson, to random
@D_J_Nathanson@mastodon.social avatar

Here’s an question that I vacillate on: what about colors? Obviously some blind people were previously sighted and so including colors in alt text is helpful to them. What about people who were never sighted? What makes for good description for those people when we’re trying to convey the variation and definition that color brings? Should we just use regular color terms because people know how to navigate those terms, or is there some different emphasis that would be helpful?

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@D_J_Nathanson I'd also like to hear from people who rely on alt text.

But, I help edit alt text for images of space. From our conversations with blind, visually impaired, and color-blind people, many would like descriptions of color. We usually keep the color descriptions simple, to reduce cognitive load, since our images tend to be abstract and complex.

Even people who are blind from birth have a conceptual understanding of color, since they are exposed to the same culture as sighted people.

stefan, (edited ) to accessibility
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@stefan Somewhat ironically, the image wasn't loading for me in this post, so I had to rely on the alt text.

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

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

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

kellylepo,
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

@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, (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 )
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

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,
@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, to space
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

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!

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

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.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • JUstTest
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • cisconetworking
  • khanakhh
  • mdbf
  • magazineikmin
  • modclub
  • InstantRegret
  • rosin
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • Durango
  • tacticalgear
  • megavids
  • ngwrru68w68
  • everett
  • tester
  • cubers
  • normalnudes
  • thenastyranch
  • osvaldo12
  • GTA5RPClips
  • ethstaker
  • Leos
  • provamag3
  • anitta
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •