Posted on by Fraser Cain

What’s Up This Week – Mar 7 – 13, 2005

Monday, March 7– As we open our week long tour of the “Messier Marathon”, the late rise of the Moon tonight will be on the side of North American observers.

Beginning as soon as the sky darkens enough to find the guidestar Delta Cetus, the M77 spiral galaxy will be your first and the M74 spiral galaxy east of Eta Pisces will be your second mark. Both of these galaxies are telescopic only and will be an extreme challenge at this time of year due to their low position. Even computer-assisted scopes will have some difficulty revealing this pair under less than optimal conditions. Next up is M33 west of Alpha Triangulum. With ideal skies, the “Pinwheel Galaxy” could be seen in binoculars, but skybright will make this huge, low surface brightness spiral difficult for even telescopes at low power. The M31, “Andromeda Galaxy” will, however, be a delightful capture for both binoculars and scopes just west of Nu Andromedae. For the telescope, two more on the list are companions to the M31 – the elliptical M32 on the southeastern edge and M110 to the northwest.

Let’s head Northwest as we take on two open clusters visible to both telescopes and binoculars. You can find the M52 easiest by identifying Alpha and Beta Cassiopeia, drawing a mental line between them and extending it the same distance northwest of Beta. Next just hop north of Delta to pick up our ninth object – the M103 open cluster. Time to head south towards Perseus and go back to the telescope to locate the M76, “Little Dumbbell”, planetary nebula just north of Phi. Binoculars are all that’s needed to see the M34 open cluster also in Perseus, located roughly halfway between the “Demon Star” Algol and lovely double Almach, Gamma Andromeda.

Now that skies are dark and the fastest setting objects are out of the way, we can take a moment to breathe as we view the M45 – the Pleiades. The “Seven Sisters” are easily visible to the unaided eye high in the west and their cool, blue beauty is incomparable in binoculars or telescopes. Our next “hop” is with the “rabbit” Lepus as we go back to the south and identify Beta and Epsilon. Triangulating with this pair to the south is a nearly fifth magnitude star (ADS3954) which will help you locate small globular, M79 to its northeast. At around magnitude 8.5, it is possible to see its very tiny form in binoculars, but the M42 – “Great Orion Nebula” is much easier. The next object, M43, is part of the Orion Nebula, and you will catch it as a small “patch” to the north/northeast. The next two objects, the M78 northeast of Zeta Orionis and the M1 “Crab Nebula” northwest of Zeta Taurii, are both achievable in binoculars with excellent conditions, but are far more interesting to the telescope.

Now we can really relax. Take a few minutes and grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and get warmed up. The remaining objects on our observing list for tonight are all very easy, very well positioned for early evening, and all observable in just binoculars. Are you ready? Then let’s go.

The M35 is just as simple as finding the “toe” of Gemini – bright Eta. A short hop to the northwest will capture this fine open cluster. The next stop is Auriga and we’ll go directly between silicon star Theta and southern Beta. About halfway between them and slightly to the east you will find open cluster M37. This time let’s use Theta and Iota to its west. Roughly halfway between them and in the center of Auriga you will find the M38 and a short hop southeast will capture the M36. Now let’s get Sirius and finish this list for tonight. The open cluster M41 in Canis Major is just as quick as drifting south of the brightest star in the sky. The last three for tonight couldn’t be any easier – because we just studied them last week. Go capture the M93, M47 and M46 in Puppis… And give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back.

You’ve just conquered 24 Messiers.

Tuesday, March 8 – Ready for tonight’s challenge? Then nap away the very early evening hours and let’s head out well before bedtime to work on the next section of our week-long “marathon”.

First up will be four binocular targets, the incredibly colorful open cluster M50 is roughly a third of the way in a line drawn between Sirius and Procyon – use binoculars. Hydra is a difficult constellation, but try dropping south/southeast of the most eastern star in Monoceros – Zeta – about half a fist’s width to discover relatively dim open cluster M48. Far brighter and usually unaided eye is the M44, better known as the “Beehive Cluster”, just a scant few degrees north/northwest of Delta Cancri. From Delta, go south and identify Alpha because the M67 is just to its west. It will appear as a “fine haze” to binoculars, but telescopes will find a spectacular “cloud” of similar magnitude resolvable stars.

Now we really do have to use the telescopes again because we’re going “lion taming” by hunting galaxies in Leo. Let’s trade one Alpha for another as we head west to Regulus. Roughly about a fist width east of this major star you will see two dim stars that may require the use of the finderscope – 52 to the north and 53 to the south. We’re heading right between them. About a degree and a half south of 52, you will discover ninth magnitude elliptical M105. Larger scopes will also show two additional faint galaxies, NGC 3384 and NGC 3389 to M105’s west. Continuing about a degree south towards star 53 you will spot the silver-gray beauty of M96 in a relatively starless field. Enjoy its bright nucleus and wispy arms. About another degree west will bring you to the M95, which is neither as bright nor as large as its Messier “neighbor”. Small scopes should show a brightening towards its center and large ones should begin to resolve out the arms of this awesome barred spiral. Our next destination is the southwestern star of the three that mark Leo’s “hips”, Theta Leonis – or more commonly called Chort. South of it you will see faint star 73 and right around one degree to its east/southeast you will locate a pair. In small scopes at low power, the M65 and M66 are same field. The western M65 and eastern M66 are both beautiful spirals.

Now let’s head north for another “same field pair” of galaxies and hunt down the M81 and M82 in Ursa Major. Many folks have trouble “star hopping” to these galaxies, but a very simple way of finding them is to draw a mental line between Phecda (Gamma) and Dubhe (Alpha). By extending that line beyond Dubhe almost the same distance, you’ll locate our next two “marathon” objects. At low power with a smaller scope, the southern-most and most pronounced of the two is the stunning M81 with its bright core. To the north is broken, spindle-shaped peculiar galaxy M82. Viewable in binoculars, we’ll study more about this pair later on as we head for Mirak (Beta) and our next galaxy. About a degree and a half southeast you will see a 10th magnitude “scratch” of light. This great edge-on galaxy – M108 – should show at least four brighter “patches” to the small scope and a nice dark dust-lane to larger ones. Continuing about another half degree southeast will bring you to planetary nebula, M97. Also known as the “Owl”, this 12th magnitude beauty is roughly the same diameter as Jupiter and can be spotted under optimal conditions with binoculars – but requires a large scope at high power to begin to discern its features. Let’s continue south to Phecda and less than half a degree to the east you will locate M109. In the field with Gamma, the M109 will show its faded central bar and prominent nucleus to the small scope, but requires large aperture and high magnification to make out structure. The last in Ursa Major is an error on Messier’s part. Labeled as the M40, this object is actually double star WNC4 located in the same eyepiece field as 70 Ursa Major to the northeast.

Now let’s move into Canes Venatici and round up a few more. This is an area of dimmer stars, but the two major stars, Alpha (it is called Cor Caroli and it is a wonderful double star) and Beta are easily recognizable to the east of the last star in the “handle” of the “Big Dipper” (Eta). The northernmost is Beta and you will find the soft-spoken spiral galaxy – M106 – almost directly midway between it and Phecda less than 2 degrees south of star 3. The M94 is a much brighter, compact galaxy and is found by forming an isosceles triangle with Alpha and Beta Canum with the imaginary apex towards Eta Ursae Majoris. The M63 is a very pretty, bright galaxy (often known as “the Sunflower”) that approaches magnitude 10 and is found about one-third the distance between Cor Caroli and Eta Ursae Majoris (Alkaid). Still heading towards Alkaid (Eta UM), the incomparable M51 comes next. Near Eta you will see an unmistakable visual star called 24 CnV, the “Whirlpool” is the same basic distance to the southwest. Now that we’re back into “big bear country” again, we might as well head on to the M101 “Pinwheel” galaxy which is found by following the same trajectory and distance to the other side of Alkaid. Before we head on, let’s continue north and clean up… ummm… another “messy mistake”. The accepted designation for the M102 is lenticular galaxy NGC 5866, located in Draco south east of Iota.

Now let’s finish up – it’s getting late. Our next stop will be to identify the three primary stars of Coma Berenices now high in the east above Arcturus. You will find small globular cluster M53 northeast of Alpha. One of the coolest galaxies around is the M64 (known as the “Blackeye”) just a degree east/northeast of 35 Comae, which is about one third the distance between Alpha Comae and Alkaid. The last, and most outstanding for the night, is a globular cluster that can be seen in binoculars – M3. As strange as this may sound, you can find M3 easily by drawing a line between Cor Caroli and Arcturus. Starting at Arcturus, move up about one third the way until you see Beta Comae to the west of your “line”… Poof. There it is.

Awesome job. We’ve just completed another 24 objects and we’ve claimed 48 on the Messier list before bedtime in two days.

Wednesday, March 9 – We have one more day until New Moon, but the challenge will not be so much avoiding Luna, nor the visibility of the next objects – but the “window of opportunity” in which we’ll be able to see them. Am I going to ask you to stay up past your bedtime? Darn right…

These next targets will be best viewed after midnight when the constellations of Coma Berenices and Virgo have well risen, providing us with the darkest sky and best position. For the large telescope, we are going to be walking into an incredibly rich galaxy field that we will touch on only briefly because they will become the object of future studies. Just keep in mind that our Messier objects are by far the brightest of the many you will see in the field. For the smaller scope? Don’t despair. These are quite easy enough for you to see as well and probably far less confusing because there won’t be so many of them visible. Now let’s identify the easternmost star in Leo – Denebola – and head about a fist width due East…

Our first will be the M98, just west of star 6 Comae. It will be a nice edge-on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices. Next return to 6 Comae and go one degree southeast to capture the M99, a face-on spiral known as the “Pinwheel” that can be seen in apertures as small as 4″. Return to 6 Comae and head two degrees northeast. You will pass two fifth magnitude stars that point the way to the M100 – the largest appearing galaxy in the Coma/Virgo cluster. To the average scope, it will look like a dim globular cluster with a stellar nucleus. Now let’s continue on two degrees north where you will see bright yellow 11 Comae. One degree northeast is all it takes to catch the ninth magnitude, round M85. (ignore that barred spiral. let’s keep moving…) Now, let’s try a “trick of the trade” to locate two more. Going back to 6 Comae, relocate the M99 and turn off your drive. If you are accurately aligned to the equator, you may now take a break for 14 minutes. When you return the elongated form and near stellar nucleus of the M88 has now “drifted” into view. Wait another two to three minutes and the faint barred spiral, M91 will have joined the show in a one degree field of view.. (pretty fun, huh? 😉

Now let’s shift guidestars by locating bright Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis) almost due east of Denebola. Let’s hop four and a half degrees west and a shade north of Epsilon to locate one of the largest elliptical galaxies presently known – the M60. At a little brighter than magnitude 9, this galaxy could be spotted with binoculars. In the same telescopic low power field you will also note faint NGC 4647 which only appears to be interacting with M60. Also in the field is our next Messier, bright cored elliptical M59 to the west. (yes. there’s more – but not tonight.) Moving a degree west of this group will bring you to our “galactic twin”, fainter M58. Moving about a degree north will call up face-on spiral M89, which will show a nice core region in most scopes. One half degree northeast is where you will find the delightful 9.5 magnitude M90 – whose dark dust lanes will show to larger scopes. Continue on one and a half degrees southwest for the M87, one of the first radio sources discovered. This particular galaxy has shown evidence of containing a black hole and its elliptical form is surrounded by more than 4,000 globular clusters.

Just slightly more than a degree northwest is a same field pair, the M84 and M86. Although large aperture scopes will see many more in the field, concentrate on the two bright cored ellipticals which are almost identical. M84 will drift out of the field first to the west and M86 is east. Next we will select a new guidestar by going 31 Virginis to identify splendid variable R about a degree to its west. We then move two degrees northwest of R to gather in the evenly lighted oval of M49. Now shifting about three degrees southwest, you will see handsome yellow double – 17 Virginis. Only one-half degree south is the large face-on spiral, M61. Larger scopes will see arms and dust lanes in this one. Last for tonight is to head for the bright blue beauty of Spica and go just slightly more than a fist width (11 degrees) due west. The M104 – “Sombrero” galaxy will be your reward for a job well done.

Congratulations. You’ve just seen 17 of the finest galaxies in the Coma/Virgo region and our “Marathon” total for three days has now reached 65. We’re over halfway home…

Thursday, March 10 – Hey… It’s New Moon. While tonight would be the “perfect choice” for completing a Messier Marathon from start to finish, there are no iron-clad guarantees that the sky will cooperate on this date. Even worse? Many of us have to work the next day. So what’s an astronomer to do, eh? How about if we try an “early to bed and early to rise” attitude and conquer these next objects well ahead of the dawn? Set your alarm for 3:00 am, dress warm and let’s dance.

With Corvus relatively high to the south, the drop is about five degrees to the south/south east of Beta Corvii. Just visible to the unaided eye will be the marker star – double A8612. Eighth magnitude M68 is a bright, compact globular cluster in Hydra that will appear as a “fuzzy star” to binoculars and a treat to the telescope. Our next is tough for far-northern observers, for the “Southern Pinwheel” – M83 – is close to ten degrees southeast of Gamma Hydrae. (this is why it is imperative to get up early enough to catch this constellation at its highest.)

Now we’re going to make a wide move across the sky and head southeast of brilliant Arcturus for Alpha Serpentis. About 8 degrees southwest you will find outstanding globular cluster M5 sharing the field with 5 Serpens. Now locate the “keystone” shape of Hercules and identify Eta in its northwest corner. About one-third of the way between it and Zeta to the south is the fantastic M13, also known as the “Great Hercules Globular Cluster”. A little more difficult to find is the small M92 because there are no stars to guide you. Try this trick – Using the two northernmost stars in the “keystone”, form an equilateral triangle in your mind with its imaginary apex to the north. Point your scope there. At sixth magnitude, this compact globular cluster has a distinct nucleus. Now we’re off to enjoy summer favourites and previous studies. The M57, “Ring Nebula”, is located about halfway between Sheilak and Sulafat. You’ll find the small globular M56 residing conveniently about midpoint between Sulafat and Alberio. About 2 degrees south of Gamma Cygni is the bright open cluster M29 and equally bright M39 lay about a little less than a fist width to the northeast of Deneb. If you remember our hop north of Gamma Sagitta, you’ll easily find the M27 “Dumbbell Nebula” and the loose globular, M71, just southwest of Gamma. All of the objects in this last paragraph are viewable with binoculars (albeit some are quite small) and all are spectacular in the telescope.

And now we’ve made it to 76 on our “Messier Hit List”.

Friday, March 11 – So, are you having fun yet?. Now we’re moving into early morning skies and looking at our own galactic halo as we track down some great globular clusters. What time of day, do you ask? Roughly two hours before dawn…

Ophiuchus is a sprawling constellation and its many stars can sometimes be hard to identify. Let’s start first with Beta Scorpii (Graffias) and head about a fist’s width to the northeast. That’s Zeta and the marker you will need to locate the M107. About one quarter the way back towards Graffias, you will see a line of three stars in the finder. Aim at the center one and you’ll find this globular in the same field. Now go back to Zeta and you will see a pair of similar magnitude dim stars higher to the northeast. The southernmost is star 30 and you will find the M10 globular cluster about one degree to its west. The M12 is only about three degrees further along to the northeast. Both are wonderfully large and bright enough to be seen in binoculars.

Now we need to identify Alpha in Ophiuchus. Head toward Hercules. South of the “keystone” you will see bright Beta Hercules with Alpha Hercules to the southeast. The next bright star along the line is Alpha Ophiuchi and globular cluster M14 is approximately 16 degrees south and pretty much due east of M10. Now let’s head for bright Eta Ophiuchi (Sabik) directly between Scorpius and Sagittarius The next globular, M9 is about three and a half degrees southeast.

Now let’s move on to an easier one. All you need to know is Antares to find the globular cluster, M4 in Scorpius. All you have to do is aim your binoculars there, for this diffuse giant is just a little over one degree to the west. Go back to Antares and shift about four degrees to the northwest and you’ll find compact, bright globular M80. It will be very small in binoculars, but it’s quite bright. Going back to the scope is best for the M19, although it’s easy to find around seven degrees due east of Antares. The last for this morning is the M62 about a half a fist’s width to the south.

Hey, you’re doing terrific. Some of these are tough to find unless you’ve had practice… But now we’re up to a total of 85.

Saturday, March 12 – Ready to get up early again? I know it’s hard, but what we’re after this morning is truly worth it. These are some of the most beautiful objects in the sky.

The lower curve of Scorpius is quite distinctive and the unaided eye pair you see at the “stinger” is beautiful double Shaula (Lambda) and its slightly less bright neighbor Upsilon. Aim your binoculars there and head towards the northeast and you cannot miss the M6 “Butterfly Cluster”. Below it and slightly east is a hazy patch, aim there and you will find another spectacular open cluster M7 often known as “Ptolemy’s Cluster”. Now go north and identify Lambda Aquilae and you will find the M11 “Wild Duck” open cluster just to the west. About the same distance away to the south/southwest you will spot the M26, another open cluster. These are all great binocular targets, but it will take an exceptionally dark, clear sky to see the “Eagle Nebula” associated with the M16 easy open cluster about a fist’s width away to the southwest. Far easier to see is the “Nike Swoosh” of the M17 just a little further south. Many of you know this as the “Omega” or “Swan” nebula. Keeping moving south and you will see the a very small collection of stars known as the M18 and a bit more south will bring up a huge cloud of stars labeled M24. This patch of Milky Way “stuff” will show a wonderful open cluster – NGC 6603 – to average telescopes and some great Barnard darks to the larger ones.

Now we’re going to shift to the southeast just a shade and pick up the M25 open cluster and head due west about a fist’s width to capture the next open cluster – M23. From there, we are dropping south again and the M21 will be your reward. Head back for your scope and remember your area, because the M20 “Triffid Nebula” is just a shade to the southwest. Small scopes will pick up on the little glowing ball, but anything from about 4″ up can see those dark dust lanes that make this nebula so special. You can go back to the binoculars again, because the M8 “Lagoon Nebula” is south again and very easy to see.

This particular star hop is very fun. Sagittarius has long been my favourite constellation. If you have children who would like to see some of these riches, point out the primary stars and show them how it looks like a dot-to-dot “tea kettle”. From the kettle’s “spout” pours the “steam” of the Milky Way. If you start there, all you will need to do is follow the “steam” trail up the sky and you can see the majority of these with ease. Our Messier total has now risen to 98…

Sunday, March 13 – OK, folks… It’s “crunch time” and the first few on this list will be fairly easy around 5:00 am, but you won’t have long before the dawn steals the last few from the sky.

At the top of the “tea kettle” is Lambda. This is our marker for two easy binocular objects. The small M28 globular cluster is quite easily found just a breath to the north/northwest. The larger, brighter and quite wonderful globular cluster M22 is also very easily found to Lambda’s northeast. Now we’re roaming into “binocular possible” but better with the telescope objects. The southeastern corner of the “tea kettle” is Zeta, and we’re going to hop across the bottom to the west. Starting at Zeta, slide southwest to capture globular cluster M54. Keep heading another three degrees southwest and you will see the fuzzy ball of the M70. Just around two degrees more to the west is another globular that looks like the M70’s twin. Say good morning to the M69.

Now it’s really going to get tough. The small globular M55 is out there in “No Man’s Land” about a fist’s width away east/south east of Zeta and the dawn is coming. It’s going to be even harder to find the equally small globular M75, but if you can see Beta Capricorn it will be about a fist’s width southwest. Look for a “V” pattern of stars in the finder and go to the northeastern star of this trio. You should be able to put it in the same low power field. Without the “square” of Pegasus to guide us, look low to the east and identify Enif by its reddish color. (Delphinus above it should help you.) Power punch globular M15 is to Enif’s northwest and you should be able to see the star on its border in the finderscope. Let’s be thankful that the M2 is such a fine, large globular cluster. The hop is two thirds of the way between Enif and Beta Aquarius, or just a little less than a fist’s width due west of Alpha. Let’s hope that Beta is still shining bright, because we’ll need to head about a fist’s width away again to the southwest to snag what will now be two very dim ones – the M72 globular cluster and M73 open cluster just west of Nu Aquarius. We’re now running just ahead of the light of dawn and the M30 globular cluster is our last object. Hang on Delta Capricornus and show us the way south/southwest to star 41. If you can find that? You’ve got the very last one…

We’ve done the Messier Catalog of all 110 objects in just one week.

Is this a perfect list with perfect instructions? No way. Just like the sky, things aren’t always perfect. This is just a general guideline to helping you find the Messier objects for yourself. Unless you are using a computer-guided scope, it truly takes a lot of practice to find all the Messiers with ease, so don’t be discouraged if they just don’t fall from the sky. You might find all of these in one year or one week – and you just might find all of them in one good night. Regardless of how long it takes you – or when the skies cooperate – the beauty, joy and reward is the peace and pleasure it brings.

Until next week? May all of your journeys be at light speed. ….~Tammy Plotner

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Detector Ready to Receive Beam of Neutrinos

Particle physicists from around the World are poised to unravel the secrets of the ethereal neutrino. Operational from this afternoon, March 4th, the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) will produce a beam of neutrinos and fire them through the earth. By comparing neutrinos at the start with those that at the finish, some 735 km away, the scientists hope to understand many of their properties, including their most mysterious behaviour; how neutrinos can morph between three different types!

“This strange property of neutrinos was only recently discovered experimentally, because neutrinos interact with the their surroundings very rarely – in fact millions are passing through air, earth and even people unnoticed at any given time. Even a specially built detector like the MINOS Far detector is only expected to see 1,500 neutrinos in a year – billions more will pass straight through!” says UK project spokesperson, Dr Geoff Pearce of the CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

The MINOS experiment will use a neutrino beam produced just outside Chicago, USA at Fermilab’s Main Injector accelerator to probe the secrets of these elusive subatomic particles: where do they come from, what are their masses and how do they change from one kind to another? There are three types or ‘flavours’ of neutrino: electron, muon and tau, each with different properties. The neutrino beam will be projected straight through the earth from Fermilab to the Soudan Mine in Northern Minnesota – a distance of 735 kilometres. No tunnel is needed because neutrinos interact so rarely with matter that they can pass straight through the earth virtually unhindered. In a ceremony this afternoon, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, the Honourable J. Dennis Hastert Jr. will activate the neutrino beam, sending the first particles on their journey to the detector in the Soudan mine.

Dr Alfons Weber, University of Oxford explains “This is an exciting time for us. The beam we now generate at Fermilab will contain only one type of neutrino – muon neutrinos. When it arrives at the Far Detector in the Soudan Mine fractions of a second later, some of the muon neutrinos will have changed into the other types – tau and electron neutrinos. We want to understand how they do this.”

Two massive neutrino detectors have been built by MINOS, both of which are complete and ready for the beam. The 1000 ton ‘near’ detector will sample the beam as it leaves Fermilab and provide the control measurements. The 5,500 ton ‘far’ detector, half a mile underground in the Soudan Mine, will measure the neutrinos when they arrive, just 2.5 milliseconds later. The detectors have to be a long distance apart to allow the neutrinos, which travel at close to the speed of light, time to oscillate. “By comparing these two measurements we will be able to study how the neutrinos have oscillated and provide the world’s most precise measurement of this effect with muon-type neutrinos” explains Dr Geoff Pearce.

Prof. Ian Halliday, CEO of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council which funds UK work on this project, anticipated the revelations from the experiment’s precision measurements.

“The mysteries of the elusive neutrino are about to be unveiled,” Halliday said. “For the very first time we will be able to investigate the changing state of this bizarre particle to an unprecedented accuracy of a few percent in a controlled beam of neutrinos created in the laboratory. I’m extremely proud that UK scientists have played a key role in bringing this experiment to fruition and, in collaboration with their international colleagues, will be amongst the first in the world to study its unique characteristics.”

“Physicists from around the world are trying to understand what these mysterious neutrinos are telling us,” said Fermilab director Michael Witherell. “Today, we are embarking on a journey of exploration using the most powerful neutrino facility in the world. I am extremely proud of what the people of Fermilab have accomplished in completing the NuMI project. I would like to thank the American people and the federal government for making the necessary commitment to support great science.”

Original Source: PPARC News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Dawn Will Show How Different Two Asteroids Can Be

Although they’re both enormous asteroids, protoplanets really, and lie within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Vesta and Ceres couldn’t be more different.

Vesta formed closer to the Sun, and probably shares many features of the inner planets. Scientists believe it formed in a hot, dry environment and will probably have layers of volcanic flows and a solid metallic core. But even the best photos from Hubble show a blurry gray world, bringing more questions than answers. It’s the brightest asteroid in the Solar System, measuring 530 km (329 miles) across. You can even see it with the unaided eye; in fact, it’s the only main belt asteroid you can see. Traveling to Vesta could be a little dangerous. “We know very little about Vesta’s internal structure,” explained Chief Engineer Dr. Marc Rayman, “it
has an unpredictable and possibly very irregular gravity field.”

Just a little further out – across an invisible line that separates the inner rocky planets from the outer planets – is Ceres; the largest asteroid in the Solar System, measuring 957 km (595 miles) across. Unlike Vesta, Ceres is believed to have formed in a cool, wet environment, and in the presence of water. This water is probably still there, in the form of ice caps, a thin water vapour atmosphere, or even as a liquid underneath the surface.

While most of the objects in the asteroid belt are pulverized chunks of rock, accumulations of material from different bodies, Vesta and Ceres remain largely unchanged from when they first formed 4.6 billion years ago. Revelations about the early history of the Solar System could be written on their surfaces.

The $370 million US spacecraft is scheduled for liftoff in June, 2006. After 4 or 5 years of travel time (depending on whether or not it’ll be making a flyby of Mars first) Dawn will arrive at Vesta in 2010 or 2011, studying it for almost a year before flying off to rendezvous with Ceres three years later. It has a suite of scientific instruments on board to study the two asteroids in great detail: their mass, volume, spin rate, chemical and elemental composition, and gravity. Oh, and it’ll be taking pretty pictures too.

Dawn will be the first spacecraft ever to orbit two separate objects in the solar system (and no, orbiting the Earth doesn’t count here). A feat that wouldn’t even be possible without its ion engine. A very similar engine helped Deep Space 1 set speed and duration records, and served as a model for Dawn’s development. It uses solar electricity to ionize xenon atoms and then hurl them out the back of the spacecraft. The thrust is tiny but fuel efficient, and the engine can keep running for months or even years providing a tremendous velocity.

And an ion engine gives controllers flexibility. “It gives us a very long launch window. We’re launching in June 2006 because that’s when the spacecraft will be ready. But we could still make it in November or even after that,” said Dr. Rayman. So far, though, the project is right on schedule. The completed spacecraft shipped this week from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to Orbital Sciences for the next stage of assembly and testing.

If you’re interested in finding out more about this mission, stay tuned. Dr. Rayman is planning on keeping the world well informed, through the Internet. He learned how important this can be while working on Deep Space 1, taking the unusual step – at the time – of maintaining a web log to describe his experiences working with the spacecraft. “I was in the airport when I realized that we needed to get the word out. I dictated my first entry over the phone,” recalled Dr. Rayman. Rayman continued maintaining his popular DS1 blog, giving armchair mission controllers a unique insight into the day-to-day challenges and decisions that go into managing a spacecraft half a solar system away.

Expect more of the same with Dawn. “These missions belong to more than just NASA, or the United States. They’re humanity’s emissaries to the cosmos, and we want everyone to come along for the ride,” explained Rayman. But this time, he’ll get started earlier, bringing an Internet audience into the development stages as well as post-launch.

Official Dawn Mission Page

Written by Fraser Cain

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Rosetta Photographs the Earth on Flyby

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft yesterday performed ESA’s closest-ever Earth fly-by, gaining an essential gravity boost in its ten-year, 7.1 billion kilometre flight to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

At closest approach, at 22:09:14 GMT, Rosetta passed above the Pacific Ocean just west of Mexico at an altitude of 1954.74 km and a velocity relative to the Earth of 38 000 kph.

The passage through the Earth-Moon system allowed ground controllers to test Rosetta’s ‘asteroid fly-by mode’ (AFM) using the Moon as a ‘fake’ asteroid, rehearsing the fly-bys of asteroids Steins and Lutetia due in 2008 and 2010 respectively. The AFM test started at 23:01 GMT and ran for nine minutes during which the two onboard navigation cameras successfully tracked the Moon, allowing Rosetta’s attitude to be automatically adjusted.

Before and after closest approach, the navigation cameras also acquired a series of images of the Moon and Earth; these data will be downloaded early today for ground processing and are expected to be available by 8 March.

In addition, other onboard instruments were switched on, including ALICE (ultraviolet imaging spectrometer), VIRTIS (visible and infrared mapping spectrometer) and MIRO (microwave instrument for the Rosetta orbiter), for calibration and general testing using the Earth and Moon as targets.

The fly-by manoeuvre swung the three-tonne spacecraft around our planet and out towards Mars, where it will make a fly-by on 26 February 2007. Rosetta will return to Earth again in a series of four planet fly-bys (three times with Earth, once with Mars) before reaching Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, when it will enter orbit and deliver a lander, Philae, onto the surface.

The fly-bys are necessary to accelerate the spacecraft so as to eventually match the velocity of the target comet. They are a fuel-saving way to boost speed using planetary gravity.

Yesterday’s fly-by came one year and two days after launch and highlights the valuable opportunities for instrument calibration and data gathering available during the mission’s multi-year voyage.

In just three months, on 4 July, Rosetta will be in a good position to observe and gather data during NASA’s spectacular Deep Impact event, when the Deep Impact probe will hurl a 380 kg projectile into Comet Tempel 1, revealing data on the comet’s internal structure. Certain of Rosetta?s unique instruments, such as its ultraviolet light instrument ALICE, should be able to make critical contributions to the American mission.

About Rosetta
Rosetta is the first mission designed to both orbit and land on a comet, and consists of an orbiter and a lander. The spacecraft carries 11 scientific experiments and will be the first mission to undertake long-term exploration of a comet at close quarters. After entering orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, the spacecraft will release a small lander onto the icy nucleus. Rosetta will orbit the comet for about a year as it heads towards the Sun, remaining in orbit for another half-year past perihelion (closest approach to the Sun).

Comets hold essential information about the origin of our Solar System because they are the most primitive objects in the Solar System and their chemical composition has changed little since their formation. By orbiting and landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta will help us reconstruct the history of our own neighbourhood in space.

Original Source: ESA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

New Kind of Object Discovered?

Image credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF
Astronomers at Sweet Briar College and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have detected a powerful new bursting radio source whose unique properties suggest the discovery of a new class of astronomical objects. The researchers have monitored the center of the Milky Way Galaxy for several years and reveal their findings in the March 3, 2005 edition of the journal, “Nature”.

Principal investigator, Dr. Scott Hyman, professor of physics at Sweet Briar College, said the discovery came after analyzing some additional observations from 2002 provided by researchers at Northwestern University. “”We hit the jackpot!” Hyman said referring to the observations. “An image of the Galactic center, made by collecting radio waves of about 1-meter in wavelength, revealed multiple bursts from the source during a seven-hour period from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1, 2002 ? five bursts in fact, and repeating at remarkably constant intervals.”

Hyman, four Sweet Briar students, and his NRL collaborators, Drs. Namir Kassim and Joseph Lazio, happened upon transient emission from two radio sources while studying the Galactic center in 1998. This prompted the team to propose an ongoing monitoring program using the National Science Foundation?s Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which operates the VLA, approved the program. The data collected, laid the groundwork for the detection of the new radio source.

“Amazingly, even though the sky is known to be full of transient objects emitting at X- and gamma-ray wavelengths,” NRL astronomer Dr. Joseph Lazio pointed out, “very little has been done to look for radio bursts, which are often easier for astronomical objects to produce.”

The team has monitored the Galactic center for new transient sources and for variability in approximately 250 known sources, but the five bursts from the new radio source, named GCRT J1745-3009, were by far the most powerful seen. The five bursts were of equal brightness, with each lasting about 10 minutes, and occurring every 77 minutes.

The source of the bursts is transient Hyman noted. “It has not been detected since 2002 nor is it present on earlier images.”

Although the exact nature of the object remains a mystery, the team members currently believe that GCRT J1745-3009 is either the first member of a new class of objects or an unknown mode of activity of a known source class.

One important clue to understanding the origin of the radio bursts is that the emission appears to be “coherent,” Hyman said. “There are very few classes of coherent emitters in the universe. Natural astronomical masers ? the analog of laser emission at microwave wavelengths ? are one class of coherent sources, but these emit in specific wavelengths. In contrast, the new transient?s bursts were detected over a relatively large bandwidth.”

“In addition to these intriguing properties, NRL astronomer Dr. Paul Ray and colleague, Dr. Craig Markwardt of NASA?s Goddard Space Flight Center, have searched the source for X-ray emission but have not found any convincing evidence. “The non-detection of X-ray emission is intriguing,” Ray said. “Many sources that emit transient X-ray flares, such as black hole binary star systems, also have associated radio emission. If upon further observations, X-ray emission is definitively detected or ruled out, this will be a significant help in understanding the nature of this remarkable source.”

“Needless to say, the discovery of these transients has been very exciting for our students,” Hyman added. Participating in this research program has inspired at least two of Hyman’s students ? Jennifer Neureuther and Mariana Lazarova ? to pursue graduate studies in astronomy.

This project was supported at Sweet Briar College by funding from Research Corporation and the Jeffress Foundation. Basic research in radio astronomy at NRL is supported by the Office of Naval Research.

Hyman and his NRL colleagues plan to continue monitoring the Galactic center and search for the source again with the VLA and other X-ray and radio telescopes. They are also developing (with Dr. Kent Wood of NRL) a model that attempts to account for the radio bursts as a new type of outburst from a class of sources known as “magnetars.”

NRL is also contributing to an effort to build the world?s largest and most sensitive low-frequency telescope, called the Long Wavelength Array (LWA), which may revolutionize future searches for other radio transient sources. Current plans call for the LWA, which is being developed by the University of New Mexico-led Southwest Consortium, to be sited in New Mexico, not far from the VLA.

“One of the key advantages of observing at long radio wavelengths,” explained NRL astronomer, Dr. Namir Kassim, “is that the field-of-view is so large that a single observation can efficiently detect transient phenomena over a large region.”

“When completed, the LWA may uncover hundreds of previously unknown radio transients, some of which may be examples of Jupiter-like planets orbiting other stars,” Kassim added. Jupiter is the most famous example of a nearby radio transient.

Original Source: NRAO News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Did Clouds in Space Cause Snowball Earth?

Image credit: NASA
Eons ago, giant clouds in space may have led to global extinctions, according to two recent technical papers supported by NASA’s Astrobiology Institute.

One paper outlines a rare scenario in which Earth iced over during snowball glaciations, after the solar system passed through dense space clouds. In a more likely scenario, less dense giant molecular clouds may have enabled charged particles to enter Earth’s atmosphere, leading to destruction of much of the planet’s protective ozone layer. This resulted in global extinctions, according to the second paper. Both recently appeared in the Geophysical Research Letters.

“Computer models show dramatic climate change can be caused by interstellar dust accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere during the solar system’s immersion into a dense space cloud,” said Alex Pavlov, principal author of the two papers. He is a scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The resulting dust layer hovering over the Earth would absorb and scatter solar radiation, yet allow heat to escape from the planet into space, causing runaway ice buildup and snowball glaciations.

“There are indications from 600 to 800 million years ago that at least two of four glaciations were snowball glaciations. The big mystery revolves around how they are triggered,” Pavlov said. He concluded the snowball glaciations covered the entire Earth. His work is supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which has offices at NASA Ames Research Center, located in California’s Silicon Valley.

Pavlov said this hypothesis has to be tested by geologists. They would look at Earth’s rocks to find layers that relate to the snowball glaciations to assess whether uranium 235 is present in higher amounts. It cannot be produced naturally on Earth or in the solar system, but it is constantly produced in space clouds by exploding stars called supernovae.

Sudden, small changes in the uranium 235/238-ratio in rock layers would be proof interstellar material is present that originated from supernovae. Collisions of the solar system with dense space clouds are rare, but according to Pavlov’s research, more frequent solar system collisions, with moderately dense space clouds, can be devastating. He outlined a complex series of events that would result in loss of much of Earth’s protective ozone layer, if the solar system collided with a moderately dense space cloud.

The research outlined a scenario that begins as Earth passes through a moderately dense space cloud that cannot compress the outer edge of the sun’s heliosphere into a region within the Earth’s orbit. The heliosphere is the expanse that begins at the sun’s surface and usually reaches far past the orbits of the planets. Because it remains beyond Earth’s orbit, the heliosphere continues to deflect dust particles away from the planet.

However, because of the large flow of hydrogen from space clouds into the sun’s heliosphere, the sun greatly increases its production of electrically charged cosmic rays from the hydrogen particles. This also increases the flow of cosmic rays towards Earth. Normally, Earth’s magnetic field and ozone layer protect life from cosmic rays and the sun’s dangerous ultraviolet radiation.

Moderately dense space clouds are huge, and the solar system could take as long as 500,000 years to cross one of them. Once in such a cloud, the Earth would be expected to undergo at least one magnetic reversal. During a reversal, electrically charged cosmic rays can enter Earth’s atmosphere instead of being deflected by the planet’s magnetic field.

Cosmic rays can fly into the atmosphere and break up nitrogen molecules to form nitrogen oxides. Nitrogen oxide catalysts would set off the destruction of as much as 40 percent of the protective ozone in the planet’s upper atmosphere across the globe and destruction of about 80 percent of the ozone over the polar regions according to Pavlov.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Sideways Motion of a Galaxy Measured

In the March 4th issue of Science, astronomers report that they have measured the slowest ever motion of a galaxy across the plane of the sky. This distant whirlpool of stars appears to creep along despite its actual speed through space because it is located so far from the Earth. Measuring this galaxy’s glacial pace of only 30 micro-arcseconds per year stretched current radio astronomy technology to its limit.

“A snail crawling on Mars would appear to be moving across the surface more than 100 times faster than the motion we measured for this galaxy,” said Mark Reid (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), a co-author on the paper.

Reid and his colleagues used the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) to measure the motion across the sky of a galaxy located nearly 2.4 million light-years from Earth. While scientists have been measuring the motion of galaxies directly toward or away from Earth for decades, this is the first time that the transverse motion (called proper motion by astronomers) has been measured for a galaxy that is not a nearby satellite of the Milky Way.

An international scientific team analyzed VLBA observations made over two and a half years to detect minuscule shifts in the sky position of the spiral galaxy M33. Combined with previous measurements of the galaxy’s motion toward Earth, the new data allowed the astronomers to calculate M33’s movement in three dimensions for the first time.

M33 is a satellite of the larger galaxy M31, the well-known Andromeda Galaxy that is the most distant object visible to the naked eye. Both are part of the Local Group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way.

The astronomers’ task was not simple. Not only did they have to detect an impressively tiny amount of motion across the sky, but they also had to separate the actual motion of M33 from the apparent motion caused by our Solar System’s motion around the center of the Milky Way. The motion of the Solar System and the Earth around the galactic center, some 26,000 light-years away, has been accurately measured using the VLBA over the last decade.

“The VLBA is the only telescope system in the world that could do this work,” Reid said. “Its extraordinary ability to resolve fine detail is unmatched and was the absolute prerequisite to making these measurements.”

In addition to measuring the motion of M33 as a whole, the astronomers also were able to make a direct measurement of the spiral galaxy’s rotation. Both measurements were made by observing the changes in position of giant clouds of molecules inside the galaxy. The water vapor in these clouds acts as a natural maser, strengthening, or amplifying, radio emission the same way that lasers amplify light emission. The natural masers acted as bright radio beacons whose movement could be tracked by the ultra-sharp radio “vision” of the VLBA.

Reid and his colleagues plan to continue measuring M33’s motion and also to make similar measurements of M31’s motion. This will allow them to answer important questions about the composition, history and fates of the two galaxies as well as of the Milky Way.

“We want to determine the orbits of M31 and M33. That will help us learn about their history, specifically, how close have they come in the past?” Reid explained. “If they have passed very closely, then maybe M33’s small size is a result of having material pulled off it by M31 during the close encounter,” he added.

Accurate knowledge of the motions of both galaxies also will help determine if there is a collision in their future. In addition, orbital analysis can give astronomers valuable clues about the amount and distribution of dark matter in the galaxies.

Reid worked with Andreas Brunthaler of the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn, Germany; Heino Falcke of ASTRON in the Netherlands; Lincoln Greenhill, also of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; and Christian Henkel, also of the Max Planck Institute in Bonn.

Original Source: CfA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Progress Docks with Station

Image credit: NASA
An unpiloted Russian Progress cargo craft successfully linked up with the International Space Station (ISS) today. The 17th Progress mission to the ISS automatically docked to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module at 2:10 p.m. EST, as the Station flew 225 statute miles over the equator west of Africa.

The flawless docking completed a two-day journey for the craft since its liftoff Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. As the Progress approached the ISS, Expedition 10 Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov was at the controls of a manual docking system. He was ready to take over the final approach if the automated docking system encountered problems. Station Commander and NASA Science Officer Leroy Chiao took video and still photos of the arrival. The crew will open the Progress hatch later today to begin unloading.

The Progress carried 386 pounds of propellant, 242 pounds of oxygen and air, 1,071 pounds of water and more than 2,900 pounds of spare parts, life support system components and experiment hardware. The manifest included 86 containers of food, about a six-month supply, to supplement items already in the Station’s pantry.

The Progress carried a new heat exchanger device to replace a faulty component in the U.S. airlock needed for the resumption of spacewalks in U.S. space suits this summer. It also carried cameras and lenses for the next Station crew, Expedition 11, to capture digital images of the Thermal Protection System on the Shuttle Discovery during its approach to the ISS during the STS-114 mission in May.

Information about crew activities on the ISS, future launch dates and sighting opportunities from Earth, is available on the Internet at: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

Original Source: ISS News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Opportunity Breaks Driving Records

On three consecutive days, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity accomplished unprecedented feats of martian motion, covering more total ground in that period than either Opportunity or its twin, Spirit, did in their first 70 days on Mars.

Spirit, meanwhile, has uncovered soil that is more than half salt, adding to the evidence for Mars’ wet past. The golf-cart-size robots successfully completed their three-month primary missions in April 2004 and are continuing extended mission operations.

Opportunity set a one-day distance record for martian driving, 177.5 meters (582 feet), on Feb. 19. That was the first day of a three-day plan transmitted to the rover as a combined set of weekend instructions. During the preceding week, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory had sent Opportunity and Spirit an upgrade of the rovers’ software, onboard intelligence the rovers use for carrying out day-to-day commands.

The new record exceeded a two-week old former best by 13 percent. As on all previous long drives by either rover, the traverse began with “blind” driving, in which the rover followed a route determined in advance by rover planners at JPL using stereo images. That portion lasted an hour and covered most of the day’s distance. Then Opportunity switched to “autonomous” driving for two and a half hours, pausing every 2 meters (6.6 feet) to look ahead for obstacles as it chose its own route ahead.

The next day, Opportunity used its new software to start another drive navigating for itself. “This is the first time either rover has picked up on a second day with continued autonomous driving,” said Dr. Mark Maimone, rover mobility software engineer at JPL. “It’s good to sit back and let the rover do the driving for us.”

Not only did Opportunity avoid obstacles for four hours of driving, it covered more ground than a football field. Opportunity has a favorable power situation, due to relatively clean solar panels and increasing minutes of daylight each day as spring approaches in Mars’ southern hemisphere. This allows several hours of operations daily.

On the third day of the three-day plan, the robotic geologist continued navigating itself and drove even farther, 109 meters (357 feet), pushing the three-day total to 390 meters (nearly a quarter mile). In one long weekend, Opportunity covered a distance equivalent to more than half of the 600 meters that had been part of each rover’s original mission-success criteria during their first three months on Mars.

Opportunity has now driven 3,014 meters (1.87 miles) since landing; Spirit even farther, 4,157 meters (2.58 miles). Opportunity is heading south toward a rugged landscape called “etched terrain,” where it might find exposures of deeper layers of bedrock than it has seen so far. Spirit is climbing “Husband Hill,” with a pause on a ridge overlooking a valley north of the summit to see whether any potential targets below warrant a side trip.

As Spirit struggled up the slope approaching the ridgeline, the rover’s wheels churned up soil that grabbed scientists’ attention. “This was an absolutely serendipitous discovery,” said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers’ science instruments. “We said, ‘My gosh, that soil looks very bright. Before we go away, we should at least take a taste.”

The bright patch of disturbed soil, dubbed “Paso Robles,” has the highest salt concentration of any rock or soil ever examined on Mars. Combined information gained from inspecting it with Spirit’s three spectrometers and panoramic camera suggests its main ingredient is an iron sulfate salt with water molecules bound into the mineral. The soil patch is also rich in phosphorus, but not otherwise like a high-phosphorus rock, called “Wishstone,” that Spirit examined in December. “We’re still trying to work out what this means, but clearly, with this much salt around, water had a hand here,” Squyres said.

Meanwhile, scientists are re-calibrating data from both rovers’ alpha particle X-ray spectrometers. These instruments are used to assess targets’ elemental composition. The sensor heads for the two instruments were switched before launch. Therefore, data that Opportunity’s spectrometer has collected have been analyzed using calibration files for Spirit’s, and vice-versa. Fortunately, because the sensor heads are nearly identical, the effect on the elemental abundances determined by the instruments was very small. The scientists have taken this opportunity to go back and review the results for the mission so far and re-compute using correct calibration files. “The effect in all cases was less than the uncertainties in results, so none of our science conclusions are affected,” Squyres said.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, has managed NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover project since it began in 2000. Images and additional information about the rovers and their discoveries are available on the Internet at http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mer_main.html and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Galaxy Headed for a Cosmic Collision

What happens when a galaxy falls in with the wrong crowd? The irregular galaxy NGC 1427A is a spectacular example of the resulting stellar rumble. Under the gravitational grasp of a large gang of galaxies, called the Fornax cluster, the small bluish galaxy is plunging headlong into the group at 600 kilometers per second or nearly 400 miles per second.

NGC 1427A, which is located some 62 million light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Fornax, shows numerous hot, blue stars in this newly released image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. These blue stars have been formed very recently, showing that star formation is occurring extensively throughout the galaxy.

Galaxy clusters, like the Fornax cluster, contain hundreds or even thousands of individual galaxies. Within the Fornax cluster, there is a considerable amount of gas lying between the galaxies. When the gas within NGC 1427A collides with the Fornax gas, it is compressed to the point that it starts to collapse under its own gravity. This leads to formation of the myriad of new stars seen across NGC 1427A, which give the galaxy an overall arrowhead shape that appears to point in the direction of the galaxy’s high-velocity motion. The tidal forces of nearby galaxies in the cluster may also play a role in triggering star formation on such a massive scale.

NGC 1427A will not survive long as an identifiable galaxy passing through the cluster. Within the next billion years, it will be completely disrupted, spilling its stars and remaining gas into intergalactic space within the Fornax cluster.

To the upper left of NGC 1427A is a background galaxy that happens to lie near Hubble’s line of sight but is some 25 times further away. In contrast to the irregularly shaped NGC 1427A, the background galaxy is a magnificent spiral, somewhat similar to our own Milky Way. Stars are forming in its symmetric pinwheel-shaped spiral arms, which can be traced into the galaxy’s bright nucleus. This galaxy is, however, less dominated by very young stars than NGC 1427A, giving it an overall yellower color. At even greater distances background galaxies of various shapes and colors are scattered across the Hubble image.

The Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys was used to obtain images of NGC 1427A in visible (green), red, and infrared filters in January 2003. These images were then combined by the Hubble Heritage team to create the color rendition shown here. Astronomers are using the data to investigate the star-formation patterns throughout the object, to verify a prediction that there should be a relation between the ages of stars and their positions within the galaxy. This will help them understand how the gravitational influence of the cluster has affected the internal workings of this galaxy, and how this galaxy has responded to passing through the cluster environment.

The disruption of objects like NGC 1427A, and even larger galaxies like our own Milky Way, is an integral part of the formation and evolution of galaxy clusters. Such events are believed to have been very common during the early evolution of the universe, but the rate of galaxy destruction is tapering off at the present time. Thus the impending destruction of NGC 1427A provides a glimpse of an early and much more chaotic time in our universe.

Original Source: Hubble News Release