This section for cosmic background experiments at the University of Pennsylvania

here is the mainpage for The Univesity of Pennsylvanis's UPEEN5 Home page

Here is the Home page for Cosmic Background MicroWave Experiments

This link for NASA's Microwave Anisotropy Probe Web Page

Here is the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotrophy Probe

And here for The University of Chicago Wayne Hu's Cosmology web page

And the University of Pennsylvania's cosmo;ogist Max Tegmark

Microscopic "Timers" Reveal Likely Source of Galactic Space Radiation

A cluster of massive stars seen with the Hubble Space Telescope. The cluster is surrounded by clouds of interstellar

gas and dust called a nebula. The nebula, located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina, 

contains the central cluster of huge, hot stars, called NGC 3603. Recent research shows that galactic cosmic rays

flowing into our solar system originate in clusters like these.

Like a July 4 fireworks display, a young, glittering collection of stars looks like an aerial burst. 

The cluster is surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas and dust—the raw material for new star formation. 

The nebula, located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina, contains a central cluster of huge, hot stars, called NGC 3603.

This environment is not as peaceful as it looks. Ultraviolet radiation and violent stellar winds have blown out an enormous cavity 

in the gas and dust enveloping the cluster, providing an unobstructed view of the cluster.

Most of the stars in the cluster were born around the same time but differ in size, mass, temperature, and color.

 The course of a star's life is determined by its mass, so a cluster of a given age will contain stars in various stages of their lives,

 giving an opportunity for detailed analyses of stellar life cycles. NGC 3603 also contains some of the most massive stars known. 

 These huge stars live fast and die young, burning through their hydrogen fuel quickly and ultimately ending their lives in supernova explosions.

Star clusters like NGC 3603 provide important clues to understanding the origin of massive star formation in the early, distant universe.

 Astronomers also use massive clusters to study distant starbursts that occur when galaxies collide, igniting a flurry of star formation.

 The proximity of NGC 3603 makes it an excellent lab for studying such distant and momentous events.

This Hubble Space Telescope image was captured in August 2009 and December 2009 with the Wide Field Camera 3 in both

 visible and infrared light, which trace the glow of sulfur, hydrogen, and iron.

 

Credit: NASA, ESA, R. O'Connell (University of Virginia), F. Paresce (National Institute for Astrophysics, Bologna, Italy),

 E. Young (Universities Space Research Association/Ames Research Center), 

 the WFC3 Science Oversight Committee, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Astronomy Magazines

SKY & TELESCOPE MAGAZINE,Sky & Telescope Publishing

Here is Sky and Telescope's Internet resource page

This page is a sub page of mine to access special Sky & Telescope services

This is sub page to link you to Large Telescope projects!

The Large Scope Resource page

This is Kalmbach Publishing's Sister Publication E A R T H

Astronomy Magazine has an alternate WEB PAGE Astronomy's magazines alternate web page

Here is Videos from Astronomy Magazine

Headline news from Space!

THe supernova in M82

Possible Bright Supernova Lights Up Spiral Galaxy M61
by BOB KING on OCTOBER 30, 2014

An animation showing the new supernova in the galaxy M61 photographed on October 30, 2014,

paired with an older archive photo Credit: Ernesto Guido, Martino Nicolini, Nick Howes

I sat straight up in my seat when I learned of the discovery of a possible new supernova in the bright Virgo galaxy M61.

Since bright usually means close, this newly exploding star may soon become visible in smaller telescopes.

It was discovered at magnitude +13.6 on October 29th by Koichi Itagaki of Japan, a prolific hunter of supernovae 

with 94 discoveries or co-discoveries to his credit.

Here is a page devoted to Space news Jonathan's Weekly Newsletter about Space

Click here for Science Headlines from NASA

From the Japanese space agency Earth rise from the MOON!

The higgs boson-- explained!

The Higgs Boson Explained from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

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Click here for The African-European Radio Astronomy Platform

This group of galaxies has been nicknamed the "Cheshire Cat" because of its resemblance to a smiling feline.

Some of the cat-like features are actually distant galaxies whose light has been stretched and bent by the

large amounts of mass contained in foreground galaxies. This is an effect called "gravitational lensing," 

predicted by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity that is celebrating its 100th anniversary. X-rays from

Chandra show that the two "eye" galaxies and the smaller galaxies associated with them are slamming into one another 

in a giant galactic collision.


X-ray: NASA/CXC/UA/J.Irwin et al; Optical: NASA/STSci

NEARBY SUPERNOVAS SHOWERED EARTH WITH IRON

Visible, infrared, and X-ray light image of Kepler's supernova remnant (SN 1604) located about 13,000 light-years away.

 Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Sankrit and W. Blair (Johns Hopkins University).

The Local Bubble is a 300-light-year long region that was carved out of the interstellar medium by supernovas

 (Source: Science@NASA)

Home/News/New observations of FO Aquarii reveal strange behavior within this cannibalistic binary system

An artist’s rendition of cataclysmic variable binary system, in which a compact star pulls material off its companion and consumes it.
FO Aquarii, a famous binary system comprised of a compact white dwarf stripping mass from a low-mass companion star, has decided to misbehave.
 When a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) student at the University of Notre Dame 
 turned the school’s 0.8-meter telescope on these stars, she observed a pattern of behavior that has been, thus far, unexplainable.
 CREDIT: NASA

THE MAGELLENIC CLOUDS STAY CONNECTED BY A STRING OF STARS

This image shows the two "bridges" that connect the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The white line traces the bridge
 of stars that flows between the two dwarf galaxies, and the blue line shows the gas.
 Image: V. Belokurov, D. Erkal and A. Mellinger

Small and Large Magellanic Clouds over Paranal Observatory
 Credit: ESO/J. Colosimo

The Large Magellanic Cloud. Image: Public Domain from wikipedia

A part of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is dazzling in this image from NASA’s Great Observatories.
 The Small Magellanic Cloud is about 200,000 light-years way from our own Milky Way spiral galaxy.
 Credit: NASA.

Hubble Snaps Photo of Unusual Spiral Galaxy NGC 6753

This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 6753, which lies in the constellation Pavo,
 about 148 million light-years away.
 Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt.
 NGC 6753 is a whirl of color in this remarkable image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
 — the bursts of blue throughout the spiral arms are regions filled with young stars
 glowing brightly in ultraviolet light, while redder areas are filled with older stars 
 emitting in the cooler near-infrared
  For detailed information on NGC 6753

ASTRONOMERS FIND THE MISSING NORMAL MATTER IN THE UNIVERSE, STILL LOOKING FOR DARK MATTER, THOUGH

The structure of the universe at the largest scale.
 Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Hallman (University of Colorado, Boulder)

All-sky data obtained by the ESA’s Planck mission, showing the different wavelenghts. 
Credit: ESA

IR map of the whole Galaxy showing the plane and bulge of the Galaxy full of stars and dust. 
Credit: SDSS

This illustration shows the evolution of the Universe, from the Big Bang on the left, to modern times on the right.
 Image: NASA

ASTRONOMERS FIND THE MOST DISTANT SUPERNOVA EVER:
10.5 BILLION LIGHT-YEARS AWAY

This image shows the incredibly distant and ancient supernova DES16C2nm. 
The supernova was discovered by the Dark Energy Survey. 
Image: Mat Smith and DES collaboration.

This image from 2015 shows the same area of sky before DES16C2nm exploded. 
Image: Mat Smith and DES collaboration.

The DECam in operation at its home in the Chilean Andes. The extremely sensitive, 
570 megapixel camera is mounted on the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope
 at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.
 Image: DES/CTIO

ASTRONOMERS SEE A DEAD STAR COME BACK TO LIFE THANKS TO A DONOR STAR

The ESA's INTEGRA observatory  has witnessed a "zombie" neutron star being re-energized by the solar wind
 of its companion red giant star, and coming back to life in a burst of x-rays. 
 Image: ESA

The red giant and the neutron star may have traveled different evolutionary pathways,
 but proximity made them partners.
 Image: ESA

An artist’s illustration of  ESA's INTEGRA observatory.  
INTEGRAL was launched in 2002 to study some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe.
 Image: ESA

OCTOBER 25, 2018 BY MATT WILLIAMS
Binary Stars Orbiting Each Other INSIDE a Planetary Nebula

Planetary nebulae are a fascinating astronomical phenomena, even if the name is a bit misleading.
 Rather than being associated with planets, these glowing shells of gas and dust are formed when stars
 enter the final phases of their lifespan and throw off their outer layers. In many cases,
 this process and the subsequent structure of the nebula is the result of the star interacting 
 with a nearby companion star.

Artist’s impression of a pulsar siphoning material from a companion star. Credit: NASA

HST archival imagery of M 3-1 showing its remarkable filamentary waist
 and extended jet-like structures. 
 Credit: David Jones et al (2018)./RAS

This artist’s impression shows VFTS 352 — the hottest and most massive double star system 
to date where the two components are in contact and sharing material. 
Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Newly forming star has spiral arms like a tiny galaxy

Protoplanetary disks – where young stars are forming their families of planets – usually form concentric 
rings of gaps. But astronomers have recently spotted a surprising situation: 
an adolescent star surrounded by galaxy-like spiral arms.

Spiral arms, the galactic traffic jams - Ask a Spaceman

 A short clip from Episode 16! Subscribe:
Keep those questions coming to #AskASpaceman!
License
Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)

ALMA image of the planet-forming disk around the young star RU Lup. The inset image (lower left, red disk) 
shows a previous (DSHARP) observation of the dust disk with rings and gaps that hint at the presence of forming planets.
 The new observation shows a large spiral structure (in blue), made out of gas, that spans far beyond the compact dust disk.
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), J. Huang and S. Andrews; NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello

Oumuamua !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

‘Oumuamua: A Hydrogen Iceberg?

Can Hydrogen icebergs even exist?????

Cosmic Snow Clouds: Self-gravitating Gas Spheres Manifesting Hydrogen Condensation (PDF)

Mark A. Walker1 and Mark J. Wardle2
1 Manly Astrophysics, 15/41-42 East Esplanade, Manly, NSW 2095, Australia; Mark.Walker@manlyastrophysics.org 2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia; Mark.Wardle@mq.edu.au
Received 2018 December 9; revised 2019 June 10; accepted 2019 June 11; published 2019 August 13

Article Oumuamua strange velocity change

COULD SOLAR RADIATION PRESSURE EXPLAIN ‘OUMUAMUA’S PECULIAR ACCELERATION? (PDF)

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This section astro databases

Here is a A list of astro databases from Wikipedia

And here from from the astro league:Urban Program - Double and Variable Stars List

Here is the database solstation.com

And here for Internet stellar database.com

AND HERE FOR Atlas of the UNIVERSE

From the DVAA's E-list Webb Deepsky from Great Britian

Here is Webb Deep sky Catalog of the Brightest Planetary Nubulae in .pdf format

The web site for American Association of Variable Star Observers

Here is A database of Transit times from the Exoplanet Transit Database

To search data on Nasa's Planetary database of Space missions click here

A database for NASA"s IPAC Extragalactic DATABASE

Another databse The Simbad Astronomical database

Sternberg Astronomical Institute Supernova Catalogue
D.Yu.Tsvetkov, N.N.Pavlyuk, O.S.Bartunov, Yu.P.Pskovskii

This the The Hubble Legacy Archive!!

Click here for CANDELS:(Cosmic Assembly Near Infrared Deep Extragalatic Survey) A Cosmic Odyssey
CANDELS is a powerful imaging survey of the distant Universe being carried
out with two cameras on board the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Candels Informative about page

A database for Photograghs from The STScI Digitized Sky Survey

The AAVSO International High Energy Network

New Observing Program: Active Galactic Nuclei
By Al LAmpert, Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers

On False and true double quasars

Catalogue of Bright Quasars and BL Lacertae Objects

For information on how to convert from redshift to distnce

Observing Variable Galaxies

The Million Quasars (Milliquas) Catalogue

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Astronomers Create Largest-Ever Catalog Of Cosmic Voids

Welcome to the Public Cosmic Void Catalog

The Public void catalogs

The cosmic voids mapped by the team are not completely empty and do contain some luminous elliptical galaxies,

perhaps not unlike NGC 2768, an elliptical galaxy located in the northern constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). 

NGC 2768 appears here as a bright oval on the sky, surrounded by a wide, fuzzy cloud of material.

 Credit: ESA/NASA, Hubble; Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

The Fornax Galaxy Cluster is one of the closest such groupings beyond our own Local Group of galaxies.

 Credit: ESO and Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin

 slice of the new void map. Each red point is a galaxy and the blue circles show the locations

 and rough sizes of voids. The blue spheres just show the typical sizes of the voids, but not the correct shapes. 

 Credit: Mao et al.

Quick links to the MAST PS1 Archive User Interface

Object Catalog Search

age Cutout Server

Casjobs SQL Server:

The Pan-STARRS1 data archive home page

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The Delaware Valley Amatuer Astronomers (DVAA)

Here is The Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers

The Dvaa's Image page on Google

The DVAA's astro Photogers page by Google

And here is The dvaa's events page!!

The DVAA's Remote observatory in the Pocono Mountains!

Observing conditions of the DVAA'S Remote Observatory

Webcam of the Remote Observatory field refreshes every 5 minutes

Sky Cam of the DVAA'as remote observatory

Accuweather of the general Pennsylvania area

Blue Mountain Vista Observatory Astrograph by Foster Systems

SQM READINGS at the Blue Mountain Observatory

Wind Conditions for the Pennsylvania Area

Click here for Observing conditions of the DVAA's remote observatory!

The DVAA's own Galaxiy main page

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The DarkHorse Observatory

The DarkHorse Observatory in Kimberton, PA!

The Kimberton Sky CAM

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Here is The dvaa's own Wayne reed's astro webpage

Richard Steinberg's special images

Here's an image of the relativistic jet coming from the (now-famous) super-massive black hole in M87.
I took the image a couple of years ago with an NP101 at Frank's Blue Mountain Vista observatory (BMVO).
Dick Steinberg Member of the DVAA
Comment FROM Maryln Miscalski former member of the DVAA
Dick (Steinberg),
This is an amazing image! How long was your exposure?  Some years ago, I recall that Vince Scheetz
 attempted to view M87's Jet through the eyepiece with his 20".  He had accurate star charts showing 
 the position of the jet relative to foreground stars. As far as I know, his attempts to see it were unsuccessful.
 I haven't heard of anyone seeing it without the help of long-exposures and CCD technology. 
 DETAILS:
 The scope was a 12" LX200R, NOT the NP101 previously mentioned. The image was taken from my deck in Penn Valley PA,
 where I had an AP1200 set up on a pier. This was a year before I installed an entirely new setup in BMVO.
 After the clouds cleared out around midnight last night (Saturday, March
21), the seeing turned out to be extremely good, near 2 arcsec. Taking
advantage of this opportunity I was able to obtain a fairly clear image
of the relativistic jet in M87.

Regards,
Dick


Details:
12" LX200R at f/10 - 3049mm focal length
Camera position angle 359 deg 50' - north up
Image scale 0.53"/pixel
Total pixels 3040x2024 (7.8x7.8 microns)
FOV 26'40" x 17'43"
AP1200
Orion StarShoot Pro one-shot color camera (23.7x15.7mm chip)
Maxim DL Pro 5.04
Stack of eleven 2-minute frames (unguided)
Digital development processing
Fast fourier transform

M87 from the European Southern Observatory

An optical image of the M87 galaxy captured by the European Southern Observatory’s 
Very Large Telescope. M87* lies at the very center of that bright mass.
 Image Credit: ESO

M87 Home of the first Black Hole Image

Image: A composite of visible (or optical), radio, and X-ray data of the giant elliptical galaxy,
 M87. M87 lies at a distance of 55 million light years and is the largest galaxy in the Virgo cluster
 of galaxies. Bright jets moving at close to the speed of light are seen at all wavelengths coming 
 from the massive black hole at the center of the galaxy. It has also been identified with the strong 
 radio source, Virgo A, and is a powerful source of X-rays as it resides near the center of a hot,
 X-ray emitting cloud that extends over much of the Virgo cluster. The extended radio emission consists
 of plumes of fast-moving gas from the jets rising into the X-ray emitting cluster medium. 
 Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/W. Forman et al.; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/W. Cotton; Optical:
 NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and R. Gendler.

Member Richard Steinberg's webpage of astrophotos..

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Another one is The Ches mont Amateur Atronomers

Another one is The Bucks Mont astronomical association

And here is The Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomers

A new local (to the Philadelphia area) Amateur Astronomer club Welcome to Coyle Field Astronomers!

And the Astro group Based at the Franklin Institute, the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society!

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These folks create educational astronomy simulations: Contempory Laboratory Experinces in Astronomy (CLEA)

Another source for Astronomical Information: Astronomy HyperText Textbook

Good index of astronomy resources: Ames Area Amatuer Astronomers

Astronomy Education ResourcesAstroed

This is the main page for Astronomical quizes it's The Solar System Net

This section is the start for The National Virtual Observatory

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Wtch several videos about the Magellanic Clouds

Milky Way Center Region Mosaic Cool Pic, Pan and zoom. Milky Way Center Region Mosaic
Image S.Guisard / ESO, � St�phane Guisard "Los Cielos de Chile"

This image is a 1 billion pixel RVB mosaic of the galactic center region 
(340 millions pixels in each R,V and B color)
It shows the region spanning from Sagittarius (with the Milky Way center
 and M8/M20 area on the left) to Scorpius
(with colorful Antares and Rho Ophiuchus region on the right) and cat paw
 nebula (red nebula at the bottom).
This mosaic was assembled from 52 different sky fields made from 1200 individual
 images and 200 hours total exposure time,
final image size is 24000x14000 pixels. The images were taken with a SBIG STL 
camera + Takahashi FSQ106Ed f/3.6 telescope
and NJP160 mount from the clear skies of ESO Paranal Observatory in Chile.
 This mosaic is one of the three parts of the ESO Gigagalaxy Zoom project 
 together with this incredible whole sky mosaic image
 by ESO/S.Brunier and this fantastic ESO mosaic image of the Lagoon nebula region.

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Rochester Institute's Supernova virtual observatory

Here is Great Britain's ASTROGRID

Click here for The National Radio Astronomt Observatory

And click here for The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database

Here is NASA's Eclipse Prediction web site

Here is a great library for AstroPhysics stuff it's Lawerence Livermore archive!!

Here is the link to the National Virtual Observatory

And here for National Teragrid!

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Here is the site for The Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Here is another site for The Sloan Digital Sky Survey its SDSS.org

OR here CAS.SDSS.ORG

Here is the University of Chicago's interactive 3D view of the large scale structure of the universe.
Data courtesy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.

A great new site for A Website to display popular astronomy both
visually and entertainally

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Here is The International Outer Planet Watch database(Main page)

AND the Image database section

The Top 25 Public observatories

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This section is for DEEP SKY

Any relation to the recent solar activity. Probably not but it is interesting that

several anomalies have developed lately in our solar system.

Here is a High resolution picture the Sombreo Galaxy

And here for Goddard Space Flight Center's SkyMorph

Here is The daily report on our Galaxy

Another site is HEASARC Data Archive

Click here for The Hands on Universe

Just to be fair, I am including a site that claims That the BIG BANG IS WRONG

Here is Princeton University's Lograrithmic maps of the universe

And here for Princeton UNiversity's ASTRO Main page

Click here for Astronomy Education Review

Here is a great amatuer observatory it's The Panther observatory

Hubble Data Archive

This Colorado site is Center for astrophysics & Science

Here is CASA's Colorado's Relativity/Black hole simulator

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Here is NASA's Horizon's online Ephemeris

WEBSTARS: Astrophysics in Cyberspace

This site for the new Science of Gravity observations it's L I G O!

Monster black hole wakes up after 26 years
Posted on 26 June 2015 by Astronomy Now

This animation show the patch of the sky where the black-hole binary system V404 Cygni is located,
 as observed with the IBIS instrument on ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory. Before the outburst on 19 May 2015:
 V404 Cygni is not present, and its position is marked with a cross. After the outburst on 18 June 2015:
 V404 Cygni is the brightest source in the field. The two sources Cygnus X-1 and Cygnus X-3, present in both images,
 are some of the brightest objects in the X-ray sky. Other transient sources are also present in both images
 highlighting the great variability of the high-energy sky. Image credits: Carlo Ferrigno,
 Integral Science Data Centre, Geneva, Switzerland. AN animation by Ade Ashford.

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Hubble finds evidence of galaxy star birth regulated by black hole fountain

Astronomers have uncovered a unique process for how the universe's largest elliptical galaxies continue making stars

long after their peak years of star birth. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's exquisite high resolution and ultraviolet-light

sensitivity allowed the astronomers to see brilliant knots of hot blue stars forming along the jets of active black holes

found in the centers of giant elliptical galaxies. Combining Hubble data with observations from a suite of ground-based and space telescopes,

 two independent teams found that the black hole, jets, and newborn stars are all parts of a self-regulating cycle. High-energy jets

 shooting from the black hole heat a halo of surrounding gas, controlling the rate at which the gas cools and falls into the galaxy. 

This sample of galaxies, as seen by Hubble, shows chains of star formation in ultraviolet light.

This star formation in each galaxy is a product of the action of the jets from a central black hole 

that controls infalling gas from the galaxy's halo.

NASA/ESA/G. Tremblay (Yale Univ.)/R. Mittal (Rochester Institute of Technology 

and Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics)

Astrono

ANDROMEDA’S FIRST SPINNING NEUTRON STAR FOUND
1 Apr , 2016 by Evan Gough

Andromeda's spinning neutron star. Though astronomers think there are over 100 million of these

objects in the Milky Way, this is the first one found in Andromeda. 

Image: ESA/XMM Newton.

Larget Cosmic Object Known as of April, 2016

Astronomers have discovered the largest known structure in the universe, a clump of active galactic cores 

that stretch 4 billion light-years from end to end. The structure is a light quasar group (LQG),

 a collection of extremely luminous Galactic Nulcei powered by supermassive central black holes.

Astronomers Witness Birth of Massive Cluster Galaxy

B.H.C. Emonts et al found that the Spiderweb, a massive galaxy in the center of a distant protocluster,
 is forming from a large reservoir of molecular gas. In this artist’s conception of the protocluster, 
 the protogalaxies are shown in white and pink, and the blue indicates the location of the carbon monoxide gas. 
 Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

The Red White And Blue Nebula!!!

Supernova viewed by a Gravitional lens

This composite image shows the gravitationally lensed Type Ia supernova iPTF16geu,
 as seen with different telescopes. The background image shows a wide-field view of the night sky
 as seen with the Palomar Observatory located on Palo-mar Mountain, California.
 Far Left Image: Captured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, this optical light observation shows the lens galaxy
 and its surrounding environment in the sky. Center Left Image: Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, 
 this is a 20x zoom infrared image of the lens galaxy. Center Right Image: Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, 
 this 5x optical light zoom reveals the four gravitationally lensed images of iPTF16geu. 
 Far Right Image: Captured by the Keck Telescope, this infrared observation features the 
 four gravitationally lensed images of iPTF16geu and the gravitational “arc” of its host galaxy.
 (Credit: Joel Johansson/Stockholm University)

THE ANT NEBULA ACTUALLY HAS INTENSE LASER EMISSIONS COMING FROM ITS CORE

From ground-based telescopes, the so-called "ant nebula" (Menzel 3, or Mz 3)
 resembles the head and thorax of a garden-variety ant. This dramatic NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image,
 showing 10 times more detail, reveals the "ant's" body as a pair of fiery lobes protruding from a dying,
 Sun-like star. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

This section for research in Cosmology

Grand Challenge Cosmology Consortium: Large super computer
simulations of structure formation in the Universe

Scale of the Universe From the smallest to the largest of the Universe!!!

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A new cosmology research site Cosmo quest.org!!!

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A new site for Cosmology information

Here is an online Astronomy course like Khan Academy!

And Youtube companion

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This site for A selection of Hubble site Videos

Milky Way galaxy finds home in the Laniakea Super-cluster

September 3, 2014 4:08 PM EDT - Galaxy superclusters are the biggest structures in the universe.

Researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa discovered a new technique that maps the universe by redrawing boundaries. 

Our home supercluster is named Laniakea, which means �immeasurable heaven� in Hawaiian

Simulation: Most detailed simulation of our Universe

How do you show off 13 billion years of cosmic growth?

One way that astronomers can figure that out is through visualizations

� such as this one from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, called Illustris.


Billed as the most detailed computer simulation ever of the universe (done on a fast supercomputer),

you can slowly see how galaxies come alight and the structure of the universe grows.

While the pictures are pretty to look at, the Kavli Foundation also argues this is good for science.

A simulation of large-scale structure formation

Study of structure formation in the Universe is an area of forefront research in astrophysics. 

The early evolution, when the seed fluctuations are small, can be calculated analitycally on a piece of paper

without the help of large supercomputers. As the fluctuations grow in their amplitude,

 the evolution becomes too complex and theorists have to use computers to follow the subsequent evolution.

A grand Challenge

What came first? Black Holes or Galaxies?

An Animation of the local Galaxy Group

NASA | RXTE Satellite Catches the Beat of a Midsize Black Hole

Black Holes and Worm Holes

Uploaded on May 3, 2009
a short video about black holes and worm holes taken from a show called the universe.
watch their other eposite about planets, galaxies and ofcourse the rest of univeres
Category
Education
License
Standard YouTube License

The Smith Cloud

HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Monstrous Cloud Boomerangs Back to Our Galaxy (01/28/2016)

Merging Neutron Stars

'A New Rosetta Stone for Astronomy'

For the first time, astronomers have detected visible light and gravitational waves from the same source,
 ushering in a new era in our attempt to understand the cosmos.
The driving power here obviously looks like an electric motor.

Here it is, captured by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, in the center of the image:
Astronomers made the observation August 17. Three gravitational-wave detectors, two at the Nobel prize–winning
 Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States, and one at the Virgo Interferometer in Italy,
 detected the cosmic ripples as they washed over Earth. About two seconds later, 
 two space telescopes—NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and ESA’s International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory—observed
 a short burst of gamma rays, the most energetic wave in the electromagnetic spectrum, coming from the same part of the sky.

This artist’s impression video shows how two tiny but very dense neutron stars merge and explode as a kilonova.
 Such a very rare event is expected to produce both gravitational waves and a short gamma-ray burst,
 both of which were observed on 17 August 2017 by LIGO–Virgo and Fermi/INTEGRAL respectively.
 Subsequent detailed observations with many ESO telescopes have confirmed that this object,
 seen in the galaxy NGC 4993 about 130 million light-years from the Earth, is indeed a kilonova.
 Such objects are the main source of very heavy chemical elements, such as gold and platinum in the Universe.

More information:
Credit:
ESO/L. Calçada. Music: Johan B. Monell 

This section for heritage projects

Here is Harvard's digital scan of historical glass plates

And here is Europe's Spectra Heritage project

And here is Sky Archive.org

ANOTHER project is The Uccle Direct Astronomical Archive Centre

Animation of Comet 2012 F6 Lemmon as seen from NASA�s STEREO Ahead spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/GSFC; animation created by Robert Kaufman).

An icy interloper was in the sights of a NASA spacecraft this past weekend.

Comet 2012 F6 Lemmon passed through the field of view of NASA?s HI2A camera as seen from its solar observing STEREO Ahead spacecraft.

As seen in the animation above put together by Robert Kaufman, Comet Lemmon is now displaying a fine ion and dust tail as it sweeps back

out of the inner solar system on its 10,750 year plus orbit.

Asteroid 2013 MZ5 as seen by the University of Hawaii�s PanSTARR-1 telescope. Credit: PS-1/UH

That pale white dot up there? No. 10,000 in a list of near-Earth objects. This rock, 2013 MZ5,
was discovered June 18. It is 1,000 feet (300 meters) across and will not come anywhere near to
threatening Earth, NASA assures us.

But what else is out there? The agency still hasn�t found every asteroid or comet that could come
by Earth. To be sure, however, it�s really trying. But is there more NASA and other agencies can do
to search? Tell us in the comments.

This animation, created from 20 individual radar images, clearly show the rough outline of 2004 BL86 and its newly-discovered moon. 
>
 Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Wonderful news! Asteroid 2004 BL86, which passed closest to Earth today at a distance of 750,000 miles (1.2 million km),

 has a companion moon. Scientists working with NASA�s 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, 

 California, have released the first radar images of the asteroid which show the tiny object in orbit about the main body.

Comet ISON viewed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.  Hubble made eight exposures over a span

of about 43 minutes on May 8, 2013 showing the comet's movement against the field of fixed stars.

Photo credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)


On May 8, the Hubble Space Telescope snapped a series of short exposures of Comet ISON.

Cut together, these frames capture ISON as it hurtles into the inner solar system.

The Helix nebula is visible in the center of this image,

surrounded by tracks of asteroids that are much closer to Earth (yellow dots).

Click on the image to see them. The streaks you see are from satellites or cosmic rays.

                       Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

The world’s most powerful telescopes have a lot of work to do. 
They’re tasked with helping us unravel the mysteries of the universe, 
like dark matter and dark energy. They’re burdened with helping us find other 
habitable worlds that might host life. And they’re busy with a multitude of other tasks, 
like documenting the end of a star’s life, or keeping an eye on meteors that get too close to Earth.
But sometimes, they have to take a break.

This chart shows the location of the spiral galaxy NGC 3981 
in the constellation of Crater (The Cup). 
Image: ESO, IAU and Sky & Telescope

This outstanding image was captured as part of the ESO’s Cosmic Gems Programme.
 This program uses the astonishing power of the VLT to capture images of the
 southern sky when observing conditions prevent it from pursuing its science goals.

This zoom video starts with a wide view of the Milky Way and ends with a close-up
 look at the spiral galaxy NGC 3981 in the constellation of Crater (The Cup). 
 The final view of this region was captured by FORS2, an instrument mounted on
 ESO’s Very Large Telescope, as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems Programme. 
 This programme showcases the beauty of the southern skies when conditions
 don’t allow scientific observations to be made.

 More information and download options:

Credit:
ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org). Music: Astral Electronic.

This pan video takes a close look at the spiral galaxy NGC 3981 in the constellation of Crater (The Cup).
 This object was captured by FORS2 — an instrument mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope — 
 as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems Programme, which showcases the beauty of the southern skies 
 when conditions don’t allow scientific observations to be made.

This sparkling burst of stars is Messier 75. It is a globular cluster: a spherical collection
of stars bound together by gravity. Clusters like this orbit around galaxies and typically
 reside in their outer and less-crowded areas, gathering to form dense communities in the galactic suburbs.
  Thank you HUbble telascope site

BY
Matt Fidler

Fri 13 Sep 2019 01.00 EDT

László Francsics has been named the overall winner in the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Insight
 Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2019 competition, for his composition showing 
 the 35 phases of January’s total lunar eclipse. Other winners include a panorama of the aurora borealis
 over the Lofoten Islands in Norway by Nicolai Brügger, an atmospheric image of the photographer
 Ben Bush with his dog Floyd surrounded by the galactic core of the Milky Way, and a sequence of images
 of Mars that follows the progress of the great global dust storm by Andy Casely
Exhibition of winners and shortlisted images opens at the National Maritime Museum on 13 September 2019
 and a catalogue is available here

ere’s some beauty for your timeline: a stunning and ancient globular cluster
 captured by the venerable Hubble Space Telescope.
 The telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys 
 was used to take this picture of ESO 520-21 (also known as Palomar 6),
 which is located about 25,000 light years away from Earth. 
 Scientists say this globular cluster is probably about 12.4 billion years old.

Another view of Palomar 6 from the VISTA Variables in The Via Lactea (VVV)
 public survey using the VISTA camera on the Very Large Telescope.
 Credit: Souza et al., 2021.

Published on Oct 13, 2014
Three simulations looking at the historic passage of comet A1 Siding Springs past Mars on Oct 19th, 2014 from different astronomical perspectives.

Who knew asteroids could be so beautiful and mesmerizing?

In 2008, a group of astronomers led by Alex Parker did a study of the size distribution of asteroid families

using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Asteroid families often have distinctive optical colors, the team said,

and they were able to offer an improved way to separate out the family members into their colors. This resultant animation

put together just this week by Parker shows the orbital motions of over 100,000 asteroids, with colors illustrating the compositional

diversity and relative sizes of the asteroids.



Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/#ixzz2u5yQlpaB

A series of All-Sky (fish eye) images showing the plasma trail left by a fireball,

which extends 92 degrees across the northern half of the sky. These images are 5 second snapshots

captured at 37.8 MHz with the LWA1 radio telescope. The bright steady sources (Cygnus A, Cassiopeia A, the galactic plane, etc)

have been removed using image subtraction. Image Credit: Gregory Taylor (University of New Mexico)

These show the multiple impact marks on Jupiter's clouds left by Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9,

and is what was apparent a few days after the ones in my previous post on the first impacts.

  The info on these frames is below.

Jason H. originally shared to Astronomy GIF Animations (Comet GIF's):

 
Impact marks on Jupiter from Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 

- I made this GIF from frames shot by the Hubble Space Telescope

 in different color filters back in 1994. 

 I converted the frames from FITS format and processed  them a little for this animation.

 

Saturn and its rings, as seen from above the planet by the Cassini spacecraft.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. Assembled by Gordan Ugarkovic.
So what did NASA do during the US government shutdown? You can�t just turn off
spacecraft that are operating millions of miles away, so missions like the Mars rovers
and the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn continued to send back images to Earth during
the 16 days that most of NASA wasn�t up and running like usual. On October 10, 2013,
as Cassini flew high above the planet�s equatorial plane, the spacecraft�s camera
took 36 images of Saturn, a dozen each using the various red, green, and blue filters
used to create color images. The images were transferred back to Earth and put on the
 Cassini raw images page. Gordon Ugarkovic from Croatia, and a member of the image editing
 wizards at UnmannedSpaceflight.com, grabbed the raw files, processed them, then assembled
 the images into this jaw-dropping mosaic.

Using data from the Cassini spacecraft, NASA has created the first high-resolution

film of Saturn's mysterious hexagonal-shaped jet stream which covers the planet's North Pole.

The massive storm spans a stunning 20,000 miles and features winds which have been measured at 200 mph.

However, the reason for the odd hexagonal shape of the formation continues to baffle astronomers

In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience (June 15th 2015), atmospheric scientists at MIT have proposed a mechanism

 for Saturn’s polar cyclones.

Over time, small, short-lived thunderstorms across the planet are thought to build up angular momentum (or spin) within the atmosphere,

 ultimately stirring up a long-lasting vortex at the poles.

Simulations carried out by Morgan O’Neill and colleagues at MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) 

show that small isolated thunderstorms pull material in Saturn's atmosphere towards the poles, accumulating atmospheric energy which

 then generates a much larger, long-lasting polar cyclone.

The research concludes that whether or not a polar cyclone forms depends on the total energy within a planet’s atmosphere,

 and the average size of its thunderstorms, relative to the size of the planet. Larger thunderstorms are more likely to ultimately create the north polar cyclone that has been observed by NASA's Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn.
" Cassini Image Credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

For the last decade, astronomers have observed curious “hotspots” on Saturn’s poles. 

In 2008, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft beamed back close-up images of these hotspots, revealing them to be immense cyclones, 

each as wide as the Earth. Scientists estimate that Saturn’s cyclones may whip up 300 mph winds, and likely have been churning for years.

To create the first global, topographic map of Saturn's moon Titan,

scientists analyzed data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft and a mathematical process called splining.

This method effectively uses smooth curved surfaces to "join" the areas between grids of existing 

topography profiles obtained by Cassini's radar instrument. In the upper panel of this graphic, gold colors 

show where radar images have been obtained over almost half of Titan's surface.

                   Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/JHUAPL/Cornell/Weizmann

This colorized mosaic from NASA's Cassini mission shows the most complete view yet of Titan's northern land of lakes and seas.

Saturn's moon Titan is the only world in our solar system other than Earth that has stable liquid on its surface.

The liquid in Titan's lakes and seas is mostly methane and ethane.

        CREDIT:NASA/JPL-CAlTECH/ASU/USGS

Just passing by: an animation of Iapetus briefly blocking a bright star in the constellation Orion.

(NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI. Assembled by Jason Major.)
It�s a cosmic cover-up! No, don�t put your tinfoil* hats on, this isn�t a conspiracy � it�s just Saturn�s moon Iapetus

drifting in front of the bright star Gamma Orionis (aka Bellatrix) captured on Cassini�s narrow-angle camera on August 10, 2013.


Such an event is called an occultation, a term used in astronomy whenever light from one object is blocked by another 

� specifically when something visually larger moves in front of something apparently smaller.

 (The word occult means to hide or conceal� nothing mystical implied!)

 

The Huygens�Fresnel principle (named after Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens and French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel) is a method of analysis applied to problems of wave propagation both in the far-field limit and in near-field diffraction.
Contents

    1 History
    2 Mathematical expression of the principle
    3 Huygens' principle and quantum electrodynamics
    4 See also
    5 References
    6 Further reading

History
Diffraction of a plane wave at a slit whose width is several times the wavelength
Diffraction of a plane wave when the slit width equals the wavelength

In 1678, Huygens[1] proposed that every point to which a luminous disturbance reaches becomes a source of a spherical wave;
 the sum of these secondary waves determines the form of the wave at any subsequent time. He assumed that the secondary waves
 travelled only in the "forward" direction and it is not explained in the theory why this is the case. He was able to provide 
 a qualitative explanation of linear and spherical wave propagation, and to derive the laws of reflection and refraction using
 this principle, but could not explain the deviations from rectilinear propagation which occur when light encounters edges,
 apertures and screens, commonly known as diffraction effects.[2]

In 1816, Fresnel[3] showed that Huygens' principle, together with his own principle of interference could explain both the 
rectilinear propagation of light and also diffraction effects. To obtain agreement with experimental results, he had to include 
additional arbitrary assumptions about the phase and amplitude of the secondary waves, and also an obliquity factor.
 These assumptions have no obvious physical foundation but led to predictions which agreed with many experimental observations, including the Arago spot.

Poisson was a member of the French Academy which reviewed Fresnel's work.[4] He used Fresnel's theory to predict that a 
bright spot will appear in the center of the shadow of a small disc and deduced from this that the theory was incorrect.
 However, Arago, another member of the committee, performed the experiment and showed that the prediction was correct. 
 (Lisle had actually observed this fifty years earlier.[2]) This was one of the investigations which led to the victory
 of the wave theory of light over the then predominant corpuscular theory.

The Huygens�Fresnel principle provides a good basis for understanding and predicting the wave propagation of light.
 However, this article[5] provides an interesting discussion of the limitations of the principle and also of different 
 scientists' views as to whether it is an accurate representation of reality or whether "Huygens' principle actually
 does give the right answer but for the wrong reasons".

Kirchhoff's diffraction formula provides a rigorous mathematical foundation for diffraction, based on the wave equation.
 The arbitrary assumptions made by Fresnel to arrive at the Huygens�Fresnel equation emerge automatically from the mathematics in this derivation.[6]

A simple example of the operation of the principle can be seen when two rooms are connected by an open doorway and a sound
 is produced in a remote corner of one of them. A person in the other room will hear the sound as if it originated at the doorway.
 As far as the second room is concerned, the vibrating air in the doorway is the source of the sound.
Mathematical expression of the principle
Geometric arrangement for Fresnel's calculation

Consider the case of a point source located at a point P0, vibrating at a frequency f. The disturbance may be described by
 a complex variable U0 known as the complex amplitude. It produces a spherical wave with wavelength ?, wavenumber k = 2p/?.
 The complex amplitude of the primary wave at the point Q located at a distance r0 from P0 is given by

    U(r_0) = \frac {U_0 e^{ikr_0}}{r_0}

since the magnitude decreases in inverse proportion to the distance travelled, and the phase changes as k times the distance travelled.

Using Huygens' theory and the principle of superposition of waves, the complex amplitude at a further point P is found by summing
 the contributions from each point on the sphere of radius r0. In order to get agreement with experimental results, Fresnel found
 that the individual contributions from the secondary waves on the sphere had to be multiplied by a constant, i/?, and by an
 additional inclination factor, K(?). The first assumption means that the secondary waves oscillate at a quarter of a cycle 
 out of phase with respect to the primary wave, and that the magnitude of the secondary waves are in a ratio of 1:? to the 
 primary wave. He also assumed that K(?) had a maximum value when ? = 0, and was equal to zero when ? = p/2. The complex amplitude at P is then given by:

    U(P) = \frac {iU(r_0)}{\lambda} \int_{S} \frac {e^{iks}}{s} K(\chi)\,dS

where S describes the surface of the sphere, and s is the distance between Q and P.

Fresnel used a zone construction method to find approximate values of K for the different zones,[4] which enabled him 
to make predictions which were in agreement with experimental results.

The various assumptions made by Fresnel emerge automatically in Kirchhoff's diffraction formula,[4] to which the 
Huygens�Fresnel principle can be considered to be an approximation. Kirchoff gave the following expression for K(?):

    ~K(\chi )= - \frac{i}{2 \lambda}(1+\cos \chi)

This incorporates the quarter cycle phase shift and the reduced magnitude; K has a maximum value at ? = 0 as in the 
Huygens�Fresnel principle; however, K is not equal to zero at ? = p/2.
Huygens' principle and quantum electrodynamics

Huygens' principle can be seen as a consequence of the isotropy of space - all directions in space are equal.
 Any disturbance created in a sufficiently small region of isotropic space (or in an isotropic medium) propagates
 from that region in all radial directions. The waves created by this disturbance, in turn, create disturbances 
 in other regions, and so on. The superposition of all the waves results in the observed pattern of wave propagation.

Isotropy of space is fundamental to quantum electrodynamics (QED) where the wave function of any object propagates 
along all available unobstructed paths. When integrated along all possible paths, with a phase factor which is
 proportional to the path length, the interference of the wave-functions correctly predicts observable phenomena.

Published on Mar 21, 2016
The brilliant flash of an exploding star’s shockwave—what astronomers call the “shock breakout” --

is illustrated in this cartoon animation. The animation begins with a view of a red supergiant star that

is 500 times bigger and 20,000 brighter than our sun. When the star’s internal furnace can no longer sustain

 nuclear fusion its core to collapses under gravity. A shockwave from the implosion rushes upward through the star’s layers.

 The shockwave initially breaks through the star’s visible surface as a series of finger-like plasma jets.

 Only 20 minute later the full fury of the shockwave reaches the surface and the doomed star blasts apart as a supernova explosion.

 This animation is based on photometric observations made by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. 

 By closely monitoring the star KSN 2011d, located 1.2 billion light-years away, Kepler caught the onset 

 of the early flash and subsequent explosion. 
Credit: NASA Ames, STScI/G. Bacon
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Artist's illustration of the supernova remnant known as 1993J, which came from a double-star system.
Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Bacon (STScI)
A faraway supernova explosion may have contributed to a minor mass extinction here

on Earth 2.59 million years ago, a new study suggests.
Fast-moving, charged particles called cosmic rays that were blasted out by asupernova may have played

 a role in the climatic changes that apparently led to a die-off at the end of the Pliocene epoch

 and the start of the Pleistocene, researchers said.

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The cosmos is littered with blue and red stars... but curiously no green ones. 
Why? Is this a fundamental constraint or merely an unlikely outcome? 
And what would it mean for humanity if we ever did detect a green star? 
Join us today as we explore this simple question with major implications.

Written & presented by Prof David Kipping

 → Support our research program:
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THANK-YOU to our supporters D. Smith, M. Sloan, L. Sanborn, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday,A. Jones, S. Brownlee, G. Fulton, N. Kildal, M. Lijoi, Z. Star, E. West, T. Zanjonc, C. Wolfred, F. Rebolledo, L. Skov, E. Wilson, A. de Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, M. Forbes, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, V. Alexandrov, L. Macchia, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, H. Jensen, F. Linker, J. Rockett, N. Fredrickson, B. Mlazgar, D. Holland, J. Alexander, E. Hanway, J. Molnar, D. Murphree, S. Hannum, T. Donkin, K. Myers, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Black, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, K. Weber, S. Marks, L. Robinson, F. van Exter, S. Roulier, M. Hammer, J. Swigo & A. Murphy.

::Music::
 Music licensed via Creative Commons (CC) Attribution License

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Astronomers have spotted a new object emerging from the ashes of a recently deceased star.
The stellar post-mortem, which is recounted in two new videos, may also solve a mystery surrounding the unexpected shape

of the star's explosive remains, scientists say. 

In the second supernova video, the ICRAR scientists show how they may have also solved a long-standing mystery about the

 shock wave that is still expanding away from the supernova remnant.

Scientists have observed that one side of the supernova explosion appears brighter than the other. 

To figure out why, researchers at ICRAR developed a 3D simulation of the stellar death. They found that

 tweaking things in the simulation, like the asymmetry of the explosion and the composition of the gas surrounding the supernova, 

 changed the outcome and eventually created models that agree with the new observations.

Uploaded on Apr 7, 2011
Armed with state-of-the-art supercomputer models, scientists have shown that colliding neutron stars 

can produce the energetic jet required for a gamma-ray burst. Earlier simulations demonstrated that mergers 

could make black holes. Others had shown that the high-speed particle jets needed to make a gamma-ray burst would

 continue if placed in the swirling wreckage of a recent merger.

Now, the simulations reveal the middle step of the process--how the merging stars' magnetic field organizes itself

into outwardly directed components capable of forming a jet. The Damiana supercomputer at Germany's Max Planck Institute 

for Gravitational Physics needed six weeks to reveal the details of a process that unfolds in just 35 thousandths of a second--

less than the blink of an eye.

 This video is public domain and can be downloaded

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A new paper says that a Super-Earth may have formed in our Solar System and been swallowed by the Sun.

 Image Credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

Published on May 17, 2013
The artist conception shows a newly formed star surrounded by a swirling protoplanetary disk of dust and gas.

 Debris coalesces to create rocky 'planetesimals' that collide and grow to eventually form planets.

 The results of this study show that small planets form around stars with a wide range of heavy element

 content suggesting that their existence might be widespread in the galaxy.

 Credit: University of Copenhagen/Lars Buchhave
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Image: An all-sky view of stars in our Galaxy – the Milky Way – and neighbouring galaxies, 

based on the first year of observations from ESA’s Gaia satellite, from July 2014 to September 2015.

 This map shows the density of stars observed by Gaia in each portion of the sky. Brighter regions indicate denser concentrations of stars,

 while darker regions correspond to patches of the sky where fewer stars are observed. 

 The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, with most of its stars residing in a disc about 100 000 light-years

 across and about 1000 light-years thick. This structure is visible in the sky as the Galactic Plane – 

 the brightest portion of this image –which runs horizontally and is especially bright at the centre. 

 Darker regions across the Galactic Plane correspond to dense clouds of interstellar gas and dust that absorb starlight

 along the line of sight. Many globular and open clusters – groupings of stars held together by their mutual gravity – 

 are also sprinkled across the image. Credit: ESA.

The five Sun-Earth Lagrange points. Credit: NOAA

Sun-Earth Lagrange Points. Credit: Xander89/Wikimedia Commons

Animation showing the relationship between the Lagrangian points (red) of a planet (blue)
 orbiting a star (yellow), and the gravitational potential in the plane containing the orbit (grey surface with purple contours of equal potential).
 Credit: cmglee (CC-SA 3.0)

Since the Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilee first studied the heavens using a telescope he built himself,
 astronomers have been pushing the boundaries of what they can observe. After centuries of progress, 
 they have been able to study and catalog objects in all but the earliest periods of the Universe.
 But thanks to next-generation instruments and technologies, astronomers will soon be able to observe
 the “Cosmic Dawn” era – ca. 50 million to billion years after the Big Bang.

Galaxy GN-z11, shown in the inset, is seen as it was 13.4 billion years in the past,
 just 400 million years after the Big Bang.
 Credit: NASA/ESA/P. Oesch (Yale University), G. Brammer (STScI), P. van Dokkum (Yale University), and G. Illingworth (UCSC)

Diagram of the earliest galaxy candidates and the evolution of the Universe.
 Credit: Harikane et al./NASA/ ESA/and P. Oesch (Yale University)