NSF NOIRLab’s Post

What is this object captured by the VLT in chile observatory??Is it comet,meteor or the star??🤔 This is the image of newborn star 177-341 W that was taken using the MUSE multispectrometer mounted on a Very Large Telescope. Newborn stars are surrounded by gas-dust disks. Their substance serves as a building material for exoplanets. If there are other very bright and massive stars nearby with such newborn systems, their light heats the disks, depriving them of some of the material. This is what happened to the star 177-341 W located in the Orion nebula. Exposure to radiation from another star (it is located outside the frame in the upper right corner) led to the formation of a characteristic bright structure in its protoplanetary disk, the shape of which resembles a bow. The tail stretching from the star to the lower left corner consists of carried-away material. Astronomers sometimes figuratively call such ionized protoplanetary disks bald spots. The colors correspond to various chemical elements such as hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen. But this is only a small part of the data collected by MUSE, which takes thousands of images at different wavelengths at the same time. This allows astronomers to study the physical properties of protoplanetary disks in great detail, including the amount of mass they lose. In this way, they will learn exactly how the process of formation of stars and planetary systems takes place.

In this #imageoftheweek, the glittering Milky Way reaches over the @UArizona Bok 2.3-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of @NSF's NOIRLab. The Bok telescope was named after astronomer Bart Bok, a previous director of Steward Observatory, part of the University of Arizona. It is one of the largest optical telescopes at Kitt Peak operated solely by Steward Observatory. Within the band of the Milky Way, just right of the Bok telescope, the constellation Orion (The Hunter) can be identified by its distinctive three-star belt. Just below the belt is the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), marking Orion’s sword. To the right of Orion at a 45 degree angle is the constellation Taurus (The Bull), notable by its V-shape of bright stars. To the right of Taurus, ‘defended’ from Orion, are the Pleiades (the Seven Sisters), an open star cluster also known as Messier 45. The glowing red regions around these stars are caused by shockwaves from newly formed stars that have excited clouds of molecular hydrogen, which appear prominently, as in this image, when using deep photographic techniques. On the left side of the horizon the light from the city of Nogales in this remote part of Arizona illuminates the distinctive form of the McMath–Pierce Solar Telescope — what was for many decades the largest solar telescope in the world. On the other side of the image, the sky is illuminated not by human-made light, but by nature-powered airglow in the atmosphere. Piercing the Milky Way is the zodiacal light — a faint glow of scattered sunlight from dust in the Solar System. This photo was taken as part of the recent NOIRLab 2022 Photo Expedition to all the NOIRLab sites. Tomáš Slovinský, the photographer, is a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador. Download the high resolution version of this image here: https://lnkd.in/eYiNk-K9 Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský

Planets form in disks of dust and gas called protoplanetary disks that whirl around a central protostar during its final assembly. Although several dozens of such disks have been imaged, just two planets have been caught in the act of forming so far. Now, astronomers are aiming the powerful instruments aboard the James Webb Space Telescope at protoplanetary disks to try to find early clues about the ways in which planets form, and how these planets influence their natal disk. A trio of studies led by the University of Michigan, University of Arizona, and University of Victoria combined JWST’s images with prior observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, in Chile. Based on the ancillary observations, the team used JWST to observe protoplanetary disks HL Tau, SAO 206462, and MWC 758 in hopes of detecting any planets that might be forming. In the papers, published in The Astronomical Journal, the researchers pieced together previously unseen interactions between the planet-forming disk and the envelope of gas and dust surrounding the young stars at the center of the protoplanetary disks. #HST #JWST #HiCIAO Two spiral arms emerge from the gas-rich disk around SAO 206462, a young star in the constellation Lupus. This image, acquired by the Subaru Telescope and its HiCIAO instrument, is the first to show spiral arms in a circumstellar disk. The image traces the light emitted by the star and scattered on the disk surface. The disk itself is some 14 billion miles across, or about twice the size of Pluto’s orbit in our own solar system. (NAOJ/Subaru)

The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has achieved a monumental milestone by completing the construction of the largest digital camera ever made for astronomy. This car-sized LSST Camera, boasting an impressive 3,200-megapixel capacity, has been mounted on a telescope in Chile, poised to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos. Over the next decade, this cutting-edge camera will capture vast amounts of data, providing unprecedented insights into fundamental cosmic mysteries such as dark matter, dark energy, and the accelerating expansion of the universe. Additionally, it will illuminate the complexities of our Milky Way galaxy, track changes in the night sky, and enhance our knowledge of our own solar system. #LSSTCamera #Astronomy #DarkMatter #DarkEnergy #CosmicExploration #SpaceTechnology

Giant Magellan Telescope Enclosure Ready for Construction The Giant Magellan Telescope's enclosure, one of the largest mechanized buildings ever constructed, passed its final design review and is now ready for construction in Chile. The Giant Magellan Telescope and IDOM announced today that the dome of the telescope, intended to be one of the world's largest astronomical facilities, has passed the final design review stage and is now ready to be built in Chile. The design approval marks an important milestone for the telescope, whose construction is 40 % complete, with a view to starting operations in the early 2030s.   A team of 10 international experts validated IDOM's design of the Giant Magellan Telescope dome as a technical and engineering feat. The 65-metre-high, 5,000-tonne dome will rotate in four minutes and will have 46-metre windows. This design will protect the 25.4-metre telescope, which will observe objects more than a billion light years away. Construction is progressing with the seventh primary mirror, the 39-metre mount and the first adaptive secondary mirror, among other technologies, providing 10 times the resolution of Hubble.   With the dome design completed, the Giant Magellan Telescope is now preparing for an international search process to select the company that will make its mark on the future of astronomy with the construction of the dome. #GMT #GiantMagellanTelescope #Telescope #Chile #Astronomy #Construction

The New ALMA Inspectors Checking out ALMA Observatory! The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The array has been constructed on the 5,000 m (16,000 ft) elevation Chajnantor plateau – near the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment. This location was chosen for its high elevation and low humidity, factors which are crucial to reduce noise and decrease signal attenuation due to Earth's atmosphere. ALMA provides insight on star birth during the early Stelliferous era and detailed imaging of local star and planet formation. ALMA is an international partnership amongst Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Chile. Costing about US$1.4 billion, it is the most expensive ground-based telescope in operation. ALMA began scientific observations in the second half of 2011 and the first images were released to the press on 3 October 2011. The array has been fully operational since March 2013. Video and read more: ALMA Observatory https://lnkd.in/g3YJMWTk

#astronomy #stars An image captured by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) shows a cosmic formation nicknamed the Running Chicken for the shape some see in what is actually a collection of different star-forming regions. The OmegaCAM wide-field camera mounted on the VST generated a 1.5 billion-pixel image that includes never-before-seen detail in an area 25 times the size of the full Moon. The brightest region in the nebula is cataloged as IC 2948 and corresponds to what some see as the chicken's head and others as its rear end. Towards the center of the image, at a pillar-like structure, there's a region cataloged as IC 2944. The brightest star is actually closer and is known as Lambda Centauri. https://lnkd.in/ddsSFuyY

#FLYEYE: NEW FRONTIERS IN ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCE   At the end of June 2024, one of the most important technical event for ground-based, airborne, space-based telescopes and their supporting instrumentation, the “SPIE Telescopes + Instrumentation”, took place in Yokohama, Japan. In the frame of such valuable venue, an important #paper was presented to the public by OHB Italia S.p.A. (Prime Contractor), INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Università degli Studi di Padova (UNIPD) / University of Padua, #StudioSOME: “FLYEYE GROUND BASED TELESCOPE: UNVEILING NEW FRONTIERS IN ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCE”.   Leading star of the scene was the pioneering FLYEYE Telescope, which integrates a monolithic 1-meter class primary mirror feeding 16 cameras for discovering Near-Earth Object (#NEO) and any class of transient phenomena on a collision course with Earth, providing crucial advance notice of potential #impacts within weeks or days.   The FLYEYE distinctive design splits the #FieldofView into 16 channels, creating a unique multi-telescope system with a panoramic 44 square degree Field of View. While traditional telescopes provide snapshots that may miss critical changes or phenomena that occur rapidly or irregularly, the FLYEYE rapid scanning capability adds dynamic, capturing data across a wide spectrum of #celestialevents (fast radio bursts, high energy phenomena, development of supernovae, interaction of binary star system).   Placed atop #Mufara Mount in Sicily and robotized, FLYEYE ability to survey two-thirds of the visible #sky about three times per night will revolutionize #astronomy, enabling comprehensive studies of transient phenomena, placing FLYEYE in a new era of exploration of the dynamic universe.   The Telescope can strategically work in #synergy with other major astronomical projects, the Vera Rubin Telescope and the Zwicky Transient Facility. This integration can extend capabilities of this existing and planned observational infrastructures, by adding additional measurements in the visible sky or additional Earth longitude coverage. Such monitoring can lead to #breakthroughs in understanding the structure and the evolution of the ever-changing #universe, in opening new avenues for #discovery and in giving to astronomers new tools available to study the temporal aspects of the #cosmos.   www.ohb-italia.it

A Little Rocky Planet 🪨 The Rubin Auxiliary Telescope (AuxTel), with its open dome and deep red interior, looks to be inhabiting a little rocky planet floating through the expansive Milky Way galaxy in this #imageoftheweek taken at Cerro Pachón in Chile. But in fact this image was created using a 360-degree panorama and composed into a photosphere image. The green and red light circling the horizon of the ‘planet’ is airglow, an atmospheric phenomenon caused when trace particles and gasses in the atmosphere become electrically charged or ionized. Their atoms emit light at various wavelengths when they recombine at night and faintly glow. The dark dust trails and red star-forming regions intertwined throughout the Milky Way are also prominently featured in this surreal view of the cosmos. Off in the distance, on the lower left side of the ‘planet’, the geometric dome of Rubin Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab, can be seen. Download the high resolution version here: https://lnkd.in/e6u2qf89 This photo was taken as part of the NOIRLab 2022 Photo Expedition to all the NOIRLab sites. Petr Horálek, the photographer, is a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador. Credit: Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava) @petrhoralek #astronomy #rubinobservatory #milkyway

I'm very proud to have worked during the initial phases of the FlyEye project to verify the good quality of observation of the Universe from Mount Mufara in Sicily. I was personally involved in the design and installation of very high quality cameras (sbig cameras) accompanied by temperature, humidity and rain sensors on Mount Mufara for the study of astronomical seeing. The power supply was obtained through the use of photovoltaic panels and storage batteries. The aim of the preliminary work was to collect the data during the night and transmit it to ESA in FTP with internet connections obtained in the mountains using 4G/LTE routers. The preliminary study of the seeing allowed us to confirm that the site was ideal for the future installation of the FlyEye Telescope, which is actually about to happen.