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Przełomowe odkrycie na Księżycu – rozległa sieć tuneli

Zbliżenie na krater na księżycu pod którym znajduje się sieć tuneli

Spis treści

  1. Tunele na księżycu : cud natury czy dzieło kosmiczne?
  2. Księżyc skrywa sekrety
  3. Tunele księżycowe kluczem do przyszłych misji kosmicznych
  4. Przyszłość eksploracji Księżyca

Najnowsze badania księżycowej powierzchni ujawniły niezwykłe odkrycie – sieć tuneli skrytych pod powierzchnią naszego naturalnego satelity. Odkrycie to, dokonane przez naukowców z Uniwersytetu w Trydencie przy użyciu sondy Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), może całkowicie zmienić nasze podejście do przyszłych misji kosmicznych. W tym artykule przyjrzymy się bliżej temu fascynującemu znalezisku, jego implikacjom oraz przyszłym perspektywom eksploracji Księżyca.

Tunele na księżycu : cud natury czy dzieło kosmiczne?

Odkrycie tuneli na Księżycu to efekt wieloletnich badań i analiz radarowych przeprowadzonych przez naukowców z Uniwersytetu w Trydencie. Używając danych zebranych przez sondę LRO, zespół badawczy zidentyfikował dziesiątki wgłębień na powierzchni Księżyca, które prawdopodobnie prowadzą do tuneli utworzonych ze stopionej lawy.

Jak powstały tunele?

Te tunelowe struktury są wynikiem aktywności wulkanicznej sprzed miliardów lat. W wyniku erupcji wulkanów, lawa płynęła pod powierzchnią Księżyca, tworząc długie kanały. Gdy powierzchnia lawy stygła i twardniała, pod nią wciąż płynęła gorąca magma, która z czasem odpływała, pozostawiając puste przestrzenie – tunele lawowe.

Znaczenie odkrycia

Sieć tuneli na Księżycu może mieć ogromne znaczenie nie tylko dla zrozumienia historii geologicznej naszego naturalnego satelity, ale także dla przyszłych misji kosmicznych. Tunele mogą bowiem stanowić naturalne schronienie dla astronautów przed promieniowaniem kosmicznym oraz ekstremalnymi temperaturami.

Księżyc skrywa sekrety

Wyniki badań radarowych opublikowane na łamach czasopisma “Nature Astronomy” wskazują, że tunelowe formacje są bardziej rozległe niż wcześniej przypuszczano. Dane pozyskane przez Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter pozwoliły naukowcom stworzyć szczegółowe mapy wnętrza Księżyca.

Nowe odkrycia

Podczas analizy danych, naukowcy odkryli dużą jaskinię powstałą w wyniku zapadnięcia się tunelu lawowego. Jaskinia ta, znajdująca się niedaleko Morza Spokoju, ma szerokość około 40 metrów i długość kilkudziesięciu metrów. Co więcej, badacze podejrzewają, że to tylko jedna z wielu podobnych formacji znajdujących się pod powierzchnią Księżyca.

Metody badań

Analiza radarowa jest jednym z najważniejszych narzędzi w badaniach geologicznych innych ciał niebieskich. Dzięki niej możliwe jest uzyskanie szczegółowych informacji o strukturze wnętrza Księżyca, co jest kluczowe dla planowania przyszłych misji kosmicznych.

Tunele księżycowe kluczem do przyszłych misji kosmicznych

Odkrycie sieci tuneli na Księżycu ma ogromne znaczenie dla planowanych na drugą połowę obecnej dekady misji kosmicznych, w tym misji Artemis III. Astronauci, którzy wylądują na Księżycu, będą mogli skorzystać z naturalnych schronień, jakie oferują tunelowe struktury.

Bezpieczne schronienie

Jednym z głównych wyzwań dla astronautów jest ochrona przed promieniowaniem kosmicznym oraz ekstremalnymi temperaturami panującymi na Księżycu. Tunele mogą stanowić idealne schronienie, chroniąc astronautów przed tymi zagrożeniami. Co więcej, w kraterach bez dostępu do światła mogą znajdować się złoża lodu, które mogą być wykorzystane do produkcji wody pitnej i paliwa rakietowego.

Logistyka i planowanie

Dane z badań radarowych będą kluczowe dla planowania logistyki przyszłych misji. Wiedza o lokalizacji i rozmiarze tuneli pozwoli na bardziej efektywne i bezpieczne planowanie działań na powierzchni Księżyca. Astronauci będą mogli wykorzystać te naturalne struktury do przechowywania sprzętu, prowadzenia badań naukowych oraz jako schronienie w razie nagłych sytuacji.

Przyszłość eksploracji Księżyca

Odkrycie sieci tuneli na Księżycu otwiera nowe możliwości dla eksploracji kosmicznej. Jednak wraz z tymi możliwościami pojawiają się również nowe wyzwania, które muszą zostać pokonane, aby w pełni wykorzystać potencjał tego odkrycia.

Możliwości

  • Nowe bazy księżycowe: Tunele mogą posłużyć jako miejsca do budowy stałych baz księżycowych, które będą chronić astronautów przed niekorzystnymi warunkami panującymi na powierzchni.
  • Badania naukowe: Tunele stanowią unikalne miejsce do prowadzenia badań naukowych, które mogą dostarczyć cennych informacji na temat historii geologicznej Księżyca.
  • Eksploracja dalszych obszarów: Wiedza o istnieniu tuneli może pomóc w planowaniu eksploracji dalszych obszarów Księżyca, w tym jego biegunów, gdzie mogą znajdować się złoża lodu.

Wyzwania

  • Technologia: Eksploracja tuneli wymaga nowoczesnych technologii, które pozwolą na bezpieczne poruszanie się w tych strukturach oraz na prowadzenie badań.
  • Logistyka: Planowanie misji z uwzględnieniem tuneli wymaga precyzyjnych danych i dokładnych map, aby uniknąć niespodziewanych zagrożeń.
  • Bezpieczeństwo: Astronauci muszą być odpowiednio przeszkoleni i wyposażeni, aby poradzić sobie z potencjalnymi zagrożeniami, jakie mogą wystąpić podczas eksploracji tuneli.

Odkrycie sieci tuneli na Księżycu to krok milowy w eksploracji kosmicznej, który otwiera przed nami nowe możliwości i stawia przed nami nowe wyzwania. Dzięki dalszym badaniom i innowacjom technologicznym, przyszłe misje kosmiczne będą mogły skorzystać z tych naturalnych struktur, czyniąc eksplorację Księżyca bardziej efektywną i bezpieczną.

Bibliografia

  1. Nature Astronomy, “Radar Studies Reveal Subsurface Lunar Lava Tubes”, 2024.
  2. NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Data.
  3. University of Trento Research Publications on Lunar Geology.

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Wideo tygodnia z teleskopu Hubble
This Hubble Picture of the Week features the galaxy LEDA 857074, located in the constellation Eridanus. LEDA 857074 is a barred spiral galaxy, with partially broken spiral arms. It also has a particularly bright spot right in its bar: this is a supernova snapped by Hubble, named SN 2022ADQZ, and quite relevant to this Picture of the Week. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed a vast range of celestial objects, from galaxies, to nebulae, to star clusters, to planets in the Solar System and beyond. Observing programmes usually seek to gather data so that astronomers can answer a specific question. Naturally, this means most scheduled observations target an object that astronomers have already researched. Some are famous, like the Crab Nebula or the globular cluster Omega Centauri; others might not be so well known to the public, but still be featured in hundreds of scientific papers, such as the Spider Galaxy or NGC 4753. Not so with this galaxy: LEDA 857074 is named in fewer than five papers, one of which is the Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database itself. Virtually no data have been recorded about it, other than its position: since its discovery, it simply hasn’t been studied. So how did it attract the gaze of the legendary Hubble? The supernova is the answer — SN 2022ADQZ was detected by an automated survey in late 2022, and led to Hubble being pointed at its host galaxy, LEDA 857074, in early 2023. Astronomers have catalogued millions of galaxies, so while today tens of thousands of supernovae are detected annually, the chance that one is spotted in any particular galaxy is slim. We also do not know how actively LEDA 857074 is forming stars, and therefore how often it might host a supernova. This galaxy is therefore an unlikely and lucky target of Hubble, thanks to this supernova shining a spotlight on it! It now joins the ranks of many more famous celestial objects, with its own Hubble image. More information and download options: http://esahubble.org/videos/potw2432a/ Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble) Music: Stellardrone - Ascent
Pan: LEDA 857074
Featured in this new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is Messier 106, also known as NGC 4258. This is a nearby spiral galaxy that resides roughly 23 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici, practically a neighbour by cosmic standards. Messier 106 is one of the brightest and nearest spiral galaxies to our own and two supernovae have been observed in this galaxy in 1981 and 2014. At its heart, as in most spiral galaxies, is a supermassive black hole, but this one is particularly active. Unlike the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, which pulls in wisps of gas only occasionally, Messier 106’s black hole is actively gobbling up material. As the gas spirals towards the black hole, it heats up and emits powerful radiation. This image was captured with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). This observation was taken as part of a dedicated programme to study the galaxy’s Active Galactic Nucleus, the galaxy’s bright central region that is dominated by the light emitted by dust and gas as it falls into the black hole. The blue regions in this image reflect stellar distribution throughout the central region of the galaxy. The orange regions indicate warmer dust and the stronger red hues represent colder dust. The teal, green and yellow tones near the centre of the image depict varying gas distributions throughout the region. The galaxy has a remarkable feature – it is known to have two “anomalous” extra arms visible in radio and X-ray wavelengths, rather than in the visible. Unlike the normal arms, these are composed of hot gas instead of stars. Astronomers believe these extra arms result from the black hole’s activity, a feedback effect seen in other galaxies as well. They are likely caused by outflowing material produced by the violent churning of gas around the black hole, creating a phenomenon analogous to a wave crashing up out of the ocean when it hits a rock near the shore. Despite carrying his name, Messier 106 was neither discovered nor catalogued by the renowned 18th century astronomer Charles Messier. Discovered by his assistant, Pierre Méchain, the galaxy was never added to the catalogue in his lifetime. Along with six other objects discovered but not logged by the pair, Messier 106 was posthumously added to the Messier catalogue in the 20th century. More information and download options: http://esawebb.org/videos/potm2407a/ Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Glenn, M. Zamani, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb) Music: Stellardrone - Twilight
Pan video of Messier 106
The distorted spiral galaxy at the centre, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at the left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow. The pair, known jointly as Arp 142, made their first pass between 25 and 75 million years ago — causing ‘fireworks’, or new star formation, in the Penguin. In the most extreme cases, mergers can cause galaxies to form thousands of new stars per year for a few million years. For the Penguin, research has shown that about 100 to 200 stars have formed per year. By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy (which is not interacting with a galaxy of the same size) forms roughly six to seven new stars per year. This gravitational shimmy also remade the Penguin’s appearance. Its coiled spiral arms unwound, and gas and dust were pulled in an array of directions, like it was releasing confetti. It is rare for individual stars to collide when galaxies interact (space is vast), but the galaxies’ mingling disrupts their stars’ orbits. Today, the Penguin’s galactic centre looks like an eye set within a head, and the galaxy has prominent star trails that take the shape of a beak, backbone, and fanned-out tail. A faint, but prominent dust lane extends from its beak down to its tail. Despite the Penguin appearing far larger than the Egg, these galaxies have approximately the same mass. This is one reason why the smaller-looking Egg hasn’t yet merged with the Penguin. (If one was less massive, it may have merged earlier.) The oval Egg is filled with old stars, and little gas and dust, which is why it isn’t sending out ‘streamers’ or tidal tails of its own and instead has maintained a compact oval shape. If you look closely, the Egg has four prominent diffraction spikes — the galaxy’s stars are so concentrated that it gleams. Now, find the bright, edge-on galaxy at top right. It may look like a party crasher, but it’s not nearby. Cataloged PGC 1237172, it lies 100 million light-years closer to Earth. It is relatively young and isn’t overflowing with dust, which is why it practically disappears in Webb’s mid-infrared view. The background of this image is overflowing with far more distant galaxies. This is a testament to the sensitivity and resolution of Webb’s infrared cameras. Arp 142 lies 326 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra. More information and download options: http://esawebb.org/videos/weic2420a/ Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb) Music: Noizefield - Expect the Unexpected
Pan of Interacting galaxies Arp 142 (NIRCam and MIRI image)
This video features two views of the interaction galaxies Arp 142. First shown is the NIRCam image, followed by the combined NIRCam and MIRI image. The distorted spiral galaxy at the centre, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at the left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow. The pair, known jointly as Arp 142, made their first pass between 25 and 75 million years ago — causing ‘fireworks’, or new star formation, in the Penguin. In the most extreme cases, mergers can cause galaxies to form thousands of new stars per year for a few million years. For the Penguin, research has shown that about 100 to 200 stars have formed per year. By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy (which is not interacting with a galaxy of the same size) forms roughly six to seven new stars per year. This gravitational shimmy also remade the Penguin’s appearance. Its coiled spiral arms unwound, and gas and dust were pulled in an array of directions, like it was releasing confetti. It is rare for individual stars to collide when galaxies interact (space is vast), but galaxies’ mingling disrupts stars’ orbits. Today, the Penguin’s galactic centre looks like an eye set within a head, and the galaxy has prominent star trails that take the shape of a beak, backbone, and fanned-out tail. A faint, but prominent dust lane extends from its beak down to its tail. Despite the Penguin appearing far larger than the Egg, these galaxies have approximately the same mass. This is one reason why the smaller-looking Egg hasn’t yet merged with the Penguin. (If one was less massive, it may have merged earlier.) The oval Egg is filled with old stars, and little gas and dust, which is why it isn’t sending out ‘streamers’ or tidal tails of its own and instead has maintained a compact oval shape. If you look closely, the Egg has four prominent diffraction spikes — the galaxy’s stars are so concentrated that it gleams. Now, find the bright, edge-on galaxy at top right. It may look like a party crasher, but it’s not nearby. Cataloged PGC 1237172, it lies 100 million light-years closer to Earth. It is relatively young and isn’t overflowing with dust, which is why it practically disappears in Webb’s mid-infrared view. The background of this image is overflowing with far more distant galaxies. This is a testament to the sensitivity and resolution of Webb’s infrared cameras. Arp 142 lies 326 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra. More information and download options: http://esawebb.org/videos/weic2420b/ Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb) Music: Stellardrone - The Night Sky in Motion
Transition video of interacting galaxies Arp 142 (NIRCam image + MIRI and NIRCam image))
This video takes the viewer on a journey through space to the interacting galaxies known as Arp 142. The distorted spiral galaxy at the centre, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at the left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow. The pair, known jointly as Arp 142, made their first pass between 25 and 75 million years ago — causing ‘fireworks’, or new star formation, in the Penguin. In the most extreme cases, mergers can cause galaxies to form thousands of new stars per year for a few million years. For the Penguin, research has shown that about 100 to 200 stars have formed per year. By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy (which is not interacting with a galaxy of the same size) forms roughly six to seven new stars per year. Arp 142 lies 326 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra. More information and download options: http://esawebb.org/videos/weic2420c/ Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb) Music: Tonelabs – The Red North (www.tonelabs.com)
Zoom into interacting galaxies Arp 142
The galaxy featured in this week’s Hubble Picture of the Week is the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238, located 14.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. Its unexciting, blob-like appearance, resembling more an oversized star cluster than a galaxy, belies a complicated structure which has been the subject of much research by astronomers. Here, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is able to pick out the galaxy’s countless stars, as well as its associated globular clusters — the glowing spots both inside and around the galaxy that are swarmed by yet more stars. NGC 5238 is theorised to have recently — here meaning no more than a billion years ago! — had a close encounter with another galaxy. The evidence for this is the tidal distortions of NGC 5238’s shape, the kind produced by two galaxies pulling on each other as they interact. There’s no nearby galaxy which could have caused this disturbance, so the hypothesis is that the culprit is a smaller satellite galaxy that was devoured by NGC 5238. Traces of the erstwhile galaxy might be found by closely examining the population of stars in NGC 5238, a task for which the Hubble Space Telescope is an astronomer’s best tool. Two tell-tale signs would be groups of stars with properties that look out of place compared to most of the galaxy’s other stars, indicating that they were originally formed in a separate galaxy, or stars that look to have all formed abruptly at around the same time, which would occur during a galactic merger. The data used to make this image will be put to use in testing these predictions. Despite their small size and unremarkable appearance, it’s not unusual for dwarf galaxies like NGC 5238 to drive our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. One main theory of galaxy evolution is that galaxies formed ‘bottom-up’ in a hierarchical fashion: star clusters and small galaxies were the first to form out of gas and dark matter, and they gradually were assembled by gravity into galaxy clusters and superclusters, explaining the shape of the very largest structures in the Universe today. A dwarf irregular galaxy like NGC 5238 merging with an even smaller companion is just the type of event that might have begun this process of galaxy assembly in the early Universe. So, it turns out that this tiny galaxy may serve as a test of some of the most fundamental predictions in astrophysics! More information and download options: http://esahubble.org/videos/potw2429a/ Credit: NASA & ESA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble) Music: Stellardrone - Endeavour
Pan: NGC 5238
Measuring the distance to truly remote objects like galaxies, quasars and galaxy clusters is a crucial task in astrophysics, particularly when it comes to studying the early Universe, but it’s a difficult one. Only in the case of a few nearby objects like the Sun, planets and some nearby stars can we measure their distances directly. Beyond that, various indirect methods need to be used; one of the most important is by examining Type Ia supernovae, and this is where the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope comes in. NGC 3810, the galaxy featured in this image, was the host of a Type Ia supernova in 2022. In early 2023 Hubble focused on this and a number of other galaxies to closely examine recent Type Ia supernovae. This kind of supernova results from a white dwarf exploding, and they all have a very consistent brightness. That allows them to be used to measure distances: we know how bright a Type Ia supernova should be, so we can tell how far away it must be from how dim it appears. One uncertainty in this method is that intergalactic dust in between Earth and a supernova blocks some of its light. How do you know how much of the reduction in light is caused by distance, and how much by dust? With the help of Hubble, there’s a clever workaround: take images of the same Type Ia supernovae in ultraviolet light, which is almost completely blocked by dust, and in infrared light, which passes through dust almost unaffected. By carefully noting how much light comes through at each wavelength, the relationship between supernova brightness and distance can be calibrated to account for dust. Hubble can observe both these wavelengths of light in great detail with the same instrument. That makes it the perfect tool for this experiment, and indeed, some of the data used to make this beautiful image of NGC 3810 were focused on its 2022 supernova. You can see it as a point of light just below the galactic nucleus, or in the annotated image here. There are many ways to measure cosmic distances; because Type Ia supernovae are so bright, they are one of the most useful and accurate tools, when they’re spotted. Many other methods must be used as well, either as an independent check against other distance measurements or to measure at much closer or farther distances. One such method that also works for galaxies is comparing their rotation speed to their brightness; based on that method, NGC 3810 is found to be 50 million light-years from Earth. More information and download options: http://esahubble.org/videos/potw2428a/ Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Sand, R. J. Foley, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble) Music: Stellardrone - Eden
Pan: NGC 3810
An international team of astronomers has used more than 500 images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope spanning two decades to detect seven fast-moving stars in the innermost region of Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky. These stars provide compelling new evidence for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole. Omega Centauri is visible from Earth with the naked eye and is one of the favourite celestial objects for stargazers in the southern hemisphere. Although the cluster is 17 000 light-years away, lying just above the plane of the Milky Way, it appears almost as large as the full Moon when seen from a dark rural area. The exact classification of Omega Centauri has evolved through time, as our ability to study it has improved. It was first listed in Ptolemy's catalogue nearly two thousand years ago as a single star. Edmond Halley reported it as a nebula in 1677, and in the 1830s the English astronomer John Herschel was the first to recognise it as a globular cluster. Omega Centauri consists of roughly 10 million stars that are gravitationally bound. More information and download options: http://esahubble.org/videos/heic2409a/ Credit: NASA & ESA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble) Music: Stellardrone - Eden
Pan: Omega Centauri
This Picture of the Week from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope depicts the galaxy NGC 4951, a spiral galaxy that’s located 49 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The data used to make this image were captured by Hubble as part of a programme to examine how matter and energy travel in nearby galaxies. Galaxies continuously undergo a cycle of star formation whereby the gas in a galaxy forms molecular clouds, which collapse to create new stars, which then disperse the clouds they formed from with powerful radiation or stellar winds in a process called feedback. The remaining gas is left to form new clouds elsewhere. This cycle of moving matter and energy determines how fast a galaxy forms stars and how quickly it burns through its supplies of gas — that is, how it evolves over the course of its life. Understanding this evolution depends on the nebulae, stars and star clusters in the galaxy: when they formed and their past behaviour. Hubble has always excelled at measuring populations of stars, and the task of tracking gas and star formation in galaxies including NGC 4951 is no exception. NGC 4951 is also a Seyfert galaxy, a type of galaxy that has a very bright and energetic nucleus called an active galactic nucleus. This image demonstrates well how energetic the galaxy is, and some of the dynamic galactic activity which transports matter and energy throughout it: a shining core surrounded by swirling arms, glowing pink star-forming regions, and thick dust. More information and download options: http://esahubble.org/videos/potw2427a/ Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble), N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble) Music: Stellardrone - Ascent
Pan: NGC 4951
An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to discover gravitationally bound star clusters when the Universe was 460 million years old. This is the first discovery of star clusters in an infant galaxy less than 500 million years after the Big bang. Young galaxies in the early Universe underwent significant burst phases of star formation, generating substantial amounts of ionising radiation. However, because of their cosmological distances, direct studies of their stellar content have proven challenging. Using Webb, an international team of astronomers have now detected five young massive star clusters in the Cosmic Gems arc (SPT0615-JD1), a strongly-lensed galaxy emitting light when the Universe was roughly 460 million years old, looking back across 97% of cosmic time. The Cosmic Gems arc was initially discovered in NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images obtained by the RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey) programme of the lensing galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615−5746. With Webb, the science team can now see where stars formed and how they are distributed, in a similar way to how the Hubble Space Telescope is used to study local galaxies. Webb’s view provides a unique opportunity to study star formation and the inner workings of infant galaxies at such an unprecedented distance. More information and download options: http://esawebb.org/videos/weic2418a/ Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Bradley (STScI), A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the Cosmic Spring collaboration, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb) Music Credits: Stellardrone - Twilight
Pan of Cosmic Gems (galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615−5746)
This zoom-in video shows the relative location of the Serpens Nebula on the sky. It begins with a ground-based photo by the late astrophotographer Akira Fujii, then transitions into a plate from the Digitized Sky Survey. Next, an image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope appears, and finally the video arrives at the image of Serpens from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. More information and download options: http://esawebb.org/videos/weic2415b/ Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Pagan (STScI) Acknowledgement: Akira Fujii, Digitized Sky Survey, Spitzer Space Telescope
Zoom video (Serpens Nebula)
For the first time, a phenomenon astronomers have long hoped to image directly has been captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). In this stunning image of the Serpens Nebula, the discovery lies in the northern area of this young, nearby star-forming region. The astronomers found an intriguing group of protostellar outflows, formed when jets of gas spewing from newborn stars collide with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. Typically these objects have a variety of orientations within one region. Here, however, they are all slanted in the same direction, to the same degree, like sleet pouring down during a storm. The discovery of these aligned objects, made possible only by Webb’s exquisite spatial resolution and sensitivity at near-infrared wavelengths, is providing information about the fundamentals of how stars are born. More information and download options: http://esawebb.org/videos/weic2415c/ Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Pontoppidan (NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory), J. Green (Space Telescope Science Institute), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb) Music: Stellardrone - Twilight
Pan: Serpens Nebula
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