View allAll Photos Tagged LargeMagellanicCloud
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed the best evidence yet for emission from a neutron star at the site of a well-known and recently-observed supernova. The supernova, known as SN 1987A, occurred 168 000 light-years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Left: Webb’s 2023 NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) image of SN 1987A that highlights the object’s central structure, expanding with several thousands km/s. The blue region is the densest part of the clumpy ejecta, containing heavy elements like carbon, oxygen, magnesium and iron, as well as dust. The bright ‘ring of pearls’ is the result of the collision of the ejecta with a ring of gas ejected about 20 000 years before the explosion. Now spots are found even exterior to the ring, with diffuse emission surrounding it. These are the locations of supernova shocks hitting more exterior material from the progenitor star. The outer ejecta is now illuminated by X-rays from the collision, while the inner ejecta is powered mainly by radioactivity and a putative compact object.
Right: An international team of astronomers has now used two of Webb’s instruments to study the emissions from the core of SN 1987A. The top image features the data from Webb’s MRS (Medium Resolution Spectrograph) mode of the MIRI instrument (Mid-InfraRed Instrument). The bottom image depicts data from Webb’s NIRSpec (Near Infrared Spectrograph) at shorter wavelengths. Spectral analysis of the MIRI results showed a strong signal due to ionised argon from the centre of the ejected material that surrounds the original site of SN 1987A. The NIRSpec data found even more heavily ionised chemical species, particularly five times ionised argon (meaning argon atoms that have lost five of their 18 electrons). Weak lines of ionised sulphur were also detected with MIRI. This indicated to the science team that there is a source of high-energy radiation in the centre of the SN 1987A remnant, illuminating an almost point-like region in the centre. The most likely source is believed to be a newly born neutron star.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and C. Fransson (Stockholm University), M. Matsuura (Cardiff University), M. J. Barlow (University College London), P. J. Kavanagh (Maynooth University), J. Larsson (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
The Large Magellanic Cloud over the black sand Ti Sable beach in the south coast of Reunion Island. Landscape is illuminated by the Moon.
24mm lens f/4,8. Exposure 20 seconds at 2000 ISO.
20-sec exposure, ISO 6400. South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), Sutherland, South Africa, 20 Mar 2010. © 2010 José Francisco Salgado, PhD
Edited European Southern Observatory image of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Original caption: ESO’s VISTA telescope reveals a remarkable image of the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our nearest galactic neighbours. VISTA has been surveying this galaxy and its sibling the Small Magellanic Cloud, as well as their surroundings, in unprecedented detail. This survey allows astronomers to observe a large number of stars, opening up new opportunities to study stellar evolution, galactic dynamics, and variable stars.
This pioneering, single-shot image is one of the first from JAXA’s XRISM mission. It shows a nearby cluster of galaxies called Abell 2319, unveiling its detailed structure. In purple we see X-ray light measured by XRISM; this light is emitted by million-degree gas that permeates between the galaxies in the cluster.
The uneven structure of the purple glow is likely a sign that the gas is being stirred and sloshed over very large scales. The gas cloud is probably also shaped by the past effects of a super-massive black hole that lay at the centre of the galaxy cluster. Xtend’s unique ability to capture the entire cluster in a single shot promises a significant step forward in our understanding of the large-scale structure of the Universe.
The image from XRISM (shown in purple) has been overlaid on a visible-light image from a ground-based telescope. Many of the orange blobs in the visible-light image are galaxies that form part of the cluster.
The XRISM image was taken with the mission’s Xtend instrument, which uses a CCD camera to image extended X-ray emitting celestial sources and their surroundings. Xtend covers a large field-of-view, which is key to ensuring that extended structures in the sky such as galaxy clusters, individual galaxies in the nearby Universe and supernova remnants can be imaged effectively. Xtend images also provide a broader counterpart to the high-resolution spectra gathered by XRISM’s Resolve instrument.
[Image description: An astronomical image with a background full of orange-white dots. In the foreground is a purple square cut into four smaller squares, with lines across it that are a feature of the telescope. The colour that fills the purple square has some shape; it is most densely purple at the top left, whereas the purple is more sparse at the bottom right. A bright, elongated white patch is visible within the densest purple region.]
Credits: X-ray (JAXA), Optical (DSS)
Editor's note: This is an archive image from 1999, part of our "Think Pink" gallery, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month: www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/sets/72157625045060125/
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In the most active starburst region in the local universe lies a cluster of brilliant, massive stars, known to astronomers as Hodge 301. Hodge 301, seen in the lower right hand corner of this image, lives inside the Tarantula Nebula in our galactic neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud. This star cluster is not the brightest, or youngest, or most populous star cluster in the Tarantula Nebula, that honor goes to the spectacular R136. In fact, Hodge 301 is almost 10 times older than the young cluster R136. But age has its advantages; many of the stars in Hodge 301 are so old that they have exploded as supernovae. These exploded stars are blasting material out into the surrounding region at speeds of almost 200 miles per second. This high speed ejecta are plowing into the surrounding Tarantula Nebula, shocking and compressing the gas into a multitude of sheets and filaments, seen in the upper left portion of the picture. Hodge 301 contains three red supergiants -- stars that are close to the end of their evolution and are about to go supernova, exploding and sending more shocks into the Tarantula. Also present near the center of the image are small, dense gas globules and dust columns where new stars are being formed today, as part of the overall ongoing star formation throughout the Tarantula region.
Image credit: NASA, The Hubble Heritage Team, STScI, AURA
Original image:
grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-000946.html
Read more about Hubble:
Read more about Aura:
The dark night sky with The Milky Way Galaxy filled with stars from Blayney, Central West, NSW, Australia.
Relics of a by-gone era, this lost valley was once used as a shale mining site. Crumbled buildings and piles of bricks remain scattered across overgrown bush.
"The Commonwealth Oil Corporation, Ltd., (usually referred to as the C.O.C.) was formed in London in December 1905 and started work on a grand scale. They acquired mining leases covering most of the Capertee-Wolgan oil-shale deposit and, based on the Wolgan Valley rather than the Capertee Valley, developed mines, works and associated plant.
A major oil-shale mine with two headings was started on the north side of the river, opposite the works. It was intended to tunnel through the mountain to meet up with some earlier workings in the Capertee Valley as mining conditions in the Capertee were regarded as being much better than in the Wolgan. However, mining difficulties and the generally low quality of the shale in this area meant that mining became concentrated on the No.2 mine and work on the No.1 mine was eventually abandoned. Although construction of a tunnel linking the Wolgan Valley with the Capertee was proposed on numerous subsequent occasions, it was to remain an elusive dream.
The No.2 mine was established on the southern side of the river, east of the works. This mine was to provide most of the oil-shale for the working life of Newnes.
The main works site was established in a sweeping bend on the south bank of the Wolgan River and extending up the adjacent talus hillside. These works consisted of retorts, various distillation areas, oil storage tanks and washers, plant for the refining of the various finished products, a power station, workshops, etc., with provision for future expansion. They were built in a substantial manner, as attested by the extensive ruins that stand to this day. Although construction commenced in 1906, it was not until 1911 that the initial stage was completed and the retorts charged for the first time.
In the meantime, other works were under way. A town, named after Sir George Newnes, the chairman of the C.O.C., was established adjacent to the mining leases. The company built 50km of railway from the main government railway south of Newnes to their works through very difficult country, particularly where the line descended into the Wolgan Valley from the plateau above. The company established brickworks adjacent to the refinery area where most of the large number of "common" bricks used within the plant were made. (All firebricks, however, were made off-site at Torbane and Bulli.) The company also started a coal mine to provide coal for use within the plant, but since this was found to be a good coking coal, coke ovens were built and a trade in metallurgical coke was established.
However, and most importantly for the company, the C.O.C. bought out its only opposition, the New South Wales Shale and Oil Co., Ltd.. With this purchase, the C.O.C. obtained working properties at Hartley Vale and Torbane which were to prove useful for the C.O.C. during the start-up period at Newnes. The purchase price of this going concern was only £50,000 and this valuation should have signalled a warning to the C.O.C. in view of the much larger amounts that they were spending on their as yet untried properties at Newnes.
By late 1911, the C.O.C. had expended some £1.6 million in capital and debentures. But the company was experiencing trouble with their Pumpherston retorts, a Scottish retort that had been designed for treating the relatively poorer grades of oil-shales in that country.
Expensive modifications were needed to correct the problem, but an attempt to raise the necessary funds by another debenture issue failed. The C.O.C. went into receivership and, with industrial unrest complicating matters, work at Newnes stopped in February 1912." users.tpg.com.au/newnes/h/histo.htm
Astronomers created this infrared mosaic of the Tarantula Nebula (Caldwell 103) using exposures from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and its Wide Field Camera 3 taken between 2011 and 2013.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Sabbi (STScI)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
It’s cloud city here again today so this shot is from one 12 months back (4th December, 2015) when I ventured down to the highlands town of Robertson, on the south-east coast of Australia. This cemetery is actually on a hill and it really was very dark and very quiet. I don’t know how old the grave in this photo is but the cemetery dates back to 1870.
Although it looks like I was lucky enough to catch a meteor as it vaporised in the atmosphere, after looking at the shots immediately before and after this one I found that it was in fact a satellite “flare”. This occurs when a satellite is at just the right altitude and angle to catch and reflect the sun’s light back down to the earth. Up to the left and in line with the satellite’s path is the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy of about 30 million stars that’s around 160,000 light-years from us.
Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 30 sec @ ISO 3200.
The beautiful country night sky filled with stars and the Large Magellanic Cloud in Blayney, Central West, NSW, Australia.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is only 1,542,838,800,000,000,000 km from earth.
Olympus OMD EM5 mk2
Olympus 40-150 f2.8 Pro
@106mm f2.8 ISO6400
x10 15 second exposures,
x1 dark frame,
stacked with Sequator,
post with Adobe Camera Raw
and Photoshop CC
Proposal ID: 11015
NASA/ESA/Hubble Team/John Hughes/Kevin M. Gill
Red (Subject): hst_11015_02_wfpc2_f656n_wf_drz
Red: hst_12326_01_wfc3_uvis_f814w_drz
Green: hst_12326_01_wfc3_uvis_f555w_drz
Blue: hst_12326_01_wfc3_uvis_f475w_drz
The Moon illuminates the Very Large Telescope (VLT) as it sets in the West while the disk of our galaxy, The Milky Way, passes overhead in this cumulative time-lapse sequence composed of 927 thirty-second exposures. Paranal Observatory, Atacama Desert, Chile. 24-25 Aug 09. © 2009 José Francisco Salgado, PhD
See also:
All-sky video, Milky Way still, 35-exp stack, Moonset, VLT at Dawn,
Another rarely-seen extragalactic scene on the fringes of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The catalogued objects are NGC1949, the small bright nebulous knot just above center, NGC1948, the star cluster in the center and NGC1978, and what I would consider a highlight, an elliptical globular cluster at upper-middle of the frame.
Normally this would be a tight ball of stars, but gravitational forces from the LMC are bending it out of shape.
The is 14 hours of Ha, OIII and RGB with an RC10 telescope @ f/6 and ASI6200MM camera taken September 2021 .
Happy Saturday, Flickrites! To celebrate our own version of "March Madness," we'll extend our postings to the weekends this month. To start us off, here's a glowing green beauty from Chandra, taken in 2001...
(From 2001) This Chandra image shows remarkable detail and complexity in the central region of the compact galaxy group known as HCG 62. Such galaxy groups, which contain fewer galaxies than the better-known galaxy clusters, are an important class of objects because they may serve as cosmic building blocks in the large-scale structure of the universe. After galaxies themselves form in the early universe, such groups of galaxies may be the next systems to evolve. Later, it is believed, these groups of galaxies may combine with each other to form the bigger galaxy clusters. Most galaxies in the present-day universe are still in groups or poor clusters. Our own Milky Way Galaxy, along with about two dozen other galaxies, including the Andromeda Nebula (M31) and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, is part of a galaxy group known as the Local Group.
A team of scientists, led by Jan Vrtilek (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), observed HCG 62 with Chandra for about 50,000 seconds with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer. The range of X-ray surface brightness is represented in this image by various colors: green depicts the lower-brightness regions while purple and reddish indicate increasing X-ray intensity. The image is about four minutes of arc on a side, with north to the top and east to the left.
Chandra is an excellent tool to study the intragroup gas (the material between the galaxies) since this medium is too hot (roughly ten million degrees Celsius) to emit any significant radiation at optical wavelengths, but instead radiates most strongly in X-rays. Chandra also offers by far the highest angular resolution of any X-ray telescope to date, which is essential for showing the detailed structure of a complex source such as HCG 62. Hence, this X-ray observation provides a unique window for determining the physical characteristics of the galaxy group. Perhaps the most striking features of this X-ray image of HCG 62 are the two cavities that appear nearly symmetrically opposite one another (upper left and lower right) in the hot, X-ray emitting gas. These cavities might be explained by the presence of X-ray absorbing material, but are more likely due to jets of particles recently emitted from the core of NGC 4761, the central elliptical galaxy of HCG 62, although no such jets are visible today.
Full caption/images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2001/hcg62/
Image credit: NASA/CfA/J. Vrtilek et al.
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
"Lord, you can take me now, I've seen it all." (Dan Dierdorf, TV commentator, 19941017).
This was the first long exposure star trail photograph that I took using a recently acquired Zeiss (Hasselblad) 30mm fisheye lens. The lens that I used was manufactured in 1996 but it was in perfect condition. I acquired this lens to serve as a wide-angle lens for my Hasselblad 501CM camera.
The geometry of the scenes that are photographed with a fisheye glens is unusual - I think of it as being midway between the geometry obtained using a conventional rectilinear lens and the geometry of a 360 degree lens. It is quite disarming the way that it captures so much of the horizon - and this is the case even when using the CFV-50c digital back where the recorded photograph is a cropped portion of the image circle. (** I shall have to take some photographs using a film that includes a larger portion of the image circle, just to see the full fisheye geometry of this lens!).
When considering the use of a fisheye lens, it must also be remembered that a fisheye lens geometry is actually quite appropriate for astrophotography as the visible hemisphere is best mapped as a curved space, not a rectilinear space.
As for the photograph itself ... When looking at the LCD screen at the time of capture, it had a pleasing composition, and the light trails, though short, curved nicely around the South Celestial Pole.
Several days later, when I had organized some time to process the image, I sat back to evaluate my feelings about it and ...
... I couldn't be more pleased.
The maximum exposure length for my Hasselblad CFV-50c Digital Back is just over 34 minutes (34:08), which is barely sufficient for capturing star trails. What this exposure length does allow, however, is for various "ghost" features of a short exposure to be drawn out but to remain recognizable. The curve of the star clouds that define the Milky Way are evident, as is a smudge near the right hand edge of the image, just above the building facade, that relates to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Within the confines of the Milky Way, close to the middle of the image, is a dark region that is the expression of the Coalsack Dark Nebula. The final feature that I shall mention is the dramatically elevated exposure in the lower left corner of the image. This is a product of the street lights along Bowen Drive and beyond that, to the "lavish" (extravagant, excessive) street/building lights in Kingston.
I would imagine that an exposure time of 16 minutes or so might result in an even "balanced" blend of star trails and point star features.
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This is one of a pair of photographs that I took of the stars around the South Celestial Pole on this morning. The web links (URL's) for the pair are given below. One was a "point star" photograph with an 8 second exposure, whilst this image was a "star trail" photograph with a 34 minute 8 second exposure.
The post-processing applied to this star trail photograph was largely based on Lightroom preset 20170206-108. This preset captured the sequence of processes applied to the complementary point star image.
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URL's for the pair of point star and star trail photographs ...
Point star image on Flickr ...
www.flickr.com/photos/momentsforzen/32671217101/
Star trail image on Flickr ...
www.flickr.com/photos/momentsforzen/32788031332/
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[ Location - Barton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia ]
Photography notes ...
The photograph was taken using the following hardware configuration ...
(Year of manufacture indicated in braces where known.)
- Hasselblad 501CM Body (Chrome) - S/N 10SH26953 (2002).
- Hasselblad CFV-50c Digital Back for Hasselblad V mount camera (2016).
- Hasselblad Focusing Screen for the CFV-50c digital back, with focusing prism and crop markings.
- Hasselblad 45 Degree Viewfinder PME-45 42297 (2001).
- Hasselblad Carl Zeiss fisheye lens - F-Distagon 3.5/30 CF T* (1996).
- Really Right Stuff (RRS) TFC-14 Series 1 Carbon Fiber Tripod - MFR # 13996.
- Really Right Stuff (RRS) BH-30 Ball Head with Mini Screw-Knob Clamp - MFR # BH-30 PRO.
- Hasselblad HATQCH (3043326) Tripod Quick Coupling.
- Arca-Swiss ARUCP38 Universal Camera Plate 3/8".
- Nikon AR-3 Shutter Release Cable.
- Artisan & Artist ACAM-302 Silk Cord for Hassleblad Cameras (Black).
I acquired this photograph (8272 x 6200 pixels) with an ISO of 100, exposure time of 34:08 seconds (20170205 @ 02:14:38 to 02:48:46), and aperture of f/11.0
Post-processing ...
Finder - Removed the CF card from the camera digital back and placed it in a Lexar 25-in-1 USB card reader. Then used Finder on my MacBook Air to download the raw image file (3FR extension) from the card.
Lightroom - Imported the 3FR image.
Lightroom - Used the Map module to add the location details to the EXIF header.
Lightroom - Applied Lightroom preset 20170206-108.
Lightroom - Used the Spot Removal tool to attenuate a number of the characteristic small, dark circular artifacts that are related to dust spots on the digital sensor.
Lightroom - Decreased the saturation and increased the exposure for the blue fraction of the image (see HSL panel).
Lightroom - Added a small radial filter to the bottom left corner to reduce the exposure in this region.
Lightroom - Saved the complete processing sequence as Lightroom preset 20170212-004.
Lightroom - Output the image as a JPEG image using the "Maximum" quality option (8272 x 6200 pixels).
PhotoSync - Copied the JPEG file to my iPad Mini for any final processing, review, enjoyment, and posting to social media.
@MomentsForZen #MomentsForZen #MFZ #Hasselblad #501CM #CFV50c #Lightroom #Night #NightSky #LongExposure #Sky #Cityscape #FisheyeLens #WideAngleLens #Apartments #Stars #MilkyWay #LargeMagellanicCloud #LMC #Pointers #SouthernPointers #SouthernCross #Crux #AlphaCentauri #BetaCentauri #Hadar #Coalsack #CoalsackNebula #JewelBox #OmegaCentauri #EtaCarinae #StarTrails #LightTrails
This Hubble image, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, shows both the spindly, spidery filaments of gas that inspired the Tarantula Nebula’s name, as well as the intriguing structure of “bubbles” forming the so-called Honeycomb Nebula (lower left).
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgments: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
Hello Flickr friends! Feb. 20 is a quirky holiday called "Love Your Pet Day." To celebrate, we looked up the top seven pets and searched for space images for each animal. Now we're up to #2: the crafty and purring Cat. In their feline honor, here's a beautiful image of supernova remnant DEM L316, with an outline like a cat in space.
And I have to be honest...the Cat's Eye Nebula is always going to be my favorite space image. Here are two beautiful renditions from Chandra: www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/3029837305/in/set-7215... and www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/2677334954/in/set-7215....
Caption: This composite X-ray (red and green)/optical (blue) image reveals a cat-shaped image produced by the remnants of two exploded stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. Although the shells of hot gas appear to be colliding, this may be an illusion. Chandra X-ray spectra show that the hot gas shell on the upper left contains considerably more iron than the one on the lower right. The high abundance of iron implies that this supernova remnant is the product of a Type Ia supernova triggered by the infall of matter from a companion star onto a white dwarf star.
In contrast, the much lower abundance of iron in the lower supernova remnant indicates that it was a Type II supernova produced by the explosion of a young, massive star. It takes billions of years to form a white dwarf star, whereas a massive young star will explode in a few million years. The disparity of ages in the progenitor stars means that it is very unlikely that they exploded very close to each other. The apparent proximity of the remnants is probably the result of a chance alignment.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Illinois/R.Williams & Y.-H.Chu; Optical: NOAO/CTIO/U.Illinois/R.Williams & MCELS coll.
Original image: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/d316/
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
An amateur astronomer looking at the Large Magellanic Cloud with a large Dobsonian telescope at the OzSky Star Party organized by the Three Rivers Foundation Australia. The Small Cloud is just behind the treetops. Airglow adds some faint green and red bands to the sky.
This is a single 10-second untracked exposure with the 35mm lens at f/2 and Canon 6D at ISO 6400.
A supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud from Chandra, seen in x-ray light.
I did the color filtering differently this time, following the example given on this page: hea-www.harvard.edu/ChandraSNR/SNRJ0534.2-7033/chandra_im...
Truth be told, and I'd never deny it, I still don't really know what I'm doing when I work with Chandra data. I mean, I can smooth it decently, but when it comes to picking and understanding the energy levels to assign colors to, it's not something I know much about.
Anyway, this is not the longest exposure ever, so it's pretty noisy, which you can probably still see despite the attempt at smoothing.
Hubble+Chandra version: flic.kr/p/2h7ympS
Hubble only version: flic.kr/p/2h7ykXj
Red: .30-.80 keV
Green: .80-1.10 keV
Blue: 1.10-2.00 keV
North is 8.55° counter-clockwise from up.
An amateur astronomer looking at the Large Magellanic Cloud with a large Dobsonian telescope at the OzSky Star Party organized by the Three Rivers Foundation Australia. Canopus is the bright star at top, made fuzzy by high cloud moving in on the last night of the star party.
This is a stack of 2 x 10-second untracked exposures with the 35mm lens at f/2 and Canon 6D at ISO 6400.
This image marks the position on the sky of the supernova remnant SNR 0509-67.5, the expanding shells of a star that detonated twice. It is located 160 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy orbiting our own Milky Way. The inset shows new observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), which show that the original star died with two explosive blasts. The main image shows the VLT unit telescope used in these observations.
Credit: ESO/Inset: P. Das et al., background stars (Hubble): K. Noll et al.
The Moon illuminates the Very Large Telescope (VLT) as it sets in the West while the disk of our galaxy, The Milky Way, passes overhead. Also visible, a meteor, the galactic center (west of the zenith), the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC and LMC), and Jupiter. Paranal Observatory, Atacama Desert, Chile. 24 Aug 09.
© 2009 José Francisco Salgado, PhD
See also:
All-sky video, Cumulative video, Milky Way still, 35-exp stack, Moonset, VLT at Dawn,
In the most active starburst region in the local universe lies a cluster of brilliant, massive stars, known to astronomers as Hodge 301, seen at the lower right of this Hubble image. Many of the stars in Hodge 301 are so old that they have exploded as supernovae, blasting material outward at speeds of almost 200 miles per second. This high-speed material plows into the surrounding Tarantula Nebula, shocking and compressing the gas into a multitude of sheets and filaments, seen in the upper left portion of the picture.
Credit: The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
Edited European Southern Observatory image of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: Glowing brightly about 160 000 light-years away, the Tarantula Nebula is the most spectacular feature of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. This image from VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile shows the region and its rich surroundings in great detail. It reveals a cosmic landscape of star clusters, glowing gas clouds and the scattered remains of supernova explosions.
Happy Mardi Gras, everyone! Still pulling older Chandra gems for the gallery here...
February 24, 1987 will be remembered as one of the most spectacular events observed by astronomers in modern times. The destruction of a massive star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy, resulted in Supernova 1987A. This spawned detailed observations by many different telescopes, including NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope. The outburst was visible to the naked eye, and has been the brightest known supernova in almost 400 years.
This composite image from February 22, 2007 shows the effects of a powerful shock wave moving away from the explosion. Bright spots of X-ray and optical emission arise where the shock collides with structures in the surrounding gas. These structures were carved out by the wind from the destroyed star. Hot-spots in the Hubble image (pink-white) now encircle Supernova 1987A like a necklace of incandescent diamonds. The Chandra data (blue-purple) reveals multimillion-degree gas at the location of the optical hot-spots. These data give valuable insight into the behavior of the doomed star in the years before it exploded.
Image credit:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/S.Park & D.Burrows.; Optical: NASA/STScI/CfA/P.Challis
Learn more about Chandra:
chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/sn87a/
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
These bright stars shining through what looks like a haze in the night sky are part of a young stellar grouping in one of the largest known star formation regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
The stellar grouping is known to stargazers as NGC 2040 or LH 88. It is essentially a very loose star cluster whose stars have a common origin and are drifting together through space. There are various types of stellar associations, defined by their differing properties. NGC 2040 is an OB association, a grouping that usually contains 10 to 100 stars of type O and B — these are high-mass stars that have short but brilliant lives. It is thought that most of the stars in the Milky Way were born in OB associations.
There are several such groupings of stars in the LMC. Just like the others, LH 88 consists of several high-mass young stars in a large nebula of partially ionized hydrogen gas, and lies in what is known to be a supergiant shell of gas called LMC 4. Over a period of several million years, thousands of stars may form in these supergiant shells, which are the largest interstellar structures in galaxies. The shells themselves are believed to have been created by strong stellar winds and clustered supernova explosions of massive stars that blow away surrounding dust and gas, and in turn trigger further episodes of star formation.
For more information, visit: www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1216a/
Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, and D. A Gouliermis;
Acknowledgment: Flickr user Eedresha Sturdivant
Chandra has imaged the glowing shell created by the destruction of a massive star. X-rays from Chandra (blue), combined with optical (green) and radio (red) data, reveal new details in the supernova remnant known as N63A, located in the nearby galaxy of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The X-ray glow is from material heated to about ten million degrees Celsius by a shock wave generated by the supernova explosion. The age of the remnant is estimated to be in the range of 2,000 to 5,000 years.
Optical and radio light are brightest in the central region of the remnant, which appears as a triangular-shaped "hole" in the X-ray image. The hole is produced by absorption of X-rays in a dense cloud of cooler gas and dust on the side of the remnant nearest the Earth. A comparison of the X-ray image with the radio and optical images suggests that the shock wave is engulfing this massive cloud, so we see only the edge nearest the Earth. Collisions such as this are thought to trigger the formation of new generations of stars.
The fluffy crescent-shaped X-ray features that appear around the edge of the remnant are thought to be fragments of high-speed matter shot out from the star when it exploded, like shrapnel from a bomb. In the only other supernova remnant (the Vela supernova remnant) where such features have been observed, the crescent shapes are clearly produced by ejecta fragments. An alternative explanation is that they were produced when the shock wave swept over less-massive clouds located several light years away from the site of the explosion.
Image credit:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/J.Warren et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI/U. Ill/ Y.Chu; Radio: ATCA/U. Ill/J.Dickel et al.
Read more about this image: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/n63a/
Read more about Chandra: www.nasa.gov/chandra
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
This is the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy close to our own.
The green nebula is the Tarantula Nebula.
There are many other star clusters and nebulae in this photo, too many to mention!
Shot taken with StwenBoy (www.flickr.com/photos/26323573@N04/) in Buninyong.
Taken with a Canon 70D at 250mm and a SkyWatcher Star Adventurer.
Sitting atop Cerro Paranal high above the Atacama Desert in Chile, two of the Very Large Telescope's Unit Telescopes quietly bask in the starlight, observing the Milky Way as it arches over ESO's Paranal Observatory.
More information: www.eso.org/public/images/potw1439a/
Credit:
ESO/Y. Beletsky
The area is rich in Integrated Flux Nebulae. A part of Gum Nebula is visible red near the left upper corner. Stars trailed near the left lower corner due to differential atmospheric refraction near the horizon.
Integrated Flux Nebulae are visible clearer in inverted frame.
Large Magellanic Cloud and Integrated Flux Nebulae Nearby with Sigma 85mmF1.4 Art December 2016 Inverted Version:
www.flickr.com/photos/hiroc/37527361541
The Magellanic Clouds are connected with stellar streams, the brightest parts of which are known as wing and tail of SMC. The MCs are also accompanied by long Hydrogen-I gas stream extending more than 100 degrees.
equipment: Sigma 40mmF1.4 Art and EOS 6D-SP4, modified by Seo-san on ZWO AM5 equatorial mount on the genuine tripod with counter weight 4.8kg, autoguided with Fujinon 1:2.8/75mm C-Mount Lens, ZWO ASI 120MM-mini, and PHD2 Guiding
exposure: 3 times x 900 seconds, 3 x 240 sec, 5 x 60, and 1 x 15 seconds at ISO 1,600 and f/3.2
site: 2,434m above sea level at lat. 24 39 52 south and long. 70 16 11 west near Cerro Armazones in Sierra Vicuña Mackenna in Coast Range of Chile
Ambient temperature was around 10 degrees Celsius or 34 degrees Fahrenheit. Wind was mild. Sky was dark, and SQML reached 21.83 at the night.
When I took a look at the sky, I thought that my plan for some astrophotography might be a washout due to the bands of high cloud. Still, it is always better to give it a try than to walk away. The results were surprisingly good in this case, and well worth the effort.
This image features the neighboring apartment block and the crown of a eucalyptus tree in the foreground. The Milky Way is aligned straight up and down in the centre. The Galactic Core was below the horizon. The Pointers, Coalsack Dark Nebula, Southern Cross, and Carina Constellation are prominent along the Milky Way. The Large Magellanic Cloud is clearly visible as a smudge of light towards the upper right corner. The bands of clouds running diagonally from lower right to upper left produced an interesting complement to the Milky Way (in my opinion).
This image was a bit fiddly to produce, but I am getting more proficient at the workflow. I aligned and stacked 10 input photographs. I then optimized the lighting of the sky region, and the lighting of one of the input photographs for the foreground objects. These two images were then blended into a single image that was optimized for the different properties of both the foreground and background elements.
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Links for background information ...
amazingsky.net/2017/05/03/the-amazing-sky-of-carina-and-c...
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[ Location - Barton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia ]
Photography notes ...
The photographs were taken using the following hardware configuration ...
(Year of manufacture indicated in braces where known.)
- Hasselblad 501CM Body (Chrome) - S/N 10SH26953 (2002).
- Hasselblad CFV-50c Digital Back for Hasselblad V mount camera.
- Hasselblad Focusing Screen for the CFV-50c digital back, with focussing prism and crop markings.
- Hasselblad 45 Degree Viewfinder PME-45 42297 (2001).
- Hasselblad Carl Zeiss fisheye lens - F-Distagon 3.5/30 CF T* (1996).
- Really Right Stuff (RRS) TFC-14 Series 1 Carbon Fiber Tripod - MFR # 13996.
- Really Right Stuff (RRS) BH-30 Ball Head with Mini Screw-Knob Clamp - MFR # BH-30 PRO.
- Hasselblad HATQCH (3043326) Tripod Quick Coupling.
- Arca-Swiss ARUCP38 Universal Camera Plate 3/8”.
- Nikon AR-3 Shutter Release Cable.
- Artisan & Artist ACAM-302 Silk Cord for Hassleblad Cameras (Black).
To minimise the incidence of vibrations, I employed the following strategies :
a. Use of a sturdy tripod.
b. Pre-exposure mirror lock-up.
c. A mechanical shutter release cable.
I acquired the 10 input photographs (8272 x 6200 pixels) with an ISO of 3200, exposure time of 8 seconds, and aperture of f/3.5.
Post-processing ...
Finder - Removed the CF card from the camera digital back and placed it in a Lexar 25-in-1 USB card reader. Then used Finder on my MacBook Air to download the raw image files (3FR extension) from the card.
Lightroom - Imported the 3FR images.
Lightroom - Exported the images as 16-bit TIFF files.
StarryLandscapeStacker - Loaded the TIFF files.
StarryLandscapeStacker - Adjusted the automatically derived stars and sky region. Stacked the images, making adjustments for the rotation and translation of the stars from one frame to the next. Output the result as a TIFF file. Also saved the Foreground/Sky mask image.
Lightroom - Imported the stacked TIFF image.
Lightroom - Used the Map module to add the location details to the EXIF header.
Lightroom - Applied various basic lighting and color adjustments in the Develop module to optimize the lighting of the sky region.
Lightroom - Saved the Develop module settings as a preset.
Lightroom - Output the image as a TIFF image (8272 x 6200 pixels).
Lightroom - Imported one of the original photographs.
Lightroom - Used the Map module to add the location details to the EXIF header.
Lightroom - Applied various basic lighting and color adjustments in the Develop module to optimize the lighting of the foreground region.
Lightroom - Saved the Develop module settings as a preset.
Lightroom - Output the image as a TIFF image (8272 x 6200 pixels).
Photoshop - Imported the two images output from Lightroom, and the mask produced by StarryLandscapeStacker.
Photoshop - Blended the foreground and sky regions of the two optimized images using the mask file, Normal blend mode, 80% opacity, and a feather distance of 50 pixels.
Photoshop - Output the image as a JPEG image using the “Maximum” quality option (8272 x 6200 pixels).
PhotoSync - Copied the JPEG file to my iPad Mini for any final processing, review, enjoyment, and posting to social media.
@MomentsForZen #MomentsForZen #MFZ #Hasselblad #501CM #CFV50c #Lightroom #StarryLandscapeStacker #Photoshop #PhotoSync #Sky #Night #Dark #Stars #Clouds #Apartments #Trees #SouthernPointers #Pointers #CoalsackNebula #SouthernCross #Carina #SouthernPleiades #CarinaNebula #LargeMagellanicCloud
This is one of a pair of photographs that I took of the stars around the South Celestial Pole. The web links (URL's) for the pair are given below. This was a "point star" photograph with an 8 second exposure, whilst the other was a "star trail" photograph with a 34 minute exposure.
As far as the motivation for taking these photographs was concerned, it was almost a case of "because I could". But really, its always both more complicated and simpler than that! The results delight me, disappoint me, surprise me, astonish me, educate me, calm me, ... all at once. I even enjoy the act the taking the photographs - a consequence of the heft and the mechanical controls of my Hasselblad 500C/M camera - born well before the digital era but engineered in such a way that a modern digital back can be used in place of film.
I took a similar pair of photographs at this time of the morning from this location 3 months ago (URL's below). In this timeframe, the stars have appeared to rotate clockwise by 90 degrees. The notable features in the scene are but few when compared with the North Celestial Pole. The brightest star, towards the upper right corner, is Achernar. The smudge one third out from the centre towards 4 o'clock is the Small Magellanic Cloud, whilst the smudge on the other side of the centre towards 10 o'clock is the Large Magellanic Cloud. Both of these are galaxies, composed of dozens of nebulae and star clusters. The building is our apartment block.
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URL's for this pair of point star and star trail photographs (September 2016)...
Point star image on Flickr ...
www.flickr.com/photos/momentsforzen/29592098970/
Star trail image on Flickr ...
www.flickr.com/photos/momentsforzen/29886074935/
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URL's for a previous pair of point star and star trail photographs (June 2016) ...
Point star image on Flickr ...
www.flickr.com/photos/momentsforzen/27092362483/
Star trail image on Flickr ...
www.flickr.com/photos/momentsforzen/27424551430/
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[ Location - Barton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia ]
Photography notes ...
The photograph was taken using the following hardware configuration ...
(Year of manufacture indicated in braces where known.)
- Hasselblad 500C/M body (1994).
- Hasselblad CFV-50c Digital Back for Hasselblad V mount camera.
- Hasselblad Focusing Screen for the CFV-50c digital back, with focusing prism and crop markings.
- Hasselblad 45 Degree Viewfinder PME-45 42297 (2001).
- Hasselblad Carl Zeiss lens - Distagon 40mm f/4 CF T* FLE (1996).
- Hasselblad 93mm 1x HZ-0 Filter.
- Hasselblad 093/40 Hood/Filter holder for 40mm CF, CFE, CFi, CFE IF lenses.
I acquired the photograph (8272 x 6200 pixels) with an ISO of 1600, exposure time of 8 seconds, and aperture of f/4.0
Post-processing ...
Finder - Removed the CF card from the camera digital back and placed it in a Lexar 25-in-1 USB card reader. Then used Finder on my MacBook Air to download the raw image file (3FR extension) from the card.
Lightroom - Imported the 3FR image.
Lightroom - Used the Map module to add the location details to the EXIF header.
Lightroom - Applied various basic lighting and color adjustments in the Develop module. The general processing objectives / strategy that I use with photographs of the night sky is as follows ...
- Adjust the geometry (e.g., perspective, straighten, crop).
- Adjust the White Balance.
- Increase the definition of features.
- Prevent the whites from becoming overexposed.
Lightroom - Specifically ...
Lightroom - In the Develop module, I applied Preset 20160923-003 that represented the settings used to process the companion star trail photograph.
Lightroom - Made various small adjustments to obtain a better lighting and color match to the companion star trail photograph.
Lightroom - Saved the Develop module settings as preset 20160923-012.
Lightroom - Output the image as a JPEG image using the "Maximum" quality option (8272 x 6200 pixels).
PhotoSync - Copied the JPEG file to my iPad Mini for any final processing, review, enjoyment, and posting to social media.
@MomentsForZen #MomentsForZen #MFZ #Hasselblad #500CM #CFV50c #Lightroom #Sky #Night #BlueHour #Stars #SouthCelestialPole #MagellanicCloud #MagellanicClouds #LargeMagellanicCloud #SmallMagellanicCloud #LMC #SMC #Achernar
Nikon d5100
Tokina 11-16mm @ 11mm
10 seconds
ISO 3200
f2.8
Slightly different angle in this one and also employed some different post processing techniques.
Editor's Note: Chandra is celebrating 10 years of operation. Another jewel from 2005 -- a cat in space!
This composite X-ray (red and green)/optical (blue) image reveals a cat-shaped image produced by the remnants of two exploded stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. Although the shells of hot gas appear to be colliding, this may be an illusion.
Chandra X-ray spectra show that the hot gas shell on the upper left contains considerably more iron than the one on the lower right. The high abundance of iron implies that this supernova remnant is the product of a Type Ia supernova triggered by the infall of matter from a companion star onto a white dwarf star.
In contrast, the much lower abundance of iron in the lower supernova remnant indicates that it was a Type II supernova produced by the explosion of a young, massive star. It takes billions of years to form a white dwarf star, whereas a massive young star will explode in a few million years. The disparity of ages in the progenitor stars means that it is very unlikely that they exploded very close to each other. The apparent proximity of the remnants is probably the result of a chance alignment.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Illinois/R.Williams & Y.-H.Chu; Optical: NOAO/CTIO/U.Illinois/R.Williams & MCELS coll.
Read more about this image:
www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/d316/
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
This is 16.5 hours of exposure containing the NGC nebula 2014, 2020, 2035, 2040 and the Globular cluster NGC2004.
All the more amazing that these objects are in another galaxy, the LMC, more than 158,000 light years away.
Specs for techs:
Telescope: GSO RC10 f/7
Camera: Moravian G3-11000
Filters: Baader 7nm Ha and OIII. RGB
Exposures H,O,R,G,B = 6, 6,1.5,1.5,1.5 hours
The Large Magellanic Cloud Central.
Central Region of The Large Magellanic Cloud.
Mosaic Panels: 3
Exposures per mosaic panel: R:5 hours + Ha:5 hours , B:5 hours + OIII: 5 hours (20 hours per tile, 60 hours total)
Total Field Covered: 240 x 130 arcminutes.
Dates: 12th, 13th, 22nd and 23rd November, 2nd, 3rd, 12th and 13th December 2009.
Location: Gold Coast, Queensland.
Processing:
Sub-Image calibration and per-filter colour image sigma rejected addition with CCDStack.
Background correction using the PixInsight software's Dynamic Background Extraction Tool.
Green Synthesis, RGB combination, mosaic assembly, levels and Adobe RGB 1998 colourspace conversion with Adobe Photoshop CS4.
Notes:
This image was an experiment in dealing with light pollution from my site by blending Narrowband filters with RGB and synthesizing Green, usually the most problematic colour.
Using Ha and OIII filters to limit the earthly glows and blending the flat backgrounds from these with standard Red and Blue filters.
For this particular image, being a mosaic, there is approximately 60 hours of exposures here without taking any Green or SII, which would have required another 30 hours of exposures in this case.
In an attempt to limit light pollution influences and also reduce the total amount of time needed to take all the exposures for this three-panel, pseudo RGB image, the Green channel was synthesised from the combined R = R+Ha and B= B+OIII images.
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106ED
Focal Length: 390mm
Camera: SBIG ST10XE
Pixels: 2184 x 1472 x 6.7um
2010 Royal Observatory Greenwich -Astronomy Photographer of the Year shortlist.
30 sec, ISO 4000 | Nikon D3 + 24mm f/1.4G
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), East of La Serena, Chile, 13 April 2011
© 2011 José Francisco Salgado, PhD
Explore #301 on 22 May 2011
To the west of the great Brandberg Massif in Namibia lies the remote Ugab River Rhino Camp, the most remote of the campsites we stayed in.
It's only accessible by a 4x4 vehicle and you pass through almost lunar landscapes to get to it, but it was worth the visit: lovely hot showers and tremendously dark skies.
Here's a shot of the campsite, with the Milky Way above the hills. You can just make out the Large Magellanic Cloud just above the horizon behind the second vehicle.
These delicate wisps of gas make up an object known as SNR B0519-69.0, or SNR 0519 for short. The thin, blood-red shells are actually the remnants from when an unstable star exploded violently as a supernova around 600 years ago. There are several types of supernovae, but for SNR 0519 the star that exploded was a white dwarf — the core of a Sun-like star in the final stages of its life.
SNR 0519 is located over 150,000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Dorado (the Dolphinfish), a constellation that also contains most of our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Because of this, this region of the sky is full of intriguing and beautiful deep-sky objects.
The LMC orbits the Milky Way Galaxy as a satellite and is the fourth largest in our group of galaxies, called the Local Group.
For more information please visit:
www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1317a/
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgment: Claude Cornen