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12 Great Gifts from Astronomy
This is a season where our thoughts turn to others and many exchange gifts with friends and family. For astronomers, our universe is the gift that keeps on giving. We’ve learned so much about it, but every question we answer leads to new things we want to know. Stars, galaxies, planets, black holes … there are endless wonders to study.
In honor of this time of year, let’s count our way through some of our favorite gifts from astronomy.
Our first astronomical gift is … one planet Earth
So far, there is only one planet that we’ve found that has everything needed to support life as we know it — Earth. Even though we’ve discovered over 5,200 planets outside our solar system, none are quite like home. But the search continues with the help of missions like our Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). And even you (yes, you!) can help in the search with citizen science programs like Planet Hunters TESS and Backyard Worlds.
Our second astronomical gift is … two giant bubbles
Astronomers found out that our Milky Way galaxy is blowing bubbles — two of them! Each bubble is about 25,000 light-years tall and glows in gamma rays. Scientists using data from our Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope discovered these structures in 2010, and we're still learning about them.
Our third astronomical gift is … three types of black holes
Most black holes fit into two size categories: stellar-mass goes up to hundreds of Suns, and supermassive starts at hundreds of thousands of Suns. But what happens between those two? Where are the midsize ones? With the help of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, scientists found the best evidence yet for that third, in between type that we call intermediate-mass black holes. The masses of these black holes should range from around a hundred to hundreds of thousands of times the Sun’s mass. The hunt continues for these elusive black holes.
Our fourth and fifth astronomical gifts are … Stephan’s Quintet
When looking at this stunning image of Stephan’s Quintet from our James Webb Space Telescope, it seems like five galaxies are hanging around one another — but did you know that one of the galaxies is much closer than the others? Four of the five galaxies are hanging out together about 290 million light-years away, but the fifth and leftmost galaxy in the image below — called NGC 7320 — is actually closer to Earth at just 40 million light-years away.
Our sixth astronomical gift is … an eclipsing six-star system
Astronomers found a six-star system where all of the stars undergo eclipses, using data from our TESS mission, a supercomputer, and automated eclipse-identifying software. The system, called TYC 7037-89-1, is located 1,900 light-years away in the constellation Eridanus and the first of its kind we’ve found.
Our seventh astronomical gift is … seven Earth-sized planets
In 2017, our now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope helped find seven Earth-size planets around TRAPPIST-1. It remains the largest batch of Earth-size worlds found around a single star and the most rocky planets found in one star’s habitable zone, the range of distances where conditions may be just right to allow the presence of liquid water on a planet’s surface.
Further research has helped us understand the planets’ densities, atmospheres, and more!
Our eighth astronomical gift is … an (almost) eight-foot mirror
The primary mirror on our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is approximately eight feet in diameter, similar to our Hubble Space Telescope. But Roman can survey large regions of the sky over 1,000 times faster, allowing it to hunt for thousands of exoplanets and measure light from a billion galaxies.
Our ninth astronomical gift is … a kilonova nine days later
In 2017, the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and European Gravitational Observatory’s Virgo detected gravitational waves from a pair of colliding neutron stars. Less than two seconds later, our telescopes detected a burst of gamma rays from the same event. It was the first time light and gravitational waves were seen from the same cosmic source. But then nine days later, astronomers saw X-ray light produced in jets in the collision’s aftermath. This later emission is called a kilonova, and it helped astronomers understand what the slower-moving material is made of.
Our tenth astronomical gift is … NuSTAR’s ten-meter-long mast
Our NuSTAR X-ray observatory is the first space telescope able to focus on high-energy X-rays. Its ten-meter-long (33 foot) mast, which deployed shortly after launch, puts NuSTAR’s detectors at the perfect distance from its reflective optics to focus X-rays. NuSTAR recently celebrated 10 years since its launch in 2012.
Our eleventh astronomical gift is … eleven days of observations
How long did our Hubble Space Telescope stare at a seemingly empty patch of sky to discover it was full of thousands of faint galaxies? More than 11 days of observations came together to capture this amazing image — that’s about 1 million seconds spread over 400 orbits around Earth!
Our twelfth astronomical gift is … a twelve-kilometer radius
Pulsars are collapsed stellar cores that pack the mass of our Sun into a whirling city-sized ball, compressing matter to its limits. Our NICER telescope aboard the International Space Station helped us precisely measure one called J0030 and found it had a radius of about twelve kilometers — roughly the size of Chicago! This discovery has expanded our understanding of pulsars with the most precise and reliable size measurements of any to date.
Stay tuned to NASA Universe on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with what’s going on in the cosmos every day. You can learn more about the universe here.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!
Say Hello to NGC 6441
Location: In the Scorpius constellation
Distance from Earth: About 44,000 light-years
Object type: Globular star cluster
Discovered by: James Dunlop in 1826
Each tiny point of light in this image is its own star - and there are more than a million of them! This stunning image captured by the Hubble Telescope depicts NGC 6441, a globular cluster that weighs about 1.6 million times the mass of our Sun. Globular clusters like NGC 6441 are groups of old stars held together by their mutual gravitational attraction, appearing nearly spherical in shape due to the density of stars that comprises them. This particular cluster is one of the most massive and luminous in our Milky Way Galaxy. It is also home to a planetary nebula and four pulsars (rotating neutron stars that emit beams of radiation at steady intervals, detected when the beams are aimed at Earth).
Read more information about NGC 6441 here.
Right now, the Hubble Space Telescope is delving into its #StarrySights campaign! Find more star cluster content and spectacular new images by following along on Hubble’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!
Sewing a phone size pocket journal. Used an awl to punch the holes, and ran embroidery floss through beeswax to give the thread a nice finish
BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink !
With the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink being presented on the occasion of CES 2022, the Munich-based premium car manufacturer is offering the prospect of a future technology that uses digitisation to adapt the exterior of a vehicle to different situations and individual wishes. The surface of the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink can vary its shade at the driver’s prompting.
Guy Bluford Changed the Course of Space History
On Aug. 30, 1983, Guion Bluford, better known as Guy, became the first African American to fly to space. An accomplished jet pilot and aerospace engineer, Bluford became part of NASA’s 1978 astronaut class that included the first African American, the first Asian American, and the first women astronauts.
He and the other crew members of mission STS-8 were aboard the orbiter Challenger as it lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida; it was the first nighttime launch and landing of the Space Shuttle program. While aboard, he and the other crew members deployed the Indian National Satellite (INSAT-1B), operated a Canadian-built robot arm, conducted experiments with live cell samples, and participated in studies measuring the effects of spaceflight on humans.
Guy Bluford chased his childhood dream of becoming an aerospace engineer, and in doing so, changed history and encouraged other Black astronauts to follow in his footsteps.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space—and for milestones like this!
Delicate patterns evocative of ancient palaces for this outfit, pairing a kimono with decorated kaiawase (Heian period shell-matching game) over waves ground, and a beautiful obi depicting tagasode (kimono discarded on ikou/rack)
had a dream where my mom tried to give our Venus fly trap a spoonful of milk and it immediately started hacking and coughing like an adult human man
um … compilation
Artemis ⅼ Launch l Kennedy Space Center
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” — John F. Kennedy's 1962 "moon" speech
l NASALive: 16 Nov. 2022 l photo: John Kraus
