Articles tagged with Space Telescopes
Engineers are using COCOA to verify the correct shape of the mirrors on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which will be tested at operating temperatures. The results will ensure the telescope works correctly as a whole, providing images of the first galaxies and exploring planets around distant stars.
The installation of a giant structural steel optical assembly stand marks the transition to the integration and testing phase for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope will observe the most distant objects in the universe, provide images of the first galaxies ever formed, and study planets around distant stars.
Galaxies continuously recycle immense volumes of hydrogen gas and heavy elements, allowing successive generations of stars to form. The process is driven by gas-rich star-forming spiral galaxies that can evolve into elliptical galaxies without star formation.
Astronomers have uncovered an extraordinary population of young dwarf galaxies brimming with star formation, forcing a re-evaluation of their understanding of galaxy evolution. These galaxies are estimated to be 9 billion years old and produce stars at rates 100 times faster than the Milky Way.
A team of scientists using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered a young millisecond pulsar named PSR J1823−3021A, challenging existing theories about its formation. The discovery pushes the total count of detected pulsars to over 100, with NGC 6624 globular cluster contributing significantly.
Galaxy collisions may be a key process driving galaxy assembly, rapid star formation, and accretion of gas onto central black holes. New analysis combines Hubble images with supercomputer simulations to estimate merger rates, clearing up discrepant results from previous studies.
A new analysis of Hubble surveys and simulations reveals that galaxies gained mass through collisions with other galaxies. Large galaxies merged on average once over the past 9 billion years, while small galaxies coalesced with large ones more frequently.
Astronomers use Hubble's unprecedented precision to map dark matter in 25 massive galaxy clusters, challenging previous assumptions about its distribution. The survey's findings suggest that galaxy cluster assembly may have begun earlier than previously thought.
Researchers have found visual evidence for two extrasolar planets in archival Hubble data from 1998, using a novel approach to detect faint planet signals. The discovery allows for the tracking of planetary orbits and provides insight into system stability, mass, and eccentricity.
NASA is testing an element of the sunshield that will protect the James Webb Space Telescope's mirrors and instruments during its mission. The sunshield will consist of five tennis court-sized layers to allow the telescope to cool to its cryogenic operating temperature.
Astronomers have found supermassive black holes in small distant galaxies, suggesting that central black holes formed early in galaxy evolution. The study used the Hubble Space Telescope to probe the universe and identifies a connection between star formation and active galactic nuclei.
The mirrors of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have completed the coating process with a microscopically thin layer of gold, enabling the telescope to observe extremely faint objects in infrared light. This achievement marks another major success story for the Webb telescope mirrors, ensuring even more scientific discovery potential.
The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) has completed 2,000 individual tests at cryogenic temperatures, a milestone for the James Webb Space Telescope mission. Scientists will use MIRI to study young planets around distant stars and explore their habitability.
Hubble made its one millionth science observation while analyzing the exoplanet HAT-P-7b's atmosphere, revealing spectroscopic patterns that can indicate water vapor presence. The milestone marks Hubble's continued legacy in characterizing exoplanet atmospheres.
The James Webb Space Telescope's mirrors have been polished to accuracies of less than one millionth of an inch, crucial for forming sharpest images in space. The primary mirror, made of Beryllium, will capture light from faint, distant objects faster than any previous space observatory.
Researchers use gravitational lensing to map dark matter distribution in the cluster, while NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory observes hot gas. The study reveals a complex collision that separated out hot gas and dark matter, separating them from visible galaxies.
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the complex history of Pandora's Cluster, a giant galaxy cluster resulting from the simultaneous collision of four smaller clusters. The data reveal that dark matter dominates the cluster's mass, with gas making up only 5% of its total mass.
The James Webb Space Telescope has completed its first round of cryogenic mirror testing, with six segments of the primary mirror responding to extreme temperatures. A second set of mirrors will arrive in late July for further testing, with the final set arriving in the fall.
A gamma-ray flash was detected coming from a distant galaxy, suggesting a massive black hole is consuming a star. The long-duration event produced an enormous amount of energy and appears to be emanating from the center of the galaxy.
The galaxy Centaurus A is home to a firestorm of new star formation triggered by shockwaves from a past collision and merger with another galaxy. Hubble's image reveals the birth of vibrant blue star clusters and compresses hydrogen gas clouds.
The discovery of blue stragglers in the Milky Way's hub suggests that the galaxy stopped making stars billions of years ago. The findings provide new constraints for models of the star-formation history of the bulge.
The Hubble Space Telescope has observed the historic variable star V1, which helped confirm the size of the universe and its expansion. The observations, conducted in collaboration with amateur astronomers, provide new insights into the properties of Cepheid variables and their role in measuring distances to galaxies.
Two unique types of mirrors, Primary and Secondary EDUs, have arrived at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The mirrors will work together to observe distant galaxies and unexplored planets. The Primary mirror is composed of 18 hexagonal segments, while the Secondary mirror directs light from the Primary mirror to Webb's instruments.
Astronomers have never seen a gamma-ray burst as bright and long-lasting as GRB 110328A, which is believed to be associated with a massive black hole. The unusual blast likely arose when a star wandered too close to the central black hole of its galaxy.
The James Webb Space Telescope's sunshield is a complex system of five layers, each less than half the thickness of paper, working together to create an effective SPF of 1,000,000. The sunshield unfurls like a giant beach umbrella to protect the telescope and instruments from solar heat and light.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have recalculated the universe's expansion rate with unprecedented accuracy, ruling out an alternate theory on dark energy. The new measurement reduces uncertainty by 30% and solidifies understanding of cosmic ingredients.
The Hubble Space Telescope has detected a compact galaxy made of blue stars 480 million years after the Big Bang, providing best insights yet into the universe's birth and evolution.
Astronomers have found the most distant galaxy candidate yet seen, about 13.2 billion light-years away, in ultra-deep imaging data from the Hubble Space Telescope. The study reveals a rapid build-up of early galaxies around 480 million years after the Big Bang, with a tenfold increase in star birth rate over 170 million years.
Researchers discovered COSMOS-AzTEC3, a massive proto-cluster 12.6 billion light-years away, formed about one billion years after the Big Bang. The cluster is characterized by extreme bursts of star formation and a massive feeding black hole, indicating it will grow into a modern galaxy cluster.
The Planck satellite mission has provided unprecedented all-sky coverage of cosmic dust, offering insights into dust evolution in different environments. The data will help researchers understand the complex history of our universe and its present form.
Scientists and engineers are using supercomputer models to simulate the universe's first stars, galaxies, and planets. Custom tools transform vast data into cinematic experiences, revealing insights into cosmic evolution and star formation.
NASA has formed a single systems engineering organization for its James Webb Space Telescope, combining Northrop Grumman's expertise with NASA's mission-level decision-making. The new team aims to streamline communication and decision-making, reducing costs and meeting the launch goal with minimal risk.
Astronomers tracked a bizarre X-shaped object, dubbed P/2010 A2, for five months using Hubble. The object is expanding slowly and retained its X-shape even as the debris field expanded, revealing details about asteroid collisions.
The James Webb Space Telescope's sunshield has successfully completed launch depressurization tests, validating its flight design. The tests, conducted in vacuum chambers, simulated the rapid change in air pressure during launch and proved that the stowed sunshield will retain its shape and allow trapped air to escape safely.
Three NASA Goddard Space Flight Center employees, Matt Greenhouse, Randy Kimble, and Alexander Moiseev, received the 2010 Robert H. Goddard Award for Science for their outstanding work in sciences at NASA Goddard. The award recognizes their exceptional achievements in developing instrumentation and analysis methods for premier astronom...
The Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) is being tested in a simulated environment at RAL to prepare for its delivery to NASA. The instrument will enable astronomers to study the first light of the early Universe and form planets around distant stars.
Two Iowa State University astronomers are using Spitzer Space Telescope data to study big cool-temperature stars and dusty disks. The telescope is also identifying regions within the Milky Way that are forming intermediate-mass stars.
UCF physicists analyze space dust using far IR spectroscopy to identify minerals and provide clues about solar system formation and life emergence. The findings will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal.
Dr. Hawarden's pioneering work on passive cooling techniques led to the design of larger, more efficient infrared space telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope. His approach has significantly improved the lifetime and performance of these instruments.
The European Space Agency has received tiny microshutters, as small as human hair, which will focus the infrared camera on specific targets to the exclusion of others. These microshutters are a key component in the James Webb Space Telescope's ability to observe distant stars and galaxies.
A NIRCam engineering test unit has arrived at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to undergo a year-long testing process. The unit, built by Lockheed Martin, will simulate the flight unit's functions before the actual instrument is integrated into the James Webb Space Telescope.
Astronomers discovered a runaway star in the Large Magellanic Cloud's 30 Doradus Nebula, with a speed of over 400,000 km/h. The star is estimated to be around 10 times hotter than the Sun and has been ejected from its home cluster through dynamical interaction.
The James Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument is a key tool for identifying colors and objects in the cosmos. With its micro-electromechanical system, NIRSpec can analyze light from deep space to help scientists determine the age, chemical composition, and distances of faint galaxies.
Astronomers have discovered two ancient supermassive black holes that provide insight into the universe's early evolution. The objects lack characteristic signatures of hot dust, suggesting they formed in a dust-free medium at the earliest stages of universe formation.
An international team of scientists has discovered a new planet called CoRoT-9b, similar in size to Jupiter. Located 1500 light-years from Earth, the planet orbits a star similar to our sun and is considered temperate.
The James Webb Space Telescope's five-layer sunshield was subjected to a series of tests using a 1/3-scale model to verify its ability to block and redirect solar heat. The experiments aimed to match computer models with test data, ensuring accurate thermal performance predictions for the full-size sunshield.
The James Webb Space Telescope has successfully polished its first primary mirror segment to meet the required prescription at operational cryogenic temperatures. This achievement sets the stage for a successful polishing process for the remaining 18 flight mirror segments.
The James Webb Space Telescope's five-layer sunshield has passed its critical design review, certifying its design meets mission requirements. The sunshield will absorb and deflect solar light to keep the telescope operating at cryogenic temperatures.
NASA is developing a primary mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope to study the formation of the universe and its solar system. The mirror will be tested at extreme temperatures to simulate space conditions, with data from three different sizes of segments collected during this test.
Radio astronomers discovered 17 millisecond pulsars using Fermi's high-energy sources, which could be used to detect gravitational waves. These pulsars are nature's most precise clocks, with long-term stability that rivals human-made atomic clocks.
A team of astronomers has detected a population of compact and ultra-blue galaxies from 13 billion years ago, just 600 to 800 million years after the Big Bang. The newly found objects are crucial for understanding the evolution of the first stars and galaxies.
Astronomers using Hubble Ultra Deep Field have discovered the most distant galaxies in the universe, dating back 13 billion years. The findings provide key insights into the formation of galaxies and the early universe.
The Herschel Space Observatory has revealed thousands of newly discovered galaxies in their early stages of formation, providing a detailed view of the universe up to 12 billion years ago. The images are helping astronomers detect distant galaxies that would have been impossible to discover with current ground-based telescopes.
Astronomers found two types of blue stragglers that defy aging: those rejuvenated by cosmic collisions and those formed by vampirism. The latter is thought to be caused by a smaller star siphoning hydrogen from its companion, while the former occurs in nearly head-on collisions where stars merge, mixing their nuclear fuel.
The Planck space telescope has returned its first images of the sky, mapping tiny differences in microwave radiation left over from the Big Bang. This improved data will allow scientists to better understand the structure of the universe when it was about 400,000 years old and test theories about cosmic inflation.
The James Webb Space Telescope's Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) has arrived at NASA Goddard for testing, featuring four scientific instruments and a critical cryogenic structure. The ISIM will undergo rigorous qualification testing to ensure its ability to survive space and extreme cold.
The TDRS project has received approval to proceed with the implementation phase of its mission, enabling NASA to build more spacecraft needed to support missions. The next milestone is a critical design review scheduled for January 2010, which will examine detailed aspects of the TDRS spacecraft and system.
Engineers at NASA Goddard and Northrop Grumman are simulating the handling of the telescope's mirror segments, which will be assembled into the Primary Mirror Assembly. The mock-up has already been beneficial in preparing for integration and test operations.
The SPIRE instrument package has successfully made its first observations, targeting two galaxies near the Milky Way. The telescope's high-resolution images will aid in studying the birth and development of galaxies, shedding light on star formation processes.
A new class of pulsars detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals the existence of a large population of radio-quiet gamma-ray pulsars. The study identifies 16 pulsars using computational techniques developed to analyze data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope.