It is a season the place our ideas flip to others and plenty of trade presents with family and friends. For astronomers, our universe is the present that retains on giving. We’ve realized a lot about it, however each query we reply results in new issues we wish to know. Stars, galaxies, planets, black holes … there are infinite wonders to check.
In honor of this time of 12 months, let’s rely our manner by means of a few of our favourite presents from astronomy.
Our first astronomical present is … one planet Earth
To this point, there is just one planet that we’ve discovered that has every thing wanted to support life as we all know it — Earth. Regardless that we’ve found over 5,200 planets outside our solar system, none are fairly like dwelling. However the search continues with the assistance of missions like our Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). And even you (sure, you!) might help within the search with citizen science applications like Planet Hunters TESS and Backyard Worlds.
ALTOur second astronomical present is … two big bubbles
Astronomers came upon that our Milky Approach galaxy is blowing bubbles — two of them! Every bubble is about 25,000 light-years tall and glows in gamma rays. Scientists utilizing information from our Fermi Gamma-ray Area Telescope found these buildings in 2010, and we’re nonetheless studying about them.
ALTOur third astronomical present is … three sorts of black holes
Most black holes match into two measurement classes: stellar-mass goes as much as lots of of Suns, and supermassive begins at lots of of hundreds of Suns. However what occurs between these two? The place are the midsize ones? With the assistance of NASA’s Hubble Area Telescope, scientists discovered the best evidence yet for that third, in between type that we name intermediate-mass black holes. The lots of those black holes ought to vary from round 100 to lots of of hundreds of instances the Solar’s mass. The hunt continues for these elusive black holes.
ALTOur fourth and fifth astronomical presents are … Stephan’s Quintet
When this beautiful picture of Stephan’s Quintet from our James Webb Space Telescope, it looks like 5 galaxies are hanging round each other — however do you know that one of many galaxies is far nearer than the others? 4 of the 5 galaxies are hanging out collectively about 290 million light-years away, however the fifth and leftmost galaxy within the picture under — known as NGC 7320 — is definitely nearer to Earth at simply 40 million light-years away.
ALTOur sixth astronomical present is … an eclipsing six-star system
Astronomers found a six-star system where all of the stars undergo eclipses, utilizing information from our TESS mission, a supercomputer, and automatic eclipse-identifying software program. The system, known as TYC 7037-89-1, is situated 1,900 light-years away within the constellation Eridanus and the primary of its sort we’ve discovered.
ALTOur seventh astronomical present is … seven Earth-sized planets
In 2017, our now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope helped discover seven Earth-size planets round TRAPPIST-1. It stays the most important batch of Earth-size worlds discovered round a single star and probably the most rocky planets present in one star’s liveable zone, the vary of distances the place situations could also be good to permit the presence of liquid water on a planet’s floor.
Additional analysis has helped us understand the planets’ densities, atmospheres, and more!
ALTOur eighth astronomical present is … an (virtually) eight-foot mirror
The first mirror on our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is roughly eight ft in diameter, much like our Hubble Area Telescope. However Roman can survey massive areas of the sky over 1,000 instances quicker, permitting it to hunt for hundreds of exoplanets and measure mild from a billion galaxies.
ALTOur ninth astronomical present is … a kilonova 9 days later
In 2017, the Nationwide Science Basis (NSF)’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and European Gravitational Observatory’s Virgo detected gravitational waves from a pair of colliding neutron stars. Lower than two seconds later, our telescopes detected a burst of gamma rays from the identical occasion. It was the first time light and gravitational waves were seen from the same cosmic source. However then 9 days later, astronomers noticed X-ray mild produced in jets within the collision’s aftermath. This later emission known as a kilonova, and it helped astronomers perceive what the slower-moving materials is product of.
ALTOur tenth astronomical present is … NuSTAR’s ten-meter-long mast
Our NuSTAR X-ray observatory is the primary house telescope capable of concentrate on high-energy X-rays. Its ten-meter-long (33 foot) mast, which deployed shortly after launch, places NuSTAR’s detectors on the excellent distance from its reflective optics to focus X-rays. NuSTAR lately celebrated 10 years since its launch in 2012.
ALTOur eleventh astronomical present is … eleven days of observations
How lengthy did our Hubble Space Telescope stare at a seemingly empty patch of sky to find it was filled with hundreds of faint galaxies? Greater than 11 days of observations got here collectively to capture this amazing image — that’s about 1 million seconds unfold over 400 orbits round Earth!
ALTOur twelfth astronomical present is … a twelve-kilometer radius
Pulsars are collapsed stellar cores that pack the mass of our Solar right into a whirling city-sized ball, compressing matter to its limits. Our NICER telescope aboard the Worldwide Area Station helped us precisely measure one called J0030 and located it had a radius of about twelve kilometers — roughly the dimensions of Chicago! This discovery has expanded our understanding of pulsars with probably the most exact and dependable measurement measurements of any up to now.
ALTKeep tuned to NASA Universe on Twitter and Facebook to maintain up with what’s occurring within the cosmos day by day. You possibly can be taught extra concerning the universe here.
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