詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜在两个超新星中定位尘埃库
使用NASA的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜的研究人员在确认早期星系尘埃来源方面取得了重大进展。
NASA的X-59迈出了关键一步
NASA’s X-59 research aircraft moves from its construction site to the flight line – or the space between the hangar and the runway – at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, on June 16, 2023. This milestone kicks off a series of ground tests to ensure the X-59 is safe and ready to fly. The X-59 is designed to fly faster than Mach 1 while reducing the resulting sonic boom to a thump for people on the ground. NASA will evaluate this technology during flight tests as part of the agency’s Quesst mission, which helps enable commercial supersonic air travel over land. Text Credit: Amiee Lomax Image Credit: Lockheed Martin 2023年6月16日，在加州帕姆代尔的洛克希德·马丁臭鼬工厂，NASA的X-59研究飞机从施工现场转移到飞行线上，或者说是机库和跑道之间的空间。这一里程碑开启了一系列地面测试，以确保X-59安全并准备好飞行。 X-59的设计飞行速度超过1马赫，同时将由此产生的音爆降低到对地面上的人来说砰砰作响的程度。NASA将在飞行测试中评估这项技术，作为该机构Quesst任务的一部分，该任务有助于实现商业超音速空中旅行。 文稿来源：Amiee Lomax 影像来源：Lockheed Martin
可观测宇宙的分布图
2023年7月5日 A Map of the Observable Universe Image Credit & Copyright: B. Ménard & N. Shtarkman; Data: SDSS, Planck, JHU, Sloan, NASA, ESA Explanation: What if you could see out to the edge of the observable universe? You would see galaxies, galaxies, galaxies, and then, well, quasars, which are the bright centers of distant galaxies. To expand understanding of the very largest scales that humanity can see, a map of the galaxies and quasars found by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey from 2000 to 2020 — out to near the edge of the observable universe — has been composed. Featured here, one wedge from this survey encompasses about 200,000 galaxies and quasars out beyond a look-back time of 12 billion years and cosmological redshift 5….
冰岛瀑布上空的极光
2023年7月4日 Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall Image Credit & Copyright: Cari Letelier Explanation: It seemed like the sky exploded. The original idea was to photograph an aurora over a waterfall. After waiting for hours under opaque clouds, though, hope was running out. Others left. Then, unexpectedly, the clouds moved away. Suddenly, particles from a large solar magnetic storm were visible impacting the Earth’s upper atmosphere with full effect. The night sky filled with colors and motion in a thrilling auroral display. Struggling to steady the camera from high Earthly winds, the 34 exposures that compose the featured image were taken. The resulting featured composite image shows the photogenic Godafoss (Goðafoss) waterfall in northern Iceland in front of a very active aurora in late February. The solar…
与NASA的机智号火星直升机重新取得联系
这架勇敢的旋翼飞机可能会在未来几周内再次升空。
一轮满月照亮阿尔忒弥斯一号
A full moon was visible behind the Artemis I SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 14, 2022. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I tested SLS and Orion as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon. Learn more about observing the Moon with NASA’s interactive Daily Moon Guide. Image Credit: NASA / Ben Smegelsky 2022年6月14日，在NASA位于佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心的39B发射中心，一轮满月出现在阿尔忒弥斯一号SLS（太空发射系统）火箭和猎户座飞船后面。作为日益复杂的系列任务中的第一项，阿尔忒弥斯一号在载人登月之前测试了SLS和猎户座的集成系统。 通过NASA的交互式每日月球指南了解更多关于观测月球的信息。 图片来源: NASA / Ben Smegelsky
破晓号的紫外金星
2023年7月3日 Venus in Ultraviolet from Akatsuki Image Credit & Copyright: JAXA, Planet-C Project Team; h/t: Mehmet Hakan Özsaraç Explanation: Why is Venus so different from Earth? To help find out, Japan launched the robotic Akatsuki spacecraft which entered orbit around Venus late in 2015 after an unplanned five-year adventure around the inner Solar System. Even though Akatsuki was past its original planned lifetime, the spacecraft and instruments were operating so well that much of its original mission was reinstated. Also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki’s instruments investigated unknowns about Earth’s sister planet, including whether volcanoes are still active, whether lightning occurs in the dense atmosphere, and why wind speeds greatly exceed the planet’s rotation speed. In the featured image taken by Akatsuki‘s UVI…
土星环在韦伯对环形行星的观测中闪闪发光
詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜的NIRCam仪器于2023年6月25日拍摄的土星及其部分卫星的图像。在这张单色图像中，NIRCam滤波器F323N（3.23微米）用橙色色调进行颜色映射。从太空望远镜科学研究所下载带注释和未注释的全分辨率图像。 影像来源：NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Tiscareno (SETI Institute), M. Hedman (University of Idaho), M. El Moutamid (Cornell University), M. Showalter (SETI Institute), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), H. Hammel (AURA); 由J. DePasquale (STScI)进行图像处理 2023年6月25日，NASA的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜转向著名的土星环，首次对这颗行星进行近红外观测。韦伯的NIRCam（近红外相机）的初始图像已经吸引了研究人员。 在望远镜观察到的红外波段，土星本身看起来非常暗，因为甲烷气体吸收了几乎所有落在大气层上的阳光。然而，冰环保持相对明亮，导致土星在韦伯图像中出现不寻常的外观。 这张照片是韦伯保证时间观测计划1247的一部分。该项目包括几次对土星的深度曝光，目的是测试望远镜探测土星周围微弱卫星及其明亮光环的能力。任何新发现的卫星都可以帮助科学家们更完整地了解土星目前的系统及其过去。 这张新的土星照片清楚地显示了土星环系统的细节，以及土星的几个卫星——土卫四、土卫二和土卫三。额外的深度曝光（此处未显示）将使研究团队能够探测该行星上一些较暗的环，这些环在这张图片中不可见，包括薄的G环和弥漫的E环。土星环由一系列岩石和冰碎片组成——这些颗粒的大小从比沙粒小到像地球上的山脉那么大。研究人员最近利用韦伯探索土卫二，并发现从土卫二南极喷射出一股巨大的羽流，其中既有粒子，也有大量的水蒸气——这股羽流为土星的E环提供了原料。 土星的大气层也显示了令人惊讶和意想不到的细节。尽管卡西尼号宇宙飞船以更高的清晰度观测到了土星的大气层，但这是首次在这种特定波长（3.23微米）上以这种清晰度观测到这颗行星的大气，这是韦伯望远镜所独有的。北半球巨大、黑暗、弥散的结构并不遵循这颗行星的纬度线，因此这张图像缺少通常从土星较深的大气层看到的熟悉的条纹外观。这些斑块让人联想到主云上方高空平流层气溶胶中的大规模行星波，可能类似于早期韦伯NIRCam对木星的观测。 当比较这张照片中的土星北极和南极时，外观上的差异是已知的土星季节性变化的典型特征。例如，土星目前正处于北半球的夏季，南半球在冬季结束时从黑暗中出现。然而，北极特别黑暗，可能是由于一个未知的季节性过程，特别是影响极地气溶胶。土星盘边缘的微弱光亮可能是由于高空甲烷荧光（吸收光后发光的过程）、电离层中三氢离子（H3+）的发射，或者两者兼而有之；韦伯的光谱学可以帮助证实这一点。 几十年来，NASA的先驱者11号、旅行者1号和2号、卡西尼号航天器和哈勃太空望远镜等任务一直在追踪土星的大气层和土星环。韦布的这些观测只是一个暗示，随着科学团队深入研究数据以准备同行评审的结果，该天文台将在未来几年为土星的故事增添什么。 科学数据来源 NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Matt Tiscareno (SETI Institute), Matt Hedman (University of Idaho), Maryame El Moutamid (Cornell University), Mark Showalter (SETI Institute), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Heidi Hammel (AURA) 影像处理来源 J. DePasquale (STScI) 关于作者 海蒂·B·哈梅尔是韦伯望远镜的跨学科科学家，负责韦伯望远镜对太阳系的第一周期保证时间观测（GTO）计划。她是华盛顿特区天文学研究大学协会（AURA）的科学副主席。 利·弗莱彻是英国莱斯特大学的行星科学教授。利是几个韦伯保证时间观测项目的首席研究员，包括这里强调的1247项目。 麦特·提斯凯尔诺是加州SETI研究所的高级研究科学家，他在那里研究包括行星环在内的行星系统的动力学。他是韦伯保证时间观测团队研究土星的重要成员。 图像的未标注版本： 从太空望远镜科学研究所下载带注释和未注释的全分辨率图像。 参考来源： https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2023/06/30/saturns-rings-shine-in-webbs-observations-of-ringed-planet/
南极洲上空的银河和极光
2023年7月2日 Milky Way and Aurora over Antarctica Image Credit & Copyright: LI Hang Explanation: It was one of the better skies of this long night. In parts of Antarctica, not only is it winter, but the Sun can spend weeks below the horizon. At China‘s Zhongshan Station, people sometimes venture out into the cold to photograph a spectacular night sky. The featured image from one such outing was taken in mid-July of 2015, just before the end of this polar night. Pointing up, the wide angle lens captured not only the ground at the bottom, but at the top as well. In the foreground, a colleague is taking pictures. In the distance, a spherical satellite receiver and several windmills are visible. Numerous stars dot the…
哈勃观测到星系邻居
The highly irregular galaxy ESO 174-1, which resembles a lonely, hazy cloud against a backdrop of bright stars, dominates this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. ESO 174-1 lies around 11 million light-years from Earth and consists of a bright cloud of stars and a faint, meandering tendril of dark gas and dust. This image is part of a collection of Hubble observations designed to better understand our nearby galactic neighbors. The observations aim to resolve the brightest stars and basic properties of every known galaxy within 10 megaparsecs. A parsec is a unit used by astronomers to measure the vast distances to other galaxies – 10 megaparsecs translates to 32 million light-years – and makes astronomical distances easier to handle. For example, the…