News From NASA Agencies
Articles Index - page 2
Trail of Black Holes and Neutron Stars Points To Ancient Collision
Trail of Black Holes and Neutron Stars Points To Ancient Collision. An image of an elliptical galaxy by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed a trail of black holes and neutron stars stretching more than fifty thousand light years across space. The trail of intense X-ray sources is evidence that this apparently sedate galaxy collided with another galaxy a few billion years ago.
Odyssey Studies Changing Weather and Climate on Mars
Odyssey Studies Changing Weather and Climate on Mars. Mars may be going through a period of climate change, new findings from NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter suggest. Odyssey has been mapping the distribution of materials on and near Mars’ surface since early 2002, nearly a full annual cycle on Mars. Besides tracking seasonal changes, such as the advance and retreat of polar dry ice, the orbiter is returning evidence useful for learning about longer-term dynamics.
Return To Flight Task Group Public Meeting Announced
The Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group will hold its second public meeting at 9 a.m. CST, Thursday, Dec. 11, in the Hilton NASA Clear Lake, 3000 NASA Road 1, Houston.
Final Death Throes of Nearby Star Witnessed First-Hand
Final Death Throes of Nearby Star Witnessed First-Hand. It takes only a few hundred to a thousand years for a dying Sun-like star, many billions of years old, to transform into a dazzling, glowing cloud called a planetary nebula. This relative blink in a long lifetime means that a Sun-like star's final moments - the crucial phase when its planetary nebula takes shape - have, until now, gone undetected.
Hubble Peers into Heart of Dying Star
Hubble Peers into Heart of Dying Star. The Egg Nebula, also known as CRL 2688, is shown on the left as it appears in visible light with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and on the right as it appears in infrared light with Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS).
Hubble Finds a New Black Hole - and Unexpected New Mysteries
Hubble Finds a New Black Hole - and Unexpected New Mysteries. Confirming the presence of yet another super-massive black hole in the universe, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have found unexpected new mysteries. The black hole, and a 800 light-year-wide spiral-shaped disk of dust fueling it, are slightly offset from the center of their host galaxy, NGC 4261, located 100 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Virgo.
'Death Spiral' Around a Black Hole Yields Tantalizing Evidence of Event Horizon
Death Spiral Around a Black Hole Yields Tantalizing Evidence of Event Horizon. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope may have, for the first time, provided direct evidence for the existence of black holes by observing the disappearance of matter as it falls beyond the event horizon.
Hubble Captures an Extraordinary and Powerful Active Galaxy
Hubble Captures an Extraordinary and Powerful Active Galaxy. Resembling a swirling witch's cauldron of glowing vapors, the black hole-powered core of a nearby active galaxy appears in this colorful NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. The galaxy lies 13 million light-years away in the southern constellation Circinus.
Black Holes Shed Light on Galaxy Formation
Black Holes Shed Light on Galaxy Formation. Astronomers are concluding that monstrous black holes weren't simply born big but instead grew on a measured diet of gas and stars controlled by their host galaxies in the early formative years of the universe.
Fireworks Near a Black Hole in the Core of Seyfert Galaxy NGC 4151
Fireworks Near a Black Hole in the Core of Seyfert Galaxy NGC 4151. The Hubble telescope's imaging spectrograph simultaneously records, in unprecedented detail, the velocities of hundreds of gas knots streaming at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour from the nucleus of NGC 4151, thought to house a super-massive black hole. This is the first time the velocity structure in the heart of this object, or similar objects, has been mapped so vividly this close to its central black hole.
Hubble Discovers Black Holes in Unexpected Places
Hubble Discovers Black Holes in Unexpected Places. Medium-size black holes actually do exist, according to the latest findings from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, but scientists had to look in some unexpected places to find them.
Ancient Black Hole Speeds Through Sun's Galactic Neighborhood
Ancient Black Hole Speeds Through Sun's Galactic Neighborhood, Devouring Companion Star. Data from the Space Telescope Science Institute's Digitized Sky Survey has played an important supporting role in helping radio and X-ray astronomers discover an ancient black hole speeding through the Sun's galactic neighborhood. The rogue black hole is devouring a small companion star as the pair travels in an eccentric orbit looping to the outer reaches of our Milky Way galaxy.
Feasting Black Hole Blows Bubbles
Feasting Black Hole Blows Bubbles. A monstrous black hole's rude table manners include blowing huge bubbles of hot gas into space. At least, that's the gustatory practice followed by the supermassive black hole residing in the hub of the nearby galaxy NGC 4438. Known as a peculiar galaxy because of its unusual shape, NGC 4438 is in the Virgo Cluster, 50 million light-years from Earth.
Hubble Reopens Its Eye on the Universe
Hubble Reopens Its Eye on the Universe. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, as made dramatically evident in stunning new celestial pictures of remote galaxies and a colorful dying star released today.
Hubble Finds a Bare Black Hole Pouring Out Light
Hubble Finds a Bare Black Hole Pouring Out Light. Probing the heart of the active galaxy NGC 6251, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided a never-before-seen view of a warped disk or ring of dust caught in a blazing torrent of ultraviolet light from a suspected massive black hole.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Discovers a Disk Fueling a Possible Black Hole
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Discovers a Disk Fueling a Possible Black Hole. The giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4261 is one of the 12 brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, located 45 million light-years away. Photographed in visible light - white - the galaxy appears as a fuzzy disk of hundreds of billions of stars. A radio image - orange - shows a pair of opposed jets emanating from the nucleus and spanning a distance of 88,000 light-years.
Return To Flight Task Group Holds First Public Meeting
Return To Flight Task Group Holds First Public Meeting. The Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group (RTFTG) will hold its first public meeting at 11:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 7, at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Task Group Co-chairman Richard O. Covey will be available to answer news media questions immediately following the meeting.
NASA Names Return To Flight Task Group Members
NASA Names Return To Flight Task Group Members. NASA today released the names of the Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group (RTFTG). The Task Group, initially announced by the agency on June 13, will perform an independent assessment of NASA's actions to implement the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB).
NASA Names New Safety Advisory Panel
NASA Names New Safety Advisory Panel. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe today announced the new NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), which includes nine distinguished members and a new charter. The initial meeting of the new panel is expected soon.
Hubble Photographs Turbulent Neighborhood Near Eruptive Star
Hubble Photographs Turbulent Neighborhood Near Eruptive Star. A small portion of the rough-and-tumble neighborhood of swirling dust and gas near one of the most massive and eruptive stars in our galaxy is seen in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. This close-up view shows only a three light-year-wide portion of the entire Carina Nebula, which has a diameter of over 200 light-years. Located 8,000 light-years from Earth, the nebula can be seen in the southern sky with the naked eye.
2003 Ozone 'Hole' Approaches Record
2003 Ozone 'Hole' Approaches But Falls Short of Record. This year's Antarctic ozone hole is the second largest
ever observed, according to scientists from NASA, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and
the Naval Research Laboratory.
The Slant on Saturn's Rings
The Slant on Saturn's Rings. This is a series of images of Saturn, as seen at many different wavelengths, when the planet's rings were at a maximum tilt of 27 degrees toward Earth. Saturn experiences seasonal tilts away from and toward the Sun, much the same way Earth does. This happens over the course of its 29.5-year orbit.
Farthest, Faintest Solar System Objects Found Beyond Neptune
Farthest, Faintest Solar System Objects Found Beyond Neptune - Kuiper Belt Object 2000 FV53. Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered three of the faintest and smallest objects ever detected beyond Neptune. Each object is a lump of ice and rock — roughly the size of Philadelphia — orbiting beyond Neptune and Pluto.
Celestial Composition
Celestial Composition - New Hubble image. Amid a backdrop of far-off galaxies, the majestic dusty spiral, NGC 3370, looms in the foreground in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. Recent observations taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys show intricate spiral arm structure spotted with hot areas of new star formation. But this galaxy is more than just a pretty face.
CAIB Releases Final Report
CAIB Releases Final Report. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board today presented its final report on the causes of the Feb. 1, 2003 Space Shuttle accident to the White House, Congress and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.