Sometimes, in the depths of space, entire galaxies can merge and collide with each other, throwing out dust and debris that will lead to the creation of new stars. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured such an event: the CGCG 396-2 galaxy merger, which is an uncommon multi-armed galaxy merger that is 520 million light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Orion.
The observation was first made by volunteers who are part of the Galaxy Zoo Project. It is a citizen science project where thousands of volunteers classify galaxies to help scientists sort through the vast amounts of data generated by robotic telescopes. The most astronomically intriguing objects from Galaxy Zoo are selected for follow-up observations with Hubble after a public vote. CGCG 396-2 was such a candidate, and its image was captured by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
In the Galaxy Zoo project, each galaxy was identified by multiple participants because having independent multiple classifications helps the scientists assess how reliable the results are. Depending on the needs of science projects, scientists can use the classifications provided by Galaxy Zoo to allocate valuable telescope time.
For example, if astronomers have a project where they need to observe thousands of spiral galaxies and spiral galaxies only, they can take objects classified as spiral galaxies by 100 per cent of the observers, before allocating telescope time to observe them.
On July 12, NASA will release the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope offering never seen before detailed views of the universe. The images will be released during NASA’s live broadcast starting at 8 PM. Ahead of the broadcast, NASA has released a list. The targets for the initial wave of full-colour scientific images and spectroscopic data were selected by an international committee of representatives from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Space Telescope Science Institute. Here are all of them.
Carina Nebula
The Carina Nebula is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky. Nebulae are clouds of gas and dust in outer space and are referred to as “stellar nurseries” because that is where stars are formed. Carina is home to many massive stars that are many times the size of the Sun. Even though it is four times as large and brighter than the Orion Nebula, it is much less well known.
WASP-96 b (spectrum data)
Discovered in 2014, WASP-96b is a massive planet that is located nearly 1,150 light-years away from Earth. It orbits its star every three-four days and has half the mass of Jupiter. The exoplanet is almost entirely cloud-free and has an abundance of Sodium.
Southern Ring Nebula
The Southern Ring nebula is a planetary nebula, which means that it is a cloud of gas surrounding a dying star. It is also called the “Eight-Burst” nebula because it looks like a figure-8 when seen through telescopes. It is 2,000 light-years away from earth and has a diameter of nearly half a light-year. The gases are moving away from the dying star at the centre of the nebula at a speed of nine miles per second.
You must be logged in to post a comment.