New Awesome Views of Andromeda Galaxy

Two new stunning views of Andromeda galaxy are observed recently from  the Herschel space observatory.

The ring-like swirls of dust filling the Andromeda galaxy stand out colorfully in this new image from the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation. Image credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/NHSC

The glow seen in the picture above comes from the longer-wavelength, or far, end of the infrared spectrum, giving astronomers the chance to identify the very coldest dust in our galactic neighbor. These light wavelengths span from 250 to 500 microns, which are a quarter to half of a millimeter in size. Herschel's ability to detect the light allows astronomers to see clouds of dust at temperatures of only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero. These clouds are dark and opaque at shorter wavelengths. The Herschel view also highlights spokes of dust between the concentric rings.

In this new view of the Andromeda galaxy from the Herschel space observatory, cool lanes of forming stars are revealed in the finest detail yet. Herschel is a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation. Image credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS & SPIRE Consortium, O. Krause, HSC, H. Linz

The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth. It is estimated to have up to one trillion stars, whereas the Milky Way contains hundreds of billions.

The Herschel Space Observatory is a European Space Agency space observatory sensitive to the far infrared and submillimetre wavebands. The Herschel Observatory is capable of seeing the coldest and dustiest objects in space; for example, cool cocoons where stars form and dusty galaxies just starting to bulk up with new stars.

[via NASA/JPL]

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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity Prepares to Drill

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has placed its drill onto a series of four locations on a Martian rock and pressed down on it with the rover's arm, in preparation for using the drill in coming days.

The percussion drill in the turret of tools at the end of the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has been positioned in contact with the rock surface in this image from the rover's front Hazard-Avoidance Camera (Hazcam). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

The drill was positioned for pre-load testing, and the Hazcam recorded this image during the 170th Martian day of Curiosity's work on Mars (Jan. 27, 2013). Other tests with the drill are planned before the first drilling into a rock on Mars to collect a sample of rock material for analysis

Limonadi said, "We are proceeding with caution in the approach to Curiosity's first drilling. This is challenging. It will be the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars." 

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.

[via NASA/JPL]

NASA Joins ESA to Explore the Dark Universe

NASA has joined the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Euclid mission, a space telescope designed to investigate the cosmological mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.

This artist's concept shows the Euclid spacecraft. The telescope will launch to an orbit around the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. The Lagrange point is a location where the gravitational pull of two large masses, the sun and Earth in this case, precisely equals the force required for a small object, such as the Euclid spacecraft, to maintain a relatively stationary position behind Earth as seen from the sun. Image credit: ESA/C. Carreau 

Euclid will launch in 2020 and spend six years mapping the locations and measuring the shapes of as many as 2 billion galaxies spread over more than one-third of the sky. It will study the evolution of our universe, and the dark matter and dark energy that influence its evolution in ways that still are poorly understood.

The telescope will launch to an orbit around the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. The Lagrange point is a location where the gravitational pull of two large masses, the sun and Earth in this case, precisely equals the force required for a small object, such as the Euclid spacecraft, to maintain a relatively stationary position behind Earth as seen from the sun.

Astronomy Pictures of the Month

Saturn's Rings from the Dark Side

Image Credit:  Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

The Center of Trifid Nebula

Image Credit: Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Space Telescope, Martin Pugh; Processing: Robert Gendler

NGC 1309: Spiral Galaxy and Friends

Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing - Martin Pugh

NASA's TDRS-K Upgrade

NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, also known as the Space Network, will get an upgrade this month when the agency launches the first of a new generation of communications satellites to connect man of NASA's spacecraft to their control centers and mission data centers. 

The TDRS-K spacecraft stands inside a processing hangar in Titusville, Fla., awaiting packaging for launch into orbit 22,300 miles above Earth. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 is due to loft the TDRS-K spacecraft Jan. 29 on a course to geosynchronous orbit where the spacecraft will have a wide view of Earth. From that position, the spacecraft will provide communications with NASA's fleet of Earth-orbiting science spacecraft, including the International Space Station and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

The advanced spacecraft, known as TDRS, is needed to ensure the communications network is able to provide critical services to user spacecraft in the next decade. 

"We have some aging satellites, so we need new spacecraft to go in there and help carry more of the data," said Diana Calero, mission manager for NASA's Launch Services Program, or LSP, based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

Apollo 10 Recovery

Apollo 10 Helicopter Recovery - Source: space.com

May 26, 1969. At 11:53 a.m about 400 miles east of American Samoa Apollo 10 splashed down. In this historic photo we can see a Navy helicopter arrives to recover the Apollo 10 astronauts.