Not all appears as it would seem in the Whirlpool galaxy. One of the best-studied spiral galaxies and a delight to amateur astronomers, Messier 51, as itâs officially named, is influenced by powerful, invisible forces.
Located 31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici, the galaxyâs arms are strikingly visible as they reach out along the central spine structure, displaying swirling clouds of gas and dust that are massive star-making factories. But new observations by NASA âs Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, presented at this weekâs 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, shows a more complicated picture.
Radio telescopes previously detected neatly-drawn magnetic fields throughout the length of the galaxyâs massive arms. But under SOFIAâs infrared gaze for the first time those lines give way to a chaotic scene in the outer spiral arms. Using a far-infrared camera and imaging polarimeter instrument called the High-Resolution Airborne Wideband Camera, or HAWC+, researchers found that the magnetic fields in the outskirts of the galaxy no longer follow the spiral structure and are instead distorted.
Remember the Hubble Deep Field? And its successor the Hubble Ultra Deep Field? We sure do here at Universe Today. How could we forget them?
Well, just as the Hubble Space Telescope has successors, so do two of its most famous images. And those successors will come from one of Hubbleâs successors, NASAâs Roman Space Telescope.
The Hubble Deep Field and Ultra Deep Field showed a generation of people how expansive and wondrous the Universe is. They showed that even empty-looking patches of sky are, in fact, full of galaxies. All sizes, shapes, and ages of galaxies.
The Chinese capital may be the most well-positioned to help Chinaâs satellite internet ambitions. Ultimate Blue Nebulaâs Lan said private satellite manufacturers and space transport providers based in Beijing could make up as much as 80 per cent of the nascent Chinese satellite internet industryâs overall supply chain.
The Chinese capital is already home to a comprehensive supply chain for satellite manufacturers and space transport providers.
Circa 2019 đ
The La Moto Volante from French company Lazareth demonstrated its first stable hover. NASAâs helicopter that will fly on Mars has passed its flight tests. And Boston Dynamicsâ upgraded Handle robot is a champ at warehouse Tetris.
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# OnThisDay 1979: On the 10th anniversary of the first moon landing, James Burke went to NASA, to reflect on the heart-stopping minutes preceding âThe eagle has landed.â
On the path to writing his Ph.D. dissertation, Lucio Milanese made a discoveryâone that refocused his research, and will now likely dominate his thesis.
Milanese studies plasma, a gas-like flow of ions and electrons that comprises 99 percent of the visible universe, including the Earthâs ionosphere, interstellar space, the solar wind, and the environment of stars. Plasmas, like other fluids, are often found in a turbulent state characterized by chaotic, unpredictable motion, providing multiple challenges to researchers who seek to understand the cosmic universe or hope to harness burning plasmas for fusion energy.
Milanese is interested in what physicist Richard Feynman called âthe most important unsolved problem of classical physicsââturbulence. In this case, the focus is plasma turbulence, its nature and structure.