• This view of the Orion Nebula, incorporating infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel telescope, highlights fledgling stars hidden in gas and clouds.

    Orion Nebula reveals an infrared rainbow

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

    The sparkles of hidden stars are revealed in a picture of the Orion Nebula that shows off the colors of the infrared rainbow.

    Do you see those twinkling lights, strung along a line that starts at the top right corner of the image? Those are stars in the earliest stages of their evolution, swathed in clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers focused on those protostars with the infrared-sensitive cameras of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel space telescope.

    This color-coded image shows the scene as observed by Spitzer in one set of infrared wavelengths (8.0 and 24 microns, shown here in shades of blue), and by Herschel in somewhat longer wavelengths (70 and 160 microns, shown in green and red, respectively). Herschel monitored the emissions from cold dust particles once a week for six weeks, while Spitzer kept track of the emissions from the warmer dust, filling out the infrared rainbow.

    Astronomers found that the stars' brightness in infrared wavelengths varied by more than 20 percent during the observational time frame. That's surprising, because the astronomers expected variations in brightness to play out over a time frame measured in years or even centuries rather than weeks.

    What could cause the short-term twinkling? The astronomers theorized that lumpy filaments of gas might be streaming inward from a star's outer environs, temporarily warming up the dusty disk of material surrounding the star. An alternative hypothesis would be that material occasionally piles up on the inner edge of the disk, casting 'shadows" that temporarily darken the outer disk. In any case, the observations from Herschel and Spitzer show that the birth process for baby stars is a rough-and-tumble affair, with significant ups and downs.

    Members of the Herschel science team, led by Nicolas Billot, an astronomer at the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimetrique in Grenada, Spain, are preparing a paper about their findings.

    "Herschel's exquisite sensitivity opens up new possibilities for astronomers to study star formation, and we are very excited to have witnessed short-term variability in Orion protostars," Billot said today in a photo advisory. "Follow-up observations with Herschel will help us identify the physical processes responsible for the variability."

    More infrared wonders:

    Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

  • 'Pillars of Creation' reloaded

    ESA

    This picture combines a far-infrared view from the Herschel Space Observatory with an X-ray view from XMM-Newton to show how the hot young stars detected by the X-ray observations are sculpting and interacting with the surrounding ultra-cool gas and dust, which provide the critical material for star formation.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News




    The Hubble Space Telescope's "Pillars of Creation" picture is arguably the best-known astronomical image of the 20th century, but can you spot the pillars in the 21st-century version? Those well-known towers of gas and dust are dwarfed by the full majesty of the Eagle Nebula in a view that's based on far-infrared observations from the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, plus X-ray readings from the XMM-Newton probe.

    NASA / ESA / STScI / ASU

    This 1995 Hubble Space Telescope image of the "Pillars of Creation" is probably the most famous astronomical image of the 20th century. Taken in visible light using a combination of SII/H-alpha and OIII filters, it shows a part of the Eagle Nebula where new stars are forming. The tallest pillar is around 4 light-years high.

    The Eagle Nebula, 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Serpens, is one of the closest cradles of starbirth. Radiation from a young star cluster known as NGC 6611 is blasting away at the surrounding pillars of gas and dust —and sparking new star systems inside clumps known as evaporating gaseous globules, or EGGs.

    Hubble's visible-light image, captured in 1995, showed the pillars in detail. It also provided an iconic image of cosmic structure for ages to come. But it couldn't reveal exactly what was inside the EGGs' dusty sheaths.

    In 2001, a near-infrared image from the ISAAC instrument, at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope facility in Chile, cut through the dust and revealed some of the infant stars within their EGGs.

    Researchers determined that 11 of the 73 EGGs in the Hubble image clearly had stars associated with them. Only one of these stars had been previously been seen in the Hubble images, and another five EGGs were noted as possibly containing stars.

    VLT / ISAAC / AIP / ESO

    The 8.2-meter VLT's ANTU telescope imaged the famous "Pillars of Creation" region and its surroundings in near-infrared using the ISAAC instrument. This enabled astronomers to penetrate the obscuring dust in their search to detect newly formed stars. The near-infrared results showed that 11 of the Pillars' 73 evaporating gaseous globules (or EGGs) possibly contained stars, and that the tips of the pillars contain stars and nebulosity not seen in the Hubble image

    The new far-infrared view from Herschel provides even more detail about the structure of the pillars and the young stars within. Meanwhile, the view from XMM-Newton highlights the points of strong X-ray emission within the nebula. The European Space Agency says the new imagery supports the view that one of the stars in the NGC 6611 clusters went supernova, sending out a shock wave that is about to tear the pillars apart.

    In fact, it's probably already happened — but because of the distance separating us from the nebula, we just haven't seen it yet. Astronomers expect that we'll witness the destruction of the Pillars of Creation sometime in the next few hundred years. So enjoy the view while you can.

    Could you make out the pillars in the top picture? This video puts all the imagery in perspective:

    This ESA video shows the Pillars of Creation in a variety of wavelengths.

    More about the Pillars of Creation:

    Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds. 

  • Astronomers share galactic glories

    NASA / JPL-Caltech / CfA

    A bubbling cauldron of starbirth is highlighted in this new image of the Cygnus X star-forming region from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The colors indicate different wavelengths of infrared light, ranging from the blue of stars to the red and green of interstellar dust. The stars have blown bubbles, or cavities, in the dust and gas — a violent process that triggers both the death and birth of stars. The brightest, yellow-white regions are warm centers of star formation. Cygnus X is about 4,500 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, or the Swan.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News



    It's a great day for the world's great observatories: Astronomers around the world have saved up some of their most groundbreaking images to share during this week's meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.

    The Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the European Southern Observatory have teamed up to present their view of "El Gordo," a big, fat galaxy cluster weighed down with the mass of 2 quadrillion suns. Meanwhile, the Hubble Space Telescope's science team is showing off pictures of the most distant developing galaxy cluster ever detected, 13.1 billion light-years away.

    Here are a few pictures from some of the world's other top space observatories: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which focused on a star-forming region in our Milky Way galaxy known as Cygnus X; NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which scanned a broad section of the Milky Way; and portraits of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies, courtesy of Spitzer and the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Telescope.

    Stay tuned for more wonders from the AAS meeting as the week wears on — and if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to spread your browser wide and click through our Year in Space Pictures Slideshow.

    NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA

    This enormous section of the Milky Way galaxy is a mosaic of images from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The different colors represent specific wavelengths of infrared light: The blue points of light are stars, while green and red represent light mostly emitted by interstellar dust. The constellations Cassiopeia and Cepheus are featured in this 1,000-square degree expanse.

    ESA / NASA / JPL-Caltech / STScI

    This image shows the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy in infrared light as seen by the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. In the instruments' combined data, this nearby dwarf galaxy looks like a fiery, circular explosion. Rather than fire, however, those ribbons are actually giant ripples of dust spanning tens or hundreds of light-years. Significant fields of star formation are noticeable in the center, just left of center and at right. The brightest center-left region is called 30 Doradus, or the Tarantula Nebula, for its appearance in visible light.

    ESA / NASA / JPL-Caltech / STScI

    This image shows the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy in infrared light from the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are the two biggest satellite galaxies of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. In this composite view, the irregular distribution of dust in the Small Magellanic Cloud becomes clear. A stream of dust extends to the left in this image, known as the galaxy's "wing," and a bar of star formation appears on the right. The colors indicate different temperatures in the dust that permeates the Cloud.


    Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

  • Our galaxy's mysterious twist

    ESA / NASA / JPL-Caltech

    The European Space Agency's Herschel Space Telescope provides an infrared view of a twisted ring at the center of our galaxy.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

    If you look for signs and portents in the skies, you can't do much better than this: The Herschel Space Telescope has provided the best view yet of an infinity sign at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

    "This is what is so exciting about launching a new space telescope like Herschel," Sergio Molinari of the Institute of Space Physics in Rome said in an image advisory issued today. "We have a new and exciting mystery on our hands, right at the center of our own galaxy."

    Molinari is the lead author of a research paper on the twisted ring, appearing in a recent issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters. Portions of the ring have been spotted before, but Herschel's image cuts through the dust at the galactic center to reveal the full structure in submillimeter wavelengths. This version of Herschel's view highlights the shape of the ring, which stretches across more than 600 light-years:

    ESA / NASA / JPL-Caltech

    This version of the Herschel image highlights the infinity sign or twisted ring at the Milky Way's center.

    "We have looked at this region at the center of the Milky Way many times before in the infrared," said Alberto Noriega-Crespo of NASA's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech, one of the paper's co-authors. "But when we looked at the high-resolution images using Herschel's submillimeter wavelengths, the presence of a ring is quite clear."

    Astronomers say the ring is a dense, twisted tube of cold gas mixed with dust — and a cradle for infant stars. They used readings from the ground-based Nobeyama Radio Observatory in Japan to determine how fast gas was circulating around the ring. The radio observations showed that the ring is rolling as a unit, at the same speed as the rest of our galaxy.

    The main mystery has to do with how the ring got twisted. The origins of the structure of galactic centers are not well understood, but astronomers suspect that our Milky Way's shape may have been affected by gravitational interactions with nearby galaxies — perhaps including the Andromeda Galaxy, our big celestial neighbor.

    There's another mystery as well: The center of the twisted ring does not correspond with the actual center of our galaxy, a supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*. Noriega-Crespo said it's not clear why the centers don't match up.

    "There's still so much about our galaxy to discover," he said.

    Amen...

    More about Herschel and our bent-up galaxy:

    In addition to Molinari and Noriega-Crespo, authors of "A 100-Parsec Elliptical and Twisted Ring of Cold and Dense Molecular Clouds Revealed by Herschel Around the Galactic Center" include J. Bally, M. Compiegne, J.P. Bernard, D. Paradis, P. Martin, L. Testi, M. Barlow, T. Moore, R. Plume, B. Swinyard, A. Zavagno, L. Calzoletti, A.M. Di Giorgio, D. Elia, F. Faustini, P. Natoli, M. Pestalozzi, S. Pezzuto, F. Piacentini, G. Polenta, D. Polychroni, E. Schisano, A. Traficante, M. Veneziani, C. Battersby, M. Burton, S. Carey, Y. Fukui, J.Z. Li, S.D. Lord, L. Morgan, F. Motte, F. Schuller, G.S. Stringfellow, J.C. Tan, M. A. Thompson, D. Ward-Thompson, G. White and G. Umana.

    Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also add me to your Google+ circle, and check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.