#AceNewsReport – July.20: Yet we’ve barely been able to observe the mysterious life cycles of galaxies beyond our own…….

#AceDailyNews says …Galaxies are unfathomably huge, dynamic beasts made up of stars that burst into and out of life in cosmic blinks of an eye as spectacular images of galaxies just next door to the Milky Way, captured by an international team of astronomers, are allowing us to do exactly that.

Saturday 17 Jul 2021 at 12:47am

The beautiful colours in this image allow astronomers to pinpoint newly formed stars.(Supplied: ESO/PHANGS)

To the trained eye, every golden spark and purple haze contained in these “galactic fireworks” pinpoint where new stars are emerging and reveal the intricate processes that shape their birth.

“We’re seeing if we can capture the life cycle of a star, just like you capture the life cycle of creatures here on Earth,” said team member Brent Groves, astronomer at the University of Western Australia.

“Each pixel contains a whole rainbow of information.”

Capturing stars being born

While astronomers know that new stars emerge from clouds of cold gas, they haven’t been able to observe this process in detail or figure out how it occurs.

The new images were taken as part of the Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) survey, which observes nearby galaxies to understand the processes behind star formation.

Each image is essentially a composite of images that capture nearby galaxies in different wavelengths.

And the results are breathtaking.

The golden specks of light in the spiral galaxy NGC 3627 are signatures of new stars.(Supplied: ESO/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/PHANGS)

The orange tones represent clouds of molecular gas, the raw material from which stars form, while the darker brown patches indicate the presence of interstellar dust.

“Like smoke from bushfires, this dust makes stars darker and redder,” Dr Groves said.

When stars are first born, they heat up the cold gas around them, creating warm clouds of charged hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.

This process is represented by the bright spots of gold in the images.

On the other hand, the bluish tones are the signatures of stars that have already formed.

The blue tones in Messier 61 or NGC 4303, a galaxy around 52 million light years away, indicate the presence of older stars.(Supplied: ESO/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/PHANGS))

“The bluer the light, the more massive the stars that are there,” Dr Groves said.

“And because big stars burn bright and die young, it means you’re seeing regions where stars have recently formed.”

Peering into our galactic neighbours

The images also reveal how diverse these nearby galaxies are, said team member Rebecca McElroy, an astronomer at the University of Sydney.

“There’s enormous diversity. It’s overwhelming,” Dr McElroy said.

For instance, the NGC 1300 galaxy, located 65 million light years away in the Eridanus constellation, looks relatively sparse compared to the others.

Star formation in the NGC 1300 galaxy is concentrated along its spiral arms, as shown by the golden specks of light.(Supplied: ESO/PHANGS)

This tells astronomers that there isn’t as much gas hanging around in the galaxy, with most of its stars forming along the spiral arms on the outer edges.

In contrast, the soft golden glow throughout NGC 1087, which sits 80 million light years away in Cetus, reveals that it’s rich in star-forming gas clouds.

The NGC 1087 galaxy contains an abundance of gas clouds — the material that forms new stars. (Supplied: ESO/PHANGS)

How did they get the images?

The team combined observations taken by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile.

With ALMA’s 66 radio telescopes, the researchers were able to map about 100,000 cold-gas regions across 90 nearby galaxies, creating a detailed atlas of nearby stellar nurseries — the birthplaces of new stars.

ALMA uses radio telescopes to detect cold gas regions in galaxies, shown in orange.(Supplied: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ESA/NASA/PHANGS, S. Dagnello (NRAO))

The secret to the incredible detail in the images is a bizarre looking instrument called the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), which is attached to the VLT.

“It looks like one of the monster robots from The Matrix,” Dr McElroy said.

The MUSE instrument allows astronomers to see the elements present in stars.(Supplied: ESO)

This instrument splits light into its component parts, just like a window that separates a beam of sunlight into a rainbow on the wall.

These “bar codes” of light, or spectra, represent different chemical elements.

“We can analyse the ‘rainbow’ and see what elements are emitted by that galaxy,” Dr McElroy said.

In this survey, MUSE observed 30,000 clouds of warm gas and collected about 15 million spectra of different galactic regions.

The next step for the team is to begin zooming in on some of the features in the images to take a closer look at what’s going on in our galactic neighbours.

In addition to peering into the star formation process, Dr Groves said that the reams of information in each image could tell astronomers about how certain elements are spread across galaxies.

“The data is just so rich,” Dr Groves said.

Dr McElroy’s eyes will be focused on the centre of these galaxies to learn more about their supermassive black holes.

“They’re all very weird and wonderful,” Dr McElroy said.

#AceNewsDesk report ………Published: July.20: 2021:

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#AceNewsReport – June.25: The Hubble Space Telescope is deployed on April 25, 1990 from the space shuttle Discovery: NASA continues to work to resolve a problem with the Hubble Space Telescope payload computer that halted on June 13:

#AceDailyNews says …….NASA Operations Underway to Restore Payload Computer on Hubble as on June 22, 2021 – Testing Underway to Identify Issue and Restore Payload Computer on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope

Avoiding distortions of the atmosphere, Hubble has an unobstructed view peering to planets, stars and galaxies, some more than 13.4 billion light years away: For more information about the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling unit view the following PDF Here:

After performing tests on several of the computer’s memory modules, the results indicate that a different piece of computer hardware may have caused the problem, with the memory errors being only a symptom. The operations team is investigating whether the Standard Interface (STINT) hardware, which bridges communications between the computer’s Central Processing Module (CPM) and other components, or the CPM itself is responsible for the issue. The team is currently designing tests that will be run in the next few days to attempt to further isolate the problem and identify a potential solution.

This step is important for determining what hardware is still working properly for future reference. If the problem with the payload computer can’t be fixed, the operations team will be prepared to switch to the STINT and CPM hardware onboard the backup payload computer. The team has conducted ground tests and operations procedure reviews to verify all the commanding required to perform that switch on the spacecraft.

If the backup payload computer’s CPM and STINT hardware is turned on, several days will be required to assess the computer performance and restore normal science operations. The backup computer has not been powered on since its installation in 2009; however, it was thoroughly tested on the ground prior to installation on the spacecraft.

The payload computer is a NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer-1 (NSSC-1) system built in the 1980s that is located on the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SI C&DH) unit. After 18 years on orbit, the original SI C&DH experienced a failure in 2008 that delayed the final servicing mission to Hubble while a replacement was prepared for flight. In May 2009, STS-125 was launched and the astronauts installed the existing unit. The replacement contains original hardware from the 1980s with four independent 64K memory modules of Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) memory. Only one memory module is used operationally, with the other three serving as backups. All four modules can be used and accessed from either of the redundant payload computers.

Launched in 1990, with more than 30 years of operations, Hubble has made observations that have captured imaginations worldwide and deepened our knowledge of the cosmos.

June 18, 2021 – Operations Continue to Restore Payload Computer on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope

NASA continues to work on resolving an issue with the payload computer on the Hubble Space Telescope. The operations team will be running tests and collecting more information on the system to further isolate the problem. The science instruments will remain in a safe mode state until the issue is resolved. The telescope itself and science instruments remain in good health.

The computer halted on Sunday, June 13. An attempt to restart the computer failed on Monday, June 14. Initial indications pointed to a degrading computer memory module as the source of the computer halt. When the operations team attempted to switch to a back-up memory module, however, the command to initiate the backup module failed to complete. Another attempt was conducted on both modules Thursday evening to obtain more diagnostic information while again trying to bring those memory modules online. However, those attempts were not successful.

The payload computer is a NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer-1 (NSSC-1) system built in the 1980s that is located on the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling unit. The computer’s purpose is to control and coordinate the science instruments and monitor them for health and safety purposes. It is fully redundant in that a second computer, along with its associated hardware, exists on orbit that can be switched over to in the event of a problem. Both computers can access and use any of four independent memory modules, which each contain 64K of Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) memory. The payload computer uses only one memory module operationally at a time, with the other three serving as backups.

Launched in 1990, Hubble has contributed greatly to our understanding of the universe over the past 30 years.

For more information about Hubble, visit: www.nasa.gov/hubble

June 16, 2021 – NASA is working to resolve an issue with the payload computer on the Hubble Space Telescope

NASA is working to resolve an issue with the payload computer on the Hubble Space Telescope. The computer halted on Sunday, June 13, shortly after 4 p.m. EDT. After analyzing the data, the Hubble operations team is investigating whether a degrading memory module led to the computer halt. The team is preparing to switch to one of several backup modules on Wednesday, June 16. The computer will then be allowed to run for approximately one day to verify that the problem has been solved. The team would then restart all science instruments and return the telescope to normal science operations.

The purpose of the payload computer is to control and coordinate the science instruments onboard the spacecraft. After the halt occurred on Sunday, the main computer stopped receiving a “keep-alive” signal, which is a standard handshake between the payload and main spacecraft computers to indicate all is well. The main computer then automatically placed all science instruments in a safe mode configuration. Control center personnel at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland restarted the payload computer on Monday, June 14, but it soon experienced the same problem.

The payload computer is a NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer-1 (NSSC-1) system built in the 1980s. It is part of the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling module, which was replaced during the last astronaut servicing mission in 2009. The module has various levels of redundancy which can be switched on to serve as the primary system when necessary.

For more information about Hubble, visit: www.nasa.gov/hubble

For media inquiries, contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-1940
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Elizabeth Landau
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
202-358-0845
elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov

Rob Gutro
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
443-858-1779
robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov

Last Updated: Jun 23, 2021

Editor: Lynn Jenner

#AceNewsDesk report ………Published: Jun.25: 2021: