1.
Nebula
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A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized gases. Originally, nebula was a name for any diffuse astronomical object, the Andromeda Galaxy, for instance, was once referred to as the Andromeda Nebula before the true nature of galaxies was confirmed in the early 20th century by Vesto Slipher, Edwin Hubble and others. Most nebulae are of vast size, even millions of years in diameter. The Orion Nebula, the brightest nebula in the sky that occupies a region twice the diameter of the full Moon, can be viewed with the naked eye but was missed by early astronomers. Many nebulae are visible due to their fluorescence caused by the hot stars, while others are so diffuse they can only be detected with long exposures. Some nebulae are variably illuminated by T Tauri variable stars, Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as in the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula. In these regions the formations of gas, dust, and other materials together to form denser regions, which attract further matter. The remaining material is believed to form planets and other planetary system objects. Around 150 AD, Claudius Ptolemaeus recorded, in books VII–VIII of his Almagest and he also noted a region of nebulosity between the constellations Ursa Major and Leo that was not associated with any star. The first true nebula, as distinct from a cluster, was mentioned by the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi. He noted a little cloud where the Andromeda Galaxy is located and he also cataloged the Omicron Velorum star cluster as a nebulous star and other nebulous objects, such as Brocchis Cluster. The supernova that created the Crab Nebula, the SN1054, was observed by Arabic, in 1610, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc discovered the Orion Nebula using a telescope. This nebula was observed by Johann Baptist Cysat in 1618. However, the first detailed study of the Orion Nebula was not performed until 1659 by Christiaan Huygens, in 1715, Edmund Halley published a list of six nebulae. This number steadily increased during the century, with Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux compiling a list of 20 in 1746, from 1751 to 1753, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille cataloged 42 nebulae from the Cape of Good Hope, most of which were previously unknown. Charles Messier then compiled a catalog of 103 nebulae by 1781, his interest was detecting comets, the number of nebulae was then greatly expanded by the efforts of William Herschel and his sister Caroline Herschel. Their Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars was published in 1786, a second catalog of a thousand was published in 1789 and the third and final catalog of 510 appeared in 1802. During much of their work, William Herschel believed that these nebulae were merely unresolved clusters of stars, in 1790, however, he discovered a star surrounded by nebulosity and concluded that this was a true nebulosity, rather than a more distant cluster
2.
Hubble Space Telescope
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The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. Although not the first space telescope, Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, with a 2. 4-meter mirror, Hubbles four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra. Hubbles orbit outside the distortion of Earths atmosphere allows it to take extremely high-resolution images, Hubble has recorded some of the most detailed visible light images ever, allowing a deep view into space and time. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as determining the rate of expansion of the universe. The HST was built by the United States space agency NASA, the Space Telescope Science Institute selects Hubbles targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center controls the spacecraft. Space telescopes were proposed as early as 1923, Hubble was funded in the 1970s, with a proposed launch in 1983, but the project was beset by technical delays, budget problems, and the Challenger disaster. When finally launched in 1990, Hubbles main mirror was found to have been ground incorrectly, the optics were corrected to their intended quality by a servicing mission in 1993. Hubble is the telescope designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. After launch by Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990, five subsequent Space Shuttle missions repaired, upgraded, the fifth mission was canceled on safety grounds following the Columbia disaster. However, after spirited public discussion, NASA administrator Mike Griffin approved the fifth servicing mission, the telescope is operating as of 2017, and could last until 2030–2040. Its scientific successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is scheduled for launch in 2018, the history of the Hubble Space Telescope can be traced back as far as 1946, to the astronomer Lyman Spitzers paper Astronomical advantages of an extraterrestrial observatory. In it, he discussed the two advantages that a space-based observatory would have over ground-based telescopes. First, the resolution would be limited only by diffraction, rather than by the turbulence in the atmosphere. Second, a telescope could observe infrared and ultraviolet light. Spitzer devoted much of his career to pushing for the development of a space telescope, space-based astronomy had begun on a very small scale following World War II, as scientists made use of developments that had taken place in rocket technology. An orbiting solar telescope was launched in 1962 by the United Kingdom as part of the Ariel space program, oAO-1s battery failed after three days, terminating the mission. It was followed by OAO-2, which carried out observations of stars and galaxies from its launch in 1968 until 1972. The continuing success of the OAO program encouraged increasingly strong consensus within the community that the LST should be a major goal
3.
NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems
4.
European Space Agency
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The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states, dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a staff of about 2,000. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching, after World War II, many European scientists left Western Europe in order to work with the United States. The meeting was attended by representatives from eight countries, including Harrie Massey. The Western European nations decided to have two different agencies, one concerned with developing a system, ELDO, and the precursor of the European Space Agency. The latter was established on 20 March 1964 by an agreement signed on 14 June 1962, from 1968 to 1972, ESRO launched seven research satellites. ESA in its current form was founded with the ESA Convention in 1975, ESA has 10 founding member states, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. These signed the ESA Convention in 1975 and deposited the instruments of ratification by 1980, during this interval the agency functioned in a de facto fashion. ESA launched its first major scientific mission in 1975, Cos-B, ESA joined NASA in the IUE, the worlds first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 and operated very successfully for 18 years. A number of successful Earth-orbit projects followed, and in 1986 ESA began Giotto, its first deep-space mission, to study the comets Halley and Grigg–Skjellerup. Hipparcos, a mission, was launched in 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO, Ulysses. Recent scientific missions in co-operation with NASA include the Cassini–Huygens space probe, as the successor of ELDO, ESA has also constructed rockets for scientific and commercial payloads. Ariane 1, launched in 1979, brought mostly commercial payloads into orbit from 1984 onward, the successor launch vehicle of Ariane 5, the Ariane 6 is already in the definition stage and is envisioned to enter service in the 2020s. The beginning of the new millennium saw ESA become, along with agencies like NASA, JAXA, ISRO, CSA and Roscosmos, one of the major participants in scientific space research. Although ESA had relied on co-operation with NASA in previous decades, especially the 1990s, changed circumstances led to decisions to rely more on itself, a 2011 press issue thus stated, Russia is ESAs first partner in its efforts to ensure long-term access to space. ESA maintains its scientific and research projects mainly for astronomy-space missions such as Corot, launched on 27 December 2006 and this is the reason space exploration is an integral part of overall space activities. It has always been so, and it will be more important in the future. ESA describes its work in two overlapping ways, For the general public the various fields of work are described as Activities, Member states participate to varying degrees in the mandatory and optional space programmes
5.
Constellation
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A constellation is formally defined as a region of the celestial sphere, with boundaries laid down by the International Astronomical Union. The constellation areas mostly had their origins in Western-traditional patterns of stars from which the constellations take their names, in 1922, the International Astronomical Union officially recognized the 88 modern constellations, which cover the entire sky. They began as the 48 classical Greek constellations laid down by Ptolemy in the Almagest, Constellations in the far southern sky are late 16th- and mid 18th-century constructions. 12 of the 88 constellations compose the zodiac signs, though the positions of the constellations only loosely match the dates assigned to them in astrology. The term constellation can refer to the stars within the boundaries of that constellation. Notable groupings of stars that do not form a constellation are called asterisms, when astronomers say something is “in” a given constellation they mean it is within those official boundaries. Any given point in a coordinate system can unambiguously be assigned to a single constellation. Many astronomical naming systems give the constellation in which an object is found along with a designation in order to convey a rough idea in which part of the sky it is located. For example, the Flamsteed designation for bright stars consists of a number, the word constellation seems to come from the Late Latin term cōnstellātiō, which can be translated as set of stars, and came into use in English during the 14th century. It also denotes 88 named groups of stars in the shape of stellar-patterns, the Ancient Greek word for constellation was ἄστρον. Colloquial usage does not draw a distinction between constellation in the sense of an asterism and constellation in the sense of an area surrounding an asterism. The modern system of constellations used in astronomy employs the latter concept, the term circumpolar constellation is used for any constellation that, from a particular latitude on Earth, never sets below the horizon. From the North Pole or South Pole, all constellations south or north of the equator are circumpolar constellations. In the equatorial or temperate latitudes, the term equatorial constellation has sometimes been used for constellations that lie to the opposite the circumpolar constellations. They generally include all constellations that intersect the celestial equator or part of the zodiac, usually the only thing the stars in a constellation have in common is that they appear near each other in the sky when viewed from the Earth. In galactic space, the stars of a constellation usually lie at a variety of distances, since stars also travel on their own orbits through the Milky Way, the star patterns of the constellations change slowly over time. After tens to hundreds of thousands of years, their familiar outlines will become unrecognisable, the terms chosen for the constellation themselves, together with the appearance of a constellation, may reveal where and when its constellation makers lived. The earliest direct evidence for the constellations comes from inscribed stones and it seems that the bulk of the Mesopotamian constellations were created within a relatively short interval from around 1300 to 1000 BC
6.
Andromeda (constellation)
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Andromeda is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century Greco-Roman astronomer Ptolemy and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Located north of the equator, it is named for Andromeda, daughter of Cassiopeia, in the Greek myth. Andromeda is most prominent during autumn evenings in the Northern Hemisphere, because of its northern declination, Andromeda is visible only north of 40° south latitude, for observers farther south it lies below the horizon. It is one of the largest constellations, with an area of 722 square degrees. This is over 1,400 times the size of the moon, 55% of the size of the largest constellation, Hydra. Its brightest star, Alpha Andromedae, is a star that has also been counted as a part of Pegasus, while Gamma Andromedae is a colorful binary. Only marginally dimmer than Alpha, Beta Andromedae is a red giant, the constellations most obvious deep-sky object is the naked-eye Andromeda Galaxy, the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and one of the brightest Messier objects. Several fainter galaxies, including M31s companions M110 and M32, as well as the more distant NGC891, the Blue Snowball Nebula, a planetary nebula, is visible in a telescope as a blue circular object. Andromeda is the location of the radiant for the Andromedids, a meteor shower that occurs in November. The uranography of Andromeda has its roots most firmly in the Greek tradition, the stars that make up Pisces and the middle portion of modern Andromeda formed a constellation representing a fertility goddess, sometimes named as Anunitum or the Lady of the Heavens. Andromeda is known as the Chained Lady or the Chained Woman in English and it was known as Mulier Catenata in Latin and al-Marat al Musalsalah in Arabic. Offended at her remark, the nymphs petitioned Poseidon to punish Cassiopeia for her insolence, Andromedas panicked father, Cepheus, was told by the Oracle of Ammon that the only way to save his kingdom was to sacrifice his daughter to Cetus. Perseus and Andromeda then married, the myth recounts that the couple had nine children together – seven sons, after Andromedas death Athena placed her in the sky as a constellation, to honor her. Several of the neighboring constellations also represent characters in the Perseus myth and it is connected with the constellation Pegasus. Andromeda was one of the original 48 constellations formulated by Ptolemy in his 2nd-century Almagest, in which it was defined as a specific pattern of stars. She is typically depicted with α Andromedae as her head, ο and λ Andromedae as her chains, and δ, π, μ, Β, however, there is no universal depiction of Andromeda and the stars used to represent her body, head, and chains. Arab astronomers were aware of Ptolemys constellations, but they included a second constellation representing a fish at Andromedas feet, several stars from Andromeda and most of the stars in Lacerta were combined in 1787 by German astronomer Johann Bode to form Frederici Honores. It was designed to honor King Frederick II of Prussia, in 1922, the IAU defined its recommended three-letter abbreviation, And
7.
Planetary nebula
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A planetary nebula, often abbreviated as PN or plural PNe, is a kind of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from old red giant stars late in their lives. Herschels name for these objects was popularly adopted and has not been changed and they are a relatively short-lived phenomenon, lasting a few tens of thousands of years, compared to a typical stellar lifetime of several billion years. After most of the red giants atmosphere is dissipated, the radiation of the hot luminous core, called a planetary nebula nucleus. Absorbed ultraviolet light energises the shell of gas around the central star. Planetary nebulae likely play a role in the chemical evolution of the Milky Way by expelling elements to the interstellar medium from stars where those elements were created. Planetary nebulae are also observed in distant galaxies, yielding useful information about their chemical abundances. Starting from the 1990s, Hubble Space Telescope images have revealed many planetary nebulae to have extremely complex, about one-fifth are roughly spherical, but the majority are not spherically symmetric. The mechanisms that produce such a variety of shapes and features are not yet well understood. The first planetary nebula discovered was the Dumbbell Nebula in the constellation of Vulpecula and it was observed by Charles Messier in 1764 and listed as M27 in his catalogue of nebulous objects. To early observers with telescopes, M27 and subsequently discovered planetary nebulae resembled the giant planets like Uranus. William Herschel, discoverer of Uranus, eventually coined the term planetary nebula, the nature of planetary nebulae was unknown until the first spectroscopic observations were made in the mid-19th century. Using a prism to disperse their light, William Huggins was one of the earliest astronomers to study the spectra of astronomical objects. On August 29,1864, Huggins was the first to analyze the spectrum of a planetary nebula when he observed Cats Eye Nebula and his observations of stars showed that their spectra consisted of a continuum of radiation with many dark lines superimposed. He later found that many objects such as the Andromeda Nebula had spectra that were quite similar. Those nebulae were later shown to be collections of stars now called galaxies, however, when Huggins looked at the Cats Eye Nebula, he found a very different spectrum. Rather than a strong continuum with absorption lines superimposed, the Cats Eye Nebula, the brightest of these was at a wavelength of 500.7 nanometres, which did not correspond with a line of any known element. At first, it was hypothesized that the line might be due to an unknown element, a similar idea had led to the discovery of helium through analysis of the Suns spectrum in 1868. While helium was isolated on Earth soon after its discovery in the spectrum of the Sun, nebulium was not
8.
NGC 3242
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NGC3242, commonly known as the Ghost of Jupiter, is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Hydra. William Herschel discovered the nebula on February 7,1785, and this planetary nebula is most frequently called the Ghost of Jupiter, or Jupiters Ghost due to its similar size to the planet, but it is also sometimes referred to as the Eye Nebula. The nebula measures around two years long from end to end, and contains a central white dwarf with an apparent magnitude of eleven. The inner layers of the nebula were formed some 1,500 years ago, the two ends of the nebula are marked by FLIERs, lobes of fasting moving gas often tinted red in false-color pictures. NGC3242 can easily be observed with amateur telescopes, and appears bluish-green to most observers, larger telescopes can distinguish the outer halo as well. com FLIERs in NGC3242
9.
Primary mirror
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A primary mirror is the principal light-gathering surface of a reflecting telescope. The primary mirror of a telescope is a spherical or parabolic shaped disks of polished reflective metal, or in later telescopes. One of the first known reflecting telescopes, Newtons reflector of 1668, the next major change was to use silver on glass rather than metal, in the 19th century such was with the Crossley reflector. This was changed to vacuum deposited aluminum on glass, used on the 200-inch Hale telescope, solid primary mirrors have to sustain their own weight and not deform under gravity, which limits the maximum size for a single piece primary mirror. Segmented mirror configurations are used to get around the limitation on single primary mirrors. For example, the Giant Magellan Telescope will have seven 8.4 meter primary mirrors, with the resolving power equivalent to a 24.5 m optical aperture. The largest optical telescope in the world as of 2009 to use a non-segmented single-mirror as its mirror is the 8. S. /German/Italian Large Binocular Telescope has two 8.4 m mirrors. Both of these are smaller than the 10 m segmented primary mirrors on the two Keck telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope has a 2.4 m primary mirror. Radio and submillimeter telescopes use much larger dishes or antennae, which do not have to be made as precisely as the used in optical telescopes. The Arecibo Observatory uses a 305 m dish, which is the world largest single-dish radio telescope fixed to the ground, the Green Bank Telescope has the worlds largest steerable single radio dish with 100 m in diameter. There are largest radio arrays, composed of multiple dishes which have better image resolution, active optics Honeycomb mirror Liquid mirror List of largest optical reflecting telescopes List of telescope parts and construction Mirror mount Mirror support cell Secondary mirror
23h 25m 54s, +42° 32′ 6″
Media related to NGC 7662 at Wikimedia Commons
