![]() ![]() Stars similar to the size of the Sun will grow, cool down, and eventually transform into a red giant. However, when its hydrogen stores are depleted, some stars are able to fuse helium or even heavier elements. In a star’s early stages, it’s powered by hydrogen. Proxima Centauri, as the Latin name indicates, is the closest of the three to Earth and has an Earth-sized planet in its habitable zone. It’s made up of three stars-Proxima Centauri, Alpha Centauri A, and Alpha Centauri B. While the Sun is the only star in the Solar System, there is a neighboring star system called Alpha Centauri that’s approximately 4.37 light-years away. The Sun is the powerhouse of life here on Earth-its energy provides our planet with a mild, warm climate that keeps us alive, keeping the Earth from becoming a frozen rock. According to NASA, the Sun’s volume is equivalent to 1.3 million Earths. The visualization highlights 216 different celestial objects that are color-coded and organized into five overarching categories:Īt the center of the map is the Sun, which is the largest object in our Solar System. To create this graphic, Budassi used a combination of logarithmic astronomical maps from Princeton University, as well as images from NASA. What are some of the most notable observations that scientists have discovered so far? This map of outer space by Pablo Carlos Budassi highlights more than 200 celestial objects in our universe and provides details and facts about each one. Humans have been observing the universe for thousands of years.Īnd while we haven’t figured out all the answers quite yet, we’ve made some remarkable discoveries when it comes to learning about outer space. The Celestial Zoo: A Map of 200+ Objects in our Universe For the next generation of space enthusiasts, their eyes to the skies may well be the Webb instead.įor the true data viz nerds among us, here is an in-depth blog post detailing the sky map’s creation from scratch. Soon, it will be joining forces with the new James Webb Space Telescope, to be launched in March 2021. It’s clear that Hubble already has an impressive legacy, and it’s not expected to be retired until at least the year 2025. Colleen Hartman, Former Deputy Center Director, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble really did open up the whole universe to us in a way that nothing else did. The biggest scientific breakthrough thus far? The realization that our universe is expanding at an accelerating rate-thanks to a force called dark energy. The telescope is also responsible for immense contributions to the astronomy field: close to 13,000 scientific papers have used Hubble as a source to date. The images sent back by Hubble over these three decades are not just for aesthetic purposes. For example, galaxies can be broken down further into whether they are spiral, nuclear, elliptical-shaped and much more. Bremer also looked at the frequency of Hubble observations that occurred within each of these categories, ranging from 1,000-20,000.Įach category encompasses multiple distinctive descriptions. NASA considers the Hubble telescope the “most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo’s telescope” and not without good reason-its total observations top 1.3 million. Hubble Deep Field surveys)Įxample: Ultra Deep Field, which captured a view of 10,000 galaxies over 11 days-some which date back to the early billion years of the universe. Here are the main color-coded categories found on the map:Įxample: V838 Monocerotis, which includes a red star and a light echo.Įxample: Spiral galaxy M81, half the size of the Milky Way.Įxample: Eagle Nebula, a majestic spire of cosmic dust and gas, resembling pillars and spanning 4-5 light years.Įxample: Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a high-pressure storm in the planet’s atmosphere. It incorporates over 550,000 scientific observations, to show the diverse objects captured by Hubble between 1990-2019.Ĭertain constellations have been included to help place these findings, many of which are also visible to the naked eye. Today’s incredible map was created by Nadieh Bremer of Visual Cinnamon, for the scientific journal Physics Today. Due to an error in its primary mirror, it returned many wobbly and blurry images-until a servicing mission in December 1993 fixed the issue. However, it had something of a shaky start. Hubble launched on and has been in our orbit ever since. We’ve been fascinated by space for centuries, but telescopes truly opened our eyes to what lies beyond our frontiers.įor 30 years, the Hubble Space Telescope has been our companion in helping us understand outer space, paving the way for many important scientific discoveries in the process. View the full-size version of the infographic by clicking here. Exploring the Expanse: 30 Years of Hubble Discoveries
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