NOAO News & Reports
February 18, 2013
Asteroid 2012 DA14 Speeds Away from Earth
An international team led by Nicholas Moskovitz (MIT), observed the asteroid with a number of telescopes, including the 2.1m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory: the video (linked in the release, animated .gif files) shows the asteroid as it was leaving the vicinity of the earth.
On February 15, asteroid 2012 DA14 passed extraordinarily close to the earth. Unlike the unexpected asteroid collision over Russia that day, this encounter never presented any danger but astronomers were eager to observe the event. An international team led by Nicholas Moskovitz (MIT) observed the asteroid with a number of telescopes, including the 2.1m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory: the accompanying video shows the asteroid as it was leaving the vicinity of the earth. As Dr. Moskovitz said, “Flybys like this, particularly for objects smaller than 2012 DA14, are not uncommon. This one was special because we knew about it well in advance so that observations could be planned to look at how asteroids are effected by the Earth’s gravity when they come so close.” In this movie, the asteroid is seen moving across a field about one third the size of the full moon in about 45 minutes. The field is located in the constellation of the Little Dipper: north is to the left and east is down.
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February 12, 2013
A Valentine Rose
This image of a planetary nebula, which may suggest a rose to some, was obtained with the wide-field view of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) Mosaic 1 camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.
Sh2-174 is an unusual ancient planetary nebula. A planetary nebula is created when a low-mass star blows off its outer layers at the end of its life. The core of the star remains and is called a white dwarf. Usually the white dwarf can be found very near the center of the planetary nebula. But in the case of Sh2-174 it is off to the right. (It is the very blue star near the center of the blue gas). This asymmetry is due to the planetary nebula’s interaction with the interstellar medium that surrounds it.
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December 18, 2012
A Panoramic Loop in Cygnus
Giant supernova remnant, Cygnus Loop. The Image Gallery page for this image includes links to the full resolution version, which is more than 24,000 pixels on a side. Image Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Richard Cool (University of Arizona) and WIYN/NOAO/AURA/NSF
As an end of the year finale, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and WIYN partners offer this new wide-field image of the Cygnus loop. Three degrees on a side, this image covers an area of the sky about 45 times that of the full moon. But it does so without sacrificing high resolution. The image is over 600 million pixels in size, making it one of the largest astronomical images ever made.
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December 4, 2012
The Bubble Nebula, observed with the new One Degree Imager Camera
The Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) captured by the new ODI camera on WIYN. This wide field view, showing the nebulosity carved out by the winds of the massive central star, demonstrates the exquisite image quality. An image of the central portion of the nebula, cosmetically corrected, is found here. Image Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), WIYN ODI team & WIYN/NOAO/AURA/NSF.
Just in time for the holidays, a spectacular image of the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) demonstrates the potential of the new camera known as the One Degree Imager, or ODI, that is being commissioned at the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope on Kitt Peak. The Bubble Nebula is a shell of gas and dust carved out by the stellar wind of the massive central star (BD+60 2522), and ionized by the same star’s high-energy light. Located in the constellation Cassiopeia, this nebula is about 10 light-years across.
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November 19, 2012
Galaxy clusters may offer critical clues to Dark Energy
In this image, taken at the Blanco telescope, the boundary of the cluster of galaxies is marked with a dashed line. The brightest galaxy in the cluster galaxy (BCG) is circled.
One of the major puzzles in astronomy today is the nature of the mysterious force that astronomers have dubbed Dark Energy. And one tool in understanding this force is encoded in the distribution of clusters of galaxies in the Universe. Thus, new work by a team of astronomers that has yielded exquisitely precise distances of a large sample of clusters may lead to breakthroughs in understanding the expansion history of our Universe.
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