Be sure to click on the image to make it larger to see the wonderfully detailed structure of the comet's tail.
Showing posts with label Samuel Oschin Telescope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Samuel Oschin Telescope. Show all posts
Friday, July 15, 2011
Astrophoto Friday - A Marvel in the Darkness
Antonin Mrkos discovered seven comets. These photos of his brightest comet (1957 D) were taken in August 1957 with Palomar Observatory's 48-inch Schmidt Telescope (now called the Samuel Oschin Telescope) by Charles Kearns, George O. Abell and Byron Hill.
Be sure to click on the image to make it larger to see the wonderfully detailed structure of the comet's tail.
Be sure to click on the image to make it larger to see the wonderfully detailed structure of the comet's tail.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Astrophoto Friday - Colliding Galaxies
This pair of spiral galaxies are on a collision course with each other. The galaxies lie some 90 million light years from our Milky Way Galaxy. Collectively they are known as Arp 271 and individually as NGC 5426 and NGC 5427. Over the next several million years they will continue the slow gravitational dance that may eventually cause them to merge into one galaxy.
This image of Arp 271 was captured using the wide-angle 48-inch (1.2-meter) Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope. This is a crop of a much larger image. It was taken as a part of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey and comes to us from Jason Surace and the PTF collaboration.
For a much more detailed shot, taken by a much larger telescope, be sure to check out this image of Arp 271 taken with the 8-meter Gemini South Telescope.
This image of Arp 271 was captured using the wide-angle 48-inch (1.2-meter) Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope. This is a crop of a much larger image. It was taken as a part of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey and comes to us from Jason Surace and the PTF collaboration.
For a much more detailed shot, taken by a much larger telescope, be sure to check out this image of Arp 271 taken with the 8-meter Gemini South Telescope.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Astrophoto Friday - Crab Nebula
It is nearly Independence Day here in the States. That is traditionally a time for fireworks. It also seems to be a tradition of mine to post a Palomar photo of the Crab Nebula which was created by one of nature's biggest fireworks displays - the collapse and explosion of a massive star (See my post from 2009 and 2010).
The supernova explosion that produced what is now known as the Crab Nebula was first observed on July 4, 1054 A.D. - 722 years before the American Declaration of Independence.
This image of the Crab Nebula was captured using the wide-angle 48-inch Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope. This is a crop of a much larger image. It was taken as a part of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey and comes to us from Jason Surace and the PTF collaboration.
The supernova explosion that produced what is now known as the Crab Nebula was first observed on July 4, 1054 A.D. - 722 years before the American Declaration of Independence.
This image of the Crab Nebula was captured using the wide-angle 48-inch Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope. This is a crop of a much larger image. It was taken as a part of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey and comes to us from Jason Surace and the PTF collaboration.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Astrophoto Friday
It is the return of Astrophoto Friday!
The image is of the globular star cluster known as NGC 288.
This image was captured using the wide-angle 48-inch Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope. This is a crop of a much larger image. It was taken as a part of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey and comes to us from Jason Surace and the PTF collaboration.
The image is of the globular star cluster known as NGC 288.
This image was captured using the wide-angle 48-inch Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope. This is a crop of a much larger image. It was taken as a part of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey and comes to us from Jason Surace and the PTF collaboration.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Press Release: Caltech-led Astronomers Find a New Class of Stellar Explosions
Below is a press release that was issued today about some of the science behind the Palomar Transient Factory survey.
PASADENA, Calif.—They're bright and blue—and a bit strange. They're a new type of stellar explosion that was recently discovered by a team of astronomers led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Among the most luminous in the cosmos, these new kinds of supernovae could help researchers better understand star formation, distant galaxies, and what the early universe might have been like.
"We're learning about a whole new class of supernovae that wasn't known before," says Robert Quimby, a Caltech postdoctoral scholar and the lead author on a paper to be published in the June 9 issue of the journal Nature. In addition to finding four explosions of this type, the team also discovered that two previously known supernovae, whose identities had baffled astronomers, also belonged to this new class.
Quimby first made headlines in 2007 when—as a graduate student at the University of Texas, Austin—he discovered what was then the brightest supernova ever found: 100 billion times brighter than the sun and 10 times brighter than most other supernovae. Dubbed 2005ap, it was also a little odd. For one thing, its spectrum—the chemical fingerprint that tells astronomers what the supernova is made of, how far away it is, and what happened when it blew up—was unlike any seen before. It also showed no signs of hydrogen, which is commonly found in most supernovae.
At around the same time, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a mysterious supernova called SCP 06F6. This supernova also had an odd spectrum, though there was nothing that indicated this cosmic blast was similar to 2005ap.
The 1.2-meter Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory that was used to discover four supernovae of a new class. Inset: one of the newly discovered supernovae, PTF09cnd.
Shri Kulkarni, Caltech's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science and a coauthor on the paper, recruited Quimby to become a founding member of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). The PTF is a project that scans the skies for flashes of light that weren't there before—flashes that signal objects called transients, many of which are supernovae. As part of the PTF, Quimby and his colleagues used the 1.2-meter Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory to discover four new supernovae. After taking spectra with the 10-meter Keck telescopes in Hawaii, the 5.1-meter telescope at Palomar, and the 4.2-meter William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands, the astronomers discovered that all four objects had an unusual spectral signature.
Quimby then realized that if you slightly shifted the spectrum of 2005ap—the supernova he had found a couple of years earlier—it looked a lot like these four new objects. The team then plotted all the spectra together. "Boom—it was a perfect match," he recalls.
The astronomers soon determined that shifting the spectrum of SCP 06F6 similarly aligned it with the others. In the end, it turned out that all six supernovae are siblings, and that they all have spectra that are very blue—with the brightest wavelengths shining in the ultraviolet.
According to Quimby, the two mysterious supernovae—2005ap and SCP 06F6—had looked different from one another because 2005ap was 3 billion light-years away while SCP 06F6 was 8 billion light-years away. More distant supernovae have a stronger cosmological redshift, a phenomenon in which the expanding universe stretches the wavelength of the emitted light, shifting supernovae spectra toward the red end.
The four new discoveries, which had features similar to 2005ap and SCP 06F6, were at an intermediate distance, providing the missing link that connected the two previously unexplained supernovae. "That's what was most striking about this—that this was all one unified class," says Mansi Kasliwal, a Caltech graduate student and coauthor on the Nature paper.
Even though astronomers now know these supernovae are related, no one knows much else. "We have a whole new class of objects that can't be explained by any of the models we've seen before," Quimby says. What we do know about them is that they are bright and hot—10,000 to 20,000 degrees Kelvin; that they are expanding rapidly at 10,000 kilometers per second; that they lack hydrogen; and that they take about 50 days to fade away—much longer than most supernovae, whose luminosity is often powered by radioactive decay. So there must be some other mechanism that's making them so bright.
The four supernovae discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory. Left: before explosion. Right: after explosion. From top to bottom, the supernovae are PTF09atu, PTF09cnd, PTF09cwl, and PTF10cwr.
One possible model that would create an explosion with these properties involves a pulsating star about 90 to 130 times the mass of the sun. The pulsations blow off hydrogen-free shells, and when the star exhausts its fuel and explodes as a supernova, the blast heats up those shells to the observed temperatures and luminosities.
A second model requires a star that explodes as a supernova but leaves behind what's called a magnetar, a rapidly spinning dense object with a strong magnetic field. The rotating magnetic field slows the magnetar down as it interacts with the sea of charged particles that fills space, releasing energy. The energy heats the material that was previously blown off during the supernova explosion and can naturally explain the brightness of these events.
The newly discovered supernovae live in dim, small collections of a few billion stars called dwarf galaxies. (Our own Milky Way has 200–400 billion stars.) The supernovae, which are almost a hundred times brighter than their host galaxies, illuminate their environments like distant street lamps lighting up dark roads. They work as a kind of backlight, enabling astronomers to measure the spectrum of the interstellar gas that fills the dwarf galaxies in which the supernovae reside, and revealing each galaxy's composition. Once an observed supernova fades a couple of months later, astronomers can directly study the dwarf galaxy—which would have remained undetected if it weren't for the supernova.
These supernovae could also reveal what ancient stars might have been like, since they most likely originate from stars around a hundred times more massive than the sun—stars that would have been very similar to the first stars in the universe.
“It is really amazing how rich the night sky continues to be," Kulkarni says. "In addition to supernovae, the Palomar Transient Factory is making great advances in stellar astronomy as well.”
In addition to Quimby, Kasliwal, and Kulkarni, 24 other authors—11 of whom are from Caltech—contributed to the work described in the Nature paper, "A new class of hydrogen-poor super-luminous stellar explosions." This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundations, the Israeli Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Gordon & Betty Moore foundation, Gary and Cynthia Bengier, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, and the Royal Society. The Palomar Transient Factory is a collaboration between Caltech, Columbia University, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, UC Berkeley, University of Oxford, and the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel).
# # #
Written by Marcus Woo
PASADENA, Calif.—They're bright and blue—and a bit strange. They're a new type of stellar explosion that was recently discovered by a team of astronomers led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Among the most luminous in the cosmos, these new kinds of supernovae could help researchers better understand star formation, distant galaxies, and what the early universe might have been like.
"We're learning about a whole new class of supernovae that wasn't known before," says Robert Quimby, a Caltech postdoctoral scholar and the lead author on a paper to be published in the June 9 issue of the journal Nature. In addition to finding four explosions of this type, the team also discovered that two previously known supernovae, whose identities had baffled astronomers, also belonged to this new class.
Quimby first made headlines in 2007 when—as a graduate student at the University of Texas, Austin—he discovered what was then the brightest supernova ever found: 100 billion times brighter than the sun and 10 times brighter than most other supernovae. Dubbed 2005ap, it was also a little odd. For one thing, its spectrum—the chemical fingerprint that tells astronomers what the supernova is made of, how far away it is, and what happened when it blew up—was unlike any seen before. It also showed no signs of hydrogen, which is commonly found in most supernovae.
At around the same time, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a mysterious supernova called SCP 06F6. This supernova also had an odd spectrum, though there was nothing that indicated this cosmic blast was similar to 2005ap.
The 1.2-meter Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory that was used to discover four supernovae of a new class. Inset: one of the newly discovered supernovae, PTF09cnd. [Credit: Caltech/Scott Kardel/Robert Quimby/modified from Nature]
Shri Kulkarni, Caltech's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science and a coauthor on the paper, recruited Quimby to become a founding member of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). The PTF is a project that scans the skies for flashes of light that weren't there before—flashes that signal objects called transients, many of which are supernovae. As part of the PTF, Quimby and his colleagues used the 1.2-meter Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory to discover four new supernovae. After taking spectra with the 10-meter Keck telescopes in Hawaii, the 5.1-meter telescope at Palomar, and the 4.2-meter William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands, the astronomers discovered that all four objects had an unusual spectral signature.
Quimby then realized that if you slightly shifted the spectrum of 2005ap—the supernova he had found a couple of years earlier—it looked a lot like these four new objects. The team then plotted all the spectra together. "Boom—it was a perfect match," he recalls.
The astronomers soon determined that shifting the spectrum of SCP 06F6 similarly aligned it with the others. In the end, it turned out that all six supernovae are siblings, and that they all have spectra that are very blue—with the brightest wavelengths shining in the ultraviolet.
According to Quimby, the two mysterious supernovae—2005ap and SCP 06F6—had looked different from one another because 2005ap was 3 billion light-years away while SCP 06F6 was 8 billion light-years away. More distant supernovae have a stronger cosmological redshift, a phenomenon in which the expanding universe stretches the wavelength of the emitted light, shifting supernovae spectra toward the red end.
The four new discoveries, which had features similar to 2005ap and SCP 06F6, were at an intermediate distance, providing the missing link that connected the two previously unexplained supernovae. "That's what was most striking about this—that this was all one unified class," says Mansi Kasliwal, a Caltech graduate student and coauthor on the Nature paper.
Even though astronomers now know these supernovae are related, no one knows much else. "We have a whole new class of objects that can't be explained by any of the models we've seen before," Quimby says. What we do know about them is that they are bright and hot—10,000 to 20,000 degrees Kelvin; that they are expanding rapidly at 10,000 kilometers per second; that they lack hydrogen; and that they take about 50 days to fade away—much longer than most supernovae, whose luminosity is often powered by radioactive decay. So there must be some other mechanism that's making them so bright.
The four supernovae discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory. Left: before explosion. Right: after explosion. From top to bottom, the supernovae are PTF09atu, PTF09cnd, PTF09cwl, and PTF10cwr.[Credit: Caltech/Robert Quimby/Nature]
One possible model that would create an explosion with these properties involves a pulsating star about 90 to 130 times the mass of the sun. The pulsations blow off hydrogen-free shells, and when the star exhausts its fuel and explodes as a supernova, the blast heats up those shells to the observed temperatures and luminosities.
A second model requires a star that explodes as a supernova but leaves behind what's called a magnetar, a rapidly spinning dense object with a strong magnetic field. The rotating magnetic field slows the magnetar down as it interacts with the sea of charged particles that fills space, releasing energy. The energy heats the material that was previously blown off during the supernova explosion and can naturally explain the brightness of these events.
The newly discovered supernovae live in dim, small collections of a few billion stars called dwarf galaxies. (Our own Milky Way has 200–400 billion stars.) The supernovae, which are almost a hundred times brighter than their host galaxies, illuminate their environments like distant street lamps lighting up dark roads. They work as a kind of backlight, enabling astronomers to measure the spectrum of the interstellar gas that fills the dwarf galaxies in which the supernovae reside, and revealing each galaxy's composition. Once an observed supernova fades a couple of months later, astronomers can directly study the dwarf galaxy—which would have remained undetected if it weren't for the supernova.
These supernovae could also reveal what ancient stars might have been like, since they most likely originate from stars around a hundred times more massive than the sun—stars that would have been very similar to the first stars in the universe.
“It is really amazing how rich the night sky continues to be," Kulkarni says. "In addition to supernovae, the Palomar Transient Factory is making great advances in stellar astronomy as well.”
In addition to Quimby, Kasliwal, and Kulkarni, 24 other authors—11 of whom are from Caltech—contributed to the work described in the Nature paper, "A new class of hydrogen-poor super-luminous stellar explosions." This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundations, the Israeli Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Gordon & Betty Moore foundation, Gary and Cynthia Bengier, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, and the Royal Society. The Palomar Transient Factory is a collaboration between Caltech, Columbia University, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, UC Berkeley, University of Oxford, and the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel).
# # #
Written by Marcus Woo
Friday, June 3, 2011
Breaking News - A Supernova in M51
Astronomers with the Palomar Transient Factory are reporting the discovery of a supernova in the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51).
It has been classified as a Type II supernova, which means that it is the result of the collapse and explosion of a massive star. The classification was performed using the Keck I telescope in Hawai'i. The magnitude of the star was estimated at 13.5, which makes it bright enough for amateur astronomers to see and image. It should be noted in the discovery report that the "exact magnitude uncertain due to saturation" - meaning that the supernova was too bright for astronomers to measure. Of course they were using one of the largest telescopes on the planet.
I am checking to see if there will be images to post, but in the meantime here is a shot of M51 taken well over a year ago by Palomar's 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope as a part of the Palomar Transient Factory Survey:
I am sure that there will be more news on this in the coming days and weeks, so stay tuned.
It has been classified as a Type II supernova, which means that it is the result of the collapse and explosion of a massive star. The classification was performed using the Keck I telescope in Hawai'i. The magnitude of the star was estimated at 13.5, which makes it bright enough for amateur astronomers to see and image. It should be noted in the discovery report that the "exact magnitude uncertain due to saturation" - meaning that the supernova was too bright for astronomers to measure. Of course they were using one of the largest telescopes on the planet.
I am checking to see if there will be images to post, but in the meantime here is a shot of M51 taken well over a year ago by Palomar's 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope as a part of the Palomar Transient Factory Survey:
I am sure that there will be more news on this in the coming days and weeks, so stay tuned.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Glider Over Palomar
On a warm day it is not unusual to see a glider spiraling over Palomar Mountain. Occasionally they come close enough to the observatory that you can actually hear them.
We had gliders out last Saturday when Brad Eells of the Forest Fire Lookout Association took this photo:
Brad took this unique photo from the old fire lookout tower at High Point, which looks down on the observatory. To the left of the glider are the domes of the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope and the much larger 200-inch Hale Telescope. To the right of the glider is the dome of the 24-inch telescope and the observatory's water tower.
For another shot of a glider over the observatory, check out this post from 2009.
I know that blog posts here have been rare lately, that is starting to change as I have plenty of material to share. Be sure to check back for more this week.
We had gliders out last Saturday when Brad Eells of the Forest Fire Lookout Association took this photo:
Brad took this unique photo from the old fire lookout tower at High Point, which looks down on the observatory. To the left of the glider are the domes of the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope and the much larger 200-inch Hale Telescope. To the right of the glider is the dome of the 24-inch telescope and the observatory's water tower.For another shot of a glider over the observatory, check out this post from 2009.
I know that blog posts here have been rare lately, that is starting to change as I have plenty of material to share. Be sure to check back for more this week.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Catwalk Panorama
Hopefully this panorama will show up on all Web browsers. It is an interactive Photosnyth panorama shot a few minutes ago from the catwalk of the 200-inch Hale Telescope. In it you can see the observatory's water tower, the dome of the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope and the dome of the 18-inch Schmidt telescope.
Here is a direct link to the panorama. I hope to shoot more of these in the near future to give people a sense of what it is like to be at Palomar Observatory.
Here is a direct link to the panorama. I hope to shoot more of these in the near future to give people a sense of what it is like to be at Palomar Observatory.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Dome Shadow
Here is the shadow of the dome of the Hale Telescope as it looked late yesterday afternoon. The dome of the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope can be seen to the left of the shadow.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Shoveling Snow off of the Dome - Part 2
Some of you may remember my Shoveling Snow from the Dome post from April of last year. If not, feel free to follow the link to see some telephoto pictures of some of the Palomar crew shoveling snow off of the slit of the dome of the Hale Telescope.
F0r the last several months I have been cast in to a role that is more involved with the nightly operation of the telescope (that's why the number of blog posts have dropped dramatically) and today I had my first opportunity to shovel snow off of the top of the dome. I was able to bring a camera with me and can share some pics of from the experience.
The basic problem is this. If you open the dome with snow on the top, snow will fall in on the telescope and instrumentation. So a small crew, each secured with a safety harness, is sent up to remove the snow from the dome slit.
Here is a view of the top of the dome before any work was begun:
Here is a view of the work as it was nearing completion:
Notice that there is still quite a bit of snow on the dome, but the area that poses the greatest potential risk to the telescope has been pretty much cleared.
Here I am on top of the world:
Joining me on this quest was Greg:
Trust me, 135-feet would be a long way to fall, so having the safety harness secured is very important.
It is important to tune out the view, because it is so amazing, but I did manage to snap a few quick shots:
The photo above is looking roughly southward. You can see the little dome of the 18-inch Schmidt (center) and the much bigger (but much farther away) dome for the 60-inch telescope (right). You can also see the snow-filled Mendenhall Valley and the Crestline/Birch Hill ridge of Palomar Mountain (behind the 60-inch telescope at right).
This view is looking toward High Point. If you click to embiggen the photo you can easily see the High Point lookout tower. In the center is the dome of the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope. To the left is the observatory's 1,000,000-gallon water tank and the water tower.
Finally, check out this short video that I took of the view:
At Palomar Observatory every day is an adventure.
F0r the last several months I have been cast in to a role that is more involved with the nightly operation of the telescope (that's why the number of blog posts have dropped dramatically) and today I had my first opportunity to shovel snow off of the top of the dome. I was able to bring a camera with me and can share some pics of from the experience.
The basic problem is this. If you open the dome with snow on the top, snow will fall in on the telescope and instrumentation. So a small crew, each secured with a safety harness, is sent up to remove the snow from the dome slit.
Here is a view of the top of the dome before any work was begun:
Here is a view of the work as it was nearing completion:
Notice that there is still quite a bit of snow on the dome, but the area that poses the greatest potential risk to the telescope has been pretty much cleared.Here I am on top of the world:
Joining me on this quest was Greg:
Trust me, 135-feet would be a long way to fall, so having the safety harness secured is very important.
It is important to tune out the view, because it is so amazing, but I did manage to snap a few quick shots:
The photo above is looking roughly southward. You can see the little dome of the 18-inch Schmidt (center) and the much bigger (but much farther away) dome for the 60-inch telescope (right). You can also see the snow-filled Mendenhall Valley and the Crestline/Birch Hill ridge of Palomar Mountain (behind the 60-inch telescope at right).
This view is looking toward High Point. If you click to embiggen the photo you can easily see the High Point lookout tower. In the center is the dome of the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope. To the left is the observatory's 1,000,000-gallon water tank and the water tower.Finally, check out this short video that I took of the view:
At Palomar Observatory every day is an adventure.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Palomar History Photo of the Week - Building a Dome
Here is another photo taken in the 1940s by Lee A. Farnsworth, Jr. It shows the dome of Palomar's 48-inch Schmidt telescope (now called the Samuel Oschin Telescope) while it was under construction.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Astrophoto Friday - Eris Discovery
Astrophoto Friday returns today with an animated gif of the discovery photos of dwarf planet Eris. Can you spot it?
Eris is the moving object near the left-hand side of the image.
The discovery of Eris was made by Caltech's Mike Brown and his partners. They first imaged this distant world of the Kuiper Belt using Palomar's 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope. The discovery rocked the astronomical world and helped to bump Pluto out of its planetary status. Both Pluto, Eris and some other worlds discovered by Mike at Palomar share a new category, that of dwarf planet.
The discovery and the turmoil that followed is the subject of a new book by Mike Brown which will be available on Tuesday, December 7 (both Gerard Kuiper’s birthday and Pearl Harbor day).
Of course, Palomar Observatory's gift shop will be stocking the book - which happens to make a great gift.
Eris is the moving object near the left-hand side of the image. The discovery of Eris was made by Caltech's Mike Brown and his partners. They first imaged this distant world of the Kuiper Belt using Palomar's 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope. The discovery rocked the astronomical world and helped to bump Pluto out of its planetary status. Both Pluto, Eris and some other worlds discovered by Mike at Palomar share a new category, that of dwarf planet.
The discovery and the turmoil that followed is the subject of a new book by Mike Brown which will be available on Tuesday, December 7 (both Gerard Kuiper’s birthday and Pearl Harbor day).
Of course, Palomar Observatory's gift shop will be stocking the book - which happens to make a great gift.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Astrophoto Friday - the California Nebula
This week Astrophoto Friday brings us the California Nebula.
The California Nebula (also known as NGC 1499) is an emission nebula consisting largely of ionized hydrogen gas. It was named for its resemblance to the state of California - home to the Palomar Observatory. The nebula is located approximately 1,000 light years from our solar system in the direction of the constellation of Perseus.
The bright blue star Xi Persei (to the right of the nebula) most likely is the source of illumination for the nebula.
This image is a composite from two black and white images taken with the Palomar Observatory's 48-inch (1.2-meter) Samuel Oschin Telescope as a part of the Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II). The images were recorded on two glass photographic plates - one sensitive to red light and the other to blue. The plates were scanned and color combined to produce the image seen here.
The California Nebula (also known as NGC 1499) is an emission nebula consisting largely of ionized hydrogen gas. It was named for its resemblance to the state of California - home to the Palomar Observatory. The nebula is located approximately 1,000 light years from our solar system in the direction of the constellation of Perseus.
The bright blue star Xi Persei (to the right of the nebula) most likely is the source of illumination for the nebula.
This image is a composite from two black and white images taken with the Palomar Observatory's 48-inch (1.2-meter) Samuel Oschin Telescope as a part of the Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II). The images were recorded on two glass photographic plates - one sensitive to red light and the other to blue. The plates were scanned and color combined to produce the image seen here.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Astrophoto Friday - the Whirlpool Galaxy
M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, is 37 million light years distant but still a jewel of the heavens. Here it is as captured by the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey using Palomar's 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope.
For those keeping score, the PTF survey has discovered 882 supernovae.
The Whirlpool Galaxy can be found in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici (the hunting dogs).
For those keeping score, the PTF survey has discovered 882 supernovae.
The Whirlpool Galaxy can be found in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici (the hunting dogs).
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
News & Discoveries from Palomar Transient Factory
The total number of supernovae discovered via the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey has climbed to 800.
The heart of the survey is Palomar's 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope.
Be sure to check out the article from Space.com on PTF and astronomical data mining.
According to the article each night the 48-inch "telescope picks up 1.5 million candidate transients — fleeting astronomical phenomena — in the sky. Ten thousand or so of these are bona fide objects, and about 10 turn out to be new. Finding a few needles in a giant haystack night after night is a relatively new challenge for astronomers".
One of the more recent announcements out of the survey is that of the discovery of a possible "super-Chandrasekhar Type Ia Supernova". That would be the explosion of a white dwarf star that is more massive than is typically expected. They may possibly result from the merger and detonation of two white dwarf stars. For more on Type Ia supernovae, check out this fine summary from OPT telescopes.
The heart of the survey is Palomar's 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope.
Be sure to check out the article from Space.com on PTF and astronomical data mining.
According to the article each night the 48-inch "telescope picks up 1.5 million candidate transients — fleeting astronomical phenomena — in the sky. Ten thousand or so of these are bona fide objects, and about 10 turn out to be new. Finding a few needles in a giant haystack night after night is a relatively new challenge for astronomers".
One of the more recent announcements out of the survey is that of the discovery of a possible "super-Chandrasekhar Type Ia Supernova". That would be the explosion of a white dwarf star that is more massive than is typically expected. They may possibly result from the merger and detonation of two white dwarf stars. For more on Type Ia supernovae, check out this fine summary from OPT telescopes.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Astrophoto Friday - the Blackeye Galaxy
This week's astrophoto is of the Blackeye Galaxy, also known as M64. M64 is spiral galaxy located about 19 million light years distant in the direction of the constellation of Coma Berenices.
The image was captured by the Palomar Transient Factory team using Palomar's 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope.
The image was captured by the Palomar Transient Factory team using Palomar's 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Astrophoto Friday - The UFO Galaxy
As of their last web update the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) has so far discovered 752 supernovae. The heart of the PTF survey is Palomar's 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope - a wide-field Schmidt camera. It operates in robotic mode, taking a new image of the night sky every 90 seconds.
Most of the time the images are optimized to hunt for supernovae and are not cleaned up to make them visually appealing. Thankfully some of the PTF team has taken the time to produce some nice shots, which I will be sharing here from time to time. Our first one is of a galaxy known as NGC 2683.
NGC 2683 is a nearly edge-on spiral galaxy located some 16 million light years away in the direction of constellation Lynx. NGC 2683 is nicknamed the UFO Galaxy.
Most of the time the images are optimized to hunt for supernovae and are not cleaned up to make them visually appealing. Thankfully some of the PTF team has taken the time to produce some nice shots, which I will be sharing here from time to time. Our first one is of a galaxy known as NGC 2683.
NGC 2683 is a nearly edge-on spiral galaxy located some 16 million light years away in the direction of constellation Lynx. NGC 2683 is nicknamed the UFO Galaxy.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Astrophoto Friday - Supernova 1972E
Astrophoto Friday returns with a pair of photos of the galaxy known as NGC 5253.
The photo on the left was taken with Palomar's 48-inch Schmidt telescope (now known as the Samuel Oschin Telescope) the night of June 4, 1959 by Milton Humason. The right-hand picture was taken by Charles Kowal with the same telescope the night of May 16, 1972.
Notice that the photo on the right has an extra star, visible to the lower right of the brightest part of the galaxy. The photo on the right has captured an explosion known as a supernova. This particular supernova (SN 1972e) was classified as a Type Ia supernova, which is thought to occur with the explosion of a dead star known as a white dwarf.
Supernova 1972e was found as a part of an organized survey for supernovae at Palomar that photographed thirteen of them in 1972. The old technique of photographing the sky and comparing the new images with older ones taken years before has now been supplanted by surveys that scan large volumes of sky and compare the new pictures with ones taken often days earlier. The Palomar Transient Factory survey has, at last count, bagged 622 supernovae since they began scanning the skies (also with Palomar's 48-inch telescope) last year.
That's quite an improvement, wouldn't you say?
The photo on the left was taken with Palomar's 48-inch Schmidt telescope (now known as the Samuel Oschin Telescope) the night of June 4, 1959 by Milton Humason. The right-hand picture was taken by Charles Kowal with the same telescope the night of May 16, 1972.
Notice that the photo on the right has an extra star, visible to the lower right of the brightest part of the galaxy. The photo on the right has captured an explosion known as a supernova. This particular supernova (SN 1972e) was classified as a Type Ia supernova, which is thought to occur with the explosion of a dead star known as a white dwarf.
Supernova 1972e was found as a part of an organized survey for supernovae at Palomar that photographed thirteen of them in 1972. The old technique of photographing the sky and comparing the new images with older ones taken years before has now been supplanted by surveys that scan large volumes of sky and compare the new pictures with ones taken often days earlier. The Palomar Transient Factory survey has, at last count, bagged 622 supernovae since they began scanning the skies (also with Palomar's 48-inch telescope) last year.
That's quite an improvement, wouldn't you say?
Friday, June 11, 2010
Astrophoto Friday - A Bubble in Aquila
This week's astrophoto is another vintage shot (copyright 1965). It shows a planetary nebula in the constellation of Aquila (the Eagle) known as NGC 6781.
The bubble of gas was given off by the star at the center of the nebula. This photograph was taken with Palomar's 48-inch Schmidt telescope which is now known as the Samuel Oschin Telescope.
The bubble of gas was given off by the star at the center of the nebula. This photograph was taken with Palomar's 48-inch Schmidt telescope which is now known as the Samuel Oschin Telescope.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Palomar Zoo
The Galaxy Zoo is coming to Palomar on Sunday night. If you are not familiar with the program here is a short introduction from their website:
The original Galaxy Zoo was launched in July 2007, with a data set made up of a million galaxies imaged with the robotic telescope of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). With so many galaxies, the team thought that it might take at least two years for visitors to the site to work through them all. Within 24 hours of launch, the site was receiving 70,000 classifications an hour, and more than 50 million classifications were received by the project during its first year, from almost 150,000 people.
Sunday night the 200-inch Hale Telescope will be used to follow-up on what some of the Galaxy Zoo team has discovered. Specifically, the team will be looking to confirm gravitational lens candidates. A gravitational lens is produced when the mass of an object, like a galaxy cluster, bends and magnifies the light of a more distant objects behind behind it. Here is an illustration to show how that happens:
By carefully studying how the light of the distant objects is bent/magnified/distorted it is possible to map out the distribution of matter and dark matter. For more information have a look at their Zooite Guide to Strong Gravitational Lenses.
From the research team observing at Palomar:
Through visual inspection of ~900,000 galaxies in the SDSS, Galaxy Zoo participants are discovering potential lens candidates at a prodigious rate. Our sample includes blue arcs and multiply imaged sources around early-type galaxies. The data will provide key constraints on the dynamics and mass distribution of both luminous and dark matter in a large sample of intermediate redshift elliptical galaxies.The Zoo project also running The Hunt For Supernovae which is helping to discover supernovae and transients first photographed with Palomar's Samuel Oschin Telescope via the Palomar Transient Factory project. Head on over to check it out.
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