NASA's Hubble: Galaxies, comets, and stars! Oh my!

A Hubble view of Comet ISON

2013-07-26

(Press-News.org) Approaching the sun, Comet ISON floats against a seemingly infinite backdrop of numerous galaxies and a handful of foreground stars. The icy visitor, with its long gossamer tail, appears to be swimming like a tadpole through a deep pond of celestial wonders.

In reality, the comet is much, much closer. The nearest star to the sun is over 60,000 times farther away, and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way is over thirty billion times more distant. These vast dimensions are lost in this deep space Hubble exposure that visually combines our view of the universe from the very nearby to the extraordinarily far away.

In this composite image, background stars and galaxies were separately photographed in red and yellow-green light. Because the comet moved between exposures relative to the background objects, its appearance was blurred. The blurred comet photo was replaced with a single, black-and-white exposure. The images were taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 on April 30, 2013.

INFORMATION:

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., in Washington, D.C.

For image files and more information about Comet ISON, visit: http://hubblesite.org/news/2013/31 http://heritage.stsci.edu/2013/31

For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

NASA's Van Allen Probes discover particle accelerator in the heart of Earth's radiation belts

2013-07-26

Scientists have discovered a massive particle accelerator in the heart of one of the harshest regions of near-Earth space, a region of super-energetic, charged particles surrounding the globe called the Van Allen radiation belts. Scientists knew that something in space accelerated particles in the radiation belts to more than 99 percent the speed of light but they didn't know what that something was. New results from NASA's Van Allen Probes now show that the acceleration energy comes from within the belts themselves. Particles inside the belts are sped up by local kicks ...

NASA's IRIS telescope offers first glimpse of sun's mysterious atmosphere

2013-07-26

The moment when a telescope first opens its doors represents the culmination of years of work and planning -- while simultaneously laying the groundwork for a wealth of research and answers yet to come. It is a moment of excitement and perhaps even a little uncertainty. On July 17, 2013, the international team of scientists and engineers who supported and built NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, all lived through that moment. As the spacecraft orbited around Earth, the door of the telescope opened to view the mysterious lowest layers of the sun's atmosphere ...

A faster vessel for charting the brain

2013-07-26

Princeton University researchers have created "souped up" versions of the calcium-sensitive proteins that for the past decade or so have given scientists an unparalleled view and understanding of brain-cell communication. Reported July 18 in the journal Nature Communications, the enhanced proteins developed at Princeton respond more quickly to changes in neuron activity, and can be customized to react to different, faster rates of neuron activity. Together, these characteristics would give scientists a more precise and comprehensive view of neuron activity. The researchers ...

Scientists identify key fungal species that help explain mysteries of white nose syndrome

2013-07-26

MADISON, Wis., July 25, 2013 – U.S. Forest Service researchers have identified what may be a key to unraveling some of the mysteries of White Nose Syndrome: the closest known non-disease causing relatives of the fungus that causes WNS. These fungi, many of them still without formal Latin names, live in bat hibernation sites and even directly on bats, but they do not cause the devastating disease that has killed millions of bats in the eastern United States. Researchers hope to use these fungi to understand why one fungus can be deadly to bats while its close relatives are ...

NASA mission involving CU discovers particle accelerator in heart of Van Allen radiation belts

2013-07-26

Using data from a NASA satellite, a team of scientists led by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and involving the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered a massive particle accelerator in the heart of one of the harshest regions of near-Earth space, a region of super-energetic, charged particles surrounding the globe known as the Van Allen radiation belts. The new results from NASA's Van Allen Probes mission show the acceleration energy is in the belts themselves. Local bumps of energy kick particles inside the belts to ever-faster speeds, much like ...

Educators explore innovative 'theater' as a way to help students learn physics

2013-07-26

In a newly released study, education researchers report that personifying energy allowed students to grapple with difficult ideas about how energy works. Contrasted with more traditional lectures and graphs, this innovative instructional technique may be useful for teaching about other ideas in physical science, which commonly deals with things that change form over time. Energy is a very important concept across many fields of science, and is a key focus of the new national science standards. Energy is also a central player in several global issues, such as climate ...

Pesticides contaminate frogs from Californian National Parks

2013-07-26

Pesticides commonly used in California's Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions, have been found in remote frog species miles from farmland. Writing in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, researchers demonstrate the contamination of Pacific Tree Fogs in remote mountain areas, including national parks; supporting past research on the potential transport of pesticides by the elements. California's Central Valley is one of the most intensely farmed regions in North America, producing 8% of U.S agricultural output by value. While the use ...

Is it Bell's palsy or a stroke? Emergency physicians have the answer

2013-07-26

WASHINGTON — Emergency physicians correctly identified nearly 100 percent of patients with Bell's palsy, the symptoms of which are nearly identical to potentially life-threatening diseases such as stroke and brain tumors. The results of a study of 6 years of California patient records were published online yesterday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Potential Misdiagnoses of Bell's Palsy in the Emergency Department"). "Even lacking established guidelines for diagnosing Bell's palsy, which is the most common cause of paralysis of one side of the face, emergency physicians ...

Adenoviruses may pose risk for monkey-to-human leap

2013-07-25

Adenoviruses commonly infect humans, causing colds, flu-like symptoms and sometimes even death, but now UC San Francisco researchers have discovered that a new species of adenovirus can spread from primate to primate, and potentially from monkey to human. UCSF researchers previously identified a new adenovirus in New World titi monkeys that killed most of the monkeys infected during an outbreak in a closed monkey colony in California in 2009. At the time, a research scientist who worked closely with the monkeys and a family member, both of whom were found to ...

Profile of likely e-mail phishing victims emerges in human factors/ergonomics research

2013-07-25

The author of a paper to be presented at the upcoming 2013 International Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting has described behavioral, cognitive, and perceptual attributes of e-mail users who are vulnerable to phishing attacks. Phishing is the use of fraudulent e-mail correspondence to obtain passwords and credit card information, or to send viruses. In "Keeping Up With the Joneses: Assessing Phishing Susceptibility in an E-mail Task," Kyung Wha Hong discovered that people who were overconfident, introverted, or women were less able to accurately distinguish ...

NASA's Hubble: Galaxies, comets, and stars! Oh my!

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: