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In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, or M76, located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. The name 'Little Dumbbell' comes from its shape that is a two-lobed structure of colorful, mottled, glowing gases resembling a balloon that’s been pinched around a middle waist. Like an inflating balloon, the lobes are expanding into space from a dying star seen as a white dot in the center. Blistering ultraviolet radiation from the super-hot star is causing the gases to glow. The red color is from nitrogen, and blue is from oxygen.

In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, or M76, located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. The name ‘Little Dumbbell’ comes from its shape that is a two-lobed structure of colorful, mottled, glowing gases resembling a balloon that’s been pinched around a middle waist. Like an inflating balloon, the lobes are expanding into space from a dying star seen as a white dot in the center. Blistering ultraviolet radiation from the super-hot star is causing the gases to glow. The red color is from nitrogen, and blue is from oxygen.NASA, ESA, STScI

To celebrate the 34th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch, the telescope captured an image of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, or M76. M76 is a planetary nebula, an expanding shell of glowing gases that were ejected from a dying red giant star that eventually collapses to an ultra-dense and hot white dwarf. It gets its descriptive name from its shape: a ring, seen edge-on as the central bar structure, and two lobes on either opening of the ring.

Since its launch in 1990 Hubble has made 1.6 million observations of over 53,000 astronomical objects. Most of Hubble’s discoveries were not anticipated before launch, such as supermassive black holes, the atmospheres of exoplanets, gravitational lensing by dark matter, the presence of dark energy, and the abundance of planet formation among stars.

Learn more about the Little Dumbbell Nebula and Hubble.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI

Space.com caught up with Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck recently to talk about the company's ambitious plans for the future, which include a private life-hunting mission to Venus.

People in the U.S. will be able to see where extreme heat is a threat to health with a new interactive tool created by the National Weather Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Amazon says it will create new jobs to replace roles taken over by machines, but it isn’t clear whether this will happen quickly enough

Amazon says it will create new jobs to replace roles taken over by machines, but it isn’t clear whether this will happen quickly enough

The balance of omega fatty acids in the food we eat affects our health. But what does the evidence say about claims you should be seeking to reduce omega-6 intake as well as boosting omega-3s?

The balance of omega fatty acids in the food we eat affects our health. But what does the evidence say about claims you should be seeking to reduce omega-6 intake as well as boosting omega-3s?

The quadruple eruption was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

AI can analyse satellite images to reveal the movements of dark ships in a shadow fleet that smuggles oil and other cargo from sanctioned countries such as Russia, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea

AI can analyse satellite images to reveal the movements of dark ships in a shadow fleet that smuggles oil and other cargo from sanctioned countries such as Russia, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea

By linking a family of meteorites on Earth to their relatives in the asteroid belt, scientists have arrived at a new understanding of the giant planets' movement early in the solar system's history.

The post Meteorites Tighten Timeline for Giant Planets’ Movement through the Solar System appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

With severe climate impacts becoming more and more apparent, many scientists think we should explore ways to block out solar radiation, but doing so would be risky

With severe climate impacts becoming more and more apparent, many scientists think we should explore ways to block out solar radiation, but doing so would be risky

Slovenia signed NASA's Artemis Accords on April 19, becoming the 39th country to affirm their cooperation in future space endeavors to the moon and beyond.

Europe’s newest rocket soon launches, taking with it many space missions each with a unique objective, destination and team at home, cheering them on. Whether launching new satellites to look back and study Earth, peer out to deep space or test important new technologies in orbit, Ariane 6’s first flight will showcase the versatility and flexibility of this impressive, heavy-lift launcher. Read on for all about OOV-Cube, then see who else is flying first.

4 min read

Explore the Universe with the First E-Book from NASA’s Fermi

To commemorate a milestone anniversary for NASA’s Fermi spacecraft, the mission team has published an e-book called “Our High-Energy Universe: 15 Years with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.”

Readers can download the e-book in PDF and EPUB formats. The e-book is aimed at general audiences with an interest in space.

Cover for the e-book “Our High-Energy Universe: 15 Years with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.” NASA

PDF

Apr 22, 2024

PDF (44.03 MB)

EPUB

Apr 22, 2024

EPUB+ZIP (804.49 MB)

Launched on June 11, 2008, Fermi detects gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light, from Earth’s atmosphere to far-flung galaxies and cosmic phenomena in between. Its research has uncovered details on topics ranging from solar flares to star formation and the mysteries at the center of our Milky Way.

Through images, fun facts, and launch-day memories, the e-book tells Fermi’s story from conceptualization to launch and recounts some of the mission’s groundbreaking discoveries. By delving into high-energy astrophysics topics like gamma-ray bursts and blazars, readers can explore Fermi’s universe and what questions remain open for investigation in its next chapter.

Fermi was originally called the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope but was renamed after Italian physicist Enrico Fermi in August 2008.

“Enrico Fermi’s science has been important for understanding the sources that the Fermi telescope sees,” said Elizabeth Hays, the mission’s project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The gamma-ray sky is powered by particle acceleration mechanisms he theorized about.”

The satellite has two gamma-ray detectors: the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). 

The LAT observes a fifth of the gamma-ray sky at any time, detecting high-energy light with energies ranging from 20 million to over 300 billion electron volts. (The energy of visible light is 2 to 3 electron volts.) The GBM views about 70% of the sky at a time at lower energies, searching for brief flashes of gamma-ray light.

The result of this carefully crafted duo is the most sensitive gamma-ray observatory in orbit, equipped to study the universe’s highest-energy phenomena near and far.

By peering through Fermi’s gamma-ray eyes, we can better understand our solar system. Within its first eight years of operation, Fermi detected gamma-ray emissions from 40 solar flares — bursts of energy from the Sun. Some even originated on the Sun’s far side, allowing scientists to analyze how charged particles fired by solar flares can arc from one side of the Sun to produce gamma rays on the other.

In studying our Milky Way, Fermi found two lobes of high-energy gamma rays — called the Fermi Bubbles — extending above and below the galaxy’s center. Each bubble stands 25,000 light-years tall. Astronomers think the bubbles formed following an ancient burst of activity from the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole.

Fermi helps scientists understand black holes in other galaxies, too.

“As a black hole forms, either from the death of a massive star or the collision of two neutron stars, it creates a brief flash of light called a gamma-ray burst,” said Judith Racusin, Fermi’s deputy project scientist at Goddard. “Fermi detects about one burst a day and has helped revolutionize our understanding of these phenomena.”

Even after 15 years of accomplishments, however, many mysteries remain for Fermi to tackle. One of the telescope’s ongoing objectives is to study the composition of dark matter — the mysterious substance that makes up about 25% of the universe.

Because dark matter doesn’t reflect, absorb, or emit light, scientists remain unsure of its composition. One popular theory suggests, though, that dark matter particles create gamma rays when they interact. If Fermi can spot this high-energy signature, it might help scientists learn more about dark matter’s makeup.

If there’s one thing Fermi has taught us, it’s to expect the unexpected. Gamma-ray research has yielded unprecedented breakthroughs in our understanding of the Milky Way’s central black hole, our flaring Sun, and merging neutron stars. As much as we anticipate the next gamma-ray revelation, only time will tell what exactly Fermi has in store.

Fermi is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership managed by Goddard. Fermi was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the United States.

By Jenna Ahart
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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Last Updated

Apr 23, 2024

Editor Jeanette Kazmierczak Location Goddard Space Flight Center

Related Terms

• Astrophysics
• E-Books
• Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope
• Goddard Space Flight Center
• The Universe

5 min read

Hubble Celebrates 34th Anniversary with a Look at the Little Dumbbell Nebula

In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s legendary Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Messier 76, M76, or NGC 650/651) located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. The photogenic nebula is a favorite target of amateur astronomers.

In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s legendary Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, or M76, located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. The name ‘Little Dumbbell’ comes from its shape that is a two-lobed structure of colorful, mottled, glowing gases resembling a balloon that’s been pinched around a middle waist. Like an inflating balloon, the lobes are expanding into space from a dying star seen as a white dot in the center. Blistering ultraviolet radiation from the super-hot star is causing the gases to glow. The red color is from nitrogen, and blue is from oxygen. NASA, ESA, STScI
Download this image (3MB)

Download this image (33MB)

M76 is classified as a planetary nebula, an expanding shell of glowing gases that were ejected from a dying red giant star. The star eventually collapses to an ultra-dense and hot white dwarf. A planetary nebula is unrelated to planets, but have that name because astronomers in the 1700s using low-power telescopes thought this type of object resembled a planet.

M76 is composed of a ring, seen edge-on as the central bar structure, and two lobes on either opening of the ring. Before the star burned out, it ejected the ring of gas and dust. The ring was probably sculpted by the effects of the star that once had a binary companion star. This sloughed off material created a thick disk of dust and gas along the plane of the companion’s orbit. The hypothetical companion star isn’t seen in the Hubble image, and so it could have been later swallowed by the central star. The disk would be forensic evidence for that stellar cannibalism.

The primary star is collapsing to form a white dwarf. It is one of the hottest stellar remnants known at a scorching 250,000 degrees Fahrenheit, 24 times our Sun’s surface temperature. 
The sizzling white dwarf can be seen as a pinpoint in the center of the nebula. A star visible in projection beneath it is not part of the nebula.



Pinched off by the disk, two lobes of hot gas are escaping from the top and bottom of the “belt,” along the star’s rotation axis that is perpendicular to the disk. They are being propelled by the hurricane-like outflow of material from the dying star, tearing across space at two million miles per hour. That’s fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in a little over seven minutes! This torrential “stellar wind” is plowing into cooler, slower-moving gas that was ejected at an earlier stage in the star’s life, when it was a red giant. Ferocious ultraviolet radiation from the super-hot star is causing the gases to glow. The red color is from nitrogen, and blue is from oxygen.


Given our solar system is 4.6 billion years old, the entire nebula is a flash in the pan by cosmological timekeeping. It will vanish in about 15,000 years. 




Hubble’s Star Trekking

Since its launch in 1990 Hubble has made 1.6 million observations of over 53,000 astronomical objects. To date, the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland holds 184 terabytes of processed data that is science-ready for astronomers around the world to use for research and analysis. Since 1990, 44,000 science papers have been published from Hubble observations. The space telescope is the most scientifically productive space astrophysics mission in NASA history. The demand for using Hubble is so high it is currently oversubscribed by a factor of six-to-one.

Most of Hubble’s discoveries were not anticipated before launch, such as supermassive black holes, the atmospheres of exoplanets, gravitational lensing by dark matter, the presence of dark energy, and the abundance of planet formation among stars.

Hubble will continue research in those domains and capitalize on its unique ultraviolet-light capability on such topics as solar system phenomena, supernovae outbursts, composition of exoplanet atmospheres, and dynamic emission from galaxies. And Hubble investigations continue to benefit from its long baseline of observations of solar system objects, stellar variable phenomena and other exotic astrophysics of the cosmos.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was designed to be meant to be complementary to Hubble, and not a substitute. Future Hubble research also will take advantage of the opportunity for synergies with Webb, which observes the universe in infrared light. The combined wavelength coverage of the two space telescopes expands on groundbreaking research in such areas as protostellar disks, exoplanet composition, unusual supernovae, cores of galaxies and chemistry of the distant universe.

Hubble’s Senior Project Scientist Dr. Jennifer Wiseman takes us on a tour of this stunning new image, describes the telescope’s current health, and summarizes some of Hubble’s contributions to astronomy during its 34-year career.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Lead Producer: Paul Morris

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD

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Last Updated

Apr 23, 2024

Editor Andrea Gianopoulos

Related Terms

• Astrophysics
• Astrophysics Division
• Goddard Space Flight Center
• Hubble Space Telescope
• Missions
• Nebulae
• Planetary Nebulae
• The Universe

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