NASA Universe
@NASAUniverse
Your backstage pass to the universe and how NASA studies it. Exoplanets, black holes, dark energy, and more!
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NASA has confirmed the UVEX (UltraViolet EXplorer) mission for launch by January 2031. 🚀 UVEX will map the universe in ultraviolet light, study the evolution of stars and galaxies, and help capture cosmic events tied to gravitational waves. Read more:
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Eye see you 👁️
The sonification of the Helix Nebula scans from left to right, where redder colors correspond with lower pitches while bluer colors are associated with higher pitches. It has been called “The Eye of Sauron" for its uncanny and all-seeing appearance.
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The warm embrace of a star could be the stuff of nightmares. 😱
Small stars like our Sun puff out into red giants at the ends of their lives, engulfing anything orbiting too close, but brown dwarf WD 1202-024 B may have survived just such a hug. #MondayMotivation#
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Remember that time when you spotted the remains of an exploded star that no one had identified before and Chandra followed up, revealing superheated debris? Together we helped scientists understand one of the youngest remnants in our galaxy, G306.3. We'll miss you, Swift!💜
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We know our universe is expanding.
But telescopes like Hubble measure an expansion rate that’s faster than predicted, based on models of the early universe.
Here’s how @NASARoman will join the quest on cracking the case of this “Hubble Tension” ⬇️
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Science operations for our Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have now ended.
With the spacecraft orbiting less than 171 miles (275 kilometers) above Earth, atmospheric drag prevents the satellite’s telescopes from steadily gazing at their cosmic targets. 🧵
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Doing some pumpkin carving this weekend? Make space on your front porch for some out-of-this-world jack-o’-lanterns! 🎃
Check out these stencils featuring some cosmic cartoon characters, @NASAWebb, @NASARoman, and more. Download them here:
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Even galaxies need to vent.
Because of a prior gravitational interaction with a neighboring galaxy, M82 undergoes super intense star formation.
This image shows its "exhaust system" in action, regulating the galaxy's growth by venting gas outwards. ⬇️
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Ahh… blue lagoon 🏖️
This deep-blue sea of gas and dust—called Messier 8 or the Lagoon Nebula—is a hotbed of star formation. The young stars within the nebula emit rays of high-energy light, including X-rays shown in pink by @chandraxray.
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It's the final countdown 🎶
We're one step closer to Roman's first images! The observatory is now fully functional and the team is performing their final checks and calibrations before starting science observations.
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You're looking at a cosmic collision zone 🚧
This is II Zw 096, a chaotic, dust-shrouded system of merging galaxies forming stars at a furious rate. Systems like this one show us how powerful galaxy collisions shaped the early universe.
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The universe has a musical side. 🎶
Meet the Treble Clef, an unusual radio structure stretching more than 2 million light-years across space. Its shape is striking, but the science behind it is even more fascinating.
Studying structures like this can reveal how galaxy clusters interact and evolve. In this composite, radio emission appears in red, X-rays in blue, and infrared data in white:
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A gorgeous galaxy marks the spot in this image, but the real treasure is the gravitational lens in the lower-right corner, where a distant background galaxy is being magnified and distorted by the gravity of a closer galaxy:
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Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble 🧙♀️
This turbulent cauldron of star formation, N159, resides about 161,000 light years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the satellite galaxies orbiting our Milky Way.
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For 22 years, NASA’s Swift observatory has studied the universe's most powerful explosions and teamed up with other telescopes like Chandra and IXPE for breakthrough discoveries.
Even as its mission winds down, its science won’t! Explore its legacy:
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A cosmic butterfly 🦋
In this shimmering view captured by @NASAHubble, the complexities of the Twin Jet Nebula are seen in striking detail, with lobes of material stretching outward while jets of gas stream from a central star system.
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When you hear about the eerie side of the universe, it might make you feel a little "’stitious." @NASARoman will help shed light on some of these haunting sights.
Check out some scary space stories to tell in the dark:
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@chandraxray @NASAWebb While Swift usually looks far beyond our solar system, it can study objects closer to home, too. In 2010, Swift and @NASAHubble worked together to catch the remnants of an asteroid smash-up just weeks after the collision.
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With its quick reflexes, flexible scheduling, and multiwavelength vision, our Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has made discoveries with nearly every NASA space telescope during its 22 years in space.
As the mission winds down, let’s see how Swift’s collaborations have helped us unravel the mysteries of the cosmos.
🔽
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Meet the universe’s goth worlds.
Brown dwarfs drift in darkness, ungoverned by a host star and heated entirely from within. Our SPHEREx telescope studied 37 of these objects, revealing chemically rich atmospheres harboring water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane. ⬇️
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