ESA Hubble Image: Glowing Jet From A Young Sta

This image shows an object known as HH 151, a bright jet of glowing material trailed by an intricate, orange-hued plume of gas and dust. 

It is located some 460 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull), near to the young, tumultuous star HL Tau.

In the first few hundred thousand years of life, new stars like HL Tau pull in material that falls towards them from the surrounding space. 

This material forms a hot disc that swirls around the coalescing body, launching narrow streams of material from its poles. 

These jets are shot out at speeds of several hundred kilometers (or miles) per second and collide violently with nearby clumps of dust and gas, creating wispy, billowing structures known as Herbig-Haro objects — like HH 151 seen in this image.

Such objects are very common in star-forming regions. They are short-lived, and their motion and evolution can actually be seen over very short timescales, on the order of years. 

They quickly race away from the newly-forming star that emitted them, colliding with new clumps of material and glowing brightly before fading away.

ESA/Hubble & NASA

ESA Hubble Image: Cosmic "Flying V" of Merging Galaxies

Image courtesy ESA/Hubble and NASA.

This large "flying V" is actually two distinct objects - a pair of interacting galaxies known as IC 2184.

Both the galaxies are seen almost edge-on in the large, faint northern constellation of Camelopardalis (The Giraffe), and can be seen as bright streaks of light surrounded by the ghostly shapes of their tidal tails.

These tidal tails are thin, elongated streams of gas, dust and stars that extend away from a galaxy into space.

They occur when galaxies gravitationally interact with one another, and material is sheared from the outer edges of each body and flung out into space in opposite directions, forming two tails.

They almost always appear curved, so when they are seen to be relatively straight, as in this image, it is clear that we are viewing the galaxies side-on.

Also visible in this image are bursts of bright blue, pinpointing hot regions where the colliding gas clouds stir up vigorous star formation.

The image consists of visible and infrared observations from Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

NGC 1973 Image: The Running Man Nebula

The Running Man Nebula. Astro-photographers Bob and Janice Fera took this image of NGC 1973, or the Running Man nebula, on Jan. 2-4, 2013, from Eagle Ridge Observatory in Foresthill, Calif. 

CREDIT: Bob and Janice Fera.

The ethereal strides of the Running Man Nebula come into view in this stunning night sky photo.

Astrophotographers Bob and Janice Fera took this image of NGC 1973, also known as the Running Man Nebula, on Jan. 2 to Jan. 4, from Eagle Ridge Observatory in Foresthill, Calif.

The Feras used an Officina Stellare RC-360AST 14" f/8 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain telescope with two-element field flattener to observe nebula.

An Apogee Alta U16M CCD camera with Astrodon filters was used to capture the photo.

The Running Man Nebula is located roughly 1,500 light years from Earth in the constellation of Orion.

A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).

It’s a reflection nebula, which mean it doesn't emit any visible light of its own, but rather is illuminated by the light from nearby stars.

Innovative Infectious Disease Research on ISS

Microgravity research may provide an opportunity to identify novel targets for vaccine development and the Nickerson team, in collaboration with Roy Curtiss, director of the Biodesign Institute's Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology has been working toward this goal. 

Based on previous findings, the scientists hypothesized that results from microgravity experiments might be used to facilitate vaccine development on Earth.

Performing sensitive biological experiments is always a delicate affair.

Few researchers, however, contend with the challenges faced by Cheryl Nickerson, whose working laboratory aboard the International Space Station (ISS) is located hundreds of miles above the Earth, traveling at some 17,000 miles per hour.

Nickerson, a microbiologist at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, is using the ISS platform to pursue new research into the effects of microgravity on disease-causing organisms.

Nickerson presented her research findings and charted the course for future investigations aboard the ISS on February 18 at the 2013 annual meeting for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Boston, Mass.

Her talk, entitled "Microgravity: A Novel Tool for Advances in Biomedical Research," is part of a special session devoted to ISS science.

"One important focus of my research is to use the microgravity environment of spaceflight as an innovative biomedical research platform. We seek to unveil novel cellular and molecular mechanisms related to infectious disease progression that cannot be observed here on Earth, and to translate our findings to novel strategies for treatment and prevention."

For NASA, Nickerson's findings were revelatory, given their implications for the health of astronauts on extended spaceflight missions.

Already faced with the potential for compromised immunity induced by the rigors of space travel, astronauts may have to further contend with the threat of disease-causing microbes with amped-up infectious abilities.

A more thorough understanding of infectious processes and host responses under these conditions is therefore vital for the design of therapeutics and other methods of limiting vulnerability for those on space missions.

NASA Kennedy Engineers Designing Plant Habitat For ISS

Some of the research on the International Space Station is already focusing on meeting the needs of long-term spaceflights beyond low-Earth orbit. 

During Expedition 29 in 2011, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov checks the progress of new growth in the Rastenia investigation aboard the space station. (NASA)

Some of the research on the International Space Station focuses on meeting the needs of long-term spaceflight to destinations such as asteroids or Mars.

A group of engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is developing a plant habitat with a large growth chamber to learn the effects of long-duration microgravity exposure to plants in space.

Through most of Kennedy's history, the space center has focused on receiving, processing and launching vehicles developed at other centers.

Design projects such as the plant habitat give people at the Florida spaceport an opportunity to further use their extensive knowledge base in preparing flight hardware.

"This is the first Kennedy-led space station payload of this magnitude," said Bryan Onate, Plant Habitat Project manager in the ISS Ground Processing and Research Directorate.

"We're using in-house expertise to develop the plant habitat to go on an EXPRESS rack in the station's Destiny laboratory.

It will provide a large, enclosed, environmentally-controlled chamber designed to support commercial and fundamental plant research onboard the space station."

The plant habitat is configured as a payload that will be mounted on a standard Expedite the Processing of Experiments to Space Station, or EXPRESS, rack.

The multipurpose payload rack system stores and supports research and science experiments across many disciplines by providing structural interfaces, power, data, cooling, water and other needs to operate science payloads in orbit.

The compact facility is about 21 inches high, 36 inches wide and 24 inches deep and would use about 735 watts of power.

"NASA is conducting plant research aboard the space station because during future long-duration missions, life in space may depend on it," Onate said.

As NASA plans missions beyond low-Earth orbit, relying on plant growth aboard a spacecraft will play an important role.

"The ability of plants to provide high quality science within a tightly closed system, a source of food and recycle carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen may prove crucial for astronauts and add to the body of knowledge as they live in space for months at a time," he said.

Onate explained that most of the experiments conducted on the space station are developed by principal investigators from universities or other research institutions.

"The plant habitat is an effort to attract a broader audience of principle investigators that need a large growth area for a long duration," he said. "In order to expedite this capability on the space station, we have contracted with Orbital Technologies Corp. to help us design, fabricate and certify the plant habitat for flight."

NASA Vegetable Production System "Veggie"

Marshall Porterfield, Life and Physical Sciences Division Director at NASA Headquarters, talks about the human body in microgravity and other life sciences at a NASA Social exploring science on the International Space Station at NASA Headquarters, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013 in Washington.

The Vegetable Production System ("Veggie"), a container used for growing plants on the ISS, is pictured in the foreground. Veggie is a deployable plant growth unit capable of producing salad-type crops to provide the crew with a palatable, nutritious, and safe source of fresh food and a tool to support relaxation and recreation. 

Veggie provides lighting and nutrient delivery, but utilizes the cabin environment for temperature control and as a source of carbon dioxide to promote growth. Image 

Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

NASA Kepler Mission Discovers Tiny Planet System

The line up compares artist's concepts of the planets in the Kepler-37 system to the moon and planets in the solar system. 

The smallest planet, Kepler-37b, is slightly larger than our moon, measuring about one-third the size of Earth. Kepler-37c, the second planet, is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring almost three-quarters the size of Earth. 

Kepler-37d, the third planet, is twice the size of Earth. Click image for full caption and larger size. Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Kepler mission scientists have discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star similar to our sun.

The planets are located in a system called Kepler-37, about 210 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. The smallest planet, Kepler-37b, is slightly larger than our moon, measuring about one-third the size of Earth. It is smaller than Mercury, which made its detection a challenge.

The moon-size planet and its two companion planets were found by scientists with NASA's Kepler mission to find Earth-sized planets in or near the "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of an orbiting planet. However, while the star in Kepler-37 may be similar to our sun, the system appears quite unlike the solar system in which we live.

Astronomers think Kepler-37b does not have an atmosphere and cannot support life as we know it. The tiny planet almost certainly is rocky in composition. Kepler-37c, the closer neighboring planet, is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring almost three-quarters the size of Earth. Kepler-37d, the farther planet, is twice the size of Earth.

The first exoplanets found to orbit a normal star were giants. As technologies have advanced, smaller and smaller planets have been found, and Kepler has shown even Earth-size exoplanets are common.

"Even Kepler can only detect such a tiny world around the brightest stars it observes," said Jack Lissauer, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "The fact we've discovered tiny Kepler-37b suggests such little planets are common, and more planetary wonders await as we continue to gather and analyze additional data."

Kepler-37's host star belongs to the same class as our sun, although it is slightly cooler and smaller. All three planets orbit the star at less than the distance Mercury is to the sun, suggesting they are very hot, inhospitable worlds.

Kepler-37b orbits every 13 days at less than one-third Mercury's distance from the sun. The estimated surface temperature of this smoldering planet, at more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Kelvin), would be hot enough to melt the zinc in a penny. Kepler-37c and Kepler-37d, orbit every 21 days and 40 days, respectively.

"We uncovered a planet smaller than any in our solar system orbiting one of the few stars that is both bright and quiet, where signal detection was possible," said Thomas Barclay, Kepler scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute in Sonoma, Calif., and lead author of the new study published in the journal Nature.

"This discovery shows close-in planets can be smaller, as well as much larger, than planets orbiting our sun."

The research team used data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, which simultaneously and continuously measures the brightness of more than 150,000 stars every 30 minutes.

When a planet candidate transits, or passes, in front of the star from the spacecraft's vantage point, a percentage of light from the star is blocked.

This causes a dip in the brightness of the starlight that reveals the transiting planet's size relative to its star.

The size of the star must be known in order to measure the planet's size accurately. To learn more about the properties of the star Kepler-37, scientists examined sound waves generated by the boiling motion beneath the surface of the star.

They probed the interior structure of Kepler-37's star just as geologists use seismic waves generated by earthquakes to probe the interior structure of Earth. The science is called astero-seismology.

The sound waves travel into the star and bring information back up to the surface. The waves cause oscillations that Kepler observes as a rapid flickering of the star's brightness.

Like bells in a steeple, small stars ring at high tones while larger stars boom in lower tones. The barely discernible, high-frequency oscillations in the brightness of small stars are the most difficult to measure.

This is why most objects previously subjected to astero-seismic analysis are larger than the sun.