NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is still not working, but scientists have found a superbubble in the middle of deep space nebula that could have been created by massive stellar explosions.
The ‘superbubble’ — an area without stars — is approximately 250 light-years wide and is ‘something of a mystery,’ NASA said in a statement.
The nebula N44, which is approximately 1,000 light years long, is approximately 170,000 light year from Earth.
It is possible that stellar winds drove out the gas in the middle nebula. However, that is a different story from the measured wind speeds in the bubble.
The Hubble has found a superbubble in deep space. The ‘superbubble’ — an area without stars — is approximately 250 light-years wide and is ‘something of a mystery,’ NASA said
NASA has a theory about what caused the’superbubble’, but it is based on massive stars that died many years ago.
NASA stated in the statement that ‘another possibility’, since the nebula contains massive stars that would explode in titanic explosions is that the expanding shells old supernovae created the cosmic cavern.
Astronomers found a remnant from a supernova at the’superbubble. They were able to determine a 5 million year age difference between stars at the rim and within the bubble.
This means that there could have been multiple, chain-reactions events that formed stars.
The Hubble (pictured) has captured the N44 nebula. It is approximately 1,000 light years long and is approximately 170,000 light years away from Earth. NASA believes that the’superbubble is’ a result of massive stars that died many years ago
The area in the image shaded deep blue near the bottom half (roughly 5 o’clock on a standard clock) around the superbubble ‘is one of the hottest regions of the nebula and the area of the most intense star formation,’ NASA added.
The bubbles are believed be caused by matter falling into a black hole and acting as powerful “cosmic particle accelerators”.
NASA previously stated they are 100x more powerful than the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.
N44 is an emission nebula. It has been ionized or energized by the radiation from nearby stars.
After the gas cools to a lower energy state, it emits light which, in turn, makes the nebula glow.
N44 is located in Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxie of the Milky Way at 158,000 light-years from Earth.
In August, scientists captured the sharpest radio image of the LMC, revealing thousands of never-before-seen radio sources, including galaxies.
NASA stated earlier this week that they are continuing to investigate the reason why the instruments in Hubble Space Telescope were put into safe mode, suspending science operations.
The Hubble’s science instruments were released at 1:46 AM EDT on October 23rd, ‘indicating the loss a specific syncronization message’
The Hubble engineers reset the instruments, and science operations were resumed on the next morning.
However, a second set was issued on October 25th at 2:38 a.m. ET, again indicating the loss a specific synchronization signal.
The instruments were then put into safe mode.
While the Hubble is in safe mode it does not observe any celestial objects nor collect data. However it is still powered on.
The Hubble, a spacecraft that has been in orbit for over 30 years, was first unable to work in June because of problems with a 1980s computer that controls its science instruments.
Hubble, a NASA, European Space Agency, and Canadian Space Agency joint project, has been studying the universe for more than three decades.
It has made more than 1.5 million observations of all aspects of the universe. More than 18,000 scientific papers have been published on the basis of its data.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in 1990, is still operational and has made more that 1.3 million observations.
The Hubble telescope launched via Discovery, a spaceship from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, on April 24, 1990.
It is named for Edwin Hubble, famed astronomer and was born in Missouri in1889.
He is most famous for discovering the speed at which the universe expands – now called the Hubble constant.
The Hubble telescope is named after famed astronomer Edwin Hubble who was born in Missouri in 1889 (pictured)
Hubble has made more than 1.3 million observations since its mission began in 1990 and helped publish more than 15,000 scientific papers.
It orbits Earth at a speed around 17,000mph (27.300kph in low Earth orbit at about 334 miles in altitude).
Hubble’s pointing accuracy is.007 arc second, which is equivalent to being able shine a laser beam on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s head from a dime 200 miles (320 km) away.
The Hubble telescope is named in honor of Edwin Hubble, who was responsible for the Hubble constant. He is one the greatest astronomers of all time.
Hubble’s primary mirror is 2.4 meters (7 feet, 10.5 inches) across and in total is 13.3 meters (43.5 feet) long – the length of a large school bus.
Hubble’s April 1990 launch and deployment marked the most significant advancement in astronomy since Galileo’s telescope.
Five servicing missions, more than 25 years of operations, have transformed our view of the universe.