Astronomy picture of the day - 2019 January 3 - Ultima and Thule

Ultima and Thule  Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins University APL, Southwest Research Institute

Explanation: On January 1 New Horizons encountered the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule. Some 6.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, Ultima Thule is the most distant world ever explored by a spacecraft from Earth. This historic image, the highest resolution image released so far, was made at a range of about 28,000 kilometers only 30 minutes before the New Horizons closest approach. Likely the result of a gentle collision shortly after the birth of the Solar System, Ultima Thule is revealed to be a contact binary, two connected sphere-like shapes held in contact by mutual gravity. Dubbed separately by the science team Ultima and Thule, the larger lobe Ultima is about 19 kilometers in diameter. Smaller Thule is 14 kilometers across.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2019 January 2 - The Orion Nebula in Infrared from WISE

The Orion Nebula in Infrared from WISE   Image Credit: WISE, IRSA, NASA; Processing & Copyright : Francesco Antonucci

Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion is an intriguing place. Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion. But this image, an illusory-color four-panel mosaic taken in different bands ofinfrared light with the Earth orbiting WISE observatory, shows the Orion Nebula to be a bustling neighborhood of recently formed stars, hot gas, and dark dust. The power behind much of the Orion Nebula (M42) is the stars of theTrapezium star cluster, seen near the center of the featured image. The orange glow surrounding the bright stars pictured here is their own starlight reflected by intricate dust filaments that cover much of the region. The current Orion Nebula cloud complex, which includes the Horsehead Nebula, will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.

Découvertes médicales récentes : Vaccin contre le cancer

L'Université de Stanford a annoncé le début d'une phase d'expérimentation d'un nouveau traitement contre le cancer. La référence au vaccin ne concerne que le mode d'administration, c'est-à-dire par injection : la substance est cependant composée de deux agents stimulants du système immunitaire capables d'éliminer les cellules cancéreuses.

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Astronomy picture of the day - 2019 January 1 - The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared

The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared 
Image Credit: R. Kennicutt (Steward Obs.) et al., SSC, JPL, Caltech, NASA

Explanation: This floating ring is the size of a galaxy. In fact, it is a galaxy -- or at least part of one: the photogenic Sombrero Galaxy, one of the largest galaxies in the nearby Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. The dark band of dust that obscures the mid-section of the Sombrero Galaxy in optical light actually glows brightly in infrared light. The featured image, digitally sharpened, shows the infrared glow, recently recorded by the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope, superposed in false-color on an existing image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in optical light. The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as M104, spans about 50,000 light years across and lies 28 million light years away. M104can be seen with a small telescope in the direction of the constellation Virgo.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 December 31 - The Witch Head Nebula

The Witch Head Nebula  
Image Credit & Copyright: Digitized Sky Survey (POSS II); Processing: Utkarsh Mishra

Explanation: Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble .... maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. A frighteningly shaped reflection nebula, this cosmic crone is about 800 light-years away though. Its malevolent visage seems to glare toward nearby bright star Rigel in Orion, just off the right edge of this frame. More formally known as IC 2118, the interstellar cloud of dust and gas is nearly 70 light-years across, its dust grains reflecting Rigel's starlight. In this composite portrait, the nebula's color is caused not only by the star's intense bluish light but because the dust grains scatter blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes Earth's daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers in planet Earth's atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 December 30 - The Galaxy Tree

The Galaxy Tree  
Image Credit & Copyright: César Vega Toledano ; Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: First came the trees. In the town of Salamanca, Spain, the photographer noticed how distinctive a grove of oak trees looked after being pruned. Next came the galaxy. The photographer stayed up until 2 am, waiting until the Milky Way Galaxy rose above the level of a majestic looking oak. From this carefully chosen perspective, dust lanes in the galaxy appear to be natural continuations to branches of the tree. Last came the light. A flashlight was used on the far side of the tree to project a silhouette. By coincidence, other trees also appeared as similar silhouettes across the relatively bright horizon. The featured image was captured as a single 30-second frame in 2015 and processed to digitally enhance the Milky Way.

Bonne année 2019 !

Aux Membres de ma Famille et à mes Amis, les voeux d'un Heureux 2019, avec paix, santé et bonheur!

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 December 29 - New Horizons at Ultima Thule

New Horizons at Ultima Thule 

Illustration Credit: Carlos Hernandez for NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute

Explanation: When we celebrate the start of 2019, on January 1 the New Horizons spacecraft will flyby Ultima Thule. A world of the Kuiper belt 6.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, the nickname Ultima Thule (catalog designation 2014 MU69) fittingly means "beyond the known world". Following its 2015 flyby of Pluto, New Horizons was targeted for this journey, attempting the most distant flyby for a spacecraft from Earth by approaching Ultima Thule to within about 3500 kilometers. The tiny world itself is about 30 kilometers in size. This year, an observing campaign with Earth-based telescopes determined the shape of the object to be a contact binary or a close binary sytem as in this artist's illustration. New Horizons will image close up its unexplored surface in the dim light of the distant Sun.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 December 27 - The Great Carina Nebula

The Great Carina Nebula 

Image Credit & Copyright: Maicon Germiniani

Explanation: A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more northerly Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500 light-years it is some 5 times farther away. This gorgeous telescopic close-up reveals remarkable details of the region's central glowing filaments ofinterstellar gas and obscuring cosmic dust clouds. The field of view is over 50 light-years across. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the stars of open cluster Trumpler 14 (above and left of center) and the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae is the brightest star, centered here just below the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324). While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory.

Découvertes médicales récentes : Un pacemaker pour le cerveau

Les chercheurs ont mis au point un appareil, dont le fonctionnement est similaire à celle d'un stimulateur cardiaque, capable d'améliorer les processus cognitifs des personnes souffrant d'épilepsie, de Parkinson et d'Alzheimer. L'appareil fonctionne en envoyant des impulsions de stimulation profondes aux zones du cerveau et peut également s'adapter à d'autres situations.

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