NASA decommissions Spitzer Space Telescope after 16 years of service

NASA is flipping the switch on the Spitzer Space Telescope today. The observatory has made groundbreaking discoveries about the universe since its launch in 2003, from imaging some of the oldest stars in the universe to detecting the light reflected...

A lawsuit almost stalled NASA’s Cassini mission

Captain Scott Kelly wasn't kidding when he famously quipped that "space is hard". Even getting to the launch pad can prove to be a daunting challenge. Take the Cassini mission to study Saturn, for example. Despite an investment of $3.4 billion and ne...

Saturn’s Phoebe Ring is Invisible


Saturn’s largest ring is an enigma in itself. For one thing, it has been discovered that this ring has double the breadth that it was thought to have had once upon a time. And of course it cannot be...

Herschel telescope detects some of the youngest stars ever seen

DNP

Astronomers at the Herschel space observatory have discovered some of the youngest stars ever seen, NASA reports. With observations from the Herschel telescope as well as the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) in Chile, researchers were able to detect 15 protostars -- the biggest group of such young stars in a single star-forming region. This discovery came during a survey of a stellar formation located in the constellation Orion, with Herschel detecting the bodies in far-infrared-light and the APEX ground telescope verifying the stars' presence with radio wave observations.

This discovery is especially exciting not just because protostars are especially difficult to detect due to the dense layers of gas and dust that surround them, but also because it indicates that astronomers are getting closer to charting the complete life cycle of a star, starting at the moment of its birth.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory