[ad_1]
An amazing photo showing the night sky as you've never seen it before was published by NASA.
The image was taken from space by a special telescope that tracks undesirable cosmic rays in areas beyond the Earth's atmosphere.
His sparkling dots and tangled curls have been described by space fans as a "golden firework".
The photo was taken by an instrument aboard the International Space Station called the Interior Neutron Star Composition (NICER) Explorer.
"The basic science goals of NICER require targeting and tracking cosmic sources as the station rotates around the Earth every 93 minutes," NASA said.
"But when the sun goes down and the night falls on the orbital outpost, the NICER team keeps its detectors active while the payload moves from one target to the next. other, which can occur up to eight times per orbit. "
The result is a mixture of patterns resembling a drawing of Etch A Sketch.
According to NASA, the map includes data from the first 22 months of NICER's scientific exploitation.
Each arc draws X-rays, as well as occasional shots of energetic particles, captured during NICER's nocturnal movements.
Each positive point is the result of these factors and NICER's time looking in that direction – usually because they were points of interest.
A diffuse glow imbues the sky with X-rays even far from the light sources. "
"Even with minimal processing, this image reveals the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant of about 90 light-years from everything, whose age is between 5,000 and 8,000 years old," Keith said. Gendreau, Mission Manager at Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Maryland. .
"We are gradually building a new x-ray image of all the sky and it is possible that NICER's night sweeps uncover previously unknown sources."
The main objective of NICER is to determine the size of the remains of dead stars called neutron stars. He will continue his mission until September 2019.
[ad_2]
Source link