leviathan8: The core of the massive compact star cluster in NGC 3603 The core of the star cluster in NGC 3603 is shown in great detail in an image from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image is a colour composite of observations using the WFPC2 filters F555W (blue), F675W (green) and F814W (red). This view shows the second of two images taken 10 years apart that were used to detect the motions of individual stars within the cluster for the first time. The field of view is about 20 arcsec across.
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leviathan8:

The core of the massive compact star cluster in NGC 3603

The core of the star cluster in NGC 3603 is shown in great detail in an image from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image is a colour composite of observations using the WFPC2 filters F555W (blue), F675W (green) and F814W (red). This view shows the second of two images taken 10 years apart that were used to detect the motions of individual stars within the cluster for the first time. The field of view is about 20 arcsec across.

(via distant-traveller)

Amateur astronomers boost ESA's asteroid hunt

A partnership with the UK’s Faulkes Telescope Project promises to boost the Agency’s space hazards research while helping students to discover potentially dangerous space rocks.

(The 2-meter Faulkes North Telescope at Haleakalā, Hawaii, USA. Credit: Faulkes Telescope Project)

“ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) programme is keeping watch over space hazards, including disruptive space weather, debris objects in Earth orbit and asteroids that pass close enough to cause concern.  The asteroids – known as ‘near-Earth objects’, or NEOs, since they cross Earth’s orbit – are a particular problem.  Any attempt to survey and catalogue hazardous asteroids faces a number of difficulties. They’re often jet black or at least very dark, they can approach rather too close before anyone sees them, and they’re often spotted only once and then disappear before the discovery can be confirmed.”

“So ESA is turning to amateur  to ‘crowdsource’ observations as part of Europe’s contribution to the global  hunt. These efforts will add to the follow-up observations already done at ESA’s own telescope on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.  This month, the UK’s Faulkes Telescope Project will become the latest team to formally support the SSA programme. Spain’s La Sagra Sky Survey, operated by the Observatorio Astronomico de Mallorca, began helping SSA earlier this year.”

“The project has a strong record in public education and science outreach, and is a partner of the US-based Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope network, which owns and operates two telescopes. Faulkes supports hundreds of schools across Europe.”