Treasure Trove Of Intergalactic Metal
NASAexplorer: Suzaku – The Intergalactic Prospector.
Recently astronomers used the Suzaku orbiting X-ray observatory, operated jointly by NASA and the Japanese space agency, to discover the largest known reservoir of rare metals in the universe. Suzaku detected the elements chromium and manganese while observing the central region of the Perseus galaxy cluster.
The metallic atoms are part of the hot gas, or “intergalactic medium,” that lies between galaxies. Exploding stars, or supernovas, forge the heavy elements. The supernovas also create vast outflows, called superwinds. These galactic gusts transport heavy elements into the intergalactic void.
Suzaku Spies Treasure Trove of Intergalactic Metal
Every cook knows the ingredients for making bread: flour, water, yeast, and time. But what chemical elements are in the recipe of our universe?
Most of the ingredients are hydrogen and helium. These cosmic lightweights fill the first two spots on the famous periodic table of the elements.
Less abundant but more familiar to us are the heavier elements, meaning everything listed on the periodic table after hydrogen and helium. These building blocks, such as iron and other metals, can be found in many of the objects in our daily lives, from teddy bears to teapots.
Recently astronomers used the Suzaku orbiting X-ray observatory, operated jointly by NASA and the Japanese space agency, to discover the largest known reservoir of rare metals in the universe.
Suzaku detected the elements chromium and manganese while observing the central region of the Perseus galaxy cluster. The metallic atoms are part of the hot gas, or “intergalactic medium,” that lies between galaxies.
“This is the first detection of chromium and manganese from a cluster,” says Takayuki Tamura, an astrophysicist at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency who led the Perseus study. “Previously, these metals were detected only from stars in the Milky Way or from other galaxies. This is the first detection in intergalactic space.”
The cluster gas is extremely hot, so it emits X-ray energy. Suzaku’s instruments split the X-ray energy into its component wavelengths, or spectrum. The spectrum is a chemical fingerprint of the types and amounts of different elements in the gas.
The portion of the cluster within Suzaku’s field of view is some 1.4 million light-years across, or roughly one-fifth of the cluster’s total width. It contains a staggering amount of metal atoms. The chromium is 30 million times the sun’s mass, or 10 trillion times Earth’s mass. The manganese reservoir weighs in at about 8 million solar masses.
Exploding stars, or supernovas, forge the heavy elements. The supernovas also create vast outflows, called superwinds. These galactic gusts transport heavy elements into the intergalactic void.
Harvesting the riches of the Perseus Cluster is not possible. But researchers will mine the Suzaku X-ray data for scientific insights.
“By measuring metal abundances, we can understand the chemical history of stars in galaxies, such as the numbers and types of stars that formed and exploded in the past,” Tamura says.
The Suzaku study data show it took some 3 billion supernovas to produce the measured amounts of chromium and manganese. And over periods up to billions of years, superwinds carried the metals out of the cluster galaxies and deposited them in intergalactic space.
A complete history of the universe should include an understanding of how, when, and where the heavy elements formed — the chemical elements essential to life itself. The Suzaku study contributes to a larger ongoing effort to take a chemical census of the cosmos. “It’s a part of learning the entire history of chemical element formation in the universe,” notes Koji Mukai, who heads the Suzaku Guest Observer program at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
With more than 10,000 galaxy clusters known, astronomers have just barely begun their work. “The current Suzaku result cannot answer these big questions immediately,” Tamura says, “but it is one of the first steps to understand the chemical history of the universe.”
The study appeared in the November 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Read more
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/astro-e2/news/intergalactic_metal.html
Recently astronomers used the Suzaku orbiting X-ray observatory, operated jointly by NASA and the Japanese space agency, to discover the largest known reservoir of rare metals in the universe. Suzaku detected the elements chromium and manganese while observing the central region of the Perseus galaxy cluster. The metallic atoms are part of the hot gas, or “intergalactic medium,” that lies between galaxies. Exploding stars, or supernovas, forge the heavy elements. The supernovas also create vast outflows, called superwinds. These galactic gusts transport heavy elements into the intergalactic void.
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What’s Up for December
Whats Up for December: the Orion Nebula.
Hello and welcome. Im Jane Houston-Jones at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
This is the final month of International Year of Astronomy. But that shouldnt stop you from looking up next year.
This months target is in one of the most-recognizable constellations: Orion.
The Orion Nebula is easy to find, and its one of the most beautiful objects to observe through a telescope. You can see it with your unaided eye, too, even from the city.
Galileo observed and sketched the Orion constellation and even the small grouping of stars in The Trapezium region of the Orion Nebula. But he never wrote about or sketched the nebula itself. No other early astronomers did either.
An observation from 1654 shows not only the three stars Galileo saw, but also the fuzzy patch which we know as the Orion Nebula. In 1656 Christian Huygens made one of the earliest sketches showing more of the nebula.
The Orion Nebulas glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of a huge interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light years away. This is the nearest large star-forming region, and its our best window into how stars are born.
In the center of the nebula lie four massive young stars whose stellar winds have carved out a cavity know as The Trapezium. In the same region protoplanetary disks are forming from gas and dust. Solar systems like our own are formed from disks like these.
The stellar winds from stars create bubbles and arcs, bow shocks, and a huge deep bowl.
Dark pillars of gas are found in the outer layers. And cool brown dwarfs lie within the nebula, too.
Next time you step outside and look at the Orion constellation, notice its three belt stars, and the sword hanging from his belt. The middle star in the sword looks just like William Herschels description of two centuries ago: an unformed fiery mist, the chaotic material of future suns.
Thats the Orion Nebula.
You can learn all about NASAs missions at www.nasa.gov
Friday, December 4th, 2009,
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