NASA's Discovery Program: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Solar System

 Table of Contents

1. Introduction to NASA's Discovery Program
2. Hubble Peers into a Glistening Star Cluster
3. Hubble Captures a Light-Bending Galaxy Cluster
4. Hubble Views a Beautiful Luminous Galaxy
5. Hubble Views Striking Starry Tendrils

Discovery Program

NASA's Discovery Program gives scientists a chance to dig deep into their imaginations and find new ways to unlock the mysteries of our solar system. When it began in 1992, the program represented a breakthrough in the way NASA explores space. Discovery invites scientists and engineers to assemble a team to design exciting, focused planetary science missions that deepen what we know about the solar system and our place in it.

As a complement to NASA's larger “flagship” planetary science explorations, our goal is to achieve outstanding results by launching more smaller missions using fewer resources and shorter development times. Our purpose is to deepen human understanding of the solar system by exploring the planets, their moons, and small bodies such as comets and asteroids. Discovery missions have achieved ground-breaking science, each taking a unique approach to space exploration, doing what's never been done before, and driving new technology innovations that may also improve life on Earth. 

SOME OF THE PICTURES FROM HUBBLE SHOWN UNDER BELOW

Hubble Peers into a Glistening Star Cluster

The densely packed globular cluster NGC 6325 glistens in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This concentrated group of stars lies around 26,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus.

Globular clusters like NGC 6325 are tightly bound collections of stars with anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of members. They can be found in all types of galaxies and act as natural laboratories for astronomers studying star formation. This is because the constituent stars of globular clusters tend to form at roughly the same time and with similar initial composition, meaning astronomers can use them to fine-tune their theories of how stars evolve.

Astronomers inspected this particular cluster not to understand star formation, but to search for a hidden monster. Though it might look peaceful, astronomers suspect this cluster could contain an intermediate-mass black hole that is subtly affecting the motion of surrounding stars. Previous research found that the distribution of stars in some highly concentrated globular clusters – those with stars packed relatively tightly together – was slightly different from what astronomers expected.

This discrepancy suggests that at least some of these densely packed globular clusters – including perhaps NGC 6325 – could have a black hole lurking at the center. To explore this hypothesis further, astronomers turned to Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to observe a larger sample of densely populated globular clusters, which included this star-studded image of NGC 6325. 

Hubble Captures a Light-Bending Galaxy Cluster

A vast galaxy cluster lurks in the center of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Like a submerged sea monster causing waves on the surface, this cosmic leviathan can be identified by the distortions in spacetime around it. The cluster’s enormous mass curves spacetime, creating a gravitational lens that bends the light from distant galaxies beyond the cluster. The contorted streaks and arcs of light we see in this image are the result. A host of other galaxies surrounds the cluster, and a handful of foreground stars with tell-tale diffraction spikes are scattered throughout the image.

This particular galaxy cluster, called eMACS J1823.1+7822, lies almost nine billion light-years away in the constellation Draco. It is one of five exceptionally massive galaxy clusters Hubble explored with the aim of measuring the strengths of these gravitational lenses, which would provide insights into the distribution of dark matter in galaxy clusters. Strong gravitational lenses like eMACS J1823.1+7822 can help astronomers study distant galaxies by acting as vast natural telescopes which magnify objects that would otherwise be too faint or distant to resolve.

This multiwavelength image layers data from eight different filters and two different instruments: Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. Both instruments can view astronomical objects in just a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum using filters, which allow astronomers to image objects at precisely selected wavelengths. The combination of observations at different wavelengths lets astronomers develop a more complete picture of the structure, composition, and behavior of an object than visible light alone would reveal.

Hubble Views a Beautiful Luminous Galaxy

The lenticular galaxy NGC 5283 is the subject of this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. NGC 5283 contains an active galactic nucleus, or AGN. An AGN is an extremely bright region at the heart of a galaxy where a supermassive black hole exists. When dust and gas fall into the black hole, the matter heats up and emits light across the electromagnetic spectrum.

NGC 5283 is a Seyfert galaxy. About 10 percent of all galaxies are Seyfert galaxies, and they differ from other galaxies that contain AGNs because the galaxy itself is clearly visible. Other AGNs emit so much radiation that they outshine or make it impossible to observe the structure of their host galaxy!

Hubble observed this galaxy as part of a survey for a dataset about nearby AGNs, which will serve as a resource for astronomers investigating AGN physics, black holes, host galaxy structure, and more.

Hubble Views Striking Starry Tendrils

The jellyfish galaxy, JO175, appears to hang suspended in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy lies over 650 million light-years from Earth in the appropriately named constellation Telescopium and was captured in crystal-clear detail by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. A handful of more distant galaxies are lurking throughout the scene, and a bright four-pointed star lies to the lower right side.

Jellyfish galaxies get their unusual name from the tendrils of star-forming gas and dust that trail behind them, just like the tentacles of a jellyfish. These bright tendrils contain clumps of star formation and give jellyfish galaxies a particularly striking appearance. Unlike their ocean-dwelling namesakes, jellyfish galaxies make their homes in galaxy clusters, and the pressure of the tenuous superheated plasma that permeates these galaxy clusters is what draws out the jellyfish galaxies’ distinctive tendrils.

Hubble recently completed a deep dive into jellyfish clusters, specifically the star-forming clumps of gas and dust that stud their tendrils. By studying the origins and fate of the stars in these clumps, astronomers hoped to better understand the processes underpinning star formation elsewhere in the universe. Interestingly, their research suggests that star formation in the dis

ks of galaxies is similar to star formation in the extreme conditions found in the tendrils of jellyfish galaxies.

FAQs

1. What is the purpose of NASA's Discovery Program?
2. How do Discovery missions differ from flagship missions?
3. What are some achievements of Discovery missions?

FAQs

1. What is the purpose of NASA's Discovery Program? The purpose of NASA's Discovery Program is to deepen human understanding of the solar system by exploring the planets, their moons, and small bodies such as comets and asteroids. It provides scientists and engineers an opportunity to design focused planetary science missions that unlock the mysteries of our solar system.

2. How do Discovery missions differ from flagship missions? Discovery missions are smaller in scale compared to flagship missions. The goal of Discovery missions is to achieve outstanding results using fewer resources and shorter development times. They complement NASA's larger flagship missions by launching more smaller missions that explore specific aspects of the solar system.

3. What are some achievements of Discovery missions? Discovery missions have achieved ground-breaking science and driven new technology innovations. Each mission takes a unique approach to space exploration, doing what has never been done before. Some notable achievements include the exploration of star formation in globular clusters, studying distant galaxies using gravitational lensing, investigating active galactic nuclei, and understanding star formation processes in jellyfish galaxies.