10 ALMA Images
Credit: A. Duro/ESO
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- 10 ALMA Images
ALMA has been taking advantage of its high sensitivity and resolution to capture beautiful radio images of various celestial bodies, from objects in our solar system, to newborn and dying stars, to giant galaxies floating in the distance. This section introduces beautiful images taken by ALMA, focusing on objects that are not included in the section of "ALMA Discoveries."
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
Another Face of the Sun
ALMA can observe the Sun, which illuminates us every day. This image, taken on December 18, 2015, shows a sunspot. Sunspots are places where magnetic field lines emanate from the interior of the Sun and appear black because both light and radio waves are less intense due to lower temperatures than the surroundings. Explosions and various interesting phenomena occur around sunspots due to the strong magnetic field. By precisely measuring the temperature around sunspots, ALMA aims to elucidate the mechanisms that cause various solar activities.
News article: "ALMA starts Observing the Sun"
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), S. Trumbo et al.
Temperature Map of Europa
Jupiter's moon Europa is covered with ice. ALMA measured Europa's temperature by precisely observing the intensity of radio waves emitted from its icy surface. Radio emissions are stronger from hotter regions and weaker from cooler regions. Observations of Europa's entire surface revealed that the temperature is uneven. Countless fissures have been found in the icy surface and some studies have suggested that there may be an ocean beneath the ice. Producing a temperature map of Europa not only gives us information on the surface, but also provides clues to what is going on in the ocean and the seafloor beneath the ice.
News article: "ALMA Maps Europa’s Temperature"
Credit: Bill Saxton, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NRAO/AUI/NSF
Triple Stars Born in Spiral
The Sun is a single star, but more than half of the stars in the Galaxy are thought to be born as twins or more. ALMA has successfully captured the birth of triple stars. This system, L1448 IRS3B, in the constellation Perseus, has two stars in its center, and a third star is being formed in the spiral gas disk surrounding it. The system is thought to be younger than 150,000 years old, and the third is thought to be even younger at 10,000 - 20,000 years old.
News article: "Young Stellar System Caught in Act of Forming Close Multiples"
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), J. Bally; B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); Gemini Observatory/AURA
Orion KL: A Cosmic Firework
This image shows a mysterious object Orion KL that appears to spread its large wings. Stars are being born very actively in clusters near this object in the popular constellation Orion. Researches revealed an interesting story that huge baby stars born there once bumped into each other or passed dangerously close to each other about 500 years ago. The gas that spreads out like fireworks in the picture is thought to be the material surrounding the stars that was scattered into space by this phenomenon.
News article: "ALMA Captures Explosive Star Birth"
Credit: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
Unique Spiral around Elder Star
A star R Sculptoris photographed by ALMA. This aging star has been intermittently spewing out the gas that forms itself. The gravity of an invisible companion star orbiting close to the elder star stirs the outflowing gas into a large, swirling pattern. The gas contains a variety of elements created in the star. This spiral pattern gives us clues to understanding how this star ends its life and how the elements spread out into the Universe.
News article: "Surprising Spiral Structure Spotted by ALMA
-- New observations reveal the secrets of a dying star"
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Olofsson et al. Acknowledgement: Robert Cumming
Beautiful Outcome of Stellar Fight
Elder stars swell up and spread gas all around them. The star HD 101584 observed by ALMA is a twin star. It is thought that one star has swelled so much that the other star has become engulfed within it. However, the absorbed star is still orbiting around the center of the other star, and this has caused a large amount of gas to be scattered into the surrounding area. By studying these stars, we can understand how stars in a binary die out. In this image, gas ejected from the stars at different speeds is shown in three different colors.
News article: "ALMA catches beautiful outcome of stellar fight"
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, B. Saxton: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); NASA/Hubble
Galaxy of Swirling Star Cradles
The spiral galaxy M74 was observed by ALMA and the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope observed the stars in the galaxy in visible light and ALMA observed radio waves, capturing the expanse of gas (showed in red). Gas is the material for stars, and a place where a lot of gas is gathered is truly a "cradle of stars”. ALMA provides us with hints to study the growth history of galaxies, such as how much star material is in a galaxy and at what pace stars are formed.
News article: What 30,000 Star Factories in 74 Galaxies Tell Us about Star Formation across the Universe
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Visible light image: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
ALMA’s First Image: Antennae Galaxies
On October 3, 2011, a press release was issued announcing the start of ALMA’s scientific observations. Included in the release was a photograph of the Antenna Galaxies observed with the Hubble Space Telescope and ALMA. The red and yellow colored areas are the gas extents observed by ALMA. The image shows the gas concentrations at the center of each of the two colliding galaxies, and to the left of the galaxies where the collision is taking place. This image heralded the beginning of astronomy research full of surprises using ALMA.
News article: "ALMA Opens Its Eyes"
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Kitayama et al., NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
Hot Gas Around Distant Galaxy Cluster
Galaxies, which are large groups of stars and gas, further come together to form galaxy clusters. Observations have shown that clusters of galaxies are surrounded by gas at extremely high temperatures of several hundred million degrees. ALMA observed the galaxy cluster RX J1347.5-1145, located 4.8 billion light-years from Earth, and has depicted the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, which is caused by the hot gas around the cluster. This is a phenomenon in which cosmic microwave background radiation, the radio waves left over from the Big Bang, collides with the hot gas and reaches Earth in the form of higher-energy radio waves. ALMA is attempting to unravel the evolution of the Universe by observing the afterglow of the Big Bang.
News article: ALMA's ability to see a "Cosmic Hole" confirmed
Credit: ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ); B. Saxton NRAO/AUI/NSF; NASA/ESA Hubble
Perfect Einstein Ring imaged with ALMA
A galaxy SDP.81, which is 11.7 billion light-years from Earth, looks like a ring. This is because the path of radio waves arriving from SDP.81 is bent by the gravity of another galaxy that exists between SDP.81 and Earth. This is called the gravitational lensing effect. Ring-shaped images produced by the gravitational lensing are called "Einstein rings" because this phenomenon was predicted by the theory of relativity. Gravitational lensing greatly magnifies distant objects and it acts like a natural telescope, which allows us to observe distant objects in great detail. SDP.81 is an active star-forming galaxies, producing stars at a rate 500 times faster than our own Milky Way Galaxy.
News article: Unprecedented views of lensed galaxy and asteroid Juno taken with ALMA