TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
May 4, 2023
The Galaxy, the Jet, and a Famous Black Hole
Bright elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87) is home to the supermassive black hole captured in 2017 by planet Earth's Event Horizon Telescope in the first ever image of a black hole. Giant of the Virgo galaxy cluster about 55 million light-years away, M87 is the large galaxy rendered in blue hues in this infrared image from the Spitzer Space telescope. Though M87 appears mostly featureless and cloud-like, the Spitzer image does record details of relativistic jets blasting from the galaxy's central region. Shown in the inset at top right, the jets themselves span thousands of light-years. The brighter jet seen on the right is approaching and close to our line of sight. Opposite, the shock created by the otherwise unseen receding jet lights up a fainter arc of material. Inset at bottom right, the historic black hole image is shown in context, at the center of giant galaxy and relativistic jets. Completely unresolved in the Spitzer image, the supermassive black hole surrounded by infalling material is the source of enormous energy driving the relativistic jets from the center of active galaxy M87. The Event Horizon Telescope image of M87 has now been enhanced to reveal a sharper view of the famous supermassive black hole.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
2 days ahead of schedule, you say?
New weather satellite reveals spectacular images of Earth
May 4, 2023
Launched on an Ariane 5 rocket on 13 December 2022, the Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1 (MTG-I1) is the first of a new generation of satellites set to revolutionise weather forecasting in Europe. ESA and Eumetsat are proud to jointly release the new image from the next generation.
The image, which was captured by the satellite’s Flexible Combined Imager on 18 March 2023, shows much of Northern and Western Europe and Scandinavia blanketed in clouds, with relatively clear skies over Italy and the Western Balkans.
ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli, said, “This image is a great example of what European cooperation in space can achieve. The level of detail MTG-I1’s image reveals, unachievable over Europe and Africa from a geostationary orbit until now, will give us a greater understanding of our planet and the weather systems that shape it.
“This image represents not just what can be achieved through European expertise but our determination to ensure the benefits of new technology are felt by communities in Europe and beyond.”
Instruments onboard the third generation of Meteosat meteorological satellites produce imagery with a much higher resolution, and more frequently, than those on the Meteosat Second Generation satellites.
Details such as cloud vortices over the Canary Islands, snow cover on the Alps and sediment in the water along the coast of Italy are visible in the image. These details are not as clearly visible, or not visible at all, in images from the instruments on the current second-generation spacecraft.
The new image also reveals a greater level of detail of cloud structures at high latitudes. This will enable weather forecasts to monitor the evolution of rapidly developing severe weather more accurately in that region.
Phil Evans, Director General at Eumetsat, added, “This remarkable image gives us great confidence in our expectation that the MTG system will herald a new era in the forecasting of severe weather events.
“It might sound odd to be so excited about a cloudy day in most of Europe. But the level of detail seen for the clouds in this image is extraordinarily important to weather forecasters. That additional detail from the higher resolution imagery, coupled with the fact that images will be produced more frequently, means forecasters will be able to more accurately and rapidly detect and predict severe weather events.”
“The high-resolution and frequent repeat cycle of the Flexible Combined Imager will greatly help the World Meteorological Organization community to improve forecasts of severe weather, long-term climate monitoring, marine applications, agricultural meteorology, and will make an important contribution to the Early Warnings For All Initiative, in particular on the African continent,” added Natalia Donoho, Head of the World Meteorological Organization Space Systems and Utilization Division, WMO.
MTG-I1 is currently undergoing a 12-month commissioning phase, in which its instruments, the Flexible Combined Imager and the Lightning Imager, are switched on and the data they produce are calibrated. Data from the satellite will then be disseminated to meteorological services in Europe and beyond at the end of 2023, for operational use in weather forecasts.
The ground segment infrastructure required to routinely process images was used to produce this first image, as a preview of things to come this year. Images of the full Earth disc will be produced every 10 minutes when the system is fully operational.
The MTG satellites are built by a large consortium of European industries, led by Thales Alenia Space in cooperation with OHB. The innovative Lightning Imager was developed by Leonardo in Italy, while Telespazio provides Eumetsat with launch and in-orbit services.
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Meteorological_missions/meteosat_third_generation/New_weather_satellite_reveals_spectacular_images_of_Earth
https://youtu.be/tYT4i8dKU-E
Festival of the dead
>What is a flower?
Robbin-It
One black swan event, coming up right up, sugar