Proyectos de Investigación

«La ciencia no es perfecta, con frecuencia se utiliza mal, no es más que una herramienta, pero es la mejor herramienta que tenemos: se corrige a sí misma, está siempre evolucionando y se puede aplicar a todo«

Southern Ring Nebula, NGC 3132, Eight-Burst Nebula muestra observaciones de la Nebulosa del Anillo del Sur en luz infrarroja Esta escena fue creada por una estrella enana blanca, los restos de una estrella como nuestro Sol después de que se desprendiera de sus capas exteriores y dejara de quemar combustible a través de la fusión nuclear. Esas capas externas ahora forman las cáscaras expulsadas a lo largo de esta vista.
Southern, Eight-Burst Nebula
Crédito de la imagen: ESA/Hubble y NASA, R. Cohen
A glittering multitude of stars in the globular cluster Terzan 4 fill this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Globular clusters are collections of stars bound together by their mutual gravitational attraction, and can contain millions of individual stars. As this image shows, the heart of a globular cluster such as Terzan 4 is a densely packed, crowded field of stars — which makes for spectacular images! The launch of Hubble in 1990 revolutionised the study of globular clusters. The individual stars in these dense crowds are almost impossible to distinguish from one another with ground-based telescopes, but can be picked apart using space telescopes. Astronomers have taken advantage of Hubble’s crystal-clear vision to study the stars making up globular clusters, as well as how these systems change over time. This particular observation comes from astronomers using Hubble to explore Terzan 4 and other globular clusters to understand the shape, density, age, and structure of globular clusters close to the centre of the Milky Way. Unlike globular clusters elsewhere in the sky, these globular clusters have evaded detailed observation because of the clouds of gas and dust swirling around the galactic core. These clouds blot out starlight in a process that astronomers refer to as ‘extinction’, and complicate astronomical observations. Astronomers took advantage of the sensitivity of two of Hubble’s instruments — the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 — to overcome the impact of extinction on Terzan 4. By combining Hubble imagery with sophisticated data processing, astronomers were able to determine the ages of galactic globular clusters to within a billion years — a relatively accurate measurement in astronomical terms!
El telescopio espacial James Webb de la NASA revela viveros estelares emergentes y estrellas individuales en la Nebulosa Carina que anteriormente estaban oscurecidas Crédito de la imagen: NASA, ESA, CSA y STScI Called the Cosmic Cliffs, the region is actually the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, roughly 7,600 light-years away.
Cosmic Cliffs
In this mosaic image stretching 340 light-years across, Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) displays the Tarantula Nebula star-forming region in a new light, including tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars that were previously shrouded in cosmic dust. The most active region appears to sparkle with massive young stars, appearing pale blue. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team
Tarantula Nebula

“La ciencia no es solamente compatible con la espiritualidad, sino que es una profunda fuente de espiritualidad.”

Carl Sagan.