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| | | | | | | Akari infrared space telescope: latest science highlights
19 November 2008
| Akari observations of Betelgeuse, a bright red supergiant star located in the constellation Orion about 640 light-years from Earth, show the star making a big splash by creating a bow shock as it crosses the interstellar medium.
This is a three-colour composite image of Betelgeuse and its surroundings is composed of images taken at at 65 (blue), 90 (green) and 140 (red) micrometers taken by Akari's Far-Infrared Surveyor FIS.
The arc-like structure to the upper left direction of the star is the bow shock formed due to collision of stellar wind and the interstellar matter in the direction of the star's motion (from lower left to upper right). The diameter of the bow shock is about three light-years. The blue-white linear structure from lower left to upper right through the star is an effect of the instrument.
Researchers have found a strong flow of the interstellar medium around the star which originates from star-forming regions in Orion's Belt and has a velocity of 11 km/s. Betelgeuse is crossing this river at 30 km/s, while spewing out wind at 17 km/s.
Credits: Ueta et al, PASJ, 2008 | |  |  | |
| | | | | Akari observations of Betelgeuse, a bright red supergiant star located in the constellation Orion about 640 light-years from Earth, show the star making a big splash by creating a bow shock as it crosses the interstellar medium.
This artist’s impression shows how the bow shock structure is oriented with respect to Betelgeuse, the flow of the interstellar medium, and the Earth.
A discontinuity in density and pressure appears at the boundary where stellar wind from Betelgeuse collides into interstellar matter. Betelgeuse moves in space from lower right to upper left in this figure.
Researchers have found a strong flow of the interstellar medium around the star which originates from star-forming regions in Orion's Belt and has a velocity of 11 km/s. Betelgeuse is crossing this river at 30 km/s, while spewing out wind at 17 km/s.
Credits: JAXA | | | | |
| | | | Mysterious missing dust
| Three-colour composite of the Globular Cluster NGC 1261, composed of images taken at 4 (blue), 15 (green), and 90 (red) micrometers using Akari’s near- and mid-Infrared Camera (IRC). The cluster is located in the constellation Horologium, about 53 000 light-years from us.
A cloud of stars seen in blue at the centre of the image is the globular cluster. Seven red sources around the clusters are all galaxies lying behind. These galaxies possess plenty of interstellar dust that emits brightly in the far-infrared. In contrast, only stars are seen in the globular cluster itself. Akari has confirmed that there is no dust present in NGC 1261. | | | | |
| | | | Warm dust in supernova remnants
| Three-colour composite images of eight supernova remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud composed of images taken at 7 (blue), 11 (green) and 15 (red) micrometers, with the near- and mid-Infrared Camera (IRC) onboard Akari. Contours indicate the intensity of the X-ray emission observed by the NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory. The line at the bottom of each image indicates a distance of 20 light-years.
Credits: Seok et al., PASJ 2008 | | | | |
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