Bsuobservatory - Bridgewater State University Observatory

Wed. 11/6: We'll be closed tonight - we expect lots of clouds rolling in after sunset. We'll try again next week!

The brown dwarf W1935 is a bit of a mystery. Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope picked up glowing methane—a sign that the object’s upper atmosphere is being heated. But the brown dwarf has no host star, so where could the heat be coming from?

In our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn show methane emission due to the presence of auroras—what we call the Northern Lights on Earth. W1935 might also have auroras, which could be powered by energetic particles from a nearby, active moon, like Jupiter’s Io: https://webbtelescope.pub/4aKMkBF

Wed. 4/16: Check back for our weather decision after 4 pm! The forecasts disagree.

Wed. 4/16: We'll be open from 8:30 - 9:45 tonight!

I see an angry fox about to breathe fire.

Hind's Variable Nebula, NGC 1555 // Rocco Sung

2024 February 4

The Cone Nebula from Hubble Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA - Processing & Licence: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: Stars are forming in the gigantic dust pillar called the Cone Nebula. Cones, pillars, and majestic flowing shapes abound in stellar nurseries where natal clouds of gas and dust are buffeted by energetic winds from newborn stars. The Cone Nebula, a well-known example, lies within the bright galactic star-forming region NGC 2264. The Cone was captured in unprecedented detail in this close-up composite of several observations from the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. While the Cone Nebula, about 2,500 light-years away in Monoceros, is around 7 light-years long, the region pictured here surrounding the cone’s blunted head is a mere 2.5 light-years across. In our neck of the galaxy that distance is just over half way from our Sun to its nearest stellar neighbors in the Alpha Centauri star system. The massive star NGC 2264 IRS, seen by Hubble’s infrared camera in 1997, is the likely source of the wind sculpting the Cone Nebula and lies off the top of the image. The Cone Nebula’s reddish veil is produced by dust and glowing hydrogen gas.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240204.html

Comet Nishimura Credit: Peter Kennett

Wed. Oct. 30: We'll be closed tonight due to clouds. We'll try again next week!

Wed. Aug. 14 - The weather looks good! We'll be open tonight 8:30-9:30 pm.

Hurry! You Can Catch a Ride to Jupiter with NASA

Well, at least your name can.  

One of the planet Jupiter’s largest and most intriguing moons is called Europa. Evidence hints that beneath its icy shell, Europa hides an ocean of liquid water – more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. In 2024, our Europa Clipper robotic spacecraft sets sail to take a closer look…and when it launches, your name can physically be aboard! Here’s how: 

NASA’s Message in a Bottle campaign invites people around the world to sign their names to a poem written by the U.S. Poet Laureate, Ada Limón. The poem connects the two water worlds — Earth, yearning to reach out and understand what makes a world habitable, and Europa, waiting with secrets yet to be explored.

The poem will be engraved on Europa Clipper, along with participants' names that will be physically etched onto microchips mounted on the spacecraft. Together, the poem and names will travel 1.8 billion miles to the Jupiter system.

Signing up is easy! Just go to this site to sign your name to the poem and get on board. You can send your name en español, too. Envía tu nombre aquí.

The Europa Clipper launch window opens in October 2024, but don’t wait – everyone’s names need to be received this year so they can be loaded onto the spacecraft in time. Sign up by Dec. 31, 2023.

We hope you’ll be riding along with us! Follow the mission at europa.nasa.gov.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!