AKARI's view of Large Magellanic Cloud -- star formation at work (Forwarded)

ESA News
http://www.esa.int

1 November 2006

AKARI's view of Large Magellanic Cloud -- star formation at work

The infrared surveyor AKARI, a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
mission with ESA participation, is nearing the completion of its first scan
of the entire sky. During this phase of the mission, it has supplied the
largest wavelength coverage of the Large Magellanic Cloud to date, and
provided fascinating new images of this galaxy.

The Large Magellanic Cloud is a neighbouring galaxy to the Milky Way, the
galaxy to which our Solar System belongs. It is located extremely close by
astronomical standards, at a distance of 160,000 light years and it contains
about 10 thousand million stars, about one tenth of our Galaxy's stellar
population.

The first image is a far-infrared view obtained by the Far-Infrared Surveyor
(FIS) instrument on board AKARI. It reveals the distribution of interstellar
matter -- dust and gas -- over the entire galaxy. Dust grains in these
interstellar clouds are heated by the light from newly born stars, and
subsequently re-radiate this energy in the form of infrared light. So, the
infrared emission indicates that many stars are currently being formed. Such
copious star formation activity across a whole galaxy is called a 'star
burst'.

The nature of the Large Magellanic Cloud is further revealed by the
contrasting distribution of the interstellar matter and the stars. The
interstellar matter forms a disk-like structure whilst the stars are located
in the 'spindle' shape in the lower half of the image. This shows that the
two components are clearly displaced from one another.

Astronomers believe that the observed star formation and the displacement of
these two components in the Large Magellanic Cloud were both triggered by
the gravitational force generated by our own Galaxy, the Milky Way.

The bright region in the bottom-left of the image is known as the 'Tarantula
Nebula'. It is a very productive factory of stars.

The second image was taken at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths by AKARI's
Infrared Camera (IRC), and provides a close-up view of part of the Large
Magellanic Cloud.

This image shows many old stars (visible as white dots) in addition to the
interstellar clouds. It enables astronomers to study the way stars recycle
their constituent gases and return them to the interstellar medium at the
end of their lives.

These and new data obtained by AKARI will unlock the secrets of how both the
Large Magellanic Cloud and our own Galaxy have formed and evolved to their
current state.

Note to editors

AKARI was launched on 21 February 2006. It started its all-sky survey
observations in May 2006 and will complete its first sky coverage in
November this year. According to current estimations, about 70 percent of
the whole sky has so far been imaged by AKARI.

JAXA's AKARI project is carried out with the main participation of the
following institutes: the Nagoya University, the University of Tokyo, the
National Astronomical Observatory Japan, the European Space Agency (ESA),
the Imperial College of London, the University of Sussex, the Open
University (UK), the University of Groningen / SRON (The Netherlands), the
Seoul National University (Korea). The far-infrared detectors were developed
under collaboration with The National Institute of Information and
Communications Technology in Japan.

ESA/ESAC provides expertise and support for the sky-survey data processing
through the pointing reconstruction -- this allows the determination of
accurate astronomical positions for each of the new sources discovered. ESAC
also provides user support for the European astronomers who have been
granted observing opportunities. ESA/ESOC is providing the mission with
ground support through its ground station in Kiruna, for several passes per
day.

For more information:

Alberto Salama, ESA AKARI Project Scientist
Email: alberto.salama @ sciops.esa.int

Martin Kessler, ESA AKARI Mission Manager
Email: martin.kessler @ esa.int

[NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMHP4PFHTE_index_1.html ]

Watch the launch

* Windows Media Player video

http://mfile.akamai.com/14448/wmv/es...e_wmp_high.asx

More about ...

* Herschel overview
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120390_index_0_m.html
* ISO overview
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120396_index_0_m.html
* Observations: Seeing in infrared wavelengths
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMS72T1VED_index_0.html

Related articles

* AKARI's view on birth and death of stars
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM4TU5LARE_index_0.html
* Akari delivers its first images
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM8NF9ATME_index_0.html
* ESA joins forces with Japan on new infrared sky surveyor
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM2MAMVGJE_index_0.html

Related links

* ASTRO-F
http://www.jaxa.jp/missions/projects...f/index_e.html
* ASTRO-F European Users Support
http://astro-f.esac.esa.int/
* JAXA
http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html