4 dead telescopes' observations lead to stunning new galaxy portraits

Astronomers are using telescope missions to find out how dust behaves in the universe.

New information about star formation will be provided by the new survey of gas and dust surrounding four galaxies.

Christopher Clark, an astronomer at the Space Science Telescope Institute in Baltimore, said in a statement (opens in new tab) that the improved images show that the dust in the galaxies are very dynamic.

There are the best Hubble Space Telescope images.

Data from the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory was used to make the observations.

NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer missions, which operated in the 1980s and '90s, were included in the data the scientists used.

Although all space telescopes eventually retire due to component failure or lack of fuel, their data can persist for as long as necessary, as long as information is kept in an archive. Astronomers use old data to calculate long-term changes in galaxies, black holes, exoplanets and other objects.

The new images show how the density of dust clouds can vary between the different parts of the universe. The path of dust can be altered by the pressure waves from exploding stars, winds from active stars and the effects of other objects.

Half of the universe's starlight is absorbed by dust, which greatly affects astronomy's work.

Dust can be a good thing. Studying dust can help scientists understand the evolution of the universe.

The Herschel observatory provided information on how dust is structured within clouds, while other telescopes didn't. The Herschel telescope was not designed to look at light from diffuse clouds or in the outer regions of galaxies where there is less gas and dust.

Astronomers estimated that the dust-to-gas ratio in a single galaxy may vary by a factor of 20. Future studies will be able to zoom in on various processes due to the complex interplay of elements between the two universes.

Almost all the heavy elements can get locked up in dust grains, which increases the dust-to-gas ratio. In less dense regions, the destructive radiation from newborn stars or shockwaves from exploding stars will smash the dust grains and return some of those locked up heavy elements back into the gas.

The results were included in a press conference at the summer meeting.

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