Moon-Venus-Mars Skyline
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Jay Ouellet
Explanation:
Taken on February 20,
five different exposures made in rapid succession
were used to created this tantalizing telephoto image.
In combination, they reveal a wide
range
of brightness visible to the eye on that frigid evening, from the
urban glow of the Quebec City skyline to the
triple conjunction of Moon, Venus and Mars.
Shortly after sunset the young Moon shows off its bright crescent
next to brilliant Venus.
Fainter Mars is near the top of the frame.
Though details in the Moon's sunlit crescent are washed out,
features on the dark, shadowed part of the lunar disk are remarkably clear.
Still lacking city lights
the lunar night is illuminated solely
by
earthshine, light reflected from the sunlit side
of planet Earth.
The Rosette Nebula in Hydrogen and Oxygen
Image Credit & Copyright:
Arno Rottal
(Far-Light-Photography)
Explanation:
The Rosette Nebula is not the only cosmic cloud of gas and dust to
evoke the
imagery
of
flowers -- but it is the most famous.
At the edge of a large
molecular cloud
in Monoceros, some 5,000 light
years away, the petals of this
rose are actually a
stellar nursery whose lovely, symmetric shape is
sculpted by the
winds and
radiation from its central cluster of
hot young stars.
The stars in the
energetic cluster, cataloged
as NGC 2244,
are only a few million years old, while the central cavity in the
Rosette Nebula,
cataloged as NGC 2237, is about 50
light-years in diameter.
The nebula can be seen
firsthand with a small telescope toward the constellation of the
Unicorn (
Monoceros).
Unusual Plumes Above Mars
Image Credit & Copyright:
W. Jaeschke
Explanation:
What is creating unusual plumes on Mars?
No one is sure.
Noted and confirmed by a
global contingent of amateur astronomers on photos of the
red planet in March 2012,
possibly similar plumes have now been found on
archived images as far back as 1997.
Since
the plumes reach 200 kilometers up,
they
seem too high to be related to
wind-
blown surface dust.
Since one
plume lasted for eleven days,
it seemed too long lasting to be related to aurora.
Amateur astronomers will surely continue to monitor the terminator and edge regions of Mars for new
high plumes, and the
armada of satellites
orbiting Mars may be called upon to verify and study any newly reported plume that become visible.
The
featured 35-minute time-lapse animation was taken on 2012 March 20 by the plume's discoverer --
an attorney from
Pennsylvania,
USA.
The Dark River to Antares
Credit & Copyright:
Jason Jennings
Explanation:
Connecting the
Pipe Nebula to the colorful region near bright
star Antares is a dark cloud dubbed the
Dark River,
flowing from the picture's left edge.
Murky looking, the
Dark River's appearance is caused by
dust
obscuring background starlight, although the dark nebula
contains mostly
hydrogen and
molecular gas.
Surrounded by dust,
Antares,
a red supergiant star, creates an unusual bright yellowish
reflection nebula.
Above it, bright blue double star
Rho Ophiuchi is embedded in one
of the more typical
bluish reflection nebulae, while
red emission nebulae
are also scattered around the region.
Globular star
cluster M4 is just seen above and right of
Antares,
though it lies far behind the colorful clouds, at a distance of some 7,000
light-years.
The Dark River itself is about 500
light years away.
The colorful skyscape
is a mosaic of telescopic images spanning nearly
10 degrees (20 Full Moons) across the sky in the constellation of the Scorpion
(Scorpius).
Fibrils Flower on the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright:
Big Bear Solar Obs.,
NJIT,
Alan Friedman
(Averted Imagination)
Explanation:
When does the Sun look like a flower?
In a specific color of red light emitted by hydrogen, as
featured here, some regions of the
solar chromosphere may resemble a
rose.
The color-inverted image was taken in 2014 October and shows
active solar region 2177.
The petals dominating the frame are actually magnetically confined tubes of hot
plasma called
fibrils,
some of which extend longer than the diameter of the Earth.
In the central
region many of these fibrils are seen end-on, while the surrounding regions are typically populated with curved fibrils.
When seen over the Sun's edge, these huge plasma tubes are called
spicules,
and when they occur in passive regions they are termed
mottles.
Sunspot
region 2177 survived for several more days before the complex and tumultuous
magnetic field
poking through the
Sun's surface evolved yet again.
Palomar 12
Image Credit:
ESA/Hubble,
NASA
Explanation:
Palomar 12
was not born here.
The stars of the globular cluster, first identified in the
Palomar Sky Survey,
are younger than those in other
globular star clusters that roam the halo of
our Milky Way Galaxy.
Palomar 12's position in our galaxy and measured motion
suggest its home was once the
Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy,
a small
satellite
of the Milky Way.
Disrupted by
gravitational tides during close encounters
the satellite galaxy has lost its stars to the
larger Milky Way.
Now part of the Milky Way's halo, the
tidal capture of
Palomar 12 likely took place some 1.7 billion years ago.
Seen behind spiky foreground stars in the sharp Hubble image,
Palomar 12 spans nearly 60 light-years.
Still much closer than the faint, fuzzy, background galaxies scattered
throughout the field of view, it lies about 60,000 light-years away,
toward the constellation Capricornus.
M106: A Spiral Galaxy with a Strange Center
Image Credit:
NASA,
ESO ,
NAOJ,
Giovanni Paglioli;
Assembling and processing:
R. Colombari and
R. Gendler
Explanation:
What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy M106?
A swirling disk of stars and gas,
M106's appearance is dominated by blue spiral arms and red
dust lanes near the nucleus, as shown in the
featured image.
The core of
M106 glows brightly in
radio waves and
X-rays where
twin jets have been found running the length of the galaxy.
An unusual central glow makes
M106 one of the closest examples of the
Seyfert class of galaxies,
where vast amounts of glowing gas are thought
to be falling into a central massive
black hole.
M106,
also designated
NGC 4258,
is a relatively close 23.5 million light years away,
spans 60 thousand
light years across, and can be seen with a small telescope
towards the
constellation of the Hunting Dogs (
Canes Venatici).
Two Hours Before Neptune
Image Credit:
Voyager 2,
NASA
Explanation:
Two hours before closest approach to
Neptune in 1989, the
Voyager 2 robot spacecraft snapped
this
picture.
Clearly
visible for the first time were long light-colored
cirrus-type clouds floating high in
Neptune's atmosphere. Shadows of these clouds can even
be seen on lower cloud decks.
Most of
Neptune's atmosphere is made of
hydrogen and
helium, which is invisible.
Neptune's blue color
therefore comes from smaller amounts of atmospheric
methane,
which preferentially absorbs red light.
Neptune has the fastest winds in the
Solar System,
with gusts reaching 2000 kilometers per hour.
Speculation holds that
diamonds may be created in the
dense hot conditions that exist under the cloud tops of
Uranus and
Neptune.
Twenty-six years later,
NASA's
New Horizons
is poised to be the first spacecraft
to zoom past
Pluto this July.
Solar System Portrait
Image Credit:
Voyager Project,
NASA
Explanation:
On another
Valentine's
Day 25 years ago,
cruising four billion miles from the Sun, the
Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back one
last time
to make this first ever
Solar
System family portrait.
The complete portrait is a
60 frame mosaic
made from a vantage point 32 degrees above the
ecliptic plane.
In it, Voyager's wide angle camera frames sweep through the
inner Solar System at the left, linking up with gas giant Neptune,
the Solar System's
outermost planet, at the far right.
Positions for Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
are indicated by letters, while the Sun is the
bright spot near the center of the circle of frames.
The
inset frames for each of the planets are
from Voyager's narrow field camera.
Unseen in the portrait are
Mercury, too close
to the Sun to be detected, and Mars, unfortunately hidden by sunlight
scattered in the camera's optical system.
Closer to the Sun than Neptune at the time,
small, faint Pluto's
position was not covered.
Aurora on Ice
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Stéphane
Vetter
(Nuits sacrées)
Explanation:
Not from a snowglobe, this expansive fisheye
view of ice and sky was captured on February 1, from
Jökulsárlón Beach,
southeast Iceland, planet Earth.
Chunks of glacial ice on the black sand beach glisten in the
light of a nearly full moon surrounded by
a shining halo.
The 22 degree lunar halo itself is created by ice crystals in
high, thin clouds refracting the moonlight.
Despite the bright moonlight, curtains of aurora still
dance through the surreal scene.
In early February,
their activity was triggered by Earth's restless magnetosphere
and the energetic wind from a
coronal hole
near the Sun's south pole.
Bright Jupiter, also near opposition, is visible at the
left, beyond the icy lunar halo.
Exploring the Antennae
Image Data:
Subaru, NAOJ,
NASA/ESA/Hubble,
R.W. Olsen -
Processing:
Federico Pelliccia
and
Rolf Wahl Olsen
Explanation:
Some 60 million light-years away in the southerly
constellation
Corvus, two large galaxies are
colliding.
The stars in the two galaxies, cataloged as
NGC 4038
and NGC 4039, very rarely collide in the course of the
ponderous cataclysm,
lasting hundreds of millions of years.
But their large clouds of
molecular
gas and dust often do, triggering furious
episodes of star formation near the center of the
cosmic wreckage.
Spanning about 500 thousand light-years, this
stunning composited view also reveals new star clusters and
matter flung far from the scene
of the accident by
gravitational
tidal forces.
The remarkable collaborative image is a mosaic constructed
using data from
small and large ground-based telescopes to bring out large-scale
and faint tidal streams, composited with the
bright cores
imaged in extreme detail by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Of course,
the suggestive visual appearance of the extended arcing structures
gives the galaxy pair its popular name - The Antennae.
M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy
Image Credit:
Hubble Legacy Archive,
NASA,
ESA -
Processing &
Licence:
Judy Schmidt
Explanation:
Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately known as a
grand design spiral galaxy.
It is a large galaxy of over 100 billion stars with well-defined spiral arms that is similar to our own
Milky Way Galaxy.
One of the brightest members of the
Virgo Cluster of galaxies,
M100
(alias NGC 4321) is 56 million light-years distant toward the constellation of
Berenice's Hair
(
Coma Berenices).
This Hubble
Space Telescope
image of
M100 was made in 2009 and reveals bright blue
star clusters and
intricate winding
dust lanes which are hallmarks of this class of galaxies.
Studies of variable stars in
M100
have played an important role in determining the
size and age of the Universe.
If you know exactly
where to look,
you can find a small spot that is a
light echo
from a bright supernova that was
recorded a few years before the image was taken.
Source -
NASA
