Pluto in Enhanced Color
Image Credit:
NASA,
Johns Hopkins Univ./APL,
Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation:
Pluto is more colorful than we can see.
Color data and images of our Solar System's most famous
dwarf planet, taken by the robotic
New Horizons spacecraft during its
flyby in July,
have been digitally combined to give an enhanced view of this
ancient world sporting an unexpectedly young surface.
The
featured enhanced color image is not only
esthetically pretty but
scientifically useful,
making surface regions of differing chemical composition visually distinct.
For example, the light-colored heart-shaped
Tombaugh Regio on the lower right is clearly shown here to be divisible into two regions that are
geologically different, with the leftmost lobe
Sputnik Planum also appearing unusually smooth.
New Horizons
now continues on beyond
Pluto, will continue to beam back more images and data, and will
soon be directed
to change course so that it can
fly past asteroid 2014 MU69 in 2019 January.
M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright:
Robert Gendler
Explanation:
What is the nearest major
galaxy to our own
Milky Way Galaxy?
Andromeda.
In fact, our Galaxy is thought to look much like
Andromeda.
Together these two galaxies dominate the
Local Group of galaxies.
The diffuse light from
Andromeda
is caused by the hundreds of billions of
stars that compose it.
The several distinct stars that surround
Andromeda's image
are actually stars in
our Galaxy
that are well in front of the background object.
Andromeda is
frequently referred to as M31 since it is the 31st
object on
Messier's list of diffuse sky objects.
M31 is so distant it takes
about two million years for light to reach us from there.
Although
visible without aid, the
above image of M31 is a digital mosaic of
20 frames taken with a small telescope.
Much about M31
remains unknown, including exactly how long it will before it
collides with our home galaxy.
The Seagull Nebula
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Dieter Willasch
(Astro-Cabinet)
Explanation:
A broad expanse of glowing gas and dust presents
a bird-like visage to astronomers
from planet Earth,
suggesting its popular moniker - The Seagull Nebula.
This
portrait of the cosmic bird covers a 1.6 degree wide swath
across the plane of the Milky Way,
near
the direction of Sirius, alpha
star of the constellation Canis Major.
Of course,
the
region includes objects with other
catalog
designations: notably
NGC 2327,
a compact, dusty emission region
with an embedded massive star that forms the bird's head
(aka the Parrot Nebula, above center).
Dominated by the
reddish glow of atomic hydrogen,
the complex of gas and dust clouds with bright
young stars spans over 100 light-years at an estimated
3,800 light-year distance.
Puppis A Supernova Remnant
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Don Goldman
Explanation:
Driven
by the explosion of a massive star,
supernova remnant Puppis A is blasting into the
surrounding interstellar medium about 7,000 light-years away.
At that distance,
this
colorful telescopic field based on broadband and narrowband
optical image data is about 60 light-years across.
As the supernova remnant expands into its
clumpy, non-uniform surroundings, shocked filaments
of oxygen atoms glow in green-blue hues.
Hydrogen and nitrogen are in red.
Light from the initial supernova itself, triggered by
the collapse of the massive
star's core, would have reached
Earth about 3,700 years ago.
The Puppis A remnant is actually seen through
outlying emission from the closer but more ancient
Vela supernova remnant, near the
crowded plane of our Milky Way galaxy.
Still glowing across the electromagnetic spectrum
Puppis A remains one of the brightest sources
in the X-ray sky.
The Large Cloud of Magellan
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Carlos
Fairbairn
Explanation:
The 16th century Portuguese navigator
Ferdinand
Magellan and his crew had plenty of time to study the
southern sky during the
first
circumnavigation of planet Earth.
As a result, two fuzzy cloud-like
objects easily visible to southern hemisphere
skygazers are known as the
Clouds of Magellan, now understood to be
satellite galaxies of our much larger, spiral Milky Way galaxy.
About 160,000 light-years distant in the constellation
Dorado, the
Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is seen here in a remarkably
deep, colorful, image.
Spanning about 15,000 light-years or so, it is
the most massive of the Milky Way's
satellite
galaxies and is the home of the
closest
supernova in modern times,
SN 1987A.
The prominent patch below center is 30 Doradus,
also known as the magnificent
Tarantula Nebula, is a giant
star-forming region about 1,000 light-years across.
Collinder 399: The Coat Hanger
Image Credit & Copyright:
John Chumack
Explanation:
Is this coat hanger a star cluster or an asterism?
This
cosmic hang-up has been debated over much of last century,
as astronomers wondered whether
this binocular-visible object is
really a physically associated
open cluster or a
chance projection.
Chance star projections are known as
asterisms, an example of which is the popular
Big Dipper.
Recent precise measurements from
different vantage points in the Earth's orbit around the Sun
have uncovered discrepant angular shifts indicating that the
Coat Hanger
is better described as an
asterism.
Known more formally as
Collinder 399,
this bright stellar grouping is wider than the
full moon and lies in the
constellation of the
Fox
(Vulpecula).
Meteors and Milky Way over Mount Rainier
Image Credit & Copyright:
Matthew Dieterich
Explanation:
Despite appearances, the sky is not falling.
Two weeks ago, however, tiny bits of comet dust were.
Featured here is the
Perseids meteor shower as captured over
Mt. Rainier,
Washington,
USA.
The image was created from a two-hour time lapse video, snaring over 20 meteors, including one that
brightened dramatically on the image left.
Although each
meteor train typically lasts less than a second,
the camera was able to capture their
color progressions as they disintegrated in the
Earth's atmosphere.
Here an initial green
tint may be indicative of
small amounts of glowing magnesium atoms that were knocked off the
meteor by atoms in the
Earth's atmosphere.
To
cap things off, the central band of our
Milky Way Galaxy
was simultaneously photographed rising straight up behind the snow-covered peak of
Mt. Rainier.
Another
good meteor shower
is expected in mid-November when debris from a different comet intersects Earth as the
Leonids.
Dione, Rings, Shadows, Saturn
Image Credit:
Cassini Imaging Team,
SSI,
JPL,
ESA,
NASA
Explanation:
What's happening in this strange juxtaposition of moon and planet?
First and foremost, Saturn's moon Dione was
captured here
in a dramatic panorama by the robotic
Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting the giant planet.
The bright and
cratered moon itself spans about 1100-km, with the large multi-ringed
crater Evander visible on the lower right.
Since the rings of Saturn are seen here nearly edge-on, they are
directly visible only as a thin horizontal line that passes behind
Dione.
Arcing across the bottom of
the image, however, are
shadows of Saturn's rings, showing some of the rich texture that could not be seen directly.
In the background, few cloud features are visible on
Saturn.
The
featured image was taken during the
last planned flyby of Dione by Cassini, as the spacecraft is scheduled to
dive into Saturn's atmosphere
during 2017.
Giant Cluster Bends, Breaks Images
Image Credit:
NASA,
ESA, H. Lee &
H. Ford
(Johns Hopkins U.)
Explanation:
What are those strange blue objects?
Many of the brightest blue images are of a
single,
unusual, beaded, blue, ring-like
galaxy which just happens to line-up behind a giant
cluster of galaxies.
Cluster galaxies here typically appear yellow and --
together with the
cluster's dark matter --
act as a
gravitational lens.
A
gravitational lens can create several images of
background galaxies,
analogous to the many points of light
one would see while looking through a
wine glass at a distant street light.
The distinctive shape of this background galaxy --
which is probably just forming -- has allowed
astronomers to deduce that it has separate
images at 4, 10, 11, and 12
o'
clock,
from the center of the cluster.
A blue smudge near the cluster center is likely
another image
of the same background galaxy.
In all, a
recent analysis postulated that at least 33 images of 11 separate background galaxies are discernable.
This
spectacular photo of galaxy cluster CL0024+1654 from the
Hubble Space Telescope
was taken in November 2004.
Little Planet Curiosity
Image Credit:
NASA,
JPL-Caltech,
MSSS -
Little Planet:
Andrew Bodrov
Explanation:
A curious robot almost completely straddles this rocky little planet.
Of course, the
planet is really Mars
and the robot is the car-sized Curiosity Rover,
posing
over its recent drilling target in the Marias Pass
area of lower Mount Sharp.
The 92 images used to assemble the
little planet projection,
a digitally warped and stitched mosaic covering 360x180 degrees,
were taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens
Imager (MAHLI) during the Curiosity mission sol (martian day)
1065.
That corresponds to 2015 August 5,
three Earth years since Curiosity
landed on the surface of the Red Planet.
The composite selfie excludes images that show the rover's
robotic arm and mount of the MAHLI camera itself,
but their shadow is visible beneath.
Check out this spectacular interactive version of
Curiosity's sol 1065 panorama.
Sprites from Space
Image Credit:
NASA,
Expedition 44
Explanation:
An old Moon
and the stars of Orion rose above the eastern horizon
on August 10.
The Moon's waning crescent was still bright enough
to be overexposed in this
snapshot
taken from another large satellite
of planet Earth, the International Space Station.
A greenish airglow traces the atmosphere above the limb of
the planet's night.
Below, city lights and lightning flashes from thunderstorms
appear over southern Mexico.
The snapshot also captures the startling apparition
of a rare form of upper atmospheric lightning, a large
red sprite caught
above a lightning flash at the far right.
While the space station's orbital motion causes the
city lights to blur and trail during the exposure,
the extremely brief flash of the red sprite is sharp.
Now known to be associated with thunderstorms,
much remains a mystery about sprites including how they occur,
their effect on the atmospheric
global electric circuit,
and if they are somehow related to other
upper atmospheric lightning
phenomena such as blue jets or
terrestrial gamma flashes.
M27: Not a Comet
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Francesco
di Biase
Explanation:
While hunting for comets in the skies above 18th century France,
astronomer Charles Messier
diligently kept a list of the things
he encountered that were definitely not comets.
This is number 27 on his
now
famous not-a-comet list.
In fact, 21st century astronomers would identify it as a
planetary
nebula, but it's not a planet either, even though it may
appear round and
planet-like in a small telescope.
Messier 27 (M27) is an excellent example of a
gaseous emission nebula created
as a
sun-like star runs out
of nuclear fuel in its core.
The nebula forms as the star's outer layers are expelled into
space, with a visible glow generated by atoms excited by the dying
star's intense but invisible
ultraviolet light.
Known by the popular name of the
Dumbbell
Nebula, the beautifully
symmetric interstellar gas cloud is over 2.5 light-years across and
about 1,200 light-years away in the
constellation
Vulpecula.
This impressive color composite highlights details within
the well-studied central region and fainter, seldom imaged
features in the nebula's
outer halo.
It incorporates broad and narrowband
images recorded
using filters sensitive to emission from
sulfur, hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
Source -
NASA
