Explanation:
Big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy
NGC 1300 lies some 70 million
light-years away on the banks of the
constellation
Eridanus.
This Hubble Space Telescope
composite view of the gorgeous island universe is one of the
largest Hubble images ever made of a complete
galaxy.
NGC 1300
spans over 100,000 light-years and the
Hubble
image reveals striking details of the galaxy's dominant
central bar and majestic spiral arms.
In fact, on close
inspection
the nucleus of this classic barred
spiral itself shows a remarkable region of
spiral structure
about 3,000 light-years across.
Like other
spiral
galaxies,
including our own Milky Way, NGC 1300
is thought to have a supermassive
central black hole.
Explanation:
In Greek myth Prometheus was a Titan,
known for bringing fire from Mount Olympus.
But in modern times the name is given to a
small
moon of Saturn, orbiting just inside Saturn's F ring.
In a complex interaction, the tiny
potato-shaped moon interacts
with the icy ring particles creating structures
along
the F ring still not fully understood.
One of the highest resolution views of
Prometheus,
this image of its
pocked surface posing with the thin F ring in the background
was taken during the Cassini spacecraft's close approach on December 6, 2015.
Prometheus is about 86 kilometers (50 miles) across.
Explanation:
A mere 2.5 million
light-years away, the Andromeda Galaxy, also known
as M31, really is just next door as large galaxies go.
In this (inset) scan, image data from NASA's
Nuclear
Spectrosopic Telescope Array has yielded
the best high-energy X-ray view yet of our large neighboring spiral,
revealing some 40 extreme
sources of X-rays,
X-ray binary star systems that contain a black hole or neutron
star orbiting a more normal stellar companion.
In fact, larger Andromeda and our own Milky Way
are the most massive members of the local galaxy group.
Andromeda is close enough that NuSTAR can examine
its population of X-ray binaries in detail,
comparing them to our own.
The background image
of Andromeda was taken by NASA's Galaxy Evolution
Explorer in energetic ultraviolet light.
Earthset from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State U./Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State U./Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Explanation:
On the Moon, the Earth never rises -- or sets.
If you were to sit on the surface of the Moon, you would see the Earth just hang in the sky.
This is because the Moon always keeps the
same side toward the Earth.
Curiously, the featured image does picture the Earth setting over a lunar edge.
This was possible because the image was taken from a spacecraft orbiting the Moon - specifically the
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
In fact, LRO orbits the Moon so fast that, from the spacecraft, the
Earth appears to
set anew about every two hours.
The featured image
captured one such Earthset about three months ago.
By contrast, from the surface of the Earth, the
Moon sets about once a day -- with the
primary cause being the rotation of the Earth.
LRO was launched in 2009 and,
while creating a detailed three dimensional map of the
Moon's surface,
is also
surveying the Moon for
water and possible good landing spots for
future astronauts.
Dust of the Orion Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Raul Villaverde Fraile
Image Credit & Copyright: Raul Villaverde Fraile
Explanation:
What surrounds a hotbed of star formation?
In the case of the
Orion Nebula -- dust.
The
entire Orion field, located about 1600
light years away, is inundated with intricate and
picturesque filaments of dust.
Opaque to visible light,
dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive
cool stars and expelled by a strong outer
wind of particles.
The Trapezium and other forming
star clusters
are embedded in the nebula.
The intricate filaments of dust surrounding
M42 and
M43 appear brown in the
featured image, while central glowing gas is highlighted in red.
Over the next few million years much of
Orion's dust will be slowly
destroyed by the very stars now being formed, or dispersed into the
Galaxy.
Explanation:
What's happening to our Sun?
Another
Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)!
The Sun-orbiting
SOHO spacecraft has imaged many
erupting filaments lifting off
the active solar surface and blasting enormous bubbles of
magnetic plasma into space.
Direct light from the sun is blocked in the inner part of the
featured image, taken in 2002, and replaced by a simultaneous image of the Sun in
ultraviolet light.
The field of view extends over two million kilometers from the
solar surface.
While hints of
these explosive events, called
coronal mass ejections or CMEs,
were discovered by spacecraft in the early 70s,
this dramatic image is part of a detailed record
of this CME's development from the presently operating
SOHO spacecraft.
Near the maximum of the
solar activity cycle,
CMEs now typically occur several times a week.
Strong CMEs may profoundly influence
space weather.
Those directed toward our planet can have
serious effects.
Explanation:
Cosmic dust clouds ripple across
this infrared portrait
of our Milky Way's
satellite
galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud.
In fact, the remarkable composite image from the
Herschel
Space Observatory and the
Spitzer Space
Telescope
show that dust clouds fill this neighboring dwarf galaxy, much like
dust along the plane of the Milky Way
itself.
The dust temperatures
tend to trace star forming activity.
Spitzer data in blue hues indicate warm dust heated
by young stars.
Herschel's instruments contributed the image data shown in red and
green, revealing dust emission from cooler and intermediate regions
where star formation is just beginning or has stopped.
Dominated by dust emission, the Large Magellanic Cloud's
infrared appearance is different
from views in optical images.
But this galaxy's well-known
Tarantula Nebula still stands out,
easily seen here as the brightest region to the left of center.
A mere 160,000 light-years distant,
the Large Cloud of Magellan
is about 30,000 light-years across.
Explanation:
Informally named Wright Mons, a broad mountain about
150 kilometers across and 4 kilometers high with
a wide, deep summit depression is featured in
this inset image
captured during the New Horizons flyby of Pluto in July 2015.
Of course, broad mountains with summit craters are found
elsewhere in the Solar System, like the large shield volcano
Mauna Loa on planet Earth or giant
Olympus Mons on Mars.
New Horizons scientists note the striking similarity of
Pluto's Wright Mons, and
nearby Piccard Mons, to large shield volcanoes suggests
the two could be giant cryovolcanoes that once erupted
molten ice from the interior of the cold, distant world.
In fact, found on a frozen dwarf planet Wright Mons
could be the largest volcano in the outer Solar System.
Since only one impact crater has been identified on its slopes,
Wright Mons may well have been active late in Pluto's history.
This
highest resolution
color image also reveals red material sparsely scattered around the region.
Source - NASA
