dragoni reblogged

Holiday Lights from the Universe

Although there are no seasons in space, some cosmic vistas invoke thoughts of a frosty winter landscape. Here are a few stellar images of holiday wonderlands from across the galaxy…

Located in our galaxy about 5,500 light years from Earth, this region is actually a “cluster of clusters,” containing at least three clusters of young stars, including many hot, massive, luminous stars.

The outstretched “wings” of this nebula looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel. Twin lobes of super-hot gas, glowing blue in this image, stretch outward from the central star. This hot gas creates the “wings” of our angel. A ring of dust and gas orbiting the star acts like a belt, clinching the expanding nebula into an “hourglass” shape.

At this time of year, holiday parties often include festive lights. When galaxies get together, they also may be surrounded by a spectacular light show. This pair of spiral galaxies has been caught in a grazing encounter. This region has hosted three supernova explosions in the past 15 years and has produced one of the most bountiful collections of super-bright X-ray lights known.

What do the following things have in common: a cone, the fur of a fox and a Christmas tree? Answer: they all occur in the constellation of the unicorn (Monoceros). Pictured as a star forming region, the complex jumble of cosmic gas and dust is about 2,700 light-years away.

Resembling festive lights on a holiday wreath, this Hubble Space Telescope image of a nearby spiral galaxy is an iconic reminder of the impending season. Bright knots of glowing gas light up the spiral arms, indicating a rich environment of star formation.

The Hubble Space Telescope captured two festive-looking nebulas, situated so as to appear as one. Intense radiation from the brilliant central stars is heating hydrogen in each of the nebulas, causing them to glow red…like a holiday light.

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The universe viewed from the Pale Blue Dot

#holiday lights #pale blue dot #hubble space telescope #hubble telescope #nasa #universe

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Hubble captures vivid auroras in Jupiter’s atmosphere

Astronomers are using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study auroras — stunning light shows in a planet’s atmosphere — on the poles of the largest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter. This observation programme is supported by measurements made by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, currently on its way to Jupiter.

Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, is best known for its colourful storms, the most famous being the Great Red Spot. Now astronomers have focused on another beautiful feature of the planet, using the ultraviolet capabilities of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

The extraordinary vivid glows shown in the new observations are known as auroras [1]. They are created when high energy particles enter a planet’s atmosphere near its magnetic poles and collide with atoms of gas. As well as producing beautiful images, this programme aims to determine how various components of Jupiter’s auroras respond to different conditions in the solar wind, a stream of charged particles ejected from the Sun.

Source: spacetelescope.org

#hubble space telescope #hubble telescope #jupiter #auroras #nasa #esa #juno

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Supermassive Black Hole Found in Unlikely Cosmic Backwater

Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole containing 17 billion times the mass of the sun—only slightly smaller than the heftiest known black hole, which weighs in at a maximum of 21 billion solar masses—at the center of the galaxy NGC 1600.

That's a surprise, because NGC 1600, which lies 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus, belongs to an average-size galaxy group, and the monster black holes discovered to date tend to be found in dense clusters of galaxies. So researchers may have to rethink their ideas about where gigantic black holes reside, and how many of them might populate the universe, study team members said. [The Strangest Black Holes in Space]

Source: scientificamerican.com

#nasa #black hole #ngc 1600 #eridanus #hubble space telescope #gemini telescope

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Tour This Gorgeous Hubble Photo of the Sombrero Galaxy

The Sombrero Galaxy is 50 million light years away, but it looks much closer in this detailed image from the Hubble Space Telescope.

We see the flattened disc of the Sombrero Galaxy nearly edge-on, and it’s ringed with dark lanes of dust and young, bright stars.

Source: Gizmodo

#sombrero galaxy #hubble #hubble space telescope #nasa

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The Sombrero galaxy, imaged here by the Hubble Space Telescope, is one of the brightest and most famous galaxies visible through backyard telescopes. The galaxy's hallmark is a brilliant white core encircled by thick dust lanes.

Source: National Geographic

#sombrero galaxy #astronomy #astrophysics #hubble #hubble space telescope