Space images thread

[Drone]

The Necklace Nebula — which also goes by the less glamorous name of PN G054.2-03.4 — was produced by a pair of tightly orbiting Sun-like stars. Roughly 10000 years ago, one of the aging stars expanded and engulfed its smaller companion, creating something astronomers call a “common envelope”. The smaller star continued to orbit inside its larger companion, increasing the bloated giant’s rotation rate until large parts of it spun outwards into space. This escaping ring of debris formed the Necklace Nebula, with particularly dense clumps of gas forming the bright “diamonds” around the ring.

This work is based on NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory observations of the remains of a supernova called Cassiopeia A, located in our galaxy ~ 11k ly from Earth.
This is one of the youngest known supernova remnants, with an age of about 350 years.
When the supernova happened, titanium fragments were produced deep inside the massive star. The fragments penetrated the surface of the massive star, forming the rim of the supernova remnant, Cas A. The amount of stable titanium produced in Cas A exceeds the total mass of the Earth.

 

[Drone]

Pictured here is the region of the sky around the star AG Carinae, which is positioned in the center of the image.

This detailed image features Abell 3827, a galaxy cluster that offers a wealth of exciting possibilities for study. It was observed by Hubble in order to study dark matter, which is one of the greatest puzzles cosmologists face today.

 

[Drone]

DG121 is a cloud of ionized hydrogen located in the constellation of Puppis. The brightest star in the DG121 region, seen near the center in this picture, is HD 60068.

The emission nebula NGC 2313. The bright star V565 — surrounded by four prominent diffraction spikes — illuminates a silvery, fan-shaped veil of gas and dust, while the right half of this image is obscured by a dense cloud of dust.

 

[Drone]

For 2 years, OSIRIS-REx studied the asteroid Bennu, revealing the many secrets of this ancient body and delivering clues about its rubble-pile-like consistency and surface terrain, which turned out to be much rockier and more rugged than initially expected from the observations of ground-based telescope. On May 10, 2021, the spacecraft embarked on its return voyage to Earth. On Sept. 24, 2023, the spacecraft will jettison the sealed capsule containing the sample and send it onto a trajectory to touch down in the Utah desert.

 

[Caring1]

On Sept. 24, 2023, the spacecraft will jettison the sealed capsule containing the sample and send it onto a trajectory to touch down in the Utah desert.

Finders keepers.

 

[Drone]

This packed Hubble Picture showcases the galaxy cluster ACO S 295, as well as a jostling crowd of background galaxies and foreground stars. Galaxies of all shapes and sizes populate this image, ranging from stately spirals to fuzzy ellipticals.

 

[lexluthermiester]

This packed Hubble Picture showcases the galaxy cluster ACO S 295, as well as a jostling crowd of background galaxies and foreground stars. Galaxies of all shapes and sizes populate this image, ranging from stately spirals to fuzzy ellipticals.

This photo also illustrates dopler-shift very well. The galaxies that are very blue are actually blue-shifted as they are coming toward us. Other galaxies that are very red are red-shifted as they are moving away from us. Very interesting effect. Using the shift, which is a deviation from what would be considered a standard spectrum output, can help us measure how fast those galaxies are moving(relative to us) based on how blue or red shifted they are.

 

[Drone]

 

[Drone]

​

Hubble’s Distant View of the Supernova Remnant 1E 0102.2-7219​

This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5037, which is found in the constellation of Virgo and was first documented by William Herschel in 1785. It lies ~ 150 million ly away from us, and yet it's possible to see the delicate structures of gas and dust within the galaxy in extraordinary detail.

 

[Drone]

 

[Drone]

The most detailed dark matter map of our universe is weirdly smooth | MIT Technology Review

 

[Drone]

Failed galaxy UDG4

Spiral galaxy NGC 691

 

[Drone]

This image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), features the spiral galaxy NGC 4680. At 2 o’clock and 7 o’clock two other galaxies can be seen flanking NGC 4680.

Grand Design Spiral Galaxy named NGC 4254 (M99), a beautiful cosmic spectacle located in the constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair).
Only ~ 10% of all spirals are of the grand design variety, making objects like M99 somewhat uncommon. The justification behind M99’s categorization is clear in this image; bright, swirling arms carve through the dark surrounding space, and are easily identifiable as a number of different, coherent structures.

Hubble Space Telescope image of Tycho crater on the Moon.

 

[Drone]

Arp 299 is a system located ~ 140 million ly from Earth, containing two galaxies that are merging, which has created a partially blended mix of stars from each galaxy.

This image of the dark side of the Jovian moon Ganymede was obtained by the Stellar Reference Unit star camera aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft during its June 7, 2021, flyby of the icy moon.

At the time of closest approach, Juno was within 1038 km of its surface – closer to Jupiter's largest moon than any other spacecraft has come in more than two decades.

This GIF shows clouds drifting over Mount Sharp on Mars, as viewed by NASA's Curiosity rover on March 19, 2021, the 3063rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Each frame of the scene was stitched together from 6 individual images.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Arp 299 is a system located ~ 140 million ly from Earth, containing two galaxies that are merging, which has created a partially blended mix of stars from each galaxy.

For those interested, I found this to be such a cool photo I made a 2160p wallpaper out of it;

Enjoy!

 

[Drone]

For those interested, I found this to be such a cool photo I made a 2160p wallpaper out of it;

Enjoy!

It's so cool, looks like two mouths of a wormhole.

 

[Drone]

​

Earth's Atmospheric Glow and Star Trails​

 

[Drone]

The dark skies above ESO’s Paranal Observatory, home to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), yield breathtaking views so clear and so full of stars that you could almost touch them.

This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3254, observed using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). WFC3 has the capacity to observe ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light, and this image is a composite of observations taken in the visible and infrared.
It's a Seyfert galaxy, meaning that it has an extraordinarily active core, known as an active galactic nucleus, which releases as much energy as the rest of the galaxy put together.

 

[Drone]

Did We Just Find The Largest Rotating ‘Thing’ In The Universe?

Filaments, hundreds of millions of light-years long, were just caught spinning.

www.forbes.com

Study of Young Chaotic Star System Reveals Planet Formation Secrets - National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Scientists using ALMA to observe the young star Elias 2-27 have confirmed the key role of gravitational instability in planet formation.

public.nrao.edu

Mystery of Galaxy's Missing Dark Matter Deepens

hubblesite.org

 

[Drone]

In this June 2021 image, our Sun's glint beams off the Indian Ocean as the ISS orbited about 270 miles above the Earth near western Australia. The station orbits the Earth about every 90 minutes at a speed of > 17000 miles per hour.

This composite image made from seven frames shows the ISS, with a crew of seven onboard, in silhouette as it transits the Sun at roughly five miles per second, Friday, June 25, 2021, from near Nellysford, Va.

A cataclysmic cosmic collision takes center stage in this image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image features the interacting galaxy pair IC 1623, which lies ~ 275 million ly away in the constellation Cetus. The two galaxies are in the final stages of merging, and astronomers expect a powerful inflow of gas to ignite a frenzied burst of star formation in the resulting compact starburst galaxy.

Open star cluster NGC 330, which lies ~ 180000 ly away inside the Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation Tucana.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Open star cluster NGC 330, which lies ~ 180000 ly away inside the Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation Tucana.

This is such a cool photo! Decided to make a 2160p(4k) wallpaper out of it. Enjoy!

EDIT: Just in case, I claim no ownership to the original photo or this rework of it into a wallpaper.
NASA is the rights holder. Only made the wallpaper for fun under the terms of fair-use.

 

[Drone]

This 2004 image was produced by combining a dozen observations from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory made of a 130 ly region in the center of the Milky Way. The colors represent low (red), medium (green) and high (blue) energy X-rays. Thanks to Chandra's unique resolving power, astronomers have now been able to identify thousands of point-like X-ray sources due to neutron stars, black holes, white dwarfs, foreground stars, and background galaxies. What remains is a diffuse X-ray glow extending from the upper left to the lower right, along the direction of the disk of the Galaxy. The spectrum of the diffuse glow is consistent with a hot gas cloud that contains two components – 10 million & 100 million °C gas. The diffuse X-rays appear to be the brightest part of a ridge of X-ray emission that stretches for several thousand ly along the disk of the Galaxy. The extent of this ridge implies that the diffuse hot gas in this image is probably not being heated by the supermassive black hole Sgr A* at the center of the Milky Way.

 

[Drone]

These images, from a program led by Julianne Dalcanton of the University of Washington in Seattle, demonstrate Hubble's return to full science operations.
ARP-MADORE2115-273 is a rarely observed example of a pair of interacting galaxies in the southern hemisphere.
ARP-MADORE0002-503 is a large spiral galaxy with unusual, extended spiral arms. While most disk galaxies have an even number of spiral arms, this one has three.​

On the horizon, a green object shines like a round, fuzzy blob; this is actually an interplanetary visitor called Comet 252P/LINEAR. This comet was pictured as it soared past the Earth in April 2016, skimming some 5.3 million km away from our planet. Although it was too faint to see with the unaided eye, it showed up beautifully in telescopic observations and images such as this one.​

​

​

This dramatic image from January 2006 offers a peek inside a cavern of roiling dust and gas where thousands of stars are forming. The image, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, represents the sharpest view ever taken of this region until this time, called the Orion Nebula. >3000 stars of various sizes appear in this image. Some of them have never been seen in visible light.​

​

The centre of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is framed by the tell-tale arcs that result from strong gravitational lensing, a striking astronomical phenomenon which can warp, magnify, or even duplicate the appearance of distant galaxies.

Gravitational lensing occurs when light from a distant galaxy is subtly distorted by the gravitational pull of an intervening astronomical object. In this case, the relatively nearby galaxy cluster MACSJ0138.0-2155 has lensed a significantly more distant quiescent galaxy — a slumbering giant known as MRG-M0138 which has run out of the gas required to form new stars and is located 10 billion ly away. Astronomers can use gravitational lensing as a natural magnifying glass, allowing them to inspect objects like distant quiescent galaxies which would usually be too difficult for even Hubble to resolve.​

​

 

[Drone]

Ingenuity, the helicopter that arrived on the Red Planet on the Mars Perseverance rover, has made nine flights on Mars. Ingenuity's historic achievement is the first powered helicopter flight on a terrestrial body other than Earth. This image was captured by Mars Perseverance rover using its Left Mastcam-Z Camera, composed of a pair of cameras located high on the rover's mast, on Jun. 15, 2021 (Sol 114).

This wide view of Mars' Jezero Crater was taken by NASA's Perseverance rover on July 15, 2021 (the 143rd sol, or Martian day, of its mission).

 

[lexluthermiester]

I found this and thought folks here might enjoy it;

EDIT:
Once couldn't resist making a wallpaper, this time of the Orion Nebula. Enjoy!

Click the thumbnail to get the full size image in 2160p.