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Sometimes the night sky is full of surprises. Take the sky over Lindis Pass , South Island , New Zealand one-night last week. Instead of a typically calm night sky filled with constant stars , a busy and dynamic night sky appeared. Suddenly visible were pervasive red aurora , green picket-fence aurora , a red SAR arc , a STEVE , a meteor , and the Moon . These outshone the center of our Milky Way Galaxy and both of its two satellite galaxies: the LMC and SMC . All of these were captured together on 28 exposures in five minutes, from which this panorama was composed. Auroras lit up many skies last week, as a Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun unleashed a burst of particles toward our Earth that created colorful skies over latitude s usually too far from the Earth's poles to see them. More generally, night skies this month have other surprises, showing not only auroras -- but comet s . from NASA https://ift.tt/4iRkXBc

How bright and strange will the tails of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS become? The comet has brightened dramatically over the few weeks as it passed its closest to the Sun and, just three days ago, passed its closest to the Earth. C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) became of the brightest comets of the past century over the past few days, but was unfortunately hard to see because it was so nearly superposed on the Sun. As the comet appears to move away from the Sun, it is becoming a remarkable sight -- but may soon begin to fade. The featured animated video shows how the comet's tails have developed, as viewed from Earth, and gives one prediction about how they might further develop. As shown in the video, heavier parts of the dust tail that trails the comet have begun to appear to point in nearly the opposite direction from lighter parts of the dust tail as well as the comet's ion tail , the blue tail that is pushed directly out from the Sun by the solar wind . from NASA http

Go outside at sunset tonight and see a comet! C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) has become visible in the early evening sky in northern locations to the unaided eye. To see the comet , look west through a sky with a low horizon. If the sky is clear and dark enough, you will not even need binoculars -- the faint tail of the comet should be visible just above the horizon for about an hour. Pictured , Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was captured two nights ago over the Lincoln Memorial monument in Washington, DC , USA . With each passing day at sunset, the comet and its changing tail should be higher and higher in the sky, although exactly how bright and how long its tails will be can only be guessed . from NASA https://ift.tt/piusKv4

Did you see last night's aurora? This question was relevant around much of the world a few days ago because a powerful auroral storm became visible unusually far from the Earth's poles. The cause was a giant X-class solar flare on Tuesday that launched energetic electrons and protons into the Solar System , connecting to the Earth via our planet's magnetic field . A red glow of these particles striking oxygen atoms high in Earth's atmosphere pervades the frame, while vertical streaks dance. The featured video shows a one-hour timelapse as seen from Cortina d'Ampezzo over Alps Mountain peaks in northern Italy . Stars from our Milky Way Galaxy dot the background while streaks from airplanes and satellites punctuate the foreground. The high recent activity of our Sun is likely to continue to produce picturesque auroras over Earth during the next year or so. from NASA https://ift.tt/N2W47GM

A gravel country lane gently winds through this colorful rural night skyscape. Captured from Monroe County in southern West Virginia on the evening of October 10, the starry sky above is a familiar sight. Shimmering curtains of aurora borealis or northern lights definitely do not make regular appearances here, though. Surprisingly vivid auroral displays were present on that night at very low latitudes around the globe , far from their usual northern and southern high latitude realms . The extensive auroral activity was evidence of a severe geomagnetic storm triggered by the impact of a coronal mass ejection (CME), an immense magnetized cloud of energetic plasma. The CME was launched toward Earth from the active Sun following a powerful X-class solar flare . from NASA https://ift.tt/YO3jAMP

The second solar eclipse of 2024 began in the Pacific. On October 2nd the Moon's shadow swept from west to east, with an annular eclipse visible along a narrow antumbral shadow path tracking mostly over ocean, making its only major landfall near the southern tip of South America, and then ending in the southern Atlantic. The dramatic total annular eclipse phase is known to some as a ring of fire . Also tracking across islands in the southern Pacific, the Moon's antumbral shadow grazed Easter Island allowing denizens to follow all phases of the annular eclipse. Framed by palm tree leaves this clear island view is a stack of two images, one taken with and one taken without a solar filter near the moment of the maximum annular phase. The New Moon's silhouette appears just off center, though still engulfed by the bright disk of the active Sun. from NASA https://ift.tt/1fh4D5b

Five bright comets are compared in these panels, recorded by a coronograph on board the long-lived, sun-staring SOHO spacecraft . Arranged chronologically all are recognizable by their tails streaming away from the Sun at the center of each field of view, where a direct view of the overwhelmingly bright Sun is blocked by the coronagraph's occulting disk. Each comet was memorable for earthbound skygazers, starting at top left with Comet McNaught , the 21st century's brightest comet (so far). C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas , approaching its perihelion with the active Sun at bottom center, has most recently grabbed the attention of comet watchers around the globe. By the end of October 2024, the blank 6th panel may be filled with bright sungrazer comet C/2024 S1 Atlas . ... or not. from NASA https://ift.tt/fV5UPw8

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 taken from the Kuwait i desert . 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 . M 106, 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 ). from NASA https://ift.tt/AeaWlNz

Can you find the Sun? OK, but can you explain why there’s a big dark spot in the center? The spot is the Moon , and the impressive alignment shown, where the Moon lines up inside the Sun , is called an annular solar eclipse . Such an eclipse occurred just last week and was visible from a thin swath mostly in Earth 's southern hemisphere. The featured image was captured from Patagonia , Chile . When the Moon is significantly closer to the Earth and it aligns with the Sun, a total solar eclipse is then visible from parts of the Earth. Annular eclipses are slightly more common than total eclipses, but as the Moon moves slowly away from the Earth , before a billion more years , the Moon's orbit will no longer bring it close enough for a total solar eclipse to be seen from anywhere on Earth . from NASA https://ift.tt/JqfsPy2

A bright comet is moving into the evening skies. C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) has brightened and even though it is now easily visible to the unaided eye, it is so near to the Sun that it is still difficult to see. Pictured , Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS was captured just before sunrise from an Andes Mountain in Peru . Braving cold weather, this unusually high perch gave the astrophotographer such a low eastern horizon that the comet was obvious in the pre-dawn sky. Visible in the featured image is not only an impressively long dust tail extending over many degrees , but an impressively long and blue ion tail , too.  This month, as the comet moves out from the Sun and passes the Earth , evening observers should be able to see the huge dirty ice ball toward the west just after sunset . from NASA https://ift.tt/bJdySHg

Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007, grew a spectacularly long and filamentary tail. The magnificent tail spread across the sky and was visible for several days to Southern Hemisphere observers just after sunset. The amazing ion tail showed its greatest extent on long-duration, wide-angle camera exposures. During some times, just the tail itself was visible just above the horizon for many northern observers as well. Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) , estimated to have attained a peak brightness of magnitude -5 (minus five), was caught by the comet's discoverer in the featured image just after sunset in January 2007 from Siding Spring Observatory in Australia . Comet McNaught, the brightest comet in decades, then faded as it moved further into southern skies and away from the Sun and Earth . Over the next month, Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS , a candidate for the Great Comet of 2024, should display its most spectacular tails visible from the Earth . from NASA https://ift.tt/Q

While hunting for comets in the skies above 18th century France, astronomer Charles Messier diligently kept a list of the things encountered during his telescopic expeditions 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 image highlig

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is growing brighter in planet Earth's sky. Fondly known as comet A3, this new visitor to the inner Solar System is traveling from the distant Oort cloud . The comet reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, on September 27 and will reach perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on October 12, by then becoming an evening sky apparition. But comet A3 was an early morning riser on September 30 when this image was made. Its bright coma and already long tail share a pre-dawn skyscape from Praia Grande, Santa Catarina in southern Brazil with the waning crescent Moon just peeking above the eastern horizon. While the behaviour of comets is notoriously unpredictable, Tsuchinshan–ATLAS could become a comet visually rivaling C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE). Comet NEOWISE wowed skygazers in the summer of 2020. from NASA https://ift.tt/2rMzOsu

The second solar eclipse of 2024 began in the Pacific. On October 2nd the Moon's shadow swept from west to east, with an annular eclipse visible along a narrow antumbral shadow path tracking mostly over ocean, crossing land near the southern tip of South America, and ending in the southern Atlantic. The dramatic total annular eclipse phase is known to some as a ring of fire . Still, a partial eclipse of the Sun was experienced over a wide region. Captured at one of its earliest moments, October's eclipsed Sun is seen just above the clouds near sunrise in this snapshot. The partially eclipsed solar disk is close to the maximum eclipse as seen from Mauna Kea Observatory Visitor Center, Island of Hawaii, planet Earth . from NASA https://ift.tt/2QTGYl9

It is the largest satellite galaxy of our home Milky Way Galaxy. If you live in the south, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is quite noticeable , spanning about 10 degrees across the night sky, which is 20 times larger than the full moon towards the southern constellation of the dolphinfish ( Dorado ). Being only about 160,000 light years away, many details of the LMC's structure can be seen, such as its central bar and its single spiral arm. The LMC harbors numerous stellar nurseries where new stars are being born, which appear in pink in the featured image . It is home to the Tarantula Nebula , the currently most active star forming region in the entire Local Group , a small collection of nearby galaxies dominated by the massive Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies. Studies of the LMC and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) by Henrietta Swan Leavitt led to the discovery of the period-luminosity relationship of Cepheid variable stars that are used to measure distances across

How far can black hole jets extend? A new record was found just recently with the discovery of a 23-million light-year long jet pair from a black hole active billions of years ago. Dubbed Porphyrion for a mythological Greek giant, the impressive jets were created by a type of black hole that does not usually create long jets -- one that is busy creating radiation from infalling gas. The featured animated video depicts what it might look like to circle around this powerful black hole system. Porphyrion is shown as a fast stream of energetic particles , and the bright areas are where these particles are impacting surrounding gas. The discovery was made using data from the Keck and Mayall ( DESI ) optical observatories as well as LOFAR and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope . The existence of these jets demonstrates that black holes can affect not only their home galaxies but far out into the surrounding universe . from NASA https://ift.tt/fPFi8G5

The new comet has passed its closest to the Sun and is now moving closer to the Earth. C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is currently moving out from inside the orbit of Venus and on track to pass its nearest to the Earth in about two weeks. Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, pronounced "Choo-cheen-shahn At-less," , is near naked-eye visibility and easily picked up by long-exposure cameras. The comet can also now be found by observers in Earth's northern hemisphere as well as the south. The featured image was captured just a few days ago above Zacatecas , Mexico . Because clouds were obscuring much of the pre-dawn sky, the astrophotographer released a drone to take pictures from higher up, several of which were later merged to enhance the comet's visibility. Although the future brightness of comets is hard to predict , there is increasing hope that Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will further brighten as it enters the early evening sky. from NASA https://ift.tt/UPHR0Ee

Is this really the famous Pleiades star cluster? Known for its iconic blue stars , the Pleiades is shown here in infrared light where the surrounding dust outshines the stars. Here, three infrared colors have been mapped into visual colors (R=24, G=12, B=4.6 micron s). The base images were taken by NASA's orbiting Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. Cataloged as M45 and nicknamed the Seven Sisters , the Pleiades star cluster is by chance situated in a passing dust cloud . The light and wind s from the massive Pleiades stars preferentially repel smaller dust particles , causing the dust to become stratified into filaments , as seen. The featured image spans about 20 light years at the distance of the Pleiades , which lies about 450 light years distant toward the constellation of the Bull ( Taurus ). from NASA https://ift.tt/KLindsA

Shockwaves ripple across the glare as a launch eclipses the setting Sun in this exciting close-up . Captured on September 17, the roaring Falcon 9 rocket carried European Galileo L13 navigation satellites to medium Earth orbit after a lift-off from Cape Canaveral on Florida's space coast. The Falcon 9 booster returned safely to Earth about 8.5 minutes later, notching the 22nd launch and landing for the reusable workhorse launch vehicle. But where did it land? Just Read the Instructions . from NASA https://ift.tt/Vmtdsog

The twenty galaxies arrayed in these panels are part of an ambitious astronomical survey of tidal stellar streams. Each panel presents a composite view; a deep, inverted image taken from publicly available imaging surveys of a field that surrounds a nearby massive galaxy image. The inverted images reveal faint cosmic structures, star streams hundreds of thousands of light-years across, that result from the gravitational disruption and eventual merger of satellite galaxies in the local universe . Such surveys of mergers and gravitational tidal interactions between massive galaxies and their dwarf satellites are crucial guides for current models of galaxy formation and cosmology. Of course, the detection of stellar streams in the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy and our own Milky Way also offers spectacular evidence for ongoing satellite galaxy disruption within our more local galaxy group . from NASA https://ift.tt/bevwimQ

In 1716 , English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, "This is but a little Patch, but it shows itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent." Of course, M13 is now less modestly recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. Sharp telescopic views like this one reveal the spectacular cluster's hundreds of thousands of stars. At a distance of 25,000 light-years, the cluster stars crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter. Approaching the cluster core, upwards of 100 stars could be contained in a cube just 3 light-years on a side. For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is over 4 light-years away. The deep, wide-field image also reveals distant background galaxies including NGC 6207 at the upper left, and faint, foreground Milky Way dust clouds known to some as integrated flux nebulae . from NASA https://ift.tt/HPJEb3m

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is now visible in the early morning sky. Diving into the inner Solar System at an odd angle , this large dirty iceberg will pass its closest to the Sun -- between the orbits of Mercury and Venus -- in just two days. Long camera exposures are now capturing C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) , sometimes abbreviated as just A3 , and its dust tail before and during sunrise. The featured image composite was taken four days ago and captured the comet as it rose above Lake George , NSW , Australia . Vertical bands further left are images of the comet as the rising Sun made the predawn sky increasingly bright and colorful. Just how bright the comet will become over the next month is currently unknown as it involves how much gas and dust the comet's nucleus will expel . Optimistic skywatchers are hoping for a great show where Tsuchinshan–ATLAS creates dust and ion tails visible across Earth's sky and becomes known as the Great Comet of 2024. from NASA htt

This dusty region is forming stars. Part of a sprawling molecular cloud complex that resembles , to some, a rampaging baboon , the region is a relatively close by 500 light-years away toward the constellation Corona Australis . That's about one third the distance of the more famous stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula . Mixed with bright nebulosities, the brown dust clouds effectively block light from more distant background stars in the Milky Way and obscure from view embedded stars still in the process of formation. The eyes of the dust creature in the featured image are actually blue reflection nebula s cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, 6729 , and IC 4812 , while the red mouth glows with light emitted by hydrogen gas. Just to the upper left of the baboon's head is NGC 6723 , a whole globular cluster of stars nearly 30,000 light years in the distance. from NASA https://ift.tt/1XYbnSd

What will happen as this already bright comet approaches? Optimistic predictions have Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) briefly becoming easily visible to the unaided eye -- although the future brightness of comet s are notoriously hard to predict , and this comet may even break up in warming sunlight. What is certain is that the comet is now unexpectedly bright and is on track to pass its closest to the Sun (0.39 AU ) later this week and closest to the Earth (0.47 AU) early next month. The featured image was taken in late May as Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS , discovered only last year, passed nearly in front of two distant galaxies . The comet can now be found with binoculars in the early morning sky rising just before the Sun , while over the next few weeks it will brighten as it moves to the early evening sky. from NASA https://ift.tt/u2B7eG9

Chicago, in a way, is like a modern Stonehenge . The way is east to west, and the time is today. Today, and every equinox , the Sun will set exactly to the west, everywhere on Earth . Therefore, today in Chicago , the Sun will set directly down the long equatorially-aligned grid of streets and buildings, an event dubbed #chicagohenge . Featured here is a Chicago Henge picture taken during the equinox in mid-September of 2017 looking along part of Upper Wacker Drive . Many cities , though, have streets or other features that are well-aligned to Earth's spin axis. Therefore, quite possibly, your favorite street may also run east - west. Tonight at sunset, with a quick glance, you can actually find out . from NASA https://ift.tt/EdWkfml

The defining astronomical moment of this September's equinox is at 12:44 UTC on September 22, when the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving south in its yearly journey through planet Earth's sky. That marks the beginning of fall for our fair planet in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere, when day and night are nearly equal around the globe. Of course, if you celebrate the astronomical change of seasons by watching a sunrise you can also look for crepuscular rays . Outlined by shadows cast by clouds, crepuscular rays can have a dramatic appearance in the twilight sky during any sunrise (or sunset). Due to perspective, the parallel cloud shadows will seem to point back to the rising Sun and a place due east on your horizon on the equinox date. But in this spectacular sunrise skyscape captured in early June, the parallel shadows and crepuscular rays appear to converge toward an eastern horizon's more northerly sunrise. The well-composed photo

For northern hemisphere dwellers, September's Full Moon was the Harvest Moon . On September 17/18 the sunlit lunar nearside passed into shadow, just grazing Earth's umbra, the planet's dark, central shadow cone, in a partial lunar eclipse . Over the two and half hours before dawn a camera fixed to a tripod was used to record this series of exposures as the eclipsed Harvest Moon set behind Spiš Castle in the hazy morning sky over eastern Slovakia. Famed in festival, story, and song, Harvest Moon is just the traditional name of the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox. According to lore the name is a fitting one. Despite the diminishing daylight hours as the growing season drew to a close, farmers could harvest crops by the light of a full moon shining on from dusk to dawn. This September's Harvest Moon was also known to some as a supermoon, a term becoming a traditional name for a full moon near perigee . from NASA https://ift.tt/AG3edwC

Spanning light-years, this suggestive shape known as the Seahorse Nebula floats in silhouette against a rich, luminous background of stars. Seen toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus, the dusty, dark nebula is part of a Milky Way molecular cloud some 1,200 light-years distant. It is also listed as Barnard 150 (B150), one of 182 dark markings of the sky cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard . Packs of low mass stars are forming within , but their collapsing cores are only visible at long infrared wavelengths . Still, the colorful Milky Way stars of Cepheus add to this stunning galactic skyscape . from NASA https://ift.tt/S7icfFb

New stars are born from the remnants of dead star s. The gaseous remnant of the gravitational collapse and subsequent death of a very massive star in our Milky Way created the G296.5+10.0 supernova remnant , of which the featured Mermaid Nebula is part. Also known as the Betta Fish Nebula , the Mermaid Nebula makes up part of an unusual subclass of supernova remnants that are two-sided and nearly circular. Originally discovered in X-rays , the filamentary nebula is a frequently studied source also in radio and gamma-ray light. The blue color visible here originates from doubly ionized oxygen (OIII), while the deep red is emitted by hydrogen gas . The nebula's mermaid-like shape has proven to be useful for measurements of the interstellar magnetic field . from NASA https://ift.tt/DnKCVtX

Cosmic clouds form fantastic shapes in the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805. The clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula's newborn star cluster, Melotte 15. About 1.5 million years young, the cluster stars are scattered in this colorful skyscape , along with dark dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas. A composite of narrowband and broadband telescopic images, the view spans about 15 light-years and includes emission from ionized hydrogen , sulfur , and oxygen atoms mapped to green, red, and blue hues in the popular Hubble Palette . Wider field images reveal that IC 1805's simpler, overall outline suggests its popular name - the Heart Nebula . IC 1805 is located about 7,500 light years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia . from NASA https://ift.tt/mlvRNV4

Why does this large crater on Mercury have two rings and a smooth floor? No one is sure. The unusual feature called Vivaldi Crater spans 215 kilometers and was imaged again in great detail by ESA 's and JAXA 's robotic BepiColombo spacecraft on a flyby earlier this month. A large circular feature on a rocky planet or moon is usually caused by either an impact by a small asteroid or a comet fragment, or a volcanic eruption . In the case of Vivaldi , it is possible that both occurred -- a heavy strike that caused a smooth internal lava flow. Double-ringed craters are rare, and the cause of the inner rings remains a topic of research . The speed-slowing gravity-assist ed flyby of Mercury by BepiColombo was in preparation for the spacecraft entering orbit around the Solar System 's innermost planet in 2026. from NASA https://ift.tt/OIvKgp7

Have you ever seen the Man in the Moon? This common question plays on the ability of humans to see pareidolia -- imagining familiar icons where they don't actually exist. The textured surface of Earth's full Moon is home to numerous identifications of iconic objects, not only in modern western culture but in world folklore throughout history. Examples, typically dependent on the Moon 's perceived orientation, include the Woman in the Moon and the Rabbit in the Moon . One facial outline commonly identified as the Man in the Moon starts by imagining the two dark circular areas -- lunar maria -- here just above the Moon 's center, to be the eyes. Surprisingly, there actually is a man in this Moon image -- a close look will reveal a real person -- with a telescope -- silhouetted against the Moon . This well-planned image was taken in 2016 in Cadalso de los Vidrios in Madrid , Spain . from NASA https://ift.tt/uvytoTa

Only natural colors of the Moon in planet Earth's sky appear in this creative visual presentation. Arranged as pixels in a framed image, the lunar disks were photographed at different times. Their varying hues are ultimately due to reflected sunlight affected by changing atmospheric conditions and the alignment geometry of Moon, Earth, and Sun. Here, the darkest lunar disks are the colors of earthshine . A description of earthshine, in terms of sunlight reflected by Earth's oceans illuminating the Moon's dark surface, was written over 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. But stand farther back from your screen or just shift your gaze to the smaller versions of the image. You might also see one of da Vinci's most famous works of art . from NASA https://ift.tt/NZOBkTI

This snapshot from the International Space Station was taken on August 11 while orbiting about 430 kilometers above the Indian Ocean, Southern Hemisphere, planet Earth . The spectacular view looks south and east, down toward the planet's horizon and through red and green curtains of aurora australis . The auroral glow is caused by emission from excited oxygen atoms in the extremely rarefied upper atmosphere still present at the level of the orbiting outpost. Green emission from atomic oxygen dominates this scene at altitudes of 100 to 250 kilometers, while red emission from atomic oxygen can extend as high as 500 kilometers altitude. Beyond the glow of these southern lights, this view from low Earth orbit reveals the starry sky from a southern hemisphere perspective . Stars in Orion's belt and the Orion Nebula are near the Earth's limb just left of center. Sirius, alpha star of Canis Major and brightest star in planet Earth's night is above center along the right e

This spectacular mosaic of images from the James Webb Space Telescope peers into the heart of young star cluster NGC 1333. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus , the nearby star cluster lies at the edge of the large Perseus molecular cloud. Part of Webb's deep exploration of the region to identify low mass brown dwarf stars and free floating planets, the space telescope's combined field of view spans nearly 2 light-years across the dusty cluster's turbulent stellar nursery. In fact, NGC 1333 is known to harbor stars less than a million years old, though most are hidden from optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust . The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago. from NASA https://ift.tt/6UBlQPo

A natural border between Slovakia and Poland is the Tatra Mountains . A prominent destination for astrophotographers, the Tatras are the highest mountain range in the Carpathians . In the featured image taken in May, one can see the center of our Milky Way galaxy with two of its famous stellar nurseries , the Lagoon and Omega Nebula , just over the top of the Tatras. Stellar nurseries are full of ionized hydrogen , a fundamental component for the formation of Earth-abundant water . As a fundamental ingredient in all known forms of life , water is a crucial element in the Universe . Such water can be seen in the foreground in the form of the Bialka River . from NASA https://ift.tt/vE3RzTc

The dark Horsehead Nebula and the glowing Orion Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas. Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of the night sky's most recognizable constellation s, they appear in opposite corners of the above stunning mosaic . The familiar Horsehead nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette notched against the long glow of hydrogen -- here shown in gold -- at the lower left. Alnitak is the easternmost star in Orion's belt and is seen as the brightest star just below and to the left of the Horsehead . To the left of Alnitak is the Flame Nebula , with clouds of bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes. The magnificent emission region, the Orion Nebula (aka M42), lies at the upper right. Immediately to its left is a prominent reflection nebula sometimes called the Running Man. Pervasive tendrils of glowing hydrogen gas are easily traced throughout the region. from NASA https://ift.tt/o70Ma8g

If you could fly over Mars, what might you see? The featured image shows exactly this in the form of a Mars Express vista captured over a particularly interesting region on Mars in July. The picture's most famous feature is Olympus Mons , the largest volcano in the Solar System , visible on the upper right. Another large Martian volcano is visible on the right horizon: Pavonis Mons . Several circular impact craters can be seen on the surface of the aptly named red planet . Impressively, this image was timed to capture the dark and doomed Martian moon Phobos , visible just left of center. The surface feature on the lower left, known as Orcus Patera , is unusual for its large size and oblong shape, and mysterious because the processes that created it still remain unknown. ESA 's robotic Mars Express spacecraft was launched in 2003 and, among many notable science discoveries , bolstered evidence that Mars was once home to large bodies of water . from NASA https://ift.

The most distant object easily visible to the unaided eye is M31 , the great Andromeda Galaxy . Even at some two and a half million light-year s distant, this immense spiral galaxy -- spanning over 200,000 light years -- is visible, although as a faint, nebulous cloud in the constellation Andromeda . A bright yellow nucleus, dark winding dust lanes , and expansive spiral arms dotted with blue star cluster s and red nebulae , are recorded in this stunning telescopic image which combines data from orbiting Hubble with ground-based images from Subaru and Mayall . In only about 5 billion years, the Andromeda galaxy may be even easier to see -- as it will likely span the entire night sky -- just before it merges with, or passes right by, our Milky Way Galaxy . from NASA https://ift.tt/mCQJVEc

Mars has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos , named for the figures in Greek mythology Fear and Panic. Detailed surface views of smaller moon Deimos are shown in both these panels. The images were taken in 2009 , by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, NASA's long-lived interplanetary internet satellite. The outermost of the two Martian moons, Deimos is one of the smallest known moons in the Solar System, measuring only about 15 kilometers across. Both Martian moons were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall , an American astronomer working at the US Naval Observatory in Washington D.C. But their existence was postulated around 1610 by Johannes Kepler , the astronomer who derived the laws of planetary motion. In this case, Kepler's prediction was not based on scientific principles, but his writings and ideas were so influential that the two Martian moons are discussed in works of fiction such as Jonathan Swift 's Gulliver's Travels, writte

Ringed ice giant Neptune lies near the center of this sharp near-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope . The dim and distant world is the farthest planet from the Sun , about 30 times farther away than planet Earth. But in the stunning Webb view, the planet's dark and ghostly appearance is due to atmospheric methane that absorbs infrared light. High altitude clouds that reach above most of Neptune's absorbing methane easily stand out in the image though. Coated with frozen nitrogen, Neptune's largest moon Triton is brighter than Neptune in reflected sunlight, seen at the upper left sporting the Webb telescope's characteristic diffraction spikes . Including Triton, seven of Neptune's 14 known moons can be identified in the field of view. Neptune's faint rings are striking in this space-based planetary portrait . Details of the complex ring system are seen here for the first time since Neptune was visited by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in August 1989

About 70,000 light-years across, NGC 247 is a spiral galaxy smaller than our Milky Way. Measured to be only 11 million light-years distant it is nearby though. Tilted nearly edge-on as seen from our perspective , it dominates this telescopic field of view toward the southern constellation Cetus. The pronounced void on one side of the galaxy's disk recalls for some its popular name, the Needle's Eye galaxy. Many background galaxies are visible in this sharp galaxy portrait, including the remarkable string of four galaxies just below and left of NGC 247 known as Burbidge's Chain. Burbidge's Chain galaxies are about 300 million light-years distant. NGC 247 itself is part of the Sculptor Group of galaxies along with shiny spiral NGC 253 . from NASA https://ift.tt/SDgB8pd

Can you see the bat? It haunts this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula . The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star . While the Veil is roughly circular in shape and covers nearly 3 degrees on the sky toward the constellation of the Swan ( Cygnus ), NGC 6995, known informally as the Bat Nebula, spans only 1/2 degree, about the apparent size of the Moon . That translates to 12 light-years at the Veil's estimated distance, a reassuring 1,400 light-years from planet Earth . In the composite of image data recorded through narrow band filters, emission from hydrogen atoms in the remnant is shown in red with strong emission from oxygen atoms shown in hues of blue. Of course, in the western part of the Veil lies another seasonal apparition: the Witch's Broom Nebula. from NASA https://ift.tt/q6EUrik

Nine days ago, two quite different sky icons were imaged rising together. Specifically, Earth's Moon shared the eastern sky with the sister stars of the Pleiades cluster, as viewed from Alberta , Canada . Astronomical images of the well-known Pleiades often show the star cluster's alluring blue reflection nebula s, but here they are washed-out by the orange moonrise sky. The half-lit Moon, known as a quarter moon , is overexposed, although the outline of the dim lunar night side can be seen by illuminating earthshine , light first reflected from the Earth. The featured image is a composite of eight successive exposures with brightnesses adjusted to match what the human eye would see. The Moon passes nearly -- or directly -- in front of the Pleaides once a month. from NASA https://ift.tt/DTA2lP3

Why is there a triangle hovering over the Sun? Although the shape is unusual, the type of structure is not: it is part of an evolving solar prominence . Looping magnetic fields on the Sun channel the flow of energetic particles, sometimes holding glowing gaseous structures aloft for months. A prominence glows brightly because it contains particularly hot, dense, or opaque solar plasma . The surprising triangular structure occurred last week. Larger than our Earth, the iconic prominence was imaged by several solar photographers and documented by NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory to form and violently dissipate in about a day. The featured image was captured in a color of red light emitted strongly by hydrogen . Below, solar fibrils carpet the Sun's chromosphere , while the background sky is so faint in comparison that no stars are visible. Our Sun's surface has been quite active this year. from NASA https://ift.tt/yUH3ldh

Why does Saturn appear so big? It doesn't -- what is pictured are foreground clouds on Earth crossing in front of the Moon . The Moon shows a slight crescent phase with most of its surface visible by reflected Earthlight , known as Da Vinci glow . The Sun directly illuminates the brightly lit lunar crescent from the bottom, which means that the Sun must be below the horizon and so the image was taken before sunrise. This double take -inducing picture was captured on 2019 December 24, two days before the Moon slid in front of the Sun to create a solar eclipse . In the foreground, lights from small Guatemala n towns are visible behind the huge volcano Pacaya . from NASA https://ift.tt/9pZ4MgQ

Galaxies of the NGC 7771 Group are featured in this intriguing skyscape . Some 200 million light-years distant toward the constellation Pegasus, NGC 7771 is the large, edge-on spiral near center, about 75,000 light-years across, with two smaller galaxies below it. Large spiral NGC 7769 is seen face-on to the right. Galaxies of the NGC 7771 group are interacting, making repeated close passages that will ultimately result in galaxy-galaxy mergers on a cosmic timescale. The interactions can be traced by distortions in the shape of the galaxies themselves and faint streams of stars created by their mutual gravitational tides. But a clear view of this galaxy group is difficult to come by as the deep image also reveals extensive clouds of foreground dust sweeping across the field of view. The dim, dusty galactic cirrus clouds are known as Integrated Flux Nebulae. The faint IFN reflect starlight from our own Milky Way Galaxy and lie only a few hundred light-years above the galactic plane

The Moon's south pole is toward the top left of this detailed telescopic moonscape . Captured on August 23, it looks across the rugged southern lunar highlands. The view's foreshortened perspective heightens the impression of a dense field of craters and makes the craters themselves appear more oval shaped close to the lunar limb. Prominent near center is 114 kilometer diameter crater Moretus. Moretus is young for a large lunar crater and features terraced inner walls and a 2.1 kilometer high, central peak, similar in appearance to the more northerly young crater Tycho . Mountains visible along the lunar limb at the top can rise about 6 kilometers or so above the surrounding terrain. Close to the lunar south pole, permanently shadowed crater floors with expected reservoirs of water-ice have made the rugged south polar region of the Moon a popular target for exploration . from NASA https://ift.tt/0P5sQ6S

A nearby star factory known as Messier 17 lies some 5,500 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius . At that distance, this 1.5 degree wide field-of-view would span about 150 light-years. In the sharp color composite image faint details of the region's gas and dust clouds are highlighted with narrowband image data against a backdrop of central Milky Way stars. The stellar winds and energetic radiation from hot, massive stars already formed from M17's stock of cosmic gas and dust have slowly carved away at the remaining interstellar material, producing the nebula's cavernous appearance and the undulating shapes within. A popular stop on telescopic tours of the cosmos, M17 is also known as the Omega or the Swan Nebula. from NASA https://ift.tt/vqL9p18