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Why would the sky look like a giant target? Airglow . Following a giant thunderstorm over Bangladesh in late April, giant circular ripples of glowing air appeared over Tibet , China , as pictured here . The unusual pattern is created by atmospheric gravity waves , waves of alternating air pressure that can grow with height as the air thins, in this case about 90-kilometers up. Unlike auroras powered by collisions with energetic charged particles and seen at high latitudes, airglow is due to chemiluminescence , the production of light in a chemical reaction. More typically seen near the horizon, airglow keeps the night sky from ever being completely dark . from NASA https://ift.tt/ktxI6Pd

When the Artemis 1 mission's Orion spacecraft makes its November 21 powered flyby of the Moon, denizens of planet Earth will see the Moon in a waning crescent phase . The spacecraft will approach to within about 130 kilometers of the lunar surface on its way to a distant retrograde orbit some 70,000 kilometers beyond the Moon. But the Moon was at last quarter for the November 16 launch and near the horizon in the dark early hours after midnight. It's captured here in skies over Kennedy Space Center along with the SLS rocket engines and solid rocket boosters lofting the uncrewed Orion to space . Ragged fringes appearing along the bright edge of the sunlit lunar nearside are caused as pressure waves generated by the rocket's passage change the index of refraction along the camera's line of sight . from NASA https://ift.tt/cC7UejD

The protostar within dark cloud L1527 is a mere 100,000 years old, still embedded in the cloud of gas and dust that feeds its growth. In this NIRCam image from the James Webb Space Telescope, the dark band at the neck of the infrared nebula is a thick disk that surrounds the young stellar object . Viewed nearly edge-on and a little larger than our Solar System, the disk ultimately supplies material to the protostar while hiding it from Webb's direct infrared view. The nebula itself is seen in stunning detail though. Illuminated by infrared light from the protostar, the hourglass-shaped nebula's cavities are created as material ejected in the star-forming process plows through the surrounding medium. As the protostar gains mass it will eventually become a full-fledged star, collapsing and igniting nuclear fusion in its core. A likely analog to our own Sun and Solar System in their early infancy, the protostar within dark cloud L1527 lies some 460 light-years distant in the T...

A Space Launch System rocket left planet Earth on Wednesday, November 16 at 1:47am EST carrying the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis 1 mission, the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems. Over an hour after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center's historic Launch Complex 39B, one of Orion's external video cameras captured this view of its new perspective from space . In the foreground are Orion's Orbital Maneuvering System engine and auxillary engines, at the bottom of the European Service Module. Beyond one of the module's 7-meter long extended solar array wings lies the spacecraft's beautiful home world. The Artemis 1 mission will last almost four weeks, testing capabilities to enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars. The uncrewed Orion spacecraft is expected to fly by the Moon on November 21, performing a close approach to the lunar surface on its way to a retrograde orbit 70,000 kilometers beyond the Moon.   from NASA https:...

Spiral galaxy NGC 1097 shines in southern skies, about 45 million light-years away in the heated constellation Fornax . Its blue spiral arms are mottled with pinkish star forming regions in this colorful galaxy portrait . They seem to have wrapped around a small companion galaxy above and right of center, about 40,000 light-years from the spiral's luminous core. That's not NGC 1097's only peculiar feature, though. This very deep exposure hints of faint, mysterious jets, seen to extend well beyond the bluish arms. In fact, four faint jets are ultimately recognized in optical images of NGC 1097. The jets trace an X centered on the galaxy's nucleus, but probably don't originate there. Instead, they could be fossil star streams , trails left over from the capture and disruption of a much smaller galaxy in the large spiral's ancient past. A Seyfert galaxy , NGC 1097's nucleus also harbors a supermassive black hole . from NASA https://ift.tt/PhGslvW

The mysterious blue reflection nebula found in catalogs as VdB 152 or Ced 201 really is very faint. It lies at the tip of the long dark nebula Barnard 175 in a dusty complex that has also been called Wolf's Cave . At the center of this deep telescopic view , the cosmic apparitions are nearly 1,400 light-years away along the northern Milky Way in the royal constellation Cepheus. Interstellar dust in the region blocks light from background stars and scatters light from the embedded bright star, giving the end nebula its characteristic blue color. Though stars do form in molecular cloud s, this star seems to have only accidentally wandered into the area, as its measured velocity through space is very different from the cloud's velocity. At the image bottom is the planetary nebula Dengel-Hartl 5 , while red glowing gas from an ancient supernova remnant is also visible along the image's right side. from NASA https://ift.tt/w9MulKo

What powers are being wielded in the Wizard Nebula? Gravitation strong enough to form stars, and stellar winds and radiations powerful enough to create and dissolve towers of gas . Located only 8,000 light years away, the Wizard nebula, featured here , surrounds developing open star cluster NGC 7380 . Visually, the interplay of stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears to some like a fictional medieval sorcerer . The active star forming region spans 100 about light years , making it appear larger than the angular extent of the Moon . The Wizard Nebula can be located with a small telescope toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia ( Cepheus ). Although the nebula may last only a few million years, some of the stars being formed may outlive our Sun. from NASA https://ift.tt/BZGmyLn

By Anthony Ham from NYT Science https://ift.tt/fdN9nIw

A flying saucer from outer space crash-landed in the Utah desert after being tracked by radar and chased by helicopters. The year was 2004, and no space aliens were involved. The saucer, pictured here , was the Genesis sample return capsule, part of a human-made robot Genesis spaceship launched in 2001 by NASA itself to study the Sun. The unexpectedly hard landing at over 300 kilometers per hour occurred because the parachutes did not open as planned. The Genesis mission had been orbiting the Sun collecting solar wind particles that are usually deflected away by Earth's magnetic field . Despite the crash landing, many return samples remained in good enough condition to analyze. So far, Genesis -related discoveries include new details about the composition of the Sun and how the abundance of some types of elements differ across the Solar System . These results have provided intriguing clues into details of how the Sun and planets formed billions of years ago. from NA...

A darker Moon sets over Manhattan in this night skyscape. The 16 frame composite was assembled from consecutive exposures recorded during the November 8 total lunar eclipse . In the timelapse sequence stars leave short trails above the urban skyline, while the Moon remains immersed in Earth's shadow . But the International Space Station was just emerging from the shadow into the sunlit portion of its low Earth orbit. As seen from New York City, the visible streak of this ISS flyover starts near a star in Taurus and tracks right to left, through the belt of Orion and over Sirius, alpha star of Canis Major. Gaps along the bright trail of the fast moving orbital outpost (and an aircraft flying closer to the horizon) mark the time between individual exposures in the sequence. The trail of bright planet Mars is at the top of the frame. Pleiades star cluster trails are high over the eclipsed Moon and Empire State Building . from NASA https://ift.tt/pTQi2hn

On November 8 the Full Moon turned blood red as it slid through Earth's shadow in a beautiful total lunar eclipse. During totality it also passed in front of, or occulted, outer planet Uranus for eclipse viewers located in parts of northern America and Asia. For a close-up and wider view these two images were taken just before the occultation began, captured with different telescopes and cameras from the same roof top in Shanghai, China. Normally very faint compared to a Full Moon, the tiny, pale, greenish disk of the distant ice giant is just to the left of the Moon's edge and about to disappear behind the darkened, red lunar limb. Though only visible from certain locations across planet Earth, lunar occultations of planets are fairly common . But for this rare "lunar eclipse occultation" to take place, at the time of the total eclipse the outer planet had to be both at opposition and very near the ecliptic plane to fall in line with Sun, Earth, and Moon . fr...

The beginning, middle, and end of a journey through planet Earth's colorful umbral shadow is captured in this timelapse composite image of a total lunar eclipse . Taken on November 8 from Kitt Peak National Observatory this eclipse's 1 hour and 25 minute long total phase starts on the right and finishes on the left. Reddened sunlight, scattered into the central shadow by Earth's dusty atmosphere produces the dramatic dark red hues reflected by the lunar disk. For this eclipse, additional reddening is likely due to scattering from ash lingering in the atmosphere after a large volcanic eruption in the southern Pacific earlier this year. Seen at the right and left, the Earth's shadow is still lighter along its edge though. That faint bluish fringe along the lunar limb is colored by sunlight filtered through Earth's stratospheric ozone layer . from NASA https://ift.tt/gMOLYQ8

Why does the nebula around the star WR-18 shine brighter on one side? Also known as NGC 3199 , this active star and its surrounding nebula lie about 12,000 light-years away toward the nautical southern constellation of Carina . The featured deep image has been highly processed to bring out filamentary details of the glowing gas in the bubble-shaped nebula. The nebula is about 75 light-years across. Near the nebula's center is a Wolf-Rayet star , WR-18, which is a massive, hot, short-lived star that generates an intense and complex stellar wind. In fact, Wolf-Rayet star s are known to create nebulas with interesting shapes as their powerful winds sweep up surrounding interstellar material . In this case, the bright right edge was initially thought to indicate that a bow shock was being produced as the star plowed through a uniform medium, like a boat through water. Recent measurements and analys e s , however, have shown the star is not moving quickly toward the bright edge. ...

How many galaxies are interacting here? This grouping of galaxies is called the Wild Triplet , not only for the discoverer , but for the number of bright galaxies that appear. It had been assumed that all three galaxies, collectively cataloged as Arp 248, are interacting , but more recent investigations reveal that only the brightest two galaxies are sparring gravitationally: the big galaxies at the top and bottom. The spiral galaxy in the middle of the featured image by the Hubble Space Telescope is actually far in the distance, as is the galaxy just below it and all of the other numerous galaxies in the field. A striking result of these giants jousting is a tremendous bridge of stars, gas, and dust that stretches between them -- a bridge almost 200,000 light-years long. Light we see today from Wild's Triplet left about 200 million years ago , when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. In perhaps a billion years or so, the two interacting galaxies will merge to form a single l...

By Shannon Hall from NYT Science https://ift.tt/qDJrgoO

By Dennis Overbye from NYT Science https://ift.tt/xQU7s32

By Sofia Quaglia from NYT Science https://ift.tt/sFDU2po

Does this strange dark ball look somehow familiar? If so, that might be because it is our Sun. In the featured image from 2012, a detailed solar view was captured originally in a very specific color of red light, then rendered in black and white, and then color inverted . Once complete, the resulting image was added to a starfield , then also color inverted. Visible in the image of the Sun are long light filaments , dark active regions, prominences peeking around the edge, and a moving carpet of hot gas. The surface of our Sun can be a busy place, in particular during Solar Maximum , the time when its surface magnetic field is wound up the most. Besides an active Sun being so picturesque, the plasma expelled can also become picturesque when it impacts the Earth's magnetosphere and creates auroras . from NASA https://ift.tt/Q7WCDNy

Last May 16 the Moon slid through Earth's shadow, completely immersed in the planet's dark umbra for about 1 hour and 25 minutes during a total lunar eclipse. In this composited timelapse view , the partial and total phases of the eclipse were captured as the Moon tracked above the horizon from Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. There it shared a cold and starry south polar night with a surging display of the aurora australis and central Milky Way. In the foreground are the BICEP (right) and South Pole telescopes at the southernmost station's Dark Sector Laboratory. But while polar skies can be spectacular, you won't want to go to the South Pole to view the total lunar eclipse coming up on November 8 . Instead, that eclipse can be seen from locations in Asia, Australia, the Pacific, the Americas and Northern Europe. It will be your last chance to watch a total lunar eclipse until 2025 . from NASA https://ift.tt/0RYhbpE

By Kenneth Chang from NYT Science https://ift.tt/tmhO08C

The Mars InSight lander returned its first image from the Red Planet's flat, equatorial Elysium Planitia after a successful touchdown on November 26, 2018. The history making mission to explore the martian Interior using Seismic investigations, geodesy, and heat transport has been operating for over 1,400 martian days or sols. In that time the InSight mission has detected more than 1,300 marsquakes and recorded data from Mars-shaking meteoroid impacts, observing how the seismic waves travel to provide a glimpse inside Mars. Analyzing the archive of data collected is expected to yield discoveries for decades. But InSight's final operational sol is likely not far off. The reason is evident in this selfie recorded earlier this year showing its deck and large, 2-meter-wide solar panels covered with dust. Kicked up by martian winds the dust continues to accumulate and drastically reduce the power that can be generated by InSight's solar panels. from NASA https://ift.tt...

By Emily Baumgaertner and Jamie Kelter Davis from NYT Science https://ift.tt/4XLY8aB

The small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy . M33 is over 50,000 light-years in diameter, third largest in the Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and our own Milky Way. About 3 million light-years from the Milky Way, M33 is itself thought to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy and astronomers in these two galaxies would likely have spectacular views of each other's grand spiral star systems. As for the view from the Milky Way, this sharp image combines data from telescopes on and around planet Earth to show off M33's blue star clusters and pinkish star forming regions along the galaxy's loosely wound spiral arms. In fact, the cavernous NGC 604 is the brightest star forming region, seen here at about the 1 o'clock position from the galaxy center. Like M31, M33's population of well-measured variable stars h...

Watch for three things in this unusual eclipse video. First, watch for a big dark circle to approach from the right to block out more and more of the Sun. This dark circle is the Moon , and the video was made primarily to capture this partial solar eclipse last week . Next, watch a large solar prominence hover and shimmer over the Sun's edge . A close look will show that part of it is actually falling back to the Sun . The prominence is made of hot plasma that is temporarily held aloft by the Sun's changing magnetic field . Finally, watch the Sun's edge waver . What is wavering is a dynamic carpet of hot gas tubes rising and falling through the Sun's chromosphere -- tubes known as spicule s. The entire 4-second time-lapse video covers a time of about ten minutes, although the Sun itself is expected to last another 5 billion years . from NASA https://ift.tt/6vAnpEI

Why is the Lobster Nebula forming some of the most massive stars known? No one is yet sure . Cataloged as NGC 6357, the Lobster Nebula houses the open star cluster Pismis 24 near its center -- a home to unusually bright and massive stars . The overall red glow near the inner star forming region results from the emission of ionized hydrogen gas. The surrounding nebula, featured here , holds a complex tapestry of gas, dark dust , stars still forming, and newly born stars . The intricate patterns are caused by complex interactions between interstellar winds , radiation pressures , magnetic field s, and gravity . The image was taken with DOE 's Dark Energy Camera on the 4-meter Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile . NGC 6357 spans about 400 light years and lies about 8,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Scorpion . from NASA https://ift.tt/nf3cyxG

By Robin George Andrews from NYT Science https://ift.tt/yGu230L

What is the most spook-tacular nebula in the galaxy? One contender is LDN 43, which bears an astonishing resemblance to a vast cosmic bat flying amongst the stars on a dark Halloween night. Located about 1400 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus , this molecular cloud is dense enough to block light not only from background stars, but from wisps of gas lit up by the nearby reflection nebula LBN 7 . Far from being a harbinger of death, this 12-light year-long filament of gas and dust is actually a stellar nursery . Glowing with eerie light, the bat is lit up from inside by dense gaseous knots that have just formed young stars . from NASA https://ift.tt/VkI1joO

What spooky planet is this ? Planet Earth of course, on a dark and stormy night in 2013 at Hverir , a geothermally active area along the volcanic landscape in northeastern Iceland . Triggered by solar activity, geomagnetic storms produced the auroral display in the starry night sky. The ghostly towers of steam and gas are venting from fumaroles and danced against the eerie greenish light. For now, auroral apparitions are increasing as our Sun approaches a maximum in its 11 year solar activity cycle. And pretty soon, ghostly shapes may dance in your neighborhood too. from NASA https://ift.tt/4MmIjAe

Part of a dark expanse that splits the crowded plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the Aquila Rift arcs through planet Earth's skies near bright star Altair . In eerie silhouette against the Milky Way's faint starlight , its dusty molecular clouds likely contain raw material to form hundreds of thousands of stars and astronomers search the dark clouds for telltale signs of star birth. This telescopic close-up looks toward the region at a fragmented Aquila dark cloud complex identified as LDN 673, stretching across a field of view slightly wider than the full moon. In the scene, visible indications of energetic outflows associated with young stars include the small red tinted nebulosity RNO 109 above and right of center, and Herbig-Haro object HH32 below. These dark clouds might look scary , but they're estimated to be some 600 light-years away. At that distance, this field of view spans about 7 light-years. from NASA https://ift.tt/bIF8vYf

History's first known periodic comet Halley (1P/Halley) returns to the inner Solar System every 75 years or so. The famous comet made its last appearance to the naked-eye in 1986. But dusty debris from Comet Halley can be seen raining through planet Earth's skies twice a year during two annual meteor showers, the Eta Aquarids in May and the Orionids in October . Including meteors near the shower maximum on October 21, this composite view compiles Orionid meteors captured from years 2015 through 2022. About 47 bright meteors are registered in the panoramic night skyscape. Against a starry background extending along the Milky Way, the Orionid meteors all seem to radiate from a point just north of Betelgeuse in the familiar constellation of the Hunter. In the foreground are mountains in eastern Slovakia near the city of Presov. from NASA https://ift.tt/OkdwBsb

On October 25th, Sun and New Moon set together as seen from Agra, India. Their close conjunction near the western horizon, a partial solar eclipse, was captured in this elevated view in hazy skies near the solitary dome of the Taj Mahal. Of course , the partial solar eclipse was also seen from most of Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East, and western parts of Asia. This eclipse was the last of two solar eclipses (both partial eclipses) in 2022. But the next Full Moon will slide through planet Earth's shadow on November 7/8, in a total lunar eclipse. from NASA https://ift.tt/8iYvrTj

When does a nebula look like a comet? In this crowded starfield , covering over two degrees within the high flying constellation of the Swan ( Cygnus ), the eye is drawn to the Cocoon Nebula. A compact star forming region, the cosmic Cocoon punctuates a nebula bright in emission and reflection on the left, with a long trail of interstellar dust clouds to the right, making the entire complex appear a bit like a comet . Cataloged as IC 5146 , the central bright head of the nebula spans about 10 light years , while the dark dust y tail spans nearly 100 light years. Both are located about 2,500 light years away. The bright star near the bright nebula's center, likely only a few hundred thousand years old, supplies power to the nebular glow as it helps clear out a cavity in the molecular cloud 's star forming dust and gas. The long dusty filaments of the tail, although dark in this visible light image, are themselves hiding stars in the process of formation, stars that can b...

By Remy Tumin from NYT Science https://ift.tt/TBNwCjS

Jupiter and its moons move like our Sun and its planets. Similarly, Jupiter spins while its moons circle around. Jupiter’s rotation can be observed by tracking circulating dark belts and light zones . The Great Red Spot , the largest storm known, rotates to become visible after about 15 seconds in the 48-second time lapse video. The video is a compilation of shorts taken over several nights last month and combined into a digital recreation of how 24-continuous hours would appear. Jupiter's brightest moons always orbit in the plane of the planet's rotation, even as Earth’s spin makes the whole system appear to tilt . The moons Europa , Ganymede , and Io are all visible , with Europa's shadow appearing as the icy Galilean moon crosses Jupiter's disk. Jupiter remains near opposition this month, meaning that it is unusually bright, near to its closest to the Earth, and visible nearly all night long. from NASA https://ift.tt/47dzIkE

What are those red clouds surrounding the Andromeda galaxy? This galaxy, M31 , is often imaged by planet Earth-based astronomers. As the nearest large spiral galaxy, it is a familiar sight with dark dust lanes, bright yellowish core, and spiral arms traced by clouds of bright blue stars. A mosaic of well-exposed broad and narrow-band image data, this deep portrait of our neighboring island universe offers strikingly unfamiliar features though, faint reddish clouds of glowing ionized hydrogen gas in the same wide field of view. Most of the ionized hydrogen clouds surely lie in the foreground of the scene, well within our Milky Way Galaxy . They are likely associated with the pervasive, dusty interstellar cirrus clouds scattered hundreds of light-year s above our own galactic plane . Some of the clouds, however, occur right in the Andromeda galaxy itself, and some in M110 , the small galaxy just below. from NASA https://ift.tt/7zQsRZr

What strange world is this? E a r t h . In the foreground of the featured image are the Pinnacles , unusual rock spires in Nambung National Park in Western Australia . Made of ancient sea shells ( limestone ), how these human-sized picturesque spires formed remains a topic of research . The picturesque panorama was taken in 2017 September. A ray of zodiacal light , sunlight reflected by dust grains orbiting between the planets in the Solar System , rises from the horizon near the image center. Arching across the top is the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy . The planets Jupiter and Saturn , as well as several famous stars are also visible in the background night sky. from NASA https://ift.tt/qOfSi5M

Drifting through the Orion Arm of the spiral Milky Way Galaxy, this cosmic cloud by chance echoes the outline of California on the west coast of the United States. Our own Sun also lies within the Milky Way's Orion Arm , only about 1,500 light-years from the California Nebula . Also known as NGC 1499 , the classic emission nebula is around 100 light-years long. The California Nebula shines with the telltale reddish glow characteristic of hydrogen atoms recombining with long lost electrons. The electrons have been stripped away, ionized by energetic starlight. Most likely providing the energetic starlight that ionizes much of the nebular gas is the bright, hot star Xi Persei just to the right of the nebula. A popular target for astrophotographers, this deep image reveals the glowing nebula, obscuring dust , and stars across a 3 degree wide field of view. The California nebula lies toward the constellation Perseus , not far from the Pleiades . from NASA https://ift.tt/iT4f2u...

Looking north from southern New Zealand , the Andromeda Galaxy never gets more than about five degrees above the horizon. As spring comes to the southern hemisphere, in late September Andromeda is highest in the sky around midnight though. In a single 30 second exposure this telephoto image tracked the stars to capture the closest large spiral galaxy from Mount John Observatory as it climbed just over the rugged peaks of the south island's Southern Alps . In the foreground, stars are reflected in the still waters of Lake Alexandrina. Also known as M31 , the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the brightest objects in the Messier catalog , usually visible to the unaided eye as a small, faint, fuzzy patch. But this clear, dark sky and long exposure reveal the galaxy's greater extent in planet Earth's night, spanning nearly 6 full moons . from NASA https://ift.tt/dKvLVcB

By Adam Mann from NYT Science https://ift.tt/z3HhdlI

By Dennis Overbye from NYT Science https://ift.tt/rSXRW3h

A now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured these star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula, dubbed the Pillars of Creation . This James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam image expands Hubble's exploration of that region in greater detail and depth inside the iconic stellar nursery. Particularly stunning in Webb's near infrared view is the telltale reddish emission from knots of material undergoing gravitational collapse to form stars within the natal clouds. The Eagle Nebula is some 6,500 light-years distant. The larger bright emission nebula is itself an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes. M16 lies along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy in a nebula rich part of the sky, toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake). from NASA https://ift.tt/sg7wrFH

By Carl Zimmer from NYT Science https://ift.tt/yW4TOnH

Do we dare believe our eyes? When we look at images of space, we often wonder whether they are "real", and just as often the best answer varies. In this case, the scene appears much as our eyes would see it, because it was obtained using RGB (Red, Green, Blue) filters like the cone cells in our eyes , except collecting light for 19 hours, not a fraction of a second. The featured image was captured over six nights, using a 24-inch diameter telescope in the Sierra Nevada Mountains , in California , USA . The bright spiral galaxy at the center (NGC 7497) looks like it is being grasped by an eerie tendril of a space ghost , and therein lies the trick. The galaxy is actually 59 million light years away, while the nebulosity is MBM 54, less than one thousand light years away, making it one of the nearest cool clouds of gas and dust -- galactic cirrus -- within our own Milky Way Galaxy . Both are in the constellation of Pegasus , which can be seen high overhead from northe...

Could the stem of our Milky Way bloom into an auroral flower? No, not really, even though it may appear that way in today’s featured all-sky image . On the left, the central plane of our home galaxy extends from the horizon past the middle of the sky. On the right, an auroral oval also extends from the sky's center -- but is dominated by bright green-glowing oxygen . The two are not physically connected, because the aurora is relatively nearby, with the higher red parts occurring in Earth's atmosphere only about 1000 kilometer s high. In contrast, an average distance to the stars and nebulas we see in the Milky Way more like 1000 light-years away - 10 trillion times further. The featured image composite was taken in early October across a small lake in Abisko , northern Sweden . As our Sun's magnetic field evolves into the active part of its 11-year cycle , auroras near both of Earth's poles are sure to become more frequent . from NASA https://ift.tt/IZ...

Why would x-ray rings appear around a gamma-ray burst? The surprising answer has little to do with the explosion itself but rather with light reflected off areas of dust -laden gas in our own Milky Way Galaxy . GRB 221009A was a tremendous explosion -- a very bright gamma-ray burst (GRB) that occurred far across the universe with radiation just arriving in our Solar System last week. Since GRBs can also emit copious amounts of x-rays , a bright flash of x-rays arrived nearly simultaneously with the gamma-radiation . In this case , the X-rays also bounced off regions high in dust right here in our Milky Way Galaxy , creating the unusual reflections . The greater the angle between reflecting Milky Way dust and the GRB, the greater the radius of the X-ray rings , and, typically, the longer it takes for these light-echoe s to arrive. from NASA https://ift.tt/4zNd0Of

Across the center of this spiral galaxy is a bar . And at the center of this bar is smaller spiral . And at the center of that spiral is a supermassive black hole .  This all happens in the big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy cataloged as NGC 1300, a galaxy that lies some 70 million light-years away toward the constellation of the river Eridanus . This Hubble Space Telescope composite view of the gorgeous island universe is one of the most detailed 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. How the giant bar formed, how it remains, and how it affects star formation remains an active topic of research . from NASA https://ift.tt/jAkDen8

Gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A likely signals the birth of a new black hole, formed at the core of a collapsing star long ago in the distant universe. The extremely powerful blast is depicted in this animated gif constructed using data from the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope . Fermi captured the data at gamma-ray energies, detecting photons with over 100 million electron volts. In comparison visible light photons have energies of about 2 electron volts. A steady, high energy gamma-ray glow from the plane of our Milky Way galaxy runs diagonally through the 20 degree wide frame at the left, while the transient gamma-ray flash from GRB 221009A appears at center and then fades. One of the brightest gamma-ray bursts ever detected GRB 221009A is also close as far as gamma-ray bursts go, but still lies about 2 billion light-years away. In low Earth orbit Fermi’s Large Area Telescope recorded gamma-ray photons from the burst for more than 10 hours as high-energy radiation from GRB 221009...

The Full Moon of October 9th was the second Full Moon after the northern hemisphere autumnal equinox, traditionally called the Hunter's Moon. According to lore, the name is a fitting one because this Full Moon lights the night during a time for hunting in preparation for the coming winter months. In this snapshot, a nearly full Hunter's Moon was captured just after sunset on October 8, rising in skies over Florida's Space Coast. Rising from planet Earth a Falcon 9 rocket pierces the bright lunar disk from the photographer's vantage point. Ripples and fringes along the edge of the lunar disk appear as supersonic shock waves generated by the rocket's passage change the atmosphere's index of refraction. from NASA https://ift.tt/397pmX2

What are those strange rings? Rich in dust, the rings are likely 3D shells -- but how they were created remains a topic of research . Where they were created is well known: in a binary star system that lies about 6,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus) -- a system dominated by the Wolf-Rayet star WR 140 . Wolf-Rayet stars are massive, bright, and known for their tumultuous winds . They are also known for creating and dispersing heavy elements such as carbon which is a building block of interstellar dust . The other star in the binary is also bright and massive -- but not as active . The two great stars joust in an oblong orbit as they approach each other about every eight years. When at closest approach, the X-ray emission from the system increases, as, apparently, does the dust expelled into space -- creating another shell . The featured infrared image by the new Webb Space Telescope resolves greater details and more dust shells than e...

A mysterious squid-like cosmic cloud, this nebula is very faint, but also very large in planet Earth's sky. In the image , composed with 30 hours of narrowband image data, it spans nearly three full moons toward the royal constellation Cepheus. Discovered in 2011 by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters , the Squid Nebula's bipolar shape is distinguished here by the telltale blue-green emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms. Though apparently surrounded by the reddish hydrogen emission region Sh2-129, the true distance and nature of the Squid Nebula have been difficult to determine. Still, a more recent investigation suggests Ou4 really does lie within Sh2-129 some 2,300 light-years away. Consistent with that scenario, the cosmic squid would represent a spectacular outflow of material driven by a triple system of hot, massive stars, cataloged as HR8119, seen near the center of the nebula. If so, this truly giant squid nebula would physically be over 50 light-years acro...