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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

When can you see a black hole, a tulip, and a swan all at once? At night -- if the timing is right, and if your telescope is pointed in the right direction . The complex and beautiful Tulip Nebula blossoms about 8,000 light-years away toward the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. Ultraviolet radiation from young energetic stars at the edge of the Cygnus OB3 association , including O star HDE 227018, ionizes the atoms and powers the emission from the Tulip Nebula. Stewart Sharpless cataloged this nearly 70 light-years across reddish glowing cloud of interstellar gas and dust in 1959 , as Sh2-101 . Also in the featured field of view is the black hole Cygnus X-1 , which to be a microquasar because it is one of strongest X-ray sources in planet Earth's sky. Blasted by powerful jets from a lurking black hole , its fainter bluish curved shock front is only faintly visible beyond the cosmic Tulip's petals, near the right side of the frame. from NASA https://ift.tt/6WzT2mV...

What if Saturn disappeared? Sometimes, it does. It doesn't really go away, though, it just disappears from view when our Moon moves in front . Such a Saturnian eclipse, more formally called an occultation , was visible along a long swath of Earth -- from Peru , across the Atlantic Ocean, to Italy -- only a few days ago. The featured color image is a digital fusion of the clearest images captured during the event and rebalanced for color and relative brightness between the relatively dim Saturn and the comparatively bright Moon. Saturn and the comparative bright Moon . The exposures were all taken from Breda , Catalonia , Spain , just before occultation. Eclipses of Saturn by our Moon will occur each month for the rest of this year. Each time, though, the fleeting event will be visible only to those with clear skies -- and the right location on Earth . from NASA https://ift.tt/04jnMQE

Did you see it? One of the more common questions during a meteor shower occurs because the time it takes for a meteor to flash is similar to the time it takes for a head to turn. Possibly, though, the glory of seeing bright meteors shoot across the sky -- while knowing that they were once small pebbles on another world -- might make it all worthwhile, even if your observing partner(s) can't always share in your experience. The featured video is composed of short clips taken in Inner Mongolia , China during the 2023 Perseid Meteor Shower . Several bright meteors were captured while live-reaction audio was being recorded -- just as the meteors flashed . This year's 2024 Perseids also produced many beautiful meteors . Another good meteor shower to watch for is the Geminids which peak yearly in mid-December, this year with relatively little competing glow from a nearly new Moon. from NASA https://ift.tt/nETdyMX

Do underground oceans vent through canyons on Saturn's moon Enceladus? Long features dubbed tiger stripes are known to be spewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon's South Pole and creating Saturn 's mysterious E-ring . Evidence for this has come from the robot Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Pictured here , a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown from a close flyby. The unusual surface features dubbed tiger stripes are visible in false-color blue. Why Enceladus is active remains a mystery, as the neighboring moon Mimas , approximately the same size, appears quite dead . An analysis of ejected ice grains has yielded evidence that complex organic molecules exist inside Enceladus. These large carbon-rich molecules bolster -- but do not prove -- that oceans under Enceladus' surface could contain life . from NASA https://ift.tt/rfQcbjy

The full Moon and Earth's shadow set together in this island skyscape. The alluring scene was captured Tuesday morning, August 20, from Fiji, South Pacific Ocean, planet Earth. For early morning risers shadowset in the western sky is a daily apparition . Still, the grey-blue shadow is often overlooked in favor of a brighter eastern horizon. Extending through the dense atmosphere, Earth's setting shadow is bounded above by a pinkish glow or anti-twilight arch . Known as the Belt of Venus, the arch's lovely color is due to backscattering of reddened light from the opposite horizon's rising Sun. Of course, the setting Moon's light is reddened by the long sight-line through the atmosphere. But on that date the full Moon could be called a seasonal Blue Moon, the third full Moon in a season with four full Moons. And even though the full Moon is always impressive near the horizon, August's full Moon is considered by some the first of four consecutive full Supermoon...

There is a quiet pulsar at the heart of CTA 1. The supernova remnant was discovered as a source of emission at radio wavelengths by astronomers in 1960 and since identified as the result of the death explosion of a massive star. But no radio pulses were detected from the expected pulsar, the rotating neutron star remnant of the massive star's collapsed core. Seen about 10,000 years after the initial supernova explosion, the interstellar debris cloud is faint at optical wavelengths. CTA 1's visible wavelength emission from still expanding shock fronts is revealed in this deep telescopic image , a frame that spans about 2 degrees across a starfield in the northern constellation of Cepheus. While no pulsar has since been found at radio wavelengths, in 2008 the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected pulsed emission from CTA 1, identifying the supernova remnant's rotating neutron star. The source has been recognized as the first in a growing class of pulsars that are qui...

In silhouette against a crowded star field along the tail of the arachnological constellation Scorpius , this dusty cosmic cloud evokes for some the image of an ominous dark tower. In fact, monstrous clumps of dust and molecular gas collapsing to form stars may well lurk within the dark nebula, a structure that spans almost 40 light-years across this gorgeous telescopic portrait . A cometary globule , the swept-back cloud is shaped by intense ultraviolet radiation from the OB association of very hot stars in NGC 6231 , off the upper right corner of the scene. That energetic ultraviolet light also powers the globule's bordering reddish glow of hydrogen gas . Hot stars embedded in the dust can be seen as bluish reflection nebulae . This dark tower and associated nebulae are about 5,000 light-years away. from NASA https://ift.tt/EgUHGAj

Forget X-ray vision — imagine what you could see with gamma-ray vision! The featured all-sky map shows what the universe looks like to NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope . Fermi sees light with energies about a billion times what the human eye can see, and the map combines 12 years of Fermi observations. The colors represent the brightness of the gamma-ray sources , with brighter sources appearing lighter in color. The prominent stripe across the middle is the central plane of our Milky Way galaxy . Most of the red and yellow dots scattered above and below the Milky Way’s plane are very distant galaxies , while most of those within the plane are nearby pulsars . The blue background that fills the image is the diffuse glow of gamma-rays from distant sources that are too dim to be detected individually. Some gamma-ray sources remain unidentified and topics of research — currently no one knows what they are. from NASA https://ift.tt/oLVUQw8

A supermoon occurred yesterday. And tonight's moon should also look impressive. Supermoons appear slightly larger and brighter than most full moons because they reach their full phase when slightly nearer to the Earth -- closer than 90 percent of all full moons . This supermoon was also a blue moon given the definition that it is the third of four full moons occurring during a single season. Blue moons are not usually blue, and a different definition holds that a blue moon is the second full moon that occurs during a single month. The featured image captured the blue supermoon right near its peak size yesterday as it was rising beyond the Temple of Poseidon in Greece . This supermoon is particularly unusual in that it is the first of four successive supermoons, the next three occurring in September, October, and November. from NASA https://ift.tt/eiTORE1

Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of stars. Cataloged as IC 5146 , the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-year s wide. Soaring high in northern summer night skies , it's located some 4,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Swan ( Cygnus ). Like other star forming regions, it stands out in red, glowing, hydrogen gas excited by young, hot stars, and dust-reflected starlight at the edge of an otherwise invisible molecular cloud . In fact, the bright star found near the center of this nebula is likely only a few hundred thousand years old, powering the nebular glow as it clears out a cavity in the molecular cloud 's star forming dust and gas. A 48-hour long integration resulted in this exceptionally deep color view tracing tantalizing features within and surrounding the dusty stellar nursery . from NASA https://ift.tt/mH0ryvT

One of the most spectacular solar sights is an erupting prominence. In 2011, NASA's Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic Observatory spacecraft imaged an impressively large prominence erupting from the surface. The dramatic explosion was captured in ultraviolet light in the featured time lapse video covering 90 minutes, where a new frame was taken every 24 seconds. The scale of the prominence is huge -- the entire Earth would easily fit under the flowing curtain of hot gas. A solar prominence is channeled and sometimes held above the Sun's surface by the Sun's magnetic field . A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) expelling hot gas into the Solar System . The energy mechanism that creates a solar prominence is a continuing topic of research . Our Sun is again near solar maximum and so very active, featuring numerous erupting prominences and CMEs, one of which resulted in picturesque auroras just over the past ...

On August 11 a Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched from a rotating planet. With a small satellite on board its mission was dubbed A Sky Full of SARs (Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites), departing for low Earth orbit from Mahia Peninsula on New Zealand's north island. The fiery trace of the Electron's graceful launch arc is toward the east in this southern sea and skyscape, a composite of 50 consecutive frames taken over 2.5 hours. Fixed to a tripod, the camera was pointing directly at the South Celestial Pole, the extension of planet Earth's axis of rotation in to space. But no bright star marks that location in the southern hemisphere's night sky. Still, the South Celestial Pole is easy to spot. It lies at the center of the concentric star trail arcs that fill the skyward field of view. from NASA https://ift.tt/0UaAtnF

A single exposure made with a camera pointed almost due north on August 12 recorded this bright Perseid meteor in the night sky west of Halifax, Nova Scotia , Canada. The meteor's incandescent trace is fleeting . It appears to cross the stars of the Big Dipper , famous northern asterism and celestial kitchen utensil, while shimmering curtains of aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, dance in the night. Doubling the wow factor for night skywatchers near the peak of this year's Perseid meteor shower auroral activity on planet Earth was enhanced by geomagnetic storms . The intense space weather was triggered by flares from an active Sun . from NASA https://ift.tt/W5AI86U

Bright Mars and even brighter Jupiter are in close conjunction just above the pine trees in this post-midnight skyscape from Vallentuna , Sweden. Taken on August 12 during a geomagnetic storm, the snapshot records the glow of aurora borealis or northern lights, beaming from the left side of the frame. Of course on that date Perseid meteors rained through planet Earth's skies, grains of dust from the shower's parent, periodic comet Swift-Tuttle . The meteor streak at the upper right is a Perseid plowing through the atmosphere at about 60 kilometers per second . Also well-known in in Earth's night sky, the bright Pleides star cluster shines below the Perseid meteor streak. In Greek myth, the Pleiades were seven daughters of the astronomical titan Atlas and sea-nymph Pleione. The Pleiades and their parents' names are given to the cluster's nine brightest stars. from NASA https://ift.tt/vLVB1Ht

This was an unusual night. For one thing, the night sky of August 11 and 12, earlier this week, occurred near the peak of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower . Therefore, meteors streaked across the dark night as small bits cast off from Comet Swift-Tuttle came crashing into the Earth's atmosphere . Even more unusually, for central Germany at least, the night sky glowed purple . The red-blue hue was due to aurora caused by an explosion of particles from the Sun a few days before. This auroral storm was so intense that it was seen as far south as Texas and Italy , in Earth's northern hemisphere. The featured image composite was built from 7 exposures taken over 26 minutes from Ense , Germany . The Perseids occur predictably every August, but auroras visible this far south are more unusual and less predictable. from NASA https://ift.tt/NiS9EJI

What's that on the horizon? When circling the Earth on the International Space Station early last month , astronaut Matthew Dominick saw an unusual type of lightning just beyond the Earth's edge: a gigantic jet. The powerful jet appears on the left of the featured image in red and blue. Giant jet lightning has only been known about for the past 23 years. The atmospheric jets are associated with thunderstorms and extend upwards towards Earth's ionosphere . The lower part of the frame shows the Earth at night , with Earth's thin atmosphere tinted green from airglow. City lights are visible, sometimes resolved, but usually creating diffuse white glows in intervening clouds. The top of the frame reveals distant stars in the dark night sky. The nature of gigantic jets and their possible association with other types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such as blue jets and red sprites remains an active topic of research . from NASA https://ift.tt/2VTWywN