Alpha News

What's that black spot on Jupiter? No one is sure. During one pass of NASA's Juno over Jupiter , the robotic spacecraft imaged an usually dark cloud feature informally dubbed the Abyss . Surrounding cloud patterns show the Abyss to be at the center of a vortex . Since dark features on Jupiter's atmosphere tend to run deeper than light features, the Abyss may really be the deep hole that it appears -- but without more evidence that remains conjecture. The Abyss is surrounded by a complex of meandering clouds and other swirling storm systems , some of which are topped by light colored, high-altitude clouds. The featured image was captured in 2019 while Juno passed only about 15,000 kilometers above Jupiter's cloud tops . The next close pass of Juno near Jupiter will be in about three weeks. from NASA https://ift.tt/saTJopX

Saturn is bright in Earth's night skies. Telescopic views of the outer gas giant planet and its beautiful rings often make it a star at star parties . But this stunning view of Saturn's rings and night side just isn't possible from telescopes in the vicinity of planet Earth. Peering out from the inner Solar System they can only bring Saturn's day side into view. In fact, this image of Saturn's slender sunlit crescent with night's shadow cast across its broad and complex ring system was captured by the Cassini spacecraft. A robot spacecraft from planet Earth, Cassini called Saturn orbit home for 13 years before it was directed to dive into the atmosphere of the gas giant on September 15, 2017. This magnificent mosaic is composed of frames recorded by Cassini's wide-angle camera only two days before its grand final plunge . Saturn's night will not be seen again until another spaceship from Earth calls. from NASA https://ift.tt/dA18cTO

Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6744 is nearly 175,000 light-years across, larger than our own Milky Way . It lies some 30 million light-years distant in the southern constellation Pavo but appears as only a faint smudge in the eyepiece of a small telescope. We see the disk of the nearby island universe tilted towards our line of sight in this remarkably deep and detailed galaxy portrait, a telescopic image that spans an area about the angular size of a full moon . In it, the giant galaxy's elongated yellowish core is dominated by the light from old, cool stars. Beyond the core, grand spiral arms are filled with young blue star clusters and speckled with pinkish star forming regions. An extended arm sweeps past smaller satellite galaxy NGC 6744A at the upper left. NGC 6744's galactic companion is reminiscent of the Milky Way's satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud . from NASA https://ift.tt/bAWrheN

By starlight, this eerie visage shines in the dark with a crooked profile evoking its popular name, the Witch Head Nebula . In fact, this entrancing telescopic portrait gives the impression that a witch has fixed her gaze on Orion's bright supergiant star Rigel . More formally known as IC 2118 , the Witch Head Nebula spans about 50 light-years and is composed of interstellar dust grains reflecting Rigel's starlight . The color of the Witch Head Nebula is caused not only by Rigel's intense blue light, but because the dust grains scatter blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes Earth's daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers in Earth's atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. Rigel and this dusty cosmic crone are about 800 light-years away. You may still see a few witches in your neighborhood tonight though, so have a safe and Happy Halloween! from NASA https://ift.tt/WNBgvCc

What created this huge space bubble? Blown by the wind from a star, this tantalizing , head-like apparition is cataloged as NGC 7635, but known simply as the Bubble Nebula . The featured striking view utilizes a long exposure to reveal the intricate details of this cosmic bubble and its environment. Although it looks delicate, the 10 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Seen here above and right of the Bubble 's center, a bright hot star is embedded in the nebula's reflecting dust. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from the star , which likely has a mass 10 to 20 times that of the Sun , has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud . The intriguing Bubble Nebula lies a mere 11,000 light-year s away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia . from NASA https://ift.tt/RFY39qL

The stars are destroying the pillars. More specifically, some of the newly formed stars in the image center are emitting light so energetic that is evaporating the gas and dust in the surrounding pillars . Simultaneously, the pillar s themselves are still trying to form new stars . The whole setting is the star cluster NGC 602 , and this new vista was taken by the Webb Space Telescope in multiple infrared colors. In comparison, a roll-over image shows the same star cluster in visible light , taken previously by the Hubble Space Telescope . NGC 602 is located near the perimeter of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a small satellite galaxy of our Milky Way galaxy. At the estimated distance of the SMC, the featured picture spans about 200 light-years. A tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible -- mostly around the edges -- that are at least hundreds of millions of light-year s beyond. from NASA https://ift.tt/kQPbTqr

Sometimes a river of hot gas flows over your head. In this case the river created a Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement ( STEVE ) that glowed bright red, white, and pink. Details of how STEVEs work remain a topic of research, but recent evidence holds that their glow results from a fast-moving river of hot ions flowing over a hundred kilometers up in the Earth's atmosphere : the ionosphere . The more expansive dull red glow might be related to the flowing STEVE , but alternatively might be a Stable Auroral Red (SAR) arc, a more general heat-related glow. The featured picture , taken earlier this month in Côte d'Opale , France , is a wide-angle digital composite made as the STEVE arc formed nearly overhead. Although the apparition lasted only a few minutes, this was long enough for the quick-thinking astrophotographer to get in the picture -- can you find him? from NASA https://ift.tt/eBtYQC8

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/Y6LRqcC

These brightly outlined flowing shapes look ghostly on a cosmic scale. A telescopic view toward the constellation Cassiopeia , the colorful skyscape features the swept-back, comet-shaped clouds IC 59 (left) and IC 63. About 600 light-years distant, the clouds aren't actually ghosts. They are slowly disappearing though, under the influence of energetic radiation from hot, luminous star gamma Cas. Gamma Cas is physically located only 3 to 4 light-years from the nebulae and lies just above the right edge of the frame. Slightly closer to gamma Cas, IC 63 is dominated by red H-alpha light emitted as hydrogen atoms ionized by the hot star's ultraviolet radiation recombine with electrons. Farther from the star, IC 59 shows less H-alpha emission but more of the characteristic blue tint of dust reflected star light . The field of view spans over 1 degree or 10 light-years at the estimated distance of the interstellar apparitions . from NASA https://ift.tt/xOjka81

Some 13,000 light-years away toward the southern constellation Pavo, the globular star cluster NGC 6752 roams the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Over 10 billion years old, NGC 6752 follows clusters Omega Centauri , 47 Tucanae , and Messier 22 as the fourth brightest globular in planet Earth's night sky. It holds over 100 thousand stars in a sphere about 100 light-years in diameter. Telescopic explorations of NGC 6752 have found that a remarkable fraction of the stars near the cluster's core, are multiple star systems. They also reveal the presence of blue straggle stars, stars which appear to be too young and massive to exist in a cluster whose stars are all expected to be at least twice as old as the Sun. The blue stragglers are thought to be formed by star mergers and collisions in the dense stellar environment at the cluster's core . This sharp color composite also features the cluster's ancient red giant stars in yellowish hues. ( Note: The bright, spiky blue...

A mere seven hundred light years from Earth toward the constellation Aquarius , a star is dying. The once sun-like star's last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula . Also known as NGC 7293, the cosmic Helix is a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula , typical of this final phase of stellar evolution. Combining narrow band data from emission lines of hydrogen atoms in red and oxygen atoms in blue-green hues, this deep image shows tantalizing details of the Helix, including its bright inner region about 3 light-years across. The white dot at the Helix's center is this Planetary Nebula's hot, dying central star . A simple looking nebula at first glance, the Helix is now understood to have a surprisingly complex geometry . from NASA https://ift.tt/YcSlgnU

These dark pillars may look destructive, but they are creating stars. This pillar-capturing picture of the Eagle Nebula combines visible light exposures taken with the Hubble Space Telescope with infrared images taken with the James Webb Space Telescope to highlight evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of molecular hydrogen gas and dust . The giant pillars are light years in length and are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally to form stars . At each pillar's end , the intense radiation of bright young stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar nurseries of dense EGGs exposed. The Eagle Nebula , associated with the open star cluster M16 , lies about 7000 light years away. from NASA https://ift.tt/35xWMXU

The tails of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS were a sight to behold. Pictured, C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) was captured near peak impressiveness last week over the Eastern Sierra Mountains in California , USA . The comet not only showed a bright tail , but a distinct anti-tail pointing in nearly the opposite direction. The globular star cluster M5 can be seen on the right, far in the distance. As it approached, it was unclear if this crumbling iceberg would disintegrate completely as it warmed in the bright sunlight. In reality, the comet survived to become brighter than any star in the night ( magnitude -4.9), but unfortunately was then so nearly in front of the Sun that it was hard for many casual observers to locate. Whether Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas becomes known as the Great Comet of 2024 now depends, in part, on how impressive incoming comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) becomes over the next two weeks. from NASA https://ift.tt/EnFkNfj

Is our universe haunted? It might look that way on this dark matter map. The gravity of unseen dark matter is the leading explanation for why galaxies rotate so fast , why galaxies orbit clusters so fast , why gravitational lenses so strongly deflect light , and why visible matter is distributed as it is both in the local universe and on the cosmic microwave background . The featured image from the American Museum of Natural History 's Hayden Planetarium Space Show Dark Universe highlights one example of how pervasive dark matter might haunt our universe. In this frame from a detailed computer simulation , complex filaments of dark matter, shown in black, are strewn about the universe like spider webs , while the relatively rare clumps of familiar baryon ic matter are colored orange. These simulations are good statistical matches to astronomical observations. In what is perhaps a scarier turn of events, dark matter -- although quite strange and in an unknown form -- is no...

These six panels follow daily apparitions of comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as it moved away from our fair planet during the past week. The images were taken with the same camera and lens at the indicated dates and locations from California, planet Earth. At far right on October 12 the visitor from the distant Oort cloud was near its closest approach, some 70 million kilometers (about 4 light-minutes) away. Its bright coma and long dust tail were close on the sky to the setting Sun but still easy to spot against a bright western horizon. Over the following days, the outbound comet steadily climbs above the ecliptic and north into the darker western evening sky, but begins to fade from view. Crossing the Earth's orbital plane around October 14, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS exhibits a noticeable antitail extended toward the western horizon. Higher in the evening sky at sunset by October 17 (far left) the comet has faded and reached a distance of around 77 million kilometers from planet E...

On October 14 it was hard to capture a full view of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS . Taken after the comet's closest approach to our fair planet, this evening skyview almost does though . With two telephoto frames combined, the image stretches about 26 degrees across the sky from top to bottom, looking west from Gates Pass, Tucson, Arizona. Comet watchers that night could even identify globular star cluster M5 and the faint apparition of periodic comet 13P Olbers near the long the path of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS's whitish dust tail above the bright comet's coma. Due to perspective as the Earth is crossing the comet's orbital plane, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS also has a pronounced antitail. The antitail is composed of dust previously released and fanning out away from the Sun along the comet's orbit, visible as a needle-like extension below the bright coma toward the rugged western horizon. from NASA https://ift.tt/OV21Tnu

NASA's Europa Clipper is now headed toward an ocean world beyond Earth. The large spacecraft is tucked into the payload fairing atop the Falcon Heavy rocket in this photo, taken at Kennedy Space Center the day before the mission's successful October 14 launch. Europa Clipper's interplanetary voyage will first take it to Mars, then back to Earth, and then on to Jupiter on gravity assist trajectories that will allow it to enter orbit around Jupiter in April 2030. Once orbiting Jupiter, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times, exploring a Jovian moon with a global subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. Posing in the background next to the floodlit rocket is Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS, about a day after the comet's closest approach to Earth. A current darling of evening skies, the naked-eye comet is a vistor from the distant Oort cloud from NASA https://ift.tt/9k4ym2d

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