Dwarf Galaxy IC 4710

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrQ5oy7Z75ISnTHHWkqOb8a6yc0lW1gvDOpI5S0No0sb95iqXAMKEnncBzBYxk93i5hf0whBswyOYMW_n2rGgcnCDUMccxI3tu00v107bNW3os2q5HoGQmUVIFg3ZBteP6q_3Vhx5pWr-1/s1600/Dwarf-Galaxy-IC-4710.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Dwarf Galaxy IC 4710" border="0" data-original-height="1454" data-original-width="1600" height="582" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrQ5oy7Z75ISnTHHWkqOb8a6yc0lW1gvDOpI5S0No0sb95iqXAMKEnncBzBYxk93i5hf0whBswyOYMW_n2rGgcnCDUMccxI3tu00v107bNW3os2q5HoGQmUVIFg3ZBteP6q_3Vhx5pWr-1/s640/Dwarf-Galaxy-IC-4710.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Discovered in 1900 by astronomer DeLisle Stewart and here imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, IC 4710 is an undeniably spectacular sight. The galaxy is a busy cloud of bright stars, with bright pockets — marking bursts of new star formation — scattered around its edges.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">IC 4710 is a dwarf irregular galaxy. As the name suggests, such galaxies are irregular and chaotic in appearance, lacking central bulges and spiral arms — they are distinctly different from spirals or ellipticals. It is thought that irregular galaxies may once have been spirals or ellipticals, but became distorted over time through external gravitational forces during interactions or mergers with other galaxies. Dwarf irregulars in particular are important to our overall understanding of galactic evolution, as they are thought to be similar to the first galaxies that formed in the Universe.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">IC 4710 lies roughly 25 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Pavo (The Peacock). This constellation is located in the southern skies and also contains the third-brightest globular cluster in the sky, NGC 6752, the spiral galaxy NGC 6744, and six known planetary systems (including HD 181433 which is host to a super-Earth).</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The data used to create this image were gathered by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).</div><br />Image Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, Judy Schmidt<br />Explanation from: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1809a/<br /><div></div>

Dwarf Galaxy IC 4710

Discovered in 1900 by astronomer DeLisle Stewart and here imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, IC 4710 is an undeniably spectacula...

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Hawaii seen from the International Space Station

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRep4klpghtmFG8Awok_R1XFb2FBuTph1oas8edZnWs4DVnLn5G7UVYFsOGP3VdKRqjGrYtpvqUI6mDn7oTWMYh6uAMkcAB5Uc0qpduxG5xzt1bud4Il0xC5q7V7YEo8eYEFvTVQaAkiun/s1600/Hawaii-from-ISS.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Hawaii seen from the International Space Station" border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRep4klpghtmFG8Awok_R1XFb2FBuTph1oas8edZnWs4DVnLn5G7UVYFsOGP3VdKRqjGrYtpvqUI6mDn7oTWMYh6uAMkcAB5Uc0qpduxG5xzt1bud4Il0xC5q7V7YEo8eYEFvTVQaAkiun/s640/Hawaii-from-ISS.JPG" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Crews aboard the International Space Station oriented the camera specifically to capture this panorama of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano (image left) with the long swirls of volcanic gases (top half of the image) wafting west from the volcano. Astronauts are trained to take oblique images of hard-to-see atmospheric haze by shooting obliquely to enhance visibility. The gas haze--termed vog, a combination of fog, smog and volcanic--is well known in Hawai'i, and is defined as "a form of air pollution that results when sulfur dioxide and other gases ... emitted by an erupting volcano react with oxygen and moisture in the presence of sunlight".</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Here the vog haze is transported hundreds of km downwind of the volcano (for scale the Big Island is 137 km, 85 miles, long). In this unusual view the vog forms a series of subtle but distinct alternating swirls (arrows) known as von Karman vortices, a favorite topic for crew photography. Swirls form under specific conditions of high atmospheric pressure and relatively slow wind speeds. They usually develop in clouds downwind of islands, as shown in many astronaut images of cloud patterns. Images of vog haze are captured often by astronauts, but few show the swirl phenomenon.</div><br />Image Credit: NASA<br />Explanation from: https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/photo.pl?mission=ISS042&roll=E&frame=281151

Hawaii seen from the International Space Station

Crews aboard the International Space Station oriented the camera specifically to capture this panorama of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano (imag...

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Protoplanetary Disk AS 209

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Nk1rExolj0bdkhs2sVdGpCmEmEmY-KAZZtqPAEwStwCiEH2rnhw8EDRifKm25wqeXg2ONKWvEWsQd53PiavTiClmNsu-dneg10yQ2TROw-gwnG2AYAL-lWW410OX2CaKQJMTmE1xbb0T/s1600/Protoplanetary-Disk-AS-209.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Protoplanetary Disk AS 209" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Nk1rExolj0bdkhs2sVdGpCmEmEmY-KAZZtqPAEwStwCiEH2rnhw8EDRifKm25wqeXg2ONKWvEWsQd53PiavTiClmNsu-dneg10yQ2TROw-gwnG2AYAL-lWW410OX2CaKQJMTmE1xbb0T/s640/Protoplanetary-Disk-AS-209.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Nestled in the young Ophiuchus star-forming region, 410 light-years from the Sun, a fascinating protoplanetary disc named AS 209 is slowly being carved into shape. This wonderful image was captured using the high-resolution ALMA telescope, revealing a curious pattern of rings and gaps in the dust surrounding a young star.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Protoplanetary discs are dense, rotating planes of gas and dust that surround newly formed stars; providing the matter that one day becomes orbiting planets, moons and other minor bodies. At less than one million years old, this system is very young, but already two clear gaps are being sculpted from the disc.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The outer gap is deep, wide, and largely a dust-free zone, leading astronomers to believe that a giant planet almost the mass of Saturn is orbiting here — around 800 light-minutes from the central star, and more than three times the distance between Neptune and the Sun! As the planet carves out its path, dust piles up at the outer edge of its orbit, creating ever more defined rings in the disc. The thinner, inner dust gap could have been formed by a smaller planet, but astronomers have raised the intriguing possibility that the large and distant circling planet in fact created both paths.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">This inferred Saturn-like planet so far from its central star raises fascinating questions about planet formation at the edges of protoplanetary discs on particularly short timescales.</div><br />Image Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ D. Fedele et al.<br />Explanation from: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1809a/

Protoplanetary Disk AS 209

Nestled in the young Ophiuchus star-forming region, 410 light-years from the Sun, a fascinating protoplanetary disc named AS 209 is slowly b...

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Spiral Galaxy NGC 3344

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcqUKOVl1OucjyAj9Ie6UNBRU4cqnSP6PzYN4x-2c8PksgHNEwvy_4ptzmorLmMzC3q3jrB5KHk-oNq0C-tLYrLyS5EyvQOGTceApOsVs1FKN2Fk-JMUCr5xAS4sZKX7M4jm0-xK1i2-P7/s1600/Spiral-Galaxy-NGC-3344-10.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Spiral Galaxy NGC 3344" border="0" data-original-height="1537" data-original-width="1600" height="614" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcqUKOVl1OucjyAj9Ie6UNBRU4cqnSP6PzYN4x-2c8PksgHNEwvy_4ptzmorLmMzC3q3jrB5KHk-oNq0C-tLYrLyS5EyvQOGTceApOsVs1FKN2Fk-JMUCr5xAS4sZKX7M4jm0-xK1i2-P7/s640/Spiral-Galaxy-NGC-3344-10.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the galaxy NGC 3344 presents itself face-on, allowing astronomers a detailed look at its intricate and elegant structure. And Hubble’s ability to observe objects over a wide range of different wavelengths reveals features that would otherwise remain invisible.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Spiral galaxies are some of the most spectacular sights in the sky, but to an observer they do not all look the same. Some are seen edge-on, giving astronomers an excellent idea of the galaxy’s vertical structure; others are seen at an angle, providing a hint of the size and structure of the spiral arms; while others are seen face-on, showcasing their arms and bright core in all their beauty.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Approximately 20 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo Minor (the Lion Cub), NGC 3344 is seen from a breathtaking face-on perspective. Half the size of the Milky Way, it is classified as a weakly barred spiral galaxy. The central bar is just visible in this image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3: an elongated lane of stars, trailing through the nucleus of the galaxy. Astronomers estimate that two-thirds of all spiral galaxies are barred, including our own Milky Way.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Hubble’s capacity to observe celestial objects in different wavelengths allows us to see more than just the spiral arms sweeping out loosely around the centre in a gorgeous whorl. This image is a composite of images taken through different filters, ranging from the near ultraviolet, to the optical and the near-infrared. Together they show a more complete picture of the galaxy than the human eye alone could possibly see.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The swirling spiral arms are the birthplace of new stars, whose high temperatures make them shine blue, resulting in them being easily identifiable in this image. Clouds of dust and gas distributed through the spiral arms — glowing red in this image — are reservoirs of material for even more stars. The bright jewel-like stars on the left of the picture, however, are much closer to Earth — they belong to our own galaxy and just happened to photobomb this Hubble image.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">While its face-on orientation reveals much about NGC 3344’s detailed structure, this galaxy is still enigmatic; astronomers have noticed that some of its outer stars are moving in a strange way. Often, the high concentration of stars in the centre of a galaxy can affect the movements of the outer stars, but this does not seem to be the case in NGC 3344. Astronomers suspect that these weirdly behaving outer stars may actually have been stolen from another galaxy, after a close encounter that took place long ago.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The location of NGC 3344 is also intriguing. Our galaxy is part of the Local Group, which is made up of approximately 40 other galaxies, with the Andromeda Galaxy being the largest member. But NGC 3344 is not part of a local galactic neighbourhood like we are. It is actually part of a small spur that leads off the larger Virgo Supercluster — a gargantuan collection of several thousand galaxies.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">But it stands out from these thousands of galaxies because of its beauty, which highlights to us the elegance of the Universe.</div><br />Image Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA<br />Explanation from: https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1803/

Spiral Galaxy NGC 3344

Captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the galaxy NGC 3344 presents itself face-on, allowing astronomers a detailed look at its in...

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Earth and Moon seen by OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from 63 million kilometers away

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dXBbCgmJ532Gpy14hDXYA6OOpw88gjG04cKmcFUirutxTXuGZTIRqKF82_fPgwcPEXpFoEWJy0109NiDakWpjc04QVOa7OHUl8SXiBu5rNhVEj-daBdTIniJm2XbRCtfmY0OqXwYOc-x/s1600/earth-moon-from-space-11.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Earth and Moon seen by OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from 63 million kilometers away" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dXBbCgmJ532Gpy14hDXYA6OOpw88gjG04cKmcFUirutxTXuGZTIRqKF82_fPgwcPEXpFoEWJy0109NiDakWpjc04QVOa7OHUl8SXiBu5rNhVEj-daBdTIniJm2XbRCtfmY0OqXwYOc-x/s640/earth-moon-from-space-11.jpg" title="" width="480" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWWC-wFRGIDOaTGkgWLdE3NWw8-FwtUp98uedpgd8wdXqTKZsKNgbrj-PGc25gOCthzfT8We3S1UVZZzeOKRhyphenhyphen1mpBVLL5nV-JjGtwPsu6KcqRinA0eJq3bWcfSlBHggGQJq1ks4RU3_7u/s1600/earth-moon-from-space-13.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Earth and Moon seen by OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from 63 million kilometers away" border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWWC-wFRGIDOaTGkgWLdE3NWw8-FwtUp98uedpgd8wdXqTKZsKNgbrj-PGc25gOCthzfT8We3S1UVZZzeOKRhyphenhyphen1mpBVLL5nV-JjGtwPsu6KcqRinA0eJq3bWcfSlBHggGQJq1ks4RU3_7u/s640/earth-moon-from-space-13.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">As part of an engineering test, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured this image of the Earth and Moon using its NavCam1 imager on January 17 from a distance of 39.5 million miles (63.6 million km). When the camera acquired the image, the spacecraft was moving away from home at a speed of 19,000 miles per hour (8.5 kilometers per second).</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Earth is the largest, brightest spot in the center of the image, with the smaller, dimmer Moon appearing to the right. Several constellations are also visible in the surrounding space. The bright cluster of stars in the upper left corner is the Pleiades in the Taurus constellation. Hamal, the brightest star in Aries, is located in the upper right corner of the image. The Earth-Moon system is centered in the middle of five stars comprising the head of Cetus the Whale.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">NavCam1, a grayscale imager, is part of the TAGCAMS (Touch-And-Go Camera System) navigation camera suite. Malin Space Science Systems designed, built, and tested TAGCAMS; Lockheed Martin integrated TAGCAMS to the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and operates TAGCAMS.</div><br />Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin<br />Explanation from: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2018/osiris-rex-captures-new-earth-moon-image

Earth and Moon seen by OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from 63 million kilometers away

As part of an engineering test, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured this image of the Earth and Moon using its NavCam1 imager on January 1...

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The Nile at Night seen from the International Space Station

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ICLtdAgjxLv4TMPLB-0uy_JcRN0h6ROQmobgB-IpK8YO-xlSMXKO0tXdPSK-xFVVbO2hId3l_X3LDmYvd0fkZQBFUuZ6BWXnM1k8oSZRnTK2r-IhsYskApbAJmWSOwZ55Kx8bIdWab1r/s1600/Nile-at-Night.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Nile at Night seen from the International Space Station" border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ICLtdAgjxLv4TMPLB-0uy_JcRN0h6ROQmobgB-IpK8YO-xlSMXKO0tXdPSK-xFVVbO2hId3l_X3LDmYvd0fkZQBFUuZ6BWXnM1k8oSZRnTK2r-IhsYskApbAJmWSOwZ55Kx8bIdWab1r/s640/Nile-at-Night.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">September 22, 2015</div><br />Image Credit: NASA

The Nile at Night seen from the International Space Station

September 22, 2015 Image Credit: NASA

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R Sculptoris

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVwbfIdi7vihydVQz70Xn8tUhIl1N4I9qKZB1ldBnueYJYFsieMolMDBrsCj5sMRDzbSxfLRiiSncWoY9z6Npca-PKRoPqjEbd7u7G3xjFk-ItlOgNHNByLHAqixC-fznqVtOrcJvsUiLi/s1600/R-Sculptoris.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="R Sculptoris" border="0" data-original-height="1592" data-original-width="1594" height="639" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVwbfIdi7vihydVQz70Xn8tUhIl1N4I9qKZB1ldBnueYJYFsieMolMDBrsCj5sMRDzbSxfLRiiSncWoY9z6Npca-PKRoPqjEbd7u7G3xjFk-ItlOgNHNByLHAqixC-fznqVtOrcJvsUiLi/s640/R-Sculptoris.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">This ghostly image features a distant and pulsating red giant star known as R Sculptoris. Situated 1200 light-years away in the constellation of Sculptor, R Sculptoris is something known as a carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star, meaning that it is nearing the end of its life. At this stage, low- and intermediate-mass stars cool off, create extended atmospheres, and lose a lot of their mass — they are on their way to becoming spectacular planetary nebulae.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">While the basics of this mass-loss process are understood, astronomers are still investigating how it begins near the surface of the star. The amount of mass lost by a star actually has huge implications for its stellar evolution, altering its future, and leading to different types of planetary nebulae. As AGB stars end their lives as planetary nebulae, they produce a vast range of elements — including 50% of elements heavier than iron — which are then released into the Universe and used to make new stars, planets, moons, and eventually the building blocks of life.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">One particularly intriguing feature of R Sculptoris is its dominant bright spot, which looks to be two or three times brighter than the other regions. The astronomers that captured this wonderful image, using ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), have concluded that R Sculptoris is surrounded by giant “clumps” of stellar dust that are peeling away from the shedding star. This bright spot is, in fact, a region around the star with little to no dust, allowing us to look deeper into the stellar surface.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">This image captures an extremely small section of the sky: approximately 20x20 milliarcseconds. For comparison, Jupiter has an angular size of approximately 40 arcseconds.</div><br />Image Credit: ESO<br />Explanation from: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1807a/

R Sculptoris

This ghostly image features a distant and pulsating red giant star known as R Sculptoris. Situated 1200 light-years away in the constellatio...

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