The Gemini International Observatory has obtained this impressive view of the planetary nebula CVMP 1. This object, located about 6,500 light years away from Earth in the southern constellation El Comás, is the result of a dying giant star, a giant red that expelled its outer layers through stellar wind. As the ejected material advanced into interstellar space, the hot and exposed core of the parent star energized the gases causing this beautiful glow that we contemplate in the form of a beautiful hourglass. Thousands of years from now, the image of the cosmic hourglass will vanish forever.
What you see in this image is NGC 772 is a galaxy that has a lot in common with the Milky Way. It is a spiral galaxy, which has some satellite galaxies. One of these small galaxies that orbit nearby and that are gravitationally attached to the original galaxy, has one of NGC 772's arms been distorted, leaving it elongated and asymmetric as you can see.
This visual wonder has been captured by the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA's Curiosity rover shares the following panoramic view of Mars with one of the best high resolutions we are used to. A sharper view of the red planet.
At 1.8 billion pixels, this panorama provides an unprecedented look across the Martian surface, revealing regions including:
- The rim of the Gale crater where Curiosity is located.
- Slangpos Crater.
- The Vera Rubin crest.
- Mount Sharpe Upper.
- The Butte Center and more.
The panorama was created from more than 1,000 individual images captured with the Mastcam telephoto lens.
Due to the position of this camera, the panorama does not include the complete rover itself: a large part of the final attached image is missing.
However, a second panorama with 650 million pixels was created from images captured with the machine's medium angle lens.
The composite Mars panorama was taken between November 24 and December 1, 2019.
Supernova 1987A is 163,000 light years away, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, where a firestorm is occurring due to the birth of thousands of stars. The distant stars serve as the backdrop for Supernova 1987A, located in the center of the image. The bright ring around the central region of the exploded star is made up of the material ejected by the star some 20,000 years before its disappearance. Gaseous clouds surround the supernova. The red color of the clouds represents the glow of hydrogen gas, which is fueling a stellar-born storm.
Supernova 1987A was discovered in 1987, and Hubble began observing the exploded star in the early 1990s. This last view was taken by the telescope in January 2017.
NASA's Juno spacecraft captured this striking view of Jupiter's southern hemisphere as it rapidly receded from the giant planet.We observed massive cyclones near Jupiter's south pole, and the chaotic clouds of the folded filamentous region, the turbulent area between the orange band and the brown polar region.
NASA's Curiosity rover takes a 'selfie' before crowning the top of a hill on Mars. Curiosity conquered the top of the slope after having tilted 31 degrees, the highest inclination for this device on the red planet. The image is actually a 360-degree panorama completed from 86 images sent to Earth. In this photo we can see the rover about 3.4 meters below the point where it went up, a rock called Greenheugh Pediment.
This is the center of the Milky Way. It is hidden from the prying eyes of optical telescopes by clouds of dust and gas that obscure vision.
How was it possible to see it then?
Thanks to the infrared cameras of the Spitzer Space Telescope that reveal the stars of the vast region of the galactic center.
If this seemed fabulous to you, wait for the James Webb Space Telescope to arrive, which will offer us an unparalleled, unprecedented infrared view, revealing fainter stars and much sharper details.
James Webb will launch in 2021.
Auroras are caused by electrons and solar protons that rain down on Earth's atmosphere. Reds and greens come from excited oxygen atoms, and blues from nitrogen.
The northern lights resemble translucent light curtains that extend over the night horizon, generally in an east-west direction. Its shape and color changes with the course of the night, and its duration can vary from a few minutes to several hours.
Light emission is mainly made up of oxygen atoms, which gives rise to the two basic colors of auroras: green and yellow. Nitrogen produces bluish light, while helium molecules are responsible for the red / purple coloration of the lower ends and more curved areas. The best area for observing the northern lights is in northern Canada, near Ellesmere Island, since the magnetic North Pole does not coincide with the geographic North Pole.
Stars a hundred times more massive than the Sun shine through the turbulent haze of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Gas and dust from starbursts are the material from which new stars will emerge, making this nebula one of the most active star hotbeds in our galactic environment.