‘Latest News’ Archives
Zoom into a New VISTA of the Sculptor Galaxy
The new VISTA telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile (the Visible and InfraredSurvey Telescope for Astronomy) has captured a great new image of the Sculptor Galaxy(NGC 253), and this video allows you to zoom in for a closer look. The sequence starts with a wide view of the southern sky far from the Milky Way. Only a few stars are [...]
Young Star Cluster Westerlund 2
Dusty stellar nursery RCW 49 surrounds young star cluster Westerlund 2 in this remarkable composite skyscape from beyond the visible spectrum of light. Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope is shown in black and white, complimenting the Chandra X-ray image data (in false color) of the hot energetic stars within the cluster's central [...]
Starry Night of Alamut
A meteor's streak and the arc of the Milky Way hang over the imposing mountain fortress of Alamut in this starry scene. Found in the central Alborz Mountains of Iran, Alamut Castle was built into the rock in the 9th century. The name means Eagle's Nest. Home of the legendary Assassins featured in the adventure movie Prince of Persia, [...]
Hydrogen in M51
This is perhaps the clearest image of M51 that I have yet seen. "M51 is a large galaxy, over 60,000 light-years across, with a readily apparent spiral structure. Also cataloged as NGC 5194, M51 is a part of a well-known interacting galaxy pair, its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweeping in front of companion galaxy NGC 5195 (top). This [...]
“Data” Narrates Hubble Documentary
Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek) is the narrator in this documentary movie "Hubble: Twenty Years of Discovery" in celebration of the Hubble twenty-year milestone, as NASA looks back at the contributions of this extraordinary scientific tool, and the scientists who created it. Credit: NASA, ESA, The Hubble Key Project Team, and The High-Z [...]
Wide Angle: The Cat’s Paw Nebula
Nebulae are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble. Still, no known cat could have created the vast Cat's Paw Nebula visible in Scorpius. At 5,500 light years distant, Cat's Paw is an emission nebula with a red color that originates from an abundance of ionized hydrogen atoms. [...]
Hubble Celebrates 20 Years of Awe and Discovery
NASA's most prolific space observatory has past the 20 years mark this month. Hard to believe that it was on April 24, 1990, when the space shuttle and crew of STS-31 were launched to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope into a low Earth orbit. Hubble's capabilities have made it one of the most embraced science instrument ever built. Hubble [...]
Stunning Timescape from Tom Lowe
Here is a fantastic video and audio timlapse of the night sky from Tom Lowe astronomy timelapse. It is well worth a watch. Timescapes: "Death is the Road to Awe" Timescapes: "Death is the Road to Awe" from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.
M31-Milky Way simulated collision
It may be a few billion years away(about 4.5), but it is believed that the two largest galaxies in our local group will merge. The radial velocity of the Andromeda galaxy with respect to the Milky Way can be measured by examining the Doppler shift of spectral lines from stars in the galaxy, but the transverse velocity cannot be directly [...]
Images of the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano in Iceland
I was on a train to Cork in the south of Ireland this Thursday morning when I heard about canceled flights across the UK and Ireland. I never imagined that the cloud of ash responsible was so large or so significant in size. Reports that flights would reopen by Thursday evening were clearly optimistic. I have looked around and here are some images [...]
Never before seen stars in the Rosette Nebula
Another stunning image from Herschel reveals the formation of previously unseen large stars, each one up to ten times the mass of our Sun. These are the stars that will influence where and how the next generation of stars are formed. The image is a new release of ‘OSHI’, ESA’s Online Showcase of Herschel Images. The Rosette Nebula [...]
Spitzer’s Orion
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like the Orion Nebula, an immense stellar nursery some 1,500 light-years away. Spanning about 40 light-years across the region, this new infrared image from the Spitzer Space Telescope was constructed from data intended to monitor the brightness of the nebula's young stars, many still surrounded by [...]