‘Latest News’ Archives
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 [...]
IC 418: The Spirograph Nebula
IC 418: The Spirograph Nebula Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgement: R. Sahai (JPL) et al. Explanation: What is creating the strange texture of IC 418? Dubbed the Spirograph Nebula for its resemblance to drawings from a cyclical drawing tool, planetary nebula IC 418 shows patterns that are [...]
Active Volcanoes on Venus?
Idunn Mons, a mountain on Venus was radar mapped by the Magellan space probe. The color overlay is a new thermal map using an infrared detector on the European Venus Express probe, currently orbiting Venus. Red is warmer, and as you can see, Idunn Mons is certainly hotter than expected. Venus is a lot like the Earth with almost the same [...]
Protostar HH-34 in Orion
This is a three-colour composite of the young object Herbig-Haro 34 (HH-34), now in the protostar stage of evolution. It is based on CCD frames obtained with the FORS2 instrument in imaging mode, on November 2 and 6, 1999. This object has a remarkable, very complicated appearance that includes two opposite jets that ram into the surrounding [...]
The Milky Way over Ontario Canada
Taken over Ontario, Canada, when part of a spectacular sky is visible in a reflection off a lake. The brightest objects visible are bright stars and the planet Jupiter, seen as the brightest spot on the upper left. A distant town appears as a diffuse glow over the horizon. More faint still, the disk of the Milky Way Galaxy becomes apparent as a [...]
Barnard 30 Star Forming Region
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows infant stars "hatching" in the head of the hunter constellation, Orion. Astronomers suspect that shockwaves from a supernova explosion in Orion's head, nearly three million years ago, may have initiated this newfound birth. The region featured in this Spitzer image is called Barnard 30. It [...]
Rosebud – Berkeley 59 and NGC 7822
Berkeley 59 and NGC 7822 are located in the constellation Cepheus at a distance of about 3,300 light-years from Earth. Only recently released, this new infrared image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, shows what appears to be a blossoming rosebud with the Berkeley 59 cluster seen as the blue dots to the right of the [...]