unknownskywalker:

A new view of the Tarantula Nebula

To celebrate its 22nd anniversary in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope released a dramatic new image of the star-forming region 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula because its glowing filaments resemble spider legs.

The nebula is located in the neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, and is one of the largest star-forming regions located close to the Milky Way. At the center of 30 Doradus, thousands of massive stars are blowing off material and producing intense radiation along with powerful winds.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory detects gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by these stellar winds and also by supernova explosions. These X-rays, colored blue in this composite image, come from shock fronts—similar to sonic booms—formed by this high-energy stellar activity.

The Hubble data, colored green, reveals the light from these massive stars along with different stages of star birth, including embryonic stars a few thousand years old still wrapped in cocoons of dark gas. Infrared emission data from Spitzer, seen in red, shows cooler gas and dust that have giant bubbles carved into them. These bubbles are sculpted by the same searing radiation and strong winds that comes from the massive stars at the center of 30 Doradus.

(via n-a-s-a)

discoverynews:

Mercury Makes Precise Measurement of the Sun

In what sounds like an astronomical “David and Goliath” tale, the smallest planet in the solar system (no, not Pluto, the other one) has helped astronomers precisely measure the width of the largest thing in the solar system — the sun.

Wait. I hear you cry. Do astronomers have nothing better than to measure the girth of our nearest star? Besides, we should know that already… shouldn’t we?

In the sage words of Bad Astronomer Phil Plait: “Sometimes the simplest things can be the hardest, I suppose.” And he’d be right.

keep reading

n-a-s-a:

Bright Galaxy NGC 2903 

Credit & Copyright: R. Jay GaBany 

n-a-s-a:

Cat’s Eye Wide and Deep

Credit & Copyright: Johannes Schedler (Panther Observatory) 

n-a-s-a:

The Horsehead Nebula

Credit & Copyright: Nigel Sharp (NOAO), KPNO, AURA, NSF 

n-a-s-a:

Gliese 581 and the Habitable Zone

Credit: Stephane Udry, Michel Mayor (Geneva Obs.) et. al 

enchantify:

Solar Flare, March 6, 2012

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/07/10596987-solar-blast-could-have-earthly-impact?chromedomain=cosmiclog

(Source: under-dark-stars)

n-a-s-a:

NGC 2170: Celestial Still Life

Image Credit & Copyright: Leonardo Julio & Carlos Milovic (Astronomia Pampeana) 

chandnistheory:

Little Ghost Nebula

Image courtesy ESA/NASA

Backyard astronomers often make friends with the Little Ghost Nebula, officially known as NGC 6369. The object can be seen from Earth as a faint cloud surrounding the corpse of a dead star in the constellation Ophiuchus.

In this 2004 Hubble Space Telescope picture, the nebula can be seen in greater detail, revealing the evolution of gas being ejected from the dying star.

As ultraviolet radiation pours from the star, it strips electrons from atoms in the gas, ionizing—electrically charging—the closest regions and creating the bright, blue-green ring. Redder areas on the outer edges of the nebula are places where ionization is less advanced.

mattkatawicz:

Inside the Eagle Nebula 
Credit: Far-infrared: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium; 
X-ray: ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC/XMM-Newton-SOC/Boulanger

Explanation: In 1995, a now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured Pillars of Creation, star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula. This remarkable false-color composite image revisits the nearby stellar nursery with image data from the orbitingHerschel Space Observatory and XMM-Newton telescopes. Herschel’s far infrared detectors record the emission from the region’s cold dust directly, including the famous pillars and other structures near the center of the scene. Toward the other extreme of the electromagnetic spectrum, XMM-Newton’s X-rayvision reveals the massive, hot stars of the nebula’s embedded star cluster. Hidden from Hubble’s view at optical wavelengths, the massive stars have a profound effect, sculpting and transforming the natal gas and dust structures with their energetic winds and radiation. In fact, the massive stars are short lived and astronomers have found evidence in the image data pointing to the remnant of a supernova explosion with an apparent age of 6,000 years. If true, the expanding shock waves would have destroyed the visible structures, including the famous pillars. But because the Eagle Nebula is some 6,500 light-years distant, their destruction won’t be witnessed for hundreds of years.

(via mattkatawicz)

readingtowards:

Titan with Saturn. 

(Source: euconatus)

wistful1:

Earth

STS41-B Bruce McCandless MMU EVA

10  x  8  Colour NASA Photograph

NASA  No.  S84-27033

5 February 1984

Bruce McCandless II, 41-B mission specialist, 

tests a mobile foot restraint (MFR) attached 

to the remote manipulator system (RMS).

(via wistful1-deactivated20120725)

n-a-s-a:

Saturn’s Hyperion: A Moon with Odd Craters

Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA