[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Dietmar Hager, Eric Benson] This sharp telescopic field of view holds two bright galaxies. Barred spiral NGC 5101 (top right) and nearly edge-on system NGC 5078 are separated on the sky by about 0.5 degrees or about the apparent width of a full moon. Found within the boundaries of […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Howard Brown-Greaves] On May 9, the diminutive disk of Mercury spent about seven and a half hours crossing in front of the Sun as viewed from the general vicinity of Earth. It was the second of 14 transits of the Solar System’s innermost planet in the 21st century. Captured […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Mads Fredslund Andersen, Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Aarhus Univ., Denmark] Near first quarter, the Moon in March lights this snowy, rugged landscape, a view across the top of Tenerife toward La Palma in the Canary Islands Spanish archipelago. The large Teide volcano, the highest point in Spain, looms over the […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS] Where is NASA’s rover Curiosity going on Mars? Its geographical goals are on the slopes of Mount Sharp, whose peak is seen in the background on the right. A key scientific goal, however, remains to better assess when and where conditions on Mars were once suitable […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Roberto Colombari] This huge ball of stars predates our Sun. Long before humankind evolved, before dinosaurs roamed, and even before our Earth existed, ancient globs of stars condensed and orbited a young Milky Way Galaxy. Of the 200 or so globular clusters that survive today, Omega Centauri is the […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT Antu, ESO; Processing & License: Judy Schmidt What makes this spiral galaxy so long? Measuring over 700,000 light years across from top to bottom, NGC 6872, also known as the Condor galaxy, is one of the most elongated barred spiral galaxies known. The galaxy’s protracted […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Cassini Imaging Team, SWRI, JPL, ESA, NASA] Cassini, a robot spacecraft launched in 1997 by NASA, became close enough in 2002 to resolve many rings and moons of its destination planet: Saturn. At that time, Cassini snapped several images during an engineering test. Several of those images were combined […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, ESA/Hubble & NASA and S. Smartt (Queen’s University Belfast), Robert Gendler] This huge swirling mass of stars, gas, and dust occurs near the center of a nearby spiral galaxy. Gorgeous spiral NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years distant, toward the constellation Leo. Spanning some 50,000 light-years, its […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)] Planet Earth’s horizon stretches across this recent Solar System group portrait, seen from the southern hemisphere’s Las Campanas Observatory. Taken before dawn it traces the ecliptic with a line-up familiar to November’s early morning risers. Toward the east are bright planets Venus, […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Ivo Scheggia] A few days ago, a bright fireball was photographed from the Alps mountain range in Switzerland as it blazed across the sky. The fireball, likely from the Taurids meteor shower, was notable not only for how bright it was, but for the rare orange light it created […]
