Official Space is Awesome Thread

[Argonne69]

JWST images NGC 3256, located ~120 million light-years away near the constellation of Vela. The galaxy is the result of a collision between a pair of equally massive spiral galaxies that took place ~ 500 million years ago.

 

 

Image: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, L. Armus, A. Evans

 

[Argonne69]

Euclid images the irregular galaxy NGC 6822 (aka Barnard's Galaxy, IC 4895, or Caldwell 57). It's located just 1.6 million light-years away.

 

 

Image: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, J.C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi
 

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An eruption of hydrogen gas on the Sun.

 

Image: R. Schmall

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A 25 second exposure shows the apparent rotation of stars around Polaris, the North Star, above a sculpture in Lancashire.

 

 

Image: K. McGuinness

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by Argonne69

[Argonne69]

Elliptical Galaxy NGC 3923 in Hydra

 

 

Image: DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys/LBNL/DOE & KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, T.A. Rector, M. Zamani, R. Colombari, and D. de Martin
 

[Argonne69]

A beautiful composite image of the Moon.

 

 

Image: R. Addis

 

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Jupiter's spooky face.

 

 

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, V. Tarasov

 

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Uranus as seen by Webb’s NIRCam, surrounded by bluish-white rings. The close-up above shows nine of the planet’s moons. In clockwise order, starting at 2 o’ clock, they are Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Bianca, Portia, Juliet, and Perdita. 

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

 

[Argonne69]

Galaxy MCG-01-24-014 is located ~275 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra.

 

 

Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick
 

[Argonne69]

NGC 5068 is a barred spiral galaxy with thousands of star-forming regions, and large quantities of interstellar dust. It is located ~20 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, and is ~45,000 light-years in diameter.

 

 

Image: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee, PHANGS-JWST Team
 

[Argonne69]

NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg riding the Canadarm2 robotic arm during a spacewalk on June 9. 

 

 

Image: NASA
 

[Argonne69]

Supernova Cassiopeia A, a 340 year old supernova remnant, captured by the Webb Space Telescope in near-infrared.

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Milisavljevic, I. De Looze, T. Temim

 

[Argonne69]

Galaxy MRG-M0138 is located ~10 billion light-years away in the constellation of Cetus. Through the gravitational lensing effect, the MRG-M0138 galaxy appears warped by the gravity of the intervening galaxy cluster, MACS J0138.0-2155. In addition to warping, and magnifying the distant galaxy, the gravitational lensing caused by the cluster produces five different images of MRG-M0138.

 

Image: NASA, ES, CSA, STScI, J. Pierel, A. Newman

 

Edited December 30, 2023 by Argonne69

[Argonne69]

Happy New Year. The aurora over Nordreisa, Norway. 'Looks like something in the cave scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

 

 

Image: T. Næess
 

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The surface of Jupiter’s moon Io taken by the Juno spacecraft, which has been exploring the Jovian system since 2016. NASA’s probe had its close encounter on December 30th, flying at a distance of 930 miles away. This was the closest flyby of Io by Juno, and by any spacecraft in the past 20 years, according to NASA.

 

Image: NASA, K.M. Gill

 

 

Image: NASA, K.M. Gill

 

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The view of SpaceX's Starship during stage separation during the rocket’s second test flight on November 18.

 

 

Image: SpaceX
 

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United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket blasted off on September 10. ULA’s “bruiser” configuration, the most powerful variant of the Atlas rocket, features five boosters each delivering over 371,000 pounds of additional thrust.

 

 

Image: C&J Images

 

[Argonne69]

Nothing terribly exciting today. Caught the moon and Venus rising yesterday morning. 

 

 

A little more separation today. 

 

 

[scotee]

Nothing like Webb or Hubble but still very cool. Flame nebula and Horsehead nebula. Made  on a clear moonless night in Southern Calif. by a friend with his tracking telescope that takes multiple images and stacks them in the computer.

 

 

 

 

[Argonne69]

The gravitationally lensed galaxy HerS J020941.1+001557 (red Einstein ring) has its imaged distorted by the gravitational effect of the foreground galaxy, SDSS J020941.27+001558.4. The foreground galaxy lies ~3 billion light-years away.

 

 

Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Nayyeri, L. Marchetti, J. Lowenthal; CC BY 4.0

 

 

Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Nayyeri, L. Marchetti, J. Lowenthal; CC BY 4.0

 

[Argonne69]

The International Space Station passes in front the Moon’s Tycho Crater. Of course, the ISS is in low Earth orbit, but the illusion looks pretty good.

 

 

Image: A. McCarthy
 

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A question-mark shaped filament arcs across the Sun’s surface.

 

 

Image: E. S. Poupeau
 

Edited January 15, 2024 by Argonne69

[Argonne69]

The full Moon with a lunar corona.

 

 

Image: M. Claro
 

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The 68-mile-wide Plato Crater.

 

 

Image: T. Williams
 

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Mars peeking out from behind the Moon.

 

 

Image: E. Chappel
 

[Argonne69]

Two distant interacting galaxies, known collectively as Arp 142, bears a resemblance to a penguin guarding an egg.  The “penguin” part of the pair, NGC 2936, was probably once a relatively normal-looking spiral galaxy, flattened like a pancake with smoothly symmetric spiral arms, but is now twisted and distorted as it responds to the gravitational tugs of its neighbor.  The “egg” of the pair, NGC 2937, by contrast, is nearly featureless. At a distance of ~23 million light-years, these two galaxies are roughly 10 times farther away than our nearest major galactic neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy.

 

 

Image: NASA-ESA/STScI/AURA/JPL-Caltech

 

Edited January 23, 2024 by Argonne69

[Argonne69]

The interior views of the ISS give the impression that it’s relatively small, but the orbiting station is surprisingly large. The habitable and operational area within the station are larger than a six-bedroom house, featuring six sleeping areas, two restrooms, and a gym.

 

The exterior portions are also large. The wingspan of the solar array, measures 356 feet, which is longer than an Airbus A380 (262 ft). The ISS measures 356 feet end to end, just one yard less than the length of an American football field, including the end zones. 

 

 

Graphic: NASA
 

[Argonne69]

NGC 4438, The Eyes in the Virgo Cluster.

 

 

Image: W. Liang
 

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Galaxies NGC 5078, IC879, and NGC 5101 pose for a family portrait.

 

Image: P. Montague
 

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An animation showing how the gravity of a black hole bends the light from the accretion disk behind it.

 

 

Image: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/J.  Schnittman