Picture This – Page 2 – Astronomy Now

How do you give ESO’s Very Large Telescope an eye exam? Very, very carefully.

19 April 2020 William Harwood

Cleaning the four 8.2-metre mirrors used by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope complex requires high technology and great care to keep the optical systems free of contamination or any other defects.

The Milky Way’s central bulge offers a jewel box packed with glittering stars

2 April 2020 Astronomy Now

Looking into the bulge of the Milky Way, the Hubble Space Telescope reveals a dynamic sea of stars made up of different generations, velocities and histories.

Astronomers use Hubble to learn more about the birth of massive suns

23 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Astronomers are using the Hubble Space Telescope to study massive stars in a stellar nursery near the Tarantula Nebula to learn why most form in clusters but some appear to form in isolation.

A massive middle-age star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud

16 March 2020 Astronomy Now

Massive middle age star clusters like NGC 339 resemble more common globulars, but they are much younger and it’s not yet known how they might be related. This remarkably detailed view comes from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Multi-spectral view of stellar nursery reveals spectacular interplay of stellar winds and supernova shocks

4 March 2020 Astronomy Now

A multi-spectral view of a star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud reveals vast cavities carved out by powerful stellar winds and shock waves from supernova blasts.

Gemini South Telescope captures ‘exquisite’ view of vast planetary nebula

26 February 2020 Astronomy Now

The Gemini South Telescope captures a mesmerizing view of one of the sky’s largest known planetary nebulae, a vast cloud of gas blown away from a dying star.

Supernova remnant dazzles in Large Magellanic Cloud

20 February 2020 Astronomy Now

A supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud displays a beautiful tapestry of wispy gas that will provide the raw material for another generation of stars.

Hubble captures captivating view of spiral galaxy’s picturesque ‘open arms’

12 February 2020 Astronomy Now

Spiral galaxies make up nearly three quarters of all known galaxies, some with tightly wound arms and other, like NGC 2008, with more wide-open arms wrapped around a compact central bulge.

Revisiting a tortured moon where cliffs tower miles above a bizarre surface

5 February 2020 Astronomy Now

Uranus’ small moon Miranda, as revealed by NASA’s Voyager 2 probe in 1986, is one of the strangest bodies in the solar system, with a unique patchwork appearance and cliffs towering 20 kilometres (12 miles) high.

Retiring Spitzer’s IR views of the Tarantula a fitting legacy

28 January 2020 Astronomy Now

The Spitzer Space Telescope, one of NASA’s original “Great Observatories,” is being retired after more than 16 years of infrared observations, but not before providing another look at the spectacular Tarantula Nebula.