Picture This – Page 2 – Astronomy Now

Galactic hit-and-run collision spawns firestorm of starbirth in its wake

20 May 2019 Astronomy Now

A glancing collision between two galaxies in the distant past triggered a firestorm of starbirth in the smaller of the two, leaving one side relatively intact while the other was set ablaze by gravitational stresses.

If it looks like a duck… it might be frost on Mars

14 May 2019 Astronomy Now

Late winter sunlight hitting the surface of Mars at a low angle contributes to a striking Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of sandy terrain dusted with frost, producing graceful shapes that evoke… a duck?

OSIRIS-REx images show asteroid Bennu’s rubble pile appearance

13 May 2019 Astronomy Now

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is busy mapping the asteroid Bennu, revealing a remarkably fractured surface littered with countless rocks of varying sizes giving it the appearance of a jumbled rubble pile in space.

Hubble mosaic merges 7,500 observations into stunning legacy ‘deep field’

5 May 2019 Astronomy Now

A new “deep field” image by the Hubble Space Telescope combines 7,500 images collected during earlier deep exposures to produce a stunning image of an area roughly the size of the full Moon that contains more than 250,000 galaxies.

ALMA focuses on factors influencing star birth in nearby galaxies

30 April 2019 Astronomy Now

The Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array, or ALMA, is in the process of studying stellar nurseries in nearby galaxies to learn more about the factors influencing rates of star formation and the roles a host galaxy’s overall structure and dynamics might play.

SOFIA captures magnetic tapestry at the core of M82

23 April 2019 Astronomy Now

M82, a favourite target for amateur and professional astronomers alike, is the nearest starburst galaxy with a brilliant core 100 times more luminous than the Milky Way’s. Astronomers have detected and mapped the galaxy’s magnetic field in a dramatic composite image.

Hubble marks 29th anniversary with remarkable view of Southern Crab

18 April 2019 Astronomy Now

The Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its 29th anniversary on 24 April, an event NASA is marking by the release of a spectacular image of the Southern Crab Nebula in the constellation Centaurus that shows dual cones of gas blown off by a central red giant streaming away into space and giving the appearance of a crab floating in the void.

With a half-million stars, Messier 3 reveals a splendid deep space tapestry

14 April 2019 Astronomy Now

Globular cluster M3 in Canes Venatici was the first object put on Charles Messier’s famous list that was discovered by the French astronomer himself. Messier could not have imagined the splendour revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope, which shows the cluster as a mind-boggling concentration of more than a half million stars some 33,000 light years from Earth.

New view of the Moon, courtesy of Israeli lander

5 April 2019 Astronomy Now

The Israeli Beresheet lander, while braking into orbit around the Moon 4 April, beamed back stunning views of lunar farside, giving a hint of what to expect after landing 11 April.

Spitzer spies a stellar nursery floating in space like a cosmic butterfly

1 April 2019 Astronomy Now

Using its keen multi-wavelength infrared vision, the Spitzer Space Telescope is providing fresh insights into an Orion-class nebula and star-forming region some 1,400 light years from Earth where winds from massive young stars heat up vast butterfly-like wings.