Picture This – Page 2 – Astronomy Now

23 September 2020

“Space Butterfly” in Vela offers remarkable view of twin-lobed planetary nebula

7 August 2020 Astronomy Now

ESO’s Very Large Telescope captures a colourful view of an unusual bipolar planetary nebula resembling a vast butterfly stretching up to four light years across in the southern constellation Vela.

As three probes head for Mars, Curiosity nears eighth anniversary on red planet

4 August 2020 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Curiosity rover, nearing its eighth anniversary on Mars, will welcome U.S. and Chinese rovers next February, along with an orbiter from the United Arab Emirates. They will have their work cut out for them matching Curiosity’s achievements.

A nursery for the stars

28 July 2020 Astronomy Now

Sparkling stars set amid dark dust and glowing gas light up the north-western corner of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) in this Hubble Space Telescope image of the star-forming region known as LHA 120-N11.

Hubble snapshot of Saturn shows ‘lord of the rings’ in all its summertime glory

24 July 2020 Astronomy Now

Hubble images Saturn and its spectacular ring system, showing the effects of summertime heating across the planet’s northern hemisphere.

The Very Large Telescope peers into the Crux of the Milky Way, revealing a sea of stars

14 July 2020 Astronomy Now

The Very Large Telescope and the FORS instrument look into the Southern Cross, revealing a sea of colourful stars scattered like gems on black velvet.

Juno captures sharp view of ‘Clyde’s Spot’ on stormy Jupiter

8 July 2020 Astronomy Now

A bright spot discovered on Jupiter by an amateur astronomer is revealed as a convective storm, or eruption, in close-range images captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

A vast stellar nursery, a familiar target for amateurs, reveals its brilliant majesty

29 June 2020 Astronomy Now

A favourite target for amateur astronomers, M17, also known as the Omega, or Swan, Nebula, comes to life in a dramatic ESO image capturing the full extent of the enormous star-forming region.

Hubble camera captures stunning new views of stars gone ‘haywire’

20 June 2020 Astronomy Now

New Hubble Space Telescope images of well-studied planetary nebulae reveal fast-changing structures and shed new light on how some stars go “haywire” near the ends of their lives, throwing off spectacular clouds and jets as they run out of nuclear fuel.

Dramatic view of Venus about to be swallowed up by the Moon

19 June 2020 Mark Armstrong

This fantastic shot of Venus about to be occulted by the Moon was captured by Peter Goodhew using a remote telescope located in Spain.

Hubble’s ‘before’ and more recent ‘after’ image of M100

15 June 2020 Astronomy Now

Before-and-after images of the spiral galaxy M100 were used in early 1994 to prove the Hubble Space Telescope’s flawed optics had been successfully repaired. More recent views with more powerful instruments show how Hubble has improved with age.