Picture This – Page 29 – Astronomy Now

M66, a favorite target for amateurs, as seen by Hubble

20 June 2018 Astronomy Now

M66 is a familiar galaxy to amateur astronomers around the world, the largest member of a trio of interacting galaxies in the constellation Leo. This shot by the Hubble Space Telescope reveals M66 in all its glory, with its asymmetric spiral arms and a displaced core.

Today’s weather: stormy, with high winds and turbulence

18 June 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Juno spacecraft continues to send back spectacular images of Jupiter, including this look at the giant planet’s northern temperate zone where ammonia ice clouds roam in chaos amid high-speed winds and deeper, warmer cloud structures.

Blowing bubbles – Wolf-Rayet stars put on dramatic show

15 June 2018 Astronomy Now

Energetic Wolf-Rayet stars near the end of their lives produce fast-moving stellar winds that can interact with the surrounding interstellar medium to generate spectacular bubbles in space. They rarely emit X-rays, but ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope caught one in the act.

A meteoroid impact on Mars triggers a dusty avalanche

12 June 2018 Astronomy Now

A bang and a whoosh – how researchers describe the recent impact of a small meteoroid on the side of a martian hill and a long avalanche of dark, dry dust that stretches more than a kilometre (0.6 mile) down the slope.

A jewel box of brilliant suns, M79 delights the eye

9 June 2018 Astronomy Now

The Hubble Space Telescope captures a striking view of the globular cluster M79, a vast assembly of some 150,000 stars in the constellation Lepus that includes, like all clusters of its type, some of the oldest suns in the Milky Way.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spots recent impact crater

7 June 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted a recent impact crater that will remain a distinctive blemish for decades to come. Finding new craters is not uncommon with six satellites currently orbiting the Red Planet.

‘Corduroy’ sand dunes enhance Mars’ permanent polar cap

4 June 2018 Astronomy Now

High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment – HiRISE – camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this intriguing view of “corduroy” dunes on Mars permanent polar cap, an image seemingly as much art as science.

Hubble gives astronomers ringside seat for galaxy merger

2 June 2018 Astronomy Now

Two colliding galaxies 100 million light years away give astronomers a ringside seat to witness bursts of star formation as vast clouds of gas and dust interact, triggering the creation of thousands of star clusters surrounding two galactic cores that are slowly merging.

ESO captures stunning view of the vast Tarantula Nebula

30 May 2018 Astronomy Now

The spectacular Tarantula Nebula, a vast stellar nursery- and graveyard – in the Large Magellanic Cloud takes center stage in a stunning image captured by the European Southern Observatory’s VLT Survey Telescope, a starscape riddled with clusters, nebulae and supernova remnants.

Peering into the shrouded heart of a luminous Seyfert galaxy

29 May 2018 Astronomy Now

Seyfert galaxies are unusually luminous, powered by supermassive black holes feeding on galactic dust and debris. It is difficult to peer into the dust-shrouded cores of such galaxies, but the European Southern Observatory, combining radio and optical observations, provides an intriguing glimpse.