Picture This – Page 34 – Astronomy Now

Moon’s-eye view of total solar eclipse

30 August 2017 Astronomy Now

During the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera captured an image of the Moon’s shadow over a large region of the United States, centered just north of Nashville, Tennessee.

Saturn-lit moon

25 August 2017 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Cassini probe gazes across the icy rings of Saturn toward the icy moon Tethys, whose night side is illuminated by Saturnshine, or sunlight reflected by the planet.

A very close encounter

15 August 2017 Astronomy Now

Back in October 2012, the near-Earth asteroid 2012 TC4 had a close encounter with Earth. It passed our planet at a distance only a quarter of that between the Earth and the Moon. In October 2017, this small asteroid, with a size of only about 15 to 30 metres, will return for another very close fly-by, making it the perfect object to test the asteroid detection and tracking network.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot seen in its true colours

30 July 2017 Astronomy Now

This true-colour image of Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot (GRS) was created by citizen scientist Björn Jónsson using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

Galactic David and Goliath

28 July 2017 Astronomy Now

The gravitational dance between two galaxies in our local neighbourhood has led to intriguing visual features in both as witnessed in this new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. The tiny NGC 1510 and its colossal neighbour NGC 1512 are at the beginning of a lengthy merger, a crucial process in galaxy evolution.

Haze on Saturn’s horizon

27 July 2017 Astronomy Now

This false-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft gazes toward the rings beyond Saturn’s sunlit horizon. Along the limb at left can be seen a thin, detached haze. This haze vanishes toward the left side of the scene.

Enceladus’ jets from afar

26 July 2017 Astronomy Now

Enceladus’ intriguing south-polar jets are viewed by the Cassini probe from afar, backlit by sunlight while the moon itself glows softly in reflected Saturn-shine.

Panorama above ‘Perseverance Valley’ on Mars

21 July 2017 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded a panoramic view before entering the upper end of a fluid-carved valley that descends the inner slope of a large crater’s rim.

Chandra peers into a nurturing cloud

14 July 2017 Astronomy Now

In the context of space, the term ‘cloud’ can mean something rather different from the fluffy white collections of water in the sky or a way to store data or process information. Giant molecular clouds are vast cosmic objects, composed primarily of hydrogen molecules and helium atoms, where new stars and planets are born. These clouds can contain more mass than a million Suns, and stretch across hundreds of light-years.

Dazzling spiral with an active heart

5 July 2017 Astronomy Now

ESO’s Very Large Telescope has captured a magnificent face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. The image does justice to the galaxy’s beauty, showcasing its glittering arms criss-crossed with dust lanes — but it fails to betray Messier 77’s turbulent nature.