Wired Space Photo of the Day

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Supermassive Black Hole Jets

This composite image of a galaxy illustrates how the intense gravity of a supermassive black hole can be tapped to generate immense power. The image contains X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), optical light obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (gold) and radio waves from the NSF's Very Large Array (pink). More @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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In this composite image, visible-light observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are combined with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble a dramatic view of the well-known Ring Nebula.

 

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Giant Space Jellyfish

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. HFG1 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It was produced by a binary star system (V664 Cas) that is moving rapidly through our Galaxy. The star is moving towards the upper-right of the image. As HFG1 plows through the interstellar medium, a bluish bowshock is produced; and a red trail of gas is left behind in its wake. The image was generated with observations in the Hydrogen alpha (red) and Oxygen [OIII] (blue) filters. In this image, North is down and East is to the right. From Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Blurry Galaxy Collision

This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures an ongoing cosmic collision between two galaxies — a spiral galaxy is in the process of colliding with a lenticular galaxy. The collision looks almost as if it is popping out of the screen in 3D, with parts of the spiral arms clearly embracing the lenticular galaxy’s bulge.

The image also reveals further evidence of the collision. There is a bright stream of stars coming out from the merging galaxies, extending out towards the right of the image. The bright spot in the middle of the plume, known as ESO 576-69, is what makes this image unique. This spot is believed to be the nucleus of the former spiral galaxy, which was ejected from the system during the collision and is now being shredded by tidal forces to produce the visible stellar stream.

A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Luca Limatola.
From Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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ISON Time Sequence

by Wired Science Staff

A new series of images from Gemini Observatory shows Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) racing toward an uncomfortably close rendezvous with the Sun. In late November the comet could present a stunning sight in the twilight sky and remain easily visible, ...more @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Red Stellar Nursery

This intriguing new view of a spectacular stellar nursery IC 2944 is being released to celebrate a milestone: 15 years of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. This image also shows a group of thick clouds of dust known as the Thackeray globules silhouetted against the pale pink glowing gas of the nebula. These globules are under fierce bombardment from the ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot young stars. They are both being eroded away and also fragmenting, rather like lumps of butter dropped onto a hot frying pan. It is likely that Thackeray’s globules will be destroyed before they can collapse and form new stars. From Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Tiger Stripes of Enceladus

Pictured here is a high resolution Cassini image of Enceladus from a close flyby. Do underground oceans vent through the tiger stripes (in false-color blue) on Saturn's moon Enceladus? The long features dubbed tiger stripes are known to spew ice from the moon's icy interior into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon's south pole and creating Saturn's mysterious E-ring.

Why Enceladus is active remains a mystery, as the neighboring moon Mimas, approximately the same size, appears to be quite dead. An analysis of dust captured by Cassini found evidence for sodium as expected in a deep salty ocean. Such research is particularly interesting since such an ocean would be a candidate to contain life. Conversely however, recent Earth-based observations of ice ejected by Enceladus into Saturn's E-Ring showed no evidence of the expected sodium.From Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Hoag’s Object

A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag's Object. This image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures a face-on view of the galaxy's ring of stars, revealing more ..Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Titan's Mount Doom

Explanation @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Large Magellanic Cloud in UV

Astronomers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa., have used NASA's Swift satellite to create the most detailed surveys of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the two closest major galaxies, in ultraviolet light.
More @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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[I really like this one!]

ISS and Aurora Over Crater Lake

What very well may be a once-in-a-lifetime shot shows the International Space Station streaking through the beautiful pink glow of an aurora while the Milky Way hovers in the sky

Read more @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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A Hole in the Sun's Corona

An extensive coronal hole rotated towards Earth over several days last week (May 28-31, 2013). The massive coronal area is one of the largest we have seen in a year or more. Coronal holes are the source of strong solar wind gusts that carry solar particles out to our magnetosphere and beyond. They appear darker in extreme ultraviolet light images (here, a combination of three wavelengths of UV light) because there is just less matter at the temperatures we are observing in. Solar wind streams take 2-3 days to travel from the Sun to Earth, and the coronal holes in which they originate are more likely to affect Earth after they have rotated more than halfway around the visible hemisphere of the Sun, which is the case here. They may generate some aurora here on Earth.

 

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Martian North Pole

The north polar ice cap of Mars, presented as a mosaic of 57 separate images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express. The ice cap spans approximately 1000 km and is seen here in polar stereographic projection. The images were taken throughout the entire mission, when Mars Express was at its closest to Mars along its orbit, at about 300-500 km altitude. The mosaic was published as space science image of the week on the occasion of the tenth anniversary since the mission launched on 2 June 2003.
Explanation @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Bubbles Within Bubbles

This infrared image shows a striking example of what is called a hierarchical bubble structure, in which one giant bubble, carved into the dust of space by massive stars, has triggered the formation of smaller bubbles. The large bubble takes up the central region of the picture while the two spawned bubbles, which can be seen in yellow, are located within its rim.
Explanation @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Fensal and Aztlan

Although hidden from human eyes, the Cassini spacecraft can spot these dark features on the surface of Titan thanks to its special near-infrared filters. The features seen here have been dubbed "Fensal" and "Aztlan" by scientists. The dark features are believed to be vast dunes of particles that precipitated out of Titan's atmosphere

Explanation @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Glowing Pinwheel Galaxy
The face-on spiral galaxy M101, or the Pinwheel Galaxy, is seen at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths in this image taken by ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope. The picture is composed of images taken by XMM-Newton’s Optical Monitor telescope using different filters: red (200–400 nm), green (200–300 nm) and blue (175–275 nm).

Explanation @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Dry Ice Tracks on Mars
More @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Guts of a Dead Star

Suspended in time and space, the aftermath of a massive star’s dramatic ending in a supernova explosion is captured by ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory. Nested knots of hot gas glowing green at X-ray wavelengths – equivalent to millions of degrees celsius – fill the structured central region of this expanding supernova remnant.

Read more @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Changing Neptune Seasons

NASA Hubble Space Telescope observations in August 2002 show that Neptune's brightness has increased significantly since 1996. The rise is due to an increase in the amount of clouds observed in the planet's southern hemisphere. These increases may be due to seasonal changes caused by a variation in solar heating. Because Neptune's rotation axis is inclined 29 degrees to its orbital plane, it is subject to seasonal solar heating during its 164.8-year orbit of the Sun. This seasonal variation is 900 times smaller than experienced by Earth because Neptune is much farther from the Sun. The rate of seasonal change also is much slower because Neptune takes 165 years to orbit the Sun. So, springtime in the southern hemisphere will last for several decades! Remarkably, this is evidence that Neptune is responding to the weak radiation from the Sun. These images were taken in visible and near-infrared light by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. From Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com

 

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Warm Venus Volcano
Read about it @ Wired Space Photo of the Day | Wired Science | Wired.com