Official Space is Awesome Thread

[JungleJimbo]

 

 

 

 

[Argonne69]

The Milky Way over White Desert National Park in Egypt.

 

 

Image: B. Esenbey

[Argonne69]

NASA's Juno reveals the hellish landscape of Jupiter's moon Io in its latest flyby. Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.

 

 

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/K. M. Gill

 

 

Image: Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/T. Stryk

 

[Argonne69]

NGC 6951 is located ~78 million light-years away in the constellation of Cepheus. The galaxy is ~75,000 light-years across.

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, Hubble, A. Filippenko, R. Foley, C. Kilpatrick, D. Sand, G. Kober
 

[Argonne69]

NGC 5068 is a barred spiral galaxy with thousands of star-forming regions, and large quantities of interstellar dust. It is located ~20 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, and is ~45,000 light-years in diameter.

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, R. Chandar, J. Lee, G. Kober
 

[Argonne69]

NGC 3156 is located ~73 million light-years away in the constellation Sextans. It is categorized as a lenticular galaxy, a cross between a spiral and an elliptical galaxy. It has a bright central bulge, but no arms. 

 

 

Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Sharples, S. Kaviraj, W. Keel
 

Edited October 27, 2023 by Argonne69

[Argonne69]

Leaked picture of NASA taking the sun down for maintenance.

 

 

Image: Flat Earth Society

 

[scotee]

Saturn peek-a-boo

[scotee]

[Argonne69]

The Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. This image by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) reveals new details in infrared light. The supernova remnant is comprised of several different components, including doubly ionized sulfur (represented in red-orange), ionized iron (blue), dust (yellow-white and green), and synchrotron emission (white). 

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim

A side-by-side comparison of the Crab Nebula as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in optical light (left) and the James Webb Space Telescope in infrared light (right) reveals different details. 

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll, CSA, STScI, T. Temim
 

[Argonne69]

The JWST captures M51 (NGC 5194), the Whirlpool Galaxy, in mid-infrared. It is located 31 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici.

 

 

Image: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Adamo, the FEAST JWST team

 

[Argonne69]

Nebula MSH 15-52 lies ~16,000 light-years away. Taken in x-ray and infrared, it looks eerily like a skeleton's hand.

 

 

Image: NASA, CXC, Stanford University, R. Romani et al, MSFC (IXPE), JPL-Caltech, DECaPS, SAO, J. Schmidt

[Argonne69]

Jupiter in ultraviolet, as seen by Hubble.

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, M. Wong, G. Kober
 

[Argonne69]

As NASA’s Lucy spacecraft zoomed past its first asteroid, Dinkinesh, its mission scientists made a surprising discovery of a bonus space rock. The first images sent over by the Lucy mission of its brief rendezvous with the main asteroid belt revealed a binary pair, with a tiny satellite closely orbiting Dinkinesh. Dinkinesh is ~0.5 miles at its widest, while its smaller companion is ~0.15 miles in size.

 

 

Image: NASA, Goddard, SwRI, Johns Hopkins APL, NOAO

 

As they downlinked more images of its first target, it showed not one but two tiny asteroids orbiting around Dinkinesh.
 

 

Image: NASA, Goddard, SwRI, Johns Hopkins APL, NOAO

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by Argonne69

[Argonne69]

The Webb and Hubble space telescopes recently imaged MACS0416, a pair of colliding galaxy clusters 4.3 billion light-years away. The image combines visible and infrared light to create a view of the colliding clusters. 

 

 

Image: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. M. Diego, J. C. J. D’Silva, A. M. Koekemoer, J. Summers, R.Windhorst, H. Yan

 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Argonne69

[Argonne69]

The Sun with the transit of the China Space Station in foreground.

 

 

Image: L. Wang
 

[Argonne69]

The new Euclid space telescope images the Perseus galaxy cluster, a gravitationally bound group of approximately 100,000 galaxies. Some are up to 10 billion years old.

 

 

Image: ESA, Euclid, Euclid Consortium, NASA, J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi
 

[Argonne69]

The aurora reflects on a water body in Denmark with the Big Dipper visible. 

 

 

Image: R. Merzlyakov
 

[Argonne69]

A large solar flare, ~435,000 miles long, erupts from the Sun. That's ~54,000 Earth diameters.

 

 

Image: M. Ergün

[Argonne69]

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captures the sun setting from the rover's location in Gale Crater.

 

 

Image: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, Texas A&M Univ.
 

[Argonne69]

SpaceX conducted its 2nd test of the Starship rocket last Saturday, and while both stages failed during the 8 minute ride, they did achieve some mission objectives, including the "hot" separation of the two stages. 

 

 

All 33 Raptor methane/oxygen engines ignited and remained operating until after stage separation.

 

 

 

 

The upper stage, engaging its Raptor engines while still attached to the booster, managed to uncouple itself and fly independently. 

 

 

Images: SpaceX and C&J Images

 

[Argonne69]

Webb’s near-infrared camera captures a 50 light-years-wide portion of the Milky Way’s center, ~25,000 light-years away. The core, including the star-forming region Sagittarius C (Sgr C), lies ~300 light-years away from the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*.

 

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, S. Crowe

 

 

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, S. Crowe

 

[Argonne69]

Euclid images the "Hidden Galaxy" (IC 342 or Caldwell 5). It's located ~11 million light-years away. 

 

 

Image: ESA, Euclid, Euclid Consortium, NASA, J.C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi
 

[Argonne69]

Euclid's image of the Horsehead Nebula (NGC 6822). At ~1375 light-years away, it is the closest giant star-forming region to Earth. It sits just to the south of star Alnitak, the easternmost of Orion’s famous three-star belt, and is part of the Orion molecular cloud.

 

 

Image: ESA, Euclid, Euclid Consortium, NASA, J.C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi

 

[Argonne69]

The little black dot, Mercury, transits the sun. 

 

 

Image: hfjacinto

 

[Argonne69]

I guess it really is the Emerald Island. Ireland from the ISS. 'Really gotta get over there for some golf.

 

 

Image: T. Virts

 

[Argonne69]

Typhoon Maysak from the ISS in 2015. It had sustained winds of 160 mph.

 

 

Image: NASA, T. Virts
 

 

Image: NASA, ESA

 

 

Image: NASA, T. Virts

 

[Fellaheen51]

Earth and Sky.  The Milky Way with partially submerged Sodalites (aka Yooperlites).

 

 

Photo Credit:  Tom Gifford Photography

[Fellaheen51]

You may enjoy this Argonne.  A study in time lapse photography. 

 

 

 

[Fellaheen51]

The Aurora over Lake Superior.  Dec. 1, 2023 between 7:30 and 9:00 p.m.

 

 

Photo Credit:  George C. Bailey Photography