Gallery: Space Photos of the Week: Cranky Old Crab Nebula Still Knows How to Twist and Shout
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The Crab Nebula, located 6,500 years from Earth, was formed by a supernova explosion witnessed by astronomers in 1054. This image, a combination of data from five telescopes, shows a pulsar at the center: A dense neutron star that emits rotating radio waves and light beams.
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In this Hubble image, two separate galaxies pass each other at 1,243,000 miles per hour, from only 20,000 light-years away. Because of their proximity, the galaxies change each other’s shape as they move.
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This image, taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the Hargraves Crater. The collision that shaped it impacted deep bedrock on Mars, creating ejecta of varied textures and colors, from turquoise to deep purple.
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Due to a 10-second exposure, this image shows the Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) shining a green light across the icy Atacama Desert in Chile.
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This image of Saturn’s north polar region was taken from 560,000 miles away by the Cassini spacecraft in direct sunlight, which provides a more detailed view. Despite the direct light, sunlight is only 1% as strong as on Earth, since Saturn’s sun is 10 times as distant from the planet as ours.
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This image taken by the Cassini spacecraft shows propellers within Saturn’s A ring, visible as double dashes. The propellers here range in size, which will help scientists investigate how they are formed.
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