Gallery: Space Photos of the Week: A Green Pea Galaxy Gets Groovin'
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/hubble-views-a-galactic-mega-merger">ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt</a>01SPoW-Jan10-HP-01
NGC 3697 is a product of a collision between two good-sized galaxies, and is slowly evolving to become a giant elliptical galaxy. Astronomers study NGC 3597 to learn more about how elliptical galaxies form — many ellipticals began their lives far earlier in the history of the universe. Before infirmity sets in, some freshly formed elliptical galaxies experience a final flush of youth, as is the case with NGC 3597. Galaxies smashing together pool their available gas and dust, triggering new rounds of star birth. Some of this material ends up in dense pockets initially called proto-globular clusters, dozens of which festoon NGC 3597. These pockets will go on to collapse and form fully-fledged globular clusters, large spheres that orbit the centers of galaxies like satellites, packed tightly full of millions of stars.
<a href="http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1601/?lang">ESO/GRAVITY consortium/NASA/ESA/M. McCaughrean</a>02SPoW-Jan10-04
As part of the first observations with the new GRAVITY instrument the team looked closely at the bright, young stars known as the Trapezium Cluster, located in the heart of the Orion star-forming region. Already, from these first data, GRAVITY made a discovery: one of the components of the cluster (Theta1 Orionis F, lower left) was found to be a double star for the first time. The brighter double star Theta1 Orionis C (lower right) is also well seen. The background image comes from the ISAAC instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope. The views of two of the stars from GRAVITY, shown as inserts, reveal far finer detail than could be detected with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
<a href="https://news.virginia.edu/content/green-pea-galaxy-provides-insights-early-universe-evolution">NASA</a>03SPoW-Jan10-07
This is an image of the compact green pea galaxy J0925+1403. The galaxy has been ejecting ionizing photons at rate never seen before. The discovery confirms the theory that newly formed dwarf galaxies like J0925+1403 are the reason the universe heated up about 13 billion years ago, and were an important part of forming the early universe after the Big Bang.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/possible-ice-volcano-on-pluto-has-the-wright-stuff">NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI</a>04SPoW-Jan10-06
Wright Mons in Color. This composite image of a possible ice volcano on Pluto includes pictures taken by the New Horizons spacecraft’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14, 2015, from a range of about 30,000 miles (48,000 kilometers), showing features as small as 1,500 feet (450 meters) across. Sprinkled across the LORRI mosaic is enhanced color data from the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), from a range of 21,000 miles (34,000 kilometers) and at a resolution of about 2,100 feet (650 meters) per pixel. The entire scene is 140 miles (230 kilometers) across.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pluto-s-haze-in-bands-of-blue">NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI</a>05SPoW-Jan10-05
This processed image is the highest-resolution color look yet at the haze layers in Pluto’s atmosphere. Scientists believe the haze is a photochemical smog resulting from the action of sunlight on methane and other molecules in Pluto’s atmosphere, producing a complex mixture of hydrocarbons such as acetylene and ethylene. These hydrocarbons accumulate into small particles, a fraction of a micrometer in size, and scatter sunlight to make the bright blue haze seen here. As they settle down through the atmosphere, the haze particles form numerous intricate, horizontal layers, some extending for hundreds of miles around Pluto. The haze layers extend to altitudes of over 120 miles.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia18350/saturn-the-mighty"> NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute</a>06SPoW-Jan10-02
It’s easy to forget just how large Saturn is, at around 10 times the diameter of Earth. And with a diameter of about 72,400 miles, the planet simply dwarfs its retinue of moons. One of those satellites, Tethys (660 miles across), is seen here at lower right.
