Gallery: Space Photos of the Week: This Is One Cranky Child Star
<a href="https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1526/">ESA/Hubble & NASA</a>01SPoW-Dec18-03
Hubble spots turbulent activity in the stormy Orion B molecular cloud complex, located in the Milky Way. The two brilliant streams crossing this image are jets of energized gas, spewing out from a young star. If the jets collide with the surrounding gas and dust they can clear vast spaces, and create curved shock waves, seen as knotted clumps called Herbig-Haro objects.
<a href="http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/2756-nustar-finds-clumpy-doughnut-around-black-hole"> NASA / JPL-Caltech / Roma Tre Univ.</a>02SPoW-Dec18-05
Most massive black holes are encircled by thick, doughnut-shaped disks of material, feeding the growing centers inside. The spiral galaxy NGC 1068 has a black hole in its center, and recent observations by NuSTAR show the doughnut around it to be “lumpy” or uneven. Astronomers now think the clumpiness might be a common occurrence.
<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-findings-from-nasa-s-new-horizons-shape-understanding-of-pluto-and-its-moons">NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI</a>03SPoW-Dec18-07
This high-resolution mosaic of Pluto shows features on the dwarf planet’s surface as small as 500 yards. Taken just before New Horizons’ closest approach on July 14, the [full image](https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/p_leisa_hires.jpg) captures cratered plains, numerous prominent faults and the possible “cryovolcanic edifice” (ice volcano!) Wright Mons.
<a href="http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1549/?lang"> ALMA (ESO/NOAJ/NRAO)</a>04SPoW-Dec18-02
Astronomers have found the clearest indications yet that planets with masses several times that of Jupiter have recently formed in the discs of gas and dust around four young stars. This is a photo of the young star DoAr 44 (orange) and gaseous material (blue) taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The smaller hole in the inner gas is a telltale sign of the presence of a young planet clearing the disc.
<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia18349/bulls-eye-moons"> NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute</a>05SPoW-Dec18-08
Like a cosmic bull's-eye, Enceladus and Tethys line up almost perfectly for Cassini's cameras. Since the two moons are not only aligned, but also at relatively similar distances from Cassini, the apparent sizes in this image are a good approximation of the relative sizes of Enceladus (313 miles across) and Tethys (660 miles across).
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/hubble-checks-out-a-home-for-old-stars"> NASA & ESA</a>06SPoW-Dec18-10
Terzan 1 is one of about 150 globular clusters in the Milky Way. Globular clusters are typically made up of around a hundred thousand stars, held together by their mutual gravitational attraction in a spherical shape a few hundred light-years across. They contain some of the oldest stars in a galaxy, pictured here as the bright orange pinpoints. Some of the stars in Terzan 1 date back to the early stages of our galaxy’s formation.
<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pluto-s-moon-nix-half-illuminated">NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI</a>07SPoW-Dec18-06
New Horizon’s Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera captured a panchromatic photo of Nix, Pluto’s third-largest moon. The image offers new details about Nix’s geologic history and impact record.
