Gallery: Space Photos of the Week: A Dwarf Galaxy Just Wants Some Alone Time
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/hubble-uncovers-a-mysterious-hermit">NASA/ESA</a>01SPoW-Jun10-04.jpg
This is an irregular dwarf galaxy known as UGC 4879. Irregular dwarf galaxies are a little smaller and messier than their cosmic cousins, lacking lacking the majestic swirl of a spiral or the coherence of an elliptical. UGC 4879 is very isolated, with about 2.3 million light years between it and its closest neighbor Leo A. This makes it an ideal laboratory for studying star uncomplicated by interactions with other galaxies.
<a href="http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1618c/">NASA/ESA Hubble/ALMA</a>02SPoW-Jun10-03b.jpg
Composite image of Abell 2597, a bright cluster galaxy. The background image (blue) is from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The foreground (red) is ALMA data showing the distribution of carbon monoxide gas in and around the galaxy. The pull-out box shows the ALMA data of the "shadow" (black) produced by absorption of the millimeter-wavelength light emitted by electrons whizzing around powerful magnetic fields generated by the galaxy's supermassive black hole. The shadow indicates that cold clouds of molecular gas are raining in on the black hole.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/frosted-dunes-on-mars">NASA/JPL/University of Arizona</a>03SPoW-Jun10-02.jpg
Sand dunes cover much of Mars, which has large boulders lying on flat areas between the dunes. It is late winter in the southern hemisphere, and these dunes are just getting enough sunlight to start defrosting their seasonal cover of carbon dioxide. Spots form where pressurized carbon dioxide gas escapes to the surface.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-jagged-shores-of-pluto-s-highlands"> NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI</a>04SPoW-Jun10-05.jpg
This dramatic image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows the dark, rugged highlands known as Krun Macula (upper right), which border a section of Pluto’s icy plains.
<a href="http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/06/Milky_Way_rising"> ESA/NASA</a>05SPoW-Jun10-06.jpg
Astronaut Tim Peake snapped this photo of the Milky Way rising over the horizon. Peake is aboard the ISS for 6 months, conducting more than 30 scientific experiments for the ESA.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia20484/rings-interrupted">NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute</a>06SPoW-Jun10-07.jpg
Distant Titan, its northern hemisphere drenched in the sunlight of late spring, hangs above Saturn's rings. What might at first glance look like a gap between the rings and the planet is actually Saturn’s shadow. During most of Saturn's long year, the projection of the planet's shadow extends well beyond the edge of the A ring. But, with summer solstice fast approaching, the Sun is now higher in Saturn's sky and most of Saturn's A ring is completely shadow-free.
