SPoW_July21_2017
01This galaxy, located only 30 million light-years away in the Canes Venatici (Hunting Dogs) constellation, is visible from Earth with just a basic telescope. Despite the bright flecks of light shown in this image, scientists have found that NGC 4242 is a dim galaxy, forming stars at a low rate.
02This composite image from Hubble captures the moon Phobos orbiting Mars. Measuring only 16.5 miles by 13.5 miles by 11 miles, Phobos is one of the smallest moons in the solar system, and completes its orbit around in under eight hours. To create this image, Hubble took 13 separate exposures over 22 minutes.
03Using an infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers photographed RCW 38, a star cluster around 5,500 light-years from Earth. The central image shows the center of the cluster, and the inserts show some of the possible brown dwarfs located inside it. Brown dwarfs are balls of gas, with more mass than a planet but less than a star.
04This gif shows an active region of the sun, where a medium-sized flare and a coronal mass ejection both erupted.
05This photo is a piece of an enhanced-color panorama taken by the Mars rover Opportunity, capturing Perseverance Valley.
06This image, taken from 502,000 miles away, shows jets spraying icy particles from near the south pole of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. Studying the jets may lead to clues about the ocean beneath the moon's surface.
