SPoW_June29_2017
01This composite image, including information from Chandra’s X-ray Observatory (in pink), NuSTAR (in purple), and the Hubble Space Telescope (in white and brown), shows two galaxies merging together in the Arp 299 system. The unusually high amount of double star systems demonstrates that Arp 299 includes some of the most prolific star-forming galaxies in the universe.
02In this image, taken from the cupola window on the International Space Station, NASA’s Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Jack Fischer captured the lights of an aurora over Earth.
03Betelgeuse, a red giant around 600 light-years away from Earth, is one of the largest known stars in the universe. It’s only eight million years old, but it burns so brightly that scientists predict it will soon explode in 100,000 years. This image, taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array is the highest-resolution photo of the star so far.
04This image, taken by NASA’s JunoCam and rotated 180 degrees to south-side-up by a citizen scientist, Jason Major, shows two white oval storms and swirling weather patterns on Jupiter.
05See a slice of Saturn’s atmosphere in sunlight, with the planet’s icy rings crossing the foreground. This image was taken from 620,000 miles away by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, currently on its Grand Finale trip around Saturn.
06In this combination of images taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, compare three of Saturn’s small moons: Pan (left), with a well-defined band at the equator; Daphnis (center), the smallest of the three; and Atlas (right), with a smaller central mass than Pan’s.
