SPoW_Oct30_2017 / Lauren Joseph / Nov 2nd, 2017 @ 15:50
01This spectacular view of the Milky Way was captured in Chile, home of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, seen in the foreground. The brightest star in the upper left of the frame is Antares, which is surrounded by the “galactic bulge,” a region that is dense in stars, while the brighter areas are regions of hot gas.
02There’s a lot going on in this photo of system MACS J1149. It was captured by three different instruments: the Chandra Observatory (X-rays), the Hubble Space Telescope (visible light). and the Very Large Array in New Mexico (radio waves). Together, they show a cluster of hundreds and maybe even thousands of galaxies, some 5 billion light years from Earth. By studying this cluster in multiple wavelengths, scientists are able to see the interactions of gas and gravity that would otherwise be invisible.
03The eye of a storm on Earth can be large, but they have nothing on this hexagonal storm at Saturn’s north pole. Taken by the late, great Cassini spacecraft, which plunged into Saturn’s atmosphere in September, this image shows a storm as wide as Earth’s diameter, illuminated by sunlight. Take a look behind Saturn, and you can see the planet’s rings.
04You’re getting hotter, literally. Our star is shining in all its glorious colors in this NASA series. Each color is filtered for a different extreme UV light, but each photo gets progressively hotter— from 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit to 18 _million_ degrees. Feelin’ hot, hot,hot?
05Mars is covered in weird rocks, most of which are clues to the planet’s ancient watery past. This photo taken by the Curiosity rover on September 16 shows a rock dubbed “Christmas Cove.” The fine material surrounding the rock is dust that’s been brushed away by Curiosity, revealing the fine grain of hematite, a mineral that forms in standing water or hot springs.
06Galaxies, galaxies, everywhere, wait—what are all these smudges? This image takes photo-bombing to a new level. This stunning Hubble image contains thousands of galaxies, but it also has some asteroids streaking across the frame. Those white streaks are 20 different asteroids, all of which orbit around 160 million miles from Earth.
