One of the last unopened Apollo-era lunar samples collected during Apollo 17 has been opened under the careful direction of lunar sample processors and curators. via NASA https://ift.tt/oGJ6vdz
Peculiar spiral galaxy Arp 78 is found within the boundaries of the head strong constellation Aries. Some 100 million light-years beyond the stars and nebulae of our Milky Way galaxy, the island universe is over 100,000 light-years across. Also known as NGC 772, it sports a prominent, outer spiral arm in this detailed cosmic portrait […]
Astronaut John Young, the pilot of the Gemini III mission, inspects his helmet in the ready room in preparation for the launch. via NASA https://ift.tt/gUnwkiv
Massive stars can blow bubbles. The featured image shows perhaps the most famous of all star-bubbles, NGC 7635, also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 7-light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Above and left of the Bubble’s center is a hot, O-type star, several hundred thousand […]
A new raft of discoveries marks a scientific high point: More than 5,000 planets are now confirmed to exist beyond our solar system. via NASA https://ift.tt/3YdhbIo
This colorful image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and published in 2018, celebrated the observatory’s 28th anniversary of viewing the heavens. via NASA https://ift.tt/2uCURaw
What if you could see the entire sky — all at once — for an entire year? That, very nearly, is what is pictured here. Every 15 minutes during 2021, an all-sky camera took an image of the sky over the Netherlands. Central columns from these images were then aligned and combined to create the […]
What’s that at the end of the road? The Sun. Many towns have roads that run east – west, and on two days each year, the Sun rises and sets right down the middle. Today is one of those days: an equinox. Not only is today a day of equal night (“aequus”-“nox”) and day time, […]
2MASS J17554042+6551277 doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue but that’s the name, a coordinate-based catalog designation, of the star centered in this sharp field of view. Fans of the distant universe should get used to its spiky appearance though. The diffraction pattern is created by the 18 hexagonal mirror segments of the James Webb Space […]
Earth’s Moon is seen rising behind NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. via NASA https://ift.tt/iktxpDN