If you see this as a monster’s face, don’t panic. It’s only pareidolia, often experienced as the tendency to see faces in patterns of light and shadow. In fact, the startling visual scene is actually a 180 degree panorama of Northern Lights, digitally mirrored like inkblots on a folded piece of paper. Frames used to […]
In this 90-second exposure, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is rolled to the launch pad on Oct. 27, 2021. via NASA https://ift.tt/3bmv8Vt
Spooky shapes seem to haunt this dusty expanse, drifting through the night in the royal constellation Cepheus. Of course, the shapes are cosmic dust clouds visible in dimly reflected starlight. Far from your own neighborhood, they lurk above the plane of the Milky Way at the edge of the Cepheus Flare molecular cloud complex some […]
Take a tour of some of the most terrifying and mind-blowing destinations in our galaxy … and beyond. via NASA https://ift.tt/3GpjKXn
As far as ghosts go, Mirach’s Ghost isn’t really that scary. Mirach’s Ghost is just a faint, fuzzy galaxy, well known to astronomers, that happens to be seen nearly along the line-of-sight to Mirach, a bright star. Centered in this star field, Mirach is also called Beta Andromedae. About 200 light-years distant, Mirach is a […]
On October 8, 2014, active regions on our Sun gave it the appearance of a jack-o’-lantern. via NASA https://ift.tt/3CmFW1J
Do you see the bat? It haunts this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. While the Veil is roughly circular in shape and covers nearly 3 degrees on the sky toward the constellation […]
In June 2021, NASA received its first sample of asteroid Ryugu, which was returned to Earth in December 2020. via NASA https://ift.tt/3jFIOQa
Observe the graceful twirl of our Solar System’s largest planet. Many interesting features of Jupiter’s enigmatic atmosphere, including dark belts and light zones, can be followed in detail. A careful inspection will reveal that different cloud layers rotate at slightly different speeds. The famous Great Red Spot is not visible at first — but soon […]
This celestial lightsaber does not lie in a galaxy far, far away, but rather inside our home galaxy, the Milky Way. via NASA https://ift.tt/3CgStnA