Article Of The Day!

What is casting dark shadows across 36,000 light-years of space in this Hubble Space Telescope image?

The mysterious dark rays appearing to emanate from galaxy IC 5063 have intrigued astronomers, and there are a few different ideas about what is causing them. They could be like the shadows of clouds when light from the setting Sun pierces through them.

Astronomers have traced the rays back to the galaxy’s core, the location of an active supermassive black hole. One idea suggests that the shadows are being cast into space by an inner tube-shaped ring, or torus, of dusty material surrounding the black hole.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and W.P. Maksym (CfA).

ALT TEXT: Rust-colored view of space, with a bright, narrow purple region at the center, a galaxy. Background stars and galaxies are scattered sparsely—this is a dusty rather than starry scene. To the upper left of the bright central region are dark dust lanes. Opposite these to the lower right, one dark area extends from the central bright region and splits into two dark rays. Similar dark rays can be seen to the top left, behind the dust lanes. The edges of the entire image are dark, fading from the colored center.

Wed. 11/20 - We're not sure about tonight's weather yet. We'll try to decide by 3:30 pm if we'll open tonight.

Make your Halloween pumpkin shine bright like a star observed by the James Webb Space Telescope! 🎃

The 8-point diffraction spikes are a signature look in Webb’s images of bright objects in the universe. Download the stencil or any of the other Webb patterns: https://webbtelescope.pub/46HNvPV

The Bearclaw Nebula, Sh2-200 // Dionysus

Picture of the Day!

This image is composed of consecutive shots taken near Llers in Spain’s Girona province, showing Comet Pons-Brooks. After passing closest to the Sun, it is now fading as it moves into the southern skies toward the outer Solar System.

Image credit: Juan Carlos Casado

Mosaic of the Eagle Nebula, June 6, 2015. Image Credit: Adam Gustafson | Jamie Kern | BSU Observatory.

Imaged in luminance and photometric R, V and B filters. Approximately 2 hours total exposure time.

The Eagle nebula is a stellar nursery where new stars are born. 

Young Stars, Stellar Jets via NASA https://ift.tt/mUE9hQK

2024 February 4

The Cone Nebula from Hubble Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA - Processing & Licence: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: Stars are forming in the gigantic dust pillar called the Cone Nebula. Cones, pillars, and majestic flowing shapes abound in stellar nurseries where natal clouds of gas and dust are buffeted by energetic winds from newborn stars. The Cone Nebula, a well-known example, lies within the bright galactic star-forming region NGC 2264. The Cone was captured in unprecedented detail in this close-up composite of several observations from the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. While the Cone Nebula, about 2,500 light-years away in Monoceros, is around 7 light-years long, the region pictured here surrounding the cone’s blunted head is a mere 2.5 light-years across. In our neck of the galaxy that distance is just over half way from our Sun to its nearest stellar neighbors in the Alpha Centauri star system. The massive star NGC 2264 IRS, seen by Hubble’s infrared camera in 1997, is the likely source of the wind sculpting the Cone Nebula and lies off the top of the image. The Cone Nebula’s reddish veil is produced by dust and glowing hydrogen gas.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240204.html

NASA Science

Gamma-ray Bursts: Harvesting Knowledge From the Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions - NASA Science

The most powerful events in the known universe – gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) – are short-lived outbursts of the highest-energy light. They can e

Article of the Day!

"Gamma-ray Bursts: Harvesting Knowledge From the Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions" by Jenna Ahart