* The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread *

Cosimo · 24 Apr 2015 at 06:31

One of the Hubble greats:

Cosimo · 24 Apr 2015 at 06:49

Hubble celebrates it's 25th anniversary with a new image of star cluster Westerlund 2:

The nebula Gum 29 is a star-forming region about 20,00 light-years away in the constellation Carina. At the core of the nebula is a cluster of several thousand stars called Westerlund 2. These newborn stars are approximately 2 million years old, and their light illuminates, heats, and erodes the surrounding gas. The Hubble image, utilizing both visible and infrared light observations, was released in celebration of the telescope's 25th anniversary.

This visualization provides a three-dimensional perspective on the nebula and star cluster. The flight traverses the foreground stars and approaches the lower left rim of the nebula. Passing through the wispy darker clouds on the near side, the journey reveals bright gas illuminated by the intense radiation of the newly formed star cluster. Within the nebula, several pillars of dark, dense gas are being shaped by the energetic light and strong stellar winds from the brilliant cluster of thousands of stars. Note that the visualization is intended only as a scientifically reasonable interpretation and that distances within the model are significantly compressed.

The image and more:

https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1509/

Cosimo · 24 Apr 2015 at 08:20

A multitude of views:

Cosimo · 24 Apr 2015 at 17:25

Shock and horror when in 1990 the first images from Hubble were found to be blurry:

Cosimo · 25 Apr 2015 at 06:37

One for dedicated Hubble fans showing repair/upgrade missions:

On April 24, 1990, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off on space shuttle mission STS-31, with the Hubble Space Telescope in its payload bay. The following day, Hubble was released into space, ready to peer into the vast unknown. Unfortunately, it was discovered that the observatory's primary mirror had a flaw that affected the clarity of the telescope's early images. Over the next three years corrective optics were developed for the telescope and in December 1993, astronauts repaired Hubble’s “vision” during space shuttle mission STS-61, the first of NASA’s five servicing missions to the orbiting observatory. Subsequent repairs and upgrades were also made on servicing missions in February 1997 (STS-82); December 1999 (STS-103); March 2002 (STS-109); and May 2009 (STS-125).

Cosimo · 26 Apr 2015 at 07:25

Short version of Hubble25:

Cosimo · 26 Apr 2015 at 10:49

Using Hubble deep field images to look at the early years of the universe:

Cosimo · 27 Apr 2015 at 06:47

Here it is, the documentary: Hubble25

Cosimo · 1 May 2015 at 11:00

Nice animation of Rosetta's approach to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from a distance of about 800 km on 1 August to a distance of about 62 km on 22 August 2014:

Cosimo · 2 May 2015 at 06:45

The sun never fails to amaze. A prominence eruption observed by SDO over a six hour period:

Cosimo · 5 May 2015 at 07:16

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/

Cosimo · 5 May 2015 at 17:20

A new Chandra study indicates the existence of a population of black holes that is consuming extremely large amounts of material:

More:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2015/3quasars/

Cosimo · 6 May 2015 at 06:24

Cosimo · 6 May 2015 at 08:06

A new record as astronomers have discovered and measure the farthest galaxy from earth, EGS-zs8-1. Measured by MOSFIRE instrument on the W.M. Keck Observatory’s 10 meter telescope in Hawaii it comes out as 13.1 billion light years from Earth:

The farthest confirmed galaxy to date, EGS-zs8-1, imaged here by the Hubble Space Telescope. New measurements taken at the W. M. Keck Observatory show that the galaxy lies about 13.1 billion light years from Earth.
Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Oesch and I. Momcheva (Yale University0), and the 3D-HST and HUDF09/XDF teams.

More:

http://news.yale.edu/2015/05/05/astronomers-unveil-farthest-galaxy

Cosimo · 7 May 2015 at 06:11

SDO captures an extremely intense solar flare:

The sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 6:11 pm EDT on May 5, 2015. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

This flare is classified as an X2.7-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.

valkynaz · 8 May 2015 at 01:19

I've thought of a wonderful idea but I have no clue how much it would cost.

There is a picture of the Pillars of Creation in super HD (roughly 7000x7000 pixels or 90"x90") and I was thinking of getting a canvas print of said picture. All of the canvas printing websites I have come across generally only print in predetermined sizes.

Anyone have any clue where I could get something like this done?

Glaucus · 11 May 2015 at 22:36

I did not know that. It rotates on it's side.

Cosimo · 14 May 2015 at 14:54

For the first time, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has photographed Kerberos and Styx – the smallest and faintest of Pluto’s five known moons. Following the spacecraft’s detection of Pluto’s giant moon Charon in July 2013, and Pluto’s smaller moons Hydra and Nix in July 2014 and January 2015, respectively, New Horizons is now within sight of all the known members of the Pluto system:

Animated image:

More:

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-spots-pluto-s-faintest-known-moons

Cosimo · 14 May 2015 at 17:50

The seven astronauts who were the last humans ever to visit, repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope talk about their experiences:

Cosimo · 15 May 2015 at 06:32

Seventy days worth of solar system observations from NASA's Kepler spacecraft show the planet Neptune appearing on day 15, followed by its moon Triton. Neptune's tiny moon Nereid can be seen at day 24.

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