*** The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread ***

The 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.
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Recently bought my first scope (Skywatch 127 Mak) and ever since it's been cloudy every single night. :rolleyes:

Hopefully get a chance to use it this year!
On SGL too btw. :)
 
If only we could chip in each year to buy one awesome scope for the town/village/city then use it all together one/some nights, that would be awesome, just to stare up at the stars, they could also turn off the lights at a pre determined time.
One can but dream.
 
NASA Camera Catches Moon 'Photobombing' Earth...



On July 5, 2016, the moon passed between NOAA's DSCOVR satellite and Earth. NASA's EPIC camera aboard DSCOVR snapped these images over a period of about four hours. In this set, the far side of the moon, which is never seen from Earth, passes by. In the backdrop, Earth rotates, starting with the Australia and Pacific and gradually revealing Asia and Africa.
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What would a landing on Pluto be like:


Imagine a future spacecraft following New Horizons’ trailblazing path to Pluto, but instead of flying past its target, the next visitor touches down in the midst of tall mountains on the icy plains of Pluto’s heart.

There’s no need to wait for that fantasy trip, thanks to new video produced by New Horizons scientists. Made from more than 100 New Horizons images taken over six weeks of approach and close flyby, the video offers a “trip” to Pluto. It starts with a distant spacecraft’s view of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon – closing the distance day by day – with a dramatic “landing” on the shoreline of Pluto’s frozen plains.

“Just over a year ago, Pluto was just a dot in the distance,” said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “This video shows what it would be like to ride aboard an approaching spacecraft and see Pluto grow to become a world, and then to swoop down over its spectacular terrains as if we were approaching some future landing.”
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Our Stargate 18" 450P was returned to the supplier and a credit/refund was given. My father has decided to get the 16" GOTO Skywatcher. A far better scope for him to use having the GOTO function. I would have give him my 22" GOTO but I fear at his age falling off a ladder onto the cold hard ground in the winter wouldn't end well.
 
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on a mission explore to near-Earth asteroid Bennu:


Bennu is a carbon-rich body that may contain clues to the origins of life. OSIRIS-REx is equipped with a suite of technologies designed to map and study Bennu in unprecedented detail. The OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer, or OVIRS, will look at the asteroid's spectral signature to detect organics and other minerals. After OSIRIS-REx has thoroughly surveyed Bennu from orbit, will descend to the surface and collect a sample of the asteroid for return to Earth in 2023
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Eyes on the Skies

Great movie which explores the many facets of the telescope:


This was released as part of the International Astronomical Union's celebration of the 400th anniversary of the telescope. It was released with a book (Eyes on the Skies: 400 Years of Telescopic Discovery) in 2008.
 
The lack of giant impact craters on Ceres has been puzzling. Scientists have expected to observe more large craters on the dwarf planet than have been found by the Dawn mission:

 
Welcome to the newly discovered exotic binary star AR Scorpii. In this unique double star a rapidly spinning white dwarf star powers electrons up to almost the speed of light. These high energy particles release blasts of radiation that lash the companion red dwarf star and cause the entire system to pulse dramatically every 1.97 minutes with radiation ranging from the ultraviolet to radio.

Artist's impression:


Zoom into:


More:

https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1616/
 
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