← Cycle · Space · Time Hubble mosaic of the majestic Sombrero Galaxy NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has trained its razor-sharp eye on one of the universe's most stately and photogenic galaxies, the Sombrero galaxy, Messier 104 (M104). The galaxy's hallmark is a brilliant white, bulbous core encircled by the thick dust lanes comprising the spiral structure of the galaxy. As seen from Earth, the galaxy is tilted nearly edge-on. We view it from just six degrees north of its equatorial plane. This brilliant galaxy was named the Sombrero because of its resemblance to the broad rim and high-topped Mexican hat. At a relatively bright magnitude of +8, M104 is just beyond the limit of naked-eye visibility and is easily seen through small telescopes. The Sombrero lies at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies and is one of the most massive objects in that group, equivalent to 800 billion suns. The galaxy is 50,000 light-years across and is located 30 million light-years from Earth. NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Sombrero galaxy (MIRI) The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring. The mid-infrared light highlights the gas and dust that are part of star formation taking place among the Sombrero galaxy’s outer disk. The rings of the Sombrero galaxy produce less than one solar mass of stars per year, in comparison to the Milky Way’s roughly two solar masses a year. It’s not a particular hotbed of star formation. The Sombrero galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Spirals and supernovae This stunning image from Hubble shows the majestic galaxy NGC 1015, found nestled within the constellation of Cetus (The Whale) 118 million light-years from Earth. In this image, we see NGC 1015 face-on, with its beautifully symmetrical swirling arms and bright central bulge creating a scene akin to a sparkling Catherine wheel firework. NGC 1015 has a bright, fairly large centre and smooth, tightly wound spiral arms and a central “bar” of gas and stars. This shape leads NGC 1015 to be classified as a barred spiral galaxy — just like our home, the Milky Way. Bars are found in around two-thirds of all spiral galaxies, and the arms of this galaxy swirl outwards from a pale yellow ring encircling the bar itself. Scientists believe that any hungry black holes lurking at the centre of barred spirals funnel gas and energy from the outer arms into the core via these glowing bars, feeding the black hole, fueling star birth at the centre and building up the galaxy’s central bulge. In 2009, a Type Ia supernova named SN 2009ig was spotted in NGC 1015 — one of the bright dots to the upper right of the galaxy’s centre. These types of supernovae are extremely important: they are all caused by exploding white dwarfs which have companion stars, and always peak at the same brightness — 5 billion times brighter than the Sun. Knowing the true brightness of these events, and comparing this with their apparent brightness, gives astronomers a unique chance to measure distances in the Universe. ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess (STScl/JHU) A poster-size image of the beautiful barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 One of the largest Hubble Space Telescope images ever made of a complete galaxy is being unveiled today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in San Diego, Calif. The Hubble telescope captured a display of starlight, glowing gas, and silhouetted dark clouds of interstellar dust in this 4-foot-by-8-foot image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300. NGC 1300 is considered to be prototypical of barred spiral galaxies. Barred spirals differ from normal spiral galaxies in that the arms of the galaxy do not spiral all the way into the center, but are connected to the two ends of a straight bar of stars containing the nucleus at its center. NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Hubble image of NGC 7714 NGC 7714 is a spiral galaxy 100 million light-years from Earth — a relatively close neighbour in cosmic terms. The galaxy has witnessed some violent and dramatic events in its recent past. Tell-tale signs of this brutality can be seen in NGC 7714's strangely shaped arms, and in the smoky golden haze that stretches out from the galactic centre — caused by an ongoing merger with its smaller galactic companion NGC 7715, which is out of the frame of this image. ESA, NASA Acknowledgement: A. Gal-Yam (Weizmann Institute of Science) Hubble spies cosmic dust bunnies Like dust bunnies that lurk in corners and under beds, surprisingly complex loops and blobs of cosmic dust lie hidden in the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1316. This image made from data obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals the dust lanes and star clusters of this giant galaxy that give evidence that it was formed from a past merger of two gas-rich galaxies. NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Abell 2218 The picture shows Abell 2218, a rich galaxy cluster composed of thousands of individual galaxies. It sits about 2.1 billion light-years from the Earth (redshift 0.17) in the northern constellation of Draco. When used by astronomers as a powerful gravitational lens to magnify distant galaxies, the cluster allows them to peer far into the Universe. However, it not only magnifies the images of hidden galaxies, but also distorts them into long, thin arcs. Several arcs in the image can be studied in detail thanks to Hubble's sharp vision. Multiple distorted images of the same galaxies can be identified by comparing the shape of the galaxies and their colour. In addition to the giant arcs, many smaller arclets have been identified. NASA, ESA, and Johan Richard (Caltech, USA)Acknowledgement: Davide de Martin & James Long (ESA/Hubble) Tapestry of Blazing Starbirth This image is one of the most photogenic examples of the many turbulent stellar nurseries the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed during its 30-year lifetime. The portrait features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020 which together form part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, approximately 163 000 light-years away. NASA, ESA, and STScI Saturn Approach - Full Disk NASA's Voyager 1 took this photograph of Saturn on Oct. 18, 1980, 34 million kilometers (21.1 million miles) from the planet. The photograph was taken on the last day that Saturn and its rings could be captured within a single narrow-angle camera frame as the spacecraft closed in on the planet for its nearest approach on Nov. 12. Dione, one of Saturn's inner satellites, appears as three color spots just below the planet's south pole. An abundance of previously unseen detail is apparent in the rings. For example, a gap in the dark, innermost ring, called the C-ring or crepe ring, is clearly shown. Material is seen within the relatively wide Cassini Division, separating the middle, B-ring from the outermost ring, the A-ring. The Encke Division is shown near the outer edge of the A-ring. The detail in the rings' shadows cast on the planet is of particular interest: the broad, dark band near the equator is the shadow of the B-ring; the thinner, brighter line is just to the south of the shadow of the less dense A-ring. The Voyager Project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. NASA/JPL Saturn's Icy Realm Three of Saturn's icy moons are seen here, along with the magnificent water-ice rings and the cold gaseous envelope of the planet's atmosphere. Saturn's dark shadow stretches completely across the rings. At nine and a half times farther from the Sun than Earth, Saturn inhabits the deep cold of the outer solar system. The Sun appears only 1 percent as bright there as it appears at Earth, creating an environment where ice dominates over rock. The icy Moons visible here, from left to right are: Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles, across), Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles, across), and Epimetheus (116 kilometers, or 72 miles, across). The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on June 1, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 139 kilometers (86 miles) per pixel. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Jupiter This crescent view of Jupiter was taken by NASA Voyager 1 on Mar. 24, 1979. NASA/JPL String of Moons? Three of Saturn's moons appear almost like a string of pearls in this Cassini image, but looks are deceiving. Moons visible in this image: Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) at right, Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) near center and Janus (181 kilometers, or 113 miles across) in the lower left corner. Mimas' orbit inclination of 1.6 degrees relative to Saturn's equator is enough to make it appear as if it orbits just beyond the F ring when viewed from this vantage point of 5 degrees below the rings. In fact, it is 34,000 kilometers (21,000 miles) more distant than Janus. Contrast in the image was enhanced to make visible the faces of moons lit by reflected light from Saturn (their left sides). Notable here is the irregular shape of Janus, compared with larger, spherical Mimas. The bright B ring (at upper left) appears overexposed due to the extreme contrast enhancement. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 22, 2005, at a distance of approximately 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Hubble Celebrates its 31st anniversary with a magnificent view of AG Carinae In celebration of the 31st anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers aimed the celebrated observatory at one of the brightest stars seen in our galaxy to capture its beauty. The giant star featured in this latest Hubble Space Telescope anniversary image is waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self-destruction. The star, called AG Carinae, is surrounded by an expanding shell of gas and dust. The nebula is about five light-years wide, which equals the distance from here to our nearest star, Alpha Centauri. NASA, ESA and STScI The Twin Jet Nebula The Twin Jet Nebula, or PN M2-9, is a striking example of a bipolar planetary nebula. Bipolar planetary nebulae are formed when the central object is not a single star, but a binary system, Studies have shown that the nebula’s size increases with time, and measurements of this rate of increase suggest that the stellar outburst that formed the lobes occurred just 1200 years ago. ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt Eye in the Sky This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features NGC4826 — a spiral galaxy located 17 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). This galaxy is often referred to as the “Black Eye”, or “Evil Eye”, galaxy because of the dark band of dust that sweeps across one side of its bright nucleus. NGC4826 is known by astronomers for its strange internal motion. The gas in the outer regions of this galaxy and the gas in its inner regions are rotating in opposite directions, which might be related to a recent merger. New stars are forming in the region where the counter rotating gases collide. This galaxy was first discovered in 1779 by the English astronomer Edward Pigott. ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST TeamAcknowledgement: Judy Schmidt The magnificent starburst galaxy Messier 82 This mosaic image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82) is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82. It is a galaxy remarkable for its webs of shredded clouds and flame-like plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out from its central regions where young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside in our Milky Way Galaxy. NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin), M. Mountain (STScI) and P. Puxley (NSF). Galactic wreckage in Stephan's Quintet A clash among members of a famous galaxy quintet reveals an assortment of stars across a wide colour range, from young, blue stars to aging, red stars. This portrait of Stephan's Quintet, also known as the Hickson Compact Group 92, was taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Stephan's Quintet, as the name implies, is a group of five galaxies. The name, however, is a bit of a misnomer. Studies have shown that group member NGC 7320, at upper left, is actually a foreground galaxy that is about seven times closer to Earth than the rest of the group. Three of the galaxies have distorted shapes, elongated spiral arms, and long, gaseous tidal tails containing myriad star clusters, proof of their close encounters. These interactions have sparked a frenzy of star birth in the central pair of galaxies. This drama is being played out against a rich backdrop of faraway galaxies. The image, taken in visible and near-infrared light, showcases WFC3's broad wavelength range. The colours trace the ages of the stellar populations, showing that star birth occurred at different epochs, stretching over hundreds of millions of years. The camera's infrared vision also peers through curtains of dust to see groupings of stars that cannot be seen in visible light. NGC 7319, at top right, is a barred spiral with distinct spiral arms that follow nearly 180 degrees back to the bar. The blue specks in the spiral arm at the top of NGC 7319 and the red dots just above and to the right of the core are clusters of many thousands of stars. Most of the Quintet is too far away even for Hubble to resolve individual stars. Continuing clockwise, the next galaxy appears to have two cores, but it is actually two galaxies, NGC 7318A and NGC 7318B. Encircling the galaxies are young, bright blue star clusters and pinkish clouds of glowing hydrogen where infant stars are being born. These stars are less than 10 million years old and have not yet blown away their natal cloud. Far away from the galaxies, at right, is a patch of intergalactic space where many star clusters are forming. NGC 7317, at bottom left, is a normal-looking elliptical galaxy that is less affected by the interactions. Sharply contrasting with these galaxies is the dwarf galaxy NGC 7320 at upper left. Bursts of star formation are occurring in the galaxy's disc, as seen by the blue and pink dots. In this galaxy, Hubble can resolve individual stars, evidence that NGC 7320 is closer to Earth. NGC 7320 is 40 million light-years from Earth. The other members of the Quintet reside about 300 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. These more distant members are markedly redder than the foreground galaxy, suggesting that older stars reside in their cores. The stars' light also may be further reddened by dust stirred up in the encounters. Spied by Edouard M. Stephan in 1877, Stephan's Quintet is the first compact group ever discovered. WFC3 observed the Quintet in July and August 2009. The composite image was made by using filters that isolate light from the blue, green and infrared portions of the spectrum, as well as emission from ionised hydrogen. These Hubble observations are part of the Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Early Release Observations. NASA astronauts installed the WFC3 camera during a servicing mission in May to upgrade and repair the 19-year-old Hubble telescope. NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team No tricks, just treats This month, Webb presents a spectacular treat… for the eyes. The barred spiral galaxy M83 is revealed in detail by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. M83, which is also known as NGC 5236, was observed by Webb as part of a series of observations collectively titled Feedback in Emerging extrAgalactic Star clusTers, or FEAST. Another target of the FEAST observations, M51, was the subject of a previous Webb Picture of the Month. As with all six galaxies that comprise the FEAST sample, M83 and M51 were observed with both NIRCam and MIRI, two of the four instruments that are mounted on Webb. MIRI, or the Mid-InfraRed Instrument, makes observations in the mid-infrared, which spans wavelengths of light very different from optical wavelengths. Optical wavelengths in astronomy roughly correspond to the range of light waves that human eyes are sensitive to, and extend from about 0.38 to 0.75 micrometres (a micrometre, or micron, is one thousandth of a millimetre). By contrast, MIRI detects light from 5 to 28 micrometres — however, when it makes observations, it does not typically observe across this entire wavelength range all at once. Instead, MIRI has a set of ten filters that allow very specific regions of light through. For example, one of MIRI’s filters (dubbed F770W), allows light with wavelengths of 6.581 to 8.687 micrometres to pass through it. This image was compiled using data collected through just two of MIRI’s ten filters, near the short end of the instrument’s wavelength range. The result is this extraordinarily detailed image, with its creeping tendrils of gas, dust and stars. In this image, the bright blue shows the distribution of stars across the central part of the galaxy. The bright yellow regions that weave through the spiral arms indicate concentrations of active stellar nurseries, where new stars are forming. The orange-red areas indicate the distribution of a type of carbon-based compound known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAHs) — the F770W filter, one of the two used here, is particularly suited to imaging these important molecules. ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team Jewelled ring This new ESA/Webb Picture of the Month features the gravitational lensing of the quasar known as RX J1131-1231, located roughly 6 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Crater. It is considered one of the best lensed quasars discovered to date, as the foreground galaxy smears the image of the background quasar into a bright arc and creates four images of the object. Gravitational lensing, first predicted by Einstein, offers a rare opportunity to study regions close to the black hole in distant quasars, by acting as a natural telescope and magnifying the light from these sources. All matter in the Universe warps the space around itself, with larger masses producing a more pronounced effect. Around very massive objects, such as galaxies, light that passes close by follows this warped space, appearing to bend away from its original path by a clearly visible amount. One of the consequential effects of gravitational lensing is that it can magnify distant astronomical objects, letting astronomers study objects that would otherwise be too faint or far away. Measurements of the X-ray emission from quasars can provide an indication of how fast the central black hole is spinning, which can provide researchers important clues about how black holes grow over time. For example, if a black hole grows primarily from collisions and mergers between galaxies, it should accumulate material in a stable disc, and the steady supply of new material from the disc should lead to a rapidly spinning black hole. On the other hand, if the black hole grew through many small accretion episodes, it would accumulate material from random directions. Observations have indicated that the black hole in this particular quasar is spinning at over half the speed of light, which suggests that this black hole has grown via mergers, rather than pulling material in from different directions. This image was captured with Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) as part of an observation programme to study dark matter. Dark matter is an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the Universe's mass. Webb’s observations of quasars are allowing astronomers to probe the nature of dark matter at smaller scales than ever before. ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Nierenberg Galaxy playing twister The Hubble telescope has captured an image of an unusual edge-on galaxy, revealing remarkable details of its warped dusty disk and showing how colliding galaxies spawn the formation of new generations of stars. The dust and spiral arms of normal spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, appear flat when viewed edge-on. This Hubble Heritage image of ESO 510-G13 shows a galaxy that, by contrast, has an unusual twisted disk structure, first seen in ground-based photographs. NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Lion Nebula (NIRCam + MIRI image) The James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged planetary nebula NGC 2392, which is nicknamed the Lion Nebula due to its distinct shape. This near- and mid-infrared composite image reveals the complex structure of the nebula, which has formed and continues to be sculpted by the remains of a dying star. The stellar core, also known as a white dwarf, is located at the centre and looks like the button nose of the lion. The central dying star is so hot that its radiation is “cooking” everything from the inside and producing a bubble of ionized hydrogen gas as it does. The gas bubble, which is the lion’s “face,” features cavernous shells and rings with tendrils that are expanding and destroying dust upon encounter. However, not all dust is obliterated from the scene. The lion’s mane is the interior of a dust shell that is being illuminated by the central star’s core. Within the mane some compact clumps of dust (red and orange) have managed to survive so far and are protecting the material that lies behind them. Additional clumps of molecular hydrogen appear yellow. The Lion Nebula is a snapshot in time. It’s taken several thousand years for the gas and dust to be shaped in this way, and it continues to change as the star drives away the material. Astronomers estimate NGC 2392 will eventually disperse in about 10,000 years, which is a relatively short period in astronomical terms. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI). Spying a spiral through a cosmic lens This new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features a rare cosmic phenomenon called an Einstein ring. What at first appears to be a single, strangely shaped galaxy is actually two galaxies that are separated by a large distance. The closer foreground galaxy sits at the center of the image, while the more distant background galaxy appears to be wrapped around the closer galaxy, forming a ring. Einstein rings occur when light from a very distant object is bent (or ‘lensed’) about a massive intermediate (or ‘lensing’) object. This is possible because spacetime, the fabric of the Universe itself, is bent by mass, and therefore light travelling through space and time is bent as well. This effect is much too subtle to be observed on a local level, but it sometimes becomes clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales, such as when the light from one galaxy is bent around another galaxy or galaxy cluster. When the lensed object and the lensing object line up just so, the result is the distinctive Einstein ring shape, which appears as a full circle (as seen here) or a partial circle of light around the lensing object, depending on the precision of the alignment. Objects like these are the ideal laboratory in which to research galaxies too faint and distant to otherwise see. The lensing galaxy at the center of this Einstein ring is an elliptical galaxy, as can be seen from the galaxy’s bright core and smooth, featureless body. This galaxy belongs to a galaxy cluster named SMACSJ0028.2-7537. The lensed galaxy wrapped around the elliptical galaxy is a spiral galaxy. Even though its image has been warped as its light travelled around the galaxy in its path, individual star clusters and gas structures are clearly visible. The Webb data used in this image were taken as part of the Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) survey (programme 5594), which is led by Guillaume Mahler at University of Liège in Belgium, and consists of a team of international astronomers. This survey aims to trace 8 billion years of galaxy cluster evolution by targeting 182 galaxy clusters with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera instrument. This image also incorporates data from two of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s instruments, the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. MahlerAcknowledgement: M. A. McDonald Webb Inspects the Heart of the Phantom Galaxy This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows the heart of M74, otherwise known as the Phantom Galaxy. Webb’s sharp vision has revealed delicate filaments of gas and dust in the grandiose spiral arms which wind outwards from the centre of this image. A lack of gas in the nuclear region also provides an unobscured view of the nuclear star cluster at the galaxy's centre. M74 is a particular class of spiral galaxy known as a ‘grand design spiral’, meaning that its spiral arms are prominent and well-defined, unlike the patchy and ragged structure seen in some spiral galaxies. The Phantom Galaxy is around 32 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pisces, and lies almost face-on to Earth. This, coupled with its well-defined spiral arms, makes it a favourite target for astronomers studying the origin and structure of galactic spirals. Webb gazed into M74 with its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) in order to learn more about the earliest phases of star formation in the local Universe. These observations are part of a larger effort to chart 19 nearby star-forming galaxies in the infrared by the international PHANGS collaboration. Those galaxies have already been observed using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories. The addition of crystal-clear Webb observations at longer wavelengths will allow astronomers to pinpoint star-forming regions in the galaxies, accurately measure the masses and ages of star clusters, and gain insights into the nature of the small grains of dust drifting in interstellar space.Hubble observations of M74 have revealed particularly bright areas of star formation known as HII regions. Hubble’s sharp vision at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths complements Webb’s unparalleled sensitivity at infrared wavelengths, as do observations from ground-based radio telescopes such as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, ALMA. By combining data from telescopes operating across the electromagnetic spectrum, scientists can gain greater insight into astronomical objects than by using a single observatory — even one as powerful as Webb! ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team. Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt Interacting galaxies Arp 142 (NIRCam and MIRI image) The distorted spiral galaxy at the centre, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at the left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow. The pair, known jointly as Arp 142, made their first pass between 25 and 75 million years ago — causing ‘fireworks’, or new star formation, in the Penguin. In the most extreme cases, mergers can cause galaxies to form thousands of new stars per year for a few million years. For the Penguin, research has shown that about 100 to 200 stars have formed per year. By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy (which is not interacting with a galaxy of the same size) forms roughly six to seven new stars per year. This gravitational shimmy also remade the Penguin’s appearance. Its coiled spiral arms unwound, and gas and dust were pulled in an array of directions, like it was releasing confetti. It is rare for individual stars to collide when galaxies interact (space is vast), but the galaxies’ mingling disrupts their stars’ orbits. Today, the Penguin’s galactic centre looks like an eye set within a head, and the galaxy has prominent star trails that take the shape of a beak, backbone, and fanned-out tail. A faint, but prominent dust lane extends from its beak down to its tail. Despite the Penguin appearing far larger than the Egg, these galaxies have approximately the same mass. This is one reason why the smaller-looking Egg hasn’t yet merged with the Penguin. (If one was less massive, it may have merged earlier.) The oval Egg is filled with old stars, and little gas and dust, which is why it isn’t sending out ‘streamers’ or tidal tails of its own and instead has maintained a compact oval shape. If you look closely, the Egg has four prominent diffraction spikes — the galaxy’s stars are so concentrated that it gleams. Now, find the bright, edge-on galaxy at top right. It may look like a party crasher, but it’s not nearby. Cataloged PGC 1237172, it lies 100 million light-years closer to Earth. It is relatively young and isn’t overflowing with dust, which is why it practically disappears in Webb’s mid-infrared view. The background of this image is overflowing with far more distant galaxies. This is a testament to the sensitivity and resolution of Webb’s infrared cameras. Arp 142 lies 326 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Pluto in True Color Four images from NASA's New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to create this global view of Pluto. The images, taken when the spacecraft was 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometers) away, show features as small as 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers) NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute Two Coronal Holes on the Sun Viewed by SDO NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, captured this solar image on March 16, 2015, which clearly shows two dark patches, known as coronal holes. The larger coronal hole of the two, near the southern pole, covers an estimated 6- to 8-percent of the total solar surface. While that may not sound significant, it is one of the largest polar holes scientists have observed in decades. The smaller coronal hole, towards the opposite pole, is long and narrow. It covers about 3.8 billion square miles on the sun - only about 0.16-percent of the solar surface. Coronal holes are lower density and temperature regions of the sun’s outer atmosphere, known as the corona. Coronal holes can be a source of fast solar wind of solar particles that envelop the Earth. The magnetic field in these regions extends far out into space rather than quickly looping back into the sun’s surface. Magnetic fields that loop up and back down to the surface can be seen as arcs in non-coronal hole regions of the image, including over the lower right horizon. NASA (GSFC) ×
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