This Surreal Timelapse, Landscape, Panorama Spans Predawn, Blue Hour, And Sunrise Skies. Close To The

A “Mão do Deserto”, escultura no Atacama, Chile. Na foto, tentando alcançar a Via Láctea. . “The Hand of the Desert”, a sculpture at Atacama, Chile. In this picture, it tries to reach the Milky Way. . Credit: Kiko Fairbairn @kikofairbairn . #hand #desert #mao #deserto #atacama #atacamadesert #chile #astrophoto #astropicture #astrophotography #astrogram #astrofoto #astrofotografia #galaxy #milkyway #astronomia #astronomy #pictureoftheday #instagood https://www.instagram.com/p/B8zO-E4pKqH/?igshid=m2k5zrtozk40

2020 June 30

Bright Planetary Nebula NGC 7027 from Hubble Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Joel Kastner (RIT) et al.; Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Explanation: What created this unusual planetary nebula? NGC 7027 is one of the smallest, brightest, and most unusually shaped planetary nebulas known. Given its expansion rate, NGC 7027 first started expanding, as visible from Earth, about 600 years ago. For much of its history, the planetary nebula has been expelling shells, as seen in blue in the featured image. In modern times, though, for reasons unknown, it began ejecting gas and dust (seen in red) in specific directions that created a new pattern that seems to have four corners. These shells and patterns have been mapped in impressive detail by recent images from the Wide Field Camera 3 onboard the Hubble Space Telescope. What lies at the nebula’s center is unknown, with one hypothesis holding it to be a close binary star system where one star sheds gas onto an erratic disk orbiting the other star. NGC 7027, about 3,000 light years away, was first discovered in 1878 and can be seen with a standard backyard telescope toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus).

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200630.html

Heart of the Scorpion 

Marian Lake, Fiordlands, New Zealand | dylangehlken_photography

Star cluster NGC 2264, also called the "Christmas tree cluster," is an array of young stars that are between one and five million years old. We know what you're thinking: young?! For a little comparison, the Sun is a middle-aged star about 5 billion years old about 1,000 times older than the stars in this cluster.

This image combines data from Chandra (red, green, and blue) with optical data (green and white) captured by astrophotographer Michael Clow with his telescope in Arizona in November 2024.

X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand

By Smithsonian and NASAChandraXray

Messier 24: Sagittarius Star Cloud ©

Rippling dust and gas lanes are what give the Flaming Star Nebula its name. The orange and purple colors of the nebula are present in different regions and are created by different processes. The bright star AE Aurigae, visible toward the middle of the image to the left, is so hot it is blue, emitting light so energetic it knocks electrons away from surrounding gas. When a proton recaptures an electron, red light is frequently emitted (depicted here in orange). The purple region's color is a mix of this red light and blue light emitted by AE Aurigae but reflected to us by surrounding dust. The two regions are referred to as emission nebula (the orange portion) and reflection nebula (the purple portion).

Pictured here in the Hubble color palette, the Flaming Star Nebula, officially known as IC 405, lies about 1500 light years distant, spans about 5 light years, and is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).



Image Credit & Copyright: Eric Coles and Mel Helm

The Full Moon of 2021 via NASA https://ift.tt/3FWxNTm

Every Full Moon of 2021 shines in this year-spanning astrophoto project, a composite portrait of the familiar lunar nearside at each brightest lunar phase. Arranged by moonth, the year progresses in stripes beginning at the top. Taken with the same camera and lens the stripes are from Full Moon images all combined at the same pixel scale. The stripes still looked mismatched, but they show that the Full Moon’s angular size changes throughout the year depending on its distance from Kolkata, India, planet Earth. The calendar month, a full moon name, distance in kilometers, and angular size is indicated for each stripe. Angular size is given in minutes of arc corresponding to 1/60th of a degree. The largest Full Moon is near a perigee or closest approach in May. The smallest is near an apogee, the most distant Full Moon in December. Of course the full moons of May and November also slid into Earth’s shadow during 2021’s two lunar eclipses.

(Published January 01, 2022)

M104, Sombrero Galaxy