The Gamma Cygni Nebula Image Credit: Min Xie, Chen Wu, Yizhou Zhang, And Benchu Tang

Hubble Sees a Galactic Sunflower

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)

Destination Earth. First light on the shore of Lake Michigan in Racine, Wisconsin.

2022 May 29

Simulation TNG50: A Galaxy Cluster Forms Video Credit: IllustrisTNG Project; Visualization: Dylan Nelson (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics) et al. Music: Symphony No. 5 (Ludwig van Beethoven), via YouTube Audio Library

Explanation: How do clusters of galaxies form? Since our universe moves too slowly to watch, faster-moving computer simulations are created to help find out. A recent effort is TNG50 from IllustrisTNG, an upgrade of the famous Illustris Simulation. The first part of the featured video tracks cosmic gas (mostly hydrogen) as it evolves into galaxies and galaxy clusters from the early universe to today, with brighter colors marking faster moving gas. As the universe matures, gas falls into gravitational wells, galaxies forms, galaxies spin, galaxies collide and merge, all while black holes form in galaxy centers and expel surrounding gas at high speeds. The second half of the video switches to tracking stars, showing a galaxy cluster coming together complete with tidal tails and stellar streams. The outflow from black holes in TNG50 is surprisingly complex and details are being compared with our real universe. Studying how gas coalesced in the early universe helps humanity better understand how our Earth, Sun, and Solar System originally formed.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220529.html

Our graceful and faithful Moon

Milky Way at Darkan, Western Australia

Nikon d5500 - 50mm + Hoya Red Intensifier filter - ISO 3200 - f/2.5 - Foreground: 8 x 13 seconds - Sky: 21 x 30 seconds - iOptron SkyTracker

Tiny Ellipse

M42, Heart of Orion 

NGC2237, The Rosette Nebula

Galactic center of Milky Way © cosmic_background