The monsters that live on the Sun are not like us. They are larger than the Earth and made of gas hotter than in any teapot. They have no eyes, but at times, many tentacles. They float. Usually, they slowly change shape and just fade back onto the Sun over about a month. Sometimes, though, they suddenly explode and unleash energetic particles into the Solar System that can attack the Earth. Pictured is a huge solar prominence imaged almost two weeks ago in the light of hydrogen. Captured by a small telescope in Gilbert, Arizona, USA, the monsteresque plume of gas was held aloft by the ever-present but ever-changing magnetic field near the surface of the Sun. Our active Sun continues to show an unusually high number of prominences, filaments, sunspots, and large active regions as solar maximum approaches in 2025.
Over 800 terrestrial exoplanets visualized and arranged according to their equilibrium temperature and size.
chart by u/mVargic
Two spiral galaxies, NGC 6040 and NGC 6039, are merging together at the right side of this Hubble image. NGC 6039 is seen face-on and is circular in shape. NGC 6040 seems to lie in front of the first one. In the lower-left corner, cut off by the frame, the elliptical galaxy NGC 6041 — a central member of the galaxy cluster that Arp 122 resides in — appears as light radiating from a point. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and infrared regions
Eruption of Tvashtar volcano on Jupiter's moon Io (March 1, 2007)
Between the orbit of Jupiter and Saturn lies a small 151Km wide asteroid/minor planet called Chariklo. This left over from our early solar system hasn't been imaged before, and was too small for JWST to image too, however, the JWST team were waiting for an opportunity to do some science.
Because of it's size, the only way they could do this was if a star passed directly behind the asteroid from the location of JWST, so it was put on a watch list, and in October, this is exactly what happened.
This is the first time any telescope has been able to see an object it wouldn't ordinarily be able to image, simply due to a chance occultation, so marks a first and interesting method for looking at some of these far off objects.
The asteroid happens also happens to sport a small ring of debris, and as the star didn't quite make a direct occultation, it did pass through the debris rings, being picked up twice as it passed through.
But what really was impressive was the second bit of data gathered, as the occultation occurred JWST was able to record the composition, detecting water ice.
Up until now, it had been assumed that the asteroid would have a significant water ice component, but this is the first time anybody has been able to take some real data from it.
Objects like Chariklo tell us so much about the early solar system, how Earth got it's water, and what other systems and exoplanets are likely made from.
Messier 45: The Pleiades
Nick Fritz on Instagram
The original Voyager 1 "Blue Movie" which records its approach during a period of over 60 Jupiter days (January 6 - February 3, 1979)
Stars form when bodies of dust and gas create enough mass to create a gravitational effect that's able to then pull in more gas, the process continues and the mass increases until the pressure at the centre is sufficient for fusion to begin.
There's many examples of protostars, in fact back in 2012, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope focused in on L1527 IRS, believed at the time to be the youngest forming star ever found.
Recently, the JWST re-visited this protostar, and the title image was the result.
The forming star cannot be visually spotted, but is thought to be around 20-40% the mass of our own Sun already.
If you look closely, you can see there's a dark patch in the centre, this is actually the accretion disk around the newly formed star, what is left over after the formation, may go on to form the planets, in fact, they may be actually starting to be created already, as recent evidence does point to planets being born around the same time as the star does in many cases.
The protostar is only 450 light years from Earth in the Constellation of Taurus, and is thought to be around 100,000 years old, a blink of an eye in the life of a star, particularly of this mass.
★•Astronomy, Physics, and Aerospace•★ Original and Reblogged Content curated by a NASA Solar System Ambassador
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