Pic of the Week: Galaxy Cluster Abell S1063

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Image (Credit): Galaxy cluster Abell S1063. (ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, H. Atek, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), R. Endsley)

This week’s image comes from the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb). The colorful image shows galaxy cluster Abell S1063 at its center. You can get dizzy if you stare at it too long. You are looking far back in time, which would make anyone dizzy.

Here is a description of what you are seeing:

This behemoth collection of galaxies, lying 4.5 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Grus (the Crane), dominates the scene. Looking more closely, this dense collection of heavy galaxies is surrounded by glowing streaks of light, and these warped arcs are the true object of scientists’ interest: faint galaxies from the Universe’s distant past.

Abell S1063 was previously observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Frontier Fields programme. It is a strong gravitational lens: the galaxy cluster is so massive that the light of distant galaxies aligned behind it is bent around it, creating the warped arcs that we see here. Like a glass lens, it focuses the light from these faraway galaxies. The resulting images, albeit distorted, are both bright and magnified — enough to be observed and studied. This was the aim of Hubble’s observations, using the galaxy cluster as a magnifying glass to investigate the early Universe.

The new imagery from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) takes this quest even further back in time. This image showcases an incredible forest of lensing arcs around Abell S1063, which reveal distorted background galaxies at a range of cosmic distances, along with a multitude of faint galaxies and previously unseen features.

Pic of the Week: Flower Moon from the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Flower Moon captured this month by NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers aboard the International Space Station (ISS) . (NASA/Nichole Ayers)

While it almost looks like the Death Star on the horizon, you are looking at this month’s Flower Moon, as captured by NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers from the ISS.

This month’s Moon was called the “Three-Milkings Month” back in 703 AD, but now it has a Native American name, either the Flower Moon, the Corn Moon, or even the Corn Planting Moon.

You can read more than you would ever want to know about this Moon via this NASA page.

Pic of the Week: Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335

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Image (Credit): Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335 (NASA, ESA, STScI)

This week’s image looks like something ginned up by AI, but it is from the Hubble Space Telescope. Just the number of stray galaxies in the image is amazing.

Here is the description of the image from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hubble page:

Barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 observed by the Hubble Space Telescope takes up the majority of the view. At its center is a milky yellow, flattened oval that extends bottom left to top. Within the oval is a bright central region that looks circular, with the very center the brightest. In the bright central region is what looks like a bar, extending from top left to bottom right. Around this is a thick swath of blue stars speckled with white regions. Multiple arms wrap up and around in a counterclockwise direction, becoming fainter the farther out they are. Both the white core and the spiral arms are intertwined with dark streaks of dust. The background of space is black. Thousands of distant galaxies in an array of colors are speckled throughout.

Pic of the Week: The Eagle Nebula

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Image (Credit): Messier 16, or the Eagle Nebula. (ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll)

This week’s updated image is from the Hubble Space Telescope. It shows the Eagle Nebula in all its glory, located not too far from the Pillars of Creation.

For more on this spectacular image, we turn to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hubble page:

Unfurling along the length of the image is a pillar of cold gas and dust that is 9.5 light-years tall. As enormous as this dusty pillar is, it’s just one small piece of the greater Eagle Nebula, which is also called Messier 16. The name Messier 16 comes from the French astronomer Charles Messier, a comet hunter who compiled a catalogue of deep-sky objects that could be mistaken for comets.

The name Eagle Nebula was inspired by the nebula’s appearance. The edge of this shining nebula is shaped by dark clouds like this one, giving it the appearance of an eagle spreading its wings.

Not too far from the region pictured here are the famous Pillars of Creation, which Hubble has photographed multiple times, with images released in 1995 and 2015.

The heart of the nebula, which is located beyond the edge of this image, is home to a cluster of young stars. These stars have excavated an immense cavity in the centre of the nebula, shaping otherworldly pillars and globules of dusty gas. This particular feature extends like a pointing finger toward the centre of the nebula and the rich young star cluster embedded there.

The Eagle Nebula is one of many nebulae in the Milky Way that are known for their sculpted, dusty clouds. Nebulae take on these fantastic shapes when exposed to powerful radiation and winds from infant stars. Regions with denser gas are more able to withstand the onslaught of radiation and stellar winds from young stars, and these dense areas remain as dusty sculptures like the starry pillar shown here.

Pic of the Week: Happy Birthday Hubble!

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Image (Credit): The Hubble Space Telescope in low-Earth orbit. (NASA)

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. It was launched on April 24, 1990 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. The telescope was expected to have a service life of 35 years, though it is still going strong with various proposals to update the telescope and keep it operating for years to come.

To mark the occasion, NASA put together a video highlighting missions and related images. The celebration will continue throughout the year with new images and other selected items.

Here are a few interesting facts related to the Hubble:

  • Hubble is currently located 326 miles (525 km) above Earth’s surface. If you could drive straight up, you could reach it in about the same time it would take you to drive from Baltimore, Maryland to Boston, Massachusetts. 
  • Hubble races through its orbit at about 17,000 miles per hour (27,000 kph), completing an orbit about every 95 minutes. That means it sees 15 sunrises every day.
  • While Hubble is speeding around Earth, it can lock onto a target without deviating more than 7/1000th of an arcsecond, or about the width of a human hair seen at a distance of one mile.
Image (Credit): Hubble 35th Anniversary Graphic. (NASA)