Space Photos This Week: Toxic Sludge, Sun Burp, More

Hungary's Toxic Sludge Spill

Image courtesy EO-1/NASA via Earth Observatory

A river of rust-colored toxic sludge meanders through the Hungarian towns of Kolontar and Devecser in a satellite picture taken October 9. Five days earlier the wall of a reservoir (lower right) at a nearby alumina plant collapsed, releasing a torrent of waste down a local stream. (See more pictures of Hungary's toxic sludge spill.)

This wide-area view from NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite shows the spill stretching several miles to the west. Environmentalists warn that heavy metals in the sludge could soak into the ground and be absorbed by plants, causing lingering effects for decades.

(Related: "Toxic Mud Spill Latest Insult to Polluted Danube River.")

Published October 13, 2010

Solar Belch

Image courtesy SDO/NASA

A ribbon of plasma, or charged gas, rises off the sun and gets expelled into space in a series of pictures taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) on September 15. The highly detailed shots, taken in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths, were featured online last week by the SDO team.

The ribbon is what's called a solar prominence, a band of cooler gas that gets suspended above the sun by magnetic forces. The often unstable magnetism can then release such prominences as solar eruptions.

Published October 13, 2010

Up and Away

Photograph courtesy Carla Cioffi, NASA

A Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 8 carrying Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka, as well as NASA astronaut Scott J. Kelly, to the International Space Station (ISS). The three crew members will spend five months aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The February voyage of the space shuttle Endeavour is currently the final shuttle launch planned for the U.S. When Endeavour's crew reaches the ISS, flight commander Mark E. Kelly will make NASA history by joining his twin brother Scott in space, CNN reports.

Published October 13, 2010

Feeding Time

Image courtesy L. Calçada, ESO

Cold gas streams into the central, star-forming region of a spiral galaxy in an artist's rendering released October 13.

A study in this week's issue of the journal Nature found chemical signatures in three very distant—and thus very old—galaxies opposite to the chemicals found in modern galaxies. The results back up theories that intense star formation in the early universe was driven by influxes of primordial gases that were low in elements heavier than helium.

Published October 13, 2010

Pyramid of Venus

Photograph by Tunc Tezel, TWAN

The path of Venus seems to stitch together the sky over Bolu, Turkey, in a recently released composite picture spanning seven months. The interval between each frame ranges from 4 to 11 days.

Because it orbits closer to the sun, Venus overtakes Earth every 584 days. This means that, over time, the bright planet changes from the "evening star," visible after sunset, to the "morning star," visible before sunrise.

Published October 13, 2010

Smothered Supernova

Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt

A shroud of thick dust partially muffles a supernova in an artist's rendering released October 12. The image is based on data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which spotted an odd object during a survey of active supermassive black holes at the hearts of some galaxies.

Such black holes, known as active galactic nuclei, radiate lots of heat, and astronomers wanted to know how much this heat fluctuates over time. But one heat source with an unusual light signature flared up for just over six months, then mostly faded away—a sign that the signal is most likely coming from an exploding star.

The scientists calculate that the object was a massive star that belched out dust as it neared the end of its life. This dust formed a shell around the star and later smothered the eventual explosion, absorbing light energy and emitting it as heat.

Published October 13, 2010