Space Pictures This Week: Woolly Galaxy, Solar Flare, Shuttle

Superfluid Star

Image courtesy Chandra X-ray Observatory Center/NASA

Combined x-ray and optical data lend a kaleidoscope of colors to the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A in a picture released to illustrate a new study of the famous object.

At the heart of Cas A is a neutron star (inset illustration), the ultradense core of a massive star that exploded. The new study, conducted with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, found that a strange form of matter called a superfluid exists inside the neutron star.

Published February 24, 2011

Sea Ice Swirls

Image courtesy EO-1/NASA

Eddies of silvery sea ice drape around the snow-covered island of Shikotan, part of the Kuril chain (map) that stretches from northern Japan to Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.

Shikotan lies along the southernmost border of winter sea ice cover in the Northern Hemisphere. Seen by NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite on February 14, this sea ice likely formed quickly—within a matter of days—and was sculpted by opposing winds flowing around the small volcanic island.

Published February 24, 2011

Shuttle Shielding

Photograph by Jack Pfaller, NASA

A technician installs a heat-shield tile to the underbelly of the space shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February 17. (See more space shuttle Atlantis pictures.)

While most eyes are on the launch of Discovery this week, NASA employees are busy preparing for the final two shuttle missions before the fleet of U.S. orbiters is retired later this year. After Discovery, the space shuttle Endeavour is slated to lift off in April.

Although still awaiting final funding approval from Congress, NASA is moving forward with the STS-135 mission, which will likely see Atlantis make the very last shuttle trip to the International Space Station in June.

Published February 24, 2011

Diamond Sun

Image courtesy SDO/SOHO/NASA

The sun becomes a chocolate diamond swathed in red satin in a combined picture of the star's churning surface and its upper atmosphere, or corona, during a huge solar flare that erupted on February 15. (See pictures of auroras generated by a February 14 solar flare.)

NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory uses a device called a coronagraph to block out the main body of the sun so scientists can see the faint corona. The Solar Dynamics Observatory, meanwhile, looks at activity on the sun itself in multiple wavelengths.

Dropping an SDO picture into the "hole" normally left in a SOHO coronagraph image allows scientists to see how the two parts of the sun interact.

Published February 24, 2011

Dark Slides on the Moon

Image courtesy ASU/NASA

Landslides of dark material flow down the northern flank of the moon's Diophantus Crater in a newly released picture taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The darker region at the top of the image is the flat surface of the plains surrounding the crater, which angles away from the camera. The lunar surface appears to become brighter as the wall of the crater slopes downward and reflects light directly toward LRO.

Even in this brighter region, though, pitch-black material seems to ooze from random points along the crater wall. Different minerals reflect light in different ways, and NASA scientists suspect these odd deposits may be traces of volcanic debris from ancient, explosive eruptions.

Published February 24, 2011

Thin Gray Line

Image courtesy NASA

Seen edge-on by NASA's Cassini orbiter, the rings of Saturn trace an incredibly thin line against the massive gas giant planet. But the picture, taken in January and released this week, also reveals the rings' true nature: The wide bands of icy particles cast broad shadows on the planet's southern hemisphere.

In 2009 Saturn was at equinox, when the sun was shining edge-on to the ring plane. During this time the rings didn't cast such shadows, and they seemed to vanish when viewed edge-on. (Related blog entry: "Saturn's Equinox Arrives.")

Published February 24, 2011