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Along Came a Spider
Image courtesy NASA, ESA
A "stunning" closeup released this week shows part of the Tarantula Nebula, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The star-forming region of ionized hydrogen gas sits in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The cloud hosts many extreme cosmic phenomena, including supernova remnants, according to the European Space Agency.
(Related: "Hubble Telescope Catches Superfast Runaway Star.")
Published March 19, 2011
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Stormy Sun
Image courtesy SDO/NASA
The sun seems to come alive with arcing loops that show magnetic field lines interacting above its surface.
The extreme-ultraviolet image, taken in early March by the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, captured "quite a dynamic display, and [is] further evidence that the sun is really coming out of its long solar minimum period of reduced activity," according to the observatory's website.
(Also see "What If the Biggest Solar Storm on Record Happened Today?")
Published March 19, 2011
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Rover on the Edge
Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
The Mars rover Opportunity (noted with indicator arrow) peers over the southeastern rim of Mars's Santa Maria crater in a March 9 image by a camera on the orbiting High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE).
Opportunity has been studying the relatively fresh, 295-foot-wide (90-meter-wide) crater to better understand how it was formed and how weathering and erosion have changed the crater since the impact that caused the depression.
(Also see "Fossils Could Be Found by Next Mars Rover, Study Hints.")
Published March 19, 2011
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Fresh Off the Rocket
NASA/Bill Ingalls
A crew from a Russian Soyuz capsule—including Oleg Skripochka (left), Alexander Kaleri (center), and Scott Kelly—rests minutes after they landed near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, on March 16.
The team completed nearly six months aboard the International Space Station.
(See a recent picture of Earth's atmosphere taken by an astronaut on the space station.)
Published March 19, 2011
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Stars Are Born
Image courtesy ESO
Material ejected by newborn stars collides with surrounding gas and dust clouds to create a "surreal landscape" of glowing arcs, blobs, and streaks, according to the European Southern Observatory.
The image, captured by the observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile and released March 16, offers a closeup view of the dramatic effects caused by baby stars in region NGC 6729—one of the stellar nurseries closest to Earth.
(Related: "Glowing, Green Space Blob Forming New Stars, Hubble Shows.")
Published March 19, 2011
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Japan Earthquake Before and After
German Aerospace Center (DLR), G
The eastern city of Torinoumi, Japan, is pictured on September 5, 2010, (left) and on March 12, a day after the magnitude 9 Japan earthquake and tsunami.
The German Optical RapidEye and TerraSAR-X satellites took the images, which are among more than 63 satellite observations made in the 48 hours following the disastrous earthquake, MSNBC reported.
(Also see "Japan Tsunami, Before & After: Zoomable Satellite Images.")
Published March 19, 2011
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Galaxies Far, Far Away
Image courtesy ESA/ESO/Subaru/R. Gobat et al.
The oldest and most distant galaxy cluster (pictured in a composite satellite and x-ray image) has been discovered, the European Space Agency announced on March 9.
Unlike other structures observed in the early universe, galaxy cluster CL J1449 0856 is already in its prime, which is clear from the cluster's widely distributed x-ray emissions and evolved population of galaxies, according to the ESA's website.
(See "Earliest Known Galaxies Spied in Deep Hubble Picture.")
Published March 19, 2011
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