Space Pictures This Week: Hubble Galaxy, Poet Nebula, More

Milky Way Mirror

Image courtesy ESA/NASA

A new picture from the Hubble Space Telescope offers a possible reflection of our own Milky Way galaxy: a face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1037. This galaxy, found in the constellation Cetus, the Sea Monster, is probably what the Milky Way would look like if we could see it from the outside.

Like NGC 1037, our galaxy also has a bar-like structure crammed with stars running through its center. Such bars are thought to form as gases are funneled toward the galactic center, supplying plenty of material to create new stars.

Published February 3, 2012

Martian Diversity

Image courtesy U. Arizona/NASA

Mars's Toro Crater comes alive with color in a newly released picture from the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The color-enhanced image highlights mineral diversity on the crater floor. Blues and greens indicate substances such as pyroxene and olivine, while warmer tones show clays and other materials. Long yellow lines cutting through the frame are dunes that are younger than the surrounding bedrock.

Published February 3, 2012

Hovering Parent

Image courtesy Caltech/SSI/NASA

Saturn seems to peek in on its icy moon Dione in a newly released picture from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Dione was one of four Saturnian moons discovered by astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1684. The heavily cratered body is 698 miles (1,123 kilometers) wide, making it the 15th largest moon in the solar system.

Published February 3, 2012

Volcanic Plains

Image courtesy G. Neukum, F.U. Berlin/DLR/ESA

A new picture from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter shows windswept craters in Syrtis Major, a large volcanic plain near the red planet's equator.

From Earth, the roughly 800-by-930-mile (1,300-by-1,500-kilometer) plain is easily identified through backyard telescopes as a distinct dark spot. In the 1600s Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens used changes in the position of Syrtis Major as Mars rotated to estimate the length of a Martian day.

Now, this and other color-enhanced closeups are allowing astronomers to study the region's features, such as mesas, lava-filled craters, and sickle-shaped dunes.

Published February 3, 2012

Balancing Act

Image courtesy NASA/NOAA/CERES

Vibrant swirls represent the amount of energy Earth is releasing into space in a "first light" picture from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument on NASA's Suomi NPP satellite.

The bright yellow areas are the hottest and are emitting the most energy out to space, while dark blue regions and white clouds are much cooler and are emitting the least energy.

The CERES instrument, which started collecting science data in late January, is the newest in a line of spacecraft that have been monitoring Earth's energy budget since 1984. A continuous record of comparable data will help researchers understand how Earth's climate is changing in response to human activities and natural processes.

Published February 3, 2012

Poetic Nebula

Image courtesy ESO

The star-forming region known as NGC 3324 glows red in a newly released picture from the European Southern Observatory in Chile.

Intense radiation from hot young stars inside the nebula not only causes surrounding the gas to glow but has also carved out a distinctive hollow in the giant space cloud.

Due to the cavity's resemblance to a human face in profile, one nickname for the NGC 3324 region is the Gabriela Mistral Nebula, after the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet.

Published February 3, 2012