Herschel image of the Helix Nebula using the SPIRE instrument at wavelengths around 250 micrometres, superimposed on Hubble image of the nebula. The spectrum corresponds to the outer region of the Helix Nebula outlined on the SPIRE image. It identifies the OH+ molecular ion, which is needed for the formation of water. ESA’s Herschel space observatory is the first to detect this molecule in planetary nebulas – the product of dying Sun-like stars. Credit: Hubble image: NASA/ESA/C.R. O’Dell (Vanderbilt University), M. Meixner & P. McCullough (STScI); Herschel image: ESA/Herschel/SPIRE/MESS Consortium/M. Etxaluze et al.
2-D-EV spectral data tells researchers how photoexcitation of a molecular system affects the coupling of electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom that is essential to understanding how all molecules, molecular systems and nanomaterials function. Credit: Fleming group
Manipulating minute areas of gain and loss within individual lasers (shown as peaks and valleys in the image), researchers were able to create paradoxical interactions between two nearby lasers. Credit: Vienna University of Technology
This is an artist’s concept of the metric expansion of space, where space (including hypothetical non-observable portions of the universe) is represented at each time by the circular sections. Note on the left the dramatic expansion (not to scale) occurring in the inflationary epoch, and at the center the expansion acceleration
This is a computer simulation of gas (in yellow) falling into a black hole (too small to be seen). Twin jets are also shown with magnetic field lines. Credit: Alexander Tchekhovskoy, Berkeley Lab
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon appears before the planet as it undergoes seasonal changes in this natural color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in this handout released by NASA August 29, 2012. (Credit: Reuters/NASA)
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Hubble Space Telescope picture of galaxy NGC 3081. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; acknowledgement: R. Buta (Credit: University of Alabama)
via universetoday
Summary of the spacetime issues discussed in this article. One can use photons and astronomical objects as test particles to measure spacetime over 22 orders of magnitude in scale, ranging from the cosmic horizon (probing the global topology of and curvature of space – top) to distant supernovae (giving evidence of dark energy) down to galaxies (giving evidence for dark matter), galactic nuclei and binary stellar systems (giving evidence for black holes) (Credit: Max Tegmark)
via dailygalaxy
The Herschel Space Observatory has uncovered a weird ring of dusty material while obtaining one of the sharpest scans to date of a huge cloud of gas and dust, called NGC 7538. (Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Whitman College)
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Observations of galaxy GRB 020819B of molecular gas (left) and dust (middle) done by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). At right is a visible-light image from the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North Telescope. The cross indicates the site of a gamma-ray burst in the region. Credit: Bunyo Hatsukade(NAOJ), ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
via space.com
Three images, showing dwarf planet 2012 VP113 in red, then green, then blue, were combined to reveal its path across the night sky (Image: Scott S. Sheppard, Carnegie Institution for Science)
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NASA scientists used Earth-based radar to produce these sharp views of the HQ124 asteroid on June 8, 2014. Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arecibo Observatory/USRA/NSF
via nationalgeographic
A gigantic asteroid nicknamed ‘The Beast’ is expected to fly by Earth on Sunday, June 8. The asteroid 2014 HQ124 is roughly the size of a football stadium.
via rtnews
This artist’s concept depicts a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. The blue color here represents radiation pouring out from material very close to the black hole. The grayish structure surrounding the black hole, called a torus, is made up of gas and dust. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
via phys.org
The Whirlpool galaxy seen in both optical (red, green and blue) and X-ray (purple) light. Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Wesleyan Univ./R.Kilgard, et al; Optical: NASA/STScI
Researchers at Washington State University have used a super-cold cloud of atoms that behaves like a single atom to see a phenomenon predicted 60 years ago and witnessed only once since.
via scientificcomputing.com
Colliding galaxy clusters MACS J0717+3745, more than 5 billion light-years from Earth. Background is Hubble Space Telescope image; blue is X-ray image from Chandra, and red is VLA radio image.
via www.astronomy.com
This artistic representation shows the potentially habitable exoplanet Kapteyn b and the globular cluster Omega Centauri in the background. It is believed that this cluster is the remaining core of a dwarf galaxy that merged with our own Milky Way Galaxy billions of years ago bringing Kapteyn’s star along. Image credit: PHL / UPR Arecibo / Aladin Sky Atlas.
via www.sci-news.com
Light from the explosion 12 billion years ago of a massive star at the end of its life reached Earth recently. An image of its peak afterglow, circled with blue and yellow, was captured by Southern Methodist University’s ROTSE-IIIb telescope at McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis, Texas. A bright star sits alongside the afterglow from GRB 140419A. Credit: ROTSE-IIIb, SMU
via phys.org
A computer simulation of gas (in yellow) falling into a black hole (too small to be seen). Twin jets are also shown with magnetic field lines. Alexander Tchekhovskoy (LBNL)
via www.astronomy.com
Rocky world could be the first of an entirely new class of planet. An illustration of mega-Earth Rocky world could be the first of an entirely new class of planet. An illustration of mega-Earth The newly discovered ”mega-Earth” Kepler-10c dominates the foreground in this artist’s conception released by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 2, 2014.
via news.nationalgeographic.com
Penn astrophysicist Mark Devlin and Jackie Tileston, an associate professor of fine arts at PennDesign, collaborated on the ARTacama Project, the “highest known art installation in the world” three miles above sea level in the Chilean mountains.www.upenn.edu
