We don't know for sure, but some of the massive stars in this nebula could be electroweak stars. ESO/Mark McCaughrean
For some stellar objects, the final phase before or instead of collapsing into a black hole may be what a group of physicists is calling an electroweak star.
Source: Astronomy Magazine
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ABOUT THIS IMAGE: This is an artist's impression of a small Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) occulting a star. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recorded this brief event and allowed astronomers to determine that the KBO was only one-half of a mile across, setting a new record for the smallest object ever seen in the Kuiper Belt. Image Type: Artwork Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the smallest object ever seen in visible light in the Kuiper Belt, a vast ring of icy debris that is encircling the outer rim of the solar system just beyond Neptune.
Source: Hubble Site
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Which come first, the supermassive black holes that frantically devour
matter or the enormous galaxies where they reside? A brand new scenario
has emerged from a recent set of outstanding observations of a black
hole without a home: black holes may be “building” their own host
galaxy. This could be the long-sought missing link to understanding why
the masses of black holes are larger in galaxies that contain more stars.
Source: ESO
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Soyuz capsule on landing zone. Credits: NASA TV
The Soyuz TMA-15 reentry module landed safely in Kazakhstan at 13.15 local time (08.15 CET), bringing ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk back to Earth.
Source: ESA
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A very dynamic sun compared to a Sun deep in solar minimum helps to illustrate the extremes of a solar cycle. SOHO/NASA/ESA
This is the first mission of NASA’s Living With a Star program, which seeks to reveal how solar activity is generated and to understand the causes of solar variability and its impact on Earth.
Source: Astronomy Magazine
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The magnificent galaxy NGC 4710 is tilted nearly edge-on to our view from Earth. This perspective allows astronomers to easily distinguish the central bulge of stars from its pancake-flat disk of stars, dust, and gas. What’s striking in the image is a ghostly “X” pattern of stars. This natural-color photo was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys on January 15, 2006.
Source: HubbleSite
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At a press conference today, researchers revealed preliminary data from NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicating that water exists in a permanently shadowed lunar crater. The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the Moon.
The visible camera image showing the ejecta plume at about 20 seconds after impact. Credit: NASA Click image for full resolution.
Data from the down-looking near-infrared spectrometer. The red curve shows how the spectra would look for a "grey" or "colorless" warm (230 C) dust cloud. The yellow areas indicate the water absorption bands. Credit: NASA Click image for full resolution.
Data from the ultraviolet/visible spectrometer taken shortly after impact showing emission lines (indicated by arrows). These emission lines are diagnostic of compounds in the vapor/debris cloud. Credit: NASA Click image for full resolution.
Source: LCROSS Project Site
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The spectacular new camera installed on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope during Servicing Mission 4 in May has delivered the most detailed view of star birth in the graceful, curving arms of the nearby spiral galaxy M83.
Source: HubbleSite
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Astronomers have tracked down a gigantic, previously unknown assembly of
galaxies located almost seven billion light-years away from us. The
discovery, made possible by combining two of the most powerful
ground-based telescopes in the world, is the first observation of such a
prominent galaxy structure in the distant Universe, providing further
insight into the cosmic web and how it formed.
This 3D illustration shows the position of the galaxies and reveals the extent of this gigantic structure. The galaxies located in the newly discovered structure are shown in red. Galaxies that are either in front or behind the structure are shown in blue.
This image, obtained with the Subaru Telescope, operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan was used by a team of astronomers, led by Masayuki Tanaka from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), to uncover a gigantic, previously unknown assembly of galaxies located almost seven billion light-years away from us. This structure was confirmed by further observations made using ESO’s Very Large Telescope and Subaru. It is the first observation of such a prominent galaxy structure in the distant Universe, providing further insight into the cosmic web and how it formed. The galaxies located in the newly discovered structure are shown in red. Galaxies that are either in front or behind the structure are shown in blue.
Source: ESO
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