Assorted Recent Astronomy Pictures

If you were directed to this page by another site, or a search engine, and the picture you're looking for has moved, it has probably gone (a) if of a planet, moon, etc, to the Online Text (see the banner links above) page about that object, (b) if of a star cluster, galaxy, nebula, etc, to the Online Text page about such objects, or one of the Sky Atlas NGC/IC pages. In the latter case, you should look up the object's NGC or IC number to find it. For instance, the Horsehead Nebula, which is an Absorption Nebula, has been moved to that page; but being near IC 434 and the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), it is also shown on the pages for those objects (and as noted above, search engines will eventually catch up with these changes, but by then, you may no longer be interested in the images, which is why this page is being phased out).

Gravitational lensing by galaxy cluster Abell 2218. This image will be moved to a fixed location later this year. For now, refer to apod100620 for more information. (Credit: Andrew Fruchter (STScI) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA Digitally reprocessed: Al Kelly)

Light and dark streaks on slopes in Acheron Fossae, a depression named after an albedo feature (a region which stands out from its surroundings because it is lighter or darker than usual) on Mars. No one knows the reason for the dark streaks, but it appears that dark sand has run downhill almost like a liquid, coating the surface. Over time, the sand darkens, again for reasons unknown. As we observe Mars in more detail (in this case, with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter), we find more and more strange-looking features with no Earthly counterparts, and as a result, no obvious explanation. (HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA, apod100301)

Galaxies imaged by the HUDF infrared camera on the Hubble Space Telescope, in the same region as the Hubble ultra deep sky survey of 2004, reveal faint red galaxies (mostly dots almost too small to see in this image) with redshifts of 8 or more. The thousands of brighter foreground galaxies, although interesting in their own right, are not as crucial to our understanding of the universe as the fainter, more distant galaxies, which may reveal the nature of galaxy formation in its earliest stages. (NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick & UCSC), R. Bouwens (UCO/Lick & Leiden U.), & the HUDF09 Team, apod091209)

The light from a distant (approximately 10 billion light-years away) quasar (Q2237+0305) is gravitationally lensed by an intervening spiral galaxy (about half a billion light-years away). In this particular case, the result is four dots, referred to as an Einstein cross. As stars in the nearby spiral move around, the lensing effect changes, causing changes in the brightness of the individual dots in periods of only a day or so. Other images of gravitational lenses are scattered elsewhere on this site, and will be combined with this one on a new page, in the near future. (Image taken in October 1999 by J.Rhoads, S.Malhotra, I.Dell'Antonio (NOAO)/WIYN/NOAO/NSF, apod100207; intervening galaxy brightness enhanced by Courtney Seligman)

An infrared image of the Small Magellanic Cloud shows a "tail" of gas (part of the Magellanic Stream), probably stripped from the SMC by gravitational interactions with the Large Magellanic Cloud, or our galaxy, and clusters of stars formed from the gas. (NASA, JPL-Caltech, STScI, apod100107)

Stellar formation in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud, as revealed by a false-color infrared image of the region.
(NASA JPL-Caltech, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, Spitzer Space Telescope, apod091113)

A plume of debris created by the LCROSS impactor on October 9, 2009 included "substantial" amounts of water. (NASA, LCROSS, apod091118)

Light echoes caused by the sudden brightening of V838 Monocerotis in 2002.
(NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI), apod091122)

A small portion of a false-color infrared and sub-millimeter image of the region near the galactic center
(the actual image is much larger, and will be posted in sections on a very-wide-format page)
(MSX, IPAC, NASA, APEX, ESO)

Abell 370, a rich cluster of galaxies which is acting as a gravitational lens
Similar images of other rich clusters are already posted at Clusters of Galaxies
(NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team & ST-ECF, apod090921)

Alternating optical and UV images of the Andromeda Galaxy, M31 (similar images are posted at The Local Group, but this animation will allow a more detailed comparison of the two views). (Optical Version: Bill Schoening, Vanessa Harvey/REU program/NOAO/AURA/NSF; UV Version: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP) , apod090917)

The center of globular cluster Omega Centauri (new HST image)
(NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team, apod090914)

A rich cluster of galaxies, acting as a gravitational lens
(NASA, ESA, H. Lee & H. Ford (Johns Hopkins U.), apod090823)

Example of using laser-controlled adaptive optics to improve ground-based photography.
(Also, a nice example of the Milky Way and one of the Magellanic Clouds, as observed from Chile)
(Yuri Beletsky (ESO), apod090816)

The sharpest image of Betelgeuse so far, showing plumes of gas streaming away from the star.
(Pierre Kervella, NaCo, VLT, ESO, apod090805)

An image of Betelgeuse showing brighter and darker regions on its surface.
(Xavier Haubois (Observatoire de Paris) et al., apod100106)

The prototypical protostar, T Tauri
(T. A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, H. Schweiker/WIYN, NOAO/AURA/NSF, apod090803)

A debris plume on Jupiter caused by a 2009 collision with a comet or asteroid
(NASA, ESA, H. Hammel (Space Science Institute, Boulder, Co.), and the Jupiter Impact Team, apod090731)