cosmic;

we are, in the most profound sense, children of the cosmos.

[astrosource]

“we're made of star stuff. we are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” — carl sagan

[sci-universe]

Moon with Jupiter and its moons by Estonian astrophotographer Raivo Hein 

[just--space]

Sliver of Saturn : Although only a sliver of Saturns sunlit face is visible in this view, the mighty gas giant planet still dominates the view.

js

[astrosource]

Seen edge-on, spiral galaxy NGC 4302 (left) lies about 55 million light-years away in the well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. A member of the large Virgo Galaxy Cluster, it spans some 87,000 light-years, a little smaller than our own Milky Way. Like the Milky Way, NGC 4302's prominent dust lanes cut along the center of the galactic plane, obscuring and reddening the starlight from our perspective. Smaller companion galaxy NGC 4298 is also a dusty spiral. But tilted more nearly face-on to our view, NGC 4298 can show off dust lanes along spiral arms traced by the bluish light of young stars, as well as its bright yellowish core. In celebration of the 27th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990, astronomers used the legendary telescope to take this gorgeous visible light portrait of the contrasting galaxy pair. △

APOD: Apr. 21, 2017

[odysseuslost]

Apollo 9 Magazine 19/A

[astrosource]

Big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 lies some 70 million light-years away on the banks of the constellation Eridanus. NGC 1300 spans over 100,000 light-years and the Hubble image reveals striking details of the galaxy's dominant central bar and majestic spiral arms. In fact, on close inspection the nucleus of this classic barred spiral itself shows a remarkable region of spiral structure about 3,000 light-years across. Like other spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, NGC 1300 is thought to have a supermassive central black hole. △

APOD: Jan. 9, 2016