#hubble image

[spacetelescopescience]

Located in the Small Magellanic Cloud, NGC 346 is a region of star formation seen here in Hubble Space Telescope visible light data (red, green, and blue) and Chandra observatory X-rays (pinkish purple).

The large, neon-pink X-ray cloud hangs in the upper right, representing the high-energy environment of stars roughly 1 to 3 million years old. The dark blue background is scattered with orange and white stellar specks and hazy streaks of gas and dust.

NGC 346 is home to more than 2,500 newborn stars. The cluster’s most massive stars, which are many times more massive than our Sun, blaze with an intense blue light in this image.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: ESA/Hubble and NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble); Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare.

[spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace]

Hubble Finds an Hourglass Nebula around a Dying Star - NASA Science

This Hubble telescope snapshot of MyCn18, a young planetary nebula, reveals that the object has an hourglass shape with an intricate pattern

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Trippy nebula captured in brilliant new Hubble image

Let this psychedelic nebula inspire your weekend.

Mashable - Kellen Beck

[startorialist]

Even more delightful than this set of six cosmic knives from Chef’s Vision, with their authentic astronomical images printed on the sheaths and bright matching handles is the Twitter threads they inspired after Prof. Julianne Dalcanton originally shared them, and we continued the fun.

Plus, the space knives actually get rave reviews from none other than planetary scientist Dr. Julie Rathbun and astronomer & artist Tyler Nordgren, aka an official Awesome Astronomy Couple (or maybe they’re Binary Stars? I’ll see myself out...).

--Emily

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[space--pics]

Westerlund 2 Imaged by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope

follow @space–pics for more space!

[perks-of-being-absolutelynothing]

not my photo just my blue 

source

[spacetelescopescience]

As a dying, Sun-like star puts on a stunning display of light, shadow, and dust, the Hubble Space Telescope is watching it unfold. Hubble’s sharp vision reveals the clearest view yet of the Egg Nebula, revealing intricate details of the enigmatic Egg’s remarkable structure.

These newest observations, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, provide clues to the complex processes shaping the Egg Nebula. They offer scientists a rare opportunity to test theories of late-stage stellar evolution.

The spectacular Egg Nebula is the youngest and closest nebula of its type ever discovered. The remarkably symmetrical structure is created by the nebula’s central star casting off outer layers.

Powerful beams of starlight blast out of the central cloud and illuminate the cosmic structure. Fast-moving outflows of hot, molecular hydrogen also emerge from within the dust cloud, visible at the base of the searchlight beams. The central dust cloud is surrounded by faint, nested arcs of gas.

The starlight beams are reflected by these layers of gas, creating the appearance of ripples. The reflected starlight reveals important details about the central star, which is impossible to view directly in its dusty shell.

Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, B. Balick (University of Washington).

[spacetelescopescience]

Double the telescopes, double the wow. New views of Saturn from the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes are offering the most complete view of the beloved gas giant to date.

Hubble and Webb’s vision probe different atmospheric layers, bringing out storms, waves, and glowing ring structures in striking detail, while Hubble highlights subtle cloud banding and color variations on the planet. Both images capture several of Saturn’s larger moons. (Yes, those are the larger of Saturn’s 254 moons!)

Each telescope tells a different part of Saturn’s story, and the pair of observations help researchers understand how Saturn’s atmosphere works as a connected 3D system: https://news.stsci.edu/4sopfx4