APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

APOD — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 22:10:10 GMT

Astronomy Picture of the Day

11 June 2023

The Sun and Its Missing Colors

Image Credit: Nigel Sharp (NSF), FTS, NSO, KPNO, AURA, NSF

Here are all the visible colors of the Sun, produced by passing the Sun's light through a prism-like device. The spectrum was created at the McMath-Pierce Solar Observatory and shows, first off, that although our white-appearing Sun emits light of nearly every color, it appears brightest in yellow-green light. The dark patches in the featured spectrum arise from gas at or above the Sun's surface absorbing sunlight emitted below. Since different types of gas absorb different colors of light, it is possible to determine what gasses compose the Sun. Helium, for example, was first discovered in 1868 on a solar spectrum and only later found here on Earth. Today, the majority of spectral absorption lines have been identified - but not all.

#APOD #Light #Sun #Spectrum #star

Posted manually due to troubles at NASA APOD API

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230611.html

Astronomy Picture of the Day

APOD — Sat, 10 Jun 2023 10:33:28 GMT

Astronomy Picture of the Day

10 June 2023

Mars and the Beehive

Image Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri

This month, bright Mars and brilliant Venus are the prominent celestial beacons in planet Earth's western skies after sunset. Wandering through the constellation Cancer the Crab, the Red Planet was captured here on the evening of June 3 near the stars of open cluster Messier 44. Recognized since antiquity this nearby, naked-eye star cluster is also known as the Praesepe or the Beehive cluster. A swarm of stars all much younger than the Sun, the Beehive cluster is a mere 600 light-years distant. Seen with a yellowish hue, Mars is about 17 light-minutes away. On June 12/13 Venus will take its turn posing next to the stars of the Beehive cluster. But the dazzling light of Venus will make the Beehive stars difficult to see by eye alone.

#APOD #planet #Mars #Venus #stars

Posted manually due to troubles at NASA APOD API

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230610.html

Astronomy Picture of the Day

APOD — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 17:07:49 GMT

Astronomy Picture of the Day

09 June 2023

Pandora's Cluster of Galaxies

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ivo Labbe (Swinburne), Rachel Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh), Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

This deep field mosaicked image presents a stunning view of galaxy cluster Abell 2744 from the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam. Also dubbed Pandora's Cluster, Abell 2744 itself appears to be a ponderous merger of three different massive galaxy clusters some 3.5 billion light-years away toward the constellation Sculptor. Dominated by dark matter, the mega-cluster warps and distorts the fabric of spacetime, gravitationally lensing even more distant objects. Redder than the Pandora cluster galaxies many of the lensed sources are very distant galaxies in the early Universe, stretched and distorted into arcs. Of course distinctive diffraction spikes mark foreground Milky Way stars. At the Pandora Cluster's estimated distance this cosmic box spans about 6 million light-years.

#APOD #galaxy #MilkyWay #darkMatter #galaxyCluster

Posted manually due to troubles at NASA APOD API

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230609.html

Astronomy Picture of the Day

APOD — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 13:48:11 GMT

Astronomy Picture of the Day

07 June 2023

M94: A Double Ring Galaxy

Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Brennan

Most galaxies don't have any rings of stars and gas -- why does M94 have two? First, spiral galaxy M94 has an inner ring of newly formed stars surrounding its nucleus, giving it not only an unusual appearance but also a strong interior glow. A leading origin hypothesis holds that an elongated knot of stars known as a bar rotates in M94 and has generated a burst of star formation in this inner ring. Observations have also revealed another ring, an outer ring, one that is more faint, different in color, not closed, and relatively complex. What caused this outer ring is currently unknown. M94, pictured here, spans about 45,000 light years in total, lies about 15 million light years away, and can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici).

#APOD #galaxy #Universe #spaceRing #curiosity

Posted manually due to troubles at NASA APOD API (503)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230607.html

Astronomy Picture of the Day

APOD — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 15:31:50 GMT

Astronomy Picture of the Day

06 June 2023

Star Eats Planet
Illustrative Video

https://youtu.be/SmuG7odUe9c

Credit: K. Miller & R. Hurt (Caltech, IPAC)

It’s the end of a world as we know it. Specifically, the Sun-like star ZTF SLRN-2020 was seen eating one of its own planets. Although many a planet eventually dies by spiraling into their central star, the 2020 event, involving a Jupiter-like planet, was the first time it was seen directly. The star ZTF SLRN-2020 lies about 12,000 light years from the Sun toward the constellation of the Eagle (Aquila). In the featured animated illustration of the incident, the gas planet's atmosphere is first pictured being stripped away as it skims along the outskirts of the attracting star. Some of the planet's gas is absorbed into the star's atmosphere, while other gas is expelled into space. By the video's end, the planet is completely engulfed and falls into the star's center, causing the star's outer atmosphere to briefly expand, heat up, and brighten. One day, about eight billion years from now, planet Earth may spiral into our Sun.

#APOD #star #Universe #planet #spacechaos

Posted manually due to troubles at NASA API (503)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230606.html

Astronomy Picture of the Day

APOD — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 15:23:27 GMT

Astronomy Picture of the Day

05 June 2023

In the Center of the Trifid Nebula

Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh

What's happening at the center of the Trifid Nebula? Three prominent dust lanes that give the Trifid its name all come together. Mountains of opaque dust appear near the bottom, while other dark filaments of dust are visible threaded throughout the nebula. A single massive star visible near the center causes much of the Trifid's glow. The Trifid, cataloged as M20, is only about 300,000 years old, making it among the youngest emission nebulas known. The star forming nebula lies about 9,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). The region pictured here spans about 20 light years.

#APOD #Science #Universe #Astrogeek #Nebula

Posted manually due to troubles at NASA API (503)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230605.html