Solar plasma behaves a bit like a lighthouse, scientists found surprising ice on Neptune's moon Triton and the astronomical community is celebrating the centennial anniversary of solar eclipse experiments that proved Einstein's bold new theories true. These are just some of the top stories this week from Space.com.
Gorgeous Orion Nebula
Astrophotographer Miguel Claro took this vibrant image of the Orion Nebula from the Cumeada Observatory in Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal. Claro used a Nikon D810A DSLR astrophotography camera during a total combined time of 65 minutes. Also known as Messier 42 (M42), the Orion Nebula is about 24 light-years across.
Credit: Miguel Claro
Full Story: Gorgeous Orion Nebula Glows in Stunning Red and Blue Light (Photo)
Olive Tree and Milky Way
The arm of the Milky Way is visible behind a bright sea of stars in this image taken by astrophotographer Miguel Claro from Noudar Park in Portugal's Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve.
Claro used a simple DSLR camera to take this shot of the night sky high above an olive tree.
Credit: Miguel Claro
Full Story: The Universe Reveals Its True Colors in This Stunning Milky Way Photo
NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Gets Camera Eyes
In this image, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory prepare the Mars 2020 rover with the installation of components of two Mastcam-Z high-definition cameras. The Mars 2020 will also be equipped with a system that allows it to accurately retarget its touchdown during the landing sequence. The mission is scheduled to launch in July of next year, arriving to Mars in February 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Full Story: NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Ready for High-Def Camera Eyes
Stunning Light Art Is the X-Ray Sky
This web of bright filaments is actually a collection of x-ray observations of the universe taken by a NASA instrument aboard the International Space Station. The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer makes incredibly precise measurements of the size of neutron stars, the superdense corpses of stars that have exploded. The new image is based on data gathered during its first 22 months of work.
Credit: NASA/NICER
Full Story: Behold! This Stunning Light Art Is Actually a Sky Filled with X-Rays
Weird Galaxy Creeping Up on Milky Way
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this view of Messier 90, a spiral galaxy roughly 60 million light-years away from our own Milky Way. And according to Hubble officials, Messier 90 is one of very few galaxies moving toward the Milky Way; almost all other observable galaxies are moving away from us with the expansion of the universe.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Sargent et al
Full Story: This Weird Galaxy Is Creeping Up on Our Milky Way
Messier 59
This brilliant and diffuse object glowing in deep space is the elliptical galaxy NGC 4621, also known as Messier 59. Located about 50 million light-years from Earth, it is one of the nearly 2,000 galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. The Hubble Space Telescope captured this new view of the galaxy using its Advanced Camera for Surveys. — Hanneke Weitering
Credit: ESA/NASA/Hubble
Saturn Gets Psychedelic
Saturn's strange north polar vortex looks like a psychedelic cyclone in this view from NASA's Cassini orbiter. Citizen scientist Kevin Gill processed this image using data Cassini collected during a close flyby of Saturn on Nov. 27, 2012. Cassini's 20-year mission came to an end in 2017 when the aging spacecraft plunged into the planet's atmosphere. — Hanneke Weitering
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill, CC BY 2.0
Colors of the Cosmos
A colorful night sky sparkles over the La Silla Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert in this cosmic shot by European Southern Observatory photo ambassador Petr Horálek. As bright-green airglow looms near the horizon, red emission nebulas decorate the Orion constellation overhead. One of them is Barnard's Loop, which forms an arc around the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. — Hanneke Weitering
Credit: P. Horálek/ESO
'Giant Snowmen'
A snowman-like figure protruding from the top of a layer of clouds makes Earth's atmosphere look like a weird winter wonderland in this photo from the International Space Station. "Like giant snowmen," Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques wrote when he tweeted the photo from space on Saturday (June 1). — Hanneke Weitering
Credit: David Saint-Jacques/CSA/NASA
