Space Pictures of the Week: "UFO Galaxy," Triple Sunset, More
By National Geographic, 30 March 2012.
By National Geographic, 30 March 2012.
| 1. Cactus Night |
Giant cacti seem to reach for the stars in a newly released long-exposure picture taken from Isla de Pescado, an "island" within the Bolivian salt flats of Salar de Uyuni.
The salar is the world's largest expanse of salt flats, covering roughly 3,100 square miles (8,028 square kilometers) of the high Andean plateau called the Altiplano, more than 11,800 feet (3,600 meters) above sea level. Several isolated islands in the flats are made from fossil coral reefs covered by volcanic rock, according to NASA.
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Photograph by | 2. Delicate Swan |
 Image courtesy Caltech/NASA |
Tendrils of hot dust and gas glow against a background of stars in a new picture from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, or GALEX. The spacecraft's ultraviolet vision allows scientists to study space objects across ten billion years of cosmic history.
Situated about 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the swan, the nebula is the remnant of a supernova that occurred between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago. The wispy structure glows because its gases are still being heated by the shockwave from the star explosion.
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| 3. Triple Fantasy |
 Illustration courtesy L. Calçada, ESO |
Three stars - including the red dwarf Gliese 667 C (far left) - set over the "super Earth" Gliese 667 Cc in an artist's conception.
Such rocky worlds abound around red dwarfs (stars smaller and cooler than our sun), according to new results from the HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) telescope, the European Southern Observatory announced Wednesday. Radial velocity is a planet-hunting technique that looks for wobbles in a star's light, which can indicate the gravitational tugs of orbiting worlds.
"Because red dwarfs are so common - there are about 160 billion of them in the Milky Way - this leads us to the astonishing result that there are tens of billions of these planets in our galaxy alone," HARPS team leader Xavier Bonfils said in a statement.
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| 4. Christmas in March |
 Image courtesy Louie Atalasidis, My Shot |
The bright stars of the Christmas Tree Cluster light up the diffuse dust and gases of the Cone Nebula in a newly released picture taken by a backyard astronomer in Australia.
Also known collectively as NGC 2264, the star cluster and nebula lie about 2,700 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros, the unicorn.
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| 5. Galactic Glow |
 Image courtesy University of Manchester and ESA/NASA |
Like a rift opening in time and space, the bright infrared glow of the spiral galaxy NGC 891, which we see edge-on from Earth, seems to slash across the sky in a new picture from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
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| 6. Martian Mashup |
 Image courtesy University of Manchester and ESA/NASA |
The surface of Mars becomes a riot of colour in a new picture of the Nili Fossae region from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The colour-enhanced close-up shows material that was kicked up by an ancient impact. Different minerals are represented by their own colours, making the rocks look like a shattered rainbow.
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| 7. UFO Galaxy |
 Image courtesy ESA/NASA |
The barred spiral galaxy known as NGC 2683 seems to hover like a flying saucer - earning it the nickname the UFO Galaxy - in a recently released picture from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Discovered in 1788, the galaxy resembles our Milky Way but it's seen from the side, allowing astronomers to study fine structures in the dusty lanes of the galaxy's spiral arms silhouetted against the bright glow from the galactic core.
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| 8. "Beautiful" Crater |
 Image courtesy JHUAPL/CIW/NASA |
A high-resolution image of Mercury's Hodgkins crater offers a "great look at the beautiful interior" and resulting debris from a fresh impact, according to NASA's MESSENGER team.
MESSENGER, which settled into orbit around Mercury in 2011, is helping scientists unlock key mysteries about the planet, such as its geologic history, density, and core composition.
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