Week's Best Space Pictures: A Satellite Burns Up
By Jane J. Lee, National Geographic News, 19 June 2015.
By Jane J. Lee, National Geographic News, 19 June 2015.
Feed your need for heavenly views of the universe with our picks of the most awe-inspiring space pictures. This week, researchers discover a supermassive black hole throwing a 50-million-year long tantrum and NASA checks up on a delta in a Louisiana lake.
1. Golden Glow
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097 has a supermassive black hole at its centre (pictured). How supermassive? It's 140 million times the mass of our sun. Researchers believe black holes are key to understanding the evolution of galaxies.
2. Burning Up
A rainfall-measuring satellite - seen here in an illustration released by NASA - fell from space over the South Indian Ocean on June 15 and burned up in Earth's atmosphere. The planned re-entry was the end of the satellite's 17-year mission.
3. Collide
These stars (pictured) look like they're close together - and they are. They're close enough to crash into each other. "It's a bit like a stellar billiards table," said Francesco Ferraro of the University of Bologna in a statement.
4. Growth
Louisiana's Wax Lake delta (pictured) is one of the few deltas in the world that's currently growing, as natural processes bring sand and dirt into the area. Research flights over the area help scientists document these changes.
5. Tantrum
A supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy cluster has been throwing a 50-million-year-long tantrum. It has erupted multiple times over the millennia, carving out cavities in the hot gas that shrouds nearby galaxies.
6. Home
Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is carried in a chair shortly after landing near the Zhekazgan, Kazakhstan. She and two other expedition members spent more than six months aboard the International Space Station before coming home.
7. The Edge
Galaxy NGC 6503 sparkles in a recent Hubble image. The galaxy is 30,000 light-years away, on the edge of an empty area of space dubbed the Local Void.
Photo gallery by Sherry L. Brukbacher.
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