A crystal-clear new portrait shows the twisted jets emitting from a wobbly protostar
Gemini South Telescope, 20 January 2022
Snaking through space, these curvy jets come from a young rotating star 10,000 lightyears away on the boundary of the constellations of Sagittarius and Ophiuchus.
With the aid of the adaptive optics instruments on board the Gemini South telescope at Cerro Pachón, Chile, which counteract the blurring effects of atmospheric turbulence, researchers have revealed these distinctive S-shape twin plumes continuously pouring from the protostar at the centre.
The jets are called MHO 2147 and are a sign the star, cloaked in a fog of dust and molecular gas, is getting started in its formation. Scientists think the jets’ wiggly path may be the result of precession: the gravitational wrench of nearby companion stars causing the protostar to wobble slowly like a spinning top.
More harmony than hostility
Hubble Space Telescope 24 January 2022
Likened by some to a galactic game of frisbee, what appears to be galaxies being ripped to shreds in a fierce skirmish is more likely – as head-on collisions are rare –a group peacefully coexisting and not interacting at all. Called NGC 7764A, the triplet sits roughly 425 million lightyears away in the constellation of Phoenix.
New look at an old Flame
ATACAMA Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) Telescope, 4 January 2022
The Flame Nebula, NGC 2024, blazes bright in this image combining radio data (rectangle) with a visible light image (background). On the right, rising up from the ‘flames’ is the iconic dark Horsehead Nebula, while dazzling star Alnitak (Zeta (ζ) Orionis) lights the scene. Despite its fiery appearance in this rendering, the region is largely made up of very cold gas and dust.
Perfect storm
JUNO, 29 November 2021
Two massive rotating storms are captured in exquisite detail in this bird’s eye view from NASA’s Juno probe. Taken from an altitude of 6,140km, it shows details as small as 4km across. Although the white ‘pop-up’ clouds in the lower storm look comparatively small, they are around 50km long. Juno’s microwave radiometer recently revealed the planet’s storms extend far deeper than anticipated, even by hundreds of kilometres.
A selfie that’s out of this world
TIANWEN-1, 1 January 2022
This incredible shot of China’s Tianwen-1 above Mars’s ice-covered north pole was captured by a small camera released by the orbiter. Tianwen-1 has been mapping the Red Planet since February 2021, travelling 475 million kilometres and sending back 540 gigabytes of data. Down on the surface is the Zhurong rover it successfully deployed last May, which has since covered more than 1.4km.
Ice cliffs on Mars – MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER, 21 JANUARY 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona 
Black hole found to be kindling star formation in dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10 – HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 19 January 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: NASA, ESA, Z. Schutte (XGI), A. Reines (XGI), A. Pagan (STScI) 
Spiral galaxy NGC 976 – HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 10 JANUARY 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Jones, A. Riess et al. 
The James Webb Space Telescope heads to space on board Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana – ESA, 25 DECEMBER 2021 – IMAGE CREDIT: ESA – S. Corvaja 
The Butterfly Galaxies NGC4567 and NGC4568 – VERY LARGE TELESCOPE, 24 JANUARY 2022 – Credit: ESO
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