EYE ON THE SKY
A date with destiny
A tiny dwarf galaxy is inexorably drawn into the grasp of a double-ringed giant in this spectacular new portrait
VÍCTOR M BLANCO 4-METRE TELESCOPE, 3 MAY 2022
Locked in a tango across an ink-black dancefloor and against a twinkling background of thousands of other objects, are two galaxies in the southern constellation of Horologium, the Clock.
The vast galaxy on the left, a magnificent barred spiral, is NGC 1512. At 70,000 lightyears across it almost rivals our own Galaxy for size. At its heart is a stunning 2,400-lightyear-wide ring strewn with infant star clusters, called a circumnuclear starburst ring.
Snaking far, far out into space are its huge arms, gleaming with countless hot, blue stars. Falling into their grasp is the dwarf lenticular galaxy NGC 1510. This tiny neighbour also glows with new star formation, triggered by its endless gravitational tussles with its bigger partner. Eventually, in several million years, the diminutive galaxy will be engulfed.
The pair were captured by the state-of-the art widefield Dark Energy Camera on board the Víctor M Blanco 4-metre Telescope in northern Chile.
Lunar eclipse from the ISS
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, 16 MAY 2022
Those of us who got up early to watch the lunar eclipse only to be thwarted by clouds will envy the ISS’s unobstructed view of the event. A shadow crosses the Moon on the horizon while to the right is the Rassvet docking module, the Soyus MS-21 crew ship and the Nauka lab module with its brand-new robotic arm. Also brand new are the SpaceX Crew-4 that arrived on 27 April: ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines (who took this shot).
Jewel box of galaxies
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 6 MAY 2022
This kaleidoscopic scene rich with thousands of jewel-like galaxies was imaged as part of the Frontier Fields program to study dark matter and the early Universe. An area near Abell 370 in the constellation of Cetus, it provides a corridor back through space and time, from massive yellow elliptical galaxies, to smaller bright blue spirals and the farthest, billions-ofyears-old red galaxies. Photobombing the image are the arcing trails of asteroids in our own Solar System.
Prickly heat
SOLAR ORBITER, 18 MAY 2022
This intriguing feature on the surface of the Sun was imaged by the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter on 30 March 2022, four days after the spacecraft’s close approach to our host star. Solar scientists don’t yet know exactly what the feature is, but it has already been dubbed the ‘space hedgehog’. And while this unusual formation may be classed as ‘small scale’, don’t be fooled: it stretches 25,000km across, making it about twice as wide as Earth (shown to scale).
Not running on empty after all
ATACAMA LARGE MILLIMETER/SUBMILLIMETER ARRAY, 25 APRIL 2022
Galaxies thought to be fully depleted of gas after violent collisions and mergers with others have been found to contain surprising reserves of star-forming fuel. Post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) like 0379 and 0570 (above left and right respectively) have been observed by ALMA to hold nuggets of turbulent, condensed gas in or near their centres. The discovery makes for a puzzle as to why this doesn’t trigger new star creation.
Our local black hole
On 12 May astronomers unveiled the first ever image of our Galaxy’s black hole, Sagittarius A*.
Filament takes flight from Sun’s surface – SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY, 3 MAY 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: NASA 
DEM L249, remnant of a Type 1a supernova – HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 9 MAY 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Y. Chu 
Centre of gigantic elliptical galaxy NGC 474 – HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 18 MAY 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: NASA, ESA, D. Carter (Liverpool John Moores University), DSS; Image processing: G. Kober (NASA Goddard/Catholic University of America) 
NGC 3627 – VERY LARGE TELESCOPE, 2 MAY 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: ESO/PHANGS 
Spiral galaxy IC 342 – HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 11 MAY 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: NASA, ESA, P. Sell (University of Florida), and P. Kaaret (University of Iowa); Image processing: G. Kober (NASA Goddard/Catholic University of America)