EYE ON THE SKY
Many scopes make light work
Our neighbour in space, the Andromeda Galaxy, as we’ve seldom seen it before
MULTIPLE SOURCES, 16 JUNE 2022
This composite image contains data from ESA’s Herschel and Planck telescopes, plus NASA’s Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE).
From Earth, the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in the Netherlands and the 30-metre IRAM (Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Millimeter Range) telescope in Spain also contributed. The need to blend the data comes from the fact that Herschel was only sensitive to far-infrared light and microwave radiation, meaning it missed around 30 per cent of the light given off by Andromeda’s dust. Combining Herschel’s data with that from other observatories gives a more complete picture of the light emitted by the galaxy.
Red in the image indicates hydrogen gas, green is cold dust, while blue shows dust that is warmer. At 2.5 million lightyears distant, the Andromeda Galaxy (or Messier 31) is 220,000 lightyears across.
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Asteroids in Gaia data
GAIA SPACE OBSERVATORY, 13 JUNE 2022
The yellow dot at the centre of this image is the Sun and everything else represents the orbit of asteroids around it – over 150,000 of them. Blue is the inner Solar System, the Main Belt is green, while Jupiter‘s trojan asteroids are red.
Fingers from Mars
CURIOSITY ROVER, 15 MAY 2022
Likely formed by groundwater trickling through rock and depositing minerals, these strange finger-like rocks were spotted by the Curiosity Rover on Mars. When the rocks were exposed to the wind, it eroded away the softer portions, leaving strange shapes behind.
Dusty disc
GEMINI SOUTH, 15 JUNE 2022
HD 34700 A, in the constellation of Orion, the Hunter, is surrounded by a swirling disc that’s likely to become a new planetary system.
The image was taken with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) instrument on the Gemini South telescope, Chile.
Clustered galaxies
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 20 JUNE 2022
This is galaxy cluster Abel 1351, four billion lightyears away in Ursa Major, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The streaks are the gravitationally-lensed images of distant galaxies, their light bent by the presence of the massive galaxy cluster.