EYE ON THE SKY
Dazzling destruction
An unusual triangular region of frenzied star formation blossoms following a head-on collision of two galaxies
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 22 FEBRUARY 2022
The two ‘eyes’ in this image are two galaxies left with dramatically different injuries after a direct collision millennia ago. On the left is elliptical NGC 2444, an indistinct haze of gas and dust and mostly elderly and dying stars. On the right is the vibrant NGC 2445, the apparent victor, that sports a beautiful ‘black eye’ from the skirmish: a glittering outer halo of bright, blue, newborn stars around the galaxy’s core.
Collectively dubbed Arp 143 and found 181 million lightyears away in the constellation of Lynx, the duo highlight the intense star creation that can be triggered by some galactic collisions. But why the curious triangular shape? It seems that despite its worn-out appearance, the left galaxy is exerting control over its flashier sparring partner.
“Part of the reason is that these galaxies are still so close to each other and NGC 2444 is still holding on to the other galaxy gravitationally,” says astronomer Julianne Dalcanton of the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics. “NGC 2444 may also have an invisible hot halo of gas that could help to pull NGC 2445’s gas away from its nucleus.”
Feeding the beast
SOFIA, 22 FEBRUARY 2022
In the centre of NGC 1097, in the constellation of Fornax, the Furnace, a colossal black hole – 140 million times more massive than our Sun – drags in all the star-making gas and dust from its surroundings. But it’s not just gravity that’s funnelling the material inwards. Researchers using SOFIA, NASA’s flying telescope inside a modified Boeing 747SP, have revealed that magnetic fields are at play (right), streaming matter from the arms of the host galaxy into the insatiable black hole.
Pulsar-powered mega filament
CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY, GEMINI NORTH, 14 MARCH 2022
Newly detected filament PSR J2030+4415, 1,600 lightyears from Earth, is so large that only a third of its length could be captured in this image from the Chandra Observatory. The 64 trillion-kilometrelong beam of matter and antimatter is being emitted by a pulsar (close up, right) the size of a city. Spinning as it moves through space at 804,600km/h and leaking particles as it goes, the beam could explain the large amount of positrons detected in our Galaxy.
Alien bloom
CURIOSITY, 24 FEBRUARY 2022
It’s good to stop and smell the flowers occasionally, and hardworking Curiosity – travelling around Mars for nearly 10 years now – recently took time out to photograph this ‘bloom’. The floral-like rock formed from water-borne minerals in the Red Planet’s wet, ancient past. Smaller than a penny, it was captured with the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). Curiosity is also capable of ‘smelling’ the ‘flower’: its onboard ChemCam fires lasers at rocks and soils to identify their chemical and mineral composition.
Spot the supernova
VERY LARGE TELESCOPE, NEW TECHNOLOGY TELESCOPE, 7 MARCH 2022
Can you spot the difference in the Cartwheel Galaxy between 2014 (left) and late 2021 (right)? The flash in the bottom left of the starry outer ring is a Type II supernova, the final act of a star collapsing after its fuel runs out. Dubbed SN2021afdx, it was first detected by the ATLAS asteroid early warning system in November and then captured here by the Faint Object Spectrograph on board ESO’s New Technology Telescope.
EVA by Andrew Feustel (left) and John Grunsfeld to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope – HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 7 MARCH 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: NASA 
Spiral galaxy NGC 4254 in multiple wavelengths – VERY LARGE TELESCOPE, 14 MARCH 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: ESO/PHANGS 
Herbig–Haro object HH34 in the Orion Nebula – HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 7 MARCH 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Nisini 
The centre of barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097 in Fornax – HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 14 MARCH 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Sand, K. Sheth 
JWST successfully align its mirrors and takes a selfie of its 18 primary mirror segments – JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE, 11 MARCH 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/STScI 
JWST successfully align its mirrors and takes a selfie of its 18 primary mirror segments – JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE, 11 MARCH 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/STScI 
Spiral galaxy NGC 4571 – HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 21 MARCH 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team 
Galaxy cluster Abell 1689 with gravitational lensing – HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 7 MARCH 2022 – IMAGE CREDIT: NASA, N. Benitez (JHU), T. Broadhurst (The Hebrew University), H. Ford (JHU), M. Clampin(STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory), the ACS Science Team and ESA