traverse-our-universe

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Centaurus A & Triangulum Galaxy | Jim Keller

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M45: The Pleiades (image 1, 2)

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Pinwheel Galaxy | Jim Keller

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Milky Way photography on Flickr (1, 2, 3)

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NGC 2841 is a striking spiral galaxy located in Ursa Major, teaming with cosmic dust & gases dancing around its center. Older, yellow stars reside in the galaxy’s heart, whereas the younger, blue stars live along the twisting spirals. It was discovered by William Herschel in the late 1780′s. (from the book Hubble’s Universe: Greatest Discoveries and Latest Images)

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Trapezium Cluster: four-star powerhouse (from the book Hubble’s Universe: Greatest Discoveries and Latest Images)

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Astrophotography by Martin Heigan on Flickr (1, 2, 3, 4)

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Recycling Cassiopeia A

“Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After a few million years, the enriched material is blasted back into interstellar space where star formation can begin anew. The expanding debris cloud known as Cassiopeia A is an example of this final phase of the stellar life cycle. Light from the explosion which created this supernova remnant would have been first seen in planet Earth’s sky about 350 years ago, although it took that light about 11,000 years to reach us. This false-color Chandra X-ray Observatory image shows the still hot filaments and knots in the Cassiopeia A remnant. High-energy emission from specific elements has been color coded, silicon in red, sulfur in yellow, calcium in green and iron in purple, to help astronomers explore the recycling of our galaxy’s star stuff - Still expanding, the blast wave is seen as the blue outer ring. The sharp X-ray image, spans about 30 light-years at the estimated distance of Cassiopeia A. The bright speck near the center is a neutron star, the incredibly dense, collapsed remains of the massive stellar core.” (source & credit: NASA, CXC, SAO)

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Star Cluster NGC 362 from Hubble

APOD/NASA; Hubble WFC3, NASA, ESA, J. Heyl, I. Caiazzo, & Javiera Parada (UBC)

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Aurora Australis in New Zealand; by Paul Stewart on Flickr.

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sit back | Jake de Guzman on Flickr

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a sky strewn with gems

 Stephen Rahn on Flickr (1, 2, 3)

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“This is a small example from an ambitious all-sky photographic survey completed during the mid to late 20th century. Every piece of sky was photographed on large glass plates. This astrophotography provided a catalog for astronomers to use in seeking out targets and planning observations. It is also an archival snapshot of the entire sky. Over 1,000 of these photographic plates were later digitized into a database used to aim Hubble.” (from the book Hubble’s Universe: Greatest Discoveries and Latest Images)

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Western Veil by john.purvis on Flickr

Eastern Veil by Ralph W on Flickr

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black on constellations gold | Sergei Golyshev on Flickr

(1, 2)

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Sunspot formation | john.purvis on Flickr

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Galaxies Collide

APOD/NASA; ESA/Hubble & NASA