5528998069_b27f39c057_o.png (PNG Image, 2042x2000 pixels) - Scaled (38. Hubble snaps image of space oddity. In this image by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, an unusual, ghostly green blob of gas appears to float near a normal-looking spiral galaxy. The bizarre object, dubbed Hanny’s Voorwerp (Hanny’s Object in Dutch), is the only visible part of a streamer of gas stretching 300 000 light-years around the galaxy, called IC 2497. The greenish Voorwerp is visible because a searchlight beam of light from the galaxy’s core has illuminated it. This beam came from a quasar, a bright, energetic object that is powered by a black hole. The quasar may have turned off in the last 200 000 years. This Hubble view uncovers a pocket of star clusters, the yellowish-orange area at the tip of Hanny’s Voorwerp.
The star clusters are confined to an area that is a few thousand light-years wide. The image was made by combining data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) onboard Hubble, with data from the WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona, USA. Credit: About the Image. How white holes (might) be created. Brief Answers to Cosmic Questions. Structure of the Universe Does the Universe have an edge, beyond which there is nothing? Are the galaxies arranged on the surface of a sphere? Why can't we see the whole universe? Does the term "universe" refer to space, or to the matter in it, or to both? Evolution of the Universe Did the Universe expand from a point? If so, doesn't the universe have to have an edge? More about the Big Bang When they say "the universe is expanding," what exactly is expanding?
Structure of the Universe Does the Universe have an edge, beyond which there is nothing? Are the galaxies arranged on the surface of a sphere? Why can't we see the whole universe? If you could suddenly freeze time everywhere in the universe, and magically survey all of creation, you would find galaxies extending out far beyond what we can see today. Does the term "universe" refer to space, or to the matter in it, or to both? Today, the situation is reversed. Evolution of the Universe Did the Universe expand from a point? Digital Maps Of Moonscape Could Reveal Safe Landing Spots And Traversable Terrain. Spitzer Telescope Sees Busy Galactic Center In a New Light. The center of the Milky Way is hard to see in visible light, because interstellar dust blocks our view.
But the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared vision can penetrate the dust and see through to our galaxy's jam-packed core. This is a newly updated version of the plane of the Milky Way captured by the Spitzer telescope. NASA says the area shown here is immense: Horizontally, it spans 2,400 light years, or 5.3 degrees of the sky, and vertically it covers 1,360 light years, or 3 degrees. The bright center is the galaxy's central star cluster, about 26,000 light years from Earth. The glowing galactic center actually represents thousands of stars orbiting a massive black hole, but it is so far away that the light blurs together, NASA explains. The image is a three-color composite of observations from two instruments on board Spitzer. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] Space image of the day: swirling palette of star-forming clouds.
Giant Black Hole Looks Like 'Eye of Sauron,' Scientists Say | Supermassive Black Holes & Spiral Galaxies | NASA & Chandra X-ray Observatory. Hobbits and orcs may exist only in fiction, but a real-life supermassive black hole has spawned a structure that looks strikingly like the evil "Eye of Sauron" from J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" fantasy novels and the films inspired by them. The black hole sits at the heart of a spiral galaxy called NGC 4151, which is 43 million light-years from Earth.
This composite image stitches together data from several different telescopes, revealing a gigantic structure that astronomers say resembles the all-seeing eye of Tolkien's malevolent wizard Sauron. [See the black hole "Eye of Sauron" photo] In the eye's "pupil," X-rays (blue) from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory mix with visible-light data (yellow) from the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope in the Canary Islands, which show emissions of positively charged hydrogen. The yellow blobs interspersed throughout the red rim are regions where star formation has recently occurred. A black hole outburst Learning from the Eye of Sauron. Hubble Heritage Gallery of Images. Nebulas.