The most impressive pictures from space

2021-05-02T18:55:46.501Z

Fascination with all - space research has been exploring what lies beyond the earth for decades. With impressive results.

Fascination with all - space research has been exploring what lies beyond the earth for decades.

With impressive results.

Infinite expanses, distant galaxies and alien planets fascinate mankind for a long time.

No wonder, because looking beyond the symbolic rim of the plate reveals something astonishing.

Because the universe is unimaginably large and still holds many secrets.

Stars

Radiant celestial bodies made of gas - these are stars.

What sounds sober is a very special phenomenon.

Because they send out their own light.

It does this through nuclear fusion - the star fuses two atomic nuclei into another.

At the beginning of the series there is the fusion of hydrogen to helium, but in the case of heavy stars this process can continue up to the composition of iron.

From the earth, stars (with the exception of our sun) can only be seen as a small point with the naked eye.

However, looking through the telescope opens up incredibly beautiful views:

Stern AG Carinae photographed by the “Hubble” space telescope

The star AG Carinae is about 20,000 light years away from Earth and is one of the most luminous stars in the Milky Way.

Nevertheless, due to its great distance from Earth, it cannot be observed with the naked eye.

With the Hubble space telescope, however, this beautiful picture was taken.

A cauldron of stars ...

... that's what NASA called this picture.

Hundreds of thousands of stars can be seen in the photo, crowding around the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

The picture was taken with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

The young star V1331 Cyg photographed from the “Hubble” space telescope

This young star is surrounded by a nebula that is somewhat reminiscent of a snail shell due to its shape.

The radiant celestial body in the middle of the nebula spiral is known as a star named V1331 Cyg.

It is a so-called young star that is beginning to contract to become a main sequence star similar to the Sun.

The special thing is that these stars can usually not be observed due to the thick nebula.

This recording is a rare exception.

Star nebula

Cosmic clouds have little in common with earthly clouds.

If ours consist of the smallest drops of water, in space it is a matter of accumulations of interstellar dust and gas.

Star nebula N44C

The star nebula N44C lies in the large Magellanic Cloud.

In astronomy today, star nebulae are mostly understood to mean interstellar clouds of dust and gas.

While some nebulae emit or reflect light, others absorb the light.

Pole Star

The North Star is sometimes also called the Polaris or North Star.

Why?

It stands near our celestial north pole and can therefore be used as a so-called fixed star for orientation.

Where the Pole Star is, is north.

In order to suppress surrounding dark stars, but to emphasize the faint gas and dust of the integrated river nebula, this image of the Pole Star was edited.

Traces of a supernova

Here you can see a section of the famous Cirrus Nebula.

The "Hubble" space telescope took the picture.

The nebula is one of the most spectacular remains of a star explosion in our Milky Way.

According to the researchers' calculations, the supernova took place around 8,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Colorful appearing cirrus nebula

The Cirrus Nebula can also be seen on this second image.

However, the picture was taken around 14 years later.

The picture was taken with the Hubble space telescope and shows the explosion cloud in more detail and sharper.

This is because new processing techniques have been used that bring out the exact details of the fine threads and strands of ionized gas in the mist.

The pencil fog

NGC 2736, the scientific name for the Pencil Nebula, is part of a huge supernova remnant that emerged from the Vela supernova.

When a star exploded about 11,000 years ago, the shock wave was still moving at millions of kilometers per hour.

It now “only” plows through interstellar space at over 500,000 kilometers per hour.

The red-blue colors are ionized hydrogen or oxygen atoms.

The birth of a star

This picture shows a kind of cradle of newly emerging stars.

You can see the giant nebula “NGC 2014” and its neighbor “NGC 2020”.

Together the two are part of a huge zone in which new stars are born.

The nebulae reside in the Large Magellanic Cloud and are about 163,000 light years from Earth.

The photo has been nicknamed "Cosmic Reef" because it vaguely resembles the underwater world.

Spectacular flame mist

Glowing gas obscures the nebula in the constellation Orion.

The Spitzer Space Telescope makes this view of the Flame Nebula NGC 2024 possible.

On the right at the edge of the picture you can see Alnitak, the eastern belt star in Orion.

In the center of the flame nebula you can see a dense and very young star cluster that is covered by clouds of dust.

Nebulae and galaxies in space

These colorful nebulae appear to be painted in space.

The play of colors in the galactic nebula leaves you speechless.

The Whirlpool Galaxy

Beckwith / Hubble Heritage Team

Strictly speaking, you can see not just one, but two galaxies in this photo.

The larger of the two is the so-called Whirlpool Galaxy (M51a).

The smaller one is its companion galaxy (M51b).

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the process in which the two galaxies merge.

The "Godzilla Galaxy"

Holwerda

It wasn't until 2020 that researchers spotted this huge galaxy inside with the Hubble space telescope.

Officially it bears the name "UGC 2885", but because of its gigantic size, scientists have nicknamed it the "Godzilla Galaxy".

It is two and a half times as wide as the Milky Way and has about ten times as many stars.

It lies around 232 million light years from Earth and, according to the researchers, could have existed relatively quietly for billions of years.

Spiral galaxy Messier 106

Discovered by astronomer Pierre Mechain in 1781, this spiral galaxy in the constellation Hounds was later added to Charles Messier's catalog.

It is about 30,000 light years in diameter and located about 21 million light years behind the stars of the Milky Way.

Along with a bright central core, this stunning galaxy portrait consists of a youthful blue star cluster and reddish star nurseries.

Milky Way

In this image, the Milky Way is covered by dark clouds, which are clearly set off as dark silhouettes against the bright, diffuse light of the Milky Way.

This special scene was captured by the Wide-Field Infared Survey Explorer, an unmanned space telescope from NASA.

It has been circling through space since 2010.

Milky Way photographed at new moon

The stars of the Milky Way can also be clearly seen in this photo from the Teide National Park on Tenerife.

It is located above the illuminated rock formation "Queen's Shoe".

The picture was taken at the new moon.

Then it is particularly dark on earth - the best time to watch the stars.

Messier triplet in the constellation Sagittarius

These three brightly observed nebulae are named after Charles Messier, who cataloged two of them in the 18th century.

The Messier triplet in the constellation Sagittarius consists of the large nebula M8 below, the colorful nebula M20 above and NGC 6559 on the left, which is separated from the larger nebula by a dark dust trail.

Black hole in a galaxy

There are many myths, including scientists, about black holes: they cannot yet be fully explained inside.

What is certain, however, is that they are space objects with an immense attraction.

Even light is swallowed up by their gravity.

The image above shows the spiral galaxy M81 with a supermassive black hole.

Magnetic fields around a black hole

EHT collaboration

This picture is a scientific sensation.

For the first time, magnetic fields in the immediate vicinity of the

black hole in the galaxy M87 can be detected and made visible.

These findings help space research to get to the bottom of other phenomena as well.

Airglow over the Azores

When higher atmospheric layers glow weakly, there is night sky light, also known as airglow.

This picture was taken while climbing Mount Pico in the Azores.

In the middle, the central band of the Milky Way Galaxy can be clearly seen.

All around the sky shines in bright colors.

Researchers suspect that molecules and atoms at different heights in interaction with sunlight are responsible for this.

The "lost galaxy"

The galaxy with the awkward name “NGC 4535” is a truly breathtaking sight.

It is about 50 million light years from Earth.

Her pale, somewhat ghostly appearance led the amateur astronomer Leland S. Copeland to nickname her the "lost galaxy" in the 1950s.

This has held up.

Planetary nebula

The two wings of the planetary nebula Hen 2-437 form an almost perfect symmetry.

The term planetary nebulae may be a bit misleading because they actually have nothing to do with planets.

Rather, these space objects are interstellar clouds of dust and gas that are made to glow by a star.

Not from a young star, but from a very old one.

There are around 3000 planetary nebulae discovered.

Space ant

To see this phenomenon, which is 8,000 light years from Earth, you need a telescope.

Astronomers call it a space ant.

The formation of this nebula is actually reminiscent of an ant.

There are still puzzles to be created.

This nebula - called Mz3 - is thrown from a star that is similar to the sun.

The gas could be conducted by the magnetic field of the bright star in the center.

But that's just a hypothesis.

Planets

The conditions a celestial body must meet in order to be called a planet was redefined in 2006 after heated discussions.

The result are three criteria: A planet must orbit a star.

In addition, it must have enough mass to have assumed an almost round shape by its own gravity.

And it must have cleared the area around its orbit.

The last rule has become Pluto's undoing.

Since then it is no longer considered a planet.

Saturn

It is the second largest planet in our solar system and consists mainly of hydrogen and helium.

So basically Saturn is a gigantic ball of gas.

The earth could fit into it around 764 times.

The giant is orbited by its numerous moons.

To date, 82 are known.

The largest of these is titanium.

Mars surface

Mars and its surface were the subject of a large-scale NASA research mission in 2020.

The rover "Perseverance" has headed for the red planet in order to examine geological processes and the geological history of the planet in more detail.

Any life on Mars should also be researched in this way.

Spring on Mars

This picture of Mars dunes was taken back in 2017 and shows what spring looks like on Mars.

Ice deposits there give the dunes a special look.

In winter these are covered by snow and ice made of carbon dioxide.

As soon as the sun shines on the dunes in spring, the ice layer breaks open, according to NASA.

Then escaping gas stirs up the dark sand.

This then creates these unusual patterns.

Venus in front of the sun

Venus is sometimes referred to as the "evil twin of the earth" and can be seen here as a small black point in front of the sun.

Because the neighboring planet has many similarities to Earth and is only about 40 million kilometers away at its closest point.

A short hop in a cosmic comparison.

The size, mass, density and internal structure of Venus and Earth are roughly the same.

Even gravity is similar.

However, there are differences - and they are very important.

Because on the surface of Venus there is no water, but boiling volcanoes.

The atmosphere is mainly made up of carbon dioxide and the clouds may contain sulfuric acid.

This environment is not friendly to life.

Volcanoes on Venus

The picture shows Maat Mons, the highest volcano on Venus.

The planet of love is covered by thousands of volcanoes.

Some of them could still be active.

In addition to Maat Mons, there is also the gigantic volcano Theia Mons, which would take up roughly the entire area of Germany.

earth

Of course, photos of our earth are always taken in space.

This shot shows how billows of smoke over Siberia mix with a larger storm system.

The picture was taken when huge forest fires broke out in the Siberian taiga due to a hot and dry summer.

About 7.9 million hectares of forest were devoured by the fires.

So the view from space gives indications of what is happening on our planet.

Earth from a spaceship

A look at the earth is reserved for astronauts: the earth as a curved, sunlit crescent moon against the black background of space.

This restored photo is from the crew of the last Apollo 17 mission to the moon, which was on their way home on December 17, 1972.

To date, it is the last human-made picture of the earth from this perspective.

Transition to darkness from the ISS perspective

This spectacular picture of the earth was taken from the ISS in June 2001.

It shows the transition from day to night, which we perceive as twilight.

As the sun illuminates the scene from the right, the cloud covers reflect gently reddened sunlight that is filtered through the dusty troposphere.

Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest and heaviest planet in our solar system and is around 653 million kilometers from Earth.

The photo shows him with his moon Europa and provides researchers with a detailed picture of the stormy weather conditions on the planet.

The red spot that can be seen in the picture under the equator is the largest cyclone in our solar system.

It has been observed for 300 years.

Mercury

In our solar system, Mercury is the planet closest to the sun; it orbits the sun in just 88 days.

It was therefore difficult for a long time to photograph the planet, because most of the time you only got it as a small black point in front of the sun in front of the lens.

This picture is now an exception and shows more of its surface.

Scientists assume that the gray surface only appears that way to the human eye and that it actually has different shades of gray, blue and green.

Pluto - the degraded planet

Although it has not been a planet since 2006, it remains an interesting topic for many people and science: Pluto.

This photo of the dwarf planet was color-processed by NASA in order to better recognize the differences in the composition and texture of the surface.

A special side effect: the light surface resembles the shape of a heart.

Moons

The moon does not only exist on earth.

Other planets even have multiple moons orbiting them.

So they are celestial bodies that orbit a planet like a satellite.

The earth moon

This photo of the Earth's moon was taken by the International Space Station as it circled 424 kilometers above China near the Mongolian border.

The earth's satellite is in the waning phase one day after the full moon.

The first moon landing

When the US astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, he uttered the famous words: “A small step for a person, but a huge leap for mankind.” Shortly after him, Edwin enters "Buzz" Aldrin the earth satellite.

We see him here in the picture.

The third astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission was Michael Collins.

He was a pilot of the command module "Columbia" and orbited the moon alone while his two colleagues left their famous shoe prints.

Immortalized on the moon

Of course, this historic moment had to be captured.

In the picture you can see a shoe print in a neat layer of moondust.

The imprint was taken by Buzz Aldrin, who after Neil Armstrong was the second person to ever step on the satellite.

Rising full moon

What a great picture from Stuttgart: It looks like the moon is rolling down a slope.

But it just rises above one of the many hills of Baden-Württemberg's state capital.

Here you can see a rising full moon.

We see this natural spectacle when the earth stands between the sun and the moon, which then reaches its greatest possible brightness.

The super moon

When the moon is particularly close to the earth, it is called a super moon or super full moon.

It gets its reddish-pink color because it is particularly brightly illuminated by the sun.

Here we see a spectacular rise above the Yellow Crane Pagoda in Wuhan, China.

Blood moon or total lunar eclipse

Not to be confused with the super moon is the blood moon or copper moon.

This is what a total lunar eclipse is called.

If the moon, which is in line with the earth and the sun in this constellation, is in close proximity to the intersection of its own orbit around the earth and the intersection of the earth's orbit of the sun, only the umbra of the earth falls on it.

It gets its reddish-brown color because only long-wave red sunlight comes through.

New moon and crescent moon

The opposite of the full moon is the new moon.

The earth satellite is located between the sun and earth.

For us, the moon is invisible in this phase, as the sun shines on the side facing away from the earth.

In this photo we see a crescent moon with the earth's glow at the top of the picture: The unlit part of the moon is perceived as a pale curve.

The (total) solar eclipse

There is a constellation in which we do see the new moon.

And that is when the earth, sun and moon are in a direct line and the earth's satellite is pushed in front of the sun when viewed from the earth.

The shadow of the moon then falls on earth, and there is a solar eclipse.

The total solar eclipse is an event of the century.

It was last seen in Germany for just under two and a half minutes on August 11, 1999; the next one will not be available until 2081.

Phobos

While the earth has only one moon, Mars has two: Phobos and Deimos.

In the photo we can see the view of Mars from the larger satellite Phobos, which, like its smaller brother, was discovered by the American astronomer Asaph Hall in 1877.

Moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto

Jupiter has a total of 79 previously known moons.

The four largest by far are known as the Galilean moons.

The innermost and third largest moon of the giant planet is called Io, the next and at the same time smallest of the four large moons of Jupiter is called Europe.

Next comes Ganymede, which is also the largest moon in the solar system with a diameter of 5,262 kilometers.

The furthest from Jupiter is Callisto.

With a diameter of 4,820 km, it is only slightly smaller than the planet Mercury.

Saturn moon Titan second largest in the solar system

Titan ist mit einem Durchmesser von 5150 Kilometern der größte Mond des Planeten Saturn. Er gilt als der erdähnlichste Himmelskörper und ist nach Ganymed der zweitgrößte Mond im Sonnensystem sowie der einzige mit einer dichten Atmosphäre, die zu fünf Prozent aus Methan besteht. Im sichtbaren Spektrum verschleiert Titan seine Oberfläche unter einem gelb-orangen Schleier.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-05-02