Hour Long Highatus

galaxyshmalaxy:

Heart Nebula IC1805 Narrowband (by Endosidney)

(via fuckyeahspaceexploration)

discoverynews:

Superflares Found on Sun-like Stars

There is no explanation for how flares more than 1 million times more powerful than solar flares are occurring.

Scientists have found superflares more than 1 million times more powerful than flares generated by the sun occurring on sun-like stars being studied by NASA’s Kepler space telescope.

The finding, culled from 120 days of observations of 83,000 stars, is the first to detail how often and how energetic flares on other stars can be.

The discovery, however, raises a question about how the massive outbursts, believed to be caused by complex magnetic interactions, can physically occur.

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discoverynews:

Sombrero Galaxy Has a Split Personality

There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe, handily divided into three basic types: spiral, elliptical and “irregular.” But even when you think you know a galaxy, it just might surprise you. Such is the case with the so-called “Sombrero Galaxy” (a.k.a. NGC 4594).

Discovered in 1767 by Pierre Mechain, its name derives from the fact that, when viewed from Earth, the galaxy looks like a wide-brimmed hat: a thin disk with a bulge in the center.

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fuckyeahspaceexploration:

Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, taken by the Cassini spacecraft on it’s recent fly-by

discoverynews:

Spying on Our Warped Moon

Sixteen times a day, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) get to see the moon drop below the horizon. And in this stunning orbital photograph, European Space Agency astronaut André Kuipers managed to snap the Earth’s natural satellite just as it was dipping from view.

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discoverynews:

Weird Super-Earths Found Orbiting Neighbor Star

The two alien worlds have far-out orbits around the star Fomalhaut, begging the question as to how the heck they got there.

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discoverynews:

See The Sun In A Whole New Light

Astrophotographer Alan Friedman captured this gorgeous portrait of the sun on April 7 from his home in Buffalo, NY, using a backyard solar telescope and a new Grasshopper CCD camera by Point Grey Research. Viewed in a wavelength emitted by hydrogen alpha (Ha) the sun’s surface details become visible, showing the complex texture of our home star’s true face.

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