wonders-of-the-cosmos

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This beautiful spiral galaxy is NGC 3507, which is situated about 46 million light-years away in the constellation Leo (the Lion).

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker

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Amber

Amber is fossilized tree resin. Examples of it have been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since the Neolithic times, and worked as a gemstone since antiquity. Amber is used in jewelry and as a healing agent in folk medicine.

There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents.

The resins produced by plants acted as protection against the action of bacteria and against the attack of insects that pierced the bark until reaching the heart of the trees. The resin that came out of the wood ended up losing the air and water inside it. Over time, the organic substances that make up amber ended up polymerizing, thus forming a hardened resin that was resistant to time and water.

Since prehistoric times, the regions bathed by the Baltic Sea, such as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, have been the main source of amber. It is believed that the material has been used since the Stone Age. Objects of Baltic origin have also been found in Egyptian tombs dating back to 3200 BC. Another important clue were objects found in Scandinavia that were used by Vikings from the years 800 to 1000 AD.

Because amber can encase and protect even invertebrates like mollusks, it is ideal for preserving the smaller, more skeletal inhabitants of forest ecosystems. Over the course of nearly two centuries, paleontologists studying amber have found insects, arachnids, crabs, plants, fungi, nematodes, plants, microorganisms, and even a piece of a larger vertebrate animal.

But as you might imagine, the fossils that end up in amber are those of creatures that would be most likely to be buried in the resin of an ancient tree.

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A beautiful but skewed spiral galaxy dazzles in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. The galaxy, called Arp 184 or NGC 1961, sits about 190 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis (The Giraffe).

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), C. Kilpatrick

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Moon, Venus and Saturn over the Mediterranean Sea

Image Credit: Jose Antonio Hervas

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Triton is the largest of Neptune's moons, located 2.8 billion miles from the sun. Its surface is coated with nitrogen ice. But unlike the other moons of Neptune, Triton is an active world.

Geyser-like plumes of gas and dust stretch five miles high into Triton's atmosphere, which flattens them abruptly by 90 degrees, creating a vista so strange, it's hard to believe it's real. So what causes it?

While the inner moons orbit Neptune in the same direction, Triton goes the other way, suggesting it didn't form alongside Neptune. It came from elsewhere, out in the Kuiper Belt, thrown into elliptical orbit by Neptune's gravity as it drifted away from the sun.

So one possible explanation is that being captured close to a giant has consequences. Just as our moon raises tides on Earth, Neptune's enormous gravity raises tides on Triton, stretching and squashing it like a stress ball, heating it up, and melting its frozen interior.

We can see how the tide coming in can force water up through cracks in the Earth, creating plumes erupting up to the sky, but on a much smaller scale than the plumes on Triton.

Triton being captured by Neptune is thought to have fundamentally changed how it works, with the tidal energy from the planet's enormous gravity creating this magnificent and strange vista of five mile high plumes.

Solar System: Wandering Worlds on NOVA.

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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy Messier 77, also known as the Squid Galaxy.

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. C. Ho, D. Thilker

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M72 is a collection of stars, formally known as a globular cluster, located in the constellation Aquarius roughly 50,000 light-years from Earth. The intense gravitational attraction between the closely packed stars gives globular clusters their regular, spherical shape. There are roughly 150 known globular clusters associated with the Milky Way galaxy.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto, M. Libralato

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Though this towering structure of billowing gas and dark, obscuring dust is only a small portion of the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16), it is no less majestic in appearance for it. The pillar rises 9.5 light-years tall and is 7,000 light-years away from Earth. This latest Hubble view uses new processing techniques and is part of ESA/Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll

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Webb Detects Possible Biosignature Gases in Atmosphere of K2-18b

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have detected the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) in the atmosphere of the super-Earth exoplanet K2-18b. On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by life, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton. While an unknown chemical process may be the source of these molecules in K2-18b’s atmosphere, the results are the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on an extrasolar planet.

K2-18 is a red dwarf located approximately 111 light-years away in the constellation of Leo.

Also known as EPIC 201912552, the star hosts two massive exoplanets: K2-18b and K2-18c.

First discovered in 2015, K2-18b has a radius of 2.6 times that of Earth and is about 8.6 times as massive.

The planet orbits its star every 33 days at a distance of approximately 0.15 AU and has an Earth Similarity Index of 0.73.

It receives 1.28 times the light intensity of Earth, and its equilibrium temperature is minus 2 degrees Celsius (28 degrees Fahrenheit).

Earlier observations of K2-18b identified methane and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere. This was the first time that carbon-based molecules were discovered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet in the habitable zone.

Those results were consistent with predictions for a Hycean world: a habitable ocean-covered exoplanet underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.

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This is a planetary nebula named Kohoutek 4-55, a member of the Milky Way galaxy situated just 4,600 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll

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Steeple Mountain, a 5-7 kilometers (3 to 4.3 miles) high formation on the surface of Jovian moon Io.

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Saturn seen by the space probe Voyager 2 (1981) , Voyager 1 (1980) , Cassini (2007) and Hubble (2021).

Credit: NASA

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The Great Dark Spot captured by NASA's Voyager 2 space probe. Around the edges of the storm, winds were measured at up to 2,100 kilometers per hour, the fastest recorded in the Solar System.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. Gill

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Sweeping spiral arms extend from NGC 4536, littered with bright blue clusters of star formation and red clumps of hydrogen gas shining among dark lanes of dust. NGC 4536 is also a starburst galaxy, in which star formation is happening at a tremendous rate that uses up the gas in the galaxy relatively quickly, by galactic standards. NGC 4536 is approximately 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered in 1784 by astronomer William Herschel.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Lee (Space Telescope Science Institute); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

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Total Lunar Eclipse March 14. Villa de Leyva, Colombia. Credit: Andres Molina

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Just after sunset Venus can be seen in the western sky appearing as a bright star. 

Credit: Chuck Manges

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M41: The Little Beehive Star Cluster Image Credit: Xinran Li