Category Astronomy/Space

The blue dots in this field of galaxies, known as the COSMOS field, show galaxies that contain supermassive black holes emitting high-energy X-rays. They were detected by NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Array, or NuSTAR, which spotted 32 such black holes in this field and has observed hundreds across the whole sky so far. The other colored dots are galaxies that host black holes emitting lower-energy X-rays, and were spotted by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Chandra data show X-rays with energies between 0.5 to 7 kiloelectron volts, while NuSTAR data show X-rays between 8 to 24 kiloelectron volts. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A false-color far-infrared image of the star forming region W43; the contours are for molecular gas density. The subregion MM1 located just left of center in not conspicuous in the image but is the site of massive star formation and fragmentation. A new study has mapped the magnetic fields in this region, and found they are not strong enough to prevent further gravitational collapse. Credit: ESA/Herschel and L.Q. Nguyen et al

This artist’s impression shows the strange object AR Scorpii. In this unique double star a rapidly spinning white dwarf star (right) powers electrons up to almost the speed of light. These high energy particles release blasts of radiation that lash the companion red dwarf star (left) and cause the entire system to pulse dramatically every 1.97 minutes with radiation ranging from the ultraviolet to radio. Credit: M. Garlick/University of Warwick, ESA/Hubble

Close-up of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Credit: NASA/JPL