Category Astronomy/Space

This new Hubble Space Telescope image confirms the presence of a dark vortex in the atmosphere of Neptune. The full visible-light image at left shows that the dark feature resides near and below a patch of bright clouds in the planet’s southern hemisphere. The dark spot measures roughly 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) across. Other high-altitude clouds can be seen at the planet’s equatorial region and polar regions. The full-color image at top right is a close-up of the complex feature. Pancake-shaped clouds above the spot form when ambient air is perturbed and diverted upward over the vortex. The vortex is a high-pressure system. The image at bottom right shows that the vortex is best seen at blue wavelengths...

This artist’s impression shows stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. In 2018 one of these stars, S2, will pass very close to the black hole and this event will be the best opportunity to study the effects of very strong gravity and test the predictions of Einstein’s general relativity in the near future. The GRAVITY instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer is the most powerful tool for measuring the positions of these stars in existence and it was successfully tested on the S2 star in the summer of 2016. The orbit of S2 is shown in red and the position of the central black hole is marked with a red cross. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

This low-angle self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the site from which it reached down to drill into a rock target called “Buckskin.” Bright powder from that July 30, 2015, drilling is visible in the foreground. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS