Category Astronomy/Space

Vast bubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way visible from the Southern Hemisphere, was formed by the explosive death of one or more of the cluster of massive stars inside the bubble. Cosmic rays reaching Earth are created and accelerated by similar explosions. Credit: Gemini South Telescope in Chile. Composite by Travis Rector of the University of Alaska Anchorage

The impulsive phase of the solar flare, in which most energy is released. Panel (a) a snapshot of Hα + 1.0 Å image showing post-flare brightening associated with coronal rain. The white box marks the ROI where the brightenings occurred. Panel (b) the zoomed-in view of the ROI marked by the white box in panel (a). The slits, with different colors, mark where the brightenings’ cross-sectional width were measured. Panel (c) the pseudo Dopplergrams (with red corresponding to red shift) of the ROI. Panels (d–g) the normalized Hα + 1.0 Å intensity profiles along the slits and the Gaussian fits. For reference, the color of each profile is the same as the color of the slit (see panel b). The Gaussian FWHM and ±3σ are provided in the panels. Credit: NJIT

This spectacular view of the Bubble Nebula was created from four separate images from the Hubble Space Telescope to mark the observatory’s 26th birthday in April 2016. The Bubble Nebula is 10 light-years wide and sculpted by the bright star seen to the left of center. Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team – See more at: http://www.space.com/32648-hubble-telescope-spectacular-birthday-bubble-image.html#sthash.rDIUMEqz.dpuf

Space shuttle Atlantis is photographed from the International Space Station as it flies over the Bahamas prior to docking with the station (2011). Credit: NASA