142-143-thekraken
The Kraken The Kraken is a brand of rum that I in no way recommend drinking in excess, as it is very powerful. But long before I may or may not have made that mistake – all the way back to antiquity,...
View ArticleAug 21, 2013
Colorful Star Birth This unprecedented image of Herbig-Haro object HH 46/47 combines radio observations acquired with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) with much shorter...
View Article106-107-island-whale
The Island Whale It’s a tale as old as time, or at least one that’s been told consistently for a few thousand years. A ship sails up to an island, anchors to it, and unloads its crew. The men start a...
View ArticleAug 22, 2013
Far-Side Burst The Sun erupted with a good-sized solar flare and a coronal mass ejection (CME) on its far-side beyond the view of SDO, but the resulting strands of particle clouds as seen in extreme...
View ArticleWrangell, Alaska
Wrangell, Alaska Speaking of off locations for volcanism, Wrangell in Alaska isn't where you think you should find active volcanism in the northern state. Located ~320 kilometers almost due east of...
View ArticleMaug Islands, Mariana Islands
Maug Islands, Mariana Islands Now we just to the middle of the ocean. Maug Islands are the pieces of a collapsed caldera that is ~2.5 kilometers across. There isn't a lot of, well, anything on Maug...
View ArticleNemrut Dagi, Turkey
Nemrut Dagi, Turkey When I stumbled across this image, I was a little surprised. Such a youthful-looking caldera in Turkey! Indeed, Nemrut Dagi last erupted only ~360 years ago and lake sediments from...
View ArticleWhite Island, New Zealand
White Island, New Zealand Finally, we have White Island off the northern coast of New Zealand in the Bay of Plenty. The volcano has a moderate explosive eruption last week and the eruption was captured...
View ArticleRabaul, Papua New Guinea
Rabaul, Papua New Guinea Much like Sakurajima, a city lies within kilometers of a very active volcano at Rabaul in Papua New Guinea. The Tavurvur cone of Rabaul is persistently producing steam-and-ash...
View ArticleSakurajima, Japan
Time for another salvo of volcanoes as seen from space. This bunch is varied -- some very active and well-known and some that are unknown to almost everyone. Enjoy! Sakurajima, Japan If you regularly...
View ArticlePuracé, Colombia
Puracé, Colombia I added this Colombian volcano because I haven't mentioned it much, but unlike the many restless Colombian volcanoes (Galeras, Ruiz, Machín, Sotará), Puracé has been quiet over the...
View ArticleAug 23, 2013
Asteroid and Nebula This image shows the potentially hazardous near-Earth object 1998 KN3 as it zips past a cloud of dense gas and dust near the Orion nebula. NEOWISE, the asteroid-hunting portion of...
View ArticleAug 24, 2013
Moon Shadow on Mars A view of Gusev crater on Mars, the landing site of NASA's now-defunct Spirit rover. The European Space Agency's Mars Express satellite captures this amazing view of the area from...
View ArticleSmall Magellanic Cloud
The Wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud We love this image because it looks as though a cosmic pair of T. rex jaws are about to gobble up some unsuspecting young stars. In reality, this is a region...
View ArticleGalaxy-in-a-Galaxy
Sombrero Galaxy What appears to be one gorgeous galaxy is actually two: A thin disk galaxy (in red), embedded within a large elliptical galaxy (in blue), about 28 million light-years away in the...
View ArticleBright Superbubble
Bright Superbubble Massive stars grow quickly and die young, exploding in radiant supernovae. A large cluster of these hot, young stars will generate stellar winds and shock waves that carve...
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Sculptor Galaxy
Sculptor Galaxy The Sculptor Galaxy, 11.4 million light-years away, is seen in these three Spitzer images. The largest is a composite of the two smaller images, each observed during Spitzer's early...
View ArticleTycho's Supernova
Tycho's Supernova Remnant What looks like a cell floating in a starry petri dish is the remnant of a supernova that exploded in 1572, and was witnessed by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (who not only...
View ArticleNewborns
Newborn Stars Newborn stars peer out from beneath a blanket of dust in the Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud, located near the constellations Scorpius and Ophiuchus, about 407 light-years away from Earth. Image...
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