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Hourly Cosmos

@hourlycosmos.bsky.social

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Photo sharing bot for planetary and deep space images. Run by @kevinmgill.bsky.social Content providers added with permission.

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Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 41m

Hubble Views a Dwarf Galaxy - From Goddard Space Flight Center - https://flic.kr/p/dKFAiR

The constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear) is home to Messier 101, the Pinwheel Galaxy. Messier 101 is one of the biggest and brightest spiral galaxies in the night sky. Like the Milky Way, Messier 101 is not alone, with smaller dwarf galaxies in its neighborhood.

NGC 5477, one of these dwarf galaxies in the Messier 101 group, is the subject of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Without obvious structure, but with visible signs of ongoing star birth, NGC 5477 looks much like an typical dwarf irregular galaxy. The bright nebulae that extend across much of the galaxy are clouds of glowing hydrogen gas in which new stars are forming. These glow pinkish red in real life, although the selection of green and infrared filters through which this image was taken makes them appear almost white.

The observations were taken as part of a project to measure accurate distances to a range of galaxies within about 30 million light-years from Earth, by studying the brightness of red giant stars.

In addition to NGC 5477, the image includes numerous galaxies in the background, including some that are visible right through NGC 5477. This serves as a reminder that galaxies, far from being solid, opaque objects, are actually largely made up of the empty space between their stars.

This image is a combination of exposures taken through green and infrared filters using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The field of view is approximately 3.3 by 3.3 arcminutes.

ESA...

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 1h

Enceladus - Anti-Saturn Hemisphere Mosaic (2010) - From Ian Regan - https://flic.kr/p/8Yx2BH

4 frame mosaic of the anti-Saturn hemisphere of Enceladus. The north pole is roughly at the 1 o'clock position.

Also visible in the background are the rings of Saturn.

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 2h

Cascade of Stars Over Jupiter Gap - From Bill (ridingrobots.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2m9NkfV

Jupiter, Saturn, the core of the Milky Way, and Earth.

Skull Valley, Utah

"As the stars enriched the heavens that had borne them, the heavens gave rise to new generations of stars, and these descendants possessed enough material wealth to build attendant worlds, with salt seas and slime pits, with mountains and deserts and rivers of gold."
– Dava Sobel

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 4h

ROSETTA (16) - From Jacint Roger (landru79.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2iKjMQf

INTERNATIONAL ROSETTA MISSION

COMET 67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO

ESA/Rosetta/MPS/OSIRIS/IAA/INTA/j. Roger

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 5h

Skylight In a Lava Tube - From Bill (ridingrobots.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2nUN3hF

Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 6h

Jupiter, Jet N6, Nasa’s Juno PJ27 - From Andrea Luck (andrealuck.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2miY4yz

PJ27 ENCOUNTER

Data processed from Nasa Juno
JNCE_2020154_27C00019_V01

www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing?id=JNCE_20201...

Nasa/SwRI/MSSS/AndreaLuck

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 7h

CP18_20_15_1 - From Brian Swift (bswift.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2duuHAB

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Brian Swift

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 8h

Charon C_LEISA_HIRES - From Aster Cowart (terrasabaea.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/z6vDu2

Five frame LORRI mosaic of Charon taken at around 10:30 UT July 14, about an hour before New Horizons' closest approach to Pluto.

Image has been colorized using an MVIC image of Charon taken on July 13 and released to the public during the encounter phase. MVIC image has been warped into general alignment with the LORRI mosaic.

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 9h

Enceladus - From Gordan Ugarković (ugordan.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/8G185j

Cassini NAC RGB. 2009-11-23 06:12 UTC.

Distance: 1.1 million km
Phase angle: 76 deg

N1637650523

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 10h

The Globular Clusters of Barnard's Galaxy - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/24csgR5

Barnard's Galaxy has 9 known globular clusters. Here I have used PixInsight to annotate my image with the 5 globulars that lie within the image FOV:
SC3, SC5, SC6, Hubble-VII and Hubble-VIII.

Image details:
Date: 29th and 30th July, 3rd, 22nd, and 23rd August 2017 + 7th, 18th, 19th, 26th and 27th July 2012
Exposure: Ha L R G B: 285:1145:114:112:112m, total 29hrs 28mins @ -25/-30C
Telescope: Homebuilt 12.5" f/4 Serrurier Truss Newtonian (2017) and Homebuilt 10" Serrurier Truss Newtonian f/5 (2012)
Camera: QSI 683wsg with Lodestar guider
Filters: Astrodon LRGB E-Series Gen 2 and 3nm H-Alpha
Taken from my observatory in Auckland, New Zealand

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 11h

Parallel view of Ingenuity helicopter - Perseverance, sol 45 - From Thomas Appéré (thomasappere.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2kTDcDi

These two photos are composed of pictures taken by Mastcam-Z cameras set up at 110mm focal length. Pictures were taken on sol 45 (7 April 2021) at 2:46 pm martian local time.

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 12h

Moon - January 25 2021 - From Kevin M. Gill (kevinmgill.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2kvWCd9

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 14h

Celestial Fireworks (widefield, annotated): First Amateur Detection of Light Echoes from 19th-Century Great Eruption of Eta Carinae - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/2pqiQri

The images in this gallery are the first amateur images of light echoes from the 19th-century Great Eruption of Eta Carinae. These light echoes have been detected by the Hubble Space Telescope and from large observatories such as the CTIO 4m telescope, but this is the first time that amateur images reveal these transient features. My other first amateur detection of light echoes from supernova SN1987a inspired me to try looking for the fainter echoes near Eta Carinae.

What are Light Echoes?
Light echoes occur when the initial flash from a bright source, like a supernova, is reflected back to us from a slightly different direction. Dust clouds in interstellar space reflect a portion of the outward-traveling light from the supernova, redirecting it towards Earth. These faint light echoes can be observed decades or centuries after the original flash. Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky, known for his contributions to supernovae, neutron stars, dark matter, and gravitational lenses, predicted the existence of light echoes as early as 1940. Together with Walter Baade, he coined the term 'supernova' in 1934 and proposed that faint echoes of historical supernovae could be visible long after the initial explosion.
The Great Eruption was a significant brightening of the star Eta Carinae that occurred in phases during the mid-19th century.
The light echoes are produced when the initial flash from the eruption is subsequently reflected off interstellar dust as light travels outward from ...

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 16h

Opportunity (27) - From Jacint Roger (landru79.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2iKTGsM

Opportunity MARS

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / j. Roger

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 17h

Animation of Ingenuity, Fight 13 - sol 193 - From Thomas Appéré (thomasappere.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2moRUJv

Animation available here and in comments below: www.flickr.com/photos/thomasappere/51454528697/sizes/o/

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 18h

M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy - From Ryan Kinnett (rkinnett.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2m5ZwDr

M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy in LRGB. Approx. 1.5 hours integration with C9.25 at f/6.3, asi1600mm and ZWO filters.

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 19h

Prominence 10-26-10 - From Jason Major (jpmajor.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/8NkYgk

A huge prominence erupted from the eastern limb of the Sun today, forming this towering wall of plasma around 8pm CST on October 26, 2010. The pale circle shows the size of Earth in comparison!

Image has been rotated 90º ccw from the original.

See a video of this region in action here www.flickr.com/photos/lightsinthedark/5149863234/

Courtesy SDO (NASA) and the AIA consortium. Edited by J. Major.

Solar Dynamics Observatory main site: sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

www.lightsinthedark.com

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 20h

Annotated movie of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, moving against background stars - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/2mWpzwu

Fully annotated movie of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, moving against background stars.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIWDThSwohg
www.rolfolsenastrophotography.com/.../i-xMwSxSM
This animation shows the JWST's movement against the background stars on 6th Jan 2022 from 8:41am to 09:54am UTC while travelling just under 1 million kilometres away on its journey towards the Sun-Earth L2 point. JWST moved nearly 1000 kms further away from Earth during this observation and also appears to slowly fluctuate in magnitude from 14.0 to 15.8 - this is likely due to varying amounts of sunlight reflecting off its massive aluminised sun shield.
Interestingly the track appears slightly curved which matches the JWST ephemeris from Horizons: ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/app.html#/
The animation was made using 29 consecutive frames, each a 2 minute luminance exposure, and the colour was added by subsequently taking a separate RGB image of the same region and then overlaying this onto the animation frames.
Plate solving was done using PixInsight and photometric measurements with PlateSolve2.
Image details:
Date: 6th January 2022
Telescope: Homebuilt 12.5" f/4 Serrurier Truss Newtonian
Camera: QSI 683wsg with Lodestar guider
Filters: Astrodon LRGB E-Series Gen 2
Taken from my observatory in Auckland, New Zealand

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 21h

Mariner 9 - Olympus Mons Caldera - From Aster Cowart (terrasabaea.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/22JUAxQ

Mariner 9 narrow angle camera of Olympus Mons' central caldera. This image was among the first images to confirm that Olympus Mons was a volcano - the largest known in the Solar System.

This image was taken on Mariner 9's 148th orbit around Mars, March 7, 1972.

Image Credit: NASA / JPL / Justin Cowart

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 22h

NGC 7177 - From Jason Major (jpmajor.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2irrgUb

Dust lanes around the center of NGC 7177, a barred spiral galaxy 56 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Made from Hubble WFC3 observations in Oct. 2017 (PI Peter Erwin).

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 23h

Pismis 24 - comparison with Hubble Space Telescope - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/2na4RqP

The central part of the nebula near Pismis 24 has been photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope in very high resolution. This image is a comparison between the Hubble image and the same region taken with my 12.5" f/5 Newtonian telescope.

Link: Full image of Pismis 24 and NGC 6357

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 1d

Jupiter - South Equatorial Belt North - Nasa’s Juno PJ 40 - From Andrea Luck (andrealuck.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2n7jBS8

Orbit (Perijove) 40
PJ40 South Equatorial Belt North
2022-02-25
Altitude: 13657 km

Credit:
©Nasa/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/AndreaLuck

Image created using data processed from Nasa's Juno
www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing?id=12627

Product ID:
JNCE_2022056_40C00030_V011

©Nasa/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/AndreaLuck
twitter.com/andrluck/status/1500818299877269516?s=21

Feel free to share, giving the appropriate credit and providing a link to the original image or tweet: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 1d

CP18_44_15_1 - From Brian Swift (bswift.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/24gPLRp

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Brian Swift

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 1d

Olympus Mons - Hope, 26 February 2021 - From Thomas Appéré (thomasappere.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2mC4eac

Picture taken by EXI camera aboard United Arab Emirates' Hope spacecraft (or Al-Amal in Arabic) on February 26, 2021 at an altitude of 12 961 km.

Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 1d

Opportunity (50) - From Jacint Roger (landru79.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2iKWqq3

Opportunity MARS

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / j. Roger