Starship Asterisk*

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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the remnants of a long-dead star. These rippling wisps of ionised gas, named DEM L316A, are located some 160 000 light-years away within one of the Milky Way’s closest galactic neighbours — the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).

The explosion that formed DEM L316A was an example of an especially energetic and bright variety of supernova, known as a Type Ia. Such supernova events are thought to occur when a white dwarf star steals more material than it can handle from a nearby companion, and becomes unbalanced. The result is a spectacular release of energy in the form of a bright, violent explosion, which ejects the star’s outer layers into the surrounding space at immense speeds. As this expelled gas travels through the interstellar material, it heats it up and ionise it, producing the faint glow that Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 has captured here.

The LMC orbits the Milky Way as a satellite galaxy and is the fourth largest in our group of galaxies, the Local Group. DEM L316A is not alone in the LMC; Hubble came across another one in 2010 with SNR 0509 (heic1018), and in 2013 it snapped SNR 0519 (potw1317a).

[img3="Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.com)"]https://cdn.spacetelescope.org/archives ... w1629a.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the vibrant core of the galaxy NGC 3125. Discovered by John Herschel in 1835, NGC 3125 is a great example of a starburst galaxy — a galaxy in which unusually high numbers of new stars are forming, springing to life within intensely hot clouds of gas.

Located approximately 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Antlia (The Air Pump), NGC 3125 is similar to, but unfathomably brighter and more energetic than, one of the Magellanic Clouds. Spanning 15 000 light-years, the galaxy displays massive and violent bursts of star formation, as shown by the hot, young, and blue stars scattered throughout the galaxy’s rose-tinted core. Some of these clumps of stars are notable — one of the most extreme Wolf–Rayet star clusters in the local Universe, NGC 3125-A1, resides within NGC 3125.

Despite their appearance, the fuzzy white blobs dotted around the edge of this galaxy are not stars, but globular clusters. Found within a galaxy’s halo, globular clusters are ancient collections of hundreds of thousands of stars. They orbit around galactic centres like satellites — the Milky Way, for example, hosts over 150 of them.

[img3="Credit: ESO/Gerhard Hüdepohl(atacamaphoto.com)"]https://cdn.eso.org/images/screen/potw1629a.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

In this image we see a rare sight — water in the Atacama Desert! Reflected on the water’s calm surface we can see the familiar sight of Cerro Paranal, home to ESO’s Paranal Observatory.

This desert is one of the driest and most inhospitable places on Earth. The average rainfall in the Cerro Paranal region is less than 10 millimetres per year, indicating that this photograph was taken just after a period of rare rainfall in the area. Soon after the image was taken, the temporary lagoon evaporated swiftly, leaving the valley floor as dry and desiccated as ever.

However, what is arguably bad for the minimal flora and fauna of the region is excellent for astronomers. The lack of rainclouds and the dry air allow Paranal astronomers to observe all year round. With over 300 clear nights per year, the Atacama Desert is one of the best sites in the world for astronomy, almost always offering an uninterrupted view of the cosmos. ...

Ann wrote:NGC 6753

NGC 6753. Processing:
Judy Schmidt.

Geck has processed some HST wideband leftovers and created a truly stunning picture of galaxy NGC 6753. You have to watch the large size of this image.

Ann