Blast Effect !

Messier 13, "The Hercules Cluster"

There's estimated to be around 300,000 - 500,000 stars in this cluster. These homies are only roughly 25k light years away from us and span 150 light years across. They're very close to us in galactic terms. As made obvious by its nickname, they hang out in the Hercules constellation.

NGC 6992

A portion of the Cygnus Loop, this beautiful capture shows the shattered remains of a massive supernova that occurred 10,000-20,000 years ago

Picturing Earth in a New Light...

An analysis of nearly a decade of nighttime lights data (2014-2022) from NASA's Black Marble product revealed areas of brightening (gold) and dimming (purple) shown here across the Eastern Hemisphere.

The researchers found that global radiance increased by 34 percent during the study period, but that surge masks large areas of dimming. Such “bidirectional changes” often happen side by side.

In the U.S., for example, West Coast cities grew brighter as their populations increased, while much of the East Coast showed dimming, which the team attributed to the increased use of energy-efficient LEDs and broader economic restructuring.

The authors concluded that internationally, nighttime light surged in China and northern India along with urban development, while LEDs and energy conservation measures coincided with reduced light pollution in Paris and throughout France (a 33 percent dimming), the UK (22 percent dimming), and the Netherlands (21 percent dimming). European nights dimmed sharply in 2022 during a regional energy crisis that followed the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

NGC 1266 !

This enigmatic post-starburst galaxy has a bright center and a face that hints at spiral structure, yet it holds no discernable spiral arms.

M77 !

This Picture features Messier 77, a barred spiral galaxy famous and appreciated among astronomers for its combination of relative proximity and spectacular features to study.

It is located 45 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale).

The bright lines radiating out of the center are diffraction spikes. The spikes are not a physical feature of the galaxy, but an optical effect caused by the telescope itself.

Shalbatana Vallis !

This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows part of Shalbatana Vallis, a large channel in Mars’s equatorial region.

Ancient floods once ripped across Mars, carving the massive Shalbatana Vallis channel and reshaping the planet’s surface.

This image comprises data gathered by Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on October 22, 2024 (orbit 26265).

SN 2024ggi !

About 22 million light-years away the supernova, SN 2024ggi, exploded in the galaxy NGC 3621. Using the ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers managed to capture the very early stage of the supernova when the blast was breaking through the star’s surface.

 “GN-z11 flash” !

Long gamma-ray bursts (GRB), explosions of very massive stars, provide crucial information on stellar and galaxy evolution, even at redshifts z ~ 8 - 9.5, when the Universe was only 500-600 million years old.

During observations of a galaxy at a redshift of z ~ 11 (400 million years after the Big Bang), a bright signal, named GN-z11-flash, shorter than 245 s was detected and interpreted as an ultraviolet flash associated with a GRB in this galaxy, or a shock-breakout in a Population III supernova.

Its resulting luminosity would be consistent with that of other GRBs, but a discussion based on probability arguments started on whether this is instead a signal from a man-made satellite or a Solar System object.

Here we show a conclusive association of GN-z11-flash with Breeze-M upper stage of a Russian Proton rocket on a highly elliptical orbit.

This rules out GN-z11-flash as the most distant GRB ever detected. It also implies that monitoring of a larger sample of very high redshift galaxies is needed to detect such distant GRBs. This also highlights the importance of a complete database of Earth satellites and debris, which can allow proper interpretation of astronomical observations.

The “ Eye of God” or The Helix Nebula.

Triton !

This image shows a composite of Neptune's giant moon Triton, assembled from Voyager 2 imagery at the highest possible resolution. The dark streaks come from cryovolcanic geysers, also known as black smokers, from Triton's south polar region.

Abell 2029 !

A large galaxy cluster that contains more than 1,000 galaxies. It's one of the large clusters we know of and appears to be calm and relaxed.

But Chandra x-ray observations reveal evidence of a massive merger event about 4 billion years ago.

SMBH !

This artist's illustration shows a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the early Universe.

The JWST found galaxies in the very early Universe that were extremely massive compared to their host galaxies.

Venus !

Image made with data made available by NASA shows the planet from the Magellan spacecraft and Pioneer Venus Orbiter.

Artemis II Lunar Flyby !

Pluto's Hillary Mountains

It took 9 years and 3 billion miles for NASA's New Horizons spacecraft to finally capture this view.

The Hillary Mountains, towering mountains of water ice, rising up to 3,500 meters, on the edge of a huge frozen nitrogen plain called Sputnik Planitia.

The Moon !

An image captured in April 2025, when the Moon was 35% visible, reveals that it has far more colors than previously thought. Red (iron) and blue (titanium) hues are also present.

Earthset', 6 April 2026 seen from lunar orbit,

The Moon eclipses the Sun, a view few humans have ever witnessed