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Spiral Galaxy M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy

The Pinwheel Galaxy is located in the constellation Ursa Major (a portion of which is known commonly as the big dipper) at a distance of 21 million light-years from Earth. Before Hubble’s pan of the Andromeda Galaxy, this was the most detail image of a galaxy ever taken. The galaxy’s portrait is actually composed of 51 individual Hubble exposures, in addition to elements from images from ground-based photos. Individual stars can be seen in this image as well as other galaxies which appear to be within M101 but are really behind it. This Galaxy is massive, its diameter is 170,000 light-years across and it is seventy percent larger than our Milky Way Galaxy. It has a disk mass on the order of 100 billion solar masses, along with a small central bulge of about 3 billion solar masses. On a very dark night (away from light pollution) this galaxy is visible to the naked eye just above the “handle” of what most call the big dipper.

The Triangulum Emission Nebula - NGC 604

Located 2.7 million light-years away in the constellation Triangulum lies the massive nebula known as NGC 604. Though such nebulae are common in galaxies, this one is particularly large, nearly 1,500 light-years across, and it dominates a portion of galaxy M33’s spiral arm. Nebula NGC 604 is also an area of intense star formation. At the heart of the nebula there are over 200 hot stars, most are more massive than our Sun with the largest being up to 60 times the size of our sun. By analyzing structure of this giant nebula, astronomers may determine how clusters of massive stars affect the evolution of the interstellar medium of the galaxy. The nebula also yields clues to its star formation history and will improve understanding of the starburst process when a galaxy undergoes a “firestorm” of star formation.

Starburst Within NGC 1313 - A Strange Barred Spiral Galaxy

Galaxy NGC 1313 is 50,000 light-years across and is located 14 million light-years away in the southern constellation Reticulum. As we view it, galaxy NGC 1313 is undergoing a period of massive star formation known as a starburst. In this image, Hubble sees many hot young stars scattered around the galaxy - indicating that a starburst is occurring. Many open star clusters are being formed within this galaxy. This gives Astronomers a unique chance to study the the formation of star clusters, how gravity effects the health of a star cluster, and how young star formation effects a galaxy.

X-Rays from our Sun

High-energy solar emissions can be seen in blue and green protruding from solar gasses. NASA has been studying these solar X-rays in detail with it’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array sense 2012. In this image, NuSTAR data was combined with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory to better understand the structures of solar arches.

Solar Eruptions - A Coronal Mass Ejection 

The swirling inner layers of our sun cause charged particles to generate magnetic fields. As charges accumulate on the surface, magnetic field lines readjust themselves and release huge quantities of matter and electromagnetic radiation into space. This particular Mass Ejection is traveling at over 900 miles per second and has an energy level equivalent to 160,000,000,000 megatons of TNT.