#space telescopes

In a stunning new breakthrough, scientists from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Solar Observatory have captured the most detailed view of the Sun’s surface ever recorded. Using the powerful Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, the team spotted ultra-thin magnetic “stripes” just 20 kilometers wide—about the length of Manhattan. These bright and dark bands, known as striations, ripple along the edges of solar granules and are created by delicate, curtain-like magnetic fields. As sunlight passes through these magnetic structures, it shifts in brightness, similar to how light changes when shining through a billowing curtain.

The discovery reveals a hidden layer of complexity in the Sun’s magnetic landscape and showcases the Inouye Telescope’s incredible ability to detect features once thought invisible from Earth. It opens the door to a deeper understanding of how solar magnetism drives powerful events like flares and storms in space

got obsessed with the space telescopes for a lil while hehehe. revamped my designs for jwst and hst and tried my hand at designing some of the other "great observatories" as well! i like to think hubble, spitzer, and chandra are all siblings (and james is just kinda crashing the party here).

some extra thoughts under the readmore

Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

Swift’s UV Portrait of the Andromeda Galaxy

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory viewed the spiral galaxy Andromeda. (Also called M31, in Ultraviolet light). The image is composed of 330 images from Swift's Ultraviolet Optical Telescope. 20,000 ultraviolet sources are visible in the photo, including M32, which is a small galaxy in orbit around M31.

Chemical signatures of a sugar called erythrulose have been detected near the centre of the Milky Way.

(Photo supplied: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Susan Stolovy (SSC/Caltech) et al.)

The astronomers used data from the Yebes 40m (pictured) and IRAM 30-metre radio telescopes. (Wikimedia: Yebesoan)

(Photo: Wikimedia - Yebesoan)

Erythrulose is a sugar that contains four carbon atoms, four oxygen atoms, and eight hydrogen atoms.

(Photo supplied: Jiménez-Serra et al. Nature Astronomy)

Signs of sugar detected near centre of the Milky Way

Astronomers have detected signs of a type of sugar in gas clouds near the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Sugars provide energy and are key building blocks of life on Earth, such as DNA, but how they got here is a mystery.

It is not uncommon to find sugar in the cosmos — simple sugars such as ribose and glucose have been previously discovered on asteroids in our Solar System.

But this is the first time sugar molecules have been found beyond our Solar System in the interstellar medium, astronomers report in Nature Astronomy.

They found the chemical fingerprint of erythrulose (C4H8O4), which contains four carbon molecules, and is a type of sugar known as a ketose.

On Earth, it is found in raspberries and is used as an ingredient in self-tanning lotions.

The study's lead author, Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, of the Center for Astrobiology CSIC-INTA in Spain, said the detection of erythrulose suggests these compounds may be more universal than originally thought.

"The detection of the first sugar in interstellar space suggests that the key ingredients for life can form in molecular nebula before stars and planets form," Dr Jiménez-Serra said.

The astronomers say the discovery provides clues about how sugars may have formed in the universe and became building blocks of life on Earth.

By Genelle Weule

ABC News - 14 July 2026

references :

Sky-Watcher 130/650

10mm , 4,mm ocular (POFET Planetary Eyepiece)

iPhone 14