David Fratantoni's Blog

Monday, January 11, 2016

Starburst Spider

Mars’ seasonal cap of carbon dioxide ice has eroded many beautiful terrains as it sublimates (goes directly from ice to vapor) every spring. In the region where the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this image on Feb. 4, 2009, we see troughs that form a starburst pattern. via NASA http://ift.tt/1SJIc8a

from WordPress http://ift.tt/1OdT1MN

Friday, January 8, 2016

Hubble Sees a Supermassive and Super-hungry Galaxy

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 4845, located over 65 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). The galaxy’s orientation clearly reveals the galaxy’s striking spiral structure: a flat and dust-mottled disk surrounding a bright galactic bulge. via NASA http://ift.tt/1S8lWWe

from WordPress http://ift.tt/1Og5j4T

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Galaxy Cluster IDCS 1426

Astronomers have made the most detailed study yet of an extremely massive young galaxy cluster using three of NASA’s Great Observatories. via NASA http://ift.tt/1S6CRIE

from WordPress http://ift.tt/1OPQ1tb

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Space Station Flyover of British Columbia’s Coast Mountains

ESA astronaut Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) took this photograph over the west coast of Canada from the International Space Station on Dec. 31, 2015, and shared it with his Twitter followers on Jan. 5, writing, “I was lucky enough to fly a helicopter in these Rocky Mountains once – I’m a bit higher this time! #Principia” via NASA http://ift.tt/1mGs2A2

from WordPress http://ift.tt/1PNTJCF

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Andromeda in High-Energy X-rays

NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscope Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has imaged a swath of the Andromeda galaxy — the nearest large galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. via NASA http://ift.tt/1mySXOQ

from WordPress http://ift.tt/22IYVge