Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) Discover the Cosmos!

3/6/2017

February 2017

1 Compiled by: LRMDS | Samar Division

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 01, 2017 Four Planets Orbiting Star HR 8799 Video Credit & CC BY License: J. Wang (UC Berkeley) & C. Marois (Herzberg Astrophysics), NExSS (NASA), Keck Obs. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170201.html Does life exist outside our Solar System? To help find out, NASA has created the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) to better locate and study distant star systems that hold hope of harboring living inhabitants. A new observational result from a NExSS collaboration is the featured time-lapse video of recently discovered planets orbiting the star HR 8799. The images for the video were taken over seven years from the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Four exoplanets appear as white dots partially circling their parent star, purposefully occluded in the center. The central star HR 8799 is slightly larger and more massive than our Sun, while each of the planets is thought to be a few times the mass of Jupiter. The HR 8799 system lies about 130 light years away toward the constellation of the Flying Horse (Pegasus). Research will now continue on whether any known or potential planets -- or even moons of these planets -- in the HR 8799 star system could harbor life. 2017 February 1

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Four Planets Orbiting HR 8799

2 Compiled by: LRMDS | Samar Division

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 02, 2017 NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide Image Credit & Copyright: Steve Mazlin, Warren Keller, and Steve Menaker (SSRO / UNC / PROMPT / CTIO) https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170202.html

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An example of violence on a cosmic scale, enormous elliptical galaxy NGC 1316 lies about 75 million light-years away toward Fornax, the southern constellation of the Furnace. Investigating the startling sight, astronomers suspect the giant galaxy of colliding with smaller neighbor NGC 1317 seen just above, causing far flung loops and shells of stars. Light from their close encounter would have reached Earth some 100 million years ago. In the deep, sharp image, the central regions of NGC 1316 and NGC 1317 appear separated by over 100,000 light-years. Complex dust lanes visible within also indicate that NGC 1316 is itself the result of a merger of galaxies in the distant past. Found on the outskirts of the Fornax galaxy cluster, NGC 1316 is known as Fornax A. One of the visually brightest of the Fornax cluster galaxies it is one of the strongest and largest radio sources with radio emission extending well beyond this telescopic field-ofview, over several degrees on the sky.

3 Compiled by: LRMDS | Samar Division

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 03, 2017 Milky Way with Airglow Australis Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN) https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170203.html

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Captured last April after sunset on a Chilean winter's night an exceptionally intense airglow flooded this scene. The panoramic skyscape is also filled with stars, clusters, and nebulae along the southern Milky Way including the Large and Small Magellanic clouds. Originating at an altitude similar to aurorae, the luminous airglow is due to chemiluminescence, the production of light through chemical excitation. Commonly recorded with a greenish tinge by sensitive digital cameras, both red and green airglow emission here is predominately from atmospheric oxygen atoms at extremely low densities and has often been present in southern hemisphere nights during the last few years. Like the Milky Way on that dark night the strong airglow was visible to the eye, but seen without color. Mars, Saturn, and bright star Antares in Scorpius form the celestial triangle anchoring the scene on the left. The road leads toward the 2,600 meter high mountain Cerro Paranal and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescopes.

4 Compiled by: LRMDS | Samar Division

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 04, 2017 Conjunction of Four Image Credit & Copyright: Maxime Oudoux https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170204.html

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On January 31, a waxing crescent Moon, brilliant Venus, and fainter Mars gathered in the fading twilight, hanging above the western horizon just after sunset on planet Earth. In this combined evening skyscape, the lovely celestial triangle is seen through clouds and haze. Still glinting in sunlight, from low Earth orbit the International Space Station briefly joined the trio that evening in skies near Le Lude, France. The photographer's line-of-sight to the space station was remarkably close to Mars as the initial exposure began. As a result, the station's bright streak seems to leap from the Red Planet, moving toward darker skies at the top of the frame.

5 Compiled by: LRMDS | Samar Division

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 05, 2017 Odysseus Crater on Tethys Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, +European Space Agency, ESA, +NASA https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170205.html

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Some moons wouldn't survive the collision. Tethys, one of Saturn's larger moons at about 1000 kilometers in diameter, survived the collision, but today exhibits the resulting expansive impact crater Odysseus. Sometimes called the Great Basin, Odysseus occurs on the leading hemisphere of Tethys and shows its great age by the relative amount of smaller craters that occur inside its towering walls. The density of Tethys is similar to water-ice. The featured image was captured in November by the robotic Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn as it swooped past the giant ice ball. Cassini has now started on its Grand Finale Tour which will take it inside Saturn's rings and culminate in September with a dive into Saturn's thick atmosphere.

6 Compiled by: LRMDS | Samar Division

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) February 2017 Feb 06, 2017 The Porpoise Galaxy from Hubble Image Credit: +NASA, +European Space Agency, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Raul Villaverde https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170206.html

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What's happening to this spiral galaxy? Just a few hundred million years ago, NGC 2936, the upper of the two large galaxies shown, was likely a normal spiral galaxy -- spinning, creating stars -- and minding its own business. But then it got too close to the massive elliptical galaxy NGC 2937 below and took a dive. Dubbed the Porpoise Galaxy for its iconic shape, NGC 2936 is not only being deflected but also being distorted by the close gravitational interaction. A burst of young blue stars forms the nose of the porpoise toward the right of the upper galaxy, while the center of the spiral appears as an eye. Alternatively, the galaxy pair, together known as Arp 142, look to some like a penguin protecting an egg. Either way, intricate dark dust lanes and bright blue star streams trail the troubled galaxy to the lower right. The featured re-processed image showing Arp 142 in unprecedented detail was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope last year. Arp 142 lies about 300 million light years away toward the constellation, coincidently, of the Water Snake (Hydra). In a billion years or so the two galaxies will likely merge into one larger galaxy.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 07, 2017 NGC 6357: The Lobster Nebula Image Credit: ESO, VLT Survey Telescope https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170207.html

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Why is the Lobster Nebula forming some of the most massive stars known? No one is yet sure. Near the more obvious Cat's Paw nebula on the upper right, the Lobster Nebula, on the lower left and cataloged as NGC 6357, houses the open star cluster Pismis 24, home to these tremendously bright and blue stars. The overall red glow near the inner star forming region results from the emission of ionized hydrogen gas. The surrounding nebula, featured here, holds a complex tapestry of gas, dark dust, stars still forming, and newly born stars. The intricate patterns are caused by complex interactions between interstellar winds, radiation pressures, magnetic fields, and gravity. The full zoomable version of this image contains about two billion pixels, making it one of the largest space images ever released. NGC 6357 spans about 400 light years and lies about 8,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Scorpion.

8 Compiled by: LRMDS | Samar Division

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 08, 2017 The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble Image Credit: +NASA, +European Space Agency, ESA , Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Jesús M.Vargas & Maritxu Poyal https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170208.html

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The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. This sharp close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope and is presented here in reprocessed colors. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 09, 2017 Crescent Enceladus Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, +European Space Agency, ESA, +NASA https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170209.html

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Peering from the shadows, the Saturn-facing hemisphere of tantalizing inner moon Enceladus poses in this Cassini spacecraft image. North is up in the dramatic scene captured last November as Cassini's camera was pointed in a nearly sunward direction about 130,000 kilometers from the moon's bright crescent. In fact, the distant world reflects over 90 percent of the sunlight it receives, giving its surface about the same reflectivity as fresh snow. A mere 500 kilometers in diameter, Enceladus is a surprisingly active moon. Data collected during Cassini's flybys and years of images have revealed the presence of remarkable south polar geysers and a possible global ocean of liquid water beneath an icy crust.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 10, 2017 Melotte 15 in the Heart Image Credit & Copyright: Steve Cooper https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170210.html

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Cosmic clouds form fantastic shapes in the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805. The clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula's newborn star cluster, Melotte 15. About 1.5 million years young, the cluster stars are scattered in this colorful skyscape, along with dark dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas. A composite of narrowband and broadband telescopic images, the view spans about 15 light-years and includes emission from ionized hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms mapped to green, red, and blue hues in the popular Hubble Palette. Wider field images reveal that IC 1805's simpler, overall outline suggests its popular name - The Heart Nebula. IC 1805 is located about 7,500 light years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia.

11 Compiled by: LRMDS | Samar Division

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 11, 2017 Solar System Portrait Image Credit: Voyager Project, +NASA https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170211.html

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On Valentine's Day in 1990, cruising four billion miles from the Sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back one last time to make this first ever Solar System family portrait. The complete portrait is a 60 frame mosaic made from a vantage point 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane. In it, Voyager's wide angle camera frames sweep through the inner Solar System at the left, linking up with gas giant Neptune, the Solar System's outermost planet, at the far right. Positions for Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are indicated by letters, while the Sun is the bright spot near the center of the circle of frames. The inset frames for each of the planets are from Voyager's narrow field camera. Unseen in the portrait are Mercury, too close to the Sun to be detected, and Mars, unfortunately hidden by sunlight scattered in the camera's optical system. Closer to the Sun than Neptune at the time, small, faint Pluto's position was not covered.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 12, 2017 Comet 45P Passes Near the Earth Image Credit & Copyright: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170212.html

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A large snowball has just passed the Earth. Known as Comet 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková", or 45P for short, the comet came 10 times closer to Earth yesterday than the Earth ever gets to the Sun. During this passage, the comet was photographed sporting a thin ion tail and a faint but expansive green coma. The green color is caused mostly by energized molecules of carbon. Comet 45P became just bright enough to see with the unaided eye when it came closest to the Sun in December. Now, however, the comet is fading as it heads back out to near the orbit of Jupiter, where it spends most of its time. The kilometer-sized nucleus of ice and dirt will return to the inner Solar System in 2022.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 13, 2017 Cloud Swirls around Southern Jupiter from Juno Image Credit: +NASA, +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Caltech, SwRI, MSSS; Processing: Damian Peach https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170213.html

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Juno just completed its fourth pass near Jupiter. Launched from Earth in 2011 and arriving at Jupiter just last July, robotic Juno concluded its latest elliptical orbit around our Solar System's largest planet 11 days ago. Pictured here from that pass is a new high-resolution image of the southern hemisphere of Jupiter featuring a mesmerizing tapestry of swirling cloud systems. The terminator between day and night cuts diagonally across the bottom, meaning that the Sun is positioned off the top right. Large Oval BA is visible in orange on the far right. Reasons for the details and colors of Jupiter's cloud swirls are currently unknown. Juno planned six year mission will study Jovian giant in new ways, including trying to determine if beneath its thick clouds, Jupiter has a solid core.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 14, 2017 The Rosette Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Evangelos Souglakos https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170214.html

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Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet? The bland New General Catalog designation of NGC 2237 doesn't appear to diminish the appearance of this flowery emission nebula. Inside the nebula lies an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244. These stars formed about four million years ago from the nebular material and their stellar winds are clearing a hole in the nebula's center, insulated by a layer of dust and hot gas. Ultraviolet light from the hot cluster stars causes the surrounding nebula to glow. The Rosette Nebula spans about 100 light-years across, lies about 5000 light-years away, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros).

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 15, 2017 The Calabash Nebula from Hubble Image Credit: +NASA, +European Space Agency, ESA, Hubble, MAST; Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170215.html

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Fast expanding gas clouds mark the end for a central star in the Calabash Nebula. The oncenormal star has run out of nuclear fuel, causing the central regions to contract into a white dwarf. Some of the liberated energy causes the outer envelope of the star to expand. In this case, the result is a photogenic proto-planetary nebula. As the million-kilometer per hour gas rams into the surrounding interstellar gas, a supersonic shock front forms where ionized hydrogen and nitrogen glow blue. Thick gas and dust hide the dying central star. The Calabash Nebula, also known as the Rotten Egg Nebula and OH231.8+4.2, will likely develop into a full bipolar planetary nebula over the next 1000 years. The nebula, featured here, is about 1.4 light-years in extent and located about 5000 light-years away toward the constellation of Puppis.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 16, 2017 The Tulip and Cygnus X-1 Image Credit & Copyright: Ivan Eder https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170216.html

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Framing a bright emission region, this telescopic view looks out along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the nebula rich constellation Cygnus the Swan. Popularly called the Tulip Nebula, the reddish glowing cloud of interstellar gas and dust is also found in the 1959 catalog by astronomer Stewart Sharpless as Sh2-101. About 8,000 light-years distant and 70 light-years across the complex and beautiful nebula blossoms at the center of this composite image. Ultraviolet radiation from young energetic stars at the edge of the Cygnus OB3 association, including O star HDE 227018, ionizes the atoms and powers the emission from the Tulip Nebula. HDE 227018 is the bright star near the center of the nebula. Also framed in the field of view is microquasar Cygnus X-1, one of the strongest X-ray sources in planet Earth's sky. Driven by powerful jets from a black hole accretion disk, its fainter visible curved shock front lies above and right, just beyond the cosmic Tulip's petals.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 17, 2017 Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660 Image Credit & Copyright: CHART32 Team, Processing - Johannes Schedler https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170217.html

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NGC 660 is featured in this cosmic snapshot. Over 40 million light-years away and swimming within the boundaries of the constellation Pisces, NGC 660's peculiar appearance marks it as a polar ring galaxy. A rare galaxy type, polar ring galaxies have a substantial population of stars, gas, and dust orbiting in rings strongly tilted from the plane of the galactic disk. The bizarrelooking configuration could have been caused by the chance capture of material from a passing galaxy by a disk galaxy, with the captured debris eventually strung out in a rotating ring. The violent gravitational interaction would account for the myriad pinkish star forming regions scattered along NGC 660's ring. The polar ring component can also be used to explore the shape of the galaxy's otherwise unseen dark matter halo by calculating the dark matter's gravitational influence on the rotation of the ring and disk. Broader than the disk, NGC 660's ring spans over 50,000 light-years.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 18, 2017 Penumbral Eclipse Rising Image Credit & Copyright: Bill Jelen https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170218.html

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As seen from Cocoa Beach Pier, Florida, planet Earth, the Moon rose at sunset on February 10 while gliding through Earth's faint outer shadow. In progress was the first eclipse of 2017, a penumbral lunar eclipse followed in this digital stack of seaside exposures. Of course, the penumbral shadow is lighter than the planet's umbral shadow. That central, dark, shadow is easily seen on the lunar disk during a total or partial lunar eclipse. Still, in this penumbral eclipse the limb of the Moon grows just perceptibly darker as it rises above the western horizon. The second eclipse of 2017 could be more dramatic though. With viewing from a path across planet Earth's southern hemisphere, on February 26 there will be an annular eclipse of the Sun.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 19, 2017 Black Sun and Inverted Starfield Image Credit & Copyright: Jim Lafferty https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170219.html

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Does this strange dark ball look somehow familiar? If so, that might be because it is our Sun. In the featured image from 2012, a detailed solar view was captured originally in a very specific color of red light, then rendered in black and white, and then color inverted. Once complete, the resulting image was added to a starfield, then also color inverted. Visible in the image of the Sun are long light filaments, dark active regions, prominences peeking around the edge, and a moving carpet of hot gas. The surface of our Sun can be a busy place, in particular during Solar Maximum, the time when its surface magnetic field is wound up the most. Besides an active Sun being so picturesque, the plasma expelled can also become picturesque when it impacts the Earth's magnetosphere and creates auroras.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 20, 2017 Almost Three Tails for Comet Encke Image Credit & Copyright: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170220.html

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How can a comet have three tails? Normally, a comet has two tails: an ion tail of charged particles emitted by the comet and pushed out by the wind from the Sun, and a dust tail of small debris that orbits behind the comet but is also pushed out, to some degree, by the solar wind. Frequently a comet will appear to have only one tail because the other tail is not easily visible from the Earth. In the featured unusual image, Comet 2P/Encke appears to have three tails because the ion tail split just near to the time when the image was taken. The complex solar wind is occasionally turbulent and sometimes creates unusual structure in an ion tail. On rare occasions even ion-tail disconnection events have been recorded. An image of the Comet Encke taken two days later gives a perhaps less perplexing perspective.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 21, 2017 An Active Night over the Magellan Telescopes Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN); Music Credit & License: Airglow by Club 220 https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170221.html

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The night sky is always changing. Featured here are changes that occurred over a six hour period in late 2014 June behind the dual 6.5-meter Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The initial red glow on the horizon is airglow, a slight cooling of high air by the emission of specific colors of light. Bands of airglow are also visible throughout the time-lapse video. Early in the night, car headlights flash on the far left. Satellites quickly shoot past as they circle the Earth and reflect sunlight. A long and thin cloud passes slowly overhead. The Large Magellanic Cloud rises on the left, while the expansive central band of our Milky Way Galaxy arches and pivots as the Earth rotates. As the night progresses, the Magellan telescopes swivel and stare as they explore pre-determined patches of the night sky. Every night, every sky changes differently, even though the phenomena at play are usually the same. 2017 February 21

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 22, 2017 Daphnis and the Rings of Saturn Image Credit: +NASA, +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Caltech, Space Science Institute, Cassini https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170222.html

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What's happening to the rings of Saturn? Nothing much, just a little moon making waves. The moon is 8-kilometer Daphnis and it is making waves in the Keeler Gap of Saturn's rings using just its gravity -- as it bobs up and down, in and out. The featured image is a wide-field version of a previously released image taken last month by the robotic Cassini spacecraft during one of its new Grand Finale orbits. Daphnis can be seen on the far right, sporting ridges likely accumulated from ring particles. Daphnis was discovered in Cassini images in 2005 and raised mounds of ring particles so high in 2009 -- during Saturn's equinox when the ring plane pointed directly at the Sun -- that they cast notable shadows.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 23, 2017 Seven Worlds for TRAPPIST-1 Illustration Credit: +NASA , +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Caltech, Spitzer Space Telescope, Robert Hurt (Spitzer, Caltech) https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170223.html

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Seven worlds orbit the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, a mere 40 light-years away. In May 2016 astronomers using the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) announced the discovery of three planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. Just announced, additional confirmations and discoveries by the Spitzer Space Telescope and supporting ESO ground-based telescopes have increased the number of known planets to seven. The TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely all rocky and similar in size to Earth, the largest treasure trove of terrestrial planets ever detected around a single star. Because they orbit very close to their faint, tiny star they could also have regions where surface temperatures allow for the presence of liquid water, a key ingredient for life. Their tantalizing proximity to Earth makes them prime candidates for future telescopic explorations of the atmospheres of potentially habitable planets. All seven worlds appear in this artist's illustration, an imagined view from a fictionally powerful telescope near planet Earth. Planet sizes and relative positions are drawn to scale for the Spitzer observations. The system's inner planets are transiting their dim, red, nearly Jupiter-sized parent star.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 24, 2017 NGC 3621: Far Beyond the Local Group Image Credit & Copyright: Processing - Robert Gendler, Roberto Colombari; Data - Hubble Legacy Archive, European Southern Observatory, et al. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170224.html

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Far beyond the local group of galaxies lies NGC 3621, some 22 million light-years away. Found in the multi-headed southern constellation Hydra, the winding spiral arms of this gorgeous island universe are loaded with luminous blue star clusters, pinkish starforming regions, and dark dust lanes. Still, for astronomers NGC 3621 has not been just another pretty face-on spiral galaxy. Some of its brighter stars have been used as standard candles to establish important estimates of extragalactic distances and the scale of the Universe. This beautiful image of NGC 3621, is a composite of space- and ground-based telescope data. It traces the loose spiral arms far from the galaxy's brighter central regions for some 100,000 light-years. Spiky foreground stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy and even more distant background galaxies are scattered across the colorful skyscape.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 25, 2017 All Planets Panorama Image Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel (TWAN) https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170225.html

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For 360 degrees, a view along the plane of the ecliptic is captured in this remarkable panorama, with seven planets in a starry sky. The mosaic was constructed using images taken during January 24-26, from Nacpan Beach, El Nido in Palawan, Philippines. It covers the eastern horizon (left) in dark early morning hours and the western horizon in evening skies. While the ecliptic runs along the middle traced by a faint band of zodiacal light, the Milky Way also cuts at angles through the frame. Clouds and the Moon join fleeting planet Mercury in the east. Yellowish Saturn, bright star Antares, and Jupiter lie near the ecliptic farther right. Hugging the ecliptic near center are Leo's alpha star Regulus and star cluster M44. The evening planets gathered along the ecliptic above the western horizon, are faint Uranus, ruddy Mars, brilliant Venus, and even fainter Neptune. A well labeled version of the panorama can be viewed by sliding your cursor over the picture, or just following this link.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 26, 2017 A Supercell Thunderstorm Cloud Over Montana Image Credit & Copyright: Sean R. Heavey https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170226.html

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Is that a spaceship or a cloud? Although it may seem like an alien mothership, it's actually a impressive thunderstorm cloud called a supercell. Such colossal storm systems center on mesocyclones -- rotating updrafts that can span several kilometers and deliver torrential rain and high winds including tornadoes. Jagged sculptured clouds adorn the supercell's edge, while wind swept dust and rain dominate the center. A tree waits patiently in the foreground. The above supercell cloud was photographed in 2010 July west of Glasgow, Montana, USA, caused minor damage, and lasted several hours before moving on.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 27, 2017 Four Quasar Images Surround a Galaxy Lens Image Credit: +European Space Agency, ESA /Hubble, +NASA, Sherry Suyu et al. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170227.html

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An odd thing about the group of lights near the center is that four of them are the same distant quasar. This is because the foreground galaxy -- in the center of the quasar images and the featured image -- is acting like a choppy gravitational lens. A perhaps even odder thing is that by watching these background quasars flicker, you can estimate the expansion rate of the universe. That is because the flicker timing increases as the expansion rate increases. But to some astronomers, the oddest thing of all is that these multiply imaged quasars indicate a universe that is expanding a bit faster than has been estimated by different methods that apply to the early universe. And that is because ... well, no one is sure why. Reasons might include an unexpected distribution of dark matter, some unexpected effect of gravity, or something completely different. Perhaps future observations and analyses of this and similarly lensed quasar images will remove these oddities.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) | February 2017 Feb 28, 2017 A White Oval Cloud on Jupiter from Juno Image Credit: +NASA, +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Caltech, SwRI, MSSS; Processing: Roman Tkachenko https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170228.html

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This storm cloud on Jupiter is almost as large as the Earth. Known as a white oval, the swirling cloud is a high pressure system equivalent to an Earthly anticyclone. The cloud is one of a "string of pearls" ovals south of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot. Possibly, the Great Red Spot is just a really large white oval than turned red. Surrounding clouds show interesting turbulence as they flow around and past the oval. The featured image was captured on February 2 as NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno made a new pass just above the cloud tops of the Jovian world. Over the next few years, Juno will continue to orbit and probe Jupiter, determine atmospheric water abundance, and attempt to determine if Jupiter has a solid surface beneath its thick clouds.

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