Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 February 23 - A Supernova through Galaxy Dust

A Supernova through Galaxy Dust 
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA);
Inset Image: Howard Hedlund & Dave Jurasevich, Las Campanas Obs.

Explanation: Telescopes around the world are tracking a bright supernova that occurred in a nearby dusty galaxy. The powerful stellar explosion was first noted earlier this month. The nearby galaxy is the photogenic Centaurus A, visible with binoculars and known for impressive filaments of light-absorbing dust that cross its center. Cen A is featured here in a high-resolution archival Hubble Space Telescope image, with an inset image featuring the supernovataken from the ground only two days after discovery. Designated SN2016adj, the supernova is highlighted with crosshairs in the inset, appearing just to the left of a bright foreground star in our Milky Way Galaxy. This supernova is currently thought to be of Type IIb, a stellar-core-collapse supernova, and is of high interest because it occurred so nearby and because it is being seen through a known dust filament. Current and future observations of this supernovamay give us new clues about the fates of massive stars and how some elements found on our Earth were formed.

Randy Crawford - "Purple rain" - Video - Music - Live

"Purple rain"

Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 February 22 - Flying Over Pluto's Moon Charon

Flying Over Pluto's Moon Charon 
Video Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins U. APL, SwRI, Stuart Robbins

Explanation: Given some poetic license, there is now scientific evidence that hell has frozen over. To start, Greek mythology holds that Charon is the ferryman of the underworld. Next, recent analysis of data taken by the robotic New Horizons spacecraft that shot past Charon -- the namesake that is the largest moon of Pluto -- in July now indicates that the cause of the huge chasm that runs across the 1200-km moon was that a huge internal sea froze. And sincewater expands when it freezes, the already hardened outer crust could not contain it and cracked. To better picture the crack, a fanciful journey over some of Charon's has been digitally created from collected images. The featured video starts by showing the Dark Polar Deposit (dubbed Mordor) near Charon's north pole and then flies over the dwarf-planet-wide canyon. Last, the video shows a much-debated protuberance called Moated Mountain. Understanding the history of Pluto and Charon is helping humanity to better understand both the friendliest and more forbidding places in the early Solar System from which Earth formed and life somehow emerged.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 February 21 - M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind

M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind 
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, The Hubble Heritage Team, (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgement: M. Mountain (STScI), P. Puxley (NSF), J. Gallagher (U. Wisconsin)

Explanation: What's lighting up the Cigar Galaxy? M82, as this irregular galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81. This doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly expanding gas, however. Evidence indicates that this gas is being driven out by the combined emerging particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic superwind. The featured photographic mosaic highlights a specific color of red light strongly emitted by ionized hydrogen gas, showing detailed filaments of this gas. The filaments extend for over 10,000 light years. The 12-million light-year distant Cigar Galaxy is the brightest galaxy in the sky in infrared light, and can be seen in visible light with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Great Bear (Ursa Major).

Imagens do Mundo - "Refugiados"

"Refugiados"

SERGEY PONOMAREV (AP)

Imagens do Mundo - Explosão em Tianjin, China

Vista aérea da destruição causada pela explosão de Tianjin (China) a 15 de agosto de 2015.

CHEN JIE

Imagens do Mundo - Tempestade - Praia de Bondi, Australia

Tempestade. 6 de novembro, na praia de Bondi na Australia.

ROHAN KELLY (AP)

Imagens do Mundo - Vulcão Colima, México

Foto - 'El poder de la naturaleza' de Sergio Tapiro del volcán Colima en México.

SERGIO TAPIRO (AP)

Imagens do Mundo - Surf na Nazaré, Portugal

Surf numa onda gigante na praia do Norte na Nazaré (Portugal).

RAFAEL MARCHANTE (REUTERS)

Imagens do Mundo - Portugueses à caça de tornados

Ha malucos para tudo. Os cinco amigos e fundadores da Associação de Meteorologia Amadora, Troposfera têm uma atração por tempestades e correm atrás delas, em vez de fugirem delas. No ano passado, juntaram 15 mil euros e gastaram três semanas de férias no centro dos Estados Unidos, à caça de tornados.

Visão - Portugal