In pictures (Page 2)
The rose-red glow of star formation
The object dominating this image may resemble a pool of spilled blood, but rather than being associated with death, such regions of ionised hydrogen - known as HII regions - are sites of creation with high rates of recent star birth. NGC 371…
A very cool pair of brown dwarfs
Brown dwarfs are essentially failed stars: they lack enough mass for gravity to trigger the nuclear reactions that make stars shine. The newly discovered brown dwarf, identified as CFBDSIR 1458+10B, is the dimmer member of a binary brown dwarf…
Cassini spacecraft observes seasonal rains on Titan
As spring continues to unfold on Saturn, April showers on the planet's largest moon, Titan, have brought methane rain to its equatorial deserts, as revealed in images captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft…
The drama of starbirth
The star-forming region NGC 6729 is part of one of the closest stellar nurseries to the Earth and hence one of the best studied. This new image from ESO's Very Large Telescope gives a close-up view of a section of this strange and fascinating…
Japan quake may have shortened Earth days, moved axis
The March 11, magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan may have shortened the length of each Earth day and shifted its axis. But don't worry-you won't notice the difference…
NASA shows topography of tsunami-damaged Japan city
The topography surrounding Sendai, Japan is clearly visible in this combined radar image and topographic view generated with data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) acquired in 2000. On 11 March a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck…
Speed demon creates a shock
Just as some drivers obey the speed limit while others treat every road as if it were the Autobahn, some stars move through space faster than others. NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, captured this image of the star Alpha…
The most distant mature galaxy cluster
'We have measured the distance to the most distant mature cluster of galaxies ever found,' says the lead author of the study in which the observations from ESO's VLT have been used, Raphael Gobat (CEA, Paris). 'The surprising thing is that when…
The scars of impacts on Mars
ESA's Mars Express has returned new images of an elongated impact crater in the southern hemisphere of Mars. Located just south of the Huygens basin, it could have been carved out by a train of projectiles striking the planet at a shallow angle…
Huge new marine protected area offers oasis and hope for endangered sharks and sea turtles
A massive new marine protected area around Cocos Island is a beacon of hope for ocean health and human well-being in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, and will offer endangered marine species such as hammerhead sharks and leatherback turtles, as…
