February's Stellar Space Pictures
This is a breathtaking composite image of NGC 3344, a spiral galaxy 20 million light-years from home.
(Inside Science) – In the February slideshow, we celebrate record-breaking observations made in astronomy this month. The pictures range from the deepest image ever obtained in X-rays to the first ever initial burst of a supernova caught on camera.
This month, the Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite took the deepest image ever obtained in X-rays. The composite image above shows both the X-ray and optical view. The inset shows an artist’s illustration of what scientists believe the blue spot would look like up close. Through X-ray data collected on galaxies located a breathtaking 3.5 billion light-years away, astrophysicists found what may be the largest black holes in the universe -- structures they are dubbing "ultramassive" black holes. (NASA/UMontreal)
In another study of supermassive objects, astronomers found results that challenge current assumptions about the formation of black holes. Data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array has shown that there might be less of a relation between the formation of a supermassive black hole and its host galaxy than expected. Illustrated here is the ionized gas outflow from a central supermassive black hole, in green. The gas is depicted as not affecting the surrounding star formation, as it mostly flows perpendicular to the galaxy’s molecular gas. (ALMA)
This spectacular composite merges images taken through seven different filters. Together, they create a concert of colors, pleasing to the eye and informative to the discerning scientist. Pictured here is NGC 3344, a spiral galaxy about 20 million light-years from Earth. Images like these allow scientists to survey the galaxy in its full glory, revealing aspects that might otherwise remain unseen. (NASA/ESA)
In another study from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, astronomers have surmised that our nearest neighbor -- Proxima b -- might not be the most comfortable place to live. This illustration shows a red dwarf star like Proxima Centauri, the parent star of Proxima b. Over the short time of two minutes, Proxima Centauri was observed to have increased in brightness by 1,000 times, making the local space weather incredibly harsh and likely inundating the nearby exoplanet Proxima b with high energy radiation. (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
In a world first, scientists obtained this photograph of an initial burst of light from the Supernova 2016gkg. A lucky amateur astronomer in Argentina took this snapshot, among others, of the galaxy NGC 613, about 40 million light-years away. Víctor Buso was testing his new camera when the event occurred. (UC Santa Cruz/Las Campanas Observatory)