Photo Archive › Posters, Flyers, Slides › The Universe

The Universe (Selected Photos)

Page 2 of 2

300 Photos/Page

Published on 1/2/2003 Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) Detects Numerous New Stars in the Milky Way

Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) Detects Numerous New Stars in the Milky Way

Published on 1/8/2003 New Discovery: Ring of Stars Circle the Milky Way

New Discovery: Ring of Stars Circle the Milky Way

Published on 1/9/2003 American Experts Speculate That Some Mysterious Dark Energy Dominates the Universe

American Experts Speculate That Some Mysterious Dark Energy Dominates the Universe

Published on 1/15/2003 Giant jets of subatomic particles moving at nearly the speed of light have been found coming from thousands of galaxies across the universe, but always from elliptical galaxies or galaxies in the process of merging -- until now. Using the combined power of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Array (VLA) and the 8-meter Gemini-South Telescope, astronomers have discovered a huge jet coming from a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way.

NASA Publishes Hubble Space Telescope's New Discovery: Giant Radio Jet Coming from Spiral Galaxy

Published on 2/15/2003 On February 11, 2003, NASA released the best "baby picture" of the Universe ever taken, containing such stunning detail that it may be one of the most important scientific results of recent years. (AFP photo)

Astronomers Discover that an Unknown Force Caused the Inflation of the Universe to Accelerate

Published on 5/30/2003 According to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s report on May 27, 2003, Using the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope, astronomers discovered the newly-exploded star hidden deep in a dust-enshrouded supernova factory in a galaxy some 140 million light-years from Earth.

Goddard Space Flight Center: Hidden Supernova Reveals Dust-Enshrouded "Supernova Factory"

Published on 5/31/2003 According to Science Daily Magazine’s report on May 27, 2003, a mammoth sky survey led by University of Florida astronomers has uncovered seven planet-forming disks in clusters of young stars, doubling the number of such disks discovered and expanding the territory that might yield new planets.

Astronomers Find Seven Planet-Forming Disks, Doubling Total

Published on 6/18/2003 Rho Cas (type semiregular) is a hypergiant star and one of the most luminous stars in our galaxy. Eruptions on these very rare, very massive stars produce huge mass ejections evidenced by dramatic spectral changes and optical dimming (an ejection in 2000 amounted to 10,000 Earths worth of material and caused a ~1.5-magnitude drop in visual brightness)

Marvelous Spectacle: Hypergiant Erupts

Published on 6/18/2003 Resembling the fury of a raging sea, this image actually shows a bubbly ocean of glowing hydrogen gas and small amounts of other elements such as oxygen and sulfur.

The photograph, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, captures a small region within M17, a hotbed of star formation. M17, also known as the Omega or Swan Nebula, is located about 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. The image is being released to commemorate the thirteenth anniversary of Hubble’s launch on April 24, 1990.

The image, roughly 3 light-years across, was taken May 29-30, 1999, with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The colors in the image represent various gases. Red represents sulfur; green, hydrogen; and blue, oxygen.

Hubble Captures a Perfect Storm of Turbulent Gases

Published on 6/18/2003 M64 is the famous Black Eye galaxy, sometimes also called the "Sleeping Beauty galaxy". The conspicuous dark structure is a prominent dust feature obscuring the stars behind.

M64 was recently shown to have two counter-rotating systems of stars and gas in its disk: The inner part of about 3,000 light years radius is rubbing along the inner edge of the outer disk, which rotates opposite and extends up to at least 40,000 light years, at about 300 km/sec. This rubbing process is probably the reason for the observed vigorous star formation process, which is currently under way, and can be observed as the blue knots imbedded in the peculiar dust lane on one side of the nucleus. It is speculated that this peculiar disk and dust lane may be caused by material from a former companion which has been accreted but has yet to settle into the mean orbital plane of the disk.

Sleeping Beauty Galaxy

Turbulent Changes in the Cosmos: Strongest Supernova Explosion

Published on 6/18/2003 First, what we talked about here are handful abnormal nebulae. They are intensively heated and they contain large amount of ions, that is, charged atoms. Their radiant intensity depends on the amount of atoms that participate in this process and the amount of electrons that are lost. The hot "wind" blew away those special bubbles in the surrounding substances. In the photos taken, some bubbles show themselves as different colorful arcs.

Turbulent Changes in the Cosmos: The Most Beautiful Stars