Hubble has another great capture. This one is being called a celestial bauble. And just in time for Christmas. What a crazy coincidence, I know. (SpaceDaily thought it prudent to dumb down the article title a bit.)
Celestial Bauble
This is called SNR 0509, which means it’s a supernova remnant. It’s located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which looks a little something like this.
Large Magellanic Cloud
(None of this is here for or because of human existence, by the way.)
I don’t know any details on this one and it isn’t recent, but it sure is purdy.
Two times every 30 years it is possible to view Saturn’s aurorae from where the Hubble telescope is positioned. Since the telescope will be out of commission 30 years from now, this is the only image it will ever take where each aurora can be viewed simultaneously.
The principle behind these aurorae is the same that’s behind the aurora borealis, or northern lights.
NASA has recently taken an image of a galaxy which is suppose to resemble a snowflake. I guess I can see it, but it’s hard not to just think “Oo, a spiral galaxy” instead.
Thanks to a spike in hits today on Hubble posts, I’ve gone and found that NASA released more Hubble images taken since the telescope’s recent upgrade. The first is one of the most recent images (and may as well just be a close-up of a past release). The second is older, but not blurry and generally ugly.
Update: I’m not sure if this one has just been released, but it’s the best I’ve seen so far.
SN 1987A
NGC 2440
Small Magellanic Cloud
Nothing But Science 