Comet Lovejoy, Magic Wand
NGC 2359 Thor's Helmet ©
What is casting dark shadows across 36,000 light-years of space in this Hubble Space Telescope image?
The mysterious dark rays appearing to emanate from galaxy IC 5063 have intrigued astronomers, and there are a few different ideas about what is causing them. They could be like the shadows of clouds when light from the setting Sun pierces through them.
Astronomers have traced the rays back to the galaxy’s core, the location of an active supermassive black hole. One idea suggests that the shadows are being cast into space by an inner tube-shaped ring, or torus, of dusty material surrounding the black hole.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and W.P. Maksym (CfA).
ALT TEXT: Rust-colored view of space, with a bright, narrow purple region at the center, a galaxy. Background stars and galaxies are scattered sparsely—this is a dusty rather than starry scene. To the upper left of the bright central region are dark dust lanes. Opposite these to the lower right, one dark area extends from the central bright region and splits into two dark rays. Similar dark rays can be seen to the top left, behind the dust lanes. The edges of the entire image are dark, fading from the colored center.
M51 (NIRCam image) by James Webb Space Telescope
M45, Seven Sisters
Perseid Meteors, Milky Way, and Stonehenge
Summer Milky Way at Williams, Western Australia
Nikon d810a - 50mm - ISO 3200 - f/2.5 Foreground: 4 x 20 seconds Sky: 13 x 20 seconds iOptron SkyTracker
Traveling the Milky Way © cosmic_background
IC 4628, Goldfish
We are truly children of the stars. —Brian Cox
l all taken by David Moulton