Gocmnh

The black swan (Cygnus atratus) is one of my favourite birds, mainly because it’s hella gay. An estimated one-quarter of all parings are homosexual, mostly males. These pairs have been observed to either steal eggs, or form a relationship with a female, driving her away after the eggs have been laid.

The black swan is almost exclusively herbivorous, and while there is some regional and seasonal variation, the diet is generally dominated by aquatic and marshland plants.

Photo credits: Jón Óskar Hauksson

Images of Jupiter taken by JunoCam on NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Mission Juno, Jason Major, Luca Fornaciari,   Gerald Eichstädt

Incredible view of Fanjingshan or mount Fanjing, Guizhou, China

Guizhou, China 😍✈️

viajarbaratoemelhor

Demonstration of the 1974 Arecibo message. The radio message, consisting of seven different parts showcasing human technological knowledge, was sent from Earth to star cluster M13, 25,000 light years away.

(In the actual message the different parts aren’t colored.)

Created using still images taken by the Cassini spacecraft during it’s flyby of Jupiter and while at Saturn. Shown is Io and Europa over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill

A rendered view of the night sky from a planet in a globular cluster. Source: Reddit

Stars and Dust in Corona Australis : Cosmic dust clouds and young, energetic stars inhabit this telescopic vista, less than 500 light-years away toward the northern boundary of Corona Australis, the Southern Crown. The dust clouds effectively block light from more distant background stars in the Milky Way. But the striking complex of reflection nebulae cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, and IC 4812 produce a characteristic blue color as light from the region’s young hot stars is reflected by the cosmic dust. The dust also obscures from view stars still in the process of formation. At the left, smaller yellowish nebula NGC 6729 bends around young variable star R Coronae Australis. Just below it, glowing arcs and loops shocked by outflows from embedded newborn stars are identified as Herbig-Haro objects. On the sky this field of view spans about 1 degree. That corresponds to almost 9 light-years at the estimated distance of the nearby star forming region. via NASA

Say hello to globular cluster 47 Tucanae 👋

This glittery spray of ancient stars is about 16,700 light-years away from Earth toward the constellation Tucana. Globular clusters like this one are isolated star cities, home to hundreds of thousands of stars that are held together by their mutual gravity. And like the fast pace of cities, there’s plenty of action in these stellar metropolises. The stars are in constant motion, orbiting around the cluster’s center.

Past observations have shown that the heavyweight stars tend to crowd into the “downtown” core area, while lightweight stars reside in the less populated suburbs. But as heavyweight stars age, they rapidly lose mass, cool down and shut off their nuclear furnaces. After the purge, only the stars’ bright, superhot cores – called white dwarfs – remain. This weight loss program causes the now lighter-weight white dwarfs to be nudged out of the downtown area through gravitational interactions with heftier stars.

Until these Hubble observations, astronomers had never seen the dynamic conveyor belt in action. The Hubble results reveal young white dwarfs amid their leisurely 40-million-year exodus from the bustling center of the cluster.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Prometheus and Pandora shepherd Saturn’s F ring into shape

Image credit: Morphics Zero