Cosmic Cliffs In Carina © JWST

Boo! Did we get you? 🎃

This solar jack-o-lantern, captured by our Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in October 2014, gets its ghoulish grin from active regions on the Sun, which emit more light and energy than the surrounding dark areas. Active regions are markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s atmosphere.

The SDO has kept an unblinking eye on the Sun since 2010, recording phenomena like solar flares and coronal loops. It measures the Sun’s interior, atmosphere, magnetic field, and energy output, helping us understand our nearest star.

Grab the high-resolution version here.

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A hexagonal storm with a diameter of 25,000 km raging at the north pole of Saturn.

November 12, 1980: Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Saturn, flying within 124,000 kilometers (77,000 miles) of the ringed planet.

2023 September 28

The Deep Lagoon Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis, Christian Sasse

Explanation: Ridges of glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds inhabit the turbulent, cosmic depths of the Lagoon Nebula. Also known as M8, The bright star forming region is about 5,000 light-years distant. It makes for a popular stop on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Dominated by the telltale red emission of ionized hydrogen atoms recombining with stripped electrons, this deep telescopic view of the Lagoon’s central reaches is about 40 light-years across. The bright hourglass shape near the center of the frame is gas ionized and sculpted by energetic radiation and extreme stellar winds from a massive young star.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230928.html

M78 // Capturing Ancient Photons

A beautiful series of reflection nebulae make up M78. These reflection nebulae, like their name suggests, contain little ionized gas and primarily reflect the light of nearby stars. In this case, it is only two stars' light that the gas is reflecting despite containing a few hundred young stars within.

Saturn in near-infrared

Earth as seen through Saturn's ring(Cassini)

With giant storms, powerful winds, auroras, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of the planet. Webb’s Jupiter observations will give scientists even more clues to Jupiter’s inner life.  

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt. Read more

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