1/ Most massive stellar #BlackHole in our galaxy found! With 33 times the mass of the Sun, this is the most massive black hole formed after the collapse of a star that we've found so far in the #MilkyWay.
ESA's Gaia mission found it via the wobble it induces on a star orbiting it, and data from ground-based telescopes helped confirm its mass and elucidate how it formed.
Bioluminescent plankton stimulated by the lapping waves on a tropical island of the Maldives give this photo its magnificence, but to also have the Milky Way hovering overhead is simply remarkable
🚂 "The #train now boarding at Platform 3 is the 02:30 Paranal Express service to Proxima Centauri." 😉
I took this #photo at ESO's Paranal Observatory in #Chile back when I worked there. This wagon was donated by the FCAB (Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia). It's being restored by ESO engineer Roberto Castillo, and it will serve as a museum showcasing various astronomical instruments.
The Island is a great place for #nightsky photography as we have little light pollution over the majority of the land and seacape. #LandscapePhotography
Given its latitude, from ESO's Paranal Observatory in #Chile you can see the core of the #MilkyWay passing directly overhead. In this pic I took a few years ago you can see its faint glow reflected off the dome of one of our 8 m telescopes.
My neck wasn't happy when framing this shot, though, as my camera doesn't have a flip screen! 😅
Happy #BlackHoleWeek to those who celebrate! Here's a pic I took a few years ago back when I worked at ESO's Paranal Observatory in #Chile. One of our 8.2 m telescopes was pointing at the centre of the #MilkyWay, home to Sagittarius A*, a #BlackHole 4 million times more massive than the #Sun.
Astronomers devoted almost a century to unmask this beast:
Winter #Solstice today for those of us on the north end. I don’t have any “solsticey” photos but thinking celestial I have this one of the #MilkyWay that I took while in N. #California last August. Our solar system orbits around the galactic center once every ~225 million years so if there was an equivalent galactic “winter solstice” point there have only been about 20 of them since our sun was but a wee protostar and all of us were just a glint in its eye.
Tanabata (Japanese: たなばた or 七夕, meaning "Evening of the seventh"), also known as the Star Festival (星祭り, Hoshimatsuri), is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on 7 July of the Gregorian calendar. The celebration is held at various days between July and August.
Die Milchstrasse über der Hauptsinsel Helgoland. Rechts daneben der Hafen, in dem nicht selten auch spät abends noch Schiffe beladen werden, welche dann am nächsten Tag früh raus zu dem nahegelegenen Offshorpark fahren, um Reparaturen durchzuführen.
The Milky Way over the main island of Helgoland. To the right is the harbor, where ships are often loaded late in the evening before heading out early the next day to the nearby offshore park for repairs.
The Magellanic stream is a cloud of dust and gas that wraps around our galaxy. It has long been thought to host stars, but they have never been seen until now
#SciArt is a human activity, but often #nature itself provides the brushes and pigments.
Last year the South African Radio #Astronomy Observatory released a stunning view of the core of the #MilkyWay captured by the MeerKAT radio #telescope
Here's my edited version, where the colours map the so-called spectral index, which tells us what causes the radio emission. Those filaments do look like brush strokes, don't they?
Let's see how a panoramic photo does. It's either going to display thin and narrow or cropped off the sides. You probably will need to click it to see it fully.
This shows the Milky Way from the southern sky (right) to the northern sky (left). There are slight northern lights in the north.
A two frame composite of the Milky Way and my kitty "Ding" waiting for me to join him in the freezing cold tent. Ding loved to go camping with me. I sure do missing Schrödinger, the Kampin' Kitty 💔. (Photo: Massacre Rim, International Dark Sky Sanctuary, Nevada (5/23/2020).)
Vor zwei Wochen aufgenommen auf der schwäbischen Alb. Nachdem die Woche eher wolkig war, haben sie sich einen Tag lang verzogen und es hatte ziemlich gute Bedingungen für Milchstraßenfotografie.
Stars found hidden in huge cloud wrapped around the Milky Way (archive.is)
The Magellanic stream is a cloud of dust and gas that wraps around our galaxy. It has long been thought to host stars, but they have never been seen until now