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Blue Tadpole Protostar

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Proto-star - NASA
This clump of gas and dust, the Blue Tadpole, is a proto-star

The Blue Tadpole is a clump of gas and dust, and is officially named IRAS 20324+4057. The intense blue glow seen in this Hubble picture is caused by nearby stars firing ultraviolet radiation towards it. The “head” of the tadpole contains multiple burgeoning new stars,  though the glowing yellow one in this image is the largest and most luminous.  Protostars eventually emerge as young stars once they have gathered enough mass from their  surrounding environment. IRAS 20324+4057 as seen here is about 4,700 light years from Earth, making its way through the constellation Cygnus.

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Stars in the Flame Nebula

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Flame Nebula - NASA
A cluster of stars, NGC 2024, in the Flame Nebula in the constellation of Orion

1,400 light years away from Earth lies the Flame Nebula in the constellation of Orion. Within it lie star clusters that are being studied by astronomers as they try and learn more about the birth of stars. This composite image was created using data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope. According to the latest research which combined the Chandra and Spitzer data, the stars at the center of this cluster (NGC 2024)  could be approximately 200,000 years old while those on the outskirts are likely to be about 1.5 million years in age.

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X4 Solar Flare and CME

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X4 Flare - NASA
X4 Solar Flare and Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)

This February 25, 2014 solar event was a major X-class (X4) solar flare and coronal mass ejection (CME). The image captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the massive and powerful x-class ejection from the Sun, which looks a lot like a shrimp. Thankfully there was no major damage to electrical systems on Earth or on the many satellites in orbit.

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Miranda

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Miranda - NASA
Miranda, the moon or satellite of planet Uranus

The moon of Uranus, Miranda, was discovered by the Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Peter Kuiper in 1948. It was named after the the daughter of the wily Prospero in Shakespeare’s classic “The Tempest.” This picture of Miranda was taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986 and the NASA mission greatly increased the amount of data scientists had to study this natural satellite of Uranus. The surface of Miranda, is composed of ice and rock and its rare planetary geology features numerous cliffs and valleys.

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Magnetic map of our Milky Way Galaxy

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Milky Way - NASA
Magnetic map of the Milky Way Galaxy

Given the vastness of space and the universe, it is difficult to fathom the size of or the dimensions of these regions. But measuring and mapping the magnetic field, from light which was polarized when it was emitted by or scattered off dust and other surfaces, makes it possible to create a “map” using the technique of convolution. The ESA and NASA joint venture Planck satellite helped compile this view of the magnetic field of the Milky Way galaxy.

The dark band running horizontally across the center of the image corresponds to the galactic plane.  The darker regions in the rest of the image correspond to stronger polarized emissions, and the striations indicate the direction of the magnetic field projected onto the plane of the sky.

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