The Week in Pictures: August 3–9, 2013
In the past seven days, scientists uncovered the source of the Magellanic Stream, astronomers imaged lowest-mass exoplanets around a Sun-like star, Hubble witnessed a previously unobserved stellar blast called a kilonova after two stellar corpses merged, and more.
Published: Friday, August 09, 2013
D. Nidever, et al./NRAO/AUI/NSF/A. Mellinger/Leiden-Argentine-Bonn (LAB) Survey/Parkes Observatory/Westerbork Observatory/Arecibo Observatory
Hubble Space Telescope finds source of Magellanic Stream
New observations reveal most of the gas was stripped from the Small Magellanic Cloud about 2 billion years ago, and a second region of the stream originated more recently from the Large Magellanic Cloud.
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NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/NOAJ
Astronomers image lowest-mass exoplanets around a Sun-like star
Several times the mass of Jupiter and similar in size, the new world, dubbed GJ 504b, is the lowest-mass planet ever detected around a star like the Sun using direct imaging techniques.
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Gemini Observatory/AURA, artwork by Lynette Cook
Explosion illuminates invisible galaxy in the Dark Ages
By analyzing this light, astronomers learned about a galaxy that was otherwise too small, faint, and far away for even the Hubble Space Telescope to see.
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NASA/ESA/N. Tanvir (University of Leicester)
NASA's Hubble finds telltale fireball after gamma-ray burst
The Hubble Space Telescope witnessed a previously unobserved stellar blast called a kilonova after two stellar corpses merged.
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Odd martian crater type caused by impacts into ancient ice
Understanding how double-layered ejecta craters formed could help researchers reconstruct ancient environmental conditions.
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Two very different gas clouds in the galaxy next door
This sharp image reveals two distinctive glowing clouds of gas — red-hued NGC 2014 and its blue neighbor NGC 2020 — in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
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Constructing a 3-D map of the large-scale structure of the universe
Astronomers have released their first version of a 3-D map of the universe from their FastSound project, which is surveying galaxies in the universe over 9 billion light-years away.
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If we landed on Europa, what would we want to know?
A NASA-appointed science team has laid out the most important questions to address concerning the jovian moon.
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Station crew captures Japanese cargo craft
The transfer vehicle is loaded with about 3.6 tons of equipment, supplies, and experiments within its pressurized and unpressurized cargo sections.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems
NASA's Curiosity nearing first anniversary on Mars
The Curiosity rover has been on the Red Planet for nearly a year and has set the stage for future exploration.
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