Showing posts tagged galaxy
Milky way’s Black Hole Snacks on Hot Gas by Whitney Clavin, JPL  The Herschel space observatory has made detailed observations of surprisingly hot gas that may be orbiting or falling towards the supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Herschel is a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation. “The black hole appears to be devouring the gas,” said Paul Goldsmith, the U.S. project scientist for Herschel at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “This will teach us about how supermassive black holes grow.” Our galaxy’s black hole is located in a region known as Sagittarius A* — or Sgr A* for short — which is a nearby source of radio waves. The black hole has a mass about four million times that of our sun and lies roughly 26,000 light-years away from our solar system… (read more: Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Image credits: ESA-C. Carreau View high resolution

Milky way’s Black Hole Snacks on Hot Gas

by Whitney Clavin, JPL 

The Herschel space observatory has made detailed observations of surprisingly hot gas that may be orbiting or falling towards the supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Herschel is a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation.

“The black hole appears to be devouring the gas,” said Paul Goldsmith, the U.S. project scientist for Herschel at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “This will teach us about how supermassive black holes grow.”

Our galaxy’s black hole is located in a region known as Sagittarius A* — or Sgr A* for short — which is a nearby source of radio waves. The black hole has a mass about four million times that of our sun and lies roughly 26,000 light-years away from our solar system…

(read more: Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Image credits: ESA-C. Carreau

Welcome to the Universe Wide Web by Ken Crosswell Astronomers have found evidence that galaxies are connected via an enormous cosmic web of intergalactic gas that helps many of them stay prolific star creators. Researchers studied the space between two nearby spiral galaxies, the Andromeda Galaxy and M33, which are 750,000 light-years apart and lie 2.5 million and 2.8 million light-years from Earth, respectively. As the scientists report online recently in Nature, a previously known gaseous column between the two galaxies contains seven gas clouds (white blobs in the image), the largest being 21,000 light-years across. Made mostly of neutral hydrogen gas, the clouds have probably condensed from the filament of gas stretching between the two galaxies. This discovery suggests that even as galaxies turn their gas into stars, they grab more gas from their surroundings and thereby prolong their star-making careers. (read more: Science/AAAS) image: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF View high resolution

Welcome to the Universe Wide Web

by Ken Crosswell

Astronomers have found evidence that galaxies are connected via an enormous cosmic web of intergalactic gas that helps many of them stay prolific star creators. Researchers studied the space between two nearby spiral galaxies, the Andromeda Galaxy and M33, which are 750,000 light-years apart and lie 2.5 million and 2.8 million light-years from Earth, respectively.

As the scientists report online recently in Nature, a previously known gaseous column between the two galaxies contains seven gas clouds (white blobs in the image), the largest being 21,000 light-years across. Made mostly of neutral hydrogen gas, the clouds have probably condensed from the filament of gas stretching between the two galaxies. This discovery suggests that even as galaxies turn their gas into stars, they grab more gas from their surroundings and thereby prolong their star-making careers.

(read more: Science/AAAS)

image: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF

A mosaic image of Messier 82, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, a starburst galaxy located about 12 million light years away, in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy is five times as bright as our own Milky Way. Photo: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team View high resolution

A mosaic image of Messier 82, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, a starburst galaxy located about 12 million light years away, in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy is five times as bright as our own Milky Way.

Photo: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team

Newly Discovered variety of Dark Matter Could From ‘Dark Atoms’ by Charles Q. Choi The mysterious dark matter that makes up most of the matter in the universe could be composed, in part, of invisible and nearly intangible counterparts of atoms, protons and electrons, researchers say. Dark matter is an invisible substance thought to make up five-sixths of all matter in the universe. Scientists inferred the existence of dark matter via its gravitational effects on the movements of stars and galaxies. Most researchers think dark matter is composed of a new type of particle, one that interacts very weakly at best with all the known forces of the universe save gravity. As such, dark matter can almost never be seen or touched, and rarely even collides with itself… (read more: Live Science)                 (photo: ESO/O. Maliy) View high resolution

Newly Discovered variety of Dark Matter Could From ‘Dark Atoms’

by Charles Q. Choi

The mysterious dark matter that makes up most of the matter in the universe could be composed, in part, of invisible and nearly intangible counterparts of atoms, protons and electrons, researchers say.

Dark matter is an invisible substance thought to make up five-sixths of all matter in the universe. Scientists inferred the existence of dark matter via its gravitational effects on the movements of stars and galaxies.

Most researchers think dark matter is composed of a new type of particle, one that interacts very weakly at best with all the known forces of the universe save gravity. As such, dark matter can almost never be seen or touched, and rarely even collides with itself…

(read more: Live Science)                 (photo: ESO/O. Maliy)

Black Hole Bonanza Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have been used to discover 26 black hole candidates in the Milky Way’s galactic neighbor, Andromeda, as described in our latest press release. This is the largest number of possible black holes found in a galaxy outside of our own. A team of researchers, led by Robin Barnard of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, used 152 observations of Chandra spanning over 13 years to find the 26 new black hole candidates. Nine were known from earlier work. These black holes belong to the stellar-mass black hole category, which means they were created when a massive star collapsed and are about 5 to 10 times the mass of the Sun… (read more: Wired Science) Image: X-ray (NASA/CXC/SAO/R.Barnard, Z.Lee et al.), Optical (NOAO/AURA/NSF/REU Prog./B.Schoening, V.Harvey; Descubre Fndn./CAHA/OAUV/DSA/V.Peris) [high-resolution] Caption: Chandra X-ray Telescope View high resolution

Black Hole Bonanza

Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have been used to discover 26 black hole candidates in the Milky Way’s galactic neighbor, Andromeda, as described in our latest press release. This is the largest number of possible black holes found in a galaxy outside of our own.

A team of researchers, led by Robin Barnard of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, used 152 observations of Chandra spanning over 13 years to find the 26 new black hole candidates. Nine were known from earlier work. These black holes belong to the stellar-mass black hole category, which means they were created when a massive star collapsed and are about 5 to 10 times the mass of the Sun…

(read more: Wired Science)

Image: X-ray (NASA/CXC/SAO/R.Barnard, Z.Lee et al.), Optical (NOAO/AURA/NSF/REU Prog./B.Schoening, V.Harvey; Descubre Fndn./CAHA/OAUV/DSA/V.Peris) [high-resolution]

Caption: Chandra X-ray Telescope

Massive Star Factory Churned in Universe’s Youth by Dave Finley, NRAO Astronomers using a world-wide collection of telescopes have discovered the most prolific star factory in the Universe, surprisingly in a galaxy so distant that they see as it was when the Universe was only six percent of its current age. The galaxy, dubbed HFLS3, 12.8 billion light-years from Earth, is producing the equivalent of nearly 3,000 Suns per year, a rate more than 2,000 times that of our own Milky Way. The galaxy is massive, with a huge reservoir of gas from which to form new stars. “This is the most detailed look into the physical properties of such a distant galaxy ever made,” said Dominik Riechers, of Cornell University. “Getting detailed information on galaxies like this is vitally important to understanding how galaxies, as well as groups and clusters of galaxies, formed in the early Universe,” he added… (read more: National Radio Astronomy Observatory) (images: Riechers et al., ESA/Herschel/HerMES/IRAM/, NRAO/AUI/NSF.) View high resolution

Massive Star Factory Churned in Universe’s Youth

by Dave Finley, NRAO

Astronomers using a world-wide collection of telescopes have discovered the most prolific star factory in the Universe, surprisingly in a galaxy so distant that they see as it was when the Universe was only six percent of its current age.

The galaxy, dubbed HFLS3, 12.8 billion light-years from Earth, is producing the equivalent of nearly 3,000 Suns per year, a rate more than 2,000 times that of our own Milky Way. The galaxy is massive, with a huge reservoir of gas from which to form new stars.

“This is the most detailed look into the physical properties of such a distant galaxy ever made,” said Dominik Riechers, of Cornell University. “Getting detailed information on galaxies like this is vitally important to understanding how galaxies, as well as groups and clusters of galaxies, formed in the early Universe,” he added…

(read more: National Radio Astronomy Observatory)

(images: Riechers et al., ESA/Herschel/HerMES/IRAM/, NRAO/AUI/NSF.)

Dark Matter in the Bullet Cluster This composite image shows the galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56, also known as the “bullet cluster.” This cluster was formed after the collision of two large clusters of galaxies, the most energetic event known in the universe since the Big Bang. Hot gas detected by Chandra in X-rays is seen as two pink clumps in the image and contains most of the “normal,” or baryonic, matter in the two clusters. The bullet-shaped clump on the right is the hot gas from one cluster, which passed through the hot gas from the other larger cluster during the collision. An optical image from Magellan and the Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxies in orange and white. The blue areas in this image show where astronomers find most of the mass in the clusters. The concentration of mass is determined using the effect of so-called gravitational lensing, where light from the distant objects is distorted by intervening matter. Most of the matter in the clusters (blue) is clearly separate from the normal matter (pink), giving direct evidence that nearly all of the matter in the clusters is dark… (read more: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/space-photo-of-the-day-2/?cid=co7121044&pid=6651) Image: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/M.Markevitch et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI; Magellan/U.Arizona/D.Clowe et al.; Lensing Map: NASA/STScI; ESO WFI; Magellan/U.Arizona/D.Clowe et al. [high-resolution] Caption: Chandra View high resolution

Dark Matter in the Bullet Cluster

This composite image shows the galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56, also known as the “bullet cluster.” This cluster was formed after the collision of two large clusters of galaxies, the most energetic event known in the universe since the Big Bang.

Hot gas detected by Chandra in X-rays is seen as two pink clumps in the image and contains most of the “normal,” or baryonic, matter in the two clusters. The bullet-shaped clump on the right is the hot gas from one cluster, which passed through the hot gas from the other larger cluster during the collision.

An optical image from Magellan and the Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxies in orange and white. The blue areas in this image show where astronomers find most of the mass in the clusters. The concentration of mass is determined using the effect of so-called gravitational lensing, where light from the distant objects is distorted by intervening matter. Most of the matter in the clusters (blue) is clearly separate from the normal matter (pink), giving direct evidence that nearly all of the matter in the clusters is dark…

(read more: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/space-photo-of-the-day-2/?cid=co7121044&pid=6651)

Image: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/M.Markevitch et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI; Magellan/U.Arizona/D.Clowe et al.; Lensing Map: NASA/STScI; ESO WFI; Magellan/U.Arizona/D.Clowe et al. [high-resolution]

Caption: Chandra

Twist in Tale of Dark Matter hints at Shadow Milky Way

by Lisa Grossman

THE HUNT for some of the most wanted stuff in the universe took a new twist this week with the first results from a high-profile, space-based dark matter detector. The results are inconclusive, but, if combined with recent theory, they hint at something exciting. Could the universe have a dark side, complete with its own force, a zoo of particles and even a shadow version of the Milky Way?

“There could be a mirror world where interesting things are going on,” says James Bullock of the University of California at Irvine, who has been working on the idea of a “dark sector” for a while. “It means nature is much richer than we would otherwise know,” he says.

The dark sector could help explain why we’ve failed to detect dark matter on Earth so far, but it would also demand a radical shift in our understanding of the stuff.

The way stars and galaxies move shows there is more mass present than we can see. To account for this, 80 per cent of the universe’s matter must be dark. No wonder physicists are desperate to find it. The trouble is the stuff stubbornly refuses to interact with ordinary matter, except through gravity, so has not been conclusively detected…

(read more: New Scientist)

Radical Cartwheel Galaxy This false-color composite image shows the Cartwheel galaxy as seen by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer’s far ultraviolet detector (blue); the Hubble Space Telescope’s wide field and planetary camera 2 in B-band visible light (green); the Spitzer Space Telescope’s infrared array camera at 8 microns (red); and the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s advanced CCD imaging spectrometer-S array instrument (purple). Approximately 100 million years ago, a smaller galaxy plunged through the heart of Cartwheel galaxy, creating ripples of brief star formation. In this image, the first ripple appears as an ultraviolet-bright blue outer ring. The blue outer ring is so powerful in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer observations that it indicates the Cartwheel is one of the most powerful UV-emitting galaxies in the nearby universe. The blue color reveals to astronomers that associations of stars 5 to 20 times as massive as our sun are forming in this region. The clumps of pink along the outer blue ring are regions where both X-rays and ultraviolet radiation are superimposed in the image. These X-ray point sources are very likely collections of binary star systems containing a blackhole (called massive X-ray binary systems). The X-ray sources seem to cluster around optical/ultraviolet-bright supermassive star clusters… (read more: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/space-photo-of-the-day-2/?pid=6638) Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech [high-resolution] Caption: NASA View high resolution

Radical Cartwheel Galaxy

This false-color composite image shows the Cartwheel galaxy as seen by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer’s far ultraviolet detector (blue); the Hubble Space Telescope’s wide field and planetary camera 2 in B-band visible light (green); the Spitzer Space Telescope’s infrared array camera at 8 microns (red); and the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s advanced CCD imaging spectrometer-S array instrument (purple).

Approximately 100 million years ago, a smaller galaxy plunged through the heart of Cartwheel galaxy, creating ripples of brief star formation. In this image, the first ripple appears as an ultraviolet-bright blue outer ring. The blue outer ring is so powerful in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer observations that it indicates the Cartwheel is one of the most powerful UV-emitting galaxies in the nearby universe.

The blue color reveals to astronomers that associations of stars 5 to 20 times as massive as our sun are forming in this region. The clumps of pink along the outer blue ring are regions where both X-rays and ultraviolet radiation are superimposed in the image. These X-ray point sources are very likely collections of binary star systems containing a blackhole (called massive X-ray binary systems). The X-ray sources seem to cluster around optical/ultraviolet-bright supermassive star clusters…

(read more: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/space-photo-of-the-day-2/?pid=6638)

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech [high-resolution]

Caption: NASA

Simulations indicate that Milky Way galaxy may have up to 2000 black holes in its halo

by Bob Yirka

Valery Rashkov and Piero Madau, space scientists with the University of California have uploaded a paper to the preprint server arXiv in which they suggest that the Milky Way galaxy likely has between 70 and 2000 intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) existing in its outer edges. They came to this conclusion by building a computer model that mimics what they believe occurred when galaxies, and by extension, black holes merged during their formative years.

In building their simulation, the researchers began with the idea that when galaxies form, they have a “seed” black hole at their center. Over time, they suggest, some early galaxies ran into one another, merging as they did so, causing the black holes at their respective centers to merge as well. But not all couplings worked out, their simulations show. Because of gravitational waves created by such collisions, smaller black holes could be ejected, and would as a result, travel all the way to the outer reaches of the galaxy where they would reside alone in space…

(read more: PhysOrg)                 

(images: arXiv:1303.3929 [astro-ph.CO])

Small Magellenic Cloud:  A Confetti-Like Collection of Stars by JPL staff The tip of the “wing” of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is dazzling in this new view from NASA’s Great Observatories. The Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC, is a small galaxy about 200,000 light-years way that orbits our own Milky Way spiral galaxy. The colors represent wavelengths of light across a broad spectrum. X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in purple; visible-light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue; and infrared observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope are also represented in red. The spiral galaxy seen in the lower corner is actually behind this nebula. Other distant galaxies located hundreds of millions of light-years or more away can be seen sprinkled around the edge of the image… (read more: Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA) (image: NASA/CXC/JPL-Caltech/STScI) View high resolution

Small Magellenic Cloud:  A Confetti-Like Collection of Stars

by JPL staff

The tip of the “wing” of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is dazzling in this new view from NASA’s Great Observatories. The Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC, is a small galaxy about 200,000 light-years way that orbits our own Milky Way spiral galaxy.

The colors represent wavelengths of light across a broad spectrum. X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in purple; visible-light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue; and infrared observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope are also represented in red.

The spiral galaxy seen in the lower corner is actually behind this nebula. Other distant galaxies located hundreds of millions of light-years or more away can be seen sprinkled around the edge of the image…

(read more: Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA)

(image: NASA/CXC/JPL-Caltech/STScI)

A Distorted Galaxy And Its Cloaked Clouds of Gas by Phil Plait | Slate.com I find all galaxies to be beautiful, from huge, symmetric elliptical puffballs to glorious, grand design spirals. But man, J082354.96 is seriously messed up. It’s still beautiful, though. Wow. It’s quite the train wreck, and can definitely be labeled as “peculiar”. That’s an actual galaxy type, along with elliptical, disk (or spiral, like our Milky Way), and irregular. That last is for galaxies with no overall shape; peculiars have a definite shape, just a weird one. J08 is about 650 million light years away, and clearly has something going on to give it this weird, drawn out, and oddly pleasing curvy hooked shape. To any astronomer’s eye, it’s obviously undergone an interaction: a cosmic collision with or nearby pass of another galaxy. That will commonly elongate a galaxy like this, and even cause those curls at the ends. As two galaxies collide (and sometimes merge), the huge collective gravities of each stretch the other out like taffy, and an off-center collision can cause vast arcs of gas and stars to be drawn out… (read more: Bad Astronomy - Slate)           (photo: ESA/Hubble, NASA) View high resolution

A Distorted Galaxy And Its Cloaked Clouds of Gas

by Phil Plait | Slate.com

I find all galaxies to be beautiful, from huge, symmetric elliptical puffballs to glorious, grand design spirals. But man, J082354.96 is seriously messed up. It’s still beautiful, though.

Wow. It’s quite the train wreck, and can definitely be labeled as “peculiar”. That’s an actual galaxy type, along with elliptical, disk (or spiral, like our Milky Way), and irregular. That last is for galaxies with no overall shape; peculiars have a definite shape, just a weird one.

J08 is about 650 million light years away, and clearly has something going on to give it this weird, drawn out, and oddly pleasing curvy hooked shape. To any astronomer’s eye, it’s obviously undergone an interaction: a cosmic collision with or nearby pass of another galaxy. That will commonly elongate a galaxy like this, and even cause those curls at the ends. As two galaxies collide (and sometimes merge), the huge collective gravities of each stretch the other out like taffy, and an off-center collision can cause vast arcs of gas and stars to be drawn out…

(read more: Bad Astronomy - Slate)          

(photo: ESA/Hubble, NASA)

One Star, Two Star, Red Star, Blue Star This pretty sprinkling of bright blue stars is the cluster NGC 2547, a group of recently formed stars in the southern constellation of Vela (The Sail). This image was taken using the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The Universe is an old neighbourhood — roughly 13.8 billion years old. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is also ancient — some of its stars are more than 13 billion years old. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of action: new objects form and others are destroyed. In this image, you can see some of the newcomers, the young stars forming the cluster NGC 2547. But, how young are these cosmic youngsters really? Although their exact ages remain uncertain, astronomers estimate that NGC 2547’s stars range from 20 to 35 million years old. That doesn’t sound all that young, after all. However, our Sun is 4600 million years old and has not yet reached middle age. That means that if you imagine that the Sun as a 40 year-old person, the bright stars in the picture are three-month-old babies… (read more: Wired Science) Image: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin [high-resolution] Caption: ESO View high resolution

One Star, Two Star, Red Star, Blue Star

This pretty sprinkling of bright blue stars is the cluster NGC 2547, a group of recently formed stars in the southern constellation of Vela (The Sail). This image was taken using the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

The Universe is an old neighbourhood — roughly 13.8 billion years old. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is also ancient — some of its stars are more than 13 billion years old. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of action: new objects form and others are destroyed. In this image, you can see some of the newcomers, the young stars forming the cluster NGC 2547. But, how young are these cosmic youngsters really?

Although their exact ages remain uncertain, astronomers estimate that NGC 2547’s stars range from 20 to 35 million years old. That doesn’t sound all that young, after all. However, our Sun is 4600 million years old and has not yet reached middle age. That means that if you imagine that the Sun as a 40 year-old person, the bright stars in the picture are three-month-old babies…

(read more: Wired Science)

Image: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin [high-resolution]

Caption: ESO

W3 is an enormous stellar nursery about 6,200 light-years away in the Perseus Arm… one of the Milky Way galaxy’s main spiral arms, which hosts both low- and high-mass star formation. In this image from the Herschel space observatory, the low-mass forming stars are seen as tiny yellow dots embedded in cool red filaments, while the highest-mass stars — with greater than eight times the mass of our sun — emit intense radiation, heating up the gas and dust around them and appearing here in blue. read more: Hunting Massive Stars with Herschel (Image credits: ESA/PACS & SPIRE consortia, A. Rivera-Ingraham & P.G. Martin, Univ. Toronto, HOBYS Key Programme (F. Motte)) View high resolution

W3 is an enormous stellar nursery about 6,200 light-years away in the Perseus Arm…

one of the Milky Way galaxy’s main spiral arms, which hosts both low- and high-mass star formation. In this image from the Herschel space observatory, the low-mass forming stars are seen as tiny yellow dots embedded in cool red filaments, while the highest-mass stars — with greater than eight times the mass of our sun — emit intense radiation, heating up the gas and dust around them and appearing here in blue.

read more: Hunting Massive Stars with Herschel

(Image credits: ESA/PACS & SPIRE consortia, A. Rivera-Ingraham & P.G. Martin, Univ. Toronto, HOBYS Key Programme (F. Motte))

Two Jeweled Galaxies This 27-hour cumulative exposure photograph shows just how strongly these two galaxies are interacting. Shells, plumes, arcs of stars and even shared dust lanes are some of the features that highlight this very deep image. NGC 3169 on the left appears to be literally unraveling before our eyes. Perhaps the arc of star clumps below the pair are the remnants of a smaller galaxy that orbited both of them. The initial view linked above is the “zoomed out” view. A landscape presentation of the pair as well as the full resolution view are available by clicking the icons beneath. Finally a grayscale image shows the full extent of the tidal tails. Image: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona [high-resolution] Caption: Adam Block (via: Wired Science) View high resolution

Two Jeweled Galaxies

This 27-hour cumulative exposure photograph shows just how strongly these two galaxies are interacting. Shells, plumes, arcs of stars and even shared dust lanes are some of the features that highlight this very deep image. NGC 3169 on the left appears to be literally unraveling before our eyes. Perhaps the arc of star clumps below the pair are the remnants of a smaller galaxy that orbited both of them.

The initial view linked above is the “zoomed out” view. A landscape presentation of the pair as well as the full resolution view are available by clicking the icons beneath. Finally a grayscale image shows the full extent of the tidal tails.

Image: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona [high-resolution]

Caption: Adam Block

(via: Wired Science)