April’s Stunning Space Pictures
April’s Stunning Space Pictures lead image
NASA/ESA
(Inside Science) -- Over the past month, astronomers have celebrated new anniversaries, final missions, and intriguing observations. In April’s selection of astronomy images, we travel the solar system through the lenses of the Cassini and Dawn spacecraft. Then, we peer at far-away stars for hints of dark matter. Please enjoy our slideshow below.
As part of the Hubble Space Telescope’s 27th anniversary celebration, NASA and the European Space Agency delivered this stunning photograph of two galaxies 55 million light-years away. The spiral galaxies NGC 4302 and NGC 4298 are showcased in a flattering portrait with their contrasting shapes and colors, marbled with stellar dust. (NASA/ESA )
NASA, ESA, and M. Mutchler (STScI)
To commemorate the Cassini spacecraft’s first dive between Saturn and the planet’s rings, NASA released this artist’s conception. The dive is part of the spacecraft’s final mission, a descent into Saturn’s atmosphere that will result in Cassini’s destruction. (NASA/JPL-Caltech )
NASA/JPL-Caltech
As part of Cassini’s grand finale, the spacecraft also made its deepest dive through the plume of gas erupting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. There, the spacecraft picked up evidence of hydrogen gas, which scientists at Southwest Research Institute believe could hint at a potential habitable zone on the moon -- for microbial life at least. (SwRI/NASA/JPL-Caltech )
Elsewhere in the solar system, the Dawn spacecraft observes the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. While snapping candids of Ceres’ massive landslides, Dawn captured one particular landmass that resembles a certain popular cartoon character, researchers suggested. (Georgia Tech/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA )
These strange glowing masses are part of a composite image that astronomers claim to be the first false color map of dark matter. Researchers at the University of Waterloo combined several images to show dark matter filaments, in red, creating a bridge between two bright galaxies that lie 4.5 billion light-years away. (S. Epps & M. Hudson/University of Waterloo )
