October’s Spooky Space Pictures
The Southern Lights, as captured by an astronaut on the International Space Station, spread an ethereal green hue across our atmosphere.
NASA/JSC
(Inside Science) -- This October, we admire spooky space phenomena around our galaxy. From neutron star collisions to extraterrestrial landscapes, strange alien sights can be seen even in our own solar system.
Earlier this month, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory imaged this mysterious sight on the sun. A gaping coronal hole in the shape of the Greek letter Pi sprawled across the top of the star’s surface, spewing high-speed solar wind particles into space. This irregularly shaped hole appears darker than the rest of the sun due to its colder temperature, while extreme false-color ultraviolet light gives this image its eerie purple hue. (NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory )
In this glittering photo, countless galaxies twinkle in a range of sizes -- from billowing clouds of light to small pinpricks. Of interest is NGC 1316, the rightmost of the three larger galaxies lined up near the middle of the image. Located 60 million light-years away, this lenticular galaxy was imaged in greater detail than ever before by the European Southern Observatory’s VLT Survey Telescope. (ESO/A. Grado and L. Limatola )
ESO/A. Grado and L. Limatola
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed this extraordinary alien landscape on our planetary neighbor. This is a small central section of Hellas Planitia, the largest visible impact basin in our Solar System. The creeping scratches cascading down the dune slopes are thought to be linear gullies formed by the dry ice that forms in Martian winters. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona )
This image is part of an incredible observation that was announced this month: the first ever detection of a cosmic event by both light and gravitational waves. Look closely to spot the yellow point at about ten o’clock from the center -- this is a kilonova that was not previously visible before the event of two neutron stars colliding. The Hubble Space Telescope was one of many telescopes that captured this stellar flare that resulted from the collision. (NASA/ESA )
Closer to home comes this ethereal image of the Southern Lights, as captured by a crew member of Expedition 52 on the International Space Station. The supernatural green hues of the Aurora Australis snake and shimmer across the atmosphere, their lights reflecting off the metallic hull of the space station. The green color comes from the reactions of solar wind particles colliding with oxygen in our atmosphere. (NASA/JSC )
