by The Milky Way’s monstrous black hole is photographed for the first time, a “mixed sunspot” shoots off a huge flare, and a Starlink rocket launch creates a “space jellyfish.” Here are some of the best images from this week from Space.com.
Say hello to our monstrous friend from the black hole
During joint global press conferences on Thursday (May 12), scientists at the Event Horizon Telescope unveiled our first view of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our own Milky Way galaxy. The Sagittarius A* image is another groundbreaking result for the telescope array, generating a wealth of science to accompany the spectacular photos.
Full story: Behold! Image of the Milky Way’s monstrous black hole for the first time.
A large, bright flare emerges from an oddly polarized sunspot
A “mixed” sunspot shot out of the strongest flare type, an X-class, within range of Earth on Tuesday (May 10). While the burst did not generate any auroras from coronal mass ejections of charged particles, the sunspot had an opposite polarization than expected, making the ejection remarkable for scientific observations.
Full story: A ‘mixed’ sunspot just fired off a huge solar flare
This ‘space jellyfish’ came from a SpaceX Starlink launch
Florida’s Space Coast was treated to a skyshine, dubbed “space jellyfish,” due to atmospheric physics associated with a recent launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Starlink satellites. The May 6 event occurred after gas from the nozzle was released into lower-pressure air, within the surprising range of light from the rising sun.
Full story: SpaceX Starlink launch spawns spectacular glowing cloud in pre-dawn sky
Old Hubble Space Telescope data reveals asteroids on the move
Astronomers have spotted the tracks of nearly 1,500 new asteroids hidden in data collected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The project spawned from a search for space rocks on the “Hubble Asteroid Hunter” project on Zooniverse, a popular platform for crowdsourcing science.
Full story: Astronomers discover a treasure trove of asteroids in old data from the Hubble Space Telescope
Webb captures the Large Magellanic Cloud in unprecedented infrared detail
A new infrared commissioning image from the James Webb Space Telescope showed a neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way, called the Large Magellanic Cloud. The unprecedentedly sharp views of stars in the galaxy next door came from its coolest instrument, the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).
Full story: The James Webb Space Telescope enters the ‘final stretch’ of start-up with an impressive image
Crew-3 astronauts ‘waltz’ in spacesuits
The Crew-3 astronauts gave a nod to the classic space movie “2001” in an epic new video, showing them flying in formation in SpaceX spacesuits as they prepare to return to Earth. The new video, shared by European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, is set to Johann Strauss II’s iconic “The Blue Danube” waltz made famous among space fans in the 1968 film.
Full story: Watch SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts ‘waltz’ through space in hilarious spacesuit video
A magnetic ‘flip’ gets trapped in a huge black hole
Scientists could have seen a monstrous black hole changing polarity. A galaxy known as 1ES 1927+654 briefly stopped emitting X-rays for a few months, then resumed and increased. These black hole observations represent a unique situation so far.
Full story: The monstrous black hole could have executed a magnetic ‘spin’
A real-looking spiral galaxy glows purple
Gold and purple gas glows in Messier 66 (M66) in a striking new image, released by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The multiple observations revealed a selection of gases (oxygen, hydrogen and sulfur) ionized by young stars. The image was published by ESO on May 2.
Full story: This spiral galaxy looks positively real in a vibrant new image
It’s a new phase for DARPA’s ‘Glide Breaker’ hypersonic missile
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is poised for Phase 2 of the Glide Breaker program to shoot hypersonic missiles out of the sky. The agency is seeking proposals “to conduct wind-tunnel and in-flight testing of aircraft interaction effects,” DARPA officials announced April 15.
Full story: DARPA’s ‘Glide Breaker’ hypersonic missile interceptor program enters a new phase
Star survives the aftermath of her explosive partner
The Hubble Space Telescope found a surviving star that persisted despite the violent death of its companion. The supernova explosion event, called SN 2013ge, has included a nearby persistent source of ultraviolet light. This suggests a surviving binary companion, according to a NASA statement.
Full story: Hubble Space Telescope Detects Star That Survived Neighbor’s Violent Explosion
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