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Today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week features the spiral galaxy NGC 4535, which is situated about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden). This galaxy has been nicknamed the ‘Lost Galaxy’ because it’s extremely faint when viewed through a small telescope. With a mirror spanning 2.4 metres across, Hubble is well equipped to observe dim galaxies like NGC 4535 and pick out features like its massive spiral arms and central bar of stars.
On full display in this Hubble image are NGC 4535’s young star clusters, which dot the galaxy’s spiral arms. Many of the groupings of bright blue stars are enclosed by glowing pink clouds. These clouds, called H II (‘H-two’) regions, are a sign that the galaxy is home to especially young, hot, and massive stars that are blazing with high-energy radiation. By heating the clouds in which they were born, shooting out powerful stellar winds, and eventually exploding as supernovae, massive stars certainly shake up their surroundings.
This Hubble image incorporates data from an observing programme that will catalogue roughly 50 000 H II regions in nearby star-forming galaxies like NGC 4535. A previous image of NGC 4535 was released in 2021. Both the 2021 image and today’s image incorporate observations from the PHANGS programme, which seeks to understand the connections between young stars and cold gas. Today’s image adds a new dimension to our understanding of NGC 4535 by capturing the brilliant red glow of the nebulae that encircle massive stars in their first few million years of life.
[Image Description: A close-in view of a spiral galaxy that faces the viewer. Brightly lit spiral arms swing outwards through the galaxy’s disc, starting from an elliptical region in the centre. Thick strands of dark reddish dust are spread across the disc, mostly following the spiral arms. The arms also contain many glowing pink-red spots where stars form. The galaxy is a bit fainter beyond the arms, but speckled with blue stars.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team; CC BY 4.0
What kind of astronomical object is this? It doesn’t look quite like the kinds of galaxies, nebulae, star clusters or galaxy clusters which Hubble normally brings us images of. In fact, this is a spiral galaxy, named UGC 10043 — we just happen to be seeing it directly from the side! Located roughly 150 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens, UGC 10043 is one of the somewhat rare spiral galaxies that are seen edge-on.
From this point of view, we see the galaxy’s disc as a sharp line through space, overlain with a prominent dust lane. This dust is spread across the spiral arms of UGC 10043, but it looks very thick and cloudy when viewed from the side. You can even see the lights of some active star-forming regions in the arms, shining out from behind the dust. Strikingly, we can also see that the centre of the galaxy sports a glowing, almost egg-shaped ‘bulge’, rising far above and below the disc. All spiral galaxies have a bulge like this one as part of their structure, containing stars that orbit the galactic centre on paths above and below the whirling disc; it’s a feature that isn’t normally obvious in pictures of galaxies. The unusually large size of this bulge compared to the galaxy’s disc is possibly thanks to UGC 10043 siphoning material from a nearby dwarf galaxy. This may also be why the disc is warped, bending up at one end and down at the other.
Like most of the full-colour Hubble images released by ESA/Hubble, this image is a composite, made up of several individual snapshots taken by Hubble at different times and capturing different wavelengths of light. You can see the exact images used in the sidebar on this page. A notable aspect of this image is that the two sets of Hubble data used were collected 23 years apart, in 2000 and 2023! Hubble’s longevity doesn’t just afford us the ability to produce new and better images of old targets; it also provides a long-term archive of data which only becomes more and more useful to astronomers.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen directly from the side, such that its disc looks like a narrow diagonal band across the image. A band of dark dust covers the disc in the centre most of the way out to the ends, and the disc glows around that. In the centre a whitish circle of light bulges out above and below the disc. The tips of the disc are a bit bent. The background is black and mostly empty.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Windhorst, W. Keel; CC BY 4.0
Italy’s Mount Etna volcano has erupted yet again – spewing ash above Sicily and temporarily halting flights. During the night of 3 August, a lava fountain and an eruptive cloud emerged from the Voragine Crater. The cloud momentarily reached 10 km high and then fell as ash towards the southeast, carried by the wind.
The ash was reported more than 35 km away from the volcano, affecting populated areas. Due to low visibility, flights approaching Catania Airport, 45 km away, have been limited.
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image shows the lava flow from the Voragine crater, while the Sentinel-5P satellite detected sulphur dioxide concentrations reaching as far as Greece.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2024), processed by ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
NO AWARDS... MERCI.
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All rights reserved - Tous droits réservés
Model : Nathalie
Make-up : Emmanuelle Legrain
Hairstyle : Jessica Chatelain
Christine Lebrasseur - Photographe
French Website / Site en français
Christine Lebrasseur Photo Studio on Facebook
DNA - Ipernity - YouTube - JPGMag - Facebook Page
We dont actually get much snow so always a bit of novelty factor associated. All the better on a day I dont have to go to work. Having said that I have not actually gone out in it - just lit the fire and pointed the camera out various windows!
Lou Doillon - Snowed In
Another of my Thanksgiving Day dramatic sky shots from Fort Ross, with the Pacific and the wooden Russian Church silhouetted on the left, more of the Russian fort complex silhouetted to the right of these. It really was a fabulous sunset. This fort would have been in full use by the Russians during the war of 1812, which is the war that is the backdrop to Tolstoy's War and Peace.
When the rain is over you can get very nice pictures playing with light and the remains of water.
Licencia (cc) creative commons by-sa
Been seeing a few of these on widow sills - Not quite sure what they are. Maybe Chrysolina sp.
the lines on the card are 8mm apart so the body of the beetle is about 1.2 cm I think (or maybe a bit less)
Café Wilder on Christianshavn, Denmark.
Shot with the ultrawide (rectilinear) Venus Optics LAOWA 9mm f/5.6 W-Dreamer lens (M-mount version) mounted on a Canon EOS R6 via adapter.
Handheld, 1/10s, ISO 10.000.
Podiceps auritus (Nordisk lappedykker)
I was wondering why there was so many photographers and birdwatchers with their spotting scopes hanging around the lake.
It was this punky/funky red-eye ninja-style fellow creating a stir. Though somehow common in Sweden, a rare sight in Denmark in its summer breeding plumage. Apparently it had been hanging out in my little local "pond" for the last three weeks, and was joined by another one a few days ago.
This whirling image features a bright spiral galaxy known as MCG-01-24-014, which is located about 275 million light-years from Earth. In addition to being a well-defined spiral galaxy, MCG-01-24-014 has an extremely energetic core, known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), so it is referred to as an active galaxy. Even more specifically, it is categorised as a Type-2 Seyfert galaxy. Seyfert galaxies host one of the most common subclasses of AGN, alongside quasars. Whilst the precise categorisation of AGNs is nuanced, Seyfert galaxies tend to be relatively nearby ones where the host galaxy remains plainly detectable alongside its central AGN, while quasars are invariably very distant AGNs whose incredible luminosities outshine their host galaxies.
There are further subclasses of both Seyfert galaxies and quasars. In the case of Seyfert galaxies, the predominant subcategories are Type-1 and Type-2. These are differentiated from one another by their spectra — the pattern that results when light is split into its constituent wavelengths — where the spectral lines that Type-2 Seyfert galaxies emit are particularly associated with specific so-called ‘forbidden’ emission. To understand why emitted light from a galaxy could be considered forbidden, it helps to understand why spectra exist in the first place. Spectra look the way they do because certain atoms and molecules will absorb and emit light very reliably at very specific wavelengths. The reason for this is quantum physics: electrons (the tiny particles that orbit the nuclei of atoms and molecules) can only exist at very specific energies, and therefore electrons can only lose or gain very specific amounts of energy. These very specific amounts of energy correspond to certain light wavelengths being absorbed or emitted.
Forbidden emission lines, therefore, are spectral emission lines that should not exist according to certain rules of quantum physics. But quantum physics is complex, and some of the rules used to predict it use assumptions that suit laboratory conditions here on Earth. Under those rules, this emission is ‘forbidden’ — so improbable that it’s disregarded. But in space, in the midst of an incredibly energetic galactic core, those assumptions don’t hold anymore, and the ‘forbidden’ light gets a chance to shine out towards us.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy. It appears to be almost circular and seen face-on, with two prominent spiral arms winding out from a glowing core. It is centred in the frame as if a portrait. Most of the background is black, with only tiny, distant galaxies, but there are two large bright stars in the foreground, one blue and one red, directly above the galaxy.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick; CC BY 4.0
Every street has paper lanterns, some more than others. These were on one of the side streets near Senso-Ji.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
©Lauri Heikkinen
I went to check out the giant inflatable duck art installation currently on view at Harbour City to see what the fuss is all about. And there it is, floating on water.
This gigantic rubber duck which measures 14 x 15 x 16.5 meters was created as a statement for peace. In the Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s own words, “the Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!” [1]
As with all things crazy in Hong Kong, what was most spectacular is not really the duck, but how many it has appeared on the media as well as how many people were seen photographing the duck on the docks.
On the evening news in Hong Kong, it was reported that some photographers were pushing each other just to get a space to photograph this floating duck. Oh humans.
The best place to photograph this is on the roof of Ocean Terminal where the car park is. There are much less people there and you get to see the duck well. I am claustrophobic so this is obviously where I photographed it.
# Notes
1. Florentijn Hofman: Projects: Rubber Duck: Hong Kong 2013 www.florentijnhofman.nl/dev/project.php?id=192
# SML Data
+ Date: 2013-05-08T16:07:39+0800
+ Dimensions: 5118 x 3412
+ Exposure: 1/40 sec at f/8.0
+ Focal Length: 32 mm
+ ISO: 200
+ Flash: DId not fire
+ Camera: Canon EOS 6D
+ Lens: Canon EF 17-40 f/4L USM
+ GPS: 22°17'42" N 114°10'4" E
+ Location: 中國香港九龍尖沙咀海港城 Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
+ Workflow: Lightroom 4
+ Serial: SML.20130508.6D.05448
+ Series: Photojournalism, Crazyisgood, SML Fine Art
# Media Licensing
Creative Commons (CCBY) See-ming Lee 李思明 / SML Photography / SML Universe Limited
“Florentijn Hofman: Rubber Duck: Hong Kong 2013” / Crazyisgood Art Installation / SML.20130508.6D.05448
/ #Photojournalism #CreativeCommons #CCBY #SMLPhotography #SMLUniverse #SMLFineArt #Crazyisgood #SMLProjects
/ #中國 #中国 #China #香港 #HongKong #攝影 #摄影 #photography #FlorentijnHofman #RubberDuck #ducks #yellow #WTF #LOL #people #crazy #installation #art #fineart
Jardin de sculptures de la Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, Suisse
« Les jardins de la Fondation, ombragés et agrémentés de plans d'eau, présentent d'intéressants vestiges gallo-romains. On peut y admirer une exposition permanente de sculptures du XXe siècle par des artistes de renom international »
« Jean Dubuffet est un peintre et un sculpteur connu pour être le fondateur du mouvement de l’art brut. Sa fascination pour l’art des non-initiés, plus particulièrement celui réalisé par les enfants, les malades et ceux pour qui n’ont pas de références culturelles et artistiques, l’incite à imiter leur style pour l’incorporer dans le sien. Né Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet le 31 juillet 1901 au Havre, Dubuffet étudie à l’Académie Julian avec Raoul Dufy, Suzanne Valadon et Fernand Léger en 1918, mais quitte sa formation après six mois. Il retourne à l’art au début des années 1940 et forme la Compagnie de l’Art Brut (1948 – 1951, restaurée en 1962) avec André Breton, Slavko Kopac, entre autres. Il meurt le 12 mai 1985 à Paris à l’âge de 83 ans et la Fondation Jean Dubuffet, créée en 1973 dans le Val-de-Marne, continue de présenter ses œuvres. »
www.gianadda.ch/240_espaces/244_parc_de_sculptures/ www.artnet.fr/artistes/jean-dubuffet/
Full length macro (minus a bit of antennae) of a brownish colored Praying Mantis keeping the pests away from my pepper plants.
Candid Random Kid with Small Wet Mangy Cute Dog- Hempstead, Long Island- Seen during a Local Immigrants Rights & Economic Justice Protest March
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. If you wish to license them for commercial purposes, want to purchase prints or are interested in commissioning me to take photos, please send me a Flickr mail or visit my website, www.memoriesbymike.zenfolio.com/, for contact information. Thanks.]
These view from Copernicus Sentinel-2 part of a pair, reveal the landscape transformation in the area around Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
This comparison shows Dhaka and its surroundings in February 2017. The image has been processed in false colour using Sentinel-2’s near-infrared channel to show vegetation in red, water bodies in dark blue and black and built-up areas in tones of grey. The strong contrast of colours makes it easier to distinguish the scale of changes that have occurred in the area in the past nine years.
The city of Dhaka, visible in grey near the centre, lies on a plain crossed by a complex network of streams and rivers. The three rivers crossing the urban area are, from west to east, the Dhaleswari, Buriganga and Sitalakhya rivers, while the surrounding plain is bounded by the confluence of larger rivers: the Padma River to the west, the Jamuna River, an extensive interconnected channel system converging from the northwest, and the Meghna River to the east.
The Jamuna is the lower stream of the Brahmaputra River, which originates in Tibet before flowing through India and then southwest into Bangladesh. The Jamuna flows south and joins the Padma River, which is the lower section of the Ganges within Bangladesh. The resulting stream then meets the Meghna River, which eventually flows into the Bay of Bengal.
The area within these mighty rivers is a low-lying floodplain heavily influenced by monsoon-driven sedimentation and continuous hydrological change. Several areas of dry and exposed riverbeds are visible as light patches, especially along the Jamuna-Padma river system.
Comparing the two images, noticeable changes in the shape and width of the Padma River can be noticed, in particular at the confluence with the Meghna River.
The red tones dominating both images depict extensive lush vegetation. The 2026 image highlights the growth of urban sprawl around Dhaka. Built-up surfaces have expanded dramatically, engulfing former agricultural and wetland areas. Zones that were bright red in 2017 appear now duller, indicating soil exposure, construction or surface sealing.
With an estimated population of over 36 million, Dhaka is Bangladesh’s most populous city and is widely considered as one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions in South Asia. Like many other growing cities in the world, it is facing the daunting challenge of urban sprawl along with the rise in population density, both of which put pressure on urban land in the city, but also on agricultural land in the periphery, as well as on other natural resources.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 allows urban growth to be monitored accurately, providing essential information to urban planners and decision-makers. The mission is also mostly used to track changes in the way land is being used and to monitor the health of vegetation as well as inland water bodies.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017/2026), processed by ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Yes, part of a completed jigsaw puzzle of one of Andy Warhol's infamous soup cans. Just the word gives it away.
Altadena, California
Female California quails primarily feed on seeds and grains. If available, they also consume fruits, nuts, and insects. Their short beaks make it easier for them to eat seeds and grains.
~ free texture ~ creative commons license ~
by attribution ~
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I would love to see your work, if you want, please leave a link or a sample ( small size ) of your work in my comments, thank you**
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.