Sept 17 - Mystery Green Blob in Distant Galaxy

September 17 Mystery Green Blob in Distant Galaxy by:

A visible-light image of the Fireworks Galaxy, overlaid with data from NASA's NuSTAR X-ray telescope (in blue and green). The mystery green blob is toward the middle of the galaxy, apparently coincident with one of its spiral arms. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Mystery green blob in distant galaxy The universe is full of mysteries, and now there's a new one for astronomers to puzzle over. NASA's space-based NuSTAR telescope - an X-ray observatory - saw a green blob in the distant galaxy NGC 6946, also known as the Fireworks Galaxy. The blob appeared within a 10-day period and then disappeared again just as quickly. What was it? Read more. What makes a red rainbow? You might see a red rainbow if you're outside at sunrise or sunset, at a time when there's rain in the air. Red rainbows have a surreal beauty, but their explanation is fairly ordinary. They're created via the same physics that makes a sunset or sunrise looks red. Read more and see pictures. Tsunamis, wildfires followed dinosaur-killing impact A new study that analyzed rock from deep within the Chicxulub impact crater helped reveal what happened within the first 24 hours after the asteroid impact that doomed the dinosaurs. Read more.

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Tonight … Use Big Dipper to find North Star Tonight’s chart shows Polaris and the Big and Little Dippers for a September evening. You can use the Big Dipper to find Polaris, which is also known as the North Star. Notice that a line from the 2 outermost stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper points to Polaris. And notice that Polaris marks the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper. Read more.

We stand corrected Our friend Dr Ski, in Valencia, Philippines, has been looking at images of the sun posted at EarthSky Community Photos, and he gave us a stern talking-to about how to view and photograph the sun safely. Here are his guidelines.  In the above photo, Dr Ski said, he “moved the camera a bit to expose just a small portion of the sun's limb to get those cool diffraction spikes (caused by the small aperture blades).”  Thank you, Dr Ski! Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!

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