Images of the Week 2020

30 December 2020: The mountains of northern Chile fade into the distance under a vibrant orange sky in this sunset photograph of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. More than 20 telescopes operate at CTIO — and many of them can be seen jutting from the mountain in the foreground of this image. The Víctor M. Blanco 4-m Telescope and the SMARTS Telescopes dominate the mountain peak, with smaller telescopes spread along the ridge. Despite the tranquility of the sunset, the engineers and astronomers at the observatory are working hard, spending the hours before dusk preparing a packed schedule of scientific observations.

23 December 2020: In December 2020 Jupiter and Saturn appear closer in the sky to one another in the nighttime sky than they have for 800 years! Seen from Earth, Jupiter and Saturn seem to be on top of each other, but the two planets are actually 734 million kilometers (456 million miles) apart. An event such as this, when the two largest gas giant planets in our Solar System pass close to each other in the sky, is known as a great conjunction. The closest point in this conjunction coincidently fell on the Winter Solstice on 21 December, similar to the great conjunction of 7 BC — one of several possible explanations for the origin of the Star of Bethlehem. This photo was taken on 20 December at 07:12 pm HST with the Gemini North Cloudcam on Maunakea on the island of Hawai‘i. Gemini North is part of the international Gemini Observatory, …

17 December 2020: In a year like no other, we wish you the best this holiday season and a prosperous, peaceful 2021! This observation from the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory shows the result of a truly spectacular galactic collision. The elliptical galaxy NGC 5291 — the hazy oval cloud at the center of this image — was struck by a careening rogue galaxy over 300 million years ago. The aftermath of this cataclysmic collision is a ring of galactic debris — visible as the tenuous luminous clouds spreading left and right from the golden oval of NGC 5291. This image also shows more gentle galactic interactions — NGC 5291 is interacting sedately with the unusually curved galaxy to the right of it, which is known as the Seashell. From all of us to all of you.

9 December 2020: The blazing bright ball slicing through the center of this image is an example of a type of celestial body known as a centaur — a Solar System object that can be like both a comet and an asteroid. These fast moving icy objects reside in unstable orbits in the space between Jupiter and Neptune. The centaur in this image is named P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS), or LD2 for short. LD2 was observed from Gemini North, the Hawai‘i-based half of the international Gemini Observatory, which is a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. LD2 is on the cusp of an important transition — it is the first centaur to be seen in the process of changing into a comet-like state. It is slowly being nudged closer and closer towards the inner Solar System, which is causing its tail to form, and it is on track to move within Jupiter’s orbit in 2063. Once …

2 December 2020: This drone footage shows an aerial view of Gemini South in the Andes of Northern Chile. Gemini South is the southern member of the pair of 8.1-meter telescopes which together comprise the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Though you might associate telescopes with darkness and starry nights, Gemini South spends its days basking in bright sunlight — hence the banks of solar panels surrounding the telescope. These panels provide roughly 28% of the power needed to run the telescope. It can be difficult to gauge the true size of observatories in aerial photographs like this. Try to spot the silver car hiding in the shadows behind Gemini South — it’s dwarfed by the telescope dome!

25 November 2020: This striking image, streaked with bright swathes of color, captures the beautiful reflection nebula NGC 2170. The diffuse clouds of interstellar dust in the nebula scatter and reflect light from nearby stars, creating this vividly colorful scene. Dust grains reflect blue light from hot stars embedded in the nebula. And warm hydrogen gas glows a deep red. Seen as dark tendrils, dust also absorbs the light from stars and gas behind it. This particular nebula lies in the constellation Monoceros (The Unicorn) — a faint constellation on the celestial equator. It was observed using the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.

18 November 2020: Four telescopes are silhouetted against a violet sky, poised and ready to observe the Universe from Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Belonging to the PROMPT project, this set of quick-response robotic telescopes — six in total — are designed to spring into action and observe short-lived astronomical phenomena. Each telescope is optimized to observe at a different wavelength range, and together they capture the aftermath of energetic events such as gamma ray bursts. The PROMPT telescopes are funded and operated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and are made available to undergraduate and high school students conducting research in North Carolina, allowing the next generation of astronomers to gain experience working with a professional observatory.

10 November 2020: In this image it looks as though you could run up this white stair-like path and dive straight into a rippling pool of stars. In fact, the steep structure is the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, based at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The swirling effect of the stars is the result of a clever astrophotography technique, where an extremely long exposure is used to take an image. In this case, however, multiple short exposures were captured and combined in post-processing. Over several hours, the rotation of the Earth produces an imaging effect called star trails which record the motion of the stars across the sky. The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope is no longer observing the Sun, but the interior of the facility is currently being renovated to become the Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach.

4 November 2020: In a fantastically planned shot of the Moon, this image of Gemini South was timed to capture an almost perfectly full Moon framing the telescope. The other two telescopes caught between the red rocks of Cerro Pachón and the blue skies are the SOAR Telescope on the left and the almost finished Vera C. Rubin Observatory on the right. If you inspect the photograph closely, the red cranes being used to construct Rubin Observatory can just be spotted against the white dome. When complete, the telescope will be used to conduct an unprecedented, decade-long survey of the sky at optical wavelengths called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Gemini South is the southern member of the pair of telescopes that make up the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.

28 October 2020: The white dome of the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope looks a little like a giant snowball, juxtaposed against the icy backdrop. SOAR is an optical telescope, meaning that it observes the skies in the wavelength range that the human eye is sensitive to (and a little beyond). The telescope, however, is equipped with a 4.1-meter mirror, so it can collect a lot more light than human eyes. SOAR is based in Chile at Cerro Pachón. It stands at an altitude of 2,700 meters (8,900 feet) above sea level, which in this winter scene, explains the frosted mountain tops! SOAR is operated by the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.

21 October 2020: In the heart of the Crab Nebula (Messier 1) a neutron star is rotating 30 times every single second. This pirouetting star, known as the Crab Pulsar, consists purely of neutrons, and has an intense magnetic field which ejects jets of material from its poles at nearly the speed of light. The Crab Pulsar has a mass about one and a half times that of our Sun, yet all this mass is packed into a sphere only 28 km (17 miles) in diameter — roughly the size of Mars’s small moon Phobos. The wispy structures shown in this image are caused by material flowing equatorially outwards from the pulsar and careening into the surrounding nebula. These dynamic features, known as termination shocks, move and change shape as outflow from the puslar ebbs and flows. This changeability is showcased by this composite image, which is a compilation of three Gemini North …

14 October 2020: Not all telescopes are nocturnal. This stunning image may look like a piece of abstract art, but it in fact features the iconic McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, which is stationed at the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Telescopes like the KPNO 2.1-meter telescope seen at the center of the arch operate at night, so that the blazing light of our Sun does not drown out the light from the rest of the sky. However, the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope took observations day and night before ending operations in 2017. During its years of operation, this telescope observed not only the Sun, but also planets and bright stars. The interior of the facility is currently being renovated to become the Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach.

7 October 2020: This aerial view of the summit area of Maunakea showcases one of the best sites in the world for ground-based astronomy. Against a backdrop of snow and dark volcanic rock, the domes of the Maunakea Observatories harbor some of the world’s most advanced astronomical equipment. These telescopes, including the 8.1-meter Gemini North (the open silver dome on the higher ridge), utilize the high elevation, dark skies, and good weather to observe the Universe in astounding clarity. Despite the occasional snowfall, the air at the summit of Maunakea is extremely dry, making the site perfect for infrared observations — as well as stunning photographs like this one! Gemini North is one of the pair of telescopes that make up the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. This photo was taken during an overflight of Maunakea on 28 March 2015 during a collaboration with the W.M. Keck Observatory to test …

30 September 2020: The Milky Way resembles a waterfall rushing down the colorful night sky above Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The green-tinged light on the horizon is airglow, originating from the naturally occurring gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Airglow is present at all latitudes but is incredibly dim at visible wavelengths, making it difficult to spot with the naked eye but vivid and bright with long exposure photography. While the horizon softly glows with light, the skies above the telescopes remain awash with stars.

23 September 2020: Last week, on the night of Thursday 17 September 2020 10:52 pm, a very bright meteor was reported by more than 25 eyewitnesses in and around Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. The phenomenon, also known as a fireball or bolide, was also spotted by one of the robotic cameras at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab: an all-sky camera operated by the University of Arizona’s Spacewatch who operates the Spacewatch 0.9-meter Telescope and the Spacewatch 1.8-meter Telescope (seen in the image as the white dome near the top of the image respectively on the left). The image shows the fireball, brighter than the full Moon, entering from the south (bottom) of the image and moving north. Its color is a clear blue. The aim of Spacewatch’s telescopes is very relevant: to observe Near-Earth Asteroids which have been found to pose an impact hazard to Earth. KPNO remains …

16 September 2020: The glowing light suffusing the night sky in this photograph is due to two fascinating effects — zodiacal light and airglow. The first effect, zodiacal light, is due to sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust in our Solar System, and causes the dim white vertical gleam dominating the left hand side of this image. Airglow, on the other hand, originates in Earth’s own atmosphere. It is visible as bands of colored light along the horizon to the right of the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.

9 September 2020: The full Moon rises behind the heliostat of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The heliostat has a 2.03-meter (80-inch) mirror that reflects sunlight into the optical path of the telescope. The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope was the largest solar telescope in the world upon its completion in 1962, a title it held until the first light of the National Solar Observatory’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in December 2019. The interior of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope is currently being renovated to become the Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach.

2 September 2020: Momentarily lit by the lights of a passing vehicle, this road leads to Gemini North, perched near the summit of Maunakea on Hawaiʻi Island. It is the northern member of the twin Gemini telescopes, which together comprise the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. There are no artificial lights present at the summit. However, the occasional wandering visitor will illuminate the domes with their headlights while in search of the world-famous views of Maunakea’s dark skies.

26 August 2020: This stunning image features NGC 3198, a galaxy that lies about 47 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. This image was taken with the Mosaic instrument on the 4-meter Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, and shows the full extent of the galaxy, from the bright central bulge to the tenuous outer reaches of the tightly-wound spiral arms. Almost all the objects lurking in the background are galaxies or galaxy clusters — a sea of distant galaxies of all shapes, sizes, and orientations. Accurately measuring the distance to an astronomical object — everything from our own Sun to galaxies such as NGC 3198 — is an age-old challenge for astronomers, and requires a combination of measurements and methods. The galaxy at the heart of this image has played a part in this astronomical undertaking by allowing astronomers to calibrate astronomical …

19 August 2020: The Milky Way appears to be trapped in a crystal ball in this fisheye image taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Thanks to its remote location atop Cerro Tololo in northern Chile, CTIO enjoys a breathtaking panoramic view of the southern hemisphere’s night sky, and a spectacular perspective on the heart of the Milky Way. Though the dusty band of our Milky Way dominates this image, several of CTIO’s telescopes can also be seen along the edges. With more than 20 telescopes operating at the site, CTIO is fully equipped to take advantage of the pristine Chilean skies.