Space is an amazing place. Mankind has dreamt of exploring the distant edges of the Universe since we first set foot on the moon. Yet most of it remains far from our grasp and we can only dream of the delights and wonders beyond our reach.
Despite that, NASA’s probes, long-range satellites and super telescopes have seen many of the interesting things out there - stars,black holes, other planets. There’s an incredible place up there in the stars.
For years now, space organisations like NASA have commissioned artists to create representations of the wonders beyond the stars aimed at exciting the average layman to the possibility of space exploration.
We’ve rounded up some amazing images that show what could be out there in the vastness of space and just how astonishingly beautiful the Universe could be.
Brown dwarf weather
Brown dwarfs are giant balls of gas that start out life like stars but don’t quite have the power to create the necessary nuclear fusion to become what they were meant to.
The result is an unstable surface rife with storms and other activity. This image is a representation of what it might look like.
Star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk
This illustration shows a star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk. Material from the thick disk flows along the star’s magnetic field lines and is deposited onto the star’s surface. When material hits the star, it lights up brightly.
Black holes: monsters in space
This is a beautiful depiction of one of the most dangerous objects in the Universe - a supermassive black hole.
These sorts of black holes are usually found buried at the heart of a galaxy and can be seen surrounded by a mass of gas and dust which is attracted to the hole by its gravitational pull.
Collection of planets discovered by Kepler
NASA’s Kepler missionhas discovered wellover 4,000 new planets, the largest number of planets found so far.
This image is a sample of the planetary discoveries made to this point.
Kepler-10 system
Located around 560 light-years from Earth sits Kepler-10c, a giant rocky planet that weighs 17 times more than our home planet and is more twice the size.
It’s a rocky planet, the sort of which astronomers didn’t think could exist. Planets this size are usually gaseous bodies, not made of rock. Kepler-10c orbits its sun-like star every 45 days which means it’s too hot to sustain life as we know it, but it ’s still fascinating.
Neutron star over Munich
This is a neutron star. These stars are the smallest stars in existence. They are the result of a collapse of a massive star that has exploded and shrunk to a much smaller size.
Though smaller (they’re not much larger than the city of Munich) neutron stars are extremely dense. It is thought that one teaspoon of matter from these stars would weigh as much as the entire human race.
ESO discovers Earth-size planet in habitable zone of nearest star
Our nearest neighbouring star is known as Proxima Centauri and that star sits in the closest solar system to our own.
Orbiting that star is Proxima Centauri - an Earth-sized planet that might be capable of sustaining life and surface water. This image shows the imagined view from the surface. In the distance you’re able to see a view of the double star of Alpha Centauri AB as well as Proxima Centauri. Quite a view!
Europa water vapor plume
This image shows the surface of the Jovian moon Europa which sits about 500 million miles away from the Sun.
Regular plumes of water vapour are seen spouting from the icy surface of the moon. This, combined with other evidence, suggests the presence of a sub-surface ocean below the ice-encrusted surface of the moon.
As stars age and near their death they slowly turn into red giants then eventually shrink down into white dwarf stars.
White dwarfs have an extreme gravitational pull and evidence has shown other planets being destroyed by the pull from these collapsing stars.
This image is a concept of the devastation caused when this occurs and represents a terrifying view of Earth’s future.
The interstellar medium
This image is essentially a map of the galaxy as we know it showing “the interstellar medium” - the matter and radiation that exists between the systems in the galaxy.
This area itself is a valid destination for space probes as it would reveal information and data we don’t yet know about the galaxy.
Find out more about it here -https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/interstellar-crossing-the-cosmic-void
