Gallery: Space Photos of the Week: A Diva Star's Gotta Shine
<a href="http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1605/?lang">ESO</a>01SPoW-Feb13-01.jpg
A newly formed star lights up the surrounding cosmic clouds in this new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. Dust particles in the vast clouds that surround the star HD 97300 diffuse its light, like a car headlight in enveloping fog, and create the reflection nebula IC 2631. Although HD 97300 is in the spotlight for now, the very dust that makes it so hard to miss heralds the birth of additional, potentially scene-stealing, future stars.
<a href="http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1602a/">NSA & ESA</a>02SPoW-Feb13-03.jpg
The placid appearance of the elliptical galaxy NGC 4889 can fool an unsuspecting observer. But the galaxy harbours a dark secret. At its heart lurks one of the most massive black holes ever discovered, around 21-billion times the mass of the Sun. Astronomers believe that the gigantic black hole has stopped feeding, and is currently resting after feasting on NGC 4889’s cosmic cuisine. The environment within the galaxy is now so peaceful that stars are forming from its remaining gas and orbiting undisturbed around the black hole.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/hubble-watches-the-icy-blue-wings-of-hen-2-437">ESA, Hubble & NASA</a>03SPoW-Feb13-05.jpg
It might look like an icy bird floating in space, but it’s actually the planetary nebula Hen 2-437, one of around 3,000 similar objects residing in the Milky Way. It occurs when an aging low-mass star reaches the final stages of life. The star swells to become a red giant, before casting off its gaseous layers into space. It then shrinks to form a white dwarf, while the expelled gas is slowly compressed and pushed outwards by stellar winds. While nebulas come in all different shapes, Hen 2-436 is a biopolar nebula as evidenced by the two blue lobes streaming outward from the center.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia18355/ices-and-shadows">NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute</a>04SPoW-Feb13-04.jpg
Saturn's moon Tethys appears to float between two sets of rings in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, but it's just a trick of geometry. The rings, which are seen nearly edge-on, are the dark bands above Tethys, while their curving shadows paint the planet at the bottom of the image.
