Gallery: Space Photos of the Week: We've Got a Chamaeleon Complex
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/hubble-view-smoke-ring-for-a-halo/">ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt</a>01SPoW-Oct26-31-06
This is a photo of the star system DI Cha. It’s a quadruple system containing two sets of binary stars, but in the photo only two stars are apparent, shining through a ring of cascading dust. It’s part of the Chamaeleon I dark cloud --- one of three such clouds that comprise a large star-forming region known as the Chamaeleon Complex.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/suzaku-finds-common-chemical-makeup-at-largest-cosmic-scales">NOAO/AURA/NSF</a>02SPoW-Oct26-31-02
The Virgo cluster, located about 54 million light-years away, is the nearest galaxy cluster and the second brightest in X-rays. The cluster is home to more than 2,000 galaxies, and the space between them is filled with a diffuse gas so hot it glows in X-rays. A new survey in this area shows that the elements needed to make stars, planets and people were evenly distributed across millions of light-years early in cosmic history, more than 10 billion years ago.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/a-full-view-of-pluto-s-stunning-crescent">NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI</a>03SPoW-Oct26-31-03
A stunning image of Pluto thanks to new processing work by the New Horizons science team. This image was made just 15 minutes after New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, as the spacecraft looked back at Pluto toward the sun. The wide-angle perspective shows the deep haze layers of Pluto's atmosphere extending all the way around, revealing the silhouetted profiles of rugged plateaus on the night (left) side.
<a href="http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1542/?lang">ESO/Microsoft WorldWide Telescope</a>04SPoW-Oct26-31-01
Astronomers using the VISTA telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory have discovered a previously unknown component of the Milky Way. By mapping out the locations of a class of stars that vary in brightness called Cepheids, a disc of young stars buried behind thick dust clouds in the central bulge has been found.
<a href="https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1543a/">ESO, A. M. Lagrange (Université Grenoble Alpes)</a>05SPoW-Oct26-31-05
Observations by ESO’s planet-finding instrument, SPHERE, have revealed the edge-on disc of gas and dust present around the binary star system HD 106906AB. Astronomers had long suspected that this 13 million-year-old stellar duo was encircled by a debris disc, due to the system’s youth and characteristic radiation. However, this disc had remained unseen — until now! The system’s spectacular debris disc can be seen towards the lower left area of this image. It is surrounding both stars, hence its name of circumbinary disc. The stars themselves are hidden behind a mask which prevent their glare from blinding the instrument.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/saturns-geyser-moon-shines-in-close-flyby-views"> NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute</a>06SPoW-Oct26-31-08
This unprocessed view of Saturn's moon Enceladus was acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during a close flyby of the icy moon on Oct. 28, 2015. The probe passed about 30 miles above the moon's south polar region. The spacecraft will continue transmitting its data from the encounter for the next several days.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia18340/a-tale-of-two-hemispheres">NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute</a>07SPoW-Oct26-31-04
Saturn's moon Enceladus is a world divided. To the north, the terrain is covered in impact craters, much like other icy moons. But to the south, the record of impact cratering is much more sparse, and instead the land is covered in fractures, ropy or hummocky terrain and long, linear features.
