Trajectory of Smith Cloud: This diagram shows the 100-million-year-long trajectory of the Smith Cloud as it arcs out of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy and then returns like a boomerang. Measurements made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show that the cloud, because of its chemical composition, came out of a region near the edge of the galaxy's disc of stars 70 million years ago. The cloud is now stretched into the shape of a comet by gravity and gas pressure. Following a ballistic path, the cloud will fall back into the disc and trigger new star formation 30 million years from now. NASA Press releaseSize of Smith Cloud on the skyHubble Characterizes the High-Velocity Smith Cloud

Name: Smith Cloud
Type: Milky Way
Category: Illustrations
Release date: 29 January 2016, 10:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)

Size of Smith Cloud on the sky: This composite image shows the size and location of the Smith Cloud on the sky. The cloud appears in false-color, radio wavelengths as observed by the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. The visible-light image of the background star field shows the cloud's location in the direction of the summer constellation Aquila. The cloud is 15 degrees across in angular size — the width of an outstretched hand at arm's length. The apparent size of the full moon is added for comparison. NASA Press releaseTrajectory of Smith CloudHubble Characterizes the High-Velocity Smith Cloud

Name: Smith Cloud
Type: Milky Way
Category: Illustrations
Release date: 29 January 2016, 10:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI), B. Saxton and F. Lockman (NRAO/AUI/NSF) and A. Mellinge

Hubble Characterizes the High-Velocity Smith Cloud: The infalling Smith Cloud does not emit light at wavelengths that the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is sensitive to. The cloud can be seen in radio wavelengths. However, Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph can measure how the light from distant background objects is affected as it passes through the cloud. These measurements yield clues to the chemical composition of the cloud. By using these intergalactic forensics, astronomers trace the cloud's origin to the disc of our Milky Way. Combined ultraviolet and radio observations correlate to the cloud's infall velocities, providing solid evidence that the spectral features link to the cloud's dynamics. NASA Press releaseTrajectory of Smith CloudSize of Smith Cloud on the sky

Name: Smith Cloud
Type: Milky Way
Category: Illustrations
Release date: 29 January 2016, 10:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)

Artist's View of a Super-Jupiter around a Brown Dwarf (2M1207): This is an artist impression of a planet that is four times the mass of Jupiter and orbits 8 billion kilometres from a brown-dwarf companion (the bright red object seen in the background). The rotation rate of this super-Jupiter has been measured by studying subtle variations in the infrared light the hot planet radiates through a variegated, cloudy atmosphere. The planet completes one rotation every 10 hours — about the same rate as Jupiter. Because the planet is young, it is still contracting under gravity and radiating heat. The atmosphere is so hot that it rains molten glass and, at lower altitudes, molten iron. Because the planet is only 170 light-years away, many of the bright background stars that can be seen from Earth can be seen from the planet's location in our galaxy, including Sirius, Fomalhaut, and Alpha Centauri. Our sun is a faint star in the background, located midway between Procyon and Altair. NASA Press releaseBrown Dwarf 2M1207A and Companion

Name: 2MASS J12073346-3932539
Type: Unspecified : Planet
Category: Exoplanets
Distance: 170 light years
Release date: 19 February 2016, 09:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

Brown Dwarf 2M1207A and Companion: [Left] — This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a near-infrared-light image of a brown dwarf located 170 light-years away from Earth. The object is no more than 30 times the mass of Jupiter, making it too small to sustain nuclear fusion to shine as a star. [Right] — When the glow of the brown dwarf is subtracted from the image, a smaller and fainter companion object becomes visible. No more that four times the mass of Jupiter, this companion is dubbed a super-Jupiter. It has an estimated diameter as big as 40 percent greater than Jupiter's diameter. The world is 8 billion kilometres from the brown dwarf, nearly twice the distance between our sun and the planet Neptune. Because the planet is only 10 million years old, it is so hot it may rain molten glass and iron in its atmosphere. Hubble has measured fluctuations in the planet's brightness that suggests the planet has patchy clouds as it completes one rotation every 10 hours. NASA Press releaseArtist's View of a Super-Jupiter around a Brown Dwarf (2M1207)

Name: 2MASS J12073346-3932539
Type: Unspecified : Planet
Category: Exoplanets
Distance: 170 light years
Release date: 19 February 2016, 09:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Y. Zhou (University of Arizona)

Comet 252P/LINEAR: This sequence of images taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows Comet 252P/LINEAR as it passed by Earth. The visit was one of the closest encounters between a comet and our planet. The images were taken on 4 April, 2016, roughly two weeks after the icy visitor made its closest approach to Earth on 21 March. The comet traveled within 5.3 million kilometres of Earth, or about 14 times the distance between our planet and the Moon. These observations also represent the closest celestial object Hubble has observed, other than the Moon. The images reveal a narrow, well-defined jet of dust ejected by the comet's icy, fragile nucleus. The nucleus is too small for Hubble to resolve. Astronomers estimate that it is about one kilometre across. A comet produces jets of material as it travels close to the Sun in its orbit. Sunlight warms ices in a comet's nucleus, resulting in large amounts of dust and gas being ejected, sometimes in the form of jets. The jet in the Hubble images is illuminated by sunlight. The jet also appears to change direction in the images, which is evidence that the comet's nucleus is spinning. The spinning nucleus makes the jet appear to rotate like the water jet from a rotating lawn sprinkler. The images underscore the dynamics and volatility of a comet's fragile nucleus. Comet 252P/LINEAR is traveling away from Earth and the Sun; its orbit will bring it back to the inner Solar System in 2021, but not anywhere close to Earth. These visible-light images were taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. NASA Press releaseComet 252P/LINEARComet 252P/LINEARComet 252P/LINEAR

Name: Comet 252P/LINEAR
Type: Unspecified : Interplanetary Body : Comet
Category: Miscellaneous
Release date: 13 May 2016, 10:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute)

opo1614e: This sequence of images taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows Comet 252P/LINEAR as it passed by Earth. The visit was one of the closest encounters between a comet and our planet NASA Press release

Name: Comet 252P/LINEAR
Type: Unspecified : Interplanetary Body : Comet
Category: Miscellaneous
Release date: 13 May 2016, 10:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute)