Rare solar eclipse and + in astronomical pictures of the week

One of the biggest astronomical events this week was the hybrid solar eclipse, which is a rather rare kind. The phenomenon wasn’t visible from Brazil, but don’t worry about missing the spectacle: amidst the astronomical images I highlight NASA This week there is a great sequence of images of the total phase of the eclipse.

Other beautiful images bring the movement of Mars in the sky, the aurora borealis that impress with their color and sharpness, a nebula in the shape of a seahorse, and of course, much more.

paying off:

Saturday (04/15) – Mars is in motion

The composite image above shows the planet Mars, photographed from August 2022 to March 2023. If you follow the motion of the planet in the image, you might think that, at some point, it “reversed” the direction of its orbit. However, this is just an illusion caused by the orbital motion of the Earth.

Sunday (4/16) – Butterfly Nebula

At first glance, the planetary nebula M2-9 attracts attention due to the beauty of its structure. It lies about 2,100 light-years away from us and consists of a star shedding its layers as it nears the end of its life. Accompanied by another, this stellar duo moves within a gaseous disk.

Monday (17/04) – The Elvis Phenomenon

What is the reason for this red ring in the sky? If you think that this is a kind of phenomenon related to electrostatic discharge, you are right. This is a luminous phenomenon that occurs when electrically charged clouds emit electromagnetic pulses that reach the ionosphere. With it, the nitrogen molecules glow and form this structure.

Tuesday (4/18) – eclipse chart

The dark bars on the map represent the path of the moon’s shadow during the annular eclipse of the sun, which will occur in April, and the totality that will occur in 2024. As you can see, both are visible from different places in North America, and anyone in the regions indicated by the dark marks will be able to see the farthest disk My sun is covered by the moon during the phenomenon.

Wednesday (19/04) – Colorful Northern Lights in Finland

Colorful aurora borealis flash across the skies over Lapland, Finland, after a geomagnetic storm. They are caused by interactions between electrically charged particles coming from the sun and the earth’s atmosphere; On the other hand, the colors indicate the interactions that take place between the electrons and the atoms of the atmosphere, such as oxygen and nitrogen.

Thursday (20/04) – Seahorse Nebula

This is Barnard 150, a dark nebula located about 1,200 light-years away from us — but if you prefer, you can call it the Seahorse Nebula. It consists of highly dense dust and gas, and within it contains low-mass stars in a state of formation.

Friday (04/21) – Rare solar eclipse

A solar eclipse occurred overnight from Wednesday (19) to Thursday (20), starting at 22:36 BST. As it was at night, it was not possible to observe the phenomenon in Brazil, but you can check out some of them in the photo sequence above.

The eclipse was of the hybrid type. These images show the beginning, middle and end of the total phase.

• Learn more about this hybrid solar eclipse image

source: APOD

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