Astrophysical Science Stickers

Starbirth region LH 95, Hubble Space Telescope image. Large stars within LH 95 generate strong stellar winds and high levels of ultraviolet radiation. This heats the interstellar gas, creating the blue glow seen here. The dark lanes of dust (left and lower centre) are areas that have survived the effects of the stellar winds. Due to the filters used, the hot, bright stars in this image are blue, and cooler stars appear red in colour. LH 95 is in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), some 176,000 light years from Earth in the constellations Mensa and Dorado. Image data obtained by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument, and published in 2006.

Earth from Saturn, Cassini image. Earth is the point of light at centre, with the Moon to its left. Some of the rings of Saturn are visible above and below Earth. At top is the A ring, with the Keeler and Encke gaps visible, and the F ring at bottom. The distance to Earth is 1.4 billion kilometres. Saturn is a large gas giant planet, with a ring system that consists of thousands of chunks of rock and ice. This image was obtained on 12 April 2017 by Cassini's Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS). The Cassini spacecraft has been surveying the Saturnian system since 2004, with its mission scheduled to end in September 2017.

Earth from Mars. Curiosity rover image looking up at the night sky from the surface of Mars, with Earth visible as the brightest point of light (centre left). The Moon is just below Earth. The distance between Earth and Mars was around 160 million kilometres when this image was obtained. The Curiosity rover is part of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. It landed on Mars on 6 August 2012, on a mission to investigate the Martian climate and geology. Image obtained with the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on 31 January 2014.

Eta Carinae nebula. Coloured Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of part of the Eta Carinae nebula. This large pillar of cold hydrogen gas and dust is the site of star birth. The narrow pillar (pointing towards top left) alone measures one light year in length. Two stellar jets, or Herbig- Haro objects (white streaks) are seen bursting from the cloud. The ultraviolet radiation in these jets, which are formed by the young hot stars, is slowly eroding the pillar. The Eta Carinae Nebula is around 10,000 light years from Earth in the constellation of Carina. Image taken using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Saturn's rings. Cassini spacecraft image of Saturn's rings and two of its moons Janus (white spot, top) and Pandora (below and left of Janus, just outside the narrow outer ring). The rings, which consist of particles of nearly pure water ice, have become contaminated with meteoritic dust over time. It is this dust that causes differences in the rings' colours. The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched in 1997 to investigate Saturn, its rings and its moons. This image was taken at a distance of 1.1 million kilometres from Saturn on 7th February 2008.

1919 solar eclipse. This is a negative from a set of images, taken by the British astronomer Arthur Eddington (1882-1944), that confirmed Einstein's theory of general relativity. The stars near the Sun (marked here by horizontal lines) appeared to be slightly shifted because their light was curved by its gravitational field. This shift is only noticeable during a solar eclipse as at other times the Sun's brightness obscures the stars. This is a total solar eclipse, when the Moon fits over the Sun so only its corona (atmosphere) is visible. Image taken form Principe Island, Gulf of Guinea, on 29 May 1919. For a sequence of the eclipse see R506/416-R506/418.