As we enter the penultimate month of 2024, NASA has shared some spectacular images from across the universe and closer to home.
Ranging from galaxies on the brink of collision to solar eclipses on another world, these NASA images reveal the vast complexity of the cosmos, and the impacts we are having on our own planet.
Galaxies about to collide look like "blood-soaked" eyes
This image, snapped by the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the far-off galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 in a cosmic dance.
Appearing like a pair of red eyes in the darkness of space, the two galaxies are located millions of light-years away from Earth. The galaxy on the left, IC 2163, is moving behind NGC 2207 on the right, and is slightly grazing its companion as it goes.
Over millions of years, the two galaxies' arms are expected to tangle and combine, swirling into each other. Their cores may even one day even combine, becoming one giant galaxy.
Solar eclipse from Mars
NASA shared a video captured by NASA's Perseverance rover as the Martian moon Phobos passed in front of the sun on September 30 this year.
Phobos is one of two Martian moons, the other being Deimos. Phobos is only about 14 miles across, while its sibling is even smaller at 7.5 miles. Earth's moon, on the other hand, has a diameter of about 238,000 miles.
As Phobos crossed in front of the sun, it appeared as a strange googly-eye to the rover on the planet's surface.
Smooth disk surrounding star Vega
Using both the James Webb and Hubble telescopes, astronomers were able to peer at the disc of dust surrounding the star Vega, famed for its feature in the 1997 movie "Contact."
Situated some 25 light-years away, Vega is surrounded by a 100-billion-mile-diameter debris disk. Astronomers hoped to find evidence of a planet lurking within this disk, but the new images show that there doesn't appear to be any.
"Between the Hubble and Webb telescopes, you get this very clear view of Vega. It's a mysterious system because it's unlike other circumstellar disks we've looked at," Andras Gáspár, a researcher at the University of Arizona, said in a statement. "The Vega disk is smooth, ridiculously smooth."
Mexico volcano eruption
In an image snapped by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8, Mexico's most active volcano Popocatépetl can be seen spewing out ash and smoke.
The volcano was particularly active last week, and the ash even grounded flights on October 25.
Spooky Witch Hat Nebula
This week, NASA shared an image of the eerily-named Witch Hat Nebula, taken by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) in 2013.
Resembling a witch's face, this nebula is a stellar nursery some 1,300 light-years from Earth. The surrounding area, rich in dust, provides raw material for new stars. Inside, young stars illuminate dust and gas, creating a strange glow.
North Carolina's "ghost forests"
In a less awe-inspiring image, the impacts of sea level rise on North Carolina cypress forests can be seen in a picture snapped by the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9.
As sea levels have risen along the North Carolina coast, the encroaching saltwater has killed off coastal trees, turning them into a collection of dead husks known as "ghost forests."
"The closer a forest is to sea level, the greater the risk of tree death and the detection of ghost forests," Xi Yang, an environmental scientist at the University of Virginia told NASA Earth Observatory.
Celestial cannonball galaxy
Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of spiral galaxy IC 3225, which appears to be streaking though space like a cannonball, stretching its arms of stars out behind it in its wake.
IC 3225 is affected by something called "ram pressure" from hot intergalactic gas in the dense Virgo galaxy cluster, which compresses one side and pulls the other. This likely enhances star formation in the compressed side.
Ghostly aurora from space
On Halloween, NASA Earth posted a picture to X of the aurora borealis taken from space on October 11, 2024 during a G4 geomagnetic storm.
"Ahhh a ghost!! Oh, wait, that's just the aurora borealis. Guess we're a bit on edge because it's #Halloween!," they said in the post.
Caused by a coronal mass ejection from the sun, this geomagnetic storm resulted in the northern lights being visible as far south as aurora were shared from Nevada, North Carolina, Arizona, and Texas.
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