Kennt ihr Berliner Schul musik?
I've been on a German kick this week for no obvious reason. Maybe nostalgia for when I lived there 40 years ago (!!). In any case, this seemed a little more lively, and I promise I won't do the whole column in German.
But lots of cool pictures this week.
:NASA has just unveiled a breathtaking new look at one of the Solar System’s strangest wonders: the giant hexagonal storm swirling at Saturn’s north pole.This colossal six-sided jet stream stretches nearly 20,000 miles across—wide enough to swallow almost four Earths side by… pic.twitter.com/yOeymCL5NW
— Black Hole (@konstructivizm) May 8, 2026
This is another planetary nebula, this time in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Doesn't even have a name.
Our #HubbleTopImage features a celestial bauble 🪩
— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) May 7, 2026
This sphere of gas appears to float serenely through space. Its apparent calm, however, hides an inner turmoil – it formed as a supernova’s expanding blast wave and ejected material tore through the nearby interstellar medium!… pic.twitter.com/BlEyIu2NTf
Andrew McCarthy has been posting a series of images formatted to fit as phone wallpapers. This is just one of them, but follow the link and it will lead you to lots more.
I spent some time pointing my 12” telescope at the Monoceros constellation to reveal this: The core of the Rosette Nebula, home to a stunning star cluster you can spot with the naked eye.
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) May 6, 2026
This is just one tiny example of the endless beauty our Milky Way holds. pic.twitter.com/kSHQnOU4UI
This is really cool. A bunch of Artemis II photos processed into a video, zooming in on details we don't normally see.
This is incredible. The new @NASA image release from #Artemis includes a sequence of 'Hello World' still photographs.
— Andy Saunders - Apollo Remastered (@AndySaunders_1) May 6, 2026
I've been processing / animating them and here's what the original didn't show us:
Satellites, including their solar arrays, lightning storms
and dancing aurora! pic.twitter.com/fiCdXIhXyt
Now this is an AI video (yes, these people in spacesuits on Mars are AI) that is pretty spectacular.
Love this.
— Mark Gadala-Maria (@markgadala) May 4, 2026
A day in the life of different planets in our solar system brought to life using AI. pic.twitter.com/nohhoxqRvJ
McCarthy is doing a series of photos where he's processing real images to bring out surface color that is too faint for the naked eye. I expect this will be very popular among lunar prospectors in the future.
I really pushed the saturation of the surface near Mare Orientale and started to see pockets of iron oxide appear that weren’t obvious in my first pass. This is invaluable information for understanding how these ancient features formed.
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) May 3, 2026
This is the type of thing I hoped to find… pic.twitter.com/uVypBd0tUO
An image of the lunar far side. I think that down in bottom right is the Mare Orientale, which is never fully visible from Earth. Again, it's processed to bring out the surface coloring that we can't see with the naked eye,
Ancient volcanic activity and meteorite impacts "paint" the lunar surface with color.
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) May 3, 2026
This image is a stack of over 100 captures of the far side of the moon captured by @astro_reid, with color greatly enhanced to reveal these subtle variances. pic.twitter.com/IGiepVcIaS
This shows what the processing does. I'm a little sorry it's not what it looks like naked eye.
Here’s the raw stack vs processed photo. All of that color was there in the image data, and when brought out it reveals a hidden world of geological curiosity! https://t.co/gv0NEzypkj pic.twitter.com/G5V9qB472v
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) May 3, 2026
This is, of course, an image in celebration of May the Fourth.
The force awakens in newborn stars.
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) May 4, 2026
Hubble captured some cosmic "lightsabers" far, far away. These are actually young stellar jets, colliding at fast speeds with nearby gas and dust.
Happy Star Wars Day from the Hubble team! pic.twitter.com/saPNX0ZJGJ
This is probably a lot like what the Milky Way would look like if we could get far enough away.
Our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month features a starry spiral in a familiar neighbourhood 🏘️👋
— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) April 30, 2026
NGC 3137 is located 53 million light-years away in the constellation Antlia (The Air Pump). It travels through space with a group of galaxies thought to be similar to the Local Group,… pic.twitter.com/NGZSSnV6vh
Another one of those super-long exposures that comes out very dramatic.
Orion is rarely seen like this. To achieve this majestic vista, you need a camera capable of taking such long duration exposures that faint features in the night sky become revealed. Iconic nebulas that appear include the Orion Nebula, the Flame Nebula, and Barnard's Loop. pic.twitter.com/n48LljZMDf
— JF Sebastian (@JF__Sebastian) May 5, 2026
One of these sorts of Milky Way shots was popular last week — rightly — and this is a nice one.
Most people never see the night sky like this anymore.
— Paul Pichugin (@paulmp) May 4, 2026
These are real astro photography moments captured under dark skies, far from city light, where the Milky Way is bright enough to stop you mid-sentence.
Every one of these frames started long before the shutter opened.… pic.twitter.com/tUrPaFVze4
Okay, another one.
A perfect mirror of the Milky Way glowing above the calm water. One of those nights that reminds you how small yet connected we are to the universe.🌃#MilkyWay #NightSky #AstroPhotography #LandscapePhotography #StarGazing #SkyPorn #EarthPorn #NaturePerfection #LongExposure pic.twitter.com/7iz6e8O2Fc
— Marek Bosák | Nature & Astro Photographer (@madden75220) May 6, 2026
Another planetary nebula. Just the remnants of an exploding star, no big deal.
✨Planetary Nebula Abell 7
— Argo 🍀 (@ArgoHydra) May 3, 2026
Credit & Copyright: Martin Pughhttps://t.co/NCC3KaQtHu pic.twitter.com/nSyrlm8py8
Look at all the stars you want, we'll make more.
A breathtaking assembly of images showing the active star-forming region of the NGC 1333 reflection nebula.
— Universal-Sci (@universal_sci) May 5, 2026
(Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana) pic.twitter.com/gbbQlJjIFv
And more.
Gorgeous: Star cluster NGC 6193 and nebula NGC 6188
— Universal-Sci (@universal_sci) May 6, 2026
(Credit: ESO) pic.twitter.com/RXpsDVv1Uk
Here's another shot of the Wizard Nebula.
NGC7380 Wizard nebula in Cepheus constellation by J P Metsavainio. pic.twitter.com/2zgtLNfR08
— Julio Maiz (@maiz_julio) May 8, 2026
One more spiral galaxy.
NGC 6744: The Milky Way’s Bigger, More Beautiful Twin Located in the southern constellation Pavo, about 30 million light-years from Earth, NGC 6744 is one of the most striking spiral galaxies visible in our cosmic neighborhood.Often nicknamed the “Milky Way’s big brother,” this… pic.twitter.com/QEbvKL8CW5
— Black Hole (@konstructivizm) May 8, 2026
This was longer than usual, but there were just so many pictures I really liked. I hope you didn't get bored.
As always, I love comments, and I expect to be back next week with more Sky Candy.
