What looks much like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth.

Called the Cosmic Cliffs, the region is actually the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, roughly 7,600 light-years away. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image. The high-energy radiation from these stars is sculpting the nebula’s wall by slowly eroding it away.

NIRCam – with its crisp resolution and unparalleled sensitivity – unveils hundreds of previously hidden stars, and even numerous background galaxies. Several prominent features in this image are described below.

• The “steam” that appears to rise from the celestial “mountains” is actually hot, ionized gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to intense, ultraviolet radiation.
• Dramatic pillars rise above the glowing wall of gas, resisting the blistering ultraviolet radiation from the young stars.
• Bubbles and cavities are being blown by the intense radiation and stellar winds of newborn stars.
• Protostellar jets and outflows, which appear in gold, shoot from dust-enshrouded, nascent stars.
• A “blow-out” erupts at the top-center of the ridge, spewing gas and dust into the interstellar medium.
• An unusual “arch” appears, looking like a bent-over cylinder.

This period of very early star formation is difficult to capture because, for an individual star, it lasts only about 50,000 to 100,000 years – but Webb’s extreme sensitivity and exquisite spatial resolution have chronicled this rare event.

Located roughly 7,600 light-years away, NGC 3324 was first catalogued by James Dunlop in 1826. Visible from the Southern Hemisphere, it is located at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), which resides in the constellation Carina. The Carina Nebula is home to the Keyhole Nebula and the active, unstable supergiant star called Eta Carinae.

NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.

Second planetscape of my fictional planet Merphlyn. Painted in Photoshop CS6.

First one here:

http://starkiteckt.deviantart.com/art/Stormy-Atmosphere-of-Merphlyn-HQ-TIF-517587705

This is the first time I visited Yosemite and thus obviously the first time I saw the famed Tunnel View vista. This is at sunrise, about 5:30 in the morning. The crowds were still thin, and many roads in the park had just been re-opened for the Spring/Summer. I have adjusted the RAW file for exposure and white balance in Photoshop and Light Room, with additional minor tweaks in Exposure X2.

Lightroom, Photoshop, Exposure X2. Sony a7rii, Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 lens.

Sony Alpha 7R, Tamron SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical (IF).

Photo Settings: 17mm, f/5, 2.5 seconds, ISO 400.

Map: 37.7156, -119.6769

Sunrise at Grand Teton National Park. I took this photo in June, 2018.

Location: Schwabacher's Landing.

Adobe Lightroom.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM.

Photo Settings: 28mm, f/16, 1/2 second, ISO 100.

Taken at the Top of the Rock located at Rockefeller Center in NYC.

Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED.

Beautiful sunrise above Bohol flying from Cebu to Cagayan De Oro in the Philippines.

Adobe Lightroom.

, Sony FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Carl Zeiss Vario Tessar T*.

After a day with cloudy and rainy weather, we were lucky to get a great sunset on top of the Empire State Building. The colors of the sky and of the fading city were just great!

Canon EOS 5DS R, Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM

Map: 40.7483, -73.9855

The Cobbler - also known as Ben Arthur - has the most distinctive outline of any mountain in the Scottish Southern Highlands.

Adobe Lightroom CC.

NN294048

Canon EOS 650D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM.

Photo Settings: 55mm, f/5, 1/200 second, ISO 100.

The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust.

This sharpest-ever image of the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, illustrates a spiral galaxy's grand design, from its curving spiral arms, where young stars reside, to its yellowish central core, a home of older stars. The galaxy is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its swirling structure.

The Whirlpool's most striking feature is its two curving arms, a hallmark of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies. Many spiral galaxies possess numerous, loosely shaped arms which make their spiral structure less pronounced. These arms serve an important purpose in spiral galaxies. They are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars. In the Whirlpool, the assembly line begins with the dark clouds of gas on the inner edge, then moves to bright pink star-forming regions, and ends with the brilliant blue star clusters along the outer edge.

Some astronomers believe that the Whirlpool's arms are so prominent because of the effects of a close encounter with NGC 5195, the small, yellowish galaxy at the outermost tip of one of the Whirlpool's arms. At first glance, the compact galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm. Hubble's clear view, however, shows that NGC 5195 is passing behind the Whirlpool. The small galaxy has been gliding past the Whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years.

As NGC 5195 drifts by, its gravitational muscle pumps up waves within the Whirlpool's pancake-shaped disk. The waves are like ripples in a pond generated when a rock is thrown in the water. When the waves pass through orbiting gas clouds within the disk, they squeeze the gaseous material along each arm's inner edge. The dark dusty material looks like gathering storm clouds. These dense clouds collapse, creating a wake of star birth, as seen in the bright pink star-forming regions. The largest stars eventually sweep away the dusty cocoons with a torrent of radiation, hurricane-like stellar winds, and shock waves from supernova blasts. Bright blue star clusters emerge from the mayhem, illuminating the Whirlpool's arms like city streetlights.

The Whirlpool is one of astronomy's galactic darlings. Located 31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs), the Whirlpool's beautiful face-on view and closeness to Earth allow astronomers to study a classic spiral galaxy's structure and star-forming processes.

Object Names: Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, NGC 5194/5

Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

It was a rainy, cool day in Northern California. I wanted to capture the mood of the forest.

Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop CC.

Nikon D600, Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G.