Supermassive Black Hole 超級黑洞 (28/7/2006)
畫家筆下的超級黑洞樣子，天文學家現在知道星系中心都有一顆超級黑洞，它們部份被包圍物質形成的吸積盤所隱藏，放出的光不能被看見。

Caption:: This artist's impression shows the thick dust torus that astronomers believe surrounds many supermassive black holes and their accretion discs. When the torus is seen edge-on as in this case, much of the light emitted by the accretion disc is blocked, creating a "hidden" black hole. However, the sharp gamma-ray and X-ray eyes of Integral can peer through the thick dust and identify the black hole within. An Integral survey of the local universe found few hidden black holes, implying that they must have existed earlier (deeper) in the universe.

Credit:: ESA / V. Beckmann (NASA-GSFC)

NGC 4565 (27/7/2006)
NGC 4565 由天王星的發現者所發現，距離我們3000萬光年，位於后髮座，是一個典型的側向螺旋星系，比我們的銀河系大三份一。

Caption:: The galaxy pictured here is NGC 4565, which for obvious reasons is also called the Needle Galaxy. First spotted in 1785 by Uranus' discoverer, Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), this is one of the most famous example of an edge-on spiral galaxy and is located some 30 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice's Hair). It displays a bright yellowish central bulge that juts out above most impressive dust lanes. It is relatively close (it is only 12 times farther away than Messier 31, the Andromeda galaxy, which is the major galaxy closest to us) and relatively large (roughly one third larger than the Milky Way). Many background galaxies are also visible in this FORS image, giving full meaning to their nickname of "island universes".

Credit:: ESO

NGC 908 (26/7/2006)
距離我們650萬光年，位於鯨魚座的螺旋星系NGC 908，是一顆星暴星系，即是其恆星以高速形成，在旋臂中可清楚看見年輕和大質量的恆星。星系左端的旋臂的形狀顯示這星系曾經與鄰近的星系有非常近的接觸。

Caption:: NGC 908, located 65 million light-years towards the constellation of Cetus. This spiral galaxy, discovered in 1786 by William Herschel, is a so-called starburst galaxy, that is, a galaxy undergoing a phase where it spawns stars at a frantic rate. Clusters of young and massive stars can be seen in the spiral arms. Two supernovae, the explosions of massive stars, have been recorded in the near past: one in 1994 and another in May 2006. The galaxy, which is about 75 000 light-years long, also clearly presents uneven and thick spiral arms, the one on the left appearing to go upwards, forming a kind of ribbon. These properties indicate that NGC 908 most probably suffered a close encounter with another galaxy, even though none is visible at present.

Credit:: ESO

Titan Lake 泰坦湖 (25/7/2006)
2006年7月21日，卡西尼號飛掠泰坦的北極，雷達接收到的數據發現多片漆黑沒有被反射回來的地域，科學家推斷這是泰坦上由碳氫化合物而成的湖。最大的直徑約100公里，湖的四周，有河流一般被沖刷的痕跡。於北極地帶，溫度較低，甲烷能夠較易凝聚為湖。湖相信由甲烷雨積聚而成，但天文學家仍需要驗證它的真實性，透過重覆的觀測，若它真是湖，便會隨著時間而改變，只要能夠得到驗證，人類則是首次於地球以外的星體表面找到液體。

Caption:: The Cassini spacecraft, using its radar system, has discovered very strong evidence for hydrocarbon lakes on Titan. Dark patches, which resemble terrestrial lakes, seem to be sprinkled all over the high latitudes surrounding Titan's north pole. Scientists have speculated that liquid methane or ethane might form lakes on Titan, particularly near the somewhat colder polar regions. In the images, a variety of dark patches, some with channels leading in or out of them, appear. The channels have a shape that strongly implies they were carved by liquid. Some of the dark patches and connecting channels are completely black, that is, they reflect back essentially no radar signal, and hence must be extremely smooth. In some cases rims can be seen around the dark patches, suggesting deposits that might form as liquid evaporates. The abundant methane in Titan's atmosphere is stable as a liquid under Titan conditions, as is its abundant chemical product, ethane, but liquid water is not. For all these reasons, scientists interpret the dark areas as lakes of liquid methane or ethane, making Titan the only body in the solar system besides Earth known to possess lakes. Because such lakes may wax and wane over time, and winds may alter the roughness of their surfaces. Repeat coverage of these areas should test whether indeed these are bodies of liquid.

Credit:: NASA, JPL

Cone Nebula 錐狀星雲 (24/7/2006)
哈勃太空望遠鏡的紅外線眼睛－近紅外線相機及多重天體光譜儀，終於重新運作，利用紅外線波段，我們能夠看到不少人類肉眼看不到的東西，如躲在塵後的星光。利用紅外線，哈勃能看到在錐狀星雲中隱藏的星。

Caption:: On 2002, after more than three years of inactivity, the Hubble Space Telescope Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) has reopened its "near-infrared eyes" on the universe, snapping several breathtaking views, from the craggy interior of a star-forming cloud to a revealing look at the heart of an edge-on galaxy. Peering into our stellar backyard, NICMOS peeled back the outer layers of the Cone Nebula to see the underlying dusty "bedrock" in this stellar "pillar of creation".

Credit:: NASA, The NICMOS Group (STScI, ESA) and The NICMOS Science Team (Univ. of Arizona)