JCC Awesome Photographs/Pictures (Cite your Sources as per OP)

https://www.deviantart.com/werol/art/In-Silence-947225623

 

https://www.deviantart.com/realmantis/art/0903-In-the-mountain-947313342

 

https://www.deviantart.com/mrtingsryd/art/another-evening-on-Viren-947905033

 

NGC 2626 along the Vela Molecular Ridge
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby & Mark Hanson

Explanation: Centered in this colorful cosmic canvas, NGC 2626 is a beautiful, bright, blue reflection nebula in the southern Milky Way. Next to an obscuring dust cloud and surrounded by reddish hydrogen emission from large H II region RCW 27 it lies within a complex of dusty molecular clouds known as the Vela Molecular Ridge. NGC 2626 is itself a cloud of interstellar dust reflecting blue light from the young hot embedded star visible within the nebula. But astronomical explorations reveal many other young stars and associated nebulae in the star-forming region. NGC 2626 is about 3,200 light-years away. At that distance this telescopic field of view would span about 30 light-years along the Vela Molecular Ridge.

 

https://www.deviantart.com/outisnahin/art/A44e9604-cbfd-48cf-a037-26f5ce8d78fe-947907558

 

Enceladus by Saturnshine
Image Credit: NASA; ESA, JPL, Cassini Imaging Team, SSI; Color Composite: Gordan Ugarkovic

Explanation: This moon is shining by the light of its planet. Specifically, a large portion of Enceladus pictured here is illuminated primarily by sunlight first reflected from the planet Saturn. The result is that the normally snow-white moon appears in the gold color of Saturn's cloud tops. As most of the illumination comes from the image left, a labyrinth of ridges throws notable shadows just to the right of the image center, while the kilometer-deep canyon Labtayt Sulci is visible just below. The bright thin crescent on the far right is the only part of Enceladus directly lit by the Sun. The featured image was taken in 2011 by the robotic Cassini spacecraftduring a close pass by by the enigmatic moon. Inspection of the lower left part of this digitally sharpened image reveals plumes of ice crystals thought to originate in a below-surface sea.

 

In the Heart of the Rosette Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Lyman Insley

Explanation: In the heart of the Rosette Nebula lies a bright cluster of stars that lights up the nebula. The stars of NGC 2244 formed from the surrounding gas only a few million years ago. The featured image taken in mid-January using multiple exposures and very specific colors of Sulfur (shaded red), Hydrogen (green), and Oxygen (blue), captures the central region in tremendous detail. A hot wind of particles streams away from the cluster stars and contributes to an already complex menagerie of gas and dust filaments while slowly evacuating the cluster center. The Rosette Nebula's center measures about 50 light-years across, lies about 5,200 light-years away, and is visible with binoculars towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros).

 

Ja’Dayia Kursh, Arkansas' first Black Rodeo Queen

from Arkansas PBS - Meet Arkansas Black Rodeo Queen Ja'Dayia Kursh – “Good Roots” June 2022 (myarkansaspbs.org)

 

from The glam makeovers of Pakistan's tractors show how much farmers cherish them : NPR

 

Mammatus Clouds over Nebraska
Image Credit & Copyright: Jorn Olsen Photography

Explanation: When do cloud bottoms appear like bubbles? Normally, cloud bottoms are flat. This is because moist warm air that rises and cools will condense into water droplets at a specific temperature, which usually corresponds to a very specific height. As water droplets grow, an opaque cloud forms. Under some conditions, however, cloud pockets can develop that contain large droplets of water or ice that fall into clear air as they evaporate. Such pockets may occur in turbulent air near a thunderstorm. Resulting mammatus clouds can appear especially dramatic if sunlit from the side. The mammatus clouds pictured here were photographed over Hastings, Nebraska during 2004 June.

 

The Hydra Cluster of Galaxies
Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Lorenzi, Angus Lau, Tommy Tse

 

Aerial pictures of Iceland by
Jan Erik Waider

 

2023 CX1 Meteor Flash
Image Credit & Copyright: Gijs de Reijke

Explanation: While scanning the skies for near-Earth objects Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky first imaged the meter-sized space rock now cataloged as 2023 CX1 on 12 February 2023 at 20:18:07 UTC. That was about 7 hours before it impacted planet Earth's atmosphere. Its predicted trajectory created a rare opportunity for meteor observers and a last minute plan resulted in this spectacular image of the fireball, captured from the Netherlands as 2023 CX1 vaporized and broke up over northern France. Remarkably it was Sárneczky's second discovery of an impacting asteroid, while 2023 CX1 is only the seventh asteroid to be detected beforebeing successfully predicted to impact Earth. It has recently become the third such object from which meteorites have been recovered. This fireball was witnessed almost 10 years to the day following the infamous Chelyabinsk Meteor flash.

 

Imaging experts funded by the Space Shuttle Program and located at NASA's Ames Research Center prepared this image using fusion software to combine six simultaneously captured images they took of the STS-135 launch on July 8, 2011. Each image was taken at a different exposure setting, including one infrared channel, then composited to balance the brightness of the rocket engine output with the regular daylight levels at which the orbiter can be seen. The processing software digitally removes pure black or pure white pixels from one image and replaces them with the most detailed pixel option from the five other images. This technique can help visualize debris falling during a launch or support research involving intense light sources like rocket engines, plasma experiments and hypersonic vehicle engines.

 

https://www.deviantart.com/cosmicwind/art/The-Windmill-949993308

Arnholma, Stockholm Archipelago, SWEDEN

 

Seven Dusty Sisters in Infrared
Image Credit: NASA, WISE, IRSA, Processing & Copyright : Francesco Antonucci

Explanation: Is this really the famous Pleiades star cluster? Known for its iconic blue stars, the Pleiades is shown here in infrared light where the surrounding dust outshines the stars. Here three infrared colors have been mapped into visual colors (R=24, G=12, B=4.6 microns). The base images were taken by NASA's orbiting Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. Cataloged as M45 and nicknamed the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades star cluster is by chance situated in a passing dust cloud. The light and winds from the massive Pleiades stars preferentially repel smaller dust particles, causing the dust to become stratified into filaments, as seen. The featured image spans about 20 light years at the distance of the Pleiades, which lies about 450 light years distant toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus).

 

https://www.deviantart.com/sandas04/art/City-smoke-351653820

 

Comet ZTF over Yosemite Falls
Image Credit & Copyright: Tara Mostofi

Explanation: They are both falling. The water in Yosemite Falls, California, USA, is falling toward the Earth. Comet ZTF is falling toward the Sun. This double cosmic cascade was captured late last month as fading Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) had just passed its closest to planet Earth. The orange star just over the falls is Kochab. With the exception of a brief encounter with a black bear, the featured image was a well-planned composite of a moonlit-foreground and long-duration background exposures - all designed to reconstruct a deep version of an actual single sight. Although Comet ZTF is now fading as it glides back to the outer Solar System, its path is determined by gravity and so it can be considered to still be falling toward the Sun -- but backwards.

 

https://www.deviantart.com/mrkabkard/art/Fannin-374885588

 

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oOEXvk

 

Looking down on the village of Reeth, nestled at the junction of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale and between Fremington Edge and Harkerside Moor in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, North Yorkshire.
Photograph taken August 1996.

https://www.deviantart.com/alberichpotter/art/Reeth-from-Fremington-Edge-950556850

 

Our Increasingly Active Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Mehmet Ergün

Explanation: Our Sun is becoming a busy place. Only two years ago, the Sun was emerging from a solar minimum so quiet that months would go by without even a single sunspot. In contrast, already this year and well ahead of schedule, our Sun is unusually active, already nearing solar activity levels seen a decade ago during the last solar maximum. Our increasingly active Sun was captured two weeks ago sporting numerous interesting features. The image was recorded in a single color of light called Hydrogen Alpha, color-inverted, and false colored. Spicules carpet much of the Sun's face. The brightening towards the Sun's edges is caused by increased absorption of relatively cool solar gas and called limb darkening. Just outside the Sun's disk, several scintillating prominences protrude, while prominences on the Sun's face are known as filaments and show as light streaks. Magnetically tangled active regions are both dark and light and contain cool sunspots. As our Sun's magnetic field winds toward solar maximum over the next few years, whether the Sun's high activity will continue to increase is unknown.

 

https://www.deviantart.com/elmofeo/art/hey-tokyo-950672722