Happy Valentine’s Day from outer space, everyone! This image shows two galaxies – categorized as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 and sometimes also called the Antenna galaxies – in the middle of a collision. Image via APOD.
Happy Valentine’s Day! We share love by celebrating some of the many heart-shaped objects you can find in the depths of space closer to our environment in the solar system to here on earth.
Look bigger. | Here is IC1805, or the Heart Nebula – a popular target for astrophotographers – via EarthSky member Justin Ng.
The lunar calendars of 2021 are here. A few left. Order yours before they leave!
We love Pluto too! The New Horizons mission, which swept the closest to Pluto on July 13, 2015, revealed unique surface markings, including this light-colored area that traces a large heart on the planet. Image via NASA / APL / SwRI.
Mars has a lot of heart! These ten images of craters with distinctive heart shapes were taken by the Mars Global Surveyor between 2001 and 2004. Image via NASA / JPL / Malin Space Science Systems.
Let’s love this small, heart-shaped depression on the lunar surface a little, during the extra-vehicular activity Apollo 12 on November 19, 1969. The legs of the astronaut Charles Conrad jr. Can be seen in the background. Image via NASA.
Back on earth we find this heart-shaped island in the Republic of Croatia that is only 50 meters wide. This is Galesnjak, nicknamed Lover’s Island. This beautiful shot was taken by ALOS, the Earth observation satellite of Japan. Image via ESA.
This dark green lake is part of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan with a heart shape that apparently bleeds a thin stream of emerald fluid. Maybe his heart breaks because this shrinking sea is considered one of the worst environmental disasters on the planet. Image via the world’s top-top.
Heart-shaped leaves are common on earth, and sometimes you can also find heart-shaped flowers, such as this bleeding heart plant. Image via annie pm / Unsplash.
In short: the shape of hearts is ubiquitous in the universe, as seen through these photos of small petals on earth to galaxies in the distant universe.
