astronemma

Saturn and Moons Credit: Scott MacNeill

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:08:29 +0100

Saturn and Moons

Credit: Scott MacNeill

Aurora Borealis in Maine Credit: Mike Taylor

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:04:15 +0100

Aurora Borealis in Maine

Credit: Mike Taylor

spacettf: The Red Rectangle Nebula from Hubble Image Credit:...

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:26:38 +0100

spacettf:

The Red Rectangle Nebula from Hubble
Image Credit: ESA, Hubble, NASA; Reprocessing: Steven Marx, Hubble Legacy Archive

Explanation: How was the unusual Red Rectangle nebula created? At the nebula’s center is an aging binary star system that surely powers the nebula but does not, as yet, explain its colors. The unusual shape of the Red Rectangle is likely due to a thick dust torus which pinches the otherwise spherical outflow into tip-touching cone shapes. Because we view the torus edge-on, the boundary edges of the cone shapes seem to form an X. The distinct rungs suggest the outflow occurs in fits and starts. The unusual colors of the nebula are less well understood, however, and speculation holds that they are partly provided by hydrocarbon molecules that may actually be building blocks for organic life. The Red Rectangle nebula lies about 2,300 light years away towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros). The nebula is shown above in great detail as recently reprocessed image from Hubble Space Telescope. In a few million years, as one of the central stars becomes further depleted of nuclear fuel, the Red Rectangle nebula will likely bloom into a planetary nebula.

NGC 4214 - Dwarf barred irregular galaxy in Canes...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:16:07 +0100

NGC 4214 - Dwarf barred irregular galaxy in Canes Venatici

Credit: Jeff Johnson

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Drills Into 2nd Mars...

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:38:58 +0100

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Drills Into 2nd Mars Rock

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has broken out its trusty drill again, pulling samples from deep within a Red Planet rock for the second time ever.

The 1-ton Curiosity rover bored 2.6 inches (6.6 centimeters) into a rock dubbed “Cumberland” on Sunday (May 19), NASA officials said. The resulting powdered sample will be delivered to the robot’s onboard science instruments in the coming days.

Curiosity first used its drill to collect samples back in February, boring into a nearby rock called “John Klein.” That operation revealed that ancient Mars was likely capable of supporting microbial life — a groundbreaking discovery that the mission team wants to confirm.

“The science team expects to use analysis of material from Cumberland to check findings from John Klein,” NASA officials wrote in a mission update Monday (May 20).

Majestic Milky Way Shines Over Acadia National Park Credit:...

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:30:00 +0100

Majestic Milky Way Shines Over Acadia National Park

Credit: Christopher Georgia

atomstargazer: APOD | 2013 May 20 | Blue Sun Bursting Image...

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:25:33 +0100

atomstargazer:

APOD | 2013 May 20 | Blue Sun Bursting
Image Credit & Copyright: Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination)

Explanation: Our Sun is not a giant blueberry. Our Sun can be made to appear similar to the diminutive fruit, however, by imaging it in a specific color of extreme violet light called CaK that is emitted by the very slight abundance of ionized Calcium in the Sun’s atmosphere, and then false color-inverting the image. This solar depiction is actually scientifically illuminating as a level of the Sun’s chromosphere appears quite prominent, showing a crackly textured surface, cool sunspots appearing distinctly bright, and surrounding hot active regions appearing distinctly dark. The Sun is currently near the maximum activity level in its 11 year cycle, and has emitted powerful flares over the past week. During times of high activity, streams of energetic particles from Sun may impact the Earth’s magnetosphere and set off spectacular auroras.

UK astronaut Tim Peake to go to International Space Station The...

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:12:00 +0100

UK astronaut Tim Peake to go to International Space Station

The UK astronaut Tim Peake has been given a date to fly to the International Space Station (ISS).

The European Space Agency (Esa) says it will release details of his mission on Monday. It will not be before 2015.

Peake, who was a major and a helicopter pilot in the British Army Air Corps, has been in training for an expedition to the ISS since 2009.

To get there, he will have to ride a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

Tasks once in orbit will include helping to maintain the 27,000km/h platform and carrying out science experiments in Esa’s Columbus laboratory module, which is attached to the front of the 400-tonne complex.

Forty-one-year-old Peake hails from Chichester, and is so far the only Briton ever to be accepted into the European Astronaut Corps.

His mission will make him the first UK national to live and work in space, and to fly the Union flag, on a British-government-funded programme (the UK is Esa’s third largest contributor).

All previous UK-born astronauts that have gone into orbit have done so either through the US space agency (Nasa) as American citizens or on private ventures organised with the assistance of the Russian space agency.

atomstargazer: APOD | 2013 May 19 | Earth’s Richat Structure ...

Sun, 19 May 2013 17:00:06 +0100

atomstargazer:

APOD | 2013 May 19 | Earth’s Richat Structure
Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Explanation: What on Earth is that? The Richat Structure in the Sahara Desert of Mauritania is easily visible from space because it is nearly 50 kilometers across. Once thought to be an impact crater, the Richat Structure’s flat middle and lack of shock-altered rock indicates otherwise. The possibility that the Richat Structure was formed by a volcanic eruption also seems improbable because of the lack of a dome of igneous or volcanic rock. Rather, the layered sedimentary rock of the Richat structure is now thought by many to have been caused by uplifted rock sculpted by erosion. The above image was captured by the ASTER instruments onboard the orbiting orbiting Terra satellite. Why the Richat Structure is nearly circular remains a mystery.

Snow Falling on Telescopes This image shows a wintry La Silla...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:59:20 +0100

Snow Falling on Telescopes

This image shows a wintry La Silla Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert sitting beneath the Milky Way. Despite the telescopes’ location in one of the best areas for astronomical observation, at an altitude of 7800 feet (2400 meters), the desert cannot completely escape winter weather, including snow blanketing the mountain peak and telescope domes. The high altitude sites operated by European Southern Observatory can experience both hot and cold temperatures through the year, including sometimes harsh conditions.

Credit: ESO/José Francisco Salgado

thescienceofreality: This Week in Science - May 13 - 19,...

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:53:33 +0100

thescienceofreality:

This Week in Science - May 13 - 19, 2013:

Magnetar at black hole here.

Cloned human stem cells here.

Cell calculators here.

Music matched to color here.

Scientists agreeing on climate change here.

Remote-piloted plane here.

Earth’s core here.

Bright lunar explosion here.

American asteroid sampling here.

Hofstadter butterfly effect here.

Electric shocks aid math skills here.

Printable solar panels here.

atomstargazer: APOD | 2013 May 18 | Comet PanSTARRS Anti-Tail ...

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:13:14 +0100

atomstargazer:

APOD | 2013 May 18 | Comet PanSTARRS Anti-Tail
Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Fulle (INAF)

Explanation: Once the famous sunset comet, PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) is now visible all night from much of the northern hemisphere, bound for the outer solar system as it climbs high above the ecliptic plane. Dimmer and fading, the comet’s broad dust tail is still growing, though. This widefield telescopic image was taken against the starry background of the constellation Cepheus on May 15. It shows the comet has developed an extensive anti-tail, dust trailing along the comet’s orbit (to the left of the coma), stretching more than 3 degrees across the frame. Since the comet is just over 1.6 astronomical units from planet Earth, that corresponds to a distance of over 12 million kilometers. In late May Comet PanSTARRS will pass within a few degrees of the north celestial pole.

Pale Moon Credit: Peter Öberg

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:12:34 +0100

Pale Moon

Credit: Peter Öberg

Curiosity at ‘Cumberland’ NASA’s Mars rover...

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:09:14 +0100

Curiosity at ‘Cumberland’

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity used its front left Hazard-Avoidance Camera for this image of the rover’s arm over the drilling target “Cumberland” during the 275th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s work on Mars (May 15, 2013).

The rover team plans to use Curiosity’s drill to collect a powdered sample from the interior of the rock for analysis by laboratory instruments inside the rover. This is the mission’s second rock-drilling target. The rover drove from its position beside the first drilling target, “John Klein,” to its position beside Cumberland with drives of 121 inches (308 centimeters) on Sol 273 (May 13) and 26.6 inches (67.5 centimeters) on Sol 275. Curiosity’s total odometry on Mars is now 2,385 feet (727 meters).

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

crookedindifference: First Solar Eclipse Photograph Berkowski...

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:02:54 +0100

crookedindifference:

First Solar Eclipse Photograph

Berkowski made the first solar eclipse photograph on July 28, 1851, also using the daguerrotype process, at the Royal Observatory in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kalinigrad in Russia). Berkowski, a local daguerrotypist whose first name was never published, observed at the Royal Observatory. A small 6-cm refracting telescope was attached to the 15.8-cm Fraunhofer heliometer and a 84-second exposure was taken shortly after the beginning of totality.

astronemma2: My year group voted me Most Likely To Walk On The...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:53:34 +0100

astronemma2:

My year group voted me Most Likely To Walk On The Moon in our leavers book!

Atlantic Night Bright planet Jupiter, the band of Milky Way,...

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:18:55 +0100

Atlantic Night

Bright planet Jupiter, the band of Milky Way, and summer constellations shine above a port in Brittany, at coastline of Atlantic Ocean. Click on the little star box above the image to view the constellation figures. — Laurent Laveder

Mars Rover Opportunity Breaks US Record for Off-Planet...

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:03:45 +0100

Mars Rover Opportunity Breaks US Record for Off-Planet Driving

NASA’s long-lived Opportunity Mars rover is the new American champion of off-planet driving, breaking a distance record set more than 40 years ago by an Apollo moon buggy.

The six-wheeled Opportunity rover drove 263 feet (80 meters) on Wednesday (May 15), bringing its total odometry on the Red Planet to 22.220 miles (35.760 kilometers), NASA officials said. The previous mark had been held by the Apollo 17 moon rover, which astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt drove for 22.210 miles (35.744 km) across the lunar surface in December 1972.

“The record we established with a roving vehicle was made to be broken, and I’m excited and proud to be able to pass the torch to Opportunity,” Cernan said a few days ago in a conversation with Opportunity team member Jim Rice, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., space agency officials said.

electricspacekoolaid: Cassini Shapes First Global Topographic...

Fri, 17 May 2013 07:58:56 +0100

electricspacekoolaid:

Cassini Shapes First Global Topographic Map of Titan

Image: Using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, scientists have created the first global topographic map of Saturn’s moon Titan, giving researchers a 3-D tool for learning more about one of the most Earthlike and interesting worlds in the solar system

Scientists have created the first global topographic map of Saturn’s moon Titan, giving researchers a valuable tool for learning more about one of the most Earth-like and interesting worlds in the solar system. The map was just published as part of a paper in the journal Icarus.

Titan is Saturn’s largest moon - at 1,600 miles (2,574 kilometers) across it’s bigger than planet Mercury - and is the second-largest moon in the solar system. Scientists care about Titan because it’s the only moon in the solar system known to have clouds, surface liquids and a mysterious, thick atmosphere. The cold atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, like Earth’s, but the organic compound methane on Titan acts the way water vapor does on Earth, forming clouds and falling as rain and carving the surface with rivers. Organic chemicals, derived from methane, are present in Titan’s atmosphere, lakes and rivers and may offer clues about the origins of life.

“Titan has so much interesting activity - like flowing liquids and moving sand dunes - but to understand these processes it’s useful to know how the terrain slopes,” said Ralph Lorenz, a member of the Cassini radar team based at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., who led the map-design team. “It’s especially helpful to those studying hydrology and modeling Titan’s climate and weather, who need to know whether there is high ground or low ground driving their models.”

Titan’s thick haze scatters light in ways that make it very hard for remote cameras to “see” landscape shapes and shadows, the usual approach to measuring topography on planetary bodies. Virtually all the data we have on Titan comes from NASA’s Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft, which has flown past the moon nearly 100 times over the past decade. On many of those flybys, Cassini has used a radar imager, which can peer through the haze, and the radar data can be used to estimate the surface height.

“With this new topographic map, one of the most fascinating and dynamic worlds in our solar system now pops out in 3-D,” said Steve Wall, the deputy team lead of Cassini’s radar team, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “On Earth, rivers, volcanoes and even weather are closely related to heights of surfaces - we’re now eager to see what we can learn from them on Titan.”

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Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/JHUAPL/Cornell/Weizmann

The Waterfall and the World at Night Image Credit...

Fri, 17 May 2013 07:26:18 +0100

The Waterfall and the World at Night
Image Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Vetter (Nuits sacrées)

Explanation: Above this boreal landscape, the arc of the Milky Way and shimmering aurorae flow through the night. Like an echo, below them lies Iceland’s spectacular Godafoss, the Waterfall of the Gods. Shining just below the Milky Way, bright Jupiter is included in the panoramic nightscape recorded on March 9. Faint and diffuse, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) appears immersed in the auroral glow. The digital stitch of four frames is a first place winner in the 2013 International Earth and Sky Photo Contest on Dark Skies Importance organized by The World at Night. An evocative record of the beauty of planet Earth’s night sky, all the contest’s winning entries are featured in this video.