A giant solar prominence erupts from the sun on Nov. 16, 2012, in this image captured by NASA’s sun-watching Solar Dynamics Observatory. The solar eruption was not aimed at Earth. CREDIT: NASA/SDO
(Source: news.discovery.com)
What does it feel like to fly over planet Earth?
A time lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. Beginning over the Pacific Ocean and continuing over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica.
Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvador, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon. Also visible is the Earth’s ionosphere (thin yellow line), a satellite and the stars of our galaxy.
NASA detects extreme temperatures on Saturn after an enormous storm
In December 2010, Saturn was quickly overrun by a storm several times the size of Earth. For months the atmospheric outburst raged, growing and traveling so quickly that it soon managed to wrap itself around the entire northern hemisphere. To date, it is the most massive storm we’ve ever observed on the ringed planet. Now, NASA scientists are saying the storm was even more powerful than previously believed — and that things got very, very hot.
Shortly after the Saturnian storm erupted in late 2010, NASA scientists used infrared imaging equipment onboard the Agency’s Cassini spacecraft to identify two “beacons” within the tempest, where temperatures were elevated above normal by around 20 degrees Kelvin. This temperature differential, explains planetary scientist Brigette Hesman, is regarded as “reasonable” for your typical Saturnian storm.
A Planetary Nebula Gallery
This gallery shows four planetary nebulas from the first systematic survey of such objects in the solar neighborhood made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The planetary nebulas shown here are NGC 6543, also known as the Cat’s Eye, NGC 7662, NGC 7009 and NGC 6826. In each case, X-ray emission from Chandra is colored purple and optical emission from the Hubble Space Telescope is colored red, green and blue.
(Source: nasa.gov)
![From Hubble, The Deepest-Ever View Of The Universe
The Hubble Space Telescope stitches together 10 years’ worth of photos into an extreme view.
In the Image: eXtreme Deep Field View Of Space NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (Leiden University), and the HUDF09 Team
Take a deep breath, stargazers: this is the farthest we’ve seen into the heart of the universe. The eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, as the photo’s called, shows about 5,500 galaxies, although some are as much are only one ten-billionth of the brightness needed to be seen by human eyes.
The photo is actually something of a mosaic: there are 10 years’ worth of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, an image showing a slice of space in the constellation Fornax, was assembled in 2003 and 2004 with data from Hubble; it was a major leap toward seeing the edges of the universe, but with help from an infrared camera attached to Hubble in 2008, along with use of visible light, we got what you see here, an image of what it’s like closer than ever to the first galaxies.
[NASA]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mayeneYYBn1qbkzabo1_500.jpg)
From Hubble, The Deepest-Ever View Of The Universe
The Hubble Space Telescope stitches together 10 years’ worth of photos into an extreme view.
In the Image: eXtreme Deep Field View Of Space NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (Leiden University), and the HUDF09 Team
Take a deep breath, stargazers: this is the farthest we’ve seen into the heart of the universe. The eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, as the photo’s called, shows about 5,500 galaxies, although some are as much are only one ten-billionth of the brightness needed to be seen by human eyes.
The photo is actually something of a mosaic: there are 10 years’ worth of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, an image showing a slice of space in the constellation Fornax, was assembled in 2003 and 2004 with data from Hubble; it was a major leap toward seeing the edges of the universe, but with help from an infrared camera attached to Hubble in 2008, along with use of visible light, we got what you see here, an image of what it’s like closer than ever to the first galaxies.
[NASA]
Hello, Bobak Ferdowsi
His name is Bobak Ferdowsi, and …
… he identifies himself as flight director for the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity mission. He’s an MIT grad, apparently.
Hnnng. :’) ♥
Gamma-ray Outbursts Shed New Light on Pulsars
Clouds of charged particles move along the pulsar’s magnetic field lines (blue) and create a lighthouse-like beam of gamma rays (purple) in this illustration. Image Credit: NASA
The Galaxy Evolution
1. Rainbow of Galaxies
This image of the Cartwheel galaxy shows multi-wavelength observations from several NASA missions, including the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, whose data is seen in blue. The Hubble Space Telescope is in green, the Spitzer Space Telescope is in red and the Chandra X-ray Observatory is in purple.
2. Jellyfish Galaxy
Wispy tendrils of hot dust and gas glow brightly in this ultraviolet image of the Cygnus Loop nebula.
3. Plowing Through the Depths of Space
GALEX captured a second runaway star, similar to Mira, also speeding through the cosmos.
4. Dissecting a Galaxy
By combining ultraviolet data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer with infrared observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers get a clearer picture of the various components of a galaxy.
(Source: popsci.com)
The Edge
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Wedneday, May 23, 2012
Galaxy NGC 891 lies approximately 30 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Andromeda. This Hubble Space Telescope photo shows the galaxy’s northern half, with the central bulge outside the image on the bottom left. Filaments of dust and gas clearly extend outwards from the plane of the galaxy into the galaxy halo over hundreds of light-years, unlike our own Milky Way. — Tom Chao
Birth Right?
Image courtesy Gemini Observatory/NASA
The dusty golden glow of the planetary nebula known as Sharpless 2-71 is seen in a newly released picture from the Gemini North observatory in Hawaii.
Although the nebula was discovered in 1946, astronomers are still debating which star created the complex cloud of dust and gas. Some hold that the bright star at the center of the object is the one that shed shells of material as it swelled and died, forming the nebula.
But the central star doesn’t appear to radiate the right amounts of high-energy light to cause the surrounding gas to glow as intensely as we see today. This led other experts to suspect that a dimmer, bluer star—which does pump out enough high-energy radiation—might be the nebula’s true parent.
