Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Stunning Views of Venus, All the Way from Saturn

Stunning Views of Venus, All the Way from Saturn:
Venus appears just off the edge of the dark disc of Saturn, in the upper part of the image, directly above the white streak of Saturn's G ring. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Stunning Views of Venus, All the Way from Saturn
Venus appears just off the edge of the dark disc of Saturn, in the upper part of the image, directly above the white streak of Saturn’s G ring. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Two amazing images from the Cassini spacecraft today: We know how brightly Venus shines in our own night sky; now here’s visual proof it shines brightly even in the skies above Saturn. In one image it shines so brightly that it is even visible looking through Saturn’s rings! But in this absolutely stunning shot, above, Venus appears as a morning star, just off the edge of the planet. From Cassini, you’re looking directly above the edge of Saturn’s G ring to see the white dot, which is Venus. Lower down, Saturn’s E ring makes an appearance, looking blue thanks to the scattering properties of the dust that comprises the ring. (A bright spot near the E ring is a distant star, the Cassini CICLOPS team says.)
This beautiful image was taken on January 4, 2013.
On average, Venus and Saturn are about 1,321,200,000 km (820,955,619 mi or 8.83 astronomical units) apart, so that’s a nice, long distance shot! Venus is brighter in Saturn’s skies than Earth is, however, because Venus is covered in thick sulfuric acid clouds, making it very bright.
And here’s the other great shot, showing Saturn and its rings in true color:

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Astrophoto: Incredible View of the Milky Way from New Zealand

Astrophoto: Incredible View of the Milky Way from New Zealand:
The Milky Way over New Zealand. Credit: Zhang Hong.
Astrophoto: Incredible View of the Milky Way from New Zealand
The Milky Way over New Zealand. Credit: Zhang Hong.
There are some moments in an astrophotographer’s life that you just have to step back and say thanks for the view. “Thanks clear sky,” said Zhang Hong when he posted this image on Google+.
This almost looks like a shower of stars raining down. Just gorgeous.
Here are the specs on his equipment: Nikon D800, Aperture: f/2.8, Focal length: 14.mm, exposure time:25.9 seconds, ISO-4000, -0.7 exposure compensation, spot metering, no flash, equatorial mount.

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Image Gallery: Astronauts Capture a Dragon

Image Gallery: Astronauts Capture a Dragon:
The SpaceX Dragon capsule is snared by the International Space Station's Canadarm 2. Credit: NASA
Image Gallery: Astronauts Capture a Dragon
The SpaceX Dragon capsule is snared by the International Space Station’s Canadarm 2. Credit: NASA
Sunday was a big day in space, and astronaut Chris Hadfield captured the excitement in photos, and shared them via Twitter. “What a day!” Hadfield tweeted. “Reached & grabbed a Dragon, berthed her to Station & opened the hatch to find fresh fruit, notes from friends, and peanut butter.”
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft overcame a problem with its thrusters after reaching orbit on Friday, and on Sunday Dragon successfully approached the Station, where it was captured by Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and crewmate Tom Marshburn using the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm. Dragon was grappled at 5:31 a.m. EST, and was berthed to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module at approximately 8:56 a.m. EST on March 3.
See more photos below. The image captions are Hadfield’s Tweets.
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NASA Finds a Space Invader

NASA Finds a Space Invader:
The image of a spiral galaxy has been stretched and mirrored by gravitational lensing into a shape similar to that of a simulated alien from the classic 1970s computer game Space Invaders Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage/ESA-Hubble Collaboration
NASA Finds a Space Invader
The image of a spiral galaxy has been stretched and mirrored by gravitational lensing into a shape similar to that of a simulated alien from the classic 1970s computer game Space Invaders Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage/ESA-Hubble Collaboration
Pew pew! NASA has found a Space Invader, but they won’t be activating any laser cannons to shoot it down. If you remember the classic 1970s computer game “Space Invaders,” you’ll quickly see the resemblance of the game’s pixelated alien to this actual image from the Hubble Space Telescope. This strange-looking object is really a mirage created by the gravitational field of a foreground cluster of galaxies warping space and distorting the background images of more distant galaxies.

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A Completely Fake UFO Video

A Completely Fake UFO Video:

We’ve yet to see an authentic and convincing UFO video, and this one takes the cake. It is completely fake. Not one thing in it is real. Seriously. If you haven’t yet seen or heard about the “UFO Over Santa Clarita” video (above), it appears to be footage taken from a handheld camera, shakily taking shots from within a moving car. Then a spaceship darts across the sky, and the gasping filmmaker stops the car, only see a huge hovering mothership grab the first ship and disappear.
The filmmaker, Aristomenis “Meni” Tsirbas, revealed to Wired that, as many suspected, the video was fake. But impressively, absolutely everything in the film, from the car’s interior to the sky to the UFOs, is not real. It is all CGI (Computer Generated Imagery).
“The video is 100 percent CGI through and through,” Tsirbas told Wired. “The electric towers [seen alongside the road] are 3-D geometry and the sky is a 3-D dome that has a texture map on it that’s a combination of painting, volumetric clouds and photogrammetry.”
Tsirbas has now produced a new video showing the breakdown of the CGI, and it’s quite impressive:

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Comet PANSTARRS Crosses Paths With Zodiacal Light

Comet PANSTARRS Crosses Paths With Zodiacal Light:
The tapering wedge of the zodiacal light reaches from the western horizon on March 3, 2013 toward the bright Planet Jupiter at top. Credit: Bob King
Comet PANSTARRS Crosses Paths With Zodiacal Light
The tapering wedge of the zodiacal light reaches from the western horizon on March 3, 2013 toward the bright Planet Jupiter at top. The pink color is light pollution from Duluth, Minn. about 15 miles away.  Credit: Bob King
With the much-anticipated PANSTARRS comet emerging into the evening sky this week, we might keep our eyes open to another sight happening at nearly the same time. If you live where the sky to the west is very dark, look for the zodiacal light, a tapering cone of softly-luminous light slanting up from the western horizon toward the bright planet Jupiter near twilight’s end.

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Evidence for a Deep Ocean on Europa Might be Found on its Surface

Evidence for a Deep Ocean on Europa Might be Found on its Surface:
Astronomers hypothesize that chloride salts bubble up from the icy moon's global liquid ocean and reach the frozen surface where they are bombarded with sulfur from volcanoes on Jupiter's fourth largest moon, Io. This illustration of Europa (foreground), Jupiter (right) and Io (middle) is an artist's concept. Credit: Keck Observatory.
Evidence for a Deep Ocean on Europa Might be Found on its Surface
Astronomers hypothesize that chloride salts bubble up from the icy moon’s global liquid ocean and reach the frozen surface where they are bombarded with sulfur from volcanoes on Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Io. This illustration of Europa (foreground), Jupiter (right) and Io (middle) is an artist’s concept. Credit: Keck Observatory.
Astronomer Mike Brown and his colleague Kevin Hand might be suffering from “Pump Handle Phobia,” as radio personality Garrison Keillor calls it, where those afflicted just can’t resist putting their tongues on something frozen to see if it will stick. But Brown and Hand are doing it all in the name of science, and they may have found the best evidence yet that Europa has a liquid water ocean beneath its icy surface. Better yet, that vast subsurface ocean may actually shoot up to Europa’s surface, on occasion.

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Black Holes, Fermi Bubbles and the Milky Way

Black Holes, Fermi Bubbles and the Milky Way:
milky way final 3c
Black Holes, Fermi Bubbles and the Milky Way
Deep at the heart of our galaxy lurks a black hole. This isn’t exciting news, but neither is it a very exciting place. Or is it? While all might be quiet on the western front now, there may be evidence that our galactic center was once home to some pretty impressive activity – activity which may have included multiple collision events and mergers of black holes as it gorged on a satellite galaxies. Thanks to new insights from a pair of assistant professors, Kelly Holley-Bockelmann at Vanderbilt and Tamara Bogdanovic at Georgia Institute of Technology, we have more evidence which points to the Milky Way’s incredibly active past. (...)
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Giant Ancient Impact Crater Confirmed in Iowa

Giant Ancient Impact Crater Confirmed in Iowa:
3-D perspective map of the Decorah impact feature looking northward. (Credit: USGS/Adam Kiel graphic/Northeast Iowa RC&D).
Giant Ancient Impact Crater Confirmed in Iowa
3-D perspective map of the Decorah impact feature looking northward. (Credit: USGS/Adam Kiel graphic/Northeast Iowa RC&D).
A monster lurks under northeastern Iowa. That monster is in the form of a giant buried basin, the result of a meteorite impact in central North America over 470 million years ago.

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Evil Empire Beware: Gas Giant Planets are Hard to Destroy

Evil Empire Beware: Gas Giant Planets are Hard to Destroy:
Jupiter and its four planet-size moons, called the Galilean satellites photographed and assembled into a collage by NASA.
Evil Empire Beware: Gas Giant Planets are Hard to Destroy
Jupiter and its four planet-size moons, called the Galilean satellites photographed and assembled into a collage by NASA.
Last year, physicists worked out the plausibility of a fully functional (if not fictional) Death Star being able to destroy planets, and found that the Galactic Empire’s technological terror could indeed destroy Earth-like rocky planets, but a Jupiter-sized gas planet would be a tough challenge.
Now, real but theoretical modeling confirms that gas giants like Jupiter would be really hard to destroy by any means, including by stars that undergo periodic outbursts. Actual stars, that is, not Death Stars.

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Kepler’s Weirdest Exoplanets

Kepler’s Weirdest Exoplanets:
Artist's concept of Kepler in action. NASA/Kepler mission/Wendy Stenzel.
Kepler’s Weirdest Exoplanets
Artist’s concept of Kepler in action. NASA/Kepler mission/Wendy Stenzel.
Captain Kirk has nothing on the “strange new worlds” the Kepler space telescope has found.
NASA’s planet-probing orbiting observatory launched its quest to find more Earths four years ago this week. Since then, it’s found thousands of planets ranging from ginormous gas giants to tiny rocky worlds that are even smaller than our planet. NASA extended its mission to 2016 last year, putting the telescope into planet-hunting overtime and, we assume, scientists into overdrive.
Along the way, Kepler has revealed some bizarre star systems. Check out some of the weirdest exoplanets Kepler has found so far:
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2014 AZ5: The Fake Asteroid that Won’t Hit Earth

2014 AZ5: The Fake Asteroid that Won’t Hit Earth:
Artists impression of an asteroid flying by Earth. Credit: NASA
2014 AZ5: The Fake Asteroid that Won’t Hit Earth
Artists impression of an asteroid flying by Earth. Credit: NASA
Be careful where you get your news. Some websites have headlines that are screaming “GIANT ASTEROID HEADING TO EARTH!” or “2014 END OF THE WORLD!” It’s been billed as the largest threat to Earth in a millennium, and this supposed nearly 300 meter (1,000 ft.) -wide asteroid is spurring “urgent meetings going on among scientists on how deflect it.”
This asteroid can’t hit Earth because it doesn’t exist. Or at the very least, it doesn’t exist yet. The first clue this asteroid is a fake is its name: 2014 AZ5. Asteroids are named for the year they are discovered, and since it is only 2013…. well, you see the issue.
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Russian Asteroid Explosion and Past Impactors Paint a Potentially Grim Future for Earth

Russian Asteroid Explosion and Past Impactors Paint a Potentially Grim Future for Earth:
Impactors strike during the reign of the dinosaurs (image credit: MasPix/devianart)
Russian Asteroid Explosion and Past Impactors Paint a Potentially Grim Future for Earth
An artist’s sketch of asteroids striking the Earth 65 million years ago during the reign of the Dinosaurs.  Humanity will face potentially dangerous impactors, both large and small, from space in the (distant/near?) future. It is inevitable. (image credit: MasPix/deviantart).
The recent meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk brought to the forefront a topic that has worried astronomers for years, namely that an impactor from space could cause widespread human fatalities.  Indeed, the thousand+ injured recently in Russia was a wake-up call. Should humanity be worried about impactors? “Hell yes!” replied astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson to CNN’s F. Zakharia .
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Violent Martian Waters Carved Secret Trench

Violent Martian Waters Carved Secret Trench:
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed about 1,000 km of underground channels, called Marte Vallis, shown at center in this map. The rendering of Mars is in false color to highlight elevation differences. Credit: NASA/MOLA Team/Smithsonian Institute
Violent Martian Waters Carved Secret Trench
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed about 1,000 km of underground channels, called Marte Vallis, shown at center in this map. The rendering of Mars is in false color to highlight elevation differences. Credit: NASA/MOLA Team/Smithsonian Institute
Massive floodwaters on Mars gouged a channel more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) long, making a trench that was hidden to scientists until now because volcanic flows buried it underground.
Erupting groundwater, perhaps triggered by a volcano or an earthquake, forced water across the surface during the past 500 million years. This carved a trench about 62 miles (100 kilometers) wide; it would take runners more than two marathons (at 26 miles each) to cross the expanse.
Later, as volcanoes erupted in Mars’ Elysium Planitia plain, lava flows covered the channel. The trench, now called Marte Vallis, finally came to light from radar measurements by an orbiting spacecraft. The results were published in the journal Science Thursday.
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How Could Aliens Blow Up Earth ?

How Could Aliens Blow Up Earth?:
Scientists say that a ten-second burst of gamma rays from a massive star explosion within 6,000 light years from Earth could have triggered a mass extinction hundreds of millions of years ago. In this artist's conception we see the gamma rays hitting the Earth's atmosphere. (The expanding shell is pictured as blue, but gamma rays are actually invisible.) The gamma rays initiate changes in the atmosphere that deplete ozone and create a brown smog of NO2. Credit: NASA
How Could Aliens Blow Up Earth ?
Not quite blowing up the Earth, but certainly destructive: A 2005 study suggested that an exploding star 6,000 light-years away could send gamma rays towards Earth and cause widespread extinction as it sucked away ozone and made smog. Credit: NASA
Earth. It seems so solid and permanent. But really, all you need to do is expand the Sun enough, and the entire planet would melt away. Or worse, find yourself at the mercy of some seriously powerful and angry aliens.
Actually, the beings who destroy Earth in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which first aired on BBC Radio 4 on this day (March 8) in 1978, were not so much angry as logical about their reasons.
In the novel, Earthlings are shocked when extraterrestrial beings — known as the Vogons — arrive with plans to build a hyperspatial express route that runs through Earth’s orbit. The plans for the route were apparently lodged in Alpha Centauri (a star system four light-years away) for the past 50 Earth years, leaving residents of the planet “plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint.”
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A Day in the Life of a Living Mars

A Day in the Life of a Living Mars:

Back in January we posted some intriguing images showing concepts of what a terraformed “living Mars” might look like from orbit. With a bit of creative license, software engineer Kevin Gill turned the Red Planet into its own version of the Blue Marble. He’s now created an animation showing a rotating Mars and compressed 24 hours to one minute.
Kevin explains how he did the animation:
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Astrophotos: Beautiful Aurora Over Norway

Astrophotos: Beautiful Aurora Over Norway:
Aurora seen from Nøss, Nordland in Norway, on March 4, 2013. Credit and copyright: Frank Olsen.
Astrophotos: Beautiful Aurora Over Norway
Aurora seen from Nøss, Nordland in Norway, on March 4, 2013. Credit and copyright: Frank Olsen.
Photographer Frank Olsen from Norway heads out almost nightly this time of year to regularly see and photograph what many of us can only dream about seeing: beautiful, shimmering aurorae. These beautiful sights must be payback for enduring the long winters in northern Norway. You can see more of Frank’s beautiful imagery of aurora, the night sky and more at his Flickr page, his website (he has prints for sale) or his Facebook page.
More below:
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Saturn to Shed its Spooky Spokes for Summer

Saturn to Shed its Spooky Spokes for Summer:
Cassini image of Saturn's rings from Dec. 20, 2012 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)
Saturn to Shed its Spooky Spokes for Summer
Cassini image of Saturn’s rings from Dec. 20, 2012 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)
As Saturn steadily moves along its 29.7-year-long orbit toward summertime in its northern hemisphere NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is along for the ride, giving astronomers a front-row seat to seasonal changes taking place on the ringed planet.
One of these fluctuations is the anticipated disappearance of the “spokes” found in the rings, a few of which can be seen above in an image captured on Dec. 20 of last year.
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Google Panoramio Contest of March 2012: Night

Panoramio Contest of March 2012: Night: I am happy to announce the results of the Colors category for the Panoramio contest of February 2011.
The Second Prize is for a photo taken by roa006 in Hungary.
Scenery First prize
Google Panoramio Contest of March 2012: Night



Honorable Mentions are:
Honorable Mention
Google Panoramio Contest of March 2012: Night
Honorable Mention
Google Panoramio Contest of March 2012: Night

Honorable Mention
Google Panoramio Contest of March 2012: Night

Honorable Mention
Google Panoramio Contest of March 2012: Night

Honorable Mention
Google Panoramio Contest of March 2012: Night

You can see all the winners in the results page for March 2012.
Update May 10th: The winner of the 1st Prize deleted his Panoramio account so that is deserted.
Posted by +Gerard Sanz, Panoramio Community Manager

Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains

NPC: May 2012 - Mountains: NPC as Non Prize Contest is the contest that the Panoramio Community organizes every month.
The May entry was about mountains and I am publishing the results in this post. Entries for June are opened until the 10th and the topic is boating.
Congratulations to these amazing images:
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains
Google Panoramio NPC: May 2012 - Mountains


The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love

Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love: The First Prize is for a photo taken by anaturephotographer in Australia.
The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love
The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love

The Second Prizeis for a photo taken by Shutter in Kuwait.
The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love
The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love

Honorable Mentions are:

The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love
The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love
The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love
The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love

The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love
The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love

The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love
The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love

The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love
The Nature Of Love : Panoramio Contest of May 2012: Love



You can see all the winners in the results page for April 2012.



Posted by +Gerard Sanz, Panoramio Community Manager