Showing posts with label Moon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moon. Show all posts

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Surreal Moon

Surreal Moon: APOD: 2014 August 14 - Surreal Moon


Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2014 August 14


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Big, bright, and beautiful, a Full Moon near perigee, the closest point in its elliptical orbit around our fair planet, rose on August 10. This remarkable picture records the scene with a dreamlike quality from the east coast of the United States. The picture is actually a composite of 10 digital frames made with exposures from 1/500th second to 1 second long, preserving contrast and detail over a much wider than normal range of brightness. At a perigee distance of a mere 356,896 kilometers, August's Full Moon was the closest, and so the largest and most super, of the three Full Moons nearest perigee in 2014 now popularly known as supermoons. But if you missed August's super supermoon, the next not-quite-so supermoon will be September 8. Then, near the full lunar phase the Moon's perigee will be a slightly more distant 358,387 kilometers. That's only about 0.4 percent less super (farther and smaller) than the super supermoon.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

solar eclipse space moon earth sun

solar eclipse space moon earth sun:



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Friday, February 20, 2015

The Moon: Earth’s Closest Big Neighbor

The Moon: Earth’s Closest Big Neighbor:



A full Moon flyby, as seen from Paris, France. Credit and copyright: Sebastien Lebrigand.


A full Moon flyby, as seen from Paris, France. Credit and copyright: Sebastien Lebrigand.
Shining like a beacon in Earth’s sky is the Moon. We’ve seen so much of it in our lifetimes that it’s easy to take it for granted; even the human landings on the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s were eventually taken for granted by the public.

Fortunately for science, we haven’t stopped looking at the Moon in the decades after Neil Armstrong took his first step. Here are a few things to consider about Earth’s closest big neighbor.

1. A violent collision created the Moon.

The leading theory for how the Moon was created is this: an object about the size of Mars smashed into Earth early in our planet’s history, creating a bunch of debris that circled our planet. The debris came from both the Earth and the object, and over time the smaller bits stuck together and formed the Moon that we see today. This story was arrived at once the Apollo astronauts brought back a few hundred pounds of rock from their missions, by the way.

2. The Moon keeps the same side towards Earth.

It’s not because of shyness about its backside; it’s more a story about the Earth’s gravity. The Moon used to rotate at a different rate than it orbited around Earth, but over time our planet tugged at different parts of the Moon. Over time, more of the Moon’s mass shifted to our side of its body and its rotation became locked to its revolution. This phenomenon, by the way, is also present in other moons in the Solar System. Also interesting: this immense shift inside the Moon made the crust thinner on our side, which means there are more ancient lava seas on our side and more mountains on the other side.



The far side of the moon, as seen by the Apollo 16 astronauts. Credit: NASA


The far side of the moon, as seen by the Apollo 16 astronauts. Credit: NASA
3. Those solar eclipses we take for granted? They’re rare.

That’s because the Moon and the Sun happen to be approximately the same size in Earth’s sky. When the Moon’s orbit intersects the Sun’s (from Earth’s perspective), at times it can perfectly cover the star. When that happens, you’ll see the Sun’s corona — its superheated atmosphere — pop out around the perimeter. But we wouldn’t be able to see the corona if the Moon was much smaller, or much bigger.

4. And in a few million years, solar eclipses will become more difficult to achieve.

The Moon is very slowly drifting away from the Earth, which we found out after the Apollo astronauts left a laser reflector on the surface on which scientists could bounce beams. The drift is slow and gradual, at only about four centimeters (1.6 inches) a year. If this went on for long enough, the Moon and the Earth would become tidally locked to each other, in the sense that both the Earth and the Moon would keep the same faces towards each other! But the Sun will expand into a red giant and likely engulf our planet in five billion years, long before the tidal locking happens.



A solar eclipse at totality (NASA/F. Espenak)


A solar eclipse at totality (NASA/F. Espenak)
5. There’s water on the Moon.

Seems a huge surprise given the Moon has practically no atmosphere, but it’s true: there is frozen water lurking in permanently shadowed craters, and potentially below the soil itself. The water may have been blown in by the solar wind or deposited by comets, but scientists are still probing its origins. No one is sure if there is enough ice there to support a human colony, but the potential is exciting; it may mean we don’t have to truck this heavy but essential good from Earth.

6. The Moon has an atmosphere.

As we hinted at in the previous fact, the Moon has a very tenuous atmosphere called an exosphere. Measurements from NASA’s LADEE mission determined the exosphere is mostly made up of helium, neon and argon. The helium and neon come courtesy of the solar wind — that continuous stream of particles off the Sun that permeates through the solar system. The argon comes from the natural, radioactive decay of potassium in the Moon’s interior.



Launch of NASA’s LADEE lunar orbiter on Friday night Sept. 6, at 11:27 p.m. EDT on the maiden flight of the Minotaur V rocket from NASA Wallops, Virginia, viewing site 2 miles away. Antares rocket launch pad at left. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com


Launch of NASA’s LADEE lunar orbiter on Friday night Sept. 6, at 11:27 p.m. EDT on the maiden flight of the Minotaur V rocket from NASA Wallops, Virginia, viewing site 2 miles away. Antares rocket launch pad at left. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
7. The Moon has dancing dust.

Especially around sunrise and sunset on the Moon, dust tends to hover above the surface. It might have something to do with the particles being electrically charged, or it might be some other phenomenon at work. The effect was noticed by some of the Apollo astronauts and also studied in detail during the LADEE mission.

8. There are bigger moons in the Solar System.

While we tend to think of the Moon as large — it’s little less than a third the diameter of Earth — there are bigger moons out there. The largest moon is actually Ganymede (around Jupiter), which is bigger than Mercury or Pluto. The other bigger ones, in order of size, are Titan (Saturn), Callisto (Jupiter) and Io (Jupiter). And to put this in perspective, the Moon isn’t all that big or massive because the astronauts walking on it experienced gravity only 17% of Earth’s.



About 

Elizabeth Howell is the senior writer at Universe Today. She also works for Space.com, Space Exploration Network, the NASA Lunar Science Institute, NASA Astrobiology Magazine and LiveScience, among others. Career highlights include watching three shuttle launches, and going on a two-week simulated Mars expedition in rural Utah. You can follow her on Twitter @howellspace or contact her at her website.

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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Catch a ‘Conjunction Triple Play’ on February 20th as the Moon Meets Venus & Mars

Catch a ‘Conjunction Triple Play’ on February 20th as the Moon Meets Venus & Mars:



The Moon passes Mars and Venus last month... this week's pass is much closer! (Photo by Author).


The Moon passes Mars and Venus last month… this week’s pass is much closer! (Photo by author).
Fear not, the chill of late February. This Friday gives lovers of the sky a reason to brave the cold and look westward for a spectacular close triple conjunction of the planets Mars, Venus and the waxing crescent Moon.

This week’s New Moon is auspicious for several reasons.  We discussed the vagaries of the Black Moon of February 2015 last week, and the lunacy surrounding the proliferation of the perigee supermoon. And Happy ‘Year of the Goat’ as reckoned on the Chinese luni-solar calendar, as this week’s New Moon marks the start of the Chinese New Year on February 19th. Or do you say Ram or Sheep? Technical timing for the New Moon is on Wednesday, February 18th at 23:47 UT/6:47 PM EST, marking the start of lunation 1140. The next New Moon on March 20th sees the start of the first of two eclipse seasons for 2015, with a total solar eclipse for the high Arctic. More on that next month!



Stellarium


Looking west on the evening of February 20th. Credit: Stellarium.
And today also marks Shrove Tuesday and the start of Lent, as reckoned 47 days prior to Easter Sunday. In Western Christianity, Easter falls on the first Sunday past the first Full Moon past March 21st. This is the demarcation date set for the March Equinox, which actually falls on March 20th this year. Such is the wonderful world of calendars and astronomy, as the struggle to keep recorded versus actual observed time in sync continues.



Credit and Copyright


The dawn crescent Moon paired with Venus on February 26th, 2014. Credit and Copyright: Efrain Morales.
The first sighting opportunities for the slim waxing crescent Moon will come Thursday night on February 19th. And don’t miss the main event on Friday, February 20th when Mars, Venus and the two day old waxing crescent Moon all fit within a two degree diameter circle — about four Full Moon diameters — prior to sunset.  You can’t miss brilliant Venus, shining at -4th magnitude as the 3rd brightest natural object in the sky next to the Sun and the Moon. Through a telescope, Venus presents an  88% illuminated disk 12” in size and growing, while Mars shines at +1.3 magnitude and is just 4.2” in size. The closest conjunction of Venus and Mars actually occurs just 48 hours later, when they both fit within a 30’ field of view on the evening of Sunday, February 21st.



February 21st 01 UT


The Moon, Venus and Mars February 21st at 01:00 UT. (Credit: Starry Night).
The Moon is 2.37 days old and will appear 5 % illuminated during the Friday conjunction, and together, the trio will resemble a skewed emotion smiley face… think ‘:?’. Manage to catch a time exposure of one of the numerous ISS passes near the Mars/Venus conjunction this week and you could nab a unique ‘:/’ alignment!

Venus spends the first half of 2015 as a brilliant dusk object before heading for solar conjunction on August 15th, after which it once again passes into the dawn sky.  2015 is an “opposition-less” in-between year for Mars, as it reaches solar conjunction on the far side of the Sun on June 14th before making its slow comeback in the dawn sky. Expect the Red Planet to reach a favorable opposition next on May 22nd 2016.



tri-conjunction


Getting closer…  Venus and Mars as seen from Venezuela on the evening of February 16th. (Credit and Copyright: Jose Rozada @jmrozada).
Notice that this week’s tri-conjunction occurs very near the equinoctial point where the celestial equator and the plane of the ecliptic meet. This is the position that the Sun will occupy a month from now when the equinox total solar eclipse occurs.

Want more? One evening later on February 21st, the waxing crescent Moon will actually occult the +5.9 magnitude planet Uranus in the dusk sky for eastern North American observers:



Occult 4.0


The path of the February 21st occultation of Uranus by the Moon. Credit: Occult 4.0
This is occultation number 8 in a current cycle of 19 of Uranus by the Moon.  And there’s another pass of the Moon in front of the Hyades on February 25th as it occults the bright star Aldebaran for a second time in 2015 as seen from Scandinavia.



Aldebaran Occ


The path of the February 25th occultation of Aldebaran by the Moon. Credit: Occult 4.0.
Now for the ‘wow’ factor. The Moon lies just over a light second away at 357,000 kilometres distant. This week, Venus sits 1.4 AUs/ 11.6 light minutes away at 217 million kilometres distant, while Mars is 2.2 AUs/ 18.3 light minutes away at 341 million kilometres distant.

And from the surface of Mars, you’d see a brilliant conjunction of -1.3 magnitude Earth and -1.6 magnitude Venus just one degree in separation, with the +2.5 magnitude Moon nearby.



Venus and Earth rising as seen from the surface of Mars.


Venus and Earth rising as seen from the surface of Mars. Credit: Starry Night Education Software.
Perhaps Curiosity will nab this extraterrestrial spectacle, as Earthbound sky watchers gaze back this weekend!



About 

David Dickinson is an Earth science teacher, freelance science writer, retired USAF veteran & backyard astronomer. He currently writes and ponders the universe from Tampa Bay, Florida.

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Saturday, January 24, 2015

SILVERY MOON WALLPAPER

SILVERY MOON WALLPAPER:

SILVER MOON WALLPAPER
SILVERY MOON WALLPAPER

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A Moon With Two Suns: Making Art from Science

A Moon With Two Suns: Making Art from Science:
Screen Shot 2013-01-13 at 9.08.20 PM
A view of Kepler 47c and binary stars. ©Digital Drew. All rights reserved.
What would it look like on a hypothetical icy moon orbiting the exoplanet Kepler 47c? Perhaps something like this.
This is an illustration by an artist who goes by the name Digital Drew on Flickr. Drew creates landscapes of imagined alien worlds orbiting stars (and sometimes planets) that actually exist in the Universe. With 3D software, a little science and a lot of imagination, Drew shows us what skies might look like on other planets.
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Saturn’s Mini-Moons Align for Family Portrait

Saturn’s Mini-Moons Align for Family Portrait:
Saturn, its rings and three moons are visible in this image from Cassini. Credit: NASA/ESA
Saturn, its rings and three moons are visible in this image from Cassini. Credit: NASA/ESA
It’s a good thing NASA labeled the moons in this image of Saturn, because they are pretty hard to see. But they are there, keeping each other company in this Cassini spacecraft image of Saturn’s night side. And as the Cassini team says, it seems fitting that they should do so since in Greek mythology, their namesakes were brothers.
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Crescent Moon Photos from Around the World

Crescent Moon Photos from Around the World:
Venus and the Moon on 1-10-13 from Tucson, Arizona. Credit: Robert Sparks
Venus and the Moon on 1-10-13 from Tucson, Arizona. Credit and copyright: Robert Sparks
For the past week or so, we’ve had either a waxing or waning crescent Moon (save for the New Moon on January 11) and astrophotographers have been out in full force capturing the beauty of this sliver of light, and sometimes, like the image above by Rob Sparks (hale_bopp37 on Flickr) even a little Earthshine. Enjoy these stunning photos from our readers around the world!
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Why the Moon Landings Weren’t Faked

Why the Moon Landings Weren’t Faked:

I’ll just leave this here.
Video by SG Collins/Postwar Media H/T to Gizmodo.

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Astrophotos: Jupiter and the Moon Conjunction

Astrophotos: Jupiter and the Moon Conjunction:
The Galilean Satellites of Jupiter are clearly visible just above a halo around the Moon, seen over central Italy on January 21, 2013. Credit: Giuseppe Petricca
The Galilean Satellites of Jupiter are clearly visible just above a halo around the Moon, seen over central Italy on January 21, 2013. Credit: Giuseppe Petricca
Last night, the Moon and Jupiter snuggled up in the sky, coming within 29 arcminutes of each other. This will be the closest conjunction of these two bodies in the sky until 2026. The waxing gibbous Moon and the gas giant planet made for a great pair in the western night sky, and some astrophotographers, like Giuseppe Petricca in the image above, were also able to capture some of the Moons of Jupiter as well.
See more images from around the world, below.
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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Across The Universe : Isotopic Evidence of the Moon’s Violent Origins

Isotopic Evidence of the Moon’s Violent Origins:
Across The Universe
Artist’s impression of an impact of two planet-sized worlds (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Scientists have uncovered a history of violence hidden within lunar rocks, further evidence that our large, lovely Moon was born of a cataclysmic collision between worlds billions of years ago.


Saturday, June 9, 2012

The Moon Affects the Solar Wind

The Moon Affects the Solar Wind:

his is a view of the moon transiting, or passing in front of, the Sun as seen from the STEREO-B spacecraft on Feb. 25, 2007. The Sun is in false color, and the moon appears as a black disk on the upper right. NASA's STEREO mission consists of two spacecraft launched in October, 2006 to study solar storms. Credit: NASA
From a NASA press release:
With the Moon as the most prominent object in the night sky and a major source of an invisible pull that creates ocean tides, many ancient cultures thought it could also affect our health or state of mind – the word “lunacy” has its origin in this belief. Now, a powerful combination of spacecraft and computer simulations is revealing that the moon does indeed have a far-reaching, invisible influence – not on us, but on the Sun, or more specifically, the solar wind.


Saturday, April 14, 2012

PHOTO : A Planetary Ring and 64 Moons Around Planet Jupiter

A Planetary Ring and 64 Moons Around Planet Jupiter:

PHOTO : A Planetary Ring and 64 Moons Around Planet Jupiter
PHOTO : A Planetary Ring and 64 Moons Around Planet Jupiter
Biggest Planet and Biggest Moon in the Solar System
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the biggest planet of the Solar System, its mass being more than twice as big as all the other planets combined.  Along with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the four giant planets are known as the Jovial.
Planet Jupiter has mostly in its component hydrogen and helium, but it might also have a rocky core of heavy elements. Due to the high speed of its rotation, Jupiter has the shape of an oblate spheroid, having both poles closer to the core than the equator. The outer atmosphere of Jupiter is divided into separated latitude layers, which cause turbulence and storms when they interact. The most significant result of  the layers interaction is a giant storm still in process, discovered in the 17th century . This storm is known by the name of the Great Red Spot.
Jupiter is surrounded by a slightly detectable planetary ring and a strong magnetosphere. What makes this planet interesting is not only its size, but also the fact that Jupiter has 64 moons. Four of the moons are very famous: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, also called the Galilean moons, after their discoverer Galileo Galilei. Ganymede is the biggest natural satellite in the Solar System, being bigger than the planet Mercury.
Along with the Sun, the Moon and planet Venus, Jupiter is the fourth largest object seen by the naked eye. The gravitational influence of planet Jupiter played a very important role in the shaping process of the solar System. Thereby, the majority of the planets orbit closer to Jupiter’s orbital plane than to the Sun’s equatorial plane.  Mercury is the only planet that makes an exception, being closer to the Sun. Also, it’s high gravitational level might have caused the Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt and the  Late Heavy Bombardment of the inner Solar System’s history.
Distance from Earth: 0.0000621 light years, about 32 light minutes


Astrophotos: A Colorful Moon

Astrophotos: A Colorful Moon:

An unusual false color view of our Moon. Credit: César Cantú
Recognize this? Yes, it is our own Moon, but using Photoshop, the photographer, César Cantú from the Chilidog Observatory in Monterrey, Mexico extracted the Moon’s colors and exaggerated them just a bit. “Although exaggerated, the color components are the real highlights,” César said, “with blue indicating a significant amount of titanium, and the orange areas with little iron or titanium. These colorful images are more easy to perform That thanks to digital cameras that detect colors — where with analog cameras, it is still impossible.”
César took the image on April 6, 2012. See his website for more details.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group, post in our Forum or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.



Friday, March 30, 2012

Two Moons In Passing

Two Moons In Passing:

Animation of Tethys passing in front of Dione from Cassini's point of view. (CLICK TO PLAY)
Saturn’s moon Tethys passes in front of its slightly larger sister Dione in this animation made from 25 raw images acquired by Cassini on March 14, 2012. Pretty cool! (Click the image to play.)


“Snowing Microbes” On Saturn’s Moon?

“Snowing Microbes” On Saturn’s Moon?:

Cassini image of Enceladus from Dec. 2010 showing the moon's icy jets and the hazy E-ring (NASA/JPL/SSI)
Enceladus, Saturn’s 318-mile-wide moon that’s become famous for its ice-spraying southern jets, is on astronomers’ short list of places in our own solar system where extraterrestrial life could be hiding — and NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is in just the right place to try and sniff it out.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Why Does the “Man in the Moon” Face Earth?

Why Does the “Man in the Moon” Face Earth?:
The two sides of the Moon. Image credit: LRO
The two sides of the Moon. Image credit: LRO

When we look at the Moon, we see these amazing variations of light and dark. And depending on your orientation on Earth, you might see the famous “Man in the Moon”, or maybe the “Rabbit in the Moon”. The darker areas are known as maria, smooth lava fields created by ancient volcanic eruptions on the Moon.
But why do we see this face of the Moon, and not a different side?


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Recent Geologic Activity on the Moon?

Recent Geologic Activity on the Moon?:

Newly detected series of narrow linear troughs are known as graben, and they formed in highland materials on the lunar farside. These graben are located on a topographic rise with several hundred meters of relief revealed in topography derived from LROC stereo images. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/Smithsonian Institution


Recent images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera provide evidence that the lunar crust may be pulling apart in certain areas. The images reveal small trenches less than a kilometer in length, and less than a few hundred meters wide. Only a small number of these features, known as graben, have been discovered on the lunar surface.

There are several clues in the high-resolution images that provide evidence for recent geologic activity on the Moon.

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A Mardi Gras Moon Crossing

A Mardi Gras Moon Crossing:

SDO AIA image of the Sun and Moon at 14:11 UT on Feb. 21, 2012

The Sun seems to be glowing in traditional Mardi Gras colors in this image, made from three AIA channels taken today at approximately 14:11 UT (about 9:11 a.m. EST) as the Moon passed between it and the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. Looks like it’s that time of year again!

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Fly Me to the Moon — Twice!

Fly Me to the Moon — Twice!:

Two aircraft cross over the waxing gibbous Moon on January 6, 2012. Credit: John Chumack

Those darn airplanes that leave their contrails and ruin a good astrophoto….except, wait! This one is awesome! From John Chumack’s vantage point earlier this month, two aircraft met up in the sky to fly across the waxing gibbous Moon. John provided a cropped inset to make it easier for all to see the jets. Great capture, John!

John’s details: captured on 01-06-2012 at 17:47pm E.S.T.
Canon Rebel Xsi DSLR & 300mm Lens @ F8, ISO 400,
1/800 second exposure

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group, post in our Forum or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.