Showing posts with label planet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planet. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Super Moon vs Micro Moon

Super Moon vs Micro Moon: APOD: 2014 September 8 - Super Moon vs Micro 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 September 8


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: What is so super about tomorrow's supermoon? Tomorrow, a full moon will occur that appears slightly larger and brighter than usual. The reason is that the Moon's fully illuminated phase occurs within a short time from perigee - when the Moon is its closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit. Although the precise conditions that define a supermoon vary, given one definition, tomorrow's will be the third supermoon of the year -- and the third consecutive month that a supermoon occurs. One reason supermoons are popular is because they are so easy to see -- just go outside and sunset and watch an impressive full moon rise! Since perigee actually occurs today, tonight's sunset moonrise should also be impressive. Pictured above, a supermoon from 2012 is compared to a micromoon -- when a full Moon occurs near the furthest part of the Moon's orbit -- so that it appears smaller and dimmer than usual. Given many definitions, at least one supermoon occurs each year, with the next being 2015 August 30.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:46 PM 0 comments
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An Aurora Cupcake with a Milky Way Topping

An Aurora Cupcake with a Milky Way Topping:

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 September 9


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: This sky looked delicious. Double auroral ovals were captured above the town lights of Östersund, Sweden, last week. Pictured above, the green ovals occurred lower to the ground than violet aurora rays above, making the whole display look a bit like a cupcake. To top it off, far in the distance, the central band or our Milky Way Galaxy slants down from the upper left. The auroras were caused by our Sun ejecting plasma clouds into the Solar System just a few days before, ionized particles that subsequently impacted the magnetosphere of the Earth. Aurora displays may continue this week as an active sunspot group rotated into view just a few days ago.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:45 PM 0 comments
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Laniakea: Our Home Supercluster of Galaxies

Laniakea: Our Home Supercluster of Galaxies: APOD: 2014 September 10 - Laniakea: Our Home Supercluster of Galaxies


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 September 10


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: It is not only one of the largest structures known -- it is our home. The just-identified Laniakea Supercluster of galaxies contains thousands of galaxies that includes our Milky Way Galaxy, the Local Group of galaxies, and the entire nearby Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. The colossal supercluster is shown in the above computer-generated visualization, where green areas are rich with white-dot galaxies and white lines indicate motion towards the supercluster center. An outline of Laniakea is given in orange, while the blue dot shows our location. Outside the orange line, galaxies flow into other galactic concentrations. The Laniakea Supercluster spans about 500 million light years and contains about 100,000 times the mass of our Milky Way Galaxy. The discoverers of Laniakea gave it a name that means "immense heaven" in Hawaiian.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:44 PM 0 comments
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Zodiacal Light before Dawn

Zodiacal Light before Dawn: APOD: 2014 September 11 - Zodiacal Light before Dawn


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 September 11


See Explanation. Moving the cursor over the image will bring up an alternate version. Clicking on the image will bring up the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: You might not guess it, but sunrise was still hours away when this nightscape was taken, a view along the eastern horizon from a remote location in Chile's Atacama desert. Stretching high into the otherwise dark, starry sky the unusually bright conical glow is sunlight though, scattered by dust along the solar system's ecliptic plane . Known as Zodiacal light, the apparition is also nicknamed the "false dawn". Near center, bright star Aldebaran and the Pleiades star cluster seem immersed in the Zodiacal light, with Orion toward the right edge of the frame. Reddish emission from NGC 1499, the California Nebula, can also be seen through the tinge of airglow along the horizon. Sliding your cursor over the picture (or following this link) will label the sky over this future site of the Giant Magellan Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:43 PM 0 comments
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Supernova Remnant Puppis A

Supernova Remnant Puppis A: APOD: 2014 September 12 - Supernova Remnant Puppis A


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 September 12


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Driven by the explosion of a massive star, supernova remnant Puppis A is blasting into the surrounding interstellar medium about 7,000 light-years away. At that distance, this remarkable false-color exploration of its complex expansion is about 180 light-years wide. It is based on the most complete X-ray data set so far from the Chandra and XMM/Newton observations, and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope. In blue hues, the filamentary X-ray glow is from gas heated by the supernova's shock wave, while the infrared emission shown in red and green is from warm dust. The bright pastel tones trace the regions where shocked gas and warmed dust mingle. Light from the initial supernova itself, triggered by the collapse of the massive star's core, would have reached Earth about 3,700 years ago, though the Puppis A supernova remnant remains a strong source in the X-ray sky.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:42 PM 0 comments
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Median Mashup: Hubble s Top 100

Median Mashup: Hubble s Top 100: APOD: 2014 September 13 - Median Mashup: Hubble's Top 100


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 September 13


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Now, as you sip your cosmic latte you can view 100 Hubble Space Telescope images at the same time. The popular scenes of the cosmos as captured from low Earth orbit are all combined into this single digital presentation. To make it, Hubble's top 100 images were downloaded and resized to identical pixel dimensions. At each point the 100 pixel values were arranged from lowest to highest, and the middle or median value was chosen for the final image. The combined image results in a visual abstraction - light from across the Universe surrounded by darkness.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:41 PM 0 comments
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M27: The Dumbbell Nebula

M27: The Dumbbell Nebula: APOD: 2014 September 14 - M27: The Dumbbell Nebula


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 September 14


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: The first hint of what will become of our Sun was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, the type of nebula our Sun will produce when nuclear fusion stops in its core. M27 is one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky, and can be seen toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula) with binoculars. It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27, shown above in colors emitted by hydrogen and oxygen. Understanding the physics and significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science. Even today, many things remain mysterious about bipolar planetary nebula like M27, including the physical mechanism that expels a low-mass star's gaseous outer-envelope, leaving an X-ray hot white dwarf.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:40 PM 0 comments
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Milky Way above Atacama Salt Lagoon

Milky Way above Atacama Salt Lagoon: APOD: 2014 September 16 - Milky Way above Atacama Salt Lagoon


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 September 16


See Explanation. Moving the cursor over the image will bring up an annotated version. Clicking on the image will bring up the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Galaxies, stars, and a serene reflecting pool combine to create this memorable land and skyscape. The featured panorama is a 12-image mosaic taken last month from the Salar de Atacama salt flat in northern Chile. The calm water is Laguna Cejar, a salty lagoon featuring a large central sinkhole. On the image left, the astrophotographer's fiancee is seen capturing the same photogenic scene. The night sky is lit up with countless stars, the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies on the left, and the band of our Milky Way galaxy running diagonally up the right. The Milky Way may appear to be causing havoc at the horizon, but those are just the normal lights of a nearby town.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:39 PM 0 comments
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Aurora over Maine

Aurora over Maine: APOD: 2014 September 17 - Aurora over Maine


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 September 17


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: It has been a good week for auroras. Earlier this month active sunspot region 2158 rotated into view and unleashed a series of flares and plasma ejections into the Solar System during its journey across the Sun's disk. In particular, a pair of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) impacted the Earth's magnetosphere toward the end of last week, creating the most intense geomagnetic storm so far this year. Although power outages were feared by some, the most dramatic effects of these impacting plasma clouds were auroras seen as far south as Wisconsin, USA. In the featured image taken last Friday night, rays and sheets of multicolored auroras were captured over Acadia National Park, in Maine, USA. Since another CME plasma cloud is currently approaching the Earth, tonight offers another good chance to see an impressive auroral display.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:36 PM 0 comments
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Lenticular Cloud, Moon, Mars, Venus

Lenticular Cloud, Moon, Mars, Venus: APOD: 2015 March 2 - Lenticular Cloud, Moon, Mars, Venus


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.

2015 March 2


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Lenticular Cloud, Moon, Mars, Venus

Image Credit & Copyright: Nuno Serrão
Explanation: It is not every day that such an interesting cloud photobombs your image. The original plan was to photograph a rare angular conjunction of Mars and Venus that occurred a week and a half ago, with the added bonus of a crescent Moon and the International Space Station (ISS) both passing nearby. Unfortunately, on Madeira Island, Portugal, this event was clouded out. During the next day, however, a spectacular lenticular cloud appeared before sunset, so the industrious astrophotographer quickly formulated a new plan. A close look at the resulting image reveals the Moon visible toward the left of the frame, while underneath, near the bottom, are the famous planets with Venus being the brighter. It was the unexpected lenticular cloud, though, perhaps looking like some sort of futuristic spaceship, that stole the show. The setting Sun illuminated the stationary cloud (and everything else) from the bottom, setting up an intricate pattern of shadows, layers, and brightly illuminated regions, all seen evolving in a corresponding video. Mars and Venus will next appear this close on the sky in late August, but whether any place on Earth will catch them behind such a photogenic cloud is unknown.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:35 PM 0 comments
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A Dust Devil on Mars

A Dust Devil on Mars: APOD: 2015 March 3 - A Dust Devil on Mars





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.


2015 March 3




See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
A Dust Devil on Mars
Image Credit:
HiRISE,
MRO,
LPL (U. Arizona),
NASA
Explanation:
It was late in the northern martian spring
when the
HiRISE camera onboard the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spied
this local denizen.

Tracking across the flat, dust-covered
Amazonis Planitia in 2012,
the core of
this whirling dust devil is about 140 meters in diameter.

Lofting dust into the thin
martian
atmosphere, its plume
reaches about 20 kilometers above the surface.

Common to
this region of
Mars, dust
devils occur as the surface is heated by the Sun,
generating warm, rising air currents that begin to rotate.

Tangential
wind speeds of up to 110 kilometers per hour are reported for
dust devils in other
HiRISE images.





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Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:34 PM 0 comments
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wallpaper iphone 5 apple Mountain and Stars

wallpaper-iphone-5-apple-640-x-1136-awesome-927.jpg:



wallpaper-iphone-5-apple-640-x-1136-awesome-927.jpg
Date: Mar 2, 2015, 12:19 PM

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wallpaper iphone meteor rain on planet

wallpaper-iphone-5-s-meteor-rain-on-planet-640-x-1136.jpg:



wallpaper-iphone-5-s-meteor-rain-on-planet-640-x-1136.jpg
Date: Mar 2, 2015, 12:19 PM

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wallpaper iphone 5 planet earth

wallpaper-iphone-5-s-planet-earth-640-x-1136.jpg:



wallpaper-iphone-5-s-planet-earth-640-x-1136.jpg
Date: Mar 2, 2015, 12:19 PM

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wow very beautiful earth space star

wow-very-beautiful-space-star-1136x640.jpg:



wow-very-beautiful-2011-cool-earth-mmm-nice-peoples-space-star-1136x640.jpg
Date: Mar 2, 2015, 12:19 PM

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SMAP Takes to the Skies

SMAP Takes to the Skies: SMAP Takes to the Skies | NASA







SMAP Takes to the Skies

A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket with the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory onboard is seen in this long exposure photograph as it launches from Space Launch Complex 2, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. SMAP is NASA’s first Earth-observing satellite designed to collect global observations of surface soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. SMAP will provide high resolution global measurements of soil moisture from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy, and carbon cycles. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Page Last Updated: January 31st, 2015
Page Editor: Brian Dunbar

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:22 PM 0 comments
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Island of Hawaii From the International Space Station

Island of Hawaii From the International Space Station: Island of Hawaii From the International Space Station | NASA









Island of Hawaii From the International Space Station

From the International Space Station, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) took this photograph of the island of Hawaii and posted it to social media on Feb. 28, 2015. Cristoforetti wrote, "And suddenly as we flew over the Pacific... the island of #Hawaii with its volcanoes! #HelloEarth"

Crewmembers on the space station photograph the Earth from their unique point of view located 200 miles above the surface as part of the Crew Earth Observations program. Photographs record how the planet is changing over time, from human-caused changes like urban growth and reservoir construction, to natural dynamic events such as hurricanes, floods and volcanic eruptions. Astronauts have used hand-held cameras to photograph the Earth for more than 40 years, beginning with the Mercury missions in the early 1960s. The ISS maintains an altitude between 220 - 286 miles (354 - 460 km) above the Earth, and an orbital inclination of 51.6˚, providing an excellent stage for observing most populated areas of the world.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti
Page Last Updated: March 4th, 2015

Page Editor: Sarah Loff

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 12:21 PM 0 comments
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Monday, March 2, 2015

Love and War by Moonlight

Love and War by Moonlight: APOD: 2015 February 26 - Love and War by Moonlight


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.

2015 February 26


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Venus, named for the Roman goddess of love, and Mars, the war god's namesake, came together by moonlight in this lovely skyview, recorded on February 20 from Charleston, South Carolina, USA, planet Earth. Made in twilight with a digital camera, the three second time exposure also records earthshine illuminating the otherwise dark surface of the young crescent Moon. Of course, the Moon has moved on from this much anticipated triple conjunction. Venus still shines in the west though as the evening star, third brightest object in Earth's sky, after the Sun and the Moon itself. Seen here within almost a Moon's width of Venus, much fainter Mars approached even closer on the following evening. But Mars has since been moving slowly away from brilliant Venus, though Mars is still visible too in the western twilight.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:20 AM 0 comments
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Long Lovejoy and Little Dumbbell

Long Lovejoy and Little Dumbbell: APOD: 2015 February 27 - Long Lovejoy and Little Dumbbell


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.

2015 February 27
See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Buffeted by the solar wind, Comet Lovejoy's crooked ion tail stretches over 3 degrees across this telescopic field of view, recorded on February 20. The starry background includes awesome bluish star Phi Persei below, and pretty planetary nebula M76 just above Lovejoy's long tail. Also known as the Little Dumbbell Nebula, after its brighter cousin M27 the Dumbbell Nebula, M76 is only a Full Moon's width away from the comet's greenish coma. Still shining in northern hemisphere skies, this Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) is outbound from the inner solar system some 10 light-minutes or 190 million kilometers from Earth. But the Little Dumbbell actually lies over 3 thousand light-years away. Now sweeping steadily north toward the constellation Cassiopeia Comet Lovejoy is fading more slowly than predicted and is still a good target for small telescopes.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:19 AM 0 comments
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Moon Venus Mars Skyline

Moon Venus Mars Skyline: APOD: 2015 February 28 - Moon Venus Mars Skyline


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.

2015 February 28


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Taken on February 20, five different exposures made in rapid succession were used to created this tantalizing telephoto image. In combination, they reveal a wide range of brightness visible to the eye on that frigid evening, from the urban glow of the Quebec City skyline to the triple conjunction of Moon, Venus and Mars. Shortly after sunset the young Moon shows off its bright crescent next to brilliant Venus. Fainter Mars is near the top of the frame. Though details in the Moon's sunlit crescent are washed out, features on the dark, shadowed part of the lunar disk are remarkably clear. Still lacking city lights the lunar night is illuminated solely by earthshine, light reflected from the sunlit side of planet Earth.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:18 AM 0 comments
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