Monday, February 16, 2015

The Helix Nebula from Blanco and Hubble

The Helix Nebula from Blanco and Hubble: APOD: 2014 October 12 - The Helix Nebula from Blanco and Hubble





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Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is
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2014 October 12




See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
The Helix Nebula from Blanco and Hubble
Image Credit:
C. R. O'Dell,
(Vanderbilt) et al.
ESA,
NOAO,
NASA
Explanation:
How did a star create the
Helix nebula?

The shapes of
planetary nebula like the
Helix are important because they
likely hold clues to how stars like the
Sun end their lives.

Observations by the orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope and the
4-meter Blanco Telescope in
Chile, however, have shown the
Helix is not really a
simple helix.

Rather, it incorporates two nearly perpendicular disks as well as arcs, shocks, and even
features not well understood.

Even so, many strikingly geometric symmetries remain.

How a single Sun-like star created such beautiful yet
geometric complexity is a topic of research.

The Helix Nebula is the nearest
planetary nebula to Earth, lies only about 700
light years away toward the constellation of Aquarius, and spans about 3 light-years.






APOD Wall Calendar:
Nebulas and Star Clusters
Tomorrow's picture: sky sprites

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Posted by Nelio Inacio at 5:47 AM 0 comments
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Auroral Corona over Norway

Auroral Corona over Norway: APOD: 2014 October 14 - Auroral Corona over Norway


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 October 14


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Higher than the highest mountain lies the realm of the aurora. Auroras rarely reach below 60 kilometers, and can range up to 1000 kilometers. Aurora light results from energetic electrons and protons striking atoms and molecules in the Earth's atmosphere. Somewhat uncommon, an auroral corona appears as a center point for a surrounding display and may occur when an aurora develops directly overhead, or when auroral rays are pointed nearly toward the observer. This picturesque but brief green and purple aurora exhibition occurred last month high above Kvaløya, Tromsø, Norway. The Sessøyfjorden fjord runs through the foreground, while numerous stars are visible far in the distance.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 5:46 AM 0 comments
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Messier 6 and Comet Siding Spring

Messier 6 and Comet Siding Spring: APOD: 2014 October 17 - Messier 6 and Comet Siding Spring


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 October 17


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: This looks like a near miss but the greenish coma and tail of Comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) are really 2,000 light-years or so away from the stars of open cluster Messier 6. They do appear close together though, along the same line-of-sight in this gorgeous October 9th skyscape toward the constellation Scorpius. Still, on Sunday, October 19th this comet really will be involved in a near miss, passing within only 139,500 kilometers of planet Mars. That's about 10 times closer than any known comet flyby of planet Earth, and nearly one third the Earth-Moon distance. While an impact with the nucleus is not a threat the comet's dust, moving with a speed of about 56 kilometers per second relative to the Red Planet, and outskirts of its gaseous coma could interact with the thin Martian atmosphere. Of course, the comet's close encounter will be followed intently by spacecraft in Martian orbit and rovers on the surface.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 5:45 AM 0 comments
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Melotte 15 in the Heart

Melotte 15 in the Heart: APOD: 2014 October 18 - Melotte 15 in the Heart


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 October 18


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Cosmic clouds form fantastic shapes in the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805. The clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula's newborn star cluster, Melotte 15. About 1.5 million years young, the cluster stars are toward the right in this colorful skyscape, along with dark dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas. A composite of narrowband and broadband telescopic images, the view spans about 30 light-years and includes emission from ionized hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms mapped to green, red, and blue hues in the popular Hubble Palette. Wider field images reveal that IC 1805's simpler, overall outline suggests its popular name - The Heart Nebula. IC 1805 is located about 7,500 light years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 5:44 AM 0 comments
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Comet Siding Spring Passes Mars

Comet Siding Spring Passes Mars: APOD: 2014 October 20 - Comet Siding Spring Passes 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.

2014 October 20


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Yesterday, a comet passed very close to Mars. In fact, Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) passed closer to the red planet than any comet has ever passed to Earth in recorded history. To take advantage of this unique opportunity to study the close interaction of a comet and a planet, humanity currently has five active spacecraft orbiting Mars: NASA's MAVEN, MRO, Mars Odyssey, as well as ESA's Mars Express, and India's Mars Orbiter. Most of these spacecraft have now sent back information that they have not been damaged by small pieces of the passing comet. These spacecraft, as well as the two active rovers on the Martian surface -- NASA's Opportunity and Curiosity -- have taken data and images that will be downloaded to Earth for weeks to come and likely studied for years to come. The featured image taken yesterday, however, was not taken from Mars but from Earth and shows Comet Siding Spring on the lower left as it passed Mars, on the upper right.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 5:42 AM 0 comments
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Mimas: Small Moon with a Big Crater

Mimas: Small Moon with a Big Crater: APOD: 2014 October 21 - Mimas: Small Moon with a Big Crater


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 October 21


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Whatever hit Mimas nearly destroyed it. What remains is one of the largest impact craters on one of Saturn's smallest moons. The crater, named Herschel after the 1789 discoverer of Mimas, Sir William Herschel, spans about 130 kilometers and is pictured above. Mimas' low mass produces a surface gravity just strong enough to create a spherical body but weak enough to allow such relatively large surface features. Mimas is made of mostly water ice with a smattering of rock - so it is accurately described as a big dirty snowball. The above image was taken during the 2010 February flyby of the robot spacecraft Cassini now in orbit around Saturn. A recent analysis of Mimas's unusual wobble indicates that it might house a liquid water interior ocean.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 5:41 AM 0 comments
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Galaxies in Pegasus

Galaxies in Pegasus: APOD: 2014 October 23 - Galaxies in Pegasus


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 October 23
See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: This wide, sharp telescopic view reveals galaxies scattered beyond the stars and faint dust nebulae of the Milky Way at the northern boundary of the high-flying constellation Pegasus. Prominent at the upper right is NGC 7331. A mere 50 million light-years away, the large spiral is one of the brighter galaxies not included in Charles Messier's famous 18th century catalog. The disturbed looking group of galaxies at the lower left is well-known as Stephan's Quintet. About 300 million light-years distant, the quintet dramatically illustrates a multiple galaxy collision, its powerful, ongoing interactions posed for a brief cosmic snapshot. On the sky, the quintet and NGC 7331 are separated by about half a degree.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 5:40 AM 0 comments
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AR 2192: Giant on the Sun

AR 2192: Giant on the Sun: APOD: 2014 October 24 - AR 2192: Giant on the Sun


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 October 24



See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: As you (safely!) watched the progress of yesterday's partial solar eclipse, you probably also spotted a giant sunspot group. Captured in this sharp telescopic image from October 22nd the complex AR 2192 is beautiful to see, a sprawling solar active region comparable in size to the diameter of Jupiter. Like other smaller sunspot groups, AR 2192 is now crossing the Earth-facing side of the Sun and appears dark in visible light because it is cooler than the surrounding surface. Still, the energy stored in the region's twisted magnetic fields is enormous and has already generated powerful explosions, including two X-class solar flares this week. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) associated with the flares have not affected planet Earth, so far. The forecast for further activity from AR 2192 is still significant though, as it swings across the center of the solar disk and Earth-directed CMEs become possible.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 5:39 AM 0 comments
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Sunday, February 15, 2015

Sunspots and Solar Eclipse

Sunspots and Solar Eclipse: APOD: 2014 October 25 - Sunspots and Solar Eclipse


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 October 25


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: A New Moon joined giant sunspot group AR 2192 to dim the bright solar disk during Thursday's much anticipated partial solar eclipse. Visible from much of North America, the Moon's broad silhouette is captured in this extreme telephoto snapshot near eclipse maximum from Santa Cruz, California. About the size of Jupiter, the remarkable AR 2192 itself darkens a noticeable fraction of the Sun, near center and below the curved lunar limb. As the sunspot group slowly rotates across the Sun and out of view in the coming days its activity is difficult to forecast. But the timing of solar eclipses is easier to predict. The next will be a total solar eclipse on March 20, 2015.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:13 AM 0 comments
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Iridescent Cloud Edge Over Colorado

Iridescent Cloud Edge Over Colorado: APOD: 2014 October 29 - Iridescent Cloud Edge Over Colorado


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 October 29


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Sometimes your eclipse viewing goes bad in an interesting way. While watching and photographing last Thursday's partial solar eclipse, a popular astronomy blogger suffered through long periods of clouds blocking the Sun. Unexpectedly, however, a nearby cloud began to show a rare effect: iridescence. Frequently part of a more familiar solar corona effect, iridescence is the diffraction of sunlight around a thin screen of nearly uniformly-sized water droplets. Different colors of the sunlight become deflected by slightly different angles and so come to the observer from slightly different directions. This display, featured here, was quite bright and exhibited an unusually broad range of colors. On the right, the contrails of an airplane are also visible.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:12 AM 0 comments
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A Spectre in the Eastern Veil

A Spectre in the Eastern Veil: APOD: 2014 October 30 - A Spectre in the Eastern Veil


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 October 30
See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: Frightening forms and scary faces are a mark of the Halloween season. They also haunt this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. While the Veil is roughly circular in shape and covers nearly 3 degrees on the sky in the constellation Cygnus, this portion of the eastern Veil spans only 1/2 degree, about the apparent size of the Moon. That translates to 12 light-years at the Veil's estimated distance, a reassuring 1,400 light-years from planet Earth. In the composite of image data recorded through broad and narrow band filters, emission from hydrogen atoms in the remnant is shown in red with strong emission from oxygen atoms in blue-green hues. Of course, in the western part of the Veil lies another seasonal apparition, the Witch's Broom.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:11 AM 0 comments
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The Day After Mars

The Day After Mars: APOD: 2014 November 1 - The Day After 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.

2014 November 1


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Explanation: October 31, 1938 was the day after Martians encountered planet Earth, and everything was calm. Reports of the invasion were revealed to be part of a Halloween radio drama, the now famous broadcast based on H.G. Wells' scifi novel War of the Worlds. On Mars October 20, 2014 was calm too, the day after its close encounter with Comet Siding Spring. Not a hoax, this comet really did come within 86,700 miles or so of Mars, about 1/3 the Earth-Moon distance. Earth's spacecraft and rovers in Mars orbit and on the surface reported no ill effects though, and had a ringside seat as a visitor from the outer solar system passed by. Spanning over 2 degrees against stars of the constellation Ophiuchus, this colorful telescopic snapshot captures our view of Mars on the day after. Bluish star 51 Ophiuchi is at the upper right and the comet is just emerging from the Red Planet's bright glare.

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:11 AM 0 comments
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The Complex Ion Tail of Comet Lovejoy

The Complex Ion Tail of Comet Lovejoy:

The Complex Ion Tail of Comet Lovejoy

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:09 AM 0 comments
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Launch to Lovejoy ( Comet )

Launch to Lovejoy:

Launch to Lovejoy
Blasting skyward

an Atlas V rocket carrying a U.S. Navy satellite
pierces a cloud bank in this starry
night
scene captured on January 20.

On its way to orbit from Space Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station, planet Earth, the rocket streaks past brightest star
Sirius,
as seen from a dark beach at Canaveral National Seashore.

Above the alpha star of Canis Major, Orion the Hunter
strikes a pose
familiar to northern winter skygazers.

Above Orion is the V-shaped Hyades star cluster, head of Taurus the
Bull, and farther still above Taurus it's easy to spot
the compact Pleiades star cluster.

Of course near the top of the frame you'll find the greenish coma
and long tail of Comet Lovejoy, astronomical darling of
these January nights.




Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space

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Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:08 AM 0 comments

See The Light from Cygnus A

Light from Cygnus A:

Light from Cygnus A

Celebrating astronomy in this
International
Year of Light,
the detailed image reveals spectacular active galaxy
Cygnus A
in light across the electromagnetic spectrum.

Incorporating X-ray data
(
blue) from the orbiting Chandra Observatory,
Cygnus A is seen to be a prodigious source of
high energy x-rays.

But it is actually more
famous
at the low energy end of
the electromagnetic
spectrum.

One of the brightest celestial sources visible to radio telescopes,
at 600 million light-years distant
Cygnus A is the closest powerful radio galaxy.

Radio emission
(
red) extends to either side along the same axis for
nearly 300,000 light-years powered by jets of relativistic particles
emanating from the galaxy's central supermassive black hole.

Hot spots likely mark the ends of the jets impacting surrounding cool,
dense material.

Confined to

yellow hues, optical wavelength data
of the galaxy from Hubble and the surrounding field
in the Digital Sky Survey complete a
remarkable multiwavelength view.




Tomorrow's picture: twisted sun

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Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:07 AM 0 comments

GIF - A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence

A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence:

A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:04 AM 0 comments

Watch Comet Lovejoy in a Winter Sky

Comet Lovejoy in a Winter Sky:

Comet Lovejoy in a Winter Sky

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:02 AM 0 comments

WATCH A Night at Poker Flat

A Night at Poker Flat:

A Night at Poker Flat

Four NASA suborbital
sounding rockets leapt
into the night on January 26,
from the University of Alaska's
Poker Flat Research Range.

This time lapse composite image follows all
four launches of the small, multi-stage rockets to explore
winter's mesmerizing,
aurora-filled skies.

During the exposures, stars trailed around the North Celestial Pole,
high above the horizon at the site 30 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska.

Lidar, beams of pulsed green lasers,
also left traces through the scene.

Operating successfully, the payloads lofted were two
Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere Turbulence Experiments
(M-TeX)
and two Mesospheric Inversion-layer Stratified Turbulence
(MIST)
experiments,
creating vapor trails
at high altitudes to be tracked by ground-based
observations.




Tomorrow's picture: citizen science

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Posted by Nelio Inacio at 11:00 AM 0 comments

SPACE Yellow Balls in W33

Yellow Balls in W33:

Yellow Balls in W33Infrared
wavelengths of 3.6, 8.0, and 24.0 microns
observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope are mapped
into visible colors red, green, and blue in this striking image.

The cosmic cloud of gas and dust is W33, a massive starforming
complex some 13,000 light-years
distant, near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy.

So what are all those yellow balls?

Citizen scientists of the web-based
Milky Way Project
found the features they called yellow balls as
they scanned many Spitzer images and persistently asked that question
of researchers.

Now there is an answer.

The yellow balls in Spitzer images
are identified as an early stage of massive star formation.

They appear yellow because they are overlapping regions of
red and green, the assigned colors that correspond to
dust and organic molecules known as PAHs at Spitzer wavelengths.

Yellow balls represent the stage before newborn massive
stars clear out cavities in their surrounding gas and dust
and appear as green-rimmed bubbles with red centers in the Spitzer
image.

Of course, the astronomical crowdsourcing success story is only part of
the Zooniverse.

The Spitzer image spans 0.5 degrees
or about 100 light-years at the estimated distance of W33.




Tomorrow's picture: of mice and galaxies

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Posted by Nelio Inacio at 10:59 AM 0 comments

COLLISION NGC 4676: When Mice Collide

NGC 4676: When Mice Collide:

NGC 4676: When Mice Collide

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 10:58 AM 0 comments

WOW Titan Seas Reflect Sunlight

Titan Seas Reflect Sunlight:

Titan Seas Reflect Sunlight

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 10:57 AM 0 comments

Stars, Sprites, Clouds, Auroras

Stars, Sprites, Clouds, Auroras:

Stars, Sprites, Clouds, Auroras

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 10:56 AM 0 comments

M104: The Sombrero Galaxy - UFO ?

M104: The Sombrero Galaxy:
M104: The Sombrero Galaxy

The striking spiral galaxy
M104 is famous
for its nearly edge-on
profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust lanes.

Seen in silhouette against an extensive bulge of stars, the swath of
cosmic dust lends a
broad brimmed hat-like
appearance to the galaxy suggesting
the more popular moniker, The Sombrero Galaxy.

Hubble Space Telescope
and ground-based Subaru data have been
reprocessed with amateur color image data to
create this sharp view of
the well-known galaxy.

The processing results in a natural color appearance
and preserves details often lost in overwhelming glare of M104's
bright central bulge when viewed with smaller ground-based
instruments.

Also known as NGC 4594, the Sombrero galaxy can be seen
across the spectrum
and is thought to host a central
supermassive
black hole.

About 50,000 light-years across and 28 million light-years away,
M104 is one of the largest galaxies at the southern edge of the
Virgo
Galaxy Cluster.




Tomorrow's picture: all the marbles

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Posted by Nelio Inacio at 10:55 AM 0 comments

Jupiter Triple-Moon Conjunction

Jupiter Triple-Moon Conjunction:

Jupiter Triple-Moon Conjunction

Our solar system's ruling giant planet Jupiter and 3 of its 4
large Galilean moons are captured in this single
Hubble snapshot
from January 24.

Crossing in front of Jupiter's banded cloud tops
Europa, Callisto, and Io
are framed from lower left to
upper right in a rare triple-moon conjunction.

Distinguishable by colors alone
icy Europa is almost white,
Callisto's ancient cratered surface looks dark brown,
and volcanic Io appears yellowish.

The transiting moons and
moon shadows can be identified by
sliding your cursor over the image, or following
this link.

Remarkably, two small, inner Jovian moons,
Amalthea and Thebe, along with
their shadows,
can
also be found in the sharp
Hubble view.

The Galilean moons have diameters of 3,000 to 5,000 kilometers or so,
comparable in size to Earth's moon.

But odd-shaped Amalthea and Thebe are only about 260 and 100
kilometers across respectively.




Tomorrow's picture: all the marbles

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Authors & editors:
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Posted by Nelio Inacio at 10:54 AM 0 comments

An Extremely Long Filament on the Sun

An Extremely Long Filament on the Sun:

An Extremely Long Filament on the Sun

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 10:52 AM 0 comments

M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy

M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy:

M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy

Posted by Nelio Inacio at 10:51 AM 0 comments
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