Showing posts tagged astronomy
Comet Lovejoy, photo by Dan Burbank on board the International Space Station Cue the Three Wiseguys. View high resolution

Comet Lovejoy, photo by Dan Burbank on board the International Space Station

Cue the Three Wiseguys.

Hubble Captures Nearby Spiral Galaxy “Messier 74 galaxy is located about 32 million light years away, in the direction of the Pisces constellation. It is estimated to contain about 100 billion stars, slightly less than our own galaxy, the Milky Way.” The Atlantic, Rebecca J. Rosen View high resolution

Hubble Captures Nearby Spiral Galaxy

“Messier 74 galaxy is located about 32 million light years away, in the direction of the Pisces constellation. It is estimated to contain about 100 billion stars, slightly less than our own galaxy, the Milky Way.”

The Atlantic, Rebecca J. Rosen

“Milky Way Above the Himalaya” By Anton Jankovoy and Mariya Sogrina via View high resolution

“Milky Way Above the Himalaya”

By Anton Jankovoy and Mariya Sogrina

via

Big Sisters — Saturn’s two largest moons, Rhea and Titan Via J. Major, Lights in the Dark Raw images taken in red, green and blue visible-light channels were combined to make this color version. The spacecraft was 1,828,949 km (1,136,456 miles) from Rhea when the images were taken. Credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute. Edited by Jason Major. View high resolution

Big Sisters — Saturn’s two largest moons, Rhea and Titan

Via J. Major, Lights in the Dark

Raw images taken in red, green and blue visible-light channels were combined to make this color version. The spacecraft was 1,828,949 km (1,136,456 miles) from Rhea when the images were taken.

Credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute. Edited by Jason Major.

Mosaic of about 1300 separate images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Wide-Angle Camera. Via Bad Astronomy. High Resolution Here. View high resolution

Mosaic of about 1300 separate images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Wide-Angle Camera. Via Bad Astronomy. High Resolution Here.

Ganymede from Galileo, Planetary Images From Then and Now, Ted Stryk View high resolution

Ganymede from Galileo, Planetary Images From Then and Now, Ted Stryk

The Moon Over Blue. Via PlanetBye, my favorite astrophysicist. View high resolution

The Moon Over Blue. Via PlanetBye, my favorite astrophysicist.

J. Major, Lights in the Dark color-composite image of Saturn. Full Resolution Here View high resolution

J. Major, Lights in the Dark color-composite image of Saturn. Full Resolution Here

Equinox Revisited. J. Major, Lights In The Dark Saturn taken by Cassini during the planet’s 2009 spring equinox. View high resolution
Equinox Revisited. J. Major, Lights In The Dark

Saturn taken by Cassini during the planet’s 2009 spring equinox.

Towering Coronal Ejection. © Alan Friedman July 27, 2010 “[O]ver 200,000 miles above the surface of the sun … coronal mass ejections occur when particularly large magnetic loops filled with plasma “snap” and expel their contents into space.” Via Lights in the Dark View high resolution
Towering Coronal Ejection. © Alan Friedman July 27, 2010

“[O]ver 200,000 miles above the surface of the sun … coronal mass ejections occur when particularly large magnetic loops filled with plasma “snap” and expel their contents into space.”

Via Lights in the Dark

After 12,000 Days in Space, Voyager 1 Heads for the Solar System Boundary “Next time you’re marveling at the fact that Spirit and Opportunity have been roving Mars for over six years now, ponder this: the two Voyager spacecraft have been hurtling through our solar system for nearly 33 years. Today, Voyager 1 hits a mission milestone of operating continuously for 12,000 days. The spacecraft launched on September 5, 1977, while Jimmy Carter was president, and has now traveled 14 billion miles.” Photo Gallery Via Popsci View high resolution
After 12,000 Days in Space, Voyager 1 Heads for the Solar System Boundary
“Next time you’re marveling at the fact that Spirit and Opportunity have been roving Mars for over six years now, ponder this: the two Voyager spacecraft have been hurtling through our solar system for nearly 33 years. Today, Voyager 1 hits a mission milestone of operating continuously for 12,000 days. The spacecraft launched on September 5, 1977, while Jimmy Carter was president, and has now traveled 14 billion miles.”

Photo Gallery

Via Popsci

From J. Major, Lights in the Dark: Saturn’s second-largest moon Rhea passes across the face of the ringed planet in this image, color-combined from three raw images taken by Cassini on May 8, 2010. The rings are seen on edge here, a dark horizontal stripe running underneath the cratered 950-mile-wide moon, their wide shadows cast onto Saturn’s atmosphere below. View high resolution

From J. Major, Lights in the Dark: Saturn’s second-largest moon Rhea passes across the face of the ringed planet in this image, color-combined from three raw images taken by Cassini on May 8, 2010. The rings are seen on edge here, a dark horizontal stripe running underneath the cratered 950-mile-wide moon, their wide shadows cast onto Saturn’s atmosphere below.

Brown Bats Mercury and Venus

There is a small patch of clear sky in my backyard that I love for its brown bats and crows. I made the boy sit with me at dusk tonight and cheer on the bats that filled the sky. Woo Hoo! Brown Bats!

But then Mercury and Venus appeared and we were off to the astronomy charts and I pretty much killed the brown bat buzz by taking on the astronomy. It would seem that I did not learn from my 28-year-old son that my inherent geekitude does not do much for the 8-year-old son.

Bother

A Lights in the Dark homage to Rhea and the Rings by Cassini: “Taken on March 24, this raw image shows Rhea, Saturn’s second-largest moon, suspended in orbit in front of the twilight side of Saturn, its rings reduced to a thin ribbon of bands at this viewing angle. The width of the rings is hinted at by their shadows falling onto the southern half of the planet…and little Epimetheus passes by in the background between them and Rhea.” High Resolution Image Here View high resolution

A Lights in the Dark homage to Rhea and the Rings by Cassini: “Taken on March 24, this raw image shows Rhea, Saturn’s second-largest moon, suspended in orbit in front of the twilight side of Saturn, its rings reduced to a thin ribbon of bands at this viewing angle. The width of the rings is hinted at by their shadows falling onto the southern half of the planet…and little Epimetheus passes by in the background between them and Rhea.”
High Resolution Image Here

Gordan Ugarkovic’s image of Moon Enceladus and Saturn’s rings Slices of Light — Via Lights in the Dark View high resolution
Gordan Ugarkovic’s image of Moon Enceladus and Saturn’s rings

Slices of Light — Via Lights in the Dark