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Up In Space - Blog Posts
This shows the development of imagery we have for nebulae!
Time for another out of this world comic for starry cosmos month!
This week’s entry, “Gamma Ray Bursts”
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/bursts1.html
http://earthsky.org/space/gamma-ray-bursts-are-the-most-powerful-explosions-in-the-universe
Saturns Swirling Cloudscape
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Y’all are so excited about the new planetary discovery but I haven’t seen y’all share the Google doodle!
It’s so fucking adorable!
The #HubbleTelescope captured these auroras on #jupiter caused by light waves interacting with the planet’s magnetic fields.
The Hubble Space telescope just sent back a new photo of the Twin Jet Nebula. Here’s what it looked like in 1997:
And now …
Whoa. But wait, we also got an updated image of the merging galaxies NGC 6240. What it looked like in 2008:
And today:
Science, you’re the best. Oh, and the explanation behind those merging galaxies and their black holes is wild.
Clouds cast thousand-mile shadows into space when viewed aboard the International Space Station
Official video with credit where appropriate for the above images.
Saturn’s hexagonal storm system in it’s north pole
The Lonely Galaxy
Most galaxies are part of a group or cluster where a neighboring galaxy is never far away. Galaxy NGC 6503 however, is an exception. This galaxy has found itself in a lonely position, at the edge of a strangely empty patch of space called the Local Void. The Local Void is a huge stretch of space that is at least 150 million light-years across.
Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA
Source is Discovery Chanel. Here’s a video.
The largest known star in the universe, compared to Earth.
In order of appearance - Earth, Sol (Our Sun), Sirius, Betelgeuse, Canis Majoris.
Canis Majoris is in fact so large, that if it were to replace our own sun the star itself would extend outwards past the orbit of Jupiter.
[Click for more interesting science facts and gifs]
Commander Terry Virts posted video of his view. You may want to see this.
Video released by SpaceX of a pad abort test.
“The video is filmed from the point-of-view of an astronaut inside the rocket — the rocket that accelerates from zero to 100 mph in 1.2 seconds, that is.” x
Here’s the orbital period of our solar system’s 8 major planets (how long it takes each to travel around the sun). Their size is to scale and their speed is accurate relative to Earth’s. The repetition of each GIF is proportional to their orbital period. Mercury takes less than 3 months to zoom around Sol, Neptune takes nearly 165 years.
The glow of ionized hydrogen in the Flame Nebula, in Orions belt, by Adam Block
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Wild Orion.
Credit: Tony and Daphne Hallas
Source: TheGeekerie
Modern geometric illustrations of Planets of the Solar System. These infographic illustrations feature a history of scientific exploration. Probes, satellites, space stations, etc., highlighting the achievements of man in astronomic discovery. Each illustration also features the distance from the Sun, rotational period in days/years and the number of confirmed, natural satellites.
This is a snip of The Sharpest View Ever of the Andromeda Galaxy.
You need to go to the cite to experience it.
Source: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton (University of Washington, USA), B. F. Williams (University of Washington, USA), L. C. Johnson (University of Washington, USA), the PHAT team, and R. Gendler.
The Mystic Mountain - HH 901
This is a NASA Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared-light image of a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby stars in the tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. The image marks the 20th anniversary of Hubble’s launch and deployment into an orbit around Earth.
The image reveals a plethora of stars behind the gaseous veil of the nebula’s wall of hydrogen, laced with dust. The foreground pillar becomes semi-transparent because infrared light from background stars penetrates through much of the dust. A few stars inside the pillar also become visible. The false colors are assigned to three different infrared wavelength ranges.
Credit: NASA, ESA
Image: Jack Hughes /Twitter: @jackmrhughes
#ScienceIsCool #WeAreTheUniverse #StarSeed #Universe #Beyond #Space
Thousands of Stars in the Orion Nebula
Close inspection of the 2006 Hubble Space Telescope color mosaic of the Orion Nebula (M42) reveals numerous treasures that reside within the nearby, intense star- forming region. Southwest of the Trapezium stars located in the center of the nebula, a stunning Hubble Heritage portrait captures a variety of intricate objects. Deeply contrasting areas of light and dark blend with a palette of colors mix to form rich swirls and fluid motions that would make even the best artists stand back and admire their work.
Visible slightly bottom right center is the star LL Orionis (LL Ori), originally release by the Hubble Heritage Project in 2002. The delicate bow shock that surrounds LL Ori points towards the stream of gas flowing slowly away from the center of the Orion Nebula, near the Trapezium stars located off the image to the upper left. Close examination of the ends of the bow shock show secondary shocks that are formed as a two-sided jet of gas flowing away from this forming star at high velocity strikes the stream of low velocity gas from the center. To the right of LL Ori, a ghostly veil of material hangs thick and dark, obscuring portions of the nebula behind it.
Credit: NASA/Hubble
“The shockwave from a 20,000 year-old supernova explosion in the constellation of Cygnus is still expanding into interstellar space. The collision of this fast moving wall of gas with a stationary cloud has heated it causing it to glow in visible as well as high energy radiation, producing the nebula known as the Cygnus Loop (NGC 6960/95). The nebula is located a mere 1,400 light-years away. The colors used here indicate emission from different kinds of atoms excited by the shock: oxygen-blue, sulfur-red, and hydrogen-green. This picture was taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope.”
Photo by J Hester of ASU, description via NASA.
Making a Spectacle of Star Formation in Orion
Looking like a pair of eyeglasses only a rock star would wear, this nebula brings into focus a murky region of star formation. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope exposes the depths of this dusty nebula with its infrared vision, showing stellar infants that are lost behind dark clouds when viewed in visible light.
Best known as Messier 78, the two round greenish nebulae are actually cavities carved out of the surrounding dark dust clouds. The extended dust is mostly dark, even to Spitzer’s view, but the edges show up in mid-wavelength infrared light as glowing, red frames surrounding the bright interiors. Messier 78 is easily seen in small telescopes in the constellation of Orion, just to the northeast of Orion’s belt, but looks strikingly different, with dominant, dark swaths of dust. Spitzer’s infrared eyes penetrate this dust, revealing the glowing interior of the nebulae.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Spitzer