Eta Aquarid meteors over New Zealand this week, photographed by Stephen Voss over the course of 90 minutes. Every spring, Earth crosses the orbital trail of Halley’s Comet. While we’ll have to wait until 2061 to see the actual comet again (I am old enough to remember seeing it back in 1986, though, so nah!), each year we get a fresh sprinkling of comet tail dust into our atmosphere at 150,000 mph. As Earth whips through, the debris appears to radiate out from the constellation Aquarius, which is evident in the photo above. It’s a coincidence, but a beautiful one. Read more about the Eta Aquarids at EarthSky and Bad Astronomy.
Pop-upView Separately

Eta Aquarid meteors over New Zealand this week, photographed by Stephen Voss over the course of 90 minutes.

Every spring, Earth crosses the orbital trail of Halley’s Comet. While we’ll have to wait until 2061 to see the actual comet again (I am old enough to remember seeing it back in 1986, though, so nah!), each year we get a fresh sprinkling of comet tail dust into our atmosphere at 150,000 mph. As Earth whips through, the debris appears to radiate out from the constellation Aquarius, which is evident in the photo above.

It’s a coincidence, but a beautiful one. Read more about the Eta Aquarids at EarthSky and Bad Astronomy.

Hubble and the Horsehead, Then and Now To celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch next week, astronomers released a new image (top) of the iconic Horsehead Nebula. It is stunning. The clouds of stellar gas almost jump right out of my screen! It’s a far cry from the view of the nebula that we’re used to, in the bottom image. Phil Plait has a great description of what you’re seeing at Bad Astronomy: Just off the top of the Hubble picture is the bright star system Sigma Orionis, composed of five incredibly luminous stars. Combined, they shine with the power of over 75,000 Suns! They are responsible for heating and exciting the gas behind the Horsehead. The Horsehead itself is the site of ongoing star formation. The dense gas and dust inside the nebula is collapsing to form stars, and, at the same time, the edges are being eroded away by the fierce ultraviolet light of Sigma Orionis. The top of the Horsehead is acting a bit like a shield, protecting the material beneath it, which is why it’s taken on that umbrella-like shape. You can see more sculpted pillars of material around the sides, too, like sandbars in a stream. Well done, Hubble team. Keep up the good work. You’ve inspired millions.
Zoom Info
Hubble and the Horsehead, Then and Now To celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch next week, astronomers released a new image (top) of the iconic Horsehead Nebula. It is stunning. The clouds of stellar gas almost jump right out of my screen! It’s a far cry from the view of the nebula that we’re used to, in the bottom image. Phil Plait has a great description of what you’re seeing at Bad Astronomy: Just off the top of the Hubble picture is the bright star system Sigma Orionis, composed of five incredibly luminous stars. Combined, they shine with the power of over 75,000 Suns! They are responsible for heating and exciting the gas behind the Horsehead. The Horsehead itself is the site of ongoing star formation. The dense gas and dust inside the nebula is collapsing to form stars, and, at the same time, the edges are being eroded away by the fierce ultraviolet light of Sigma Orionis. The top of the Horsehead is acting a bit like a shield, protecting the material beneath it, which is why it’s taken on that umbrella-like shape. You can see more sculpted pillars of material around the sides, too, like sandbars in a stream. Well done, Hubble team. Keep up the good work. You’ve inspired millions.
Zoom Info

Hubble and the Horsehead, Then and Now

To celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch next week, astronomers released a new image (top) of the iconic Horsehead Nebula. It is stunning.

The clouds of stellar gas almost jump right out of my screen! It’s a far cry from the view of the nebula that we’re used to, in the bottom image. Phil Plait has a great description of what you’re seeing at Bad Astronomy:

Just off the top of the Hubble picture is the bright star system Sigma Orionis, composed of five incredibly luminous stars. Combined, they shine with the power of over 75,000 Suns! They are responsible for heating and exciting the gas behind the Horsehead.

The Horsehead itself is the site of ongoing star formation. The dense gas and dust inside the nebula is collapsing to form stars, and, at the same time, the edges are being eroded away by the fierce ultraviolet light of Sigma Orionis. The top of the Horsehead is acting a bit like a shield, protecting the material beneath it, which is why it’s taken on that umbrella-like shape. You can see more sculpted pillars of material around the sides, too, like sandbars in a stream.

Well done, Hubble team. Keep up the good work. You’ve inspired millions.

Spring Fling The sun just released a M6.5 class flare today, a merely medium-powered burst of solar energy. While it’s the strongest flare yet this year (2013 is predicted to be a maximum in the solar activity cycle), it likely won’t affect much down here. I just thought it was really pretty, as captured here by NASA’s SDO satellite.  (via NASA)
Pop-upView Separately

Spring Fling

The sun just released a M6.5 class flare today, a merely medium-powered burst of solar energy. While it’s the strongest flare yet this year (2013 is predicted to be a maximum in the solar activity cycle), it likely won’t affect much down here.

I just thought it was really pretty, as captured here by NASA’s SDO satellite. 

(via NASA)

Source: nasa.gov

Fleeting Mercury Mercury travels behind our celestial sphere on a short leash, its short orbit obscuring it from view thanks to the Sun’s intense light. Only during moments of twilight, in the time between when the solar disk has sunk and Mercury trails behind it, is the solar system’s smallest planet visible, and only then during certain times of year. Here it is captured by Juan Carlos Casado during the month of March 2000, its fleeting hop above the horizon tracked in several combined photos. In fact, the planet’s name itself derives from the god Mercury’s fleeting and erratic nature. (via APOD)
Pop-upView Separately

Fleeting Mercury

Mercury travels behind our celestial sphere on a short leash, its short orbit obscuring it from view thanks to the Sun’s intense light. Only during moments of twilight, in the time between when the solar disk has sunk and Mercury trails behind it, is the solar system’s smallest planet visible, and only then during certain times of year.

Here it is captured by Juan Carlos Casado during the month of March 2000, its fleeting hop above the horizon tracked in several combined photos.

In fact, the planet’s name itself derives from the god Mercury’s fleeting and erratic nature.

(via APOD)

Source: apod.nasa.gov

Logarithmic Astronomy What a photo! If you looked to the skies last night (January 21st), you may have noticed a bright point of light nearly on top of the Moon. That was Jupiter! Last night was the closest they will come (an event called “conjunction”) until 2026. Their nearly intersecting “paths” through the sky are only due to our Earthly perspective, of course. Many things in the night sky will appear next to each other if we just wait long enough. What’s especially cool about this photograph is that it captures three levels of astronomical complexity in one image. First we have our terrestrial satellite, Luna, with the “terminator” line of day/night stretched across a large, dark volcanic plain known as the “Ocean of Storms”, which is an awesome name for a volcanic plain. The next brightest image is Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet/failed star. And those dots around Jupiter? Those are three of its Galilean moons! The photographer’s Facebook page says there’s four moons of Jupiter in this shot, but I only see three. If we are seeing them in their increasing distance from Jupiter (and that’s a big if, since perspective can play tricks on us), they are probably Io, Europa, and Ganymede. It’s like peeling back the layers of an astronomical onion, in a single photo. Great work by Chris Levitan, check out his Facebook page.
Pop-upView Separately

Logarithmic Astronomy

What a photo! If you looked to the skies last night (January 21st), you may have noticed a bright point of light nearly on top of the Moon. That was Jupiter! Last night was the closest they will come (an event called “conjunction”) until 2026.

Their nearly intersecting “paths” through the sky are only due to our Earthly perspective, of course. Many things in the night sky will appear next to each other if we just wait long enough. What’s especially cool about this photograph is that it captures three levels of astronomical complexity in one image.

First we have our terrestrial satellite, Luna, with the “terminator” line of day/night stretched across a large, dark volcanic plain known as the “Ocean of Storms”, which is an awesome name for a volcanic plain. The next brightest image is Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet/failed star. And those dots around Jupiter? Those are three of its Galilean moons! The photographer’s Facebook page says there’s four moons of Jupiter in this shot, but I only see three. If we are seeing them in their increasing distance from Jupiter (and that’s a big if, since perspective can play tricks on us), they are probably Io, Europa, and Ganymede.

It’s like peeling back the layers of an astronomical onion, in a single photo. Great work by Chris Levitan, check out his Facebook page.

Billions and Billions Click this link and you’ll be taken to a 24,000 x 14,000 pixel zoomable image of a central region of the Milky Way galaxy. I’m guessing it probably won’t work if you’re reading this on your phone. It was put together by Stéphane Guisard at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Within this image, should you zoom down (as I have done in the photos above), you will find millions of stars. Millions. Not to mention clouds of nebular gas, dark and light. And all of this from an area of the sky about the same size as two outstretched hands. That leaves a lot of stars unseen, here a mere fraction of the infinite gleam. When you’re done examining this particular region of the Milky Way, check out ESO’s Gigagalaxy Zoom for more interstellar mind travel. While you’re out journeying on your cosmic imagination quest, squinting against the starshine of these hundreds of billions of points of light that make up our galactic neighborhood, remember not to feel small. Feel tall, because we are the ones who built the tools to capture them all. (via Bad Astronomy)
Zoom Info
Billions and Billions Click this link and you’ll be taken to a 24,000 x 14,000 pixel zoomable image of a central region of the Milky Way galaxy. I’m guessing it probably won’t work if you’re reading this on your phone. It was put together by Stéphane Guisard at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Within this image, should you zoom down (as I have done in the photos above), you will find millions of stars. Millions. Not to mention clouds of nebular gas, dark and light. And all of this from an area of the sky about the same size as two outstretched hands. That leaves a lot of stars unseen, here a mere fraction of the infinite gleam. When you’re done examining this particular region of the Milky Way, check out ESO’s Gigagalaxy Zoom for more interstellar mind travel. While you’re out journeying on your cosmic imagination quest, squinting against the starshine of these hundreds of billions of points of light that make up our galactic neighborhood, remember not to feel small. Feel tall, because we are the ones who built the tools to capture them all. (via Bad Astronomy)
Zoom Info
Billions and Billions Click this link and you’ll be taken to a 24,000 x 14,000 pixel zoomable image of a central region of the Milky Way galaxy. I’m guessing it probably won’t work if you’re reading this on your phone. It was put together by Stéphane Guisard at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Within this image, should you zoom down (as I have done in the photos above), you will find millions of stars. Millions. Not to mention clouds of nebular gas, dark and light. And all of this from an area of the sky about the same size as two outstretched hands. That leaves a lot of stars unseen, here a mere fraction of the infinite gleam. When you’re done examining this particular region of the Milky Way, check out ESO’s Gigagalaxy Zoom for more interstellar mind travel. While you’re out journeying on your cosmic imagination quest, squinting against the starshine of these hundreds of billions of points of light that make up our galactic neighborhood, remember not to feel small. Feel tall, because we are the ones who built the tools to capture them all. (via Bad Astronomy)
Zoom Info
Billions and Billions Click this link and you’ll be taken to a 24,000 x 14,000 pixel zoomable image of a central region of the Milky Way galaxy. I’m guessing it probably won’t work if you’re reading this on your phone. It was put together by Stéphane Guisard at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Within this image, should you zoom down (as I have done in the photos above), you will find millions of stars. Millions. Not to mention clouds of nebular gas, dark and light. And all of this from an area of the sky about the same size as two outstretched hands. That leaves a lot of stars unseen, here a mere fraction of the infinite gleam. When you’re done examining this particular region of the Milky Way, check out ESO’s Gigagalaxy Zoom for more interstellar mind travel. While you’re out journeying on your cosmic imagination quest, squinting against the starshine of these hundreds of billions of points of light that make up our galactic neighborhood, remember not to feel small. Feel tall, because we are the ones who built the tools to capture them all. (via Bad Astronomy)
Zoom Info
Billions and Billions Click this link and you’ll be taken to a 24,000 x 14,000 pixel zoomable image of a central region of the Milky Way galaxy. I’m guessing it probably won’t work if you’re reading this on your phone. It was put together by Stéphane Guisard at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Within this image, should you zoom down (as I have done in the photos above), you will find millions of stars. Millions. Not to mention clouds of nebular gas, dark and light. And all of this from an area of the sky about the same size as two outstretched hands. That leaves a lot of stars unseen, here a mere fraction of the infinite gleam. When you’re done examining this particular region of the Milky Way, check out ESO’s Gigagalaxy Zoom for more interstellar mind travel. While you’re out journeying on your cosmic imagination quest, squinting against the starshine of these hundreds of billions of points of light that make up our galactic neighborhood, remember not to feel small. Feel tall, because we are the ones who built the tools to capture them all. (via Bad Astronomy)
Zoom Info

Billions and Billions

Click this link and you’ll be taken to a 24,000 x 14,000 pixel zoomable image of a central region of the Milky Way galaxy. I’m guessing it probably won’t work if you’re reading this on your phone. It was put together by Stéphane Guisard at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile.

Within this image, should you zoom down (as I have done in the photos above), you will find millions of stars. Millions. Not to mention clouds of nebular gas, dark and light. And all of this from an area of the sky about the same size as two outstretched hands. That leaves a lot of stars unseen, here a mere fraction of the infinite gleam.

When you’re done examining this particular region of the Milky Way, check out ESO’s Gigagalaxy Zoom for more interstellar mind travel. While you’re out journeying on your cosmic imagination quest, squinting against the starshine of these hundreds of billions of points of light that make up our galactic neighborhood, remember not to feel small. Feel tall, because we are the ones who built the tools to capture them all.

(via Bad Astronomy)

A Star Makes Waves I don’t usually post completely random starporn, because I like to explain things, but this stunning image has such a cool story … so I will give in. Behold a stellar wind cutting through cosmic dust like a ship’s bow through the waves! The bright star at the center, Zeta Ophiuchi, is hurtling through space to the image’s left at 24 kilometers per second. Its stellar wind, the result of charged particles being released from the active star’s surface (just like our Sun does), pushes that wind like an energized battering ram, slamming into the dusty clouds in its way and creating beautiful ripples visible in the infrared range of light, here falsely colored red and green. Or, to put it another way: WOW. (more details at NASA’s website)
Pop-upView Separately

A Star Makes Waves

I don’t usually post completely random starporn, because I like to explain things, but this stunning image has such a cool story … so I will give in. Behold a stellar wind cutting through cosmic dust like a ship’s bow through the waves!

The bright star at the center, Zeta Ophiuchi, is hurtling through space to the image’s left at 24 kilometers per second. Its stellar wind, the result of charged particles being released from the active star’s surface (just like our Sun does), pushes that wind like an energized battering ram, slamming into the dusty clouds in its way and creating beautiful ripples visible in the infrared range of light, here falsely colored red and green.

Or, to put it another way: WOW.

(more details at NASA’s website)

Source: nasa.gov

Looking for a space-tastic holiday gift? I’m pretty much drooling over a new book full of stunning solar system photos: Planetfall by Michael Benson. You may not realize this, but NASA puts spacecraft like Cassini and Voyager into space to do research, not just take pictures. Sure, observing the geography, chemistry, astrophysics and possible biology of the various bodies in our solar system propels our understanding of the cosmos forward. And we, as residents of said cosmos, are able to gain an understanding of our past, our present, our future, and our place in the universe thanks the fine work of these unmanned beacons of exploration. But let’s be honest … the pictures are an awesome side benefit! Benson’s book collects some of the best space photography ever made in one large-format book. If someone doesn’t fall in love with space after flipping through this one, then you may want to have their head checked out. While you’re at it, support our own Tumblr science creator Staceythinx and check out the Cassini HD iPad app. Learning is always more fun with your mouth agape. I just realized that “Planetfall” would make a great Bond movie title.
Zoom Info
Looking for a space-tastic holiday gift? I’m pretty much drooling over a new book full of stunning solar system photos: Planetfall by Michael Benson. You may not realize this, but NASA puts spacecraft like Cassini and Voyager into space to do research, not just take pictures. Sure, observing the geography, chemistry, astrophysics and possible biology of the various bodies in our solar system propels our understanding of the cosmos forward. And we, as residents of said cosmos, are able to gain an understanding of our past, our present, our future, and our place in the universe thanks the fine work of these unmanned beacons of exploration. But let’s be honest … the pictures are an awesome side benefit! Benson’s book collects some of the best space photography ever made in one large-format book. If someone doesn’t fall in love with space after flipping through this one, then you may want to have their head checked out. While you’re at it, support our own Tumblr science creator Staceythinx and check out the Cassini HD iPad app. Learning is always more fun with your mouth agape. I just realized that “Planetfall” would make a great Bond movie title.
Zoom Info
Looking for a space-tastic holiday gift? I’m pretty much drooling over a new book full of stunning solar system photos: Planetfall by Michael Benson. You may not realize this, but NASA puts spacecraft like Cassini and Voyager into space to do research, not just take pictures. Sure, observing the geography, chemistry, astrophysics and possible biology of the various bodies in our solar system propels our understanding of the cosmos forward. And we, as residents of said cosmos, are able to gain an understanding of our past, our present, our future, and our place in the universe thanks the fine work of these unmanned beacons of exploration. But let’s be honest … the pictures are an awesome side benefit! Benson’s book collects some of the best space photography ever made in one large-format book. If someone doesn’t fall in love with space after flipping through this one, then you may want to have their head checked out. While you’re at it, support our own Tumblr science creator Staceythinx and check out the Cassini HD iPad app. Learning is always more fun with your mouth agape. I just realized that “Planetfall” would make a great Bond movie title.
Zoom Info
Looking for a space-tastic holiday gift? I’m pretty much drooling over a new book full of stunning solar system photos: Planetfall by Michael Benson. You may not realize this, but NASA puts spacecraft like Cassini and Voyager into space to do research, not just take pictures. Sure, observing the geography, chemistry, astrophysics and possible biology of the various bodies in our solar system propels our understanding of the cosmos forward. And we, as residents of said cosmos, are able to gain an understanding of our past, our present, our future, and our place in the universe thanks the fine work of these unmanned beacons of exploration. But let’s be honest … the pictures are an awesome side benefit! Benson’s book collects some of the best space photography ever made in one large-format book. If someone doesn’t fall in love with space after flipping through this one, then you may want to have their head checked out. While you’re at it, support our own Tumblr science creator Staceythinx and check out the Cassini HD iPad app. Learning is always more fun with your mouth agape. I just realized that “Planetfall” would make a great Bond movie title.
Zoom Info

Looking for a space-tastic holiday gift? I’m pretty much drooling over a new book full of stunning solar system photos: Planetfall by Michael Benson.

You may not realize this, but NASA puts spacecraft like Cassini and Voyager into space to do research, not just take pictures. Sure, observing the geography, chemistry, astrophysics and possible biology of the various bodies in our solar system propels our understanding of the cosmos forward. And we, as residents of said cosmos, are able to gain an understanding of our past, our present, our future, and our place in the universe thanks the fine work of these unmanned beacons of exploration.

But let’s be honest … the pictures are an awesome side benefit! Benson’s book collects some of the best space photography ever made in one large-format book. If someone doesn’t fall in love with space after flipping through this one, then you may want to have their head checked out.

While you’re at it, support our own Tumblr science creator Staceythinx and check out the Cassini HD iPad app. Learning is always more fun with your mouth agape.

I just realized that “Planetfall” would make a great Bond movie title.

The Night Sky Recorded Using a Fisheye Lens

I’m a certified time-lapse freak. I love ‘em. Beautiful as they are, the only problem with most of them is that you can only see a tiny portion of the sky at any one time. Come to think of it, that’s kind of a problem with sky-watching in general, eh? Pesky focused binocular vision!

Stephane Vetter solved this problem by filming this time-lapse with an 8 mm fisheye lens. The result? The entire sky in one shot, including some informative labels and beautiful star trails. Set it to HD, sit back, and enjoy.

Best thing since this beautiful panoramic auroral mini-planet.

(via Colossal)

Source: feedproxy.google.com

Hubble Goes Back In Tiiiiiime If I may: Some recommended listening to accompany this post. Over the course of 50 days, and a total exposure time of 2 million seconds, the Hubble Space Telescope captured the above image. This eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) view is like visual time travel, revealing galaxies so distant that the light that made the image was released 13.2 BILLION years ago. That was only about 500 million years after the Big Bang! This image only contains about 5,500 galaxies because its field of view was so much smaller, and many of them are very young in this image. This means that we can use it to gain clues to how things were churning and forming in the Olde Days of the Universe. I stared at this for several minutes, and was awed by two thoughts: How many of these don’t even exist anymore? How many stars just like ours are inside of each one? Tour a hi-res image here, and share in the wow. (via HubbleSite)
Pop-upView Separately

Hubble Goes Back In Tiiiiiime

If I may: Some recommended listening to accompany this post.

Over the course of 50 days, and a total exposure time of 2 million seconds, the Hubble Space Telescope captured the above image. This eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) view is like visual time travel, revealing galaxies so distant that the light that made the image was released 13.2 BILLION years ago.

That was only about 500 million years after the Big Bang! This image only contains about 5,500 galaxies because its field of view was so much smaller, and many of them are very young in this image. This means that we can use it to gain clues to how things were churning and forming in the Olde Days of the Universe.

I stared at this for several minutes, and was awed by two thoughts: How many of these don’t even exist anymore? How many stars just like ours are inside of each one?

Tour a hi-res image here, and share in the wow.

(via HubbleSite)

Source: hubblesite.org