SPACE: WHERE ARE WE GOING?

STAR FLASH

What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the entire Milky Way Galaxy in January 2002. Then, just as suddenly, it faded. A stellar flash like this had never been seen before -- supernovas and novas expel matter out into space. Although the V838 Mon flash appears to expel material into space, what is seen in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope is actually an outwardly moving light echo of the bright flash. In a light echo, light from the flash is reflected by successively more distant rings in the complex array of ambient interstellar dust that already surrounded the star. V838 Mon lies about 20,000 light years away toward the constellation of the unicorn (Monoceros), while the light echo above spans about six light years in diameter. Image Credit: NASA, ESA

THE SPIDERWEB GALAXY

Looking like a spider's web swirled into a spiral, Galaxy IC 342 presents its delicate pattern of dust in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Seen in infrared light, faint starlight gives way to the glowing bright patterns of dust found throughout the galaxy's disk. At a distance of about 10 million light-years, IC 342 is relatively close by galactic standards, however our vantage point places it directly behind the disk of our own Milky Way. The intervening dust makes it difficult to see in visible light, but infrared light penetrates this veil easily. IC 342 belongs to the same group as its even more obscured galactic neighbor, Maffei 2. IC 342 is nearly face-on to our view, giving a clear, top-down view of the structure of its disk. It has a low surface brightness compared to other spirals, indicating a lower density of stars (seen here as a blue haze). Its dust structures show up much more vividly (red). Blue dots are stars closer to us, in our own Milky Way. New stars are forming in the disk at a healthy rate. The very center glows especially brightly in the infrared, highlighting an enormous burst of star formation occurring in this tiny region. To either side of the center, a small bar of dust and gas is helping to fuel this central star formation. Data from Spitzer's infrared array camera are shown in blue (3.6 microns), green (4.5 microns) and red (5.8 and 8.0 microns). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

JUMPING TO WARP SPEED

This cockpit view of a hypothetical spacecraft traveling at eight-tenths the speed of light shows the visual distortions that would be experienced at such high speeds. The star field is actually being wrapped toward the front of the craft in addition to being significantly blue-shifted. NASA Glenn leads the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, NASA's primary effort to produce near-term, credible, and measurable progress toward the technology breakthroughs needed to revolutionize space travel and enable interstellar voyages. NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio.

SPACE: WHERE ARE WE GOING?

Friday, November 29, 2013

Relève de la garde à Concordia

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Partner der ESA: Das Deutsche GeoForschungsZentrum

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Los satélites Swarm completan con éxito la primera fase de su misión

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Einladung zum Workshop: Für die Erde ins All - Transport & Logistik

Sunday, November 24, 2013

THE BIRDS AND THE BEAST AT CAPE CANAVERAL

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient - Sally Ride | The White House

Friday, November 22, 2013

Lancement de Swarm

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Livestream: Swarm-Start

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

BBC Report 2013 Mission to Mars India now leads Japan & China

The Path Toward Humans to Mars

Space Station scrapbook

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Mission Control Team der ESA startklar für Dreifach-Start der Swarm-Mission

Swarm sur le pas de tir

Un hervidero galáctico lleno de gas caliente

Monday, November 18, 2013

Liftoff of MAVEN