SPACE: WHERE ARE WE GOING?

Monday, July 27, 2015

Born-again nebula

Sunday, July 26, 2015

RON GARAN TWEETED IMAGE OF A SHOOTING STAR?

FROM: NASA

Astronaut Ron Garan, Expedition 28 flight engineer, tweeted this image from the International Space Station in August, 2011 with the following caption: “What a `Shooting Star’ looks like from space, taken yesterday during Perseid Meteor Shower.” A special camera to record meteor showers will launch to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft, currently scheduled to launch on June 28, 2015, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

The Meteor investigation should be installed in the station’s Window Observational Research Facility by the end of July, enabling scientists to learn more about the composition and behavior of asteroids and comets that cross paths with Earth. The investigation's camera is programmed to record known major meteor showers during its two-year orbit and could spot unpredicted showers as well. Image Credit: NASA.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

A VIEW OF EARTH'S AURORAS FROM ASTRONAUT SCOTT KELLY

FROM: NASA

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured photographs and video of auroras from the International Space Station on June 22, 2015. Kelly wrote, "Yesterday's aurora was an impressive show from 250 miles up. Good morning from the International Space Station! ‪#‎YearInSpace‬" Image Credit: NASA.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Frozen Carbon Monoxide in Pluto’s 'Heart'

Friday, July 17, 2015

Week In Images

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

MSG-4 lifts off

Boundary conditions

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Pluto’s North Pole, Equator, and Central Meridian

Monday, July 13, 2015

Rosetta: preparing for perihelion

Sunday, July 12, 2015

LOOKING AT AUSTRALIA FROM THE ISS

FROM: NASA

From the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (stationcdrkelly on Instagram) took this photograph and posted it to social media on April 6, 2015. Kelly wrote, "Australia. You are very beautiful. Thank you for being there to brighten our day. #YearInSpace" Kelly and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko began their one-year mission aboard the space station on March 27. Most expeditions to the space station last four to six months. By doubling the length of this mission, researchers hope to better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to long-duration spaceflight. Image Credit: NASA.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Ghostly galaxy

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.

OBSERVATION FROM THE SPACE STATION