It came from outer space. It -- in this case a sand-sized bit of a comet nucleus -- was likely ejected many years ago from Sun-orbiting Comet Swift-Tuttle, but then continued to orbit the Sun alone. When the Earth crossed through this orbit, the piece of comet debris impacted the atmosphere of our fair planet and was seen as a meteor. This meteor deteriorated, causing gases to be emitted that glowed in colors emitted by its component elements. The featured image was taken last week from Castilla La Mancha, Spain, during the peak night of the Perseids meteor shower. The picturesque meteor streak happened to appear in the only one of 50 frames that also included the Andromeda galaxy. Stars dot the frame, each much further away than the meteor. Compared to the stars, the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is, again, much further away.
Just as the Moon goes through phases, Venus' visible sunlit hemisphere waxes and wanes. This sequence of telescopic images illustrates the steady changes for Venus during its recent 2023 apparition as our evening star. Gliding along its interior orbit between Earth and Sun, Venus grows larger during that period because it is approaching planet Earth. Its crescent narrows though, as the inner planet swings closer to our line-of-sight to the Sun. Closest to the Earth-Sun line but passing about 8 degrees south of the Sun, on August 13 Venus reached its (non-judgmental) inferior conjunction. And now Venus shines above the eastern horizon in predawn skies, completing its transition to planet Earth's morning star. On August 21, NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its sixth gravity assist flyby of Venus, using the encounter to maneuver the probe toward its closest approach yet to the Sun.
Hubble Sees a Sparkling Neighbor Galaxy The galaxy ESO 300-16 looms over this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy, which lies 28.7 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus, is a ghostly assemblage of stars which resembles a sparkling cloud. Other distant galaxies and foreground stars complete this astronomical portrait, which was captured by the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
This observation is one of a series which aims to get to know our galactic neighbors. Hubble has observed around three quarters of known galaxies within about 10 megaparsecs of Earth in enough detail to resolve their brightest stars and establish distances to these galaxies. A team of astronomers proposed using small gaps in Hubble's observing schedule to acquaint ourselves with the remaining quarter of these nearby galaxies.
The megaparsec meaning one million parsecs is a unit used by astronomers to chart the mind-bogglingly large distances involved in astronomy. The motion of Earth around the Sun means that stars appear to slightly shift against very distant stars over the course of a year. This small shift is referred to as parallax and is measured in angular units: degrees, minutes, and seconds. One parsec is equivalent to the distance creating a parallax of one-arcsecond and is equivalent to 3.26 light-years or 30.9 trillion kilometers (19.2 trillion miles). The closest star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which lies 1.3 parsecs away.
This nebula had never been noted before. Newly discovered nebulas are usually angularly small and found by professionals using large telescopes. In contrast, the Pistachio Nebula was discovered by dedicated amateurs and, although faint, is nearly the size of the full Moon. In modern times, amateurs with even small telescopes can create long exposures over sky areas much larger than most professional telescopes can see. They can therefore discover both previously unknown areas of extended emission around known objects, as well as entirely unknown objects, like nebulas. The pictured Pistachio Nebula is shown in oxygen emission (blue) and hydrogen emission (red). The nature of the hot central star is currently unknown, and the nebula might be labeled a planetary nebula if it turns out to be a white dwarf star. The featured image is a composite of over 70 hours of exposure taken in early June under the dark skies of Namibia.
Ringed ice giant Neptune lies near the center of this sharp near-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The dim and distant world is the farthest planet from the Sun, about 30 times farther away than planet Earth. But in the stunning Webb view, the planet's dark and ghostly appearance is due to atmospheric methane that absorbs infrared light. High altitude clouds that reach above most of Neptune's absorbing methane easily stand out in the image though. Coated with frozen nitrogen, Neptune's largest moon Triton is brighter than Neptune in reflected sunlight, seen at the upper left sporting the Webb telescope's characteristic diffraction spikes. Including Triton, seven of Neptune's 14 known moons can be identified in the field of view. Neptune's faint rings are striking in this space-based planetary portrait. Details of the complex ring system are seen here for the first time since Neptune was visited by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in August 1989. For image credit and copyright guidance, please visit the image website
Gaze across the frozen canyons of northern Pluto in this contrast enhanced color scene. The image data used to construct it was acquired in July 2015 by the New Horizons spacecraft as it made the first reconnaissance flight through the remote Pluto system six billion kilometers from the Sun. Now known as Lowell Regio, the region was named for Percival Lowell, founder of the Lowell Observatory. Also famous for his speculation that there were canals on Mars, Lowell started the search that ultimately led to Pluto's discovery in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. In this frame Pluto's North Pole is above and left of center. The pale bluish floor of the broad canyon on the left is about 70 kilometers (45 miles) wide, running vertically toward the south. Higher elevations take on a yellowish hue. New Horizon's measurements were used to determine that in addition to nitrogen ice, methane ice is abundant across Lowell Regio. So far, Pluto is the only Solar System world named by an 11-year-old girl. @NASA#space
Chandrayaan-3 Moon Landing Successful: India has created history as it became the first country to land on the South Pole of lunar surface. PM Modi congratulated Indians and space scientists for the achievement. ‘India will remember this day forever’ PM Modi said @isro.in #chandryann3#softlanding#image
Will Comet Nishimura become visible to the unaided eye? Given the unpredictability of comets, no one can say for sure, but it currently seems like a good bet. The comet was discovered only ten days ago by Hideo Nishimura during 30-second exposures with a standard digital camera. Since then, C/2023 P1 Nishimura has increased in brightness and its path across the inner Solar System determined. As the comet dives toward the Sun, it will surely continue to intensify and possibly become a naked-eye object in early September. A problem is that the comet will also be angularly near the Sun, so it will only be possible to see it near sunset or sunrise. The comet will get so close to the Sun -- inside the orbit of planet Mercury -- that its nucleus may break up. Pictured, Comet Nishimura was imaged three days ago from June Lake, California, USA while sporting a green coma and a thin tail.
The Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf
iss069e056939 (Aug. 14, 2023) --- The Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf of Oman with the Persian Gulf in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above. In the right foreground, is the Soyuz MS-23 crew ship docked to the Prichal docking module. At bottom left, is a portion of the Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter and one of its cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar arrays.
Locked in a cosmic embrace, two large galaxies are merging at the center of this sharp telescopic field of view. The interacting system cataloged as Arp 93 is some 200 million light-years distant toward the constellation Aquarius in planet Earth's sky. Individually the galaxies are identified as NGC 7285 (right) and NGC 7284. Their bright cores are still separated by about 20,000 light-years or so, but a massive tidal stream, a result of their ongoing gravitational interaction, extends over 200,000 light-years toward the bottom of the frame. Interacting galaxies do look peculiar, but are now understood to be common in the Universe. In fact, closer to home, the large spiral Andromeda Galaxy is known to be approaching the Milky Way. Arp 93 may well present an analog of their distant future cosmic embrace.
Science theta
The Meteor and the Galaxy
It came from outer space. It -- in this case a sand-sized bit of a comet nucleus -- was likely ejected many years ago from Sun-orbiting Comet Swift-Tuttle, but then continued to orbit the Sun alone. When the Earth crossed through this orbit, the piece of comet debris impacted the atmosphere of our fair planet and was seen as a meteor. This meteor deteriorated, causing gases to be emitted that glowed in colors emitted by its component elements. The featured image was taken last week from Castilla La Mancha, Spain, during the peak night of the Perseids meteor shower. The picturesque meteor streak happened to appear in the only one of 50 frames that also included the Andromeda galaxy. Stars dot the frame, each much further away than the meteor. Compared to the stars, the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is, again, much further away.
2 years ago | [YT] | 3
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Science theta
Crescents of Venus
Just as the Moon goes through phases, Venus' visible sunlit hemisphere waxes and wanes. This sequence of telescopic images illustrates the steady changes for Venus during its recent 2023 apparition as our evening star. Gliding along its interior orbit between Earth and Sun, Venus grows larger during that period because it is approaching planet Earth. Its crescent narrows though, as the inner planet swings closer to our line-of-sight to the Sun. Closest to the Earth-Sun line but passing about 8 degrees south of the Sun, on August 13 Venus reached its (non-judgmental) inferior conjunction. And now Venus shines above the eastern horizon in predawn skies, completing its transition to planet Earth's morning star. On August 21, NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its sixth gravity assist flyby of Venus, using the encounter to maneuver the probe toward its closest approach yet to the Sun.
2 years ago | [YT] | 3
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Science theta
Hubble Sees a Sparkling Neighbor Galaxy
The galaxy ESO 300-16 looms over this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy, which lies 28.7 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus, is a ghostly assemblage of stars which resembles a sparkling cloud. Other distant galaxies and foreground stars complete this astronomical portrait, which was captured by the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
This observation is one of a series which aims to get to know our galactic neighbors. Hubble has observed around three quarters of known galaxies within about 10 megaparsecs of Earth in enough detail to resolve their brightest stars and establish distances to these galaxies. A team of astronomers proposed using small gaps in Hubble's observing schedule to acquaint ourselves with the remaining quarter of these nearby galaxies.
The megaparsec meaning one million parsecs is a unit used by astronomers to chart the mind-bogglingly large distances involved in astronomy. The motion of Earth around the Sun means that stars appear to slightly shift against very distant stars over the course of a year. This small shift is referred to as parallax and is measured in angular units: degrees, minutes, and seconds. One parsec is equivalent to the distance creating a parallax of one-arcsecond and is equivalent to 3.26 light-years or 30.9 trillion kilometers (19.2 trillion miles). The closest star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which lies 1.3 parsecs away.
2 years ago | [YT] | 2
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The Pistachio Nebula
This nebula had never been noted before. Newly discovered nebulas are usually angularly small and found by professionals using large telescopes. In contrast, the Pistachio Nebula was discovered by dedicated amateurs and, although faint, is nearly the size of the full Moon. In modern times, amateurs with even small telescopes can create long exposures over sky areas much larger than most professional telescopes can see. They can therefore discover both previously unknown areas of extended emission around known objects, as well as entirely unknown objects, like nebulas. The pictured Pistachio Nebula is shown in oxygen emission (blue) and hydrogen emission (red). The nature of the hot central star is currently unknown, and the nebula might be labeled a planetary nebula if it turns out to be a white dwarf star. The featured image is a composite of over 70 hours of exposure taken in early June under the dark skies of Namibia.
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Ringed Ice Giant Neptune
Ringed ice giant Neptune lies near the center of this sharp near-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The dim and distant world is the farthest planet from the Sun, about 30 times farther away than planet Earth. But in the stunning Webb view, the planet's dark and ghostly appearance is due to atmospheric methane that absorbs infrared light. High altitude clouds that reach above most of Neptune's absorbing methane easily stand out in the image though. Coated with frozen nitrogen, Neptune's largest moon Triton is brighter than Neptune in reflected sunlight, seen at the upper left sporting the Webb telescope's characteristic diffraction spikes. Including Triton, seven of Neptune's 14 known moons can be identified in the field of view. Neptune's faint rings are striking in this space-based planetary portrait. Details of the complex ring system are seen here for the first time since Neptune was visited by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in August 1989.
For image credit and copyright guidance, please visit the image website
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Northern Pluto
Gaze across the frozen canyons of northern Pluto in this contrast enhanced color scene. The image data used to construct it was acquired in July 2015 by the New Horizons spacecraft as it made the first reconnaissance flight through the remote Pluto system six billion kilometers from the Sun. Now known as Lowell Regio, the region was named for Percival Lowell, founder of the Lowell Observatory. Also famous for his speculation that there were canals on Mars, Lowell started the search that ultimately led to Pluto's discovery in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. In this frame Pluto's North Pole is above and left of center. The pale bluish floor of the broad canyon on the left is about 70 kilometers (45 miles) wide, running vertically toward the south. Higher elevations take on a yellowish hue. New Horizon's measurements were used to determine that in addition to nitrogen ice, methane ice is abundant across Lowell Regio. So far, Pluto is the only Solar System world named by an 11-year-old girl. @NASA #space
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Chandrayaan-3 Moon Landing Successful: India has created history as it became the first country to land on the South Pole of lunar surface. PM Modi congratulated Indians and space scientists for the achievement. ‘India will remember this day forever’ PM Modi said @isro.in #chandryann3 #softlanding #image
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Introducing Comet Nishimura
Will Comet Nishimura become visible to the unaided eye? Given the unpredictability of comets, no one can say for sure, but it currently seems like a good bet. The comet was discovered only ten days ago by Hideo Nishimura during 30-second exposures with a standard digital camera. Since then, C/2023 P1 Nishimura has increased in brightness and its path across the inner Solar System determined. As the comet dives toward the Sun, it will surely continue to intensify and possibly become a naked-eye object in early September. A problem is that the comet will also be angularly near the Sun, so it will only be possible to see it near sunset or sunrise. The comet will get so close to the Sun -- inside the orbit of planet Mercury -- that its nucleus may break up. Pictured, Comet Nishimura was imaged three days ago from June Lake, California, USA while sporting a green coma and a thin tail.
2 years ago | [YT] | 1
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The Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf
iss069e056939 (Aug. 14, 2023) --- The Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf of Oman with the Persian Gulf in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above. In the right foreground, is the Soyuz MS-23 crew ship docked to the Prichal docking module. At bottom left, is a portion of the Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter and one of its cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar arrays.
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Science theta
Arp 93: A Cosmic Embrace
Locked in a cosmic embrace, two large galaxies are merging at the center of this sharp telescopic field of view. The interacting system cataloged as Arp 93 is some 200 million light-years distant toward the constellation Aquarius in planet Earth's sky. Individually the galaxies are identified as NGC 7285 (right) and NGC 7284. Their bright cores are still separated by about 20,000 light-years or so, but a massive tidal stream, a result of their ongoing gravitational interaction, extends over 200,000 light-years toward the bottom of the frame. Interacting galaxies do look peculiar, but are now understood to be common in the Universe. In fact, closer to home, the large spiral Andromeda Galaxy is known to be approaching the Milky Way. Arp 93 may well present an analog of their distant future cosmic embrace.
2 years ago | [YT] | 2
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