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  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet Pons-Brooks' Swirling Coma

    03/18/2024 2:31:35 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 9 replies
    NASA ^ | 18 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Jan Erik Vallestad
    Explanation: A bright comet will be visible during next month's total solar eclipse. This very unusual coincidence occurs because Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks's return to the inner Solar System places it by chance only 25 degrees away from the Sun during Earth's April 8 total solar eclipse. Currently the comet is just on the edge of visibility to the unaided eye, best visible with binoculars in the early evening sky toward the constellation of the Fish (Pisces). Comet Pons-Brooks, though, is putting on quite a show for deep camera images even now. The featured image is a composite of three very specific...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - NGC 7714: Starburst after Galaxy Collision

    03/17/2024 2:01:58 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 17 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing & Copyright: Rudy Pohl
    Explanation: Is this galaxy jumping through a giant ring of stars? Probably not. Although the precise dynamics behind the featured image is yet unclear, what is clear is that the pictured galaxy, NGC 7714, has been stretched and distorted by a recent collision with a neighboring galaxy. This smaller neighbor, NGC 7715, situated off to the left of the frame, is thought to have charged right through NGC 7714. Observations indicate that the golden ring pictured is composed of millions of older Sun-like stars that are likely co-moving with the interior bluer stars. In contrast, the bright center of NGC...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - ELT and the Milky Way

    03/16/2024 12:04:19 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 13 replies
    NASA ^ | 16 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & License: European Southern Observatory - Courtesy: Jens Scheidtmann
    Explanation: The southern winter Milky Way sprawls across this night skyscape. Looking due south, the webcam view was recorded near local midnight on March 11 in dry, dark skies over the central Chilean Atacama desert. Seen below the graceful arc of diffuse starlight are satellite galaxies of the mighty Milky Way, also known as the Large and Small Magellanic clouds. In the foreground is the site of the European Southern Observatory's 40-metre-class Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Under construction at the 3000 metre summit of Cerro Armazones, the ELT is on track to become planet Earth's biggest Eye on the Sky.
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Portrait of NGC 1055

    03/15/2024 12:14:16 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 12 replies
    NASA ^ | 15 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Dave Doctor
    Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1055 is a dominant member of a small galaxy group a mere 60 million light-years away toward the aquatically intimidating constellation Cetus. Seen edge-on, the island universe spans over 100,000 light-years, a little larger than our own Milky Way galaxy. The colorful, spiky stars decorating this cosmic portrait of NGC 1055 are in the foreground, well within the Milky Way. But the telltale pinkish star forming regions are scattered through winding dust lanes along the distant galaxy's thin disk. With a smattering of even more distant background galaxies, the deep image also reveals a...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Moon Pi and Mountain Shadow

    03/14/2024 12:20:10 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 8 replies
    NASA ^ | 14 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Lopez (El Cielo de Canarias)
    Explanation: What phase of the Moon is 3.14 radians from the Sun? The Full Moon, of course. Even though the Moon might look full for several days, the Moon is truly at its full phase when it is Pi radians (aka 180 degrees) from the Sun in ecliptic longitude. That's opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. Rising as the Sun set on March 9, 2020, only an hour or so after the moment of its full phase, this orange tinted and slightly flattened Moon still looked full. It was photographed opposite the setting Sun from Teide National Park on...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Seagull Nebula

    03/13/2024 1:50:00 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 6 replies
    NASA ^ | 13 Mar, 2024 | Credit & Copyright: Gianni Lacroce
    Explanation: A broad expanse of glowing gas and dust presents a bird-like visage to astronomers from planet Earth, suggesting its popular moniker: the Seagull Nebula. This portrait of the cosmic bird covers a 2.5-degree wide swath across the plane of the Milky Way, near the direction of Sirius, alpha star of the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major). Of course, the region includes objects with other catalog designations: notably NGC 2327, a compact, dusty emission and reflection nebula with an embedded massive star that forms the bird's head. Likely part of a larger shell structure swept up by successive...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - A Galaxy-Shaped Rocket Exhaust Spiral

    03/12/2024 12:20:09 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 3 replies
    NASA ^ | 12 Mar, 2024 | Credit & Copyright: Seung Hye Yang
    Explanation: What's that over the horizon? What may look like a strangely nearby galaxy is actually a normal rocket's exhaust plume -- but unusually backlit. Although the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA, its burned propellant was visible over a much wider area, with the featured photograph being taken from Akureyri, Iceland. The huge spaceship was lifted off a week ago, and the resulting spectacle was captured soon afterward with a single 10-second smartphone exposure, before it quickly dissipated. Like noctilucent clouds, the plume's brightness is caused by the Twilight Effect, where...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - A Full Plankton Moon

    03/11/2024 12:30:39 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 17 replies
    NASA ^ | 11 Mar, 2024 | Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava
    Explanation: What glows in the night? This night featured a combination of usual and unusual glows. Perhaps the most usual glow was from the Moon, a potentially familiar object. The full Moon's nearly vertical descent results from the observer being near Earth's equator. As the Moon sets, air and aerosols in Earth's atmosphere preferentially scatter out blue light, making the Sun-reflecting satellite appear reddish when near the horizon. Perhaps the most unusual glow was from the bioluminescent plankton, likely less familiar objects. These microscopic creatures glow blue, it is thought, primarily to surprise and deter predators. In this case, the...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - A Total Eclipse at the End of the World

    03/10/2024 1:10:13 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 10 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Fred Bruenjes (moonglow.net)
    Explanation: Would you go to the end of the world to see a total eclipse of the Sun? If you did, would you be surprised to find someone else there already? In 2003, the Sun, the Moon, Antarctica, and two photographers all lined up in Antarctica during an unusual total solar eclipse. Even given the extreme location, a group of enthusiastic eclipse chasers ventured near the bottom of the world to experience the surreal momentary disappearance of the Sun behind the Moon. One of the treasures collected was the featured picture -- a composite of four separate images digitally combined...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet Pons-Brooks in Northern Spring

    03/09/2024 12:25:15 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 10 replies
    NASA ^ | 9 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava
    Explanation: As spring approaches for northern skygazers, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is growing brighter. Currently visible with small telescopes and binoculars, the Halley-type comet could reach naked eye visibility in the coming weeks. Seen despite a foggy atmosphere, the comet's green coma and long tail hover near the horizon in this well-composed deep night skyscape from Revuca, Slovakia recorded on March 5. In the sky above the comet, the Andromeda (right) and Triangulum galaxies flank bright star Mirach, beta star of the constellation Andromeda. The two spiral galaxies are members of our local galaxy group and over 2.5 million light-years distant. Comet...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Tarantula Zone

    03/08/2024 1:20:14 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 5 replies
    NASA ^ | 8 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Processing - Robert Gendler, Roberto Colombari Data - Hubble Tarantula Tre
    Explanation: The Tarantula Nebula, also known as 30 Doradus, is more than a thousand light-years in diameter, a giant star forming region within nearby satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud. About 180 thousand light-years away, it's the largest, most violent star forming region known in the whole Local Group of galaxies. The cosmic arachnid sprawls across this magnificent view, an assembly of image data from large space- and ground-based telescopes. Within the Tarantula (NGC 2070), intense radiation, stellar winds, and supernova shocks from the central young cluster of massive stars cataloged as R136 energize the nebular glow and shape the...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Crew-8 Nebula

    03/07/2024 12:38:19 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 7 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Seeley
    Explanation: Not the James Webb Space Telescope's latest view of a distant galactic nebula, this cloud of gas and dust dazzled spacecoast skygazers on March 3. The telephoto snapshot was taken minutes after the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket on the SpaceX Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station. It captures plumes and exhaust from the separated first and second stages, a drifting Rorschach pattern in dark evening skies. The bright spot near bottom center within the stunning terrestrial nebulosity is the second stage engine firing to carry 4 humans to space in the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour. In...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - M102: Edge-on Disk Galaxy

    03/06/2024 12:38:22 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 6 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: Ehsan Ebahimian
    Explanation: What kind of celestial object is this? A relatively normal galaxy -- but seen from its edge. Many disk galaxies are actually just as thin as NGC 5866, the Spindle galaxy, pictured here, but are not seen edge-on from our vantage point. A perhaps more familiar galaxy seen edge-on is our own Milky Way galaxy. Also cataloged as M102, the Spindle galaxy has numerous and complex dust lanes appearing dark and red, while many of the bright stars in the disk give it a more blue underlying hue. The blue disk of young stars can be seen in this...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - NGC 2170: Angel Nebula Abstract Art

    03/05/2024 11:52:14 AM PST · by MtnClimber · 8 replies
    NASA ^ | 5 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: David Moulton
    Explanation: Is this a painting or a photograph? In this celestial abstract art composed with a cosmic brush, dusty nebula NGC 2170, also known as the Angel Nebula, shines just above the image center. Reflecting the light of nearby hot stars, NGC 2170 is joined by other bluish reflection nebulae, a red emission region, many dark absorption nebulae, and a backdrop of colorful stars. Like the common household items that abstract painters often choose for their subjects, the clouds of gas, dust, and hot stars featured here are also commonly found in a setting like this one -- a massive,...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Light Pillars Over Inner Mongolia

    03/04/2024 1:34:40 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 10 replies
    NASA ^ | 4 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: N. D. Liao
    Explanation: What's happening across that field? Pictured here are not auroras but nearby light pillars, a phenomenon typically much closer. In most places on Earth, a lucky viewer can see a Sun pillar, a column of light appearing to extend up from the Sun caused by flat fluttering ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere. Usually, these ice crystals evaporate before reaching the ground. During freezing temperatures, however, flat fluttering ice crystals may form near the ground in a form of light snow sometimes known as a crystal fog. These ice crystals may then reflect ground lights in columns not...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - A Total Solar Eclipse Close-Up in Real Time

    03/03/2024 12:08:37 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 3 Mar, 2024 | Video Credit & Copyright: Jun Ho Oh (KAIST, HuboLab); Music: Flowing Air by Mattia Vlad Morleo
    Explanation: How would you feel if the Sun disappeared? Many eclipse watchers across the USA surprised themselves in 2017 with the awe that they felt and the exclamations that they made as the Sun momentarily disappeared behind the Moon. Perhaps expecting just a brief moment of dusk, the spectacle of unusually rapid darkness, breathtakingly bright glowing beads around the Moon's edge, shockingly pink solar prominences, and a strangely detailed corona stretching across the sky caught many a curmudgeon by surprise. Many of these attributes were captured in the featured real-time, three-minute video of 2017's total solar eclipse. The video frames...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Odysseus on the Moon

    03/02/2024 2:06:50 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 16 replies
    NASA ^ | 2 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit: Intuitive Machines
    Explanation: Methalox rocket engine firing, Odysseus' landing legs absorb first contact with the lunar surface in this wide-angle snapshot from a camera on board the robotic Intuitive Machines Nova-C moon lander. Following the landing on February 22, broken landing legs, visible in the image, ultimately left the lander at rest but tilted. Odysseus' gentle lean into a sloping lunar surface preserved the phone booth-sized lander's ability to operate, collect solar power, and return images and data to Earth. Its exact landing site in the Moon's far south polar region was imaged by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Donated by NASA, the...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Odysseus and The Dish

    03/01/2024 2:24:35 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 11 replies
    NASA ^ | 1 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: John Sarkissian (ATNF Parkes Radio Observatory)
    Explanation: Murriyang, the CSIRO’s Parkes Radio Telescope, points toward a nearly Full Moon in this image from New South Wales, Australia, planet Earth. Bathed in moonlight, the 64 meter dish is receiving weak radio signals from Odysseus, following the robotic lander's February 22 touch down some 300 kilometers north of the Moon's south pole. The landing of Odysseus represents the first U.S. landing on the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Odysseus' tilted orientation on the lunar surface prevents its high-gain antenna from pointing toward Earth. But the sensitivity of the large, steerable Parkes dish significantly improved the...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Julius Caesar and Leap Days

    02/29/2024 12:43:11 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 8 replies
    NASA ^ | 29 Feb, 2024 | Image Credit & License: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Wikimedia
    Explanation: In 46 BC Julius Caesar reformed the calendar system. Based on advice by astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria, the Julian calendar included one leap day every four years to account for the fact that an Earth year is slightly more than 365 days long. In modern terms, the time it takes for the planet to orbit the Sun once is 365.24219 mean solar days. So if calendar years contained exactly 365 days they would drift from the Earth's year by about 1 day every 4 years and eventually July (named for Julius Caesar himself) would occur during the northern hemisphere...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Shades of Night

    02/28/2024 12:48:43 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 9 replies
    NASA ^ | 28 Feb, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Dario Giannobile
    Explanation: How does the sky turn dark at night? In stages, and with different characteristic colors rising from the horizon. The featured image shows, left to right, increasingly late twilight times after sunset in 20 different vertical bands. The picture was taken last month in Syracuse, Sicily, Italy, in the direction opposite the Sun. On the far left is the pre-sunset upper sky. Toward the right, prominent bands include the Belt of Venus, the Blue Band, the Horizon Band, and the Red Band. As the dark shadow of the Earth rises, the colors in these bands are caused by direct...