Astronomical Considerations

CURRENT MOONmoon phase

[ohscience-blog]

It takes 8 minutes and 17 seconds for light to travel from the Sun’s surface to the Earth.

[astronomicalconsiderations]

Chandra X-Ray telescope found evidence of a planet being shredded to pieces as it came too close to a white dwarf. 

[tessladapanda]

Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660 Image Credit & Copyright: Stephen Leshin

[spacettf]

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A first attempt to a nightscape pano, 14 RAWs

[astronomicalconsiderations]

More than four centuries after Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe first observed the supernova that bears his name, the supernova remnant it created is now a bright source of X-rays. The supersonic expansion of the exploded star produced a shock wave moving outward into the surrounding interstellar gas, and another, reverse shock wave moving back into the expanding stellar debris. This Chandra image of Tycho reveals the dynamics of the explosion in exquisite detail. The outer shock has produced a rapidly moving shell of extremely high-energy electrons (blue), and the reverse shock has heated the expanding debris to millions of degrees (red and green). There is evidence from the Chandra data that these shock waves may be responsible for some of the cosmic rays – ultra-energetic particles – that pervade the Galaxy and constantly bombard the Earth.

[astronomicalconsiderations]

What's that rising from the clouds? The space shuttle. Sometimes, if you looked out the window of an airplane at just the right place and time, you could have seen something very unusual -- a space shuttle launching to orbit. Images of the rising shuttle and its plume became widely circulated over the web shortly after Endeavour's final launch in 2011 May. The above image was taken from a shuttle training aircraft by NASA and is not copyrighted. Taken well above the clouds, the image can be matched with similar images of the same shuttle plume taken below the clouds. Hot glowing gasses expelled by the engines are visible near the rising shuttle, as well as a long smoke plume. A shadow of the plume appears on the cloud deck, indicating the direction of the Sun. The US Space Shuttle program concluded in 2011, and Endeavour can now be visited at the California Science Center.

[spacettf]

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M78 and barnard's loop dec 2014, jan/feb 2015 sierra remote observatories, california FSQ-106 on paramount ME 39x900 L 15x900 R 13x900 G 11x800 B processed in pixinsight 1.8

[astronomicalconsiderations]

Coastal Brazil, Atlantic Ocean, West Africa, and Antarctica, looking west, as seen from the earth-orbital Apollo 4 (Spacecraft 017/Saturn 501) unmanned space mission. This picture was taken when the Spacecraft 017 and the Saturn S-IVB (third) stage was orbiting the earth at an altitude of 9,544 nautical miles.

[astronomicalconsiderations]

What could cause the center of M94 to be so bright? Spiral galaxy M94 has a ring of newly formed stars surrounding its nucleus, giving it not only an unusual appearance but also a strong interior glow. Aleading progenitor hypothesis holds that an elongated knot of stars known as a bar rotates in M94 and has generated a burst of star formation in the inner ring. Recent observations have revealed the outer, fainter ring is not closed and relatively complex. M94, pictured here spans about 30,000 light years, lies about 15 million light years away, and can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici).

[kny111]

GALEX presents The Andromeda Galaxy

A mere 2.5 million light-years away, the Andromeda Galaxy really is just next door as large galaxy’s go.

So close, and spanning some 260,000 light-years, it took 11 different image fields from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite’s telescope to produce this gorgeous portrait of the spiral galaxy in ultraviolet light.

While its spiral arms stand out in visible light images of Andromeda (also known as M31), the arms look more like rings in the GALEX ultraviolet view, dominated by hot, young, massive stars.

As sites of intense star formation, the rings have been interpreted has evidence Andromeda collided with its smaller neighboring elliptical galaxy M32 more than 200 million years ago. The large Andromeda galaxy and our own Milky Way are the dominant members of the local galaxy group.

[astronomicalconsiderations]

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) images the solar atmosphere in multiple wavelengths to link changes in the surface to interior changes. Its data includes images of the sun in 10 wavelengths every 10 seconds. When AIA images are sharpened a bit, such as this AIA 171Å channel image, the magnetic field can be readily visualized through the bright, thin strands that are called "coronal loops". Loops are shown here in a blended overlay with the magnetic field as measured with SDO's Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager underneath. Blue and yellow represent the opposite polarities of the magnetic field. The combined images were taken on Oct. 24, 2014, at 23:50:37 UT.

[just--space]

SN 1987A

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[space-pictures]

Hubble at 25

Credits: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI), E.J. Schreier (STScI), C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University), M. Meixner and P. McCullough (STScI)  D. Lennon and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI), J. Anderson, S. E. de Mink, R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and N. Walborn (STScI), N. Bastian (Excellence Cluster, Munich), L. Bedin (INAF, Padua), E. Bressert (ESO), P. Crowther (University of Sheffield), A. de Koter (University of Amsterdam), C. Evans (UKATC/STFC, Edinburgh), A. Herrero (IAC, Tenerife), N. Langer (AifA, Bonn), I. Platais (JHU), and H. Sana (University of Amsterdam)

[just--space]

Picture of the longest Solar Eclipse we observed so far. It lasted up to six minutes and 39 seconds, a duration that will not be surpassed until 2132.

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[skunkbear]

Here’s the orbital period of our solar system’s 8 major planets (how long it takes each to travel around the sun). Their size is to scale and their speed is accurate relative to Earth’s. The repetition of each GIF is proportional to their orbital period. Mercury takes less than 3 months to zoom around Sol, Neptune takes nearly 165 years.  

[just--space]

Appearing like a winged creature poised on a pedestal, this object is actually a billowing tower of cold gas and dust rising from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula. The soaring tower is 9.5 light-years high, about twice the distance from our Sun to the next nearest star

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[astronomicalconsiderations]

The size of this is unfathomable.

[just--space]

Franconia Notch, NH Taken by Jon Secord

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