James Holden

I'm Captain James Holden of the warship, Rocinante. Harm any of my crew and there won't be any system where you can hide. Try to take this ship, and I'll space you myself. That's if Amos doesn't shoot you first. (21+ RP blog for The Expanse TVU. Books are next. Penned by: thesexyidiot)

[reluctantcaptain]

______"I am nobody's savior."______

Penned by: Smoky @thesexyidiot 8+ years experience Indie canon divergent OC's welcome New player friendly Wiki ready Space Stuff!

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[space-pics]

Galaxy ESO 137-001 by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

[spacewonder19]

Bullet Pillars in Orion Nebula ©

[wonders-of-the-cosmos]

The California Nebula 

by Roger Hutchinson

[andromeda1023]

The Sun is not the quiet place it seems. It expels an unsteady stream of energetic electrons and protons known as the solar wind. These charged particles deform the Earth's magnetosphere, change paths, and collide with atoms in Earth's atmosphere, causing the generation of light in auroras like that visible in green in the image left. Earth itself is also geologically active and covered with volcanoes. For example, Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland, seen emitting hot gas in orange near the image center. Iceland is one of the most geologically active places on Earth. On the far right is the Svartsengi geothermal power plant which creates the famous human-made Blue Lagoon, shown emitting white gas plumes. The featured composition therefore highlights three different sky phenomena, including both natural and human-made phenomena.

A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.

[historysurvivalguide]

Tapestry of Blazing Starbirth

This image is one of the most photogenic examples of the many turbulent stellar nurseries the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed during its 30-year lifetime. The portrait features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020 which together form part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, approximately 163,000 light-years away.

Tapestry of Blazing Starbirth

Tapestry of Blazing Starbirth

[space-pics]

Galaxy Collision Causes Role Reversal (NASA, Chandra, 3/29/07) by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

[space-pics]

Hubble image of galaxy cluster MCS J0416.1-2403 by europeanspaceagency

[space-pics]

X-ray Binary Circinus X-1 (NASA, Chandra, 12/04/13) by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

[the-wolf-and-moon]

NGC 7293, Helix 

[galaxythreads1]

Exploring the Cosmos Together via NASA https://ift.tt/KuoRWly

[space-pics]

Hubble Views a Merging Galactic Trio by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

[projecthabu]

     Falcon 9 serial number 1021 has been to space twice. During her first flight on April 8, 2016, she launched over three tons of cargo to the International Space Station during the CRS-8 mission. 8 minutes and 35 seconds after liftoff, the entire aerospace community collectively held their breath as she became the first rocket to successfully land at sea on a ship. This was arguably the greatest milestone in rocketry since the development of the Space Shuttle, the world’s first reusable launch vehicle. You can read my article about 1021′s first flight by clicking here, or watch my video about it by clicking here.

     1021 would launch again just less than a year later on March 30, 2017, deploying the SES-10 communication satellite and proving Falcon 9′s capability as a reusable rocket (launch pictured above). This was yet another enormous milestone, but the pièce de résistance is soon to come. It is probable that within a year, we will see a Falcon 9 demonstrate the capability of launching twice within 24 hours. When that happens, the world will have its first rapidly reusable rocket. One step at a time, humans are becoming a spacefaring race.

[space-pics]

Cartwheel Galaxy by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

[the-wolf-and-moon]

IC 1805, Within the Heart

[space-pics]

Hubble Looks at Light and Dark in the Universe by NASA Goddard Photo and Video

[zespaceblog]

Is the Milky Way a Starburst Galaxy ?

Not all galaxies can create stars, many, particularly elliptical galaxies show no star formation at all, are deemed quenched of the gas that forms stars, while others seem almost on fire with massive amounts of star formation, and it's these latter galaxies, often spirals, that we term as Starburst galaxies.

We know star birth occurs in our galaxy actively, we can see it in nebula all around us, even in the small dwarf galaxies that orbit our own (see above N90 star forming region in the constellation of Tucan, 200,000 light years away in the Small Magellanic Clouds.

But while we can see the star birth occurring in galaxies external to our Milky Way, seeing it inside is a much harder proposition, to be able to judge how active is our galaxy compared to others ?

The original estimation was that 2 solar masses were created every year, which seems very small, but it's 2 million sun like stars every million years, which isn't so bad going (although many of them will weigh in 30-60, so strictly speaking, it's not 2 million stars, far less).

A new study at the University of Würzburg though has significantly upped this assumed number, they looked for decaying aluminum-26, an element created during the life of a star and blow outwards by the stars winds, then significantly increased upon supernova. The element then decays and causes gamma rays, which are very much easier to see through all the gas and dust that obscure huge areas of our own galaxy from our view.

What the team found was, that the number was more like 6 solar masses per year, making the galaxy 3 times more active that presumed.

Does this make the Milky Way a starburst galaxy ? well, no and nowhere near. Starburst galaxies typically achieve 100 solar masses per year, and are often the result of galaxy interactions, where huge quantities of gas are pumped into the galaxy from the intergalactic surroundings or a merging galaxy.

Still, if true, it would make our Milky Way one of the most active galaxies out of the 100 or so in our local group.

Active galaxies produce huge amounts of extra elements, and that metallicity is believed to contribute to different star outputs and the components that make up our own planets, after all, where do you think all the precious metals came from in the first place ? They were not formed by geology here on Earth, concentrated perhaps, but seeded billions of years ago in dust and gas that fell into the forming planet, stuff that was just floating about and got caught in the gravity of our forming star.