#sofia observatory

[the-vast-overcast]

@polswiss feed them.

[aviationatrix]

Meeting SOFIA was one hell of an experience.

[everythingshouldbereality]

Mark your calendars as NASA to announce new discovery about Moon on Monday Image Source : @NASA This new discovery contributes to NASA's efforts to be taught concerning the Moon in assist of deep area exploration.

[penmeetspage]

The Dragon in Orion's Nebula - Sky & Telescope

NASA's SOFIA has captured a far-infrared view of the Orion Nebula that reveals, among other things, the striking illusion of a dragon at the nebula's core.

The Orion Nebula isn't uncharted territory — as the nearest massive stellar nursery, astronomers have studied it closely for years. Still, at 1,300 light-years away, this tumultuous terrain isn't exactly well-trodden either. The data cubes collected by the GREAT instrument give astronomers a fresh perspective on a familiar region, enabling new discoveries. Already, the image shown below has led to the discovery of a new filament not seen in any other images, says Schmelz.

The new data also offer a game of pareidolia, also known as the art of seeing shapes in clouds. “As we rotated the data cube, we got our first glimpse of the structure that we’ve nicknamed Orion’s Dragon,” says Rhys Taylor (Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences). “A few people have said it looks like a sea horse or a pterodactyl, but it looks like a dragon to me.”