viewing space

Showing the marvels of our planet and universe in a visual way

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Gran Nebula de Orion (M42) by Gustavo Naharro

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Rho Ophiochus cloud complex by Gustavo Naharro

At an estimated distance of about 131 parsecs (427 light-years), this cloud is one of the closest star-forming regions to the Solar System.

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Andromeda Galaxy III by Gustavo Naharro

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Pictures from NASA’s ISS astronaut Scott Kelly’s Instagram

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We Found the Building Blocks of Life on a Comet

‘Last week, a slew of scientific papers told the story of comet lander Philae’s bumpy touchdown, comet 67P’s surprisingly fluffy surface, and — most exciting — the discovery of life’s building blocks there. We haven’t found life. But we may have found part of life’s origin story, buried on this icy rock.’

Continue reading on Gizmodo.com

[Story by Maddie Stone for Gizmodo. Photograph: ESA]

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A Magical View of Saturn's Ring, Side-On

Mimas (right) and Dione (left) appear to be staring up at a giant Saturn looming in the background. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 27, 2015 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 728 nanometers.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. 

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Whispers Hawaii by Jae Youn Ryu

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Space Station Lunar Transit

The International Space Station, with a crew of six onboard, is seen in silhouette as it transits the moon at roughly five miles per second, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015, Woodford, VA.

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From a Million Miles Away, NASA Camera Shows Moon Crossing Face of Earth. The ‘dark side’ of the moon is lit by the sun.

Image of Earth and its moon taken by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite.

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NASA Photo of the Day: July 29th 2015: Africa and Europe from a Million Miles Away

Image of Earth taken by a NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (SDCOVR) satellite.

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New Horizons image of Jupiter and Io

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[viewingspace-blog]

What we might expect to find on Pluto

Continue reading on io9

[Story and image by Ron Miller for io9]

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Pluto-bound probe faces its toughest task: finding Pluto

‘Some 4.7 billion kilometres from Earth, the New Horizons spacecraft is heading for a historic rendezvous with Pluto. To achieve this, it will need to hit a very small target: an imaginary rectangle in space measuring just 100 by 150 kilometres.

Mission navigators need to put New Horizons precisely in that area to ensure that the spacecraft can make all planned science observations during its 14 July fly-by of Pluto — the first ever of that distant dwarf planet.

For now, the spacecraft is on target. But getting to Pluto is one of the hardest tasks in interplanetary navigation, and crucial decisions will be made in the next week and a half.’

Continue reading on Nature

[Story by Alexandra Witze for Nature. Illustration:NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Steve Gribben]

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Cassini Spots Three Crescent Moons Of Saturn

The three moons shown here — Titan (3,200 miles or 5,150 kilometers across), Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across), and Rhea (949 miles or 1,527 kilometers across) — show marked contrasts.

[Story by Robbie Gonzalez for io9]

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NASA Image of the Day: Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees M7.9-Class Solar Flare

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, an M7.9-class, peaking at 4:16 a.m. EDT on June 25, 2015. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event.

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This Freaky Exoplanet Features a Massive Comet-like Tail

Astronomers have spotted a Neptune-sized planet with a rather unexpected feature—a comet-like tail that trails for millions of miles. Nothing quite like it has ever been seen before.

The exoplanet, GJ 436b, is located approximately 33.1 light-years away and in orbit around the red dwarf,Gliese 436. At 2.5% the luminosity of our Sun, this star cannot be seen from Earth, but its x-rays are causing a very strange phenomenon on GJ 436b—a giant comet-like cloud of hydrogen that’s bleeding out into space.

Continue reading on io9

[Story by George Dvorsky for io9. Illustration by Mark Garlick/University of Warwick]

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New NASA Tool Helps You Imagine a Day on Pluto

‘Pluto is billions of miles away, and it took NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft nine years to get close. None of us will ever stand on the dwarf planet’s distance surface, but now, there’s a new NASA tool that’s bringing a little bit of Pluto back to the Blue Marble.‘

Continue reading on Gizmodo.com

[Story: Gizmodo / Maddie Stone. Photo: NASA / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker.]