NASA

2020-01-17 18:54:28 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Apollo 17: A Stereo View from Lunar Orbit" Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this awesome stereo view of another world. The scene was recorded by Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan on December 11, 1972, one orbit before descending to land on the Moon. The stereo anaglyph was assembled from two photographs (AS17-147-22465, AS17-147-22466) captured from his vantage point on board the Lunar Module Challenger as he and Dr. Harrison Schmitt flew over Apollo 17's landing site in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. The broad, sunlit face of the mountain dubbed South Massif rises near the center of the frame, above the dark floor of Taurus-Littrow to its left. Beyond the mountains, toward the lunar limb, lies the Moon's Mare Serenitatis. Piloted by Ron Evans, the Command Module America is visible in orbit in the foreground against the South Massif's peak. [January 17, 2020] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2001/22466-22467anaVantuyne900.jpg Open / Comment

2020-01-14 13:28:08 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Evidence of an Active Volcano on Venus " Are volcanoes still active on Venus? More volcanoes are known on Venus than Earth, but when Venusian volcanoes last erupted is not directly known. Evidence bolstering very recent volcanism on Venus has recently been uncovered, though, right here on Earth. Lab results showed that images of surface lava would become dim in the infrared in only months in the dense Venusian atmosphere, a dimming not seen in ESA's Venus Express images. Venus Express entered orbit around Venus in 2006 and remained in contact with Earth until 2014. Therefore, the infrared glow (shown in false-color red) recorded by Venus Express for Idunn Mons and featured here on a NASA Magellan image indicates that this volcano erupted very recently -- and is still active today. Understanding the volcanics of Venus might lead to insight about the volcanics on Earth, as well as elsewhere in our Solar System. [January 14, 2020] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2001/IdunnMons_VenusExpress_1080.jpg Open / Comment

2020-01-09 06:43:12 #NewPhoto from #Nasa: "What Happens When Planets Collide" This artist’s concept illustrates a catastrophic collision between two rocky exoplanets, turning both into dusty debris. [January 08, 2020] http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/bd20307_fnl_lynettecook_0.jpg Open / Comment

2020-01-07 21:25:32 #NewPhoto from #Nasa: "TESS Finds First Earth-Size Planet in the Habitable Zone" TOI 700 d is the first Earth-size habitable-zone planet discovered by TESS, NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. [January 07, 2020] http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia23408.jpg Open / Comment

2020-01-06 16:48:58 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Tumultuous Clouds of Jupiter " Some cloud patterns on Jupiter are quite complex. The featured tumultuous clouds were captured in May by NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft currently orbiting our Solar System's largest planet. The image was taken when Juno was only about 15,000 kilometers over Jupiter's cloud tops, so close that less than half of the giant planet is visible. The rough white clouds on the far right are high altitude clouds known as pop-up clouds. Juno's mission, now extended into 2021, is to study Jupiter in new ways. Among many other things, Juno has been measuring Jupiter's gravitational field, finding surprising evidence that Jupiter may be mostly a liquid. [January 06, 2020] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2001/JupiterClouds_JunoGill_960.jpg Open / Comment

2020-01-03 22:07:27 #NewPhoto from #Nasa: "Hubble Sights Galaxy’s Celestial Sequins" This smattering of celestial sequins is a spiral galaxy named NGC 4455, located in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). This might sound like an odd name for a constellation — and in fact it is somewhat unusual. It’s the only modern constellation named in honor of a real person from history: Queen Berenice II of Egypt. [January 03, 2020] http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/potw1952a.jpg Open / Comment

2020-01-03 08:14:58 #NewPhoto from #Nasa: "Glittering Lights of Earth As Seen From the Space Station" Stars glitter in the night sky above the Earth's atmospheric glow. [January 02, 2020] http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss061e110462_large.jpg Open / Comment

2019-12-29 09:13:57 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Cassini Spacecraft Crosses Saturns Ring Plane " If this is Saturn, where are the rings? When Saturn's "appendages" disappeared in 1612, Galileo did not understand why. Later that century, it became understood that Saturn's unusual protrusions were rings and that when the Earth crosses the ring plane, the edge-on rings will appear to disappear. This is because Saturn's rings are confined to a plane many times thinner, in proportion, than a razor blade. In modern times, the robot Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn frequently crossed Saturn's ring plane during its mission to Saturn, from 2004 to 2017. A series of plane crossing images from 2005 February was dug out of the vast online Cassini raw image archive by interested Spanish amateur Fernando Garcia Navarro. Pictured here, digitally cropped and set in representative colors, is the striking result. Saturn's thin ring plane appears in blue, bands and clouds in Saturn's upper atmosphere appear in gold. Details of Saturn's rings can be seen in the high dark shadows across the top of this image, taken back in 2005. The moons Dione and Enceladus appear as bumps in the rings. [December 29, 2019] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/1912/saturnplane_cassini_1004.jpg Open / Comment

2019-12-26 23:30:55 #NewPhoto from #Nasa: "Morocco's Anti-Atlas Mountains" The Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco formed as a result of the collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates about 80 million years ago. [December 26, 2019] http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia23533.jpg Open / Comment

2019-12-08 10:03:17 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Geminid Meteors over Chile " Are meteors streaming out from a point in the sky? Yes, in a way. When the Earth crosses a stream of Sun-orbiting meteors, these meteors appear to come from the direction of the stream -- with the directional point called the radiant.  An example occurs every mid-December for the Geminids meteor shower, as apparent in the featured image.  Recorded near the shower's peak in 2013, the featured skyscape captures Gemini's shooting stars in a four-hour composite from the dark skies of the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. In the foreground the 2.5-meter du Pont Telescope is visible as well as the 1-meter SWOPE telescope. The skies beyond the meteors are highlighted by Jupiter, seen as the bright spot near the image center, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, seen vertically on the image left, and the pinkish Orion Nebula on the far left. Dust swept up from the orbit of active asteroid 3200 Phaethon, Gemini's meteors enter the atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second. The 2019 Geminid meteor shower peaks again this coming weekend. [December 08, 2019] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/1912/geminids2013_beletsky_960.jpg Open / Comment