Posts tagged space

An epilogue to the Space Shuttle program, in pictures The Space Shuttle Discovery took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning (bolted somewhat dramatically on top of a 747)  en route to its final home — the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. Click the picture above for a small slideshow, provided by the Guardian. Picture originally taken by Jonathan Ernst, Reuters.

An epilogue to the Space Shuttle program, in pictures

The Space Shuttle Discovery took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning (bolted somewhat dramatically on top of a 747)  en route to its final home — the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. Click the picture above for a small slideshow, provided by the Guardian.

Picture originally taken by Jonathan Ernst, Reuters.

New York Via.

New York

Via.

crookedindifference:

NASA Launches Comet-Hunting iPhone Game

Ever wanted to steer a robotic spacecraft toward a comet rendezvous in deep space? Now there’s an app for that.

NASA’s new free iPhone game Comet Quest puts players at the controls of the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, which is slated to arrive at the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.

Comet Quest, which NASA released on Feb. 29,  is meant to be fun, but it strives to teach above all, according to the game’s developers.

“Of course, since it is a NASA-sponsored app, education is its true raison d’être,” Diane Fisher, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told SPACE.com via email. Fisher is webmaster for The Space Place, a NASA website that aims to engage elementary-school students in science, technology and math.

Fish where the fish are, is what we say.

space.com

Aurora Borealis Taken from the International Space Station as it passed over western Canada. Photo by NASA via the LA Times.

Aurora Borealis

Taken from the International Space Station as it passed over western Canada. Photo by NASA via the LA Times.

Hubble! Via NASA: Most spiral galaxies in the Universe have a bar structure in their centre, and Hubble’s image of NGC 1073 offers a particularly clear view of one of these. Galaxies’ star-filled bars are thought to emerge as gravitational density waves funnel gas toward the galactic centre, supplying the material to create new stars. The transport of gas can also feed the supermassive black holes that lurk in the centres of almost every galaxy… …More intriguing still, three of the bright points of light in this image are neither foreground stars from the Milky Way, nor even distant stars in NGC 1073. In fact they are not stars at all. They are quasars, incredibly bright sources of light caused by matter heating up and falling into supermassive black holes in galaxies literally billions of light-years from us. The chance alignment through NGC 1073, and their incredible brightness, might make them look like they are part of the galaxy, but they are in fact some of the most distant objects observable in the Universe. Image: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1073, which is found in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). Via NASA. 

Hubble!

Via NASA:

Most spiral galaxies in the Universe have a bar structure in their centre, and Hubble’s image of NGC 1073 offers a particularly clear view of one of these. Galaxies’ star-filled bars are thought to emerge as gravitational density waves funnel gas toward the galactic centre, supplying the material to create new stars. The transport of gas can also feed the supermassive black holes that lurk in the centres of almost every galaxy…

…More intriguing still, three of the bright points of light in this image are neither foreground stars from the Milky Way, nor even distant stars in NGC 1073. In fact they are not stars at all. They are quasars, incredibly bright sources of light caused by matter heating up and falling into supermassive black holes in galaxies literally billions of light-years from us. The chance alignment through NGC 1073, and their incredible brightness, might make them look like they are part of the galaxy, but they are in fact some of the most distant objects observable in the Universe.

Image: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1073, which is found in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). Via NASA. 

Earth Via NASA: A ‘Blue Marble’ image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA’s most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed ‘Suomi NPP’ on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin. Suomi NPP is NASA’s next Earth-observing research satellite. It is the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth. Suomi NPP is carrying five instruments on board. The biggest and most important instrument is The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS. Image: Blue Marble 2012 via NASA/Flickr. Select to embiggen.

Earth

Via NASA:

A ‘Blue Marble’ image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA’s most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed ‘Suomi NPP’ on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.

Suomi NPP is NASA’s next Earth-observing research satellite. It is the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth.

Suomi NPP is carrying five instruments on board. The biggest and most important instrument is The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS.

Image: Blue Marble 2012 via NASA/Flickr. Select to embiggen.

The Morning Reminder: This is where we Live

Time lapse photos taken from the International Space Station from August to October 2011.

Edited by Michael König. Music by Jan Jelinek. Images by Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.

Fly Me to the Moon

Or around the Earth as the case may be.

Astronauts on the International Space Station circle the planet every two to three hours. In this time-lapse video, we see what they see. 

The minute-long video starts at night over the northern Pacific and ends at sunrise near Antarctica.

Via NASA.

The Earth and the Moon The NASA space probe JUNO is currently on a 445 million mile journey to explore Jupiter. Now a month into its mission and six million miles away, it’s taken a picture of the Earth and the moon. Feel lonely out there? As Ian O’Neill writes at Discovery: It’s when I see photos like this, everything instantly snaps into perspective. To paraphrase Sagan, everything we’ve ever known and loved exists on that small dot. Everything. Image: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The Earth and the Moon

The NASA space probe JUNO is currently on a 445 million mile journey to explore Jupiter. Now a month into its mission and six million miles away, it’s taken a picture of the Earth and the moon.

Feel lonely out there?

As Ian O’Neill writes at Discovery:

It’s when I see photos like this, everything instantly snaps into perspective. To paraphrase Sagan, everything we’ve ever known and loved exists on that small dot. Everything.

Image: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Neighbors! Astronomy Picture of the Day from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Explanation: Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, the star factory known as Messier 17 lies some 5,500 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius. At that distance, this degree wide field of view spans almost 100 light-years, courtesy of the European Southern Observatory’s new VLT Survey Telescope and OmegaCAM. The sharp, false color image includes both optical and infrared data, following faint details of the region’s gas and dust clouds against a backdrop of central Milky Way stars. Stellar winds and energetic light from hot, massive stars formed from M17’s stock of cosmic gas and dust have slowly carved away at the remaining interstellar material producing the cavernous appearance and undulating shapes. M17 is also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula.

Neighbors!

Astronomy Picture of the Day from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Explanation: Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, the star factory known as Messier 17 lies some 5,500 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius. At that distance, this degree wide field of view spans almost 100 light-years, courtesy of the European Southern Observatory’s new VLT Survey Telescope and OmegaCAM. The sharp, false color image includes both optical and infrared data, following faint details of the region’s gas and dust clouds against a backdrop of central Milky Way stars. Stellar winds and energetic light from hot, massive stars formed from M17’s stock of cosmic gas and dust have slowly carved away at the remaining interstellar material producing the cavernous appearance and undulating shapes. M17 is also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula.

File under: Visualization can teach us things we don’t know about. Via Power of Data Visualization: [The] above image looks like a giant potato, but it is actually our Earth. After just two years in orbit, European Space Agency’s GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite has gathered enough data to map Earth’s gravity with unrivalled precision. Scientists now have access to the most accurate model of the ‘geoid’ ever produced to further our understanding of how Earth works. Takeaway: we’re a mostly lumpy species living on a very lumpy planet.

File under: Visualization can teach us things we don’t know about.

Via Power of Data Visualization:

[The] above image looks like a giant potato, but it is actually our Earth. After just two years in orbit, European Space Agency’s GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite has gathered enough data to map Earth’s gravity with unrivalled precision. Scientists now have access to the most accurate model of the ‘geoid’ ever produced to further our understanding of how Earth works.

Takeaway: we’re a mostly lumpy species living on a very lumpy planet.