Space

cee134

Great Observatories Unique Views of the Milky Way



In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA's Great Observatories -- the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory -- have produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy. Each image shows the telescope's different wavelength view of the galactic center region, illustrating the unique science each observatory conducts.

In this spectacular image, observations using infrared light and X-ray light see through the obscuring dust and reveal the intense activity near the galactic core. Note that the center of the galaxy is located within the bright white region to the right of and just below the middle of the image. The entire image width covers about one-half a degree, about the same angular width as the full moon. Spitzer's infrared-light observations provide a detailed and spectacular view of the galactic center region [Figure 1 (top frame of poster)].

The swirling core of our galaxy harbors hundreds of thousands of stars that cannot be seen in visible light. These stars heat the nearby gas and dust. These dusty clouds glow in infrared light and reveal their often dramatic shapes. Some of these clouds harbor stellar nurseries that are forming new generations of stars. Like the downtown of a large city, the center of our galaxy is a crowded, active, and vibrant place. Although best known for its visible-light images, Hubble also observes over a limited range of infrared light [Figure 2 (middle frame of poster)].

The galactic center is marked by the bright patch in the lower right. Along the left side are large arcs of warm gas that have been heated by clusters of bright massive stars. In addition, Hubble uncovered many more massive stars across the region. Winds and radiation from these stars create the complex structures seen in the gas throughout the image.This sweeping panorama is one of the sharpest infrared pictures ever made of the galactic center region. X-rays detected by Chandra expose a wealth of exotic objects and high-energy features [Figure 3 (bottom frame of poster)].

In this image, pink represents lower energy X-rays and blue indicates higher energy. Hundreds of small dots show emission from material around black holes and other dense stellar objects. A supermassive black hole -- some four million times more massive than the Sun -- resides within the bright region in the lower right. The diffuse X-ray light comes from gas heated to millions of degrees by outflows from the supermassive black hole, winds from giant stars, and stellar explosions. This central region is the most energetic place in our galaxy.

cee134

Olympia Undae



Sand dunes cover this entire VIS image. The dunes are part of Olympia Undae, a huge dune field surrounding 1/4 of the northern polar cap. This image was collected during northern summer, and the dunes are frost free. Captured: 2018-01-17 12:12




This Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) "targeted image" shows a region of sand dunes surrounding the Martian north polar cap.

cee134

Two kinds of dramatic shadows play across the face of Saturn in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft from Dec. 6, 2007. The planet's rings cast dark bands across the cloud tops in the northern hemisphere. Near the pole, an elongated shadow can be seen from Saturn's moon Tethys, which appears as a bright sphere left of center.

Other icy moons make an appearance as well, including Dione (front right) and Enceladus (back right). A bright storm can be seen in Saturn's southern hemisphere at lower right. This natural color view is a mosaic of images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters.

The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 1 million miles (about 1.7 million kilometers) from Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017

Bullet_with_Butterfly_Wings

cee134 wrote: »

Two kinds of dramatic shadows play across the face of Saturn in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft from Dec. 6, 2007. The planet's rings cast dark bands across the cloud tops in the northern hemisphere. Near the pole, an elongated shadow can be seen from Saturn's moon Tethys, which appears as a bright sphere left of center.

Other icy moons make an appearance as well, including Dione (front right) and Enceladus (back right). A bright storm can be seen in Saturn's southern hemisphere at lower right. This natural color view is a mosaic of images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters.

The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 1 million miles (about 1.7 million kilometers) from Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017

Don't think I didn't notice this... Saturn is my ruling planet... magic

cee134

Distant galaxies has been smeared and twisted into odd shapes, arcs and streaks.

cee134

cee134

Orbital ATK Antares Rocket Lifts Off on Resupply Mission to the International Space Station



The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, launches from Pad-0A, Monday, May 21, 2018 at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Cygnus will deliver approximately 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the International Space Station and its crew.

cee134

The Sword of Orion



This image from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Orion nebula, our closest massive star-making factory, 1,450 light-years from Earth. The nebula is close enough to appear to the naked eye as a fuzzy star in the sword of the constellation.

cee134

Full Moon Over Newfoundland



The crew of the International Space Station snapped this image of the full moon on April 30, 2018, as the station orbited off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

cee134

Jupiter: A New Perspective



This extraordinary view of Jupiter was captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft on the outbound leg of its 12th close flyby of the gas giant planet. This new perspective of Jupiter from the south makes the Great Red Spot appear as though it is in northern territory.

This view is unique to Juno and demonstrates how different our view is when we step off the Earth and experience the true nature of our three-dimensional universe. Juno took the images used to produce this color-enhanced image on April 1 between 3:04 a.m. PDT (6:04 a.m. EDT) and 3:36 a.m. PDT (6:36 a.m. EDT).

At the time the images were taken, the spacecraft was between 10,768 miles (17,329 kilometers) to 42,849 miles (68,959 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a southern latitude spanning 34.01 to 71.43 degrees.

Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager. The view is a composite of several separate JunoCam images that were re-projected, blended, and healed.

cee134

Curiosity Successfully Drills "Duluth"



A close-up image of a 2-inch-deep hole produced using a new drilling technique for NASA's Curiosity rover. The hole is about 0.6 inches (1.6 centimeters) in diameter. This image was taken by Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Sol 2057.

It has been white balanced and contrast-enhanced. Curiosity drilled this hole in a target called "Duluth" on May 20, 2018. It was the first rock sample captured by the drill since October 2016. A mechanical issue took the drill offline in December 2016.

cee134

Cygnus Capture



(May 24, 2018) - The Orbital ATK space freighter is slowly maneuvered by the Canadarm2 robotic arm toward the Unity module for installation on the International Space Station to resupply the Expedition 55 crew.

cee134

Saturn's Rings.

Taken: 2006-02-07

cee134

Black Hole Bounty Captured in the Center of the Milky Way



Astronomers have discovered evidence for thousands of black holes located near the center of our Milky Way galaxy using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

cee134

Jovian Jet Stream



See a jet stream speeding through Jupiter's atmosphere in this new view taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft. The jet stream, called Jet N2, was captured along the dynamic northern temperate belts of the gas giant planet. It is the white stream visible from top left to bottom right in the image.

The color-enhanced image was taken at 10:34 p.m. PST on May 23 (1:34 a.m. EST on May 24), as Juno performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 3,516 miles (5,659 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a northern latitude of 32.9 degrees.

Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager.

The view is a composite of several separate JunoCam images that were re-projected, blended, and healed.

cee134

Dawn: On its Way to Low Orbit



On the way to its lowest-ever and final orbit, NASA's Dawn spacecraft is observing Ceres and returning new compositional data (infrared spectra) and images of the dwarf planet's surface, such as this dramatic image of Ceres' limb. This picture is one of the first images returned by Dawn in more than a year.

Dawn captured this view on May 16, 2018 from an altitude of about 270 miles (440 kilometers). The large crater near the horizon is about 22 miles (35 kilometers) in diameter. It is located at about 23 degrees north latitude, 350 degrees east longitude, not far from a series of tholi (small mountains) that include Kwanzaa Tholus.

The midsize crater in the foreground is located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the large crater. This rough landscape suggests these features are on top of ancient terrains. The Dawn spacecraft has returned many limb images of Ceres in the course of its mission.

These images offer complementary perspective to the images generally obtained by imaging the surface directly beneath the spacecraft. This example shows that Ceres' limb is relatively smooth despite the rough surface, because this large body is rounded by its own gravity.

cee134

Mighty Odysseus



The most visually striking feature on Saturn's icy moon Tethys is Odysseus crater. An enormous impact created the crater, which is about 280 miles (450 kilometers) across, with its ring of steep cliffs and the mountains that rise at its center.

Odysseus is on the leading hemisphere of Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across). In this image, north on Tethys is up.

This view is a composite of several images taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 17, 2015, at a distance of about 28,000 miles (44,500 kilometers) from Tethys.

The Cassini spacecraft ended its mission on Sept. 15, 2017

cee134

Asteroid 2018 LA



These are the discovery observations of asteroid 2018 LA from the Catalina Sky Survey, taken June 2, 2018.

About eight hours after these images were taken, the asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere (about 9:44 a.m. PDT, 12:44 p.m. EDT, 16:44 UTC, 6:44 p.m. local Botswana time), and disintegrated in the upper atmosphere near Botswana, Africa.

cee134

Patches of Snow on Mars



In early Martian summer, at the time NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) acquired this image, the dunes are almost free of their seasonal ice cover. Only pockets of ice protected in the shade most of the day remain. The North Pole of Mars is surrounded by a vast sea of sand dunes. In this dune field, the dunes are covered by a seasonal cap of dry ice in the winter.