Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known
Founder: Joseph Barone
Contributors: crookedindifference, bumerangue, propagandery, rocketmagic, rostenbach
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Vitor/bumerangue: background image of my boyfriend’s Samsung mobile phone.
Martian landscapes gallery
Since 2006, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been orbiting Mars, currently circling approximately 300 km (187 mi) above the Martian surface. On board the MRO is HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, which has been photographing the planet for several years now at resolutions as fine as mere inches per pixel. Collected here is a group of images from HiRISE over the past few years, in either false color or grayscale, showing intricate details of landscapes both familiar and alien, from the surface of our neighboring planet, Mars.
APOD: NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble
Image Credit & Copyright: R Jay Gabany (Blackbird Obs.), Collaboration: David Martinez-Delgado (MPIA, IAC), et al.
Explanation: Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth’s sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It’s hard to overlook inthis colorful cosmic portrait, though. Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy sports characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. Remarkably, this deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in gigantic bubble-like shells. The shells are likely tidal debris, streams of stars torn from satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the distant past.
APOD: The Bubble and M52
Image Credit & Copyright: Lóránd Fényes
Explanation: To the eye, this cosmic composition nicely balances the Bubble Nebula at the lower right with open star cluster M52. The pair would be lopsided on other scales, though. Embedded in a complex of interstellar dust and gas and blown by the winds from a single, massive O-type star, the Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is a mere 10 light-years wide. On the other hand, M52 is a rich open cluster of around a thousand stars. The cluster is about 25 light-years across. Seen toward the northern boundary of Cassiopeia, distance estimates for the Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex are around 11,000 light-years, while star cluster M52 lies nearly 5,000 light-years away. The wide telescopic field of view spans about 1.5 degrees on the sky or three times the apparent size of the Full Moon.
The ISS crew can clearly see the border between India and Pakistan. Special surveillance lightning make the division between both countries look orange from space.
Source: NASA/Reuters
This image of Earth (on the left) and the moon (on the right) was taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on Aug. 26, 2011, when the spacecraft was about 6 million miles (9.66 million kilometers) away. It was taken by the spacecraft’s onboard camera, JunoCam. The solar-powered Juno spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Aug. 5 to begin a five-year journey to Jupiter.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The huge storm churning through the atmosphere in Saturn’s northern hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the planet in this true-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This picture, captured on Feb. 25, 2011, was taken about 12 weeks after the storm began, and the clouds by this time had formed a tail that wrapped around the planet. Some of the clouds moved south and got caught up in a current that flows to the east (to the right) relative to the storm head. This tail, which appears as slightly blue clouds south and west (left) of the storm head, can be seen encountering the storm head in this view. This storm is the largest, most intense storm observed on Saturn by NASA’s Voyager or Cassini spacecraft.
23 May 2010: Backdropped by Earth’s horizon and the blackness of space, the Japanese Kibo complex of the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 23 crew member while space shuttle Atlantis (STS-132) remains docked with the station.
Scientists stunned by surface of asteroid Vesta
The first close-up pictures of the massive asteroid Vesta reveal a northern hemisphere littered with craters — including a trio nicknamed “Snowman” — and a smoother southern half, researchers reported Monday.
Running along the asteroid’s equator are deep grooves — a surprise to scientists who did not expect to see such features.
Source: @spacefuture
Subtle color differences on Saturn’s moon Mimas are apparent in this false-color view of Herschel Crater captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during its closest-ever flyby of that moon. For more information about Mimas, visit http://solarsystem.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sat_Mimas
Composite of two images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft of Saturn’s moons Titan (left) and Dione (right).
Image credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Space Science Institute
For more information about Titan, click here: http://solarsystem.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sat_Titan and for more information about Dione, click here: http://solarsystem.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sat_Dione
This classic photograph of the Earth was taken on December 7, 1972. View of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew traveling toward the moon.
Around 0200 UT on July 30, 2011 a fairly powerful, but brief M9-class solar flare erupted from active region 1261. It has been the strongest flare in the last few weeks.
Credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory.
