APOD

[sfuentes]

Wow. Those pictures are mystifying. Cool.

 

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0501/machholzPleiades_seip_c80.jpg

 

Explanation: Sweeping northward in planet Earth's sky, comet Machholz extended its long ion tail with the Pleiades star cluster in the background on January 7th. This stunning view, recorded with a telephoto lens in skies over Oberjoch, Bavaria, Germany, emphasizes faint, complex tail structures and the scene's lovely blue and green colors. Merging with the blue dust-reflected starlight of the Pleiades, colors in the comet's ion tail and greenish coma are produced as gas molecules fluoresce in sunlight. Reflecting the sunlight, dust from comet Machholz trails along the comet's orbit and forms the whitish tail jutting down and toward the right. While the visible coma spans about 500,000 kilometers, the nucleus of the comet, likely only a few kilometers across, lies hidden within. Comet tails can extend many millions of kilometers from the nucleus, but appear substantially shortened because of perspective.

[Phoenix]

I saw that one with my own eyes.... it is a special kind of beauty.

[Phoenix]

Is that visible in the US too, maybe a stupid question, but...?

 

[rickyrob]

Here's one from the Hubble Site. I have this pic in one of my books:

 

Gravity really does bend light.

This picture shows an image of a galaxy (the bluish halos around the outside) that exists behind the star cluster in the middle of the picture. The gravitaional effect of the star cluster (which would normally hide the galaxy in question) has bent the light around it, so we see this halo effect.

 

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/showcase/exotica/graphics/e5_l.jpg

[Phoenix]

QUOTE (rickyrob @ Jan 12 2005, 08:03 AM)

Here's one from the Hubble Site. I have this pic in one of my books: Gravity really does bend light. This picture shows an image of a galaxy (the bluish halos around the outside) that exists behind the star cluster in the middle of the picture. The gravitaional effect of the star cluster (which would normally hide the galaxy in question) has bent the light around it, so we see this halo effect.

I guess this is the best image to discribe and show the effect of Gravity Lenses.

Good one.

Edited January 12, 2005 by Phoenix

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0501/ngc1300_hst_c30g90.jpg

 

Explanation: Big, beautiful barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 lies some 70 million light-years away on the banks of the constellation Eridanus. This Hubble Space Telescope composite view of the gorgeous island universe was released at this week's meeting of the American Astronomical Society as one of the largest Hubble images ever made of a complete galaxy. NGC 1300 spans over 100,000 light-years and the Hubble image reveals striking details of the galaxy's dominant central bar and majestic spiral arms. In fact, on close inspection the nucleus of this classic barred spiral itself shows a remarkable region of spiral structure about 3,300 light-years across. Unlike other spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, NGC 1300 is not presently known to have a massive central black hole.

[Phoenix]

[rickyrob]

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0501/trifid_spitzer_rc52.jpg

 

Explanation: The Trifid Nebula, aka M20, is easy to find with a small telescope, a well known stop in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. But where visible light pictures show the nebula divided into three parts by dark, obscuring dust lanes, this penetrating infrared image reveals filaments of luminous gas and newborn stars. The spectacular false-color view is courtesy of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers have used the Spitzer infrared image data to count newborn and embryonic stars which otherwise can lie hidden in the natal dust and glowing clouds of this intriguing stellar nursery. As seen here, the Trifid is about 30 light-years across and lies only 5,500 light-years away.

[rickyrob]

Cool photos RR

 

Here's a diagram explaining what happens at a black hole (I've never heard of this one though ) Perhaps the 'R' stands for Rocinante??

 

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2001/03/images/a/formats/web.jpg

 

The Hubble telescope may have, for the first time, provided direct evidence for the existence of black holes by observing how matter disappears when it falls beyond the "event horizon," the boundary between a black hole and the outside universe. Astronomers found their evidence by watching the fading and disappearance of pulses of ultraviolet light from clumps of hot gas swirling around a massive, compact object called Cygnus XR-1. This activity suggests that the hot gas fell into a black hole.

 

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/1995/49/images/i/formats/web_print.jpg

 

High speed gas from a supernova explosion slams into dark cooler clouds of interstellar material. Shocked and heated by this tidal wave of energy, the clouds glow in bright, neon-like colors. (Image Released: February 1995)

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0501/titancolor_huygensP7_c120.jpg

 

Explanation: This color view from Titan gazes across a suddenly familiar but distant landscape on Saturn's largest moon. The scene was recorded by ESA's Huygens probe after a 2 1/2 hour descent through a thick atmosphere of nitrogen laced with methane. Bathed in an eerie orange light at ground level, rocks strewn about the scene could well be composed of water and hydrocarbons frozen solid at an inhospitable temperature of - 179 degrees C. The light-toned rock below and left of center is only about 15 centimeters across and lies 85 centimeters from the probe. Touching down at 4.5 meters per second, the saucer-shaped probe is believed to have penetrated 15 centimeters or so into a surface with the consistency of wet sand or clay. Huygen's batteries are now exhausted but the probe transmitted data for more than 90 minutes after landing. Titan's bizarre chemical environment may bear similarities to planet Earth's before life evolved.

 

[Phoenix]

[NeilPeartFan2112]

Awesome pics. Cool thread.

[rickyrob]

[Phoenix]

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0501/ngc346_hst_c25.jpg

 

Explanation: A satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a wonder of the southern sky, a mere 210,000 light-years distant in the constellation Tucana. Found among the SMC's clusters and nebulae NGC 346 is a star forming region about 200 light-years across, pictured above by the Hubble Space Telescope. Exploring NGC 346, astronomers have identified a population of embryonic stars strung along the dark, intersecting dust lanes visible here on the right. Still collapsing within their natal clouds, the stellar infants' light is reddened by the intervening dust. A small, irregular galaxy, the SMC itself represents a type of galaxy more common in the early Universe. But these small galaxies are thought to be a building blocks for the larger galaxies present today. Within the SMC, stellar nurseries like NGC 346 are also thought to be similar to those found in the early Universe.

[rickyrob]

Another cool photo RR...I like the way they call it a 'cloud' as if its just some small fluffy thing floating about in space. I believe this is the closest galaxy to our own?

[Phoenix]

Wow, never saw a pic like that from SMC.

Great one RR.

 

When we call that one a real Galaxy, this is the closest one to our own.

The next would be the Large Magellanic Cloud and then come the famous Andromeda , M31.

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0501/titan8km_huygens.jpg

 

Explanation: What are these surface features on Titan? Scroll right to see the panoramic view captured last week by the Huygens probe as it descended toward Saturn's mysterious moon. Scientists are not yet sure what the above image is showing. On the far left, a boundary seems to exist between some sort of smooth dark terrain and a type of choppier terrain in the distance. In the image center and on the left, white areas cover the image that might be a type of ground fog. The Huygens probe landed in the dark area of the far right, finding a portion of Titan's surface that had the consistency of wet sand and a surface temperature of -179 degrees Celsius. Huygen's battery lasted an unexpectedly long three hours as it beamed back images and data to the Saturn-orbiting Cassini mothership and an armada of Earth's most sensitive radio telescopes. Analysis of the Huygen's images will likely continue for years in attempts to better understand this cloud-engulfed moon.

[rickyrob]

Sunbathing out of the question then?

[D-13]

QUOTE (rickyrob @ Jan 19 2005, 08:49 AM)

Sunbathing out of the question then?

[afansince74]

QUOTE (RushRevisited @ Jan 19 2005, 10:13 AM)

Huygen's battery lasted an unexpectedly long three hours....

Anybody know why It was designed to last such a short time? The guy I'm currently building a house for works for the company that builds almost all the batteries that go into space, like the ones on Hubble. I'll ask him the next time he's in town if he did the Huygen's battery too. He said most space batteries NASA uses are 28 volt, in case you were wondering!

[RushRevisited]

afan, I swear I have had that exact same thought everytime I read the articles/see pictures, etc. "Why only like a day of battery??? The thing flew like millions of miles away over a long period of time and what, they throw a couple of AA batteries in it? " I mean seriously, why wouldn't they at least do a longer batter life even if still pictures, we may discover something new... How much extra could the cost have been to put longer lasting batteries in the damn thing?

[afansince74]

QUOTE (RushRevisited @ Jan 19 2005, 10:59 PM)

afan, I swear I have had that exact same thought everytime I read the articles/see pictures, etc.  "Why only like a day of battery???  The thing flew like millions of miles away over a long period of time and what, they throw a couple of AA batteries in it?  "  I mean seriously, why wouldn't they at least do a longer batter life even if still pictures, we may discover something new...  How much extra could the cost have been to put longer lasting batteries in the damn thing?

Exactly! Me too! You mean to tell me this thing spent like 7+ years in space and right after it lands, the batteries crap out???!!! You'd think we could have figured out something else! Anyway, I will ask that guy next time we talk (he live out of town, so it may be a week or so) and I'll find out for us both, RR!