APOD

[GhostGirl]

Breathtaking...

[Dweezil]

Intergalactic

 

[yyz]

 

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/ngc1427a_hst_c86.jpg

 

Explanation: In this tantalizing image, young blue star clusters and pink star-forming regions abound in NGC 1427A, a galaxy in motion. The small irregular galaxy's swept back outline points toward the top of this picture from the Hubble Space Telescope - and that is indeed the direction NGC 1427A is moving as it travels toward the center of the Fornax cluster of galaxies, some 62 million light-years away. Over 20,000 light-years long and similar to the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, NGC 1427A is speeding through the Fornax cluster's intergalactic gas at around 600 kilometers per second. The resulting pressure is giving the galaxy its arrowhead outline, triggering the beautiful but violent episodes of star formation. Still, it is understood that interactions with cluster gas and the other cluster galaxies during its headlong flight will ultimately disrupt galaxy NGC 1427A. Many unrelated background galaxies are visible in the sharp Hubble image, including a striking face-on spiral galaxy at the upper left.

[GhostGirl]

The shape of that thing is familiar....

 

http://grape.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~spz/sfb/trek_logo.gif

 

[progrush2112]

Dude, these pics are amazing!

I want to go into space...

if there's ever a spaceship named the Rocinante, i'll be on it!

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/mimas_cassini.jpg

 

Explanation: Whatever hit Mimas nearly destroyed it. What remains is one of the largest impact craters on one of Saturn's smallest moons. The crater, named Herschel after the 1789 discoverer of Mimas, Sir William Herschel, spans about 130 kilometers and is pictured above in the dramatic light of its terminator. Mimas' low mass produces a surface gravity just strong enough to create a spherical body but weak enough to allow such relatively large surface features. Mimas is made of mostly water ice with a smattering of rock - so it is accurately described as a big dirty snowball. The above image was taken during the 2005 January flyby of the robot spacecraft Cassini now in orbit around Saturn.

[rickyrob]

Mimas: http://www.webcam-index.com/images/logitech-quickcam-messenger.jpg

 

 

 

Logitech Webcam: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/mimas_cassini.jpg

 

[launchpad67a]

Very clever rickyrob !!

[launchpad67a]

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/horsehead_steinberg.jpg

 

Explanation: The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky. It is visible as the dark indentation to the red emission nebula seen above and to the right of center in the above photograph. The bright star on the left is located in the belt of the familiar constellation of Orion. The horse-head feature is dark because it is really an opaque dust cloud which lies in front of the bright red emission nebula. Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere, this cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance. After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud will alter its appearance. The emission nebula's red color is caused by electrons recombining with protons to form hydrogen atoms. Also visible in the picture are blue reflection nebulae, which preferentially reflect the blue light from nearby stars.

[Alsgalpal]

That is awesome, RR!!!

 

 

 

 

Riding your dark horse of solar wind thru the vast expanse of interstellar beauty.

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/freeflyer_nasa.jpg

 

Explanation: At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was further out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured above, was floating free in space. McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk" during Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984. The MMU works by shooting jets of nitrogen and has since been used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless in space. The MMU was replaced in 2001 with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.

[Arndrake]

Makes you realize just how small and insignificant you are in space or above our 'cradle' - Earth, that is.

[Huck]

What a feeling that must have been

 

These pictures are amazing by the way, beautiful.

[Digital Man]

Wow, that's a very cool pic.

 

It's kind of scary at the same time, made me think of Bowie's Space Oddity...

[GhostGirl]

Makes me think of "2010" when John Lithgow hyperventilates...

 

OMG...oxygen please....

 

*gasp*

[Dweezil]

Looks like you could catch him in a net.....

[Dweezil]

Put him in a jar.....

[Alsgalpal]

Dweez!!!

 

 

 

 

That is a very beautiful pic, more please.

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/dustdevil_spirit.jpg

 

Explanation: What is that wisp on the horizon? Scientists think that the slight white apparition is actually a Martian dust devil that was caught swirling across Mars. The above image was taken earlier this month by the robotic rover Spirit. The swirling cloud was found by comparing the above image to a previous image of the same area. Fresh dust devil tracks have been seen on Mars before, but actually seeing one up close was a surprise. The most similar phenomena to Martian dust devils on Earth are tornadoes and waterspouts. The ultimate cause of Martian dust devils remains unknown, but might be related to rising air heated by sun-warmed rocks and soil. Just the previous day, Spirit's power acquisition increased unexpectedly, possibly the result of a dust devil passing near or over the Spirit rover and effectively cleaning its solar panels.

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/enceladus_cassini_03_c77.jpg

 

Explanation: The surface of Enceladus is as white as fresh snow. Still, an impressive variety of terrain is revealed in this contrast enhanced image. At a resolution of about 30 meters per pixel, the close-up view spans over 20 kilometers - recorded during the touring Cassini spacecraft's March flyby of the icy Saturnian moon. Enceladus is known to be the most reflective moon in the solar system, and the recent Cassini encounters have also detected the presence of an atmosphere, making Enceladus the second moon of Saturn with such a distinction. In fact, Enceladus' fresh looking surface and significant atmosphere both indicate that the tiny, 500 kilometer diameter moon is active. Researchers suspect that ice volcanos or geysers coat the surface with fresh material and replenish the moon's atmosphere, ultimately providing the icy particles that compose Saturn's tenuous E ring.

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/markarian_gilbert.jpg

 

Explanation: Across the heart of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies lies a striking string of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain. The chain, pictured above, is highlighted on the upper right with two large but featureless lenticular galaxies, M84 and M86, and connects to the large spiral on the lower left, M88. Prominent on the lower right but not part of Markarian's Chain is the giant elliptical galaxy M87. The home Virgo Cluster is the nearest cluster of galaxies, contains over 2000 galaxies, and has a noticeable gravitationally pull on the galaxies of the Local Group of Galaxies surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy. The center of the Virgo Cluster is located about 70 million light years away toward the constellation of Virgo. At least seven galaxies in the chain appear to move coherently, although others appear to be superposed by chance.

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/foxfur_croman.jpg

 

Explanation: The nebula surrounding bright star S Mon is filled with dark dust and glowing gas. The strange shapes originate from fine interstellar dust reacting in complex ways with the energetic light and hot gas being expelled by the young stars. The region just below S Mon, the brightest star in the above picture, is nicknamed the Fox Fur Nebula for its color and texture. The blue glow directly surrounding S Mon results from reflection, where neighboring dust reflects light from the bright star. The more diffuse red glow results from emission, where starlight ionizes hydrogen gas. Pink areas are lit by a combination of the two processes. S Mon is part of a young open cluster of stars named NGC 2264, located about 2500 light years away toward the constellation of Monoceros, just north of the Cone Nebula.

[RushRevisited]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/m57_ssc_c25.jpg

 

Explanation: The classic appearance of the popular Ring Nebula (aka M57) is understood to be due to perspective - our view from planet Earth looks down the center of a roughly barrel-shaped cloud of gas. But graceful looping structures are seen to extend even beyond the Ring Nebula's familiar central regions in this false-color infrared image from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Of course in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from a dying, sun-like star. By chance, spiral galaxy IC 1296 is also visible in the upper right of this Spitzer view toward the constellation Lyra. The central ring of the Ring Nebula is about one light-year across and 2,000 light-years away. However, galaxy IC 1296 much bigger and hence farther away ... about 200 million light-years distant.