explore-blog:

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captures a rare shot of Saturn backlit by the sun, giving Hubble’s best a run for its money.

fuckyeahspaceexploration:

Saturn’s rings.

(vía ruisu-kun)

jtotheizzoe:

The shuttle Endeavour as it flew over LA’s Dodger Stadium today.

Wouldn’t it be cool if they had been playing the Astros?

(via @Dodgers)

physicsphysics:

Live simulation of the Mars Curiosity Landing

Click the picture to head there

howstuffworks:

THIS IS AN EXCITING TIME.

via xkcd

the-star-stuff:

Saturn in Methan-O-Vision

RGB image created from Cassini raw images taken on November 4, 2009.

Images credits: NASA/JPL/Mike Malaska

(vía uraniaproject)

uraniaproject:

The Iris Nebula

by Albert Barr from Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Imagine a cloud of countless particles, each measuring less than a millionth of a millimeter wide. Together, however, these particles function as a special type of cosmic mirror we know as the Iris Nebula (NGC 7023). Sir William Herschel discovered the Iris Nebula in 1794. He described it as, “A star of 7th magnitude. Very much affected with nebulosity, which more than fills the field. It seems to extend to at least a degree all around; stars, such as 9th or 10th magnitude, of which there are many, are perfectly free from this appearance.” NGC 7023 received its common name, the Iris Nebula, from California astroimager Daphne Hallas. She saw a film that showed the nebula’s center and commented that it resembled an unfolding iris.

(vía uraniaproject)

uraniaproject:

A colossal “superwind” is blowing all across this galaxy

Galaxy M82 isn’t just having kind of a blustery day — thanks to a recent near-collision with another galaxy, all its massive stars and supernovas are combining to create a massive galaxy-wide superwind. The result is that huge haze of red gas.

All star systems create what’s known as solar wind, which is the stream of charged particles emitted from the outer atmospheres of stars. In M82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy, the solar winds have combined to create one massive outflow of charged particles, which is known as a superwind. You can see all this galactic tumult in the photo up top, courtesy of the Hubble telescope. 

The Cigar Galaxy recently entered a chaotic period after it passed very close to nearby galaxy M81, and now this galaxy is pumping out huge quantities of ionized hydrogen gas, which glows red in this photo. These hydrogen filaments are about 10,000 light-years across. All this chaos in the Cigar Galaxy, which is about 12 million light-years away, has helped make it the brightest object in the sky when viewed in infrared wavelengths.

Via NASA. For more on superwinds, go here.

the-star-stuff:

Spectacular Space Photo of the Christmas Tree Cluster (2008)

Known as the Christmas Tree cluster, this colorful collection of stars lies 2,600 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Monoceros, the unicorn. 

The cluster was first discovered in the 18th century but was captured anew in this stunning image by by the 2.2-meter Max Planck Society/ESO telescope at La Silla observatory in the Atacama Desert. The telescope was outfitted with a specialized astronomical camera called the Wide Field Imager and a series of filters, and then aimed at the cluster for 10 hours to get the full-color image above.

The swirling gas clouds appear red because of ultraviolet light emanating from the young, hot stars that look like blue ornaments on a Christmas tree. The triangular feature near the bottom of the photo is an area of gas called the Cone Nebula.

The brightest star, at the top of the image, can be seen by the naked eye. The furry texture of the light to its right earned that area the name Fox Fur Nebula.

The whole cluster is in a star-forming molecular cloud, and the area between the brightest star and the tip of the cone is a great place for studying how stars are born.

Image: ESO

(vía uraniaproject)