Explanation:
As you (safely!) watched the progress of yesterday's partial solar
eclipse, you probably also spotted a
giant
sunspot group.
Captured in this sharp telescopic image from October 22nd
the complex AR 2192 is beautiful to see, a
sprawling solar active region comparable in size
to the diameter of Jupiter.
Like other smaller sunspot groups,
AR 2192 is now crossing the
Earth-facing side of the Sun
and appears dark in
visible light because it is cooler than the surrounding surface.
Still, the energy stored in the region's twisted magnetic fields is
enormous and has already generated powerful explosions, including
two
X-class solar flares this week.
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) associated with the flares have not
affected planet Earth, so far.
The forecast
for further activity from AR 2192 is still
significant though, as it swings across the center of
the solar disk and Earth-directed CMEs become possible.
Explanation: A New Moon
joined giant sunspot group AR 2192
to dim the bright solar disk
during Thursday's
much anticipated partial solar eclipse.
Visible
from much of North America, the Moon's broad silhouette
is captured in this extreme telephoto snapshot near
eclipse maximum from Santa Cruz, California.
About the size of Jupiter, the
remarkable AR 2192 itself
darkens a noticeable fraction
of the Sun, near center and below the curved lunar limb.
As the sunspot group slowly rotates
across the Sun and
out of view in the coming days its activity is difficult
to forecast.
But the timing of
solar
eclipses is easier to predict.
The next will be a total solar eclipse on
March 20, 2015.
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.
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 2010 February flyby of the
robot spacecraft Cassini now in
orbit
around Saturn.
A recent analysis
of Mimas's unusual wobble indicates that it might house a liquid water interior ocean.
Explanation:
What is that changing object in a cold
hydrocarbon sea of Titan?
Radar images from the robotic
Cassini spacecraft orbiting
Saturn
have been recording the surface of the cloud-engulfed moon Titan for years.
When imaging the flat -- and hence radar dark -- surface of the
methane and
ethane lake called
Ligeia Mare,
an object appeared in 2013 just was not there in 2007.
Subsequent observations in 2014 found
the object remained -- but had changed!
The featured image
shows how the 20-km long object has appeared and evolved.
Current origin speculative explanations include
bubbling foam and
floating solids, but no one is sure.
Future observations may either resolve the enigma or open up more speculation.
Explanation: As the Moon rose and
the Sun set on October 8,
a lunar eclipse was in progress seen from
Chongqing, China.
Trailing through
this composite time exposure, the rising Moon began as a
dark reddened disk in total eclipse near the eastern horizon.
Steadily climbing above the populous city's colorful
lights
along the Yangtze River, the moontrail grows brighter and broader,
until a bright Full Moon emerged from the Earth's shadow in
evening skies.
Although lunar eclipses are not always total ones,
this eclipse, along with last April's
lunar eclipse, were the first two of four consecutive total
lunar eclipses,
a series
known as a tetrad.
The final two eclipses of this tetrad will occur in early April
and late September 2015.
Explanation: This looks like
a near miss but the greenish coma and tail of
Comet
Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) are really
2,000 light-years or so away from the stars of open cluster
Messier 6.
They do appear close together though,
along the same line-of-sight in this gorgeous October 9th
skyscape toward the constellation
Scorpius.
Still, on Sunday, October 19th this comet really will be involved in
a near miss, passing within only
139,500
kilometers of planet Mars.
That's about 10 times closer than any known comet flyby of planet Earth,
and nearly one third the Earth-Moon distance.
While an impact with the nucleus is not a threat
the comet's dust, moving with a speed of about 56 kilometers per second
relative to the Red Planet, and outskirts of its
gaseous coma could interact with the thin Martian atmosphere.
Of course, the comet's close encounter will be followed
intently by spacecraft in
Martian orbit and rovers on the surface.
Comet Siding Spring Passes Mars Image Credit & Copyright: SEN/Damian Peach
Explanation:
Yesterday, a comet passed very close to Mars.
In fact, Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring)
passed closer to the
red planet
than any comet has ever passed to Earth in recorded history.
To take advantage of this unique opportunity to study the close
interaction of a comet and a planet, humanity currently has five active
spacecraft orbiting Mars: NASA's
MAVEN,
MRO,
Mars Odyssey,
as well as
ESA's
Mars Express, and
India's
Mars Orbiter.
Most of these spacecraft have now sent back information that they have
not been damaged
by small pieces of the passing comet.
These spacecraft, as well as the two active rovers on the Martian surface -- NASA's
Opportunity and
Curiosity --
have taken data and images that will be downloaded to Earth for
weeks to come and likely studied for years to come.
The featured image
taken yesterday, however, was not taken from Mars but from Earth and shows
Comet Siding Spring on the lower left as it passed Mars, on the upper right.
Explanation:
Cosmic clouds form
fantastic shapes in
the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805.
The clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from
massive hot stars in the nebula's
newborn star cluster,
Melotte 15.
About 1.5 million years young,
the cluster stars are toward the right in this
colorful
skyscape, along with dark
dust clouds in
silhouette against glowing atomic gas.
A composite of narrowband and broadband telescopic images, the
view spans about 30 light-years and includes emission
from ionized hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms mapped to
green, red, and blue hues
in the popular Hubble Palette.
Wider field images
reveal that IC 1805's simpler,
overall outline suggests its popular name -
The
Heart Nebula.
IC 1805 is located about 7,500 light years away toward the
boastful constellation Cassiopeia.
Explanation:
One of the largest sunspot groups in recent years is now crossing the Sun.
Labelled
Active Region 2192, it has already thrown a
powerful solar flare
and has the potential to produce more.
The featured video
shows a time lapse sequence of the Sun in visible and ultraviolet light taken yesterday and incorporating the previous 48 hours.
AR 2192, rotating in from the left, rivals
Jupiter in size and is literally crackling with magnetic energy.
The active Sun
has caused some
spectacular auroras in recent days,
and energetic particles originating from
AR 2192 may help continue them over the next week.
Tomorrow, the Sun will appear unusual for even another reason: a
partial solar eclipse will be
visible before sunset from much of North America.
Explanation:
What causes sprite lightning?
Mysterious bursts of light in the sky that momentarily
resemblegigantic jellyfish have been recorded for over 25 years, but their root cause remains unknown.
Some thunderstorms have them -- most don't.
Recently, however,
high speed videos are better detailing how
sprites actually develop.
The featured video is fast enough -- at about 10,000 frames per second -- to
time-resolve
several sprite "bombs" dropping and developing into the
multi-pronged streamers that
appear onstill images.
Unfortunately, the
visual clues provided by
these videos
do not fully resolve the sprite origins mystery.
They do indicate to some researchers,
though, that sprites are more likely to occur when
plasma irregularities
exist in the upper atmosphere.
Galaxies in Pegasus Image Credit &
Copyright:
Alessandro Benedetti and Daniele Ceniti
(AeW Observatory)
Explanation: This wide,
sharp telescopic view reveals
galaxies
scattered beyond the stars and faint
dust
nebulae
of the Milky Way at the northern boundary of the high-flying constellation
Pegasus.
Prominent at the upper right is
NGC 7331.
A mere 50 million light-years away, the large spiral is one
of the brighter galaxies not included in
Charles
Messier's famous 18th century catalog.
The disturbed looking group of galaxies
at the lower left is
well-known as Stephan's Quintet.
About 300 million light-years distant, the quintet
dramatically illustrates a multiple galaxy collision, its
powerful, ongoing
interactions posed for a brief cosmic snapshot.
On the sky, the
quintet and
NGC 7331 are separated by about half a degree.
Too Close to a Black Hole Image Credit & Copyright: Alain Riazuelo
Millions of People believe the existence of Aliens. There are lot of evidences. Here is the one of them.
News states:Shortly
before Boyd Bushman passed away on August 7, 2014, he was video
recorded candidly speaking about his personal experiences with Area 51,
UFOs, aliens and anti-gravity ideas. Boyd was a retired Senior
Scientist for Lockheed Martin. His career spanned over forty years, was
awarded many patents, and included work with defense contractors Hughes
Aircraft, General Dynamics, Texas Instruments, and Lockheed Martin.
This
week the X-37B returned to earth after a two-year mission. Most of
humanity believes this craft was used to orbit Earth, but I want you to
think out of the box. Let's assume that the US military has had hundreds
of orbiting satellites already. Why would one more be anything new or
useful? It wouldn't. Therefore, its purpose was not in Earths orbit.
Its purpose was out there. Beyond Earth. There is a high likely hood
that the X-37B was used for one of three purposes.
1.
It could have been used to search for living organisms that are capable
of living in space. Actual animals that swim in space like fish swim in
water. They do exist, the NASA tether incident video which was recorded
in infrared was proof of this. The tether incident happened in Feb
1996. The X-37B program was created in 1999 by Boeing...just three years
later.
2.
It could have been used as reconnaissance around Earths moon on the
dark side, or even on Mars or other planets and moons. There are a lot
of structures on every planet and moon in the solar system, most of them
long since abandoned. It only made sense that the US military would
want to commandeer some of those off-world bases to create US off-world
bases. The USAF already has personnel stationed off world, so says Gary McKinnon, UK hacker.
3.
It was on a mission of communication, going from planet to planet,
having secret communication with aliens. Allowing the US to have access
to an alliance with many species that have millions, maybe even billions
of years worth of tech evolution behind them.
Now...I have to ask you. Do you still believe the X-37B was in Earths orbit for the full two years?
Its
really a beautiful figure of a glowing alien entity standing near a
small saucer. This entity has been seen in about 3-4 other photos and it
always appears as pure light and even once had wings. I wish soon we will meet them..!!
Unusual Rocks near Pahrump Hills on Mars Image Credit: NASA,
JPL-Caltech,
MSSS
Explanation:
How did these Martian rocks form?
As the robotic
Curiosity rover
has approached
Pahrump Hills on
Mars,
it has seen an interesting and textured landscape dotted by some unusual rocks.
The featured image shows a
curiously round rock spanning about two centimeters across.
Seemingly a larger version of
numerous spherules
dubbed blueberries found by the
Opportunity rover on Mars in 2004,
what caused this roundness remains unknown.
Possibilities include
frequent tumbling in flowing water,
sprayed molten rock
in a volcanic eruption, or a
concretion mechanism.
The inset image, taken a few days later, shows another small but unusually shaped rock structure.
As Curiosity rolls around and up
Mount Sharp,
different layers of the landscape will be imaged and studied to better
understand the ancient history of the region and to investigate whether
Mars could once have
harbored life.
Explanation:
Have you ever seen an entire rainbow?
From the ground, typically, only the top portion of a rainbow is visible because directions toward the ground have fewer raindrops.
From the air, though, the entire 360 degree circle of a
rainbow is more commonly visible.
Pictured here,
a full circle rainbow was captured over
Cottesloe Beach near
Perth,
Australia
last year by a helicopter flying between a setting sun and a downpour.
An observer-dependent
phenomenon
primarily caused by the
internal reflection
of sunlight by raindrops, the 84-degree diameter rainbow
followed the helicopter, intact, for about 5 kilometers.
As a bonus,
a second rainbow
that was more faint and color-reversed was visible outside the first.
Explanation:
The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often
named for flowers or
insects.
Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years,
NGC 6302 is no
exception.
With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C,
the dying central star of this particular
planetary nebula has become exceptionally
hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from
direct view by a dense torus of dust.
This
sharp close-up
of the dying star's nebula was recorded
in 2009 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3,
and is presented here in reprocessed colors.
Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust
torus
surrounding the central star is near
the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight.
Molecular hydrogen
has been
detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud.
NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the
arachnologically
correct constellation of the Scorpion
(Scorpius).
Explanation:
Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar
apparition has a surprisingly
familiar shape.
Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply
as The
Bubble Nebula.
Although it looks delicate, the 10 light-year diameter
bubble offers evidence of
violent processes at work.
Below and left of the Bubble's center is a hot,
O star, several hundred thousand
times more luminous and around 45 times more massive
than the Sun.
A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that
star has blasted out the
structure of glowing gas
against denser material
in a surroundingmolecular
cloud.
The intriguing Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex
lie a mere 11,000 light-years away toward the boastful constellation
Cassiopeia.
This tantalizing view
of the cosmic bubble is composed from narrowband image data,
recording emission from the region's ionized hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
To create the
three
color image, hydrogen and oxygen emission
were used for red and blue and combined to create the
green channel.
Explanation: Mars, Antares,
Moon, and
Saturn
are the brightest celestial beacons in
this serene sky.
The Sun's golden light is still scattered along the
southwestern horizon though, captured after
sunset on September 28.
The evening gathering of wandering planets and Moon along
with the
bright star viewed as
an equal to Mars and
the Scorpion's Heart was enjoyed around planet Earth.
But from the photographer's perspective looking across
the calm waters of Lake Balaton, Hungary, they
were joined by a more terrestrial sailboat mast light.
Mast light, bright star, planets and Moon are all posing
near the plane of the ecliptic.
From the Temple of the Sun to the Temple of the Moon Image Credit & Copyright: Dave Lane
Explanation:
What connects the Sun to the Moon?
Many answers have been given throughout
history, but in the case of today's featured image, it appears to be the plane of our
Milky Way Galaxy.
The 16-image panorama was taken in
Capitol Reef National Park,
Utah, USA where two
sandstone monoliths -- the Temple of the Moon on the right and the
Temple of the Sun
on the left -- rise dramatically from the desert.
Each
natural monument
stands about 100 meters tall and survives from the
Jurassic period 160 million years ago.
Even older are many of the stars and nebulas that dot the celestial background, including the
Andromeda Galaxy.
Tomorrow the Earth will connect the Sun to the Moon by way of its shadow: a
total lunar eclipse will be visible from many locations around the globe.
Explanation:
Star cluster NGC 6823 is slowly turning gas clouds into stars.
The center of the open cluster, visible on the upper right,
formed only about two million years ago and is
dominated in brightness by a host of
bright young blue stars.
Some outer parts of the cluster, visible in the
featured image's center
as the stars and pillars of
emission nebula
NGC 6820, contain even younger stars.
The huge pillars of gas and
dust likely get their elongated shape by
erosion from hot radiation emitted from the
brightest cluster stars.
Striking dark globules
of gas and dust are also visible across the upper left of the
featured image.
Open star cluster
NGC 6823 spans
about 50 light years and lies about 6000
light years away toward the
constellation
of the Fox (Vulpecula).
Date of discovery: September 2014Location of discovery: MarsSource: http://qz.com/274625/india-took-a-picture-of-mars-and-found-a-picture-of-india/ India
has their first ever satellite orbiting Mars in in the recent photos,
one of them caught millions of eyes. This photo shows the map of
India. There are many stories about Mars once being like Earth until it
was destroyed and the few remaining inhabitants moving to Earth, so yes
its possible the entire continent was copied onto Earth to recreate a
new Mars, what mars once was in ancient times. Remember NASA did say
this year that Mars once had oceans... then it no doubt had continents
and life.
QZ News states:Indians
are swooning over the first images of Mars taken from their country’s
Mars Orbiter Mission—and some are saying MOM captured not just the Red
Planet, but also an image of India. (more at source).
