Explanation:
If seen in the right light, Saturn glows like a neon sign.
Although Saturn has comparatively little of the
element neon, a
composite image
false-colored in three bands of
infrared light highlights features of the giant ringed planet like a
glowing sign.
At the most blue band of the infrared light featured, false-colored blue in the
above image,
Saturn itself appears dark but
Saturn's thin rings brightly reflect light from our Sun.
Conversely,
Saturn's B ring
is so thick that little reflected light makes it through, creating a dark band between
Saturn's A and C rings.
At the most red band of the infrared, false-colored red above,
Saturn emits a surprisingly detailed
thermal glow,
indicating planet-wide bands, huge hurricane-like storms, and a
strange hexagon-shaped cloud system around the
North Pole.
In the middle infrared band, false-colored green,
the sunlit side of Saturn's atmosphere reflects brightly.
The above image
was obtained in 2007 by the
robotic
Cassini spacecraft orbiting about 1.6 million kilometers out from Saturn.
Explanation:
This snapshot from deep space
captures planet
Earth on March 9.
The shadow of its large moon is falling on the planet's
sunlit hemisphere.
Tracking toward the east (left to right) across the ocean-covered
world the moon shadow moved quickly in the direction of the
planet's rotation.
Of course,
denizens of Earth located close to the shadow track
centerline saw this lunar shadow transit
as a brief, total eclipse of the Sun.
From a spacebased perspective
between Earth and Sun,
the view of this shadow transit was provided by the
Deep Space
Climate Observatory (DSCOVR)
spacecraft's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC).
Explanation:
Why is this galaxy so thin?
Many disk galaxies are actually just as thin as NGC 5866,
picturedabove, but are not
seen edge-on from our vantage point.
One galaxy that is situated edge-on is our own
Milky Way Galaxy.
Classified as a
lenticular galaxy, NGC 5866
has numerous and complex dust lanes appearing dark and red,
while many of the bright stars in the disk give it a more blue underlying hue.
The blue disk of young stars can be seen extending past the
dust in the extremely thin galactic plane,
while the bulge in the disk center appears tinged more orange from the
older and redder stars that likely exist there.
Although similar in mass to our
Milky Way Galaxy, light takes about 60,000
years to cross
NGC 5866,
about 30 percent less than light takes to cross our own Galaxy.
In general, many disk galaxies are very thin because the gas that
formed them collided with itself as it rotated about the gravitational center.
Galaxy NGC 5866
lies about 50 million light years distant toward the constellation of the Dragon
(Draco).
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 July just was not there in 2007.
Subsequent observations in 2014 August found
the object remained -- but had changed.
In an image released last week, the mystery object seems to have disappeared in 2015 January.
The featured false-color image
shows how the 20-km long object has come, changed, and gone.
Current origin speculative explanations include
waves,
bubbling foam and
floating solids, but still no one is sure.
Future observations, in particular Cassini's
final close
flyby
of Titan in 2017 April, may either resolve the enigma or open up more speculation.
Explanation:
Looking toward the south from an altitude of 400 kilometers,
this stunning snapshot
from orbit finds bright lights of Tokyo and
cities across
central and southern Japan, planet Earth shining upward
through broken clouds.
The spacefaring perspective
was captured last July
by astronaut Scott Kelly during his stay on board the
International Space Station.
Thin stripes of airglow follow the curve of the planet's
dark limb, while beyond lie stars of the
constellation Centaurus and the southern sky.
Their solar panels extended, a docked Soyuz (bottom) and Progress spacecraft
are posed in the foreground.
Kelly returned to planet Earth this week after his
one-year mission in space.
IC 1848: The Soul Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Colombari
Explanation:
Stars are forming in the Soul of the Queen of Aethopia.
More specifically, a large star forming region called the
Soul Nebula can be found in the direction of the
constellation Cassiopeia, who Greek mythology credits as the
vain wife
of a King who long ago ruled
lands
surrounding the
upper Nile river.
The Soul Nebula houses several
open clusters of stars,
a large radio source known as
W5,
and huge evacuated bubbles formed by the winds of young massive stars.
Located about 6,500 light years away, the Soul Nebula spans about 100 light years and is usually
imaged next to its celestial neighbor the
Heart Nebula (IC 1805).
The
featured image appears mostly red due to the emission of a
specific color of light emitted by
excited hydrogen gas.
Explanation: Gaze across the frozen
canyons of northern Pluto in this
contrast enhanced color scene, imaged last July by the
New Horizons spacecraft.
Currently known as Lowell Regio, the region has been informally
named for Percival Lowell, founder of the Lowell Observatory.
Also famous for his speculation that there were canals on Mars,
in 1906 Lowell started the search that ultimately
led to Pluto's
discovery.
Pluto's
North Pole itself
is above and left of center in the the frame.
The pale bluish floor of the broad canyon on the left is about 70
kilometers (45 miles) wide, running vertically toward the south.
Higher elevations take on a yellowish hue.
New Horizon's measurements have
determined that in addition to
nitrogen ice, methane ice is abundant across northern
Pluto's Lowell Regio.
