Just wondering if anybody has come across some interesting shots from space, be that planets, stars, moons, whatever. Please supply some information on what it is that you are showing us.
I figured I would start a thread like this for two reasons:
1 - The thread I made with shots of Mar's Craters got me interested
2 - Nobody's firggin posting in here, WTF?
Get it in Gear People! :angryfire:
Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red Planet's moons in 1877. Over 9 kilometers across, Stickney is nearly half the diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that blasted out the crater likely came close to shattering the tiny moon. This stunning, enhanced-color image of Stickney and surroundings was recorded by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed within some six thousand kilometers of Phobos last month. Even though the surface gravity of asteroid-like Phobos is less than 1/1000th Earth's gravity, streaks suggest loose material has slid down inside the crater walls over time. Light bluish regions near the crater's rim could indicate a relatively freshly exposed surface. The origin of the curious grooves along the surface is mysterious but may be related to the crater-forming impact.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080410.html
Two separate images of Jupiter and its moon, Io, combine here to make this striking picture. Instruments onboard the New Horizons spacecraft recorded the image data when it flew past Jupiter in early 2007.
In the picture of Jupiter, the near-infrared imaging spectrometer highlights variations in the Jovian clouds, rendering the Great Red Spot (the prominent oval) in a bluish-white shade. The observation was manipulated in order to correct distortion introduced by the rotation of the planet during the scan.
The Io image is an approximately true-color composite which shows an eruption in progress on Io's night side, at the northern volcano Tvashtar. Lava glows red beneath a high volcanic plume, illuminated by sunlight. The plume appears blue due to scattering of light by small particles within.
http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_071010.html
Why are bullets of gas shooting out of the Orion Nebula? Nobody is yet sure. First discovered in 1983, each bullet is actually about the size of our Solar System, and moving at about 400 km/sec from a central source dubbed IRc2. The age of the bullets, which can be found from their speed and distance from IRc2, is very young -- typically less than 1,000 years. As the bullets rip through the interior of the Orion Nebula, a small percentage of iron gas causes the tip of each bullet to glow blue, while each bullet leaves a tubular pillar that glows by the light of heated hydrogen gas. Pictured above, the Orion bullets were captured in unprecedented detail by the adaptive optics technology of the Gemini North telescope. M42, the Orion Nebula, is the closest major star forming region to us and filled with changing dust, gas, and bright stars. The Orion Nebula, is located about 1,500 light years away and can be seen with the unaided eye toward the constellation of Orion.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070326.html
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble -- maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. This suggestively shaped reflection nebula is associated with the bright star Rigel in the constellation Orion. More formally known as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula glows primarily by light reflected from bright star Rigel, located just off the upper right edge of the full image. Fine dust in the nebula reflects the light. The blue color is caused not only by Rigel's blue color but because the dust grains reflect blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes Earth's daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers in Earth's atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies about 1000 light-years away.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061211.html
I figured I would start a thread like this for two reasons:
1 - The thread I made with shots of Mar's Craters got me interested
2 - Nobody's firggin posting in here, WTF?
Get it in Gear People! :angryfire:
Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red Planet's moons in 1877. Over 9 kilometers across, Stickney is nearly half the diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that blasted out the crater likely came close to shattering the tiny moon. This stunning, enhanced-color image of Stickney and surroundings was recorded by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed within some six thousand kilometers of Phobos last month. Even though the surface gravity of asteroid-like Phobos is less than 1/1000th Earth's gravity, streaks suggest loose material has slid down inside the crater walls over time. Light bluish regions near the crater's rim could indicate a relatively freshly exposed surface. The origin of the curious grooves along the surface is mysterious but may be related to the crater-forming impact.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080410.html
Two separate images of Jupiter and its moon, Io, combine here to make this striking picture. Instruments onboard the New Horizons spacecraft recorded the image data when it flew past Jupiter in early 2007.
In the picture of Jupiter, the near-infrared imaging spectrometer highlights variations in the Jovian clouds, rendering the Great Red Spot (the prominent oval) in a bluish-white shade. The observation was manipulated in order to correct distortion introduced by the rotation of the planet during the scan.
The Io image is an approximately true-color composite which shows an eruption in progress on Io's night side, at the northern volcano Tvashtar. Lava glows red beneath a high volcanic plume, illuminated by sunlight. The plume appears blue due to scattering of light by small particles within.
http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_071010.html
Why are bullets of gas shooting out of the Orion Nebula? Nobody is yet sure. First discovered in 1983, each bullet is actually about the size of our Solar System, and moving at about 400 km/sec from a central source dubbed IRc2. The age of the bullets, which can be found from their speed and distance from IRc2, is very young -- typically less than 1,000 years. As the bullets rip through the interior of the Orion Nebula, a small percentage of iron gas causes the tip of each bullet to glow blue, while each bullet leaves a tubular pillar that glows by the light of heated hydrogen gas. Pictured above, the Orion bullets were captured in unprecedented detail by the adaptive optics technology of the Gemini North telescope. M42, the Orion Nebula, is the closest major star forming region to us and filled with changing dust, gas, and bright stars. The Orion Nebula, is located about 1,500 light years away and can be seen with the unaided eye toward the constellation of Orion.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070326.html
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble -- maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. This suggestively shaped reflection nebula is associated with the bright star Rigel in the constellation Orion. More formally known as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula glows primarily by light reflected from bright star Rigel, located just off the upper right edge of the full image. Fine dust in the nebula reflects the light. The blue color is caused not only by Rigel's blue color but because the dust grains reflect blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes Earth's daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers in Earth's atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies about 1000 light-years away.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061211.html