This image shows an arcuate ridge in Terra Meridiani on Mars. The ridge is most likely a former streambed, now exposed in inverted relief; the wandering path is not expected for an exhumed fault or volcanic dyke. The stream that formed this ridge must have been ancient as the ridge is buried by brighter rocks, which are themselves very old, having been thickly deposited and then heavily eroded.
Posts tagged "NASA"
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Source thebeautyofscience
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Black Holes in Merging Galaxies
Explanation: Violent galaxy mergers can feed supermassive black holes. Theoretically, the result is intense emission from regions near the supermassive black holes, creating the some of the most luminous objects in the universe. Astronomers dub these Active Galactic Nuclei, or just AGN. But for decades only about 1 percent of AGN seemed to be associated with galaxy mergers. New results from a premier sky survey by NASA’s Swift satellite at hard (energetic) X-ray energies now solidly show a strong association of AGN with merging galaxies, though. The hard X-rays more readily penetrate dust and gas clouds in merging galaxies and reveal the presence of emission from the active black holes. In fact, these panels show the location (circled) of Swift X-ray detected supermassive black holes in a variety of merging galaxy systems. The optical images are from the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. At top center is NGC 7319 and the compact galaxy group known as Stephan’s Quintet.
Credit: NASA / Swift / NOAO / Michael Koss and Richard Mushotzky (Univ. Maryland)
(via incomprehensibleuniverse)
Source apod.nasa.gov -
Shuttle mission STS-31 lifts off, carrying Hubble into orbit.
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Next Generation Space Telescope
NASA engineer Ernie Wright looks on as the first six flight ready James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror segments are prepped to begin final cryogenic testing at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. This represents the first six of 18 segments that will form NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror for space observations. Engineers began final round-the-clock cryogenic testing to confirm that the mirrors will respond as expected to the extreme temperatures of space prior to integration into the telescope’s permanent housing structure. (Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham; via NASA)
(via scipsy)
Source nasa.gov -
Comet Siding Spring appears to streak across the sky like a superhero in this new infrared image from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The comet, also known as C/2007 Q3, was discovered in 2007 by observers in Australia.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
(via scipsy)
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov -
A Hole in Mars Close Up
In a close-up from the HiRISE instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this mysterious dark pit, about 150 meters across, lies on the north slope of ancient martian volcano Arsia Mons. Lacking raised rims and other impact crater characteristics, this pit and others like it were originally identified in visible light and infrared images from the Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. While the visible light images showed only darkness within, infrared thermal signatures indicated that the openings penetrated deep under the martian surface and perhaps were skylights to underground caverns. In this later image, the pit wall is partially illuminated by sunlight and seen to be nearly vertical, though the bottom, at least 78 meters below, is still not visible. The dark martian pits are thought to be related to collapse pits in the lava flow, similar to Hawaiian volcano pit craters.
Source ikenbot -
NASA Space Shuttles →
Since 1981, NASA space shuttles have been rocketing from the Florida coast into Earth orbit. The five orbiters — Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour — have flown more than 130 times, carrying over 350 people into space and travelling more than half a billion miles, more than enough to reach Jupiter. Designed to return to Earth and land like a giant glider, the shuttle was the world’s first reusable space vehicle. More than all of that, though, the shuttle program expanded the limits of human achievement and broadened our understanding of our world.
It all started with STS-1, launched on April 12, 1981, just twenty years to the day after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. When astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen launched that morning in Columbia, it was the first time in history a new spacecraft was launched on its maiden voyage with a crew aboard.
For an entire generation, the space shuttle was NASA. We’ve watched a parade of firsts — Sally Ride, Guy Bluford, Kathy Sullivan, John Glenn and others. We’ve seen astronauts float free, and launch and repair spacecraft like Hubble which have fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe.
In this feature, we look back at the Shuttle’s historic missions, the people it flew into space, and its achievements.
Source forestmine -
Huge Asteroid to Pass Near Earth in November →
The near-Earth asteroid named 2005 YU55 — on the list of potentially dangerous asteroids — was observed with the Arecibo Telescope’s planetary radar on April 19, 2010 when it was about 1.5 million miles from the Earth, which is about 6 times the distance to the moon.
CREDIT: Arecibo Observatory/Michael Nolan
Mark your calendars for an impressive and upcoming flyby of an asteroid that’s one of the larger potentially perilous space rocks in the heavens – in terms of smacking the Earth in the future.
It’s the case of asteroid 2005 YU55, a round mini-world that is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) in diameter. In early November, this asteroid will approach Earth within a scant 0.85 lunar distances.
Due the object’s size and whisking by so close to Earth, an extensive campaign of radar, visual and infrared observations are being planned.
Asteroid 2005 YU55 was discovered by Spacewatch at the University of Arizona, Tucson’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory on Dec. 28, 2005. En route and headed our way, the cosmic wanderer is another reminder about life here on our sitting duck of a planet.
Read more: http://www.space.com/11310-huge-asteroid-2005-yu55-passing-earth-november.html
Source cosmosscience -
Nucleus of Galaxy Centaurus A
Astronomers have used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to probe the core of the nearest active galaxy to Earth, Centaurus A.
Source ikenbot -
Centaurus Radio Jets Rising
What if you could see the huge radio jets of Centaurus A rising? The Cen A radio jets are not only over a million light years long, they occupy an angular area over 200 times greater than the full Moon in Earth’s sky. The jets are expelled by a violent black hole millions of times the mass of our Sun embedded deep in the center of nearby active galaxy Cen A. Somehow, the black hole creates the fast moving jets as other matter falls in.
In this picture, radio telescopes from the Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) near Narrabri, NSW, Australia, were captured in front of a full Moon, with a radio image of Cen A superposed at itsreal angular size in the background. The above picture includes the most detailed map yet of any galaxy-class radio jets in the universe, taking several years and over 1,000 hours exposure time to complete. Details in the photo may yield clues as to how radio jets interact with stars and intergalactic dust. The light dots in the image depict not stars, but typically other radio bright galaxies in the even more distant universe.
Credit: Ilana Feain, Tim Cornwell & Ron Ekers (CSIRO/ATNF); ATCA northern middle lobe pointing courtesy R. Morganti (ASTRON); Parkes data courtesy N. Junkes (MPIfR); ATCA & Moon photo: Shaun Amy, CSIRO
Source apod.nasa.gov -
First galaxies were born much earlier than expected
Using the amplifying power of a cosmic gravitational lens, astronomers have discovered a distant galaxy whose stars were born unexpectedly early in cosmic history. This result sheds new light on the formation of the first galaxies, as well as on the early evolution of the Universe.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, J. Richard (CRAL) and J.-P. Kneib (LAM).
(via peteuplink)
Source spacetelescope.org -
Saturn’s Mesmerizing Ultraviolet Aurora
Credits: J.T. Trauger (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and NASA.
Source ikenbot -
NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis transits the sun.
(via ohscience)
Source popsci.com -
Crab Nebula
(via ohscience)
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In this image Yuri Gagarin, pilot of the Vostok 1, is on the bus on the way to the launch. The cosmonaut behind Gagarin is German Titov, the back-up pilot whobecame pilot of Vostok 2.”Triumphant music blared across the land. Russia’s radios saluted the morning with the slow, stirring beat of the patriotic song, ‘How Spacious Is My Country.’ Then came the simple announcement that shattered forever man’s ancient isolation on earth: ‘The world’s first spaceship, Vostok [East], with a man on board, has been launched on April 12 in the Soviet Union on a round-the-world orbit.’ wrote TIME magazine in their cover story of the event.”
After the historical flight that lasted 108 minutes, he was no longer Senior Lieutenant Yuri Gagarin; he was Yuri Gagarin, hero and icon. During the flight, he was not allowed to operate the controls because the effects of weightlessness had only been tested on dogs so far. The mission was instead controlled by ground crews, and an override key was provided in case of emergency.
Because of his popularity, the government would not allow him another trip into space. It was too dangerous and they did not want to lose their icon. Frustrated, Yuri went back to training in the MiGs. On March 27, 1968, Gagarin and his instructor, Vladimir Seryogin, took off in a MiG-15 fighter plane under poor weather conditions, which crash landed. He was just 34.
Image Credit: NASA/Roscosmos & Public domain
Source: Roscosmos Facebook page.
Source itsfullofstars
![In this image Yuri Gagarin, pilot of the Vostok 1, is on the bus on the way to the launch. The cosmonaut behind Gagarin is German Titov, the back-up pilot whobecame pilot of Vostok 2.”Triumphant music blared across the land. Russia’s radios saluted the morning with the slow, stirring beat of the patriotic song, ‘How Spacious Is My Country.’ Then came the simple announcement that shattered forever man’s ancient isolation on earth: ‘The world’s first spaceship, Vostok [East], with a man on board, has been launched on April 12 in the Soviet Union on a round-the-world orbit.’ wrote TIME magazine in their cover story of the event.”
After the historical flight that lasted 108 minutes, he was no longer Senior Lieutenant Yuri Gagarin; he was Yuri Gagarin, hero and icon. During the flight, he was not allowed to operate the controls because the effects of weightlessness had only been tested on dogs so far. The mission was instead controlled by ground crews, and an override key was provided in case of emergency.
Because of his popularity, the government would not allow him another trip into space. It was too dangerous and they did not want to lose their icon. Frustrated, Yuri went back to training in the MiGs. On March 27, 1968, Gagarin and his instructor, Vladimir Seryogin, took off in a MiG-15 fighter plane under poor weather conditions, which crash landed. He was just 34.
Image Credit: NASA/Roscosmos & Public domain
Source: Roscosmos Facebook page.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljeu1oVpnf1qzvby8o1_1280.jpg)
