A new video from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows huge blasts of plasma, called solar prominences, curling around the sun’s tumultuous magnetic field. The remarkable activity was captured Nov. 14 to 15 using a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. Never look at the Sun directly yourself – it can lead to blindness!
The Camtasia Studio video content presented here requires … Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has spotted one of the largest new sunspots to appear on the surface of the sun in years. It is nearly 25,000 miles wide, or more than three times larger than the Earth. The enormous sunspot was seen rotating over the sun’s northeastern limb on Nov. 3.
Any backyard astronomers with solar telescopes should be able … Read the rest of this article
The Bolshoi Simulation is a massive, incredibly detailed model of everything, providing a comprehensive simulation of the universe’s 14 billion year history. Scientists are now exploring the simulation, and her are some of the most breathtaking results of their efforts.
The image above is just one many stunning images to come out of this new simulation. This particular image shows … Read the rest of this article
New observations from the Herschel Space Observatory show a bizarre, twisted ring of dense gas at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Only a few portions of the ring, which stretches across more than 600 light-years, were known before. Herschel’s view reveals the entire ring for the first time, and a strange kink that has astronomers scratching their heads.… Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on Saturday became the first probe ever to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Dawn will study the asteroid, named Vesta, for a year before departing for a second destination, a dwarf planet named Ceres, in July 2012. Observations will provide unprecedented data to help scientists understand the earliest … Read the rest of this article
The STS-135 crew of space shuttle Atlantis and the Expedition 28 crew of the International Space Station have been treated with great views of the Aurora Australis.
Here’s one shot the crews photographed, showing a panoramic view of the station/shuttle complex along with several different astronomical beauties! The aurora shows up brightly, but what else is in the image? Looking … Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will begin a prolonged encounter with the asteroid Vesta today (July 15), making the mission the first to enter orbit around a main-belt asteroid.
The main asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Dawn will study Vesta for one year, and observations will help scientists understand the earliest chapter of our solar system’s history.… Read the rest of this article
Do you know what today is? It’s the day on which Neptune has finally completed one full orbit of the sun, since its discovery in 1846. One orbit in just under 165 years.
This fascinating video (courtesy NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon and M. Estacion (STScI)) puts that one Neptunian orbit into an Earth timeline perspective
Neptune is a giant … Read the rest of this article
Space shuttle Commander Chris Ferguson and his three crewmates are on their way to the International Space Station after launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 11:29 a.m. EDT Friday. STS-135 is the final mission of NASA’s Space Shuttle Program that will end the multi-purpose spaceplane programme’s three-decade era of human spaceflight.
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On 8 July 2011, Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted …
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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