Posts Tagged ‘earth’
February 23, 2012
by yaska77
We all know space is big, but just how far from home have we ventured through spaceships and probes? It can be a little difficult to comprehend, but NASA can help you there with the fantistic “Eyes on the Solar System” interactive guide.
Where do you want to go? Zoom in, pick a target and explore! Credit: NASA/JPL/California Institute of Technology
Zoom out from Earth to see the Moon, and the devices we’ve launched to study it. Go out further and visit Mars, then out to the gas giants, all in 3 dimensions which give a superb feeling of depth and scale. But not only can you visit the planets, you can see just where the Pioneer’s have got to, where the Voyager probes currently are, and any comets, asteroids and near-earth objects which are currently passing by.
For anyone who wants to be guided around particular categories of objects (or particular missions i.e. GRAIL), there are a number of feature tours you can take, and all of them are fascinating!
Voyager looking back at us - Click to visit "Eyes on the Solar System" - Credit: NASA/JPL/California Institute of Technology
If you got 5 minutes to spare it’s well worth a look, and you may find that 5 minutes extends by quite some time… 
Enjoy! Click the image above or here to visit NASA’s “Eyes on the Solar System”
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Posted in Astronomy, NASA, Resources, yaska77 | Tagged earth, Eyes on the Solar System, JPL, NASA, planets, postaweek, postaweek2012, probes, solar system | Leave a Comment »
December 21, 2011
by yaska77
Really into the home stretch now, so here is today’s astro advent calendar image with only a few more to come!
If you have ever stood in your garden and watched the ISS pass overhead (a bright, relatively quick moving light across the sky) you’ve probably wondered just what sights they see from up there. Well, here’s a great example
Day 21
Astronomy Advent Calendar 21st December - The Moon and the Earth's Atmosphere (click to enlarge) - Credit: ISS Crew Earth Observations Experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory/Johnson Space Center
On 31 July this year Astronauts working onboard the International Space Station took this beautiful image. The layers of the Earth’s atmosphere are nicely highlighted!
Lying closest to the Earth’s surface is the orange-red troposphere, the brown transitional layer marks the tropopause (the upper edge of the troposphere) with the white/grey layer resting above it being the stratosphere (the layer that contains noctilucent clouds). The upper atmosphere composed of the mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere fades from blue to the blackness of space.
Brave, adventurous and lucky astronauts, how we envy and admire you!
View yesterday’s image
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Posted in Astronomy, Earth, ISS, yaska77 | Tagged advent calendar, Astronomy, astrophotography, atmosphere, Christmas, earth, image, Moon, photography, postaweek2011 | 1 Comment »
December 4, 2011
by tte-77
Four newly found red galaxies. Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)
Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have discovered four examples of a new “species” of very red galaxy in the early universe. Located 13 billion light-years from Earth not even Hubble can see it. Being sensitive to infrared light NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has been able to reveal not one, but four very red galaxies. It’s a mystery though… what makes them so red in colour?
Astronomers can’t explain it. They might be very dusty or might contain many old, red stars, they may even be very distant. All three reasons seem to apply to the these newly discovered galaxies.
Interestingly all four galaxies are grouped near each other and appear to be physically associated. Due to their great distance, viewing from Earth shows them as they were only a billion years after the Big Bang when the first galaxies formed.
Researchers plan to search for more examples of this new “species” of very red galaxies analyzing more Spitzer and Hubble observations to track them down.
Source: EarthSky
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Posted in Astronomy, Galaxy, NASA, Spitzer, tte-77 | Tagged astonomers, Center for Astrophysics, colour, discovery, distance, earth, galaxies, Harvard, hubble, image, infared, NASA, postaweek2011, red, space, Space Telescope, Spitzer, telescope | Leave a Comment »
November 30, 2011
by tte-77
Earth's atmosphere - Credit: ISS Crew Earth Observations Experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory/Johnson Space Center.
On 31 July this year Astronauts working onboard the International Space Station took this picture… simple but effective!
The picture was selected today by SPACE.com Staff as their ‘Image of the Day’. If you haven’t guessed already the picture shows the Earth’s atmosphere. Lying closest to the Earth’s surface is the orange-red troposphere, the brown transitional layer marks the tropopause (the upper edge of the troposphere) with the white/grey layer resting above it being a likely part of the stratosphere (containing noctilucent clouds according to NASA). The upper atmosphere composed of the mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere fades from blue to the blackness of space.
Here’s a thank-you to the ISS crew from all of us here at Sky-Watching!
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Posted in Astronomy, Earth, Image gallery, ISS, tte-77 | Tagged astronauts, atmosphere, camera, earth, exosphere, image, International Space Station, ISS, mesosphere, NASA, picture, postaweek2011, stratosphere, thermosphere, tropopause, troposphere | 2 Comments »
November 18, 2011
by tte-77
Russian Progress spacecraft re-entering Earth's atmosphere (click to enlarge) - Credit: NASA
Check out this stunning image of the Russian Progress spacecraft re-entering Earth’s atmosphere after a six-month stay at the International Space Station (ISS).
Released by NASA this week this image really does show Space in its beautiful natural state.
The image is one frame of a time-lapse video taken by the astronauts of Expedition 29 above the ISS as Progress 42P (Russian designation M10-M) was undocked and de-orbited on 29 October this year and depicts the curvature of the Earth, the light emitted by atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere (known as airglow), and the glare of the rising sun.
Only a little post but for a worthy cause!
Source: Earthsky.org (read the whole article here)
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Posted in Astronomy, Image gallery, ISS, tte-77 | Tagged astronaut, atmosphere, beatiful, earth, image, mission, NASA, october, photograph, postaweek2011, progress, re-entering, re-entry, russian, spacecraft, time-lapse | Leave a Comment »
