Astronomy pictures

[striker2]

As an astrophysics major I find the universe to be an amazingly beautiful place and am always looking for "new" photos. When I find something I will post them here and encourage anyone else to do the same.

Todays picture is taken from the Cassini spacecraft as it went into the shadow of Saturn and looked back at the eclipse of the Sun. The colors are exaggerated but show the rings beautifully and how they reflect enough light to even partially light the night side of Saturn. You can even see the pale blue dot of Earth just above the left side of the bright main rings.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0610/newrings_cassini.jpg
Image taken from NASA's astronomy picture of the day website (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061016.html)

[j2k4]

That's sorta fantastic. :)

Fits, too, with my just having finished reading Saturn Run, John Sandford's first SciFi effort.

Thanks!

[CoopKill]

I am a grab anything available addict! All the shows on the Tube, and even find some of that fringe group The Electric Universe fascinating. :bigthumb:

[striker2]

http://www.paulruffle.com/images/EagleNebulaSpire.jpg


A giant molecular cloud in the Eagle Nebula (M16). This spire is about 9.5 light years high (~9*10^13km) and is composed of cold gas and dust obscuring the light from young stars behind. The ultraviolet light from the hot young stars in the neighborhood energizes the gas causing emission. The blue color at the top is from glowing oxygen. The red color below that is from glowing hydrogen. The image was taken in November 2004 from the Hubble space telescope.

[striker2]

Today I have the Andromeda galaxy shown in the highest resolution picture ever. The full file is 4.3GB and would take over 600 HD TV's to display at once. The first link is an interactive zoomable version that you can zoom in and pan around the picture. The second is a 4K video doing zooming in from the view from Earth (obviously the 4K video needs a good internet connection). In the picture, the large, bright points are stars that in the foreground (within our own Milky Way Galaxy) while each of the tiny points of light is a star in Andromeda. As you zoom in and pan over towards the center of the galaxy it goes almost solid white, because the density of stars there is so high that even with the resolution in this image you cant distinguish them from each other.

Sharpest ever view of the Andromeda Galaxy (http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1502a/zoomable/)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udAL48P5NJU



Andromeda is the nearest galaxy to the us, at about 2.5 billion light years away, and is on a collision course with the Milky Way. Dont worry though, the distance between stars is such that a collision between two stars at that time is nearly impossible.

[CoopKill]

I go on geek fests every few weeks, and zombie out on sites like World Science U (http://www.worldscienceu.com/)

I need to do some investigating (lol Time, none), but what is up with this new giant planet in our solar system they think is there?

[striker2]

Basically there is a handful of Kuiper belt objects that all orbit the Sun in a very unique way, one that almost must have been caused by a large gravitational effect. A large planet, about 10 Earth masses, that is orbiting very far out, the closest it would get to the Sun is ~200AU (1AU=1.5*10^8km) and the farthest would be ~600-1200AU, would cause such unique orbits of the group of KBO's. The math and models say its likely there, but until we can actually see it with a telescope it will remain unconfirmed.

Here is a decent article (with a video)
Astronomers say a Neptune-sized planet lurks beyond Pluto | Science | AAAS (http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/feature-astronomers-say-neptune-sized-planet-lurks-unseen-solar-system)

[striker2]

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/15-217-master.png?itok=vOANh4PF


This is a rendering of a solar storm hitting Mars and stripping ions from its upper atmosphere. This image was designed by one of my Professors last semester (Dr David Brain) who is a member of the MAVEN mission.

[CoopKill]

Do you know what spectrum it was taken from, or multiple?

[striker2]

That is just a rendering, not an actual picture taken by MAVEN, that represents the data collected by the MAVEN team.

[striker2]

Most everybody has seen the "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle Nebula (M16)

http://www.space.com/images/i/000/044/723/original/pillars-of-creation-eagle-nebula-new-image.jpg?1420556219?




But NASA recently released a newer picture, this time taken in infrared, that shows the large number of stars in the heart of the clouds (and through out the rest of the nebula).

http://www.space.com/images/i/000/044/725/original/eagle-nebula-pillars-of-creation-infrared.jpg?1420556482?

[striker2]

As of this morning its official, gravitational waves have been detected confirming Einsteins hypothesis of them in general relativity 100 years ago. The waves that were detected come from the merging of 2 large black holes that occured ~1.3 billion years ago.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1602/BHmerger_LIGO_960.jpg

[CoopKill]

Dude was a smart mofo!

[striker2]

Dude was a smart mofo!

Yeah he was. Although he never won a Nobel prize for any of his work on relativity (general or special) but many people have won one for since for confirming various parts of relativity. His only Nobel prize came from his work on the photoelectric effect.