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Operation Ice Bridge Sees An …
An iceberg is seen out the w …
11/3/09
Description An iceberg is seen out the window of NASA's DC-8 research aircraft as it flies 2,000 feet above the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica on Wednesday, Oct., 21, 2009. This was taken on the fourth science flight of NASA's Operation Ice Bridge airborne Earth science mission to study Antarctic ice sheets, sea ice, and ice shelves. At the mid-point of this field campaign, seven flights over Antarctica have been completed in the first 13 days of Operation Ice Bridge. The mission is on track to complete its 17 planned flights by mid-November. Which flight target is flown on a given day is largely determined by difficult-to-forecast Antarctic weather conditions. Several of the instruments onboard cannot gather data through clouds. Twice so far, however, flights have been scrubbed at the last minute due to snow at the airport in southernmost Chile. As of the landing of the Oct. 27 flight, completed targets included: three flights over glaciers, two over sea ice, one over the Getz ice shelf, and one to study the topography of the ice sheet on the mission's closest approach to the South Pole. Photo Credit: NASA/Jane Peterson
Date 11/3/09
Patagonian Ice Field Flights …
This pair of images illustra …
6/1/95
Date 6/1/95
Description This pair of images illustrates the ability of multi-parameter radar imaging sensors such as the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X- band Synthetic Aperture radar to detect climate- related changes on the Patagonian ice fields in the Andes Mountains of Chile and Argentina. The images show nearly the same area of the south Patagonian ice field as it was imaged during two space shuttle flights in 1994 that were conducted five-and-a-half months apart. The images, centered at 49.0 degrees south latitude and 73.5 degrees west longitude, include several large outlet glaciers. The images were acquired by SIR-C/X-SAR on board the space shuttle Endeavour during April and October 1994. The top image was acquired on April 14, 1994, at 10:46 p.m. local time, while the bottom image was acquired on October 5,1994, at 10:57 p.m. local time. Both were acquired during the 77th orbit of the space shuttle. The area shown is approximately 100 kilometers by 58 kilometers (62 miles by 36 miles) with north toward the upper right. The colors in the images were obtained using the following radar channels: red represents the C-band (horizontally transmitted and received), green represents the L-band (horizontally transmitted and received), blue represents the L-band (horizontally transmitted and vertically received). The overall dark tone of the colors in the central portion of the April image indicates that the interior of the ice field is covered with thick wet snow. The outlet glaciers, consisting of rough bare ice, are the brightly colored yellow and purple lobes which terminate at calving fronts into the dark waters of lakes and fiords. During the second mission the temperatures were colder and the corresponding change in snow and ice conditions is readily apparent by comparing the images. The interior of the ice field is brighter because of increased radar return from the dryer snow. The distinct green/orange boundary on the ice field indicates an abrupt change in the structure of the snowcap, a direct indication of the steep meteorological gradients known to exist in this region. The bluer color of the outlet glaciers is probably due to a thin snow cover. A portion of the terminus of the outlet glacier at the top left center of the images has advanced approximately 600 meters (1,970 feet) in the five-and-a- half months between the two missions. Because of the persistent cloud cover this observation was only possible by using the orbiting, remote imaging radar system. ----- Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The radars illuminate Earth with microwaves, allowing detailed observations at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. SIR-C/X-SAR uses three microwave wavelengths: L-band (24 cm), C-band (6 cm) and X-band (3 cm). The multi-frequency data will be used by the international scientific community to better understand the global environment and how it is changing. The SIR-C/X-SAR data, complemented by aircraft and ground studies, will give scientists clearer insights into those environmental changes which are caused by nature and those changes which are induced by human activity. SIR-C was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. X-SAR was developed by the Dornier and Alenia Spazio companies for the German space agency, Deutsche Agentur fuer Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (DARA), and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), with the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft und Raumfahrt e.v.(DLR), the major partner in science, operations and data processing of X-SAR. #####
Panoramic Hubble Picture Sur …
Title Panoramic Hubble Picture Surveys Star Birth, Proto-Planetary Systems in the Great Orion Nebula
Astronomers Puzzled over Com …
Title Astronomers Puzzled over Comet LINEAR's Missing Pieces
Hubble Astronomers Feast on …
Title Hubble Astronomers Feast on an Interstellar Hamburger
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ]
Astronomers Find Smallest Ex …
Title Astronomers Find Smallest Extrasolar Planet Yet Around Normal Star
Hubble Finds that Earth is S …
Title Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst
Hubble Finds that Earth is S …
Title Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst
Hubble Finds that Earth is S …
Title Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst
Hubble Finds that Earth is S …
Title Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst
Hubble Finds that Earth is S …
Title Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst
Hubble Finds that Earth is S …
Title Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst
Hubble Finds that Earth is S …
Title Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst
Hubble Finds that Earth is S …
Title Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst
Hubble Finds Extrasolar Plan …
Title Hubble Finds Extrasolar Planets Far Across Galaxy
General Information What is a NASA Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a NASA Science Update (NSU), broadcast on NASA television. The NSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered 16 extrasolar planet candidates orbiting a variety of distant stars in the central region of our Milky Way galaxy. The planet bonanza was uncovered during a Hubble survey, called the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS). Hubble looked farther than has ever successfully been searched for extrasolar planets. Hubble peered at 180,000 stars in the crowded central bulge of our galaxy 26,000 light-years away or one-quarter the diameter of the Milky Way's spiral disk. The results will appear in the Oct. 5 issue of the journal Nature. Read more: * NASA Press Release [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2006/34/text/ ]
A Day in the Lives of Galaxi …
Title A Day in the Lives of Galaxies
Hubble Sees 'Comet Galaxy' B …
Title Hubble Sees 'Comet Galaxy' Being Ripped Apart By Galaxy Cluster
A New Twist on an Old Nebula
Title A New Twist on an Old Nebula
A New Twist on an Old Nebula
Title A New Twist on an Old Nebula
Hubble Tracks Asteroid's Sky …
Title Hubble Tracks Asteroid's Sky Trek
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ]
The Carina Nebula: Star Birt …
Title The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers is releasing one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. READ: Junior version of this article Amazing Space Learn about this story in the Star Witness, a science newspaper available on our sister site, Amazing Space. [ http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/news/archive/2007/02/ ] It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth &#151, and death &#151, is taking place. This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen during March and July 2005. Color information was added with data taken in December 2001 and March 2003 at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission.
The Carina Nebula: Star Birt …
Title The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers is releasing one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. READ: Junior version of this article Amazing Space Learn about this story in the Star Witness, a science newspaper available on our sister site, Amazing Space. [ http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/news/archive/2007/02/ ] It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth &#151, and death &#151, is taking place. This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen during March and July 2005. Color information was added with data taken in December 2001 and March 2003 at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission.
The Carina Nebula: Star Birt …
Title The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers is releasing one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. READ: Junior version of this article Amazing Space Learn about this story in the Star Witness, a science newspaper available on our sister site, Amazing Space. [ http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/news/archive/2007/02/ ] It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth &#151, and death &#151, is taking place. This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen during March and July 2005. Color information was added with data taken in December 2001 and March 2003 at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission.
The Carina Nebula: Star Birt …
Title The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme
General Information What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers is releasing one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. READ: Junior version of this article Amazing Space Learn about this story in the Star Witness, a science newspaper available on our sister site, Amazing Space. [ http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/news/archive/2007/02/ ] It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth &#151, and death &#151, is taking place. This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen during March and July 2005. Color information was added with data taken in December 2001 and March 2003 at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission.
Hubble Space Telescope Photo …
Title Hubble Space Telescope Photographs Extragalactical Stellar Nursery
HST WC/PC First Light Image
Title HST WC/PC First Light Image
Hubble Finds that Earth is S …
Title Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst
Hubble Finds that Earth is S …
Title Hubble Finds that Earth is Safe from One Class of Gamma-ray Burst
Landsat 7 Fly Over of Chile
Title Landsat 7 Fly Over of Chile
Abstract Flying over the country Chile.
Completed 2000-01-01
Landsat 7 Fly Over of Chile
Title Landsat 7 Fly Over of Chile
Abstract Flying over the country Chile.
Completed 2000-01-01
Landsat 7 Fly Over of Chile
Title Landsat 7 Fly Over of Chile
Abstract Flying over the country Chile.
Completed 2000-01-01
Blizzard in southern Chile
Title Blizzard in southern Chile
Description An early winter blizzard blanketed the Andes with snow on May 18, 2005. The storm turned tragic when nearly 400 soldiers got lost in the mountains. As of May 26, news reports say that 34 of the soldiers died and 11 remain missing. It is Chile?s largest peace-time military loss. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA?s Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this false-color image of the snow-covered region on May 25, 2005, as the clouds began to clear. Snow in this image is bright blue and clouds are white and light blue. Though the icy tops of some of the clouds are the same color as the snow, the snow clings to the ground, tracing the contours of the rugged mountains. The snow is also consistently blue, whereas the clouds are flicked with white. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team.
Chiliques Volcano, Chile
Title Chiliques Volcano, Chile
Description The Chiliques volcano, which hasn't erupted in at least 10,000 years, is now showing signs of life. This pair of images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) shows the volcano in visible and nrea-infrared light (top) and thermal infrared (lower). The thermal infrared image shows hot spots in the summit crtaer caused by magma just under the surface. For more information, read: Dormant Volcanoes Shows Signs of Life [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/redirect?http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/volcano/index.html ] Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/redirect?http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]
Chiliques Volcano, Chile
Title Chiliques Volcano, Chile
Description The Chiliques volcano, which hasn't erupted in at least 10,000 years, is now showing signs of life. This pair of images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) shows the volcano in visible and nrea-infrared light (top) and thermal infrared (lower). The thermal infrared image shows hot spots in the summit crtaer caused by magma just under the surface. For more information, read: Dormant Volcanoes Shows Signs of Life [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/redirect?http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/volcano/index.html ] Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/redirect?http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]
Earthquake in Northern Chile
Title Earthquake in Northern Chile
Description A 7.8 earthquake rattled northern Chile on June 13, 2005, at 6:44 p.m. local time, killing 11 and leaving hundreds homeless, according to the Associated Press. The large quake shook much of South America and was felt in Brasilia, Brazil, approximately 2,400 kilometers to the east and in Santiago, Chile, 1,515 kilometers to the south. The most damage occurred near the earthquake?s center in the rural, mountainous section of the Tarapaca Province, where the shaking triggered landslides and flattened houses. This topographical image of northern Chile shows the geology that produced this earthquake. The center of the earthquake is represented with a plus sign in the image. To the east, pink represents the higher elevation of the mountains, with the highest peaks tipped in white. Among the tallest is the 5,995-meter-high Cerro Sillajhuay on the border with Bolivia. The steeply changing elevation and folds in the land around the earthquake?s center make it easy to see why the earthquake caused landslides. To the west of the center, the land gradually flattens into the flat Pampa del Tamarugal, a broad green ribbon of low-elevation land. Far to the west of the region shown here, the Nazca Plate (a section of the Earth?s crust that carries part of the Pacific Ocean) pushes steadily under the South American Plate, pushing up the Andes Mountains along the western edge of South America. Earthquakes happen frequently where sections of the Earth?s crust collide, and Chile is particularly prone to geologic activity. The same conditions that give rise to earthquakes have also produced some 620 volcanoes throughout the country. The June 13 earthquake occurred east of the plate?s surface boundary, near the base of the Cordillera Occidental, a range of the Andes. The quake was centered deep in the Earth, 119 kilometers (74 miles) from the surface, where the land is being forced up by the now subducted Nazca Plate. This topographical image was created using data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) [ http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/ ]. SRTM was designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth?s surface using a radar instrument that flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000. To read more about this earthquake, please visit the United States Geological Survey?s Earthquake Hazards Program [ http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2005/uszgbu/ ]. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using Shuttle Radar Topography (SRTM) elevation data obtained from the University of Maryland?s Global Land Cover Facility.
Maipo Volcano, Chile
Title Maipo Volcano, Chile
Description The high peaks of the Andes form the backbone of South America and the political border between Chile and Argentina. Formed from the subduction of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate, the south-central Andes also includes several major volcanoes. One of the most active border volcanoes is Volcan Maipo, located just southeast of Santiago, Chile. The volcano's summit (5264m) rests in the large Diamante Caldera, and is defined by a radial drainage pattern highlighted by snow cover (center right of image). Lava flows from an 1826 eruption blocked drainage within the caldera, forming Lake Diamante. The lake is a popular tourist destination. Maipo's last significant eruption was in 1908. Imagery of the region from the International Space Station includes seasonal observations—this image shows the volcano near the southern hemisphere spring equinox. The lake, just east of Maipo's peak, is still ice covered. However, the increasing temperatures of spring are suggested by a muddy-looking streak near the lower left corner. The streak appears to be a landslide or avalanche that flowed westward down a rugged slope, possibly triggered by instability in the snowpack due to snow melt. Astronaut photograph ISS009-E-22625 [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS009&roll=E&frame=22625 ] was acquired September 14, 2004 with a Kodak 760C digital camera with a 180 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The International Space Station Program [ http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/ ] supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ ]
Flooding in Chile
Title Flooding in Chile
Description The swollen, mud-filled rivers of south-central Chile poured thick clouds of sediment into the Pacific Ocean on July 13, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image. Two days of heavy rain triggered floods and landslides across a 1,300-kilometer-long swath of Chile, affecting 95,862 people, reported the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The most severely impacted region was Bio Bio, shown here, which the Chilean president declared a disaster zone. The Bio Bio River, which shares the region's name, was swollen on July 13 compared to conditions on June 26, lower image. The river flows northwest from the Andes Mountains (shown in the large images), and empties into the Pacific Ocean. The city of Concepcion, the regional capital, is the cement-colored area at the mouth of the river. The Bio Bio seems to have cut a new channel along the southwestern edge of the city, making an island of the southern spit of land nearest the river's mouth. South of Concepcion, near the base of the wide "u" formed by the Gulf of Arauco, smaller rivers form a tan smear against the green landscape, an indication of further flooding. The large images show flooding in rivers extending for several kilometers north of Bio Bio. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team and the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC. [ http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]
Flooding in Chile
Title Flooding in Chile
Description The swollen, mud-filled rivers of south-central Chile poured thick clouds of sediment into the Pacific Ocean on July 13, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image. Two days of heavy rain triggered floods and landslides across a 1,300-kilometer-long swath of Chile, affecting 95,862 people, reported the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The most severely impacted region was Bio Bio, shown here, which the Chilean president declared a disaster zone. The Bio Bio River, which shares the region's name, was swollen on July 13 compared to conditions on June 26, lower image. The river flows northwest from the Andes Mountains (shown in the large images), and empties into the Pacific Ocean. The city of Concepcion, the regional capital, is the cement-colored area at the mouth of the river. The Bio Bio seems to have cut a new channel along the southwestern edge of the city, making an island of the southern spit of land nearest the river's mouth. South of Concepcion, near the base of the wide "u" formed by the Gulf of Arauco, smaller rivers form a tan smear against the green landscape, an indication of further flooding. The large images show flooding in rivers extending for several kilometers north of Bio Bio. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] team and the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC. [ http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]
Crumbling Comet Schwassmann- …
Title Crumbling Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 Approaches
Explanation A crumbling comet will soon pass near the Earth. Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/24mar_73p.htm ] is brightening and may even be visible to the unaided eye [ http://webvision.med.utah.edu/anatomy.html ] when the fragmented comet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040724.html ] zooms past Earth during the middle of next month. Still, the small comet poses no Earth hazard [ http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/Academy/SPACE/SolarSystem/Meteors/ImpactHazard.html ], since it will pass the Earth at about 25 times the distance of the Moon. Exactly how bright Comet Schwassman-Wachmann 3 [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann ] will get is unknown. It is even possible, althought unlikely, that debris from the comet [ http://cometography.com/pcomets/073p.html ] will have spread out enough to cause a notable meteor shower [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031116.html ]. Pictured above [ http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2006/phot-15-06.html ], Fragment B of Comet Schwassman-Wachmann 3 [ http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2006/pr-15-06.html ] was photographed two nights ago by a 8.2-meter Very Large Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990309.html ] in Chile [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile ]. Visible [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060426.html http://www.space.com/spacewatch/060414_night_sky.html ] to the lower right of the large B fragment are many mini-comets that have broken off and now orbit the Sun separately. Each mini-comet itself sheds gas and dust and so appears to have its own hazy coma. The comet [ http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/article_1704_1.asp ] will pass closest to the Sun on June 7.
Gemini South Star Trails
Title Gemini South Star Trails
Explanation Stars seem [ http://www.elkesgallery.com/astronomy.htm ] to arc through southern skies in this surrealistic [ http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/ comm544/library/images/341.html ] time exposure -- recorded before moonrise from the Gemini [ http://www.gemini.edu/ ] South [ http://www.us-gemini.noao.edu/media/ GSDedication/public.html ] Observatory, Cerro Pachon, Chile, Planet Earth [ http://www.us-gemini.noao.edu/public/pachon.html ]. During the one hour 40 minute exposure camera and tripod [ http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/I06/ I0601/I0601.HTM ] were fixed, so the concentric star trails are a reflection of Earth's [ http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/celsph.html ] daily rotation about its axis. The view looks to the south and includes the Gemini telescope enclosure in the foreground. At the apparent center of the curving trails, the South Celestial Pole [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_pole ] lies just off the upper left edge. Two faint, wide streaks track the Magellanic Clouds [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060809.html ], satellites of the Milky Way Galaxy, while a meteor flashes throught the scene just left of the observatory.
Sirius, Sun, Moon, and South …
Title Sirius, Sun, Moon, and Southern Cross
Explanation From left to right are the enclosures of Yepun ("ye-poon", Sirius [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000611.html ]), Antu ("an-too", Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000621.html ]), Kueyen ("qua-yen", Moon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991222.html ]), and Melipal ("me-li-pal", Southern Cross [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000618.html ]), pictured here as night falls at Paranal Observatory [ http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2000/ phot-15B-00.html ] in northern Chile. These are the four 8.2 meter wide telescope units of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope [ http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2000/ phot-15-00.html ] (VLT). ESO astronomers and engineers plan to combine the light [ http://www.eso.org/projects/vlt/ ] of the individual units, achieving an equivalent aperture [ http://www.seds.org/billa/bigeyes.html ] of 16.4 meters which will, for a while [ http://nastol.astro.lu.se/~torben/50m/50m.html ], constitue the biggest [ http://www.sciam.com/specialissues/1299engineering/ 1299musserbox2.html ] telescope on planet Earth [ http://www.sciam.com/specialissues/1299engineering/ 1299musser.html ]. Of course, the individual telescopes also function independently. Antu, Kueyen, and Melipal have already achieved first light with Yepun expected to operate in 2001. The telescope names [ http://www.eso.org/outreach/info-events/ut1fl/names.html ] come from the Mapuche [ http://www.uchile.cl/cultura/mapa/ artesamapuche/ingles/index.htm ] language [ http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/~arnold/mapuche/ mapudungun.html ]. They were unanimously chosen based on the winning "name-the-telescopes" essay by 17-year old Jorssy Albanez Castilla from Chuquicamata near the city of Calama.
The Farthest Explosion Yet M …
Title The Farthest Explosion Yet Measured
Explanation It happened so far away that common human distance measures [ http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmo_02.htm ] are inadequate to describe it. Furthermore, astronomers do not even claim to know exactly what happened. What is known is that satellites across our Solar System [ http://ssl.berkeley.edu/ipn3/ ] reported on 2000 January 31 a tremendous explosion of gamma rays [ http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/gamma.html ] had occurred towards some previously uninteresting direction. Soon one of the largest optical telescopes on Earth, a VLT [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990309.html ] in Chile, began to peer in the direction of the gamma ray burst [ http://www.sciam.com/0797issue/0797fishman.html ]. The VLT [ http://www.eso.org/projects/vlti/ ] not only recorded an optical counterpart [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970407.html ], shown above [ http://www.astro.ku.dk/~brian_j/grb/grb000131/ ], but also was able to estimate [ http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2000/pr-20-00.html ] that the cosmologically-induced redshift [ http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~jh8h/glossary/redshift.htm ] was an astonishing 4.5 -- placing GRB000131 [ http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0010322 ] farther across the universe than any explosion so measured. This vast distance indicates that GRB000131 occurred just as galaxies like our Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/milky_way.html ] were forming, and so qualifies gamma ray bursts [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000628.html ] as unique probes of this ancient epoch [ http://athena.ph.ic.ac.uk/papers/coldgas/node3.html ]. This result bodes well for the recently launched HETE-2 satellite [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001012.html ], which may record and help place more explosions in this distant [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000419.html ] and mysterious time-period [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970821.html ] of our universe.
Star Trails at 19,000 Feet
Title Star Trails at 19,000 Feet
Explanation In myth, Atlas [ http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/atlas.html ] holds up the heavens, but in this stunning view a mountain appears to serve as the southern night sky pivots around a snowy peak. Recorded during a climbing expedition at an altitude above 19,000 feet (temperature -18 degrees C), the picture places the South Celestial Pole [ http://solar.physics.montana.edu/YPOP/Classroom/Lessons/ Sundials/skydome_S.html ] over the Andes [ http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/andes.htm ] mountain Ojos del Salado [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojos_del_Salado ]. Topping out at over 22,000 feet, the Ojos del Salado is a stratovolcano [ http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/StratoVolcano/ description_composite_volcano.html ], the highest active volcano on planet Earth [ http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/south_america/ chile/OjosdelSalado.html ]. The time exposure lasted for an hour, recording the graceful arcing star trails [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060915.html ] along with the rising Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051004.html ] (left) and setting Magellanic clouds [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060809.html ].
A Tail of Two Hemispheres
Title A Tail of Two Hemispheres
Explanation By January 19/20 Comet McNaught's [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070122.html ] magnificent dust tail stretched for about 150 million kilometers (~1 AU), requiring images from both southern [ http://spaceweather.com/comets/ gallery_mcnaught_page14.php ] and northern [ http://spaceweather.com/comets/ gallery_mcnaught_page13.php ] hemispheres of planet Earth to take it all in. Two such views - from Cerro Paranal [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070123.html ] in Chile (left) and the Carnic Alps [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070124.html ] in Italy - are combined in this unique graphic [ http://www.ts.astro.it/McNaught.html ] that also outlines a perspective view of the comet's orbit (dotted line) and relative position of the Sun. Driven by [ http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/tail.html ] solar radiation pressure the dust tail initially points away from the Sun, but also trails outside the comet's orbit [ http://shadowandsubstance.com/ ]. Astronomers try to account [ http://www.lpi.usra.edu/books/CometsII/7006.pdf ] for the complex structure along the tail, including the pronounced striations, by considering [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/ bib_query?1980AJ.....85.1538S ] forces acting on the dust (e.g. gravity, solar wind [ http://www.phy6.org/Education/wsolwind.html ] and radiation) as well as the release time and size of the dust grains [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html ]. In the diagram, the modeled location of dust grains released at approximately the same time relative to perihelion [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070119.html ] passage, "synchrones", are shown as dashed lines. The location of grains of similar size, "syndynes", are shown as solid lines.
The Milky Way Over Paranal
Title The Milky Way Over Paranal
Explanation It's not the sky that's falling. More accurately, the Earth is rising. The Earth's rotation [ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5041127474937930014 ] gives a continually changing view to all Earth observers, including those measuring the universe at the Paranal Observatory [ http://www.eso.org/paranal/ ]. The observatory's four, massive 8.2 meter telescope units are situated on top of the 2,600 meter high mountain, Cerro Paranal [ http://www.eso.org/paranal/site/paranal.html ], in the dry Atacama Desert in northern Chile. The individual unit telescopes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050817.html ] can be used separately or in combination. Their names [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000707.html ], Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000927.html ], are taken from the Mapuche [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapuche ] language. Fittingly they translate to Sun, Moon, Evening Star, and Southern Cross [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040708.html ]. Together they are fittingly known as the European Southern Observatory [ http://www.eso.org/about-eso/ ]'s Very Large Telescope [ http://www.eso.org/projects/vlt/ ]. A higher time resolution version of the above movie is available here [ http://www.astrosurf.com/sguisard/SGU-Paranal-Voie-lactee-V4-720x576-mus-ok-en.avi ].
A Laser Strike at the Galact …
Title A Laser Strike at the Galactic Center
Explanation Why are these people shooting a powerful laser into the center of our Galaxy? Fortunately, this is not meant to be the first step in a Galactic war [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5 ]. Rather, astronomers at the Very Large Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000707.html ] (VLT) site in Chile [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile ] are trying to measure the distortions of Earth's ever changing atmosphere [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000725.html ]. Constant imaging of high-altitude atoms excited by the laser -- which appear like an artificial star [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050207.html ] -- allow astronomers to instantly measure atmospheric blurring [ http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/optics/lgsao/lgsbasics.html ]. This information is fed back to a VLT telescope mirror which is then slightly deformed [ http://www.eso.org/projects/aot/introduction.html ] to minimize this blurring. In this case, a VLT was observing our Galaxy's center [ http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~tanner/gcintro.html ], and so Earth's atmospheric blurring in that direction was needed. As for inter-galaxy warfare [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_wars ], when viewed from our Galaxy's center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050403.html ], no casualties are expected. In fact, the light from this powerful laser [ http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2007/pr-27-07.html ] would combine with light from our Sun to together appear only as bright [ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/alien/chapter/ch07.html ] as a faint and distant star.
Zodiacal Light and the False …
Title Zodiacal Light and the False Dawn
Explanation An unusual triangle of light will be particularly bright near the eastern horizon before sunrise during the next two months for observers in Earth's northern hemisphere. Once considered a false dawn [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiacal_light ], this triangle of light is actually Zodiacal Light [ http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek/zodiac.html ], light reflected from interplanetary dust particles [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010813.html ]. The triangle is clearly visible toward the left of the frame taken from the Paranal Observatory [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranal_Observatory ] in Chile [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile ] in July. Zodiacal dust [ http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/ cosmic_reference/zodydust.html ] orbits the Sun [ http://www.nineplanets.org/sol.html ] predominantly in the same plane as the planets: the ecliptic [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001014.html ]. Zodiacal light [ http://www.as.wvu.edu/~jel/skywatch/skw9810h.html ] is so bright this time of year because the dust band [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000517.html ] is oriented nearly vertical at sunrise, so that the thick air near the horizon does not block out relatively bright reflecting dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970825.html ]. Zodiacal light [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020915.html ] is also bright for people in Earth's northern hemisphere in March and April just after sunset. APOD editor to review best space pictures in Philadelphia tomorrow (Wednesday) night [ http://www.rittenhouseastronomicalsociety.org/ ]
Sher 25: A Pending Supernova …
Title Sher 25: A Pending Supernova?
Explanation No supernova [ http://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/snr.html ] has ever been predicted. These dramatic stellar explosions [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970207.html ] that destroy stars and disperse elements [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011026.html ] that compose people [ http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/popclockw ] and planets [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960819.html ] are not so well understood that astronomers can accurately predict when a star will explode - yet. Perhaps Sher 25 [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/ nph-bib_query?1997ApJ%2E%2E%2E475L%2E%2E45B&db_key=AST&nosetcookie=1 ] will be the first. Sher 25, designated by the arrow, is a blue supergiant [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001222.html ] star located just outside the star cluster and emission nebula NGC 3603 [ http://www.mpia-hd.mpg.de/STARS/NGC3603/NGC3603.html ]. Sher 25 lies in the center of an hourglass shaped nebula much like the one that surrounds the last bright supernova visible from Earth: SN1987a [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960705.html ]. Now the hourglass shaped rings around SN1987a [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970124.html ] were emitted "before" that blue supergiant exploded. Maybe Sher 25 has expelled these bipolar rings in a step that closely precedes a supernova. If so, Sher 25 [ http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/journal/issues/ ApJL/v475n1/5652/fg1.gif ] may be within a few thousand years of its spectacular finale.
The Milky Way at 5000 Meters
Title The Milky Way at 5000 Meters
Explanation Climb up to 5000 meters (16,500 feet) above sea level, near Cerro Chajnantor [ http://www.alma.nrao.edu/development/site/Chajnantor/ photos/ ] in the northern Chilean Andes [ http://www.solarviews.com/cap/earth/chile.htm ], and your night sky could encompass this cosmic vista. Recorded from that high and dry locale [ http://www.alma.nrao.edu/development/site/ ], the spectacular fish-eye image features the myriad stars and sprawling dust clouds of our Milky Way Galaxy [ http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galaxy.html ]. The direction toward the center of the Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070210.html ] is near the zenith and center of the picture, but the Galactic Center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021018.html ] itself is hidden from view, located far behind the obscuring dust. Brilliant Jupiter rules this scene just above the Milky Way's [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071020.html ] central bulge with the noticeably fainter, yellowish, giant star Antares [ http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/antares.html ] to its right. Small and faint, near the right edge of the picture is one of the Milky Way's many satellite galaxies [ http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/sattelit.html ], the Small Magellanic Cloud [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050617.html ]. The Amateur Astronomers Association of New York Presents: APOD Editor's Lecture: Tonight [ http://www.aaa.org/ ] - American Museum of Natural History
Pluto & Charon Eclipse a Tri …
Title Pluto & Charon Eclipse a Triple Star
Explanation Occasionally, a planet in our Solar System [ http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] will pass in front of a bright star. Since stars and planets take up so little space on the sky, such events are quite rare. Two months ago, however, Pluto [ http://www.nineplanets.org/pluto.html ] and its large moon Charon [ http://www.nineplanets.org/pluto.html#charon ] passed in front of a comparatively bright triple star system [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991219.html ] known as P126. By noting how P126 A dimmed, the event was useful for studying Pluto's relatively unknown atmosphere [ http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/pluto/P_atm_evolution.html ]. A Very Large Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000707.html ] in Chile [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ci.html ] using a deformable mirror [ http://www.mtwilson.edu/Science/AdapOpt/Overview/ ] to counter the blurring effect [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000725.html ] of Earth's atmosphere captured the above image [ http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/phot-21-02.html ].
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