This stunning false-color picture shows off the many sides of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. It is made up of images taken by three of NASA's Great Observatories, using three different wavebands of light. Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope are colored red, visible data from the Hubble Space Telescope are yellow, and X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are green and blue. Located 10,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Cassiopeia, Cassiopeia A is the remnant of a once massive star that died in a violent supernova explosion 325 years ago. It consists of a dead star, called a neutron star, and a surrounding shell of material that was blasted off as the star died. This remnant marks the most recent supernova in our Milky Way galaxy, and is one of the most studied objects in the sky. Each Great Observatory highlights different characteristics of this celestial orb. While Spitzer reveals warm dust in the outer shell about a few hundred degrees Kelvin (80 degrees Fahrenheit) in temperature, Hubble sees the delicate filamentary structures of hot gases about 10,000 degrees Kelvin (18,000 degrees Fahrenheit). Chandra probes unimaginably hot gases, up to about 10 million degrees Kelvin (18 million degrees Fahrenheit). These extremely hot gases were created when ejected material from Cassiopeia A smashed into surrounding gas and dust. Chandra can also see Cassiopeia A's neutron star (turquoise dot at center of shell). Blue Chandra data were acquired using broadband X-rays (low to high energies), green Chandra data correspond to intermediate energy X-rays, yellow Hubble data were taken using a 900 nanometer-wavelength filter, and red Spitzer data are from the telescope's 24-micron detector.
Far Side of the Moon
title
Far Side of the Moon
description
This image of the moon was obtained by the Galileo Solid State imaging system on Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. PST as the Galileo spacecraft passed the Earth and was able to view the lunar surface from a vantage point not possible from the Earth. On the right-hand side of the image is seen the dark maria of Oceanus Procellarum, also visible from the Earth. The dark spots in the center are Mare Orientale, on the western limb of the nearside of the moon, a region barely visible from the Earth. This region and the bright far side highlands on the left have not been seen previously by a camera system such as the one on the Galileo spacecraft, which provides multispectral images of the lunar limb and far side which have not previously been obtained. Comparison of such images to those of the near-side areas from which Apollo astronauts have returned samples will help us understand the spectral properties and composition of the lunar far side. *Image Credit*: JPL
Moon Framed
title
Moon Framed
date
11.06.1998
description
Earth and its Moon are nicely framed in this image taken from the aft windows of the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998. Discovery - on mission STS-95 - was flying over the Atlantic Ocean at the time this image was taken. *Image Credit*: NASA
Moon - False Color Mosaic
title
Moon - False Color Mosaic
date
12.08.1992
description
This false-color photograph is a composite of 15 images of the Moon taken through three color filters by Galileo's solid-state imaging system during the spacecraft's passage through the Earth-Moon system on December 8, 1992. When this view was obtained, the spacecraft was 425,000 kilometers (262,000 miles) from the Moon and 69,000 kilometers (43,000 miles) from Earth. The false-color processing used to create this lunar image is helpful for interpreting the surface soil composition. Areas appearing red generally correspond to the lunar highlands, while blue to orange shades indicate the ancient volcanic lava flow of a mare, or lunar sea. Bluer mare areas contain more titanium than do the orange regions. Mare Tranquillitatis, seen as a deep blue patch on the right, is richer in titanium than Mare Serenitatis, a slightly smaller circular area immediately adjacent to the upper left of Mare Tranquillitatis. Blue and orange areas covering much of the left side of the Moon in this view represent many separate lava flows in Oceanus Procellarum. The small purple areas found near the center are pyroclastic deposits formed by explosive volcanic eruptions. The fresh crater Tycho, with a diameter of 85 kilometers (53 miles), is prominent at the bottom of the photograph, where part of the Moon's disk is missing. *Image Credit*: JPL
1-4 of 4
Please wait while the presentation is being created...
