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IBEX Heliosphere Map - 2.8 t …
The Interstellar Boundary Ex …
10/15/09
Description The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission is a NASA-funded satellite that orbits Earth and maps the boundary of our Solar System from Earth's point of view looking outward. IBEX has completed the first all-sky maps of this boundary by detecting particles traveling inward from the boundary toward our region of the Solar System. The map appears to be oval in shape for the same reason that two-dimensional maps of spherical Earth look oval. The boundary of our Solar System is created by the interaction between charged particles from the Sun that are streaming outward, called the solar wind, and material between the stars, called the interstellar medium (ISM). The solar wind flows outward into space and carves out a protective bubble, called the heliosphere, in the ISM around our Solar System. At the boundary, the interactions between the solar wind particles and the ISM particles create energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). ENAs are particles with no charge that move very fast. Some of the ENAs happen to be traveling in just the right way so that they move inward through the Solar System toward Earth where IBEX can collect them. Using two sensors, called IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo, the spacecraft measures and counts these ENAs. The scientists can create maps of the boundary using this information. For each small area of the sky, IBEX has measured the number of ENAs coming from that direction. This map shows the distribution of ENAs ranging in energy from 2.8 to 5.6 keV. Red indicates the highest number of ENAs measured by the spacecraft. Yellow and green indicate lower numbers of ENAs, and blue and purple show the lowest number of ENAs.
Date 10/15/09
IBEX Heliosphere Map - 0.6 t …
The Interstellar Boundary Ex …
10/15/09
Description The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission is a NASA-funded satellite that orbits Earth and maps the boundary of our Solar System from Earth's point of view looking outward. IBEX has completed the first all-sky maps of this boundary by detecting particles traveling inward from the boundary toward our region of the Solar System. The map appears to be oval in shape for the same reason that two-dimensional maps of spherical Earth look oval. The boundary of our Solar System is created by the interaction between charged particles from the Sun that are streaming outward, called the solar wind, and material between the stars, called the interstellar medium (ISM). The solar wind flows outward into space and carves out a protective bubble, called the heliosphere, in the ISM around our Solar System. At the boundary, the interactions between the solar wind particles and the ISM particles create energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). ENAs are particles with no charge that move very fast. Some of the ENAs happen to be traveling in just the right way so that they move inward through the Solar System toward Earth where IBEX can collect them. Using two sensors, called IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo, the spacecraft measures and counts these ENAs. The scientists can create maps of the boundary using this information. For each small area of the sky, IBEX has measured the number of ENAs coming from that direction. This map shows the distribution of ENAs ranging in energy from 0.6 to 1.0 keV. Red indicates the highest number of ENAs measured by the spacecraft. Yellow and green indicate lower numbers of ENAs, and blue and purple show the lowest number of ENAs.
Date 10/15/09
IBEX Heliosphere Map - 1.3 t …
The Interstellar Boundary Ex …
10/15/09
Description The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission is a NASA-funded satellite that orbits Earth and maps the boundary of our Solar System from Earth's point of view looking outward. IBEX has completed the first all-sky maps of this boundary by detecting particles traveling inward from the boundary toward our region of the Solar System. The map appears to be oval in shape for the same reason that two-dimensional maps of spherical Earth look oval. The boundary of our Solar System is created by the interaction between charged particles from the Sun that are streaming outward, called the solar wind, and material between the stars, called the interstellar medium (ISM). The solar wind flows outward into space and carves out a protective bubble, called the heliosphere, in the ISM around our Solar System. At the boundary, the interactions between the solar wind particles and the ISM particles create energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). ENAs are particles with no charge that move very fast. Some of the ENAs happen to be traveling in just the right way so that they move inward through the Solar System toward Earth where IBEX can collect them. Using two sensors, called IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo, the spacecraft measures and counts these ENAs. The scientists can create maps of the boundary using this information. For each small area of the sky, IBEX has measured the number of ENAs coming from that direction. This map shows the distribution of ENAs ranging in energy from 1.3 to 2.4 keV. Red indicates the highest number of ENAs measured by the spacecraft. Yellow and green indicate lower numbers of ENAs, and blue and purple show the lowest number of ENAs.
Date 10/15/09
IBEX Heliosphere Map - 1.9 t …
The Interstellar Boundary Ex …
10/15/09
Description The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission is a NASA-funded satellite that orbits Earth and maps the boundary of our Solar System from Earth's point of view looking outward. IBEX has completed the first all-sky maps of this boundary by detecting particles traveling inward from the boundary toward our region of the Solar System. The map appears to be oval in shape for the same reason that two-dimensional maps of spherical Earth look oval. The boundary of our Solar System is created by the interaction between charged particles from the Sun that are streaming outward, called the solar wind, and material between the stars, called the interstellar medium (ISM). The solar wind flows outward into space and carves out a protective bubble, called the heliosphere, in the ISM around our Solar System. At the boundary, the interactions between the solar wind particles and the ISM particles create energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). ENAs are particles with no charge that move very fast. Some of the ENAs happen to be traveling in just the right way so that they move inward through the Solar System toward Earth where IBEX can collect them. Using two sensors, called IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo, the spacecraft measures and counts these ENAs. The scientists can create maps of the boundary using this information. For each small area of the sky, IBEX has measured the number of ENAs coming from that direction. This map shows the distribution of ENAs ranging in energy from 1.9 to 3.6 keV. Red indicates the highest number of ENAs measured by the spacecraft. Yellow and green indicate lower numbers of ENAs, and blue and purple show the lowest number of ENAs.
Date 10/15/09
IBEX Heliosphere Map - 0.9 t …
The Interstellar Boundary Ex …
10/15/09
Description The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission is a NASA-funded satellite that orbits Earth and maps the boundary of our Solar System from Earth's point of view looking outward. IBEX has completed the first all-sky maps of this boundary by detecting particles traveling inward from the boundary toward our region of the Solar System. The map appears to be oval in shape for the same reason that two-dimensional maps of spherical Earth look oval. The boundary of our Solar System is created by the interaction between charged particles from the Sun that are streaming outward, called the solar wind, and material between the stars, called the interstellar medium (ISM). The solar wind flows outward into space and carves out a protective bubble, called the heliosphere, in the ISM around our Solar System. At the boundary, the interactions between the solar wind particles and the ISM particles create energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). ENAs are particles with no charge that move very fast. Some of the ENAs happen to be traveling in just the right way so that they move inward through the Solar System toward Earth where IBEX can collect them. Using two sensors, called IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo, the spacecraft measures and counts these ENAs. The scientists can create maps of the boundary using this information. For each small area of the sky, IBEX has measured the number of ENAs coming from that direction. This map shows the distribution of ENAs ranging in energy from 0.9 to 1.5 keV. Red indicates the highest number of ENAs measured by the spacecraft. Yellow and green indicate lower numbers of ENAs, and blue and purple show the lowest number of ENAs.
Date 10/15/09
Neither Perpendicular nor Pa …
Most ISS images are nadir, i …
11/3/08
Description Most ISS images are nadir, in which the center point of the image is directly beneath the lens of the camera, but this one is not. This highly oblique image of northwestern African captures the curvature of the Earth and shows its atmosphere. The Earth's atmosphere is composed of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and 1 percent other constituents, and it shields us from nearly all harmful radiation coming from the sun and other stars. It also protects us from meteors, most of which burn up before they can strike the planet. Affected by changes in solar activity, the upper atmosphere contributes to weather and climate on Earth. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/UCSD/JSC
Date 11/3/08
Kepler Leaves Astrotech
NASA's Kepler spacecraft, en …
2/20/09
Description NASA's Kepler spacecraft, enclosed in a canister and protective cover, leaves the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. Kepler is being moved to Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.The liftoff of Kepler aboard a Delta II rocket is currently targeted for 10:48 p.m. EST March 5 from Pad 17-B. Kepler is designed to survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets, including those that lie in a star's "habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them and the first to measure how common they are. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller. Feb. 19, 2009
Date 2/20/09
Morning Sun
The morning sun reflects on …
5/6/09
Description The morning sun reflects on the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean as seen from the Apollo 7 spacecraft during its 134th revolution of the Earth on Oct. 20, 1968. Image Credit: NASA
Date 5/6/09
Eclipse View from the ISS
The International Space Stat …
6/9/08
Description The International Space Station (ISS) was in position to view the umbral (ground) shadow cast by the moon as it moved between Earth and the sun during a solar eclipse on March 29, 2006. This astronaut image captures the umbral shadow across southern Turkey, northern Cyprus and the Mediterranean Sea. Credit: NASA
Date 6/9/08
Total Eclipse of the Sun
On December 3, 2002, people …
6/9/08
Description On December 3, 2002, people in Australia received a rare 32-second celestial show as the moon completely obscured the sun, creating a ring of light. Solar eclipses provide experts an opportunity to study the sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona. This total eclipse was the first to cover Australian shores since 1976. The next is not predicted to occur for several more decades. While people in Australia were observing the solar eclipse, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft also had its eye on the sun. From its unique vantage point in space, scientists have been able to monitor the explosions on the sun that can impact us here on Earth. This image combines a photograph of the solar eclipse (showing the halo-like corona) with data taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope instrument aboard SOHO (showing the green inner regions). Image credit: NASA/ESA Text credit: NASA's Earth Observatory
Date 6/9/08
Martian Moons Transit the Su …
The upper-left of these imag …
6/9/08
Description The upper-left of these images shows the passing, or transit, of the Martian moon Deimos across the sun. This event is similar to solar eclipses seen from Earth in which our moon crosses in front of the sun. The bottom three images show Phobos, Mars's other moon, transiting the sun. The potato-shaped Phobos is roughly 15 miles across, about twice the size of Deimos. Deimos appears so much smaller because it is also a bit more than twice as far away from Mars as Phobos is. The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took images of both moons on different days in March 2004. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
Date 6/9/08
STEREO Sees Lunar Transit
This transit of the moon acr …
6/9/08
Description This transit of the moon across the sun on Feb. 25, 2007, could not be seen from Earth. This sight was visible only from the STEREO-B spacecraft in its orbit about the sun, trailing behind the Earth. NASA's STEREO mission consists of two spacecraft launched in October 2006 to study solar storms. When STEREO-B captured this image, it was about one million miles from the Earth. That's about 4.4 times farther away from the moon than we are on Earth. As a result, the moon appeared about 4.4 times smaller than what we are used to. This alignment of STEREO-B and the moon was not just due to luck. It was arranged with a small tweak to STEREO-B's orbit in December 2006. The sun as it appears here is a composite of images in four different wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light that were separated into color channels and then recombined. Image credit: NASA
Date 6/9/08
The Rare Venus Transit
NASA joined the world June 8 …
6/9/08
Description NASA joined the world June 8, 2004, in viewing a rare celestial event, one not seen by any person now alive. The "Venus transit" -- the apparent crossing of our planetary neighbor in front of the sun -- was captured from the unique perspective of NASA's sun-observing TRACE spacecraft. The top image shows Venus on the eastern limb of the sun. The faint ring around the planet comes from the scattering of its atmosphere, which allows some sunlight to show around the edge of the otherwise dark planetary disk. The faint glow on the disk is an effect of the TRACE telescope. The bottom left image is in the ultraviolet, and the bottom right image is in the extreme ultraviolet. The last "Venus transit" occurred more than a century ago, in 1882, and was used to compute the distance between Earth and the sun. Scientists with NASA's Kepler mission hope to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars by searching for transits similar to this one. If people missed the June 8, 2004, Venus transit, they will have another chance in 2012 on June 6. After that, there will not be another Venus transit until Dec. 11, 2117. Image credit: NASA/LMSAL > View QuickTime movies in ultraviolet: 4.2 Mb | 1.4 Mb
Date 6/9/08
Aug. 1 Solar Eclipse Image S …
On August 1, a total solar e …
8/4/08
Description On August 1, a total solar eclipse was visible in parts of Canada, northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia and China. The eclipse swept across Earth in a narrow path that began in Canada's northern province of Nunavut and ended in northern China's Silk Road region. Though the eclipse was not visible in most of North America, NASA TV and the Exploratorium made streaming video of the event available online. These images are taken from that video. The sun appears differently in some of the images because of the different filters used to capture the event. Times listed are approximate. At 6:54 a.m. ET, clouds began to roll in, threatening to block out the total eclipse. The clouds began to break at 7:06 a.m., and the sky cleared long enough for views of totality at 7:10 a.m. > Larger, unlabeled image Credit: NASA TV/The Exploratorium
Date 8/4/08
Arctic Eclipse
NASA's Terra satellite was r …
8/4/08
Description NASA's Terra satellite was rounding the top of the globe, making its way from the eastern tip of Siberia and across the Arctic Ocean towards northern Norway and northwest Russia, when it captured this unique view of a total solar eclipse on Aug. 1, 2008. The circular disk of the Moon casts an oval-shaped shadow across the left edge of this image. In the region of totality, where the Moon entirely obscures the Sun, the shadow is complete. The edges of the shadow are fuzzy, gradually lightening from black to red, brown, and yellow until the shadow is no longer discernable. In these areas of semi-shadow, the Sun is only partially blocked. On any other day, the photo-like view captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite would be brilliant white since both the ever-present Arctic clouds and the ice that caps the northern sea reflect light. In this image, however, it is as if the world is painted in sepia: the low light casts a yellow-brown glow on much of the scene. The image was captured between 9:35 and 9:45 UTC. In the area shown in the image, the Sun was completely obscured for about two minutes. As Earth rotated, the shadow moved southeast across the surface. At the same time, the satellite crossed the Arctic, its path nearly perpendicular to the eclipse. Because the shadow was moving across Earth's surface as the satellite approached, it has a long oblong shape in this image. In an instantaneous snapshot from a platform that was not moving relative to Earth, the shadow would be more circular. Image credit: Jeff Schmaltz, NASA's MODIS Rapid Response Team Text credit: Holli Riebeek, NASA's Earth Observatory
Date 8/4/08
JSC627_Skylab_The_2nd_Manned …
SKYLAB: THE SECOND MANNED MI …
1974
Description SKYLAB: THE SECOND MANNED MISSION, A SCIENTIFIC HARVEST JSC 627 - (1974) - 36 1/2 Minutes Astronauts: Alan L. Bean, Owen K. Garriott, and Jack R. Lousma Launch date: July 28, 1973 Covers the Skylab launch activities and docking with unmanned SL-1 workshop. Includes observations of student experiments (the Minchmog minnows and Arabella, the spider), crew medical experiments, exercise routines, and the enabling of the Earth Resources Experiments Package. Shows planet Earth documentation, manned operation of the Apollo Telescope Mount for observations of the Sun and beyond, outside EVA activity, testing of the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit, experiments to explore industrial uses of space, and the Skylab living routine.
Date 1974
Kepler Prepared for Launch
On Launch pad 17-B at Cape C …
3/4/09
Description On Launch pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, workers moved NASA's Kepler spacecraft toward the opening above the Delta II rocket. The spacecraft was lowered into the opening and mated with the Delta II for launch. Liftoff is currently set for 10:49 p.m. EST March 6. </br></br> Kepler is designed to survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets, including those that lie in a star's "habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them and the first to measure how common they are. </br></br> Image credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller</br> Feb. 21, 2009
Date 3/4/09
Kepler
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Inside …
2/9/09
Description CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Inside the Hazardous Processing Facility at Astrotech in Titusville, Fla., NASA's Kepler spacecraft is placed on a stand for fueling. Kepler is designed to survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets, including those that lie in a star's "habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them and the first to measure how common they are.
Date 2/9/09
Kepler on Launch Pad 17-B
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. On Laun …
3/5/09
Description CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. On Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the first half of the fairing is moved into place around NASA's Kepler spacecraft, atop the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. The fairing is a molded structure that fits flush with the outside surface of the rocket and forms an aerodynamically smooth nose cone, protecting the spacecraft during launch and ascent. The liftoff of Kepler aboard the Delta II rocket is currently targeted for launch in a window extending 10:49 to 10:52 p.m. EST March 6 from Pad 17-B. Kepler is designed to survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets, including those that lie in a star's "habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them and the first to measure how common they are. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
Date 3/5/09
Dave Kratz
Dave Kratz with the Climate …
5/13/08
Description Dave Kratz with the Climate Science Branch sets up the solar telescope on the great lawn in front of the Ferguson Center for the Arts for participants attending EarthFest. The connection between the sun and the Earth is important for researchers at NASA Langley as they study climate change and the balance of energy and heat in our atmosphere. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith
Date 5/13/08
CERES Ocean Validation Exper …
At the mouth of the Chesapea …
8/13/09
Description At the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay is a unique instrument platform: the Coast Guard's Chesapeake Lighthouse. Taking advantage of it's open ocean location far from typical land-based factors, Science Directorate researchers use the lighthouse to maintain a suite of instruments that provide continuous radiation measurements and validate or provide ground truth for the satellite-based CERES instruments. Collectively, the suite of instruments is called the CERES Ocean Validation Experiment (COVE). Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System -- or CERES -- data provide key knowledge about Earth's changing climate and are used to study the energy exchanged between the Sun, the Earth's atmosphere, surface and clouds, and space. COVE instruments and measurements include the Baseline Surface Radiation Network instrument suite -- uplooking shaded and unshaded broadband pyranometers, shaded pyrgeometers, downlooking pyranometers and pyrgeometers, normal incidence pyrheliometers, an AERONET sunphotometer, uplooking and downlooking multifilter rotating shadowband radiometers (MFRSRs), a micropulse lidar, pressure, temperature, relative humidity, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) global positioning system integrated precipitable water vapor (GPS-IPW), and National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) wave height and period. Fred Denn, a COVE scientist with SSAI at NASA Langley, adjusts an instrument on the lookout tower of the lighthouse, about 120 feet (36.5 m) above the ocean surface. Langley researchers travel to the lighthouse every few weeks to adjust and maintain the instruments and conduct research. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith
Date 8/13/09
Gemini -- June 1965
Astronaut Edward H. White, p …
7/16/08
Description Astronaut Edward H. White, pilot for the Gemini IV spaceflight, floats in space during the first spacewalk by an American. The extravehicular activity, or spacewalk, was performed during the third Earth orbit of the Gemini IV mission. White is attached to the spacecraft by a 25-foot umbilical line and a 23-foot tether line, both wrapped in gold tape to form one cord. In his right hand White carries a Hand-Held Self-Maneuvering Unit. The visor of his helmet is gold-plated to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun.
Date 7/16/08
What is a Tide?
In this NASA video segment l …
2008
Description In this NASA video segment learn how the Sun, moon, and gravity all play a role in the creation of tides and waves. Color animation demonstrates how the moon, Sun, and Earth interact to create tides. A quick overview of waves is demonstrated in this video segment. This video is a NASA eClips (TM) program.
Date 2008
Sun-Earth Day
Michael Sandras, a member of …
4/11/07
Description Michael Sandras, a member of the Pontchartrain Astronomical Society, explains his solar telescope to students of Second Street in Bay St. Louis, Hancock County and Nicholson elementary schools in StenniSphere's Millennium Hall on April 10. The students participated in several hands-on activities at Stennis Space Center's Sun-Earth Day celebration.
Date 4/11/07
Stennis hosts Gulf Pine Coun …
Tori Williams, of Brownie Gi …
10/13/07
Description Tori Williams, of Brownie Girl Scout Troop 313, builds her own `stomp rocket' with the help of adult chaperone Pamela Cottrell. The two, of Gulfport, participated in NASA Brownie Day on Oct. 13 at Stennis Space Center. They were among nearly 200 members of Brownie Girl Scout Troops within the Gulf Pines Council who took part in the day of educational activities at SSC. Brownie Day used NASA curriculum support materials to teach about the sun and its significance in our solar system. In addition to building and launching their own model rockets, the girls toured the center's portable Starlab planetarium, viewed demonstrations about living and working in space, played games of `Moon Phasers' that teach about the rotation of the moon around the earth, made bracelets with ultraviolet-sensitive beads, and other activities that celebrated Earth's very own star. They also toured StenniSphere and were able to earn their Earth and Sky and Space Explorer `Try-Its.'
Date 10/13/07
Water Detected at High Latit …
NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mappe …
9/25/09
Description NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, an instrument on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 mission, took this image of Earth's moon. It is a three-color composite of reflected near-infrared radiation from the sun, and illustrates the extent to which different materials are mapped across the side of the moon that faces Earth. Small amounts of water were detected on the surface of the moon at various locations. This image illustrates their distribution at high latitudes toward the poles. Blue shows the signature of water, green shows the brightness of the surface as measured by reflected infrared radiation from the sun and red shows an iron-bearing mineral called pyroxene. Image Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ./USGS
Date 9/25/09
The Rite of Spring
Of the countless equinoxes S …
10/15/09
Description Of the countless equinoxes Saturn has seen since the birth of the solar system, this one, captured in a mosaic of light and dark, is the first witnessed up close by an emissary from Earth Îÿ_Îÿ_Îÿ__€∆_ none other than our faithful robotic explorer, Cassini. Seen from our planet, the view of Saturn's rings during equinox is extremely foreshortened and limited. But in orbit around Saturn, Cassini had no such problems. From 20 degrees above the ring plane, Cassini's wide angle camera shot 75 exposures in succession for this mosaic showing Saturn, its rings and a few of its moons a day and a half after exact Saturn equinox, when the sun/s disk was exactly overhead at the planet's equator. The novel illumination geometry that accompanies equinox lowers the sun's angle to the ring plane, significantly darkens the rings, and causes out-of-plane structures to look anomalously bright and to cast shadows across the rings. These scenes are possible only during the few months before and after SaturnÎÿ_Îÿ_Îÿ__Îÿ__Îÿ_s equinox which occurs only once in about 15 Earth years. Also at equinox, the shadows of the planet's expansive rings are compressed into a single, narrow band cast onto the planet as seen in this mosaic. The images comprising the mosaic, taken over about eight hours, were extensively processed before being joined together. With no enhancement, the rings would be essentially invisible in this mosaic. To improve their visibility, the dark right half of the rings has been brightened relative to the brighter left half by a factor of three, and then the whole ring system has been brightened by a factor of 20 relative to the planet. So the dark half of the rings is 60 times brighter, and the bright half 20 times brighter, than they would have appeared if the entire system, planet included, could have been captured in a single image. The images were taken on Aug. 12, 2009, beginning about 1.25 days after exact equinox, using the red, green and blue spectral filters of the wide angle camera and were combined to create this natural color view. The images were obtained at a distance of approximately 526,000 miles from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 74 degrees. Image scale is 31 miles per pixel. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Date 10/15/09
New World
This artist's conception sho …
5/8/09
Description This artist's conception shows a hypothetical young planet around a cool star. A soupy mix of potentially life-forming chemicals can be seen pooling around the base of the jagged rocks. Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope hint that planets around cool stars -- the so-called M-dwarfs and brown dwarfs that are widespread throughout our galaxy -- might possess a different mix of life-forming, or prebiotic, chemicals than our young Earth. Life on our planet is thought to have arisen out of a pond-scum-like mix of chemicals. Some of these chemicals are thought to have come from a planet-forming disk of gas and dust that swirled around our young sun. Meteorites carrying the chemicals might have crash-landed on Earth. Astronomers don't know if these same life-generating processes are taking place around stars that are cooler than our sun, but the Spitzer observations show their disk chemistry is different. Spitzer detected a prebiotic molecule, called hydrogen cyanide, in the disks around yellow stars like our sun, but found none around cooler, less massive, reddish stars. Hydrogen cyanide is a carbon-containing, or organic compound. Five hydrogen cyanide molecules can join up to make adenine -- a chemical element of the DNA molecule found in all living organisms on Earth. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Date 5/8/09
Hawaiian Islands MISR
This Multiangle Imaging Spec …
12/8/00
Date 12/8/00
Description This Multiangle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR) image of five Hawaiian Islands was acquired by the instrument's vertical- viewing (nadir) camera on June 3, 2000. The image shows the islands of Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui, and Kahoolawe. The prevailing Pacific trade winds bring higher levels of rainfall to the eastern slopes of the islands, leading to a greater abundance of vegetation on the windward coasts. The small change in observation angle across the nadir camera's field-of- view causes the right-hand portion of the image to be more affected by Sun glint, making the ocean surface appear brighter. Oahu is the westernmost of the islands seen in this image. Waikiki Beach and the city of Honolulu are located on the southern shore, to the west of Diamond Head caldera. MISR is one of several Earth-observing instruments on the Terra satellite, launched in December 1999. The Terra spacecraft, the flagship of a fleet of satellites dedicated to understanding our global environment, is part of NASA's Earth Sciences Enterprise, a long-term research program dedicated to understanding how human-induced and natural changes affect our world. More information about MISR is available at online at http://www- misr.jpl.nasa.gov/ . Image credit: NASA/GSFC/JPL, MISR Team. #####
Caldera-like depression on G …
The shallow, scalloped depre …
12/16/00
Date 12/16/00
Description The shallow, scalloped depression in the center of this picture from NASA's Galileo spacecraft is a caldera-like feature 5 to 20 kilometers (3 to 12 miles) wide on Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede. Calderas are surface depressions formed by collapse above a subsurface concentration of molten material. Some shallow depressions in bright, smooth areas of Ganymede have some overall similarities to calderas on Earth and on Jupiter's moon Io. On Ganymede, caldera-like depressions may serve as sources of bright, volcanic flows of liquid water and slush, an idea supported by a Ganymede photo obtained by Galileo during its seventh orbit and available at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi- bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA01614 . In the more recent image here, from Galileo's 28th orbit, a tall scarp marks the western boundary of a caldera-like feature. The western scarp is aligned similarly to older tectonic grooves visible in the image, suggesting the feature has collapsed along older lines of weakness. The interior is mottled in appearance, yet smooth compared to most of Ganymede's bright terrain seen at high resolution. The eastern boundary of the caldera-like feature is cut by younger, grooved terrain. Small impact craters pepper the scene, but the lack of a raised rim argues against an impact origin for the caldera-like feature itself. Instead, water-rich icy lava may have once flowed out of it toward the east. If so, later tectonism could have erased any telltale evidence of volcanic flow fronts. Direct evidence for icy volcanism on Ganymede continues to be elusive. North is to the top of the picture and the Sun illuminates the surface from the left. The image, centered at -24 degrees latitude and 318 degrees longitude, covers an area approximately 162 by 119 kilometers (101 by 74 miles). The resolution is 43 meters (141 feet) per picture element. This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the Galileo mission home page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo . Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo . The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. This image was produced by Brown University, Providence, R.I., http://www.planetary.brown.edu/ . # # # # #
SEASONAL CHANGES IN MARS' NO …
These images, which seem to …
Description These images, which seem to have been taken while NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was looking directly down on the Martian North Pole, were actually created by assembling mosaics of three sets of images taken by HST in October, 1996 and in January and March, 1997 and projecting them to appear as they would if seen from above the pole. This first mosaic is a view which could not actually be seen in nature because at this season a portion of the pole would have actually been in shadow, the last view, taken near the summer solstice, would correspond to the Midnight Sun on Earth with the pole fully illuminated all day. The resulting polar maps begin at 50 degrees N latitude and are oriented with 0 degrees longitude at the 12 o'clock position. This series of pictures captures the seasonal retreat of Mars' north polar cap. October 1996 (early spring in the Northern hemisphere): In this map, assembled from images obtained between Oct. 8 and 15, the cap extends down to 60 degrees N latitude, nearly it's maximum winter extent. (The notches are areas where Hubble data were not available). A thin, comma-shaped cloud of dust can be seen as a salmon-colored crescent at the 7 o'clock position. The cap is actually fairly circular about the geographic pole at this season, the bluish "knobs" where the cap seems to extend further are actually clouds that occurred near the edges of the three separate sets of images used to make the mosaic. January 1997 (mid-spring): Increased warming as spring progresses in the northern hemisphere has sublimated the carbon dioxide ice and frost below 70 degrees north latitude. The faint darker circle inside the cap boundary marks the location of circumpolar sand dunes (see March '97 map), these dark dunes are warmed more by solar heating than are the brighter surroundings, so the surface frost sublimates from the dunes earlier than from the neighboring areas. Particularly evident is the marked hexagonal shape of the polar cap at this season, noted previously by HST in 1995 and Mariner 9 in 1972, this may be due to topography, which isn't well known, or to wave structure in the circulation. This map was assembled from WFPC2 images obtained between Dec. 30, 1996 and Jan. 4, 1997. March 30, 1997 (early summer): The cap has fully retreated to its remnant core of water-ice. This residual cap is actually almost cut into two by a large, horn-shaped canyon called Chasma Borealis which is cut deeply into the polar terrain. The HST images also reveal a curious layered terrain which is evidence of past climatic changes on Mars. The sublimation of all of the carbon dioxide has exposed the ring of dark sand dunes which encircle the North Polar Cap. Outliers of ice persist south of the polar sand sea (between the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions). The bright circular features at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock are ice-filled craters. All images were taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The color is constructed from images taken in red (673 nm) , blue (410 nm) and green (502 nm) light. The resolution at the North Pole ranges from about 115 km/pixel in October '96 to about 45 km/pixel in March '97. Credit: Phil James (Univ. Toledo), Todd Clancy (Space Science Inst., Boulder, CO), Steve Lee (Univ. Colorado), and NASA
Stardust spacecraft
An artist's concept of the S …
Description An artist's concept of the Stardust spacecraft, the fourth in NASA's series of Discovery missions. Stardust, which launches on February 7, 1999, will loop around the Sun twice, collect interstellar dust particles, then fly past the Comet Wild-2 in 2004. Stardust will capture samples of the comet's dust using a special silica gel called aerogel, a spongy, porous substance which will keep the specimens safely embedded for the return trip to Earth. The cargo will be stored in a capsule designed to separate from the spacecraft's main body and return to Earth in 2006, where it will parachute to a planned landing on a dry lake bed in Utah. The main spacecraft will continue in orbit around the Sun. The samples of comet dust will be studied by scientists, who hope to learn more about the beginnings of the Solar System. Viewed as the cosmic leftovers from planet formation, comets are rich in organic compounds and it's believed they may have played a key role in the development of life on Earth. As a Discovery mission, Stardust teams NASA with industry and universities to launch low-cost spacecraft with highly focused scientific goals in a short period of time. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Principal Investigator Dr. Don Brownlee of the University of Washington leads the team, while the spacecraft and sample return capsule are being built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, CO. This image and other background information can be found on the Stardust mission home page at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov #####
Riding a Trail of Debris
Title Riding a Trail of Debris
Description This image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the comet Encke riding along its pebbly trail of debris (long diagonal line) between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This material actually encircles the solar system, following the path of Encke's orbit. Twin jets of material can also be seen shooting away from the comet in the short, fan-shaped emission, spreading horizontally from the comet. Encke, which orbits the Sun every 3.3 years, is well traveled. Having exhausted its supply of fine particles, it now leaves a long trail of larger more gravel-like debris, about one millimeter in size or greater. Every October, Earth passes through Encke's wake, resulting in the well-known Taurid meteor shower. This image was captured by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer when Encke was 2.6 times farther away than Earth is from the Sun. It is the best yet mid-infrared view of the comet at this great distance. The data are helping astronomers understand how rotating comets eject particles as they circle the Sun.
'Mini-Me' Solar System
Title 'Mini-Me' Solar System
Description This artist's conception shows the relative size of a hypothetical brown dwarf-planetary system (below) compared to our own solar system. A brown dwarf is a cool or "failed" star, which lacks the mass to ignite and shine like our Sun. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes on an extraordinarily low-mass brown dwarf called OTS 44 and found a swirling disk of planet-building dust. At only 15 times the mass of Jupiter, OTS 44 is the smallest known brown dwarf to host a planet-forming, or protoplanetary, disk. Astronomers believe that this unusual system will eventually spawn planets. If so, they speculate that OTS 44's disk has enough mass to make one small gas giant and a few Earth-sized rocky planets. Examples of these possible planets are depicted at the bottom of this picture, circling a low-mass brown dwarf. Above, the bodies of our own solar system have been drawn to the same scale. In each system, the terrestrial planets have been enlarged and the distances between the planets and their parent bodies have been scaled down for easier viewing.
Tiny Particles, So Far Away
Title Tiny Particles, So Far Away
Description NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope recently captured these images of the star Vega, located 25 light years away in the constellation Lyra. Spitzer was able to detect the heat radiation from the cloud of dust around the star and found that the debris disk is much larger than previously thought. This side-by-side comparison, taken by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer, shows the warm infrared glows from dust particles orbiting the star at wavelengths of 24 microns (on the left in blue) and 70 microns (on the right in red). Both images show a very large, circular and smooth debris disk. The disk radius extends to at least 815 astronomical units. (One astronomical unit is the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is 150-million kilometers or 93-million miles). Scientists compared the surface brightness of the disk in the infrared wavelengths to determine the temperature distribution of the disk and then refer the corresponding particle size in the disk. Most of the particles in the disk are only a few microns in size, or 100 times smaller than a grain of Earth sand. These fine dust particles originate from collisions of embryonic planets near the star at a radius of approximately 90 astronomical units, and are then blown away by Vega's intense radiation. The mass and short lifetime of these small particles indicate that the disk detected by Spitzer is the aftermath of a large and relatively recent collision, involving bodies perhaps as big as the planet Pluto. The images are 3 arcminutes on each side. North is oriented upward and east is to the left.
The View from Within AU Micr …
Title The View from Within AU Microscopii's Disk
Description This is an artist's impression of the view from the vicinity of a hypothetical terrestrial planet and moon orbiting the red dwarf star AU Microscopii. The relatively newborn 12 million year-old star is surrounded by a very dusty disk of debris from the collision of comets, asteroids, and planetissimals swirling around the young star. Though no planets have been discovered around the star, the disk is strong circumstantial evidence for planets. Not only is it dusty, but also it is warped, possibly by the pull of one or more planets. In this view the glow of starlight reflecting off the disk creates a broad lane across the sky because the planet is in the disk's plane. Similarly, from Earth we see light reflected from interplanetary dust as the zodiacal light (though it is 1/10,000th as dusty as the AU Microcsopii disk). The star AU Microscopiii is 32 light-years from Earth. From this distance, familiar constellations are still recognizable. In the background, the Beehive cluster in Cancer the Crab is seen. Our Sun appears as a bright star in Cancer.
Jupiter-Family Comets
Title Jupiter-Family Comets
Description These images of the Jupiter-family comets Johnson (top) and Shoemaker-Levy 3 (bottom) were both taken with Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer (MIPS) at a wavelength of 24 microns. The fan-shaped region that stretches upward from Johnson's nucleus (yellow ball in the middle) represents the dust "tail" of the comet. Dust tails are created when small particles from a comet are swept backward by the Sun's radiation pressure. The image of Shoemaker-Levy 3 (bottom) does not show a dust tail. In both images the long thin trail of emission that precisely follows the orbit of the comet is believed to be a debris trail of solid material, ranging from millimeters to centimeters in size. Such particles, called meteoroids, are the same size as those that appear in meteor showers when they enter the Earth's atmosphere. Because any trace of water would evaporate in the Sun's heat, astronomers do not believe that debris trails contain ice. These meteoroids have evaded detection in previous comet images because they are relatively faint in visible light. At mid-infrared wavelengths, meteoroids give off infrared radiation. Any object with an internal temperature higher than absolute zero (-273.5 degrees Celsius or zero Kelvin) produces thermal radiation, objects in the inner solar system give off radiation at mid-infrared wavelengths. Consequently, MIPS allows astronomers to study the production of meteoroids by comets whose orbits do not cross the Earth's path. Spitzer images have also shown that there is more mass in the debris trails of comets than in their dust tails and gases. The results of Spitzer's observations are consistent with those obtained by space probes that encountered comet Halley in 1986. In Halley's case, large particles produced by the comet were not only detected, but caused significant damage to the probes.
Is There Anybody Home?
Title Is There Anybody Home?
Description NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope recently captured these infrared images of six older stars with known planets. The yellow, fuzzy blobs are stars circled by disks of dust, or "debris disks," like the one that surrounds our own Sun. Though astronomers had predicted that stars with planets would harbor debris disks, they could not detect such disks until now. Spitzer was able to sense these dusty disks via their warm infrared glows. Specifically, the presence of the disks was inferred from an excess amount of infrared emission relative to what is emitted from the parent star alone. The stars themselves are similar in age and temperature to our Sun. In astronomical terms, they are stellar main sequence stars, with spectral types of F, G, or K. These planet-bearing stars have a median age of four billion years. For reference, our Sun is classified as a G star, with an age of approximately five billion years. The disks surrounding these planetary systems are comprised of cool material, with temperatures less than 100 Kelvin (-173 degrees Celsius). They are10 times farther away from their parent stars than Earth is from the Sun, and are thought to be analogues of the comet-filled Kuiper Belt in our solar system. The contrast scale is the same for each image. The images are approximately 2 arcminutes on each side. North is oriented upward and east is to the left. The pictures were taken with the 70-micron filter of Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer. The telescope resolution at 70 microns is 17 arcseconds and there is no evidence for any emission extended beyond the telescope resolution.
A SWIRE Picture is Worth Bil …
Title A SWIRE Picture is Worth Billions of Years
Description These spectacular images, taken by the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy project, encapsulate one of the primary objectives of the Spitzer mission: to connect the evolution of galaxies from the distant, or early, universe to the nearby, or present day, universe. The larger picture (top) depicts one-tenth of the SWIRE survey field called ELAIS-N1. In this image, the bright blue sources are hot stars in our own Milky Way, which range anywhere from 3 to 60 times the mass of our Sun. The fainter green spots are cooler stars and galaxies beyond the Milky Way whose light is dominated by older stellar populations. The red dots are dusty galaxies that are undergoing intense star formation. The faintest specks of red-orange are galaxies billions of light-years away in the distant universe. The three lower panels highlight several regions of interest within the ELAIS-N1 field. The Tadpole galaxy (bottom left) is the result of a recent galactic interaction in the local universe. Although these galactic mergers are rare in the universe's recent history, astronomers believe that they were much more common in the early universe. Thus, SWIRE team members will use this detailed image of the Tadpole galaxy to help understand the nature of the "faint red-orange specks" of the early universe. The middle panel features an unusual ring-like galaxy called CGCG 275-022. The red spiral arms indicate that this galaxy is very dusty and perhaps undergoing intense star formation. The star-forming activity could have been initiated by a near head-on collision with another galaxy. The most distant galaxies that SWIRE is able to detect are revealed in a zoom of deep space (bottom right). The colors in this feature represent the same objects as those in the larger field image of ELAIS-N1. The observed SWIRE fields were chosen on the basis of being "empty" or as free as possible from the obscuring dust, gas, and stars of our own Milky Way. Because Earth is located within the Milky Way galaxy, there is always a screen of Milky Way objects blocking our view of the rest of the universe. In some places, our view of the larger universe is less obscured than others and for the most part is considered "empty." These are prime observing spots for astronomers interested in studying objects beyond the Milky Way. ELAIS-N1 is only one of six SWIRE survey fields. The full survey covers 49 square degrees of the sky, equivalent to the area covered by about 250 full moons. The SWIRE image is a 3-channel false-color composite, where blue represents visible green light (light that would appear to be blue/green to the human eye), green captures 3.6 microns, and red represents emissions at 8 microns. Interesting Note: From the Earth the SWIRE image (top image) can be seen in one square degree of sky, or a patch of sky that is approximately the size of a pea held out at arms length.
A SWIRE Picture is Worth Bil …
Title A SWIRE Picture is Worth Billions of Years
Description These spectacular images, taken by the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy project, encapsulate one of the primary objectives of the Spitzer mission: to connect the evolution of galaxies from the distant, or early, universe to the nearby, or present day, universe. The larger picture (top) depicts one-tenth of the SWIRE survey field called ELAIS-N1. In this image, the bright blue sources are hot stars in our own Milky Way, which range anywhere from 3 to 60 times the mass of our Sun. The fainter green spots are cooler stars and galaxies beyond the Milky Way whose light is dominated by older stellar populations. The red dots are dusty galaxies that are undergoing intense star formation. The faintest specks of red-orange are galaxies billions of light-years away in the distant universe. The three lower panels highlight several regions of interest within the ELAIS-N1 field. The Tadpole galaxy (bottom left) is the result of a recent galactic interaction in the local universe. Although these galactic mergers are rare in the universe's recent history, astronomers believe that they were much more common in the early universe. Thus, SWIRE team members will use this detailed image of the Tadpole galaxy to help understand the nature of the "faint red-orange specks" of the early universe. The middle panel features an unusual ring-like galaxy called CGCG 275-022. The red spiral arms indicate that this galaxy is very dusty and perhaps undergoing intense star formation. The star-forming activity could have been initiated by a near head-on collision with another galaxy. The most distant galaxies that SWIRE is able to detect are revealed in a zoom of deep space (bottom right). The colors in this feature represent the same objects as those in the larger field image of ELAIS-N1. The observed SWIRE fields were chosen on the basis of being "empty" or as free as possible from the obscuring dust, gas, and stars of our own Milky Way. Because Earth is located within the Milky Way galaxy, there is always a screen of Milky Way objects blocking our view of the rest of the universe. In some places, our view of the larger universe is less obscured than others and for the most part is considered "empty." These are prime observing spots for astronomers interested in studying objects beyond the Milky Way. ELAIS-N1 is only one of six SWIRE survey fields. The full survey covers 49 square degrees of the sky, equivalent to the area covered by about 250 full moons. The SWIRE image is a 3-channel false-color composite, where blue represents visible green light (light that would appear to be blue/green to the human eye), green captures 3.6 microns, and red represents emissions at 8 microns. Interesting Note: From the Earth the SWIRE image (top image) can be seen in one square degree of sky, or a patch of sky that is approximately the size of a pea held out at arms length.
A SWIRE Picture is Worth Bil …
Title A SWIRE Picture is Worth Billions of Years
Description These spectacular images, taken by the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy project, encapsulate one of the primary objectives of the Spitzer mission: to connect the evolution of galaxies from the distant, or early, universe to the nearby, or present day, universe. The larger picture (top) depicts one-tenth of the SWIRE survey field called ELAIS-N1. In this image, the bright blue sources are hot stars in our own Milky Way, which range anywhere from 3 to 60 times the mass of our Sun. The fainter green spots are cooler stars and galaxies beyond the Milky Way whose light is dominated by older stellar populations. The red dots are dusty galaxies that are undergoing intense star formation. The faintest specks of red-orange are galaxies billions of light-years away in the distant universe. The three lower panels highlight several regions of interest within the ELAIS-N1 field. The Tadpole galaxy (bottom left) is the result of a recent galactic interaction in the local universe. Although these galactic mergers are rare in the universe's recent history, astronomers believe that they were much more common in the early universe. Thus, SWIRE team members will use this detailed image of the Tadpole galaxy to help understand the nature of the "faint red-orange specks" of the early universe. The middle panel features an unusual ring-like galaxy called CGCG 275-022. The red spiral arms indicate that this galaxy is very dusty and perhaps undergoing intense star formation. The star-forming activity could have been initiated by a near head-on collision with another galaxy. The most distant galaxies that SWIRE is able to detect are revealed in a zoom of deep space (bottom right). The colors in this feature represent the same objects as those in the larger field image of ELAIS-N1. The observed SWIRE fields were chosen on the basis of being "empty" or as free as possible from the obscuring dust, gas, and stars of our own Milky Way. Because Earth is located within the Milky Way galaxy, there is always a screen of Milky Way objects blocking our view of the rest of the universe. In some places, our view of the larger universe is less obscured than others and for the most part is considered "empty." These are prime observing spots for astronomers interested in studying objects beyond the Milky Way. ELAIS-N1 is only one of six SWIRE survey fields. The full survey covers 49 square degrees of the sky, equivalent to the area covered by about 250 full moons. The SWIRE image is a 3-channel false-color composite, where blue represents visible green light (light that would appear to be blue/green to the human eye), green captures 3.6 microns, and red represents emissions at 8 microns. Interesting Note: From the Earth the SWIRE image (top image) can be seen in one square degree of sky, or a patch of sky that is approximately the size of a pea held out at arms length.
A SWIRE Picture is Worth Bil …
Title A SWIRE Picture is Worth Billions of Years
Description These spectacular images, taken by the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy project, encapsulate one of the primary objectives of the Spitzer mission: to connect the evolution of galaxies from the distant, or early, universe to the nearby, or present day, universe. The larger picture (top) depicts one-tenth of the SWIRE survey field called ELAIS-N1. In this image, the bright blue sources are hot stars in our own Milky Way, which range anywhere from 3 to 60 times the mass of our Sun. The fainter green spots are cooler stars and galaxies beyond the Milky Way whose light is dominated by older stellar populations. The red dots are dusty galaxies that are undergoing intense star formation. The faintest specks of red-orange are galaxies billions of light-years away in the distant universe. The three lower panels highlight several regions of interest within the ELAIS-N1 field. The Tadpole galaxy (bottom left) is the result of a recent galactic interaction in the local universe. Although these galactic mergers are rare in the universe's recent history, astronomers believe that they were much more common in the early universe. Thus, SWIRE team members will use this detailed image of the Tadpole galaxy to help understand the nature of the "faint red-orange specks" of the early universe. The middle panel features an unusual ring-like galaxy called CGCG 275-022. The red spiral arms indicate that this galaxy is very dusty and perhaps undergoing intense star formation. The star-forming activity could have been initiated by a near head-on collision with another galaxy. The most distant galaxies that SWIRE is able to detect are revealed in a zoom of deep space (bottom right). The colors in this feature represent the same objects as those in the larger field image of ELAIS-N1. The observed SWIRE fields were chosen on the basis of being "empty" or as free as possible from the obscuring dust, gas, and stars of our own Milky Way. Because Earth is located within the Milky Way galaxy, there is always a screen of Milky Way objects blocking our view of the rest of the universe. In some places, our view of the larger universe is less obscured than others and for the most part is considered "empty." These are prime observing spots for astronomers interested in studying objects beyond the Milky Way. ELAIS-N1 is only one of six SWIRE survey fields. The full survey covers 49 square degrees of the sky, equivalent to the area covered by about 250 full moons. The SWIRE image is a 3-channel false-color composite, where blue represents visible green light (light that would appear to be blue/green to the human eye), green captures 3.6 microns, and red represents emissions at 8 microns. Interesting Note: From the Earth the SWIRE image (top image) can be seen in one square degree of sky, or a patch of sky that is approximately the size of a pea held out at arms length.
A SWIRE Picture is Worth Bil …
Title A SWIRE Picture is Worth Billions of Years
Description These spectacular images, taken by the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy project, encapsulate one of the primary objectives of the Spitzer mission: to connect the evolution of galaxies from the distant, or early, universe to the nearby, or present day, universe. The larger picture (top) depicts one-tenth of the SWIRE survey field called ELAIS-N1. In this image, the bright blue sources are hot stars in our own Milky Way, which range anywhere from 3 to 60 times the mass of our Sun. The fainter green spots are cooler stars and galaxies beyond the Milky Way whose light is dominated by older stellar populations. The red dots are dusty galaxies that are undergoing intense star formation. The faintest specks of red-orange are galaxies billions of light-years away in the distant universe. The three lower panels highlight several regions of interest within the ELAIS-N1 field. The Tadpole galaxy (bottom left) is the result of a recent galactic interaction in the local universe. Although these galactic mergers are rare in the universe's recent history, astronomers believe that they were much more common in the early universe. Thus, SWIRE team members will use this detailed image of the Tadpole galaxy to help understand the nature of the "faint red-orange specks" of the early universe. The middle panel features an unusual ring-like galaxy called CGCG 275-022. The red spiral arms indicate that this galaxy is very dusty and perhaps undergoing intense star formation. The star-forming activity could have been initiated by a near head-on collision with another galaxy. The most distant galaxies that SWIRE is able to detect are revealed in a zoom of deep space (bottom right). The colors in this feature represent the same objects as those in the larger field image of ELAIS-N1. The observed SWIRE fields were chosen on the basis of being "empty" or as free as possible from the obscuring dust, gas, and stars of our own Milky Way. Because Earth is located within the Milky Way galaxy, there is always a screen of Milky Way objects blocking our view of the rest of the universe. In some places, our view of the larger universe is less obscured than others and for the most part is considered "empty." These are prime observing spots for astronomers interested in studying objects beyond the Milky Way. ELAIS-N1 is only one of six SWIRE survey fields. The full survey covers 49 square degrees of the sky, equivalent to the area covered by about 250 full moons. The SWIRE image is a 3-channel false-color composite, where blue represents visible green light (light that would appear to be blue/green to the human eye), green captures 3.6 microns, and red represents emissions at 8 microns. Interesting Note: From the Earth the SWIRE image (top image) can be seen in one square degree of sky, or a patch of sky that is approximately the size of a pea held out at arms length.
A More Spectacular Sombrero …
Title A More Spectacular Sombrero (Widescreen Version)
Description This movie shifts from the well-known visible-light picture of Messier 104 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to infrared views from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye." Viewed from Earth, the spiral galaxy is seen nearly edge-on, just six degrees away from its equatorial plane. 50,000 light-years across, the Sombrero galaxy is considered one of the most massive objects at the southern edge of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It is located 28 million light-years away, hosts a rich system of nearly 2,000 globular clusters and may harbor a super-massive black hole. In Hubble's visible light image, only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, pierced through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions. The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon.
Comet Stepping Stones
Title Comet Stepping Stones
Description This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows three of the many fragments making up Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3. The infrared picture also provides the best look yet at the crumbling comet's trail of debris, seen here as a bridge connecting the larger fragments. The comet circles around our sun every 5.4 years. In 1995, it splintered apart into four pieces, labeled A through D, with C being the biggest. Since then, the comet has continued to fracture into dozens of additional pieces. This image is centered about midway between fragments C and B, fragment G can be seen in the upper right corner. The comet's trail is made of dust, pebbles and rocks left in the comet's wake during its numerous journeys around the sun. Such debris can become the stuff of spectacular meteor showers on Earth. This image was taken on April 1, 2006, by Spitzer's multi-band imaging photometer using the 24-micron wavelength channel.
Pillars Behind the Dust
Title Pillars Behind the Dust
Description The movie begins with a visible-light picture of the southern region of our Milky Way galaxy then slowly zooms into the area imaged by NASA's Spitzer Space telescope. The dust pillars are fewer and appear dark in the visible-light view because the dust is soaking up visible light. Spitzer's infrared detectors cut through this dust, allowing it to see the heat from warm, embedded star embryos, as well as deeper, more buried pillars. The false-color image taken by Spitzer shows the "South Pillar" region of the star-forming region called the Carina Nebula. Like cracking open a watermelon and finding its seeds, the infrared telescope "busted open" this murky cloud to reveal star embryos (yellow or white) tucked inside finger-like pillars of thick dust (pink). Hot gases are green and foreground stars are blue. Not all of the newfound star embryos can be easily spotted. Eta Carinae is a behemoth of a star, with more than 100 times the mass of our Sun. It is so massive that it can barely hold itself together. Over the years, it has brightened and faded as material has shot away from its surface. Some astronomers think Eta Carinae might die in a supernova blast within our lifetime. Eta Carinae's home, the Carina Nebula, is located in the southern portion of our Milky Way galaxy, 10,000 light-years from Earth. This colossal cloud of gas and dust stretches across 200 light-years of space. Though it is dominated by Eta Carinae, it also houses the star's slightly less massive siblings, in addition to the younger generations of stars. The Spitzer image was taken by the infrared array camera on the telescope. It is a three-color composite of invisible light, showing emissions from wavelengths of 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (orange), and 8.0 microns (red). The visible-light picture is from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.
Spitzer Spies Spectacular So …
Title Spitzer Spies Spectacular Sombrero
Description NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye." In Hubble's visible light image (lower left panel), only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera (lower right panel) uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, piercing through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions. The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon.
Spitzer Spies Spectacular So …
Title Spitzer Spies Spectacular Sombrero
Description NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye." In Hubble's visible light image (lower left panel), only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera (lower right panel) uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, piercing through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions. The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon.
Spitzer Spies Spectacular So …
Title Spitzer Spies Spectacular Sombrero
Description NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye." In Hubble's visible light image (lower left panel), only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera (lower right panel) uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, piercing through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions. The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon.
Spitzer Spies Spectacular So …
Title Spitzer Spies Spectacular Sombrero
Description NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye." In Hubble's visible light image (lower left panel), only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera (lower right panel) uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, piercing through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions. The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon.
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