الثلاثاء، 21 فبراير 2012
The Butterfly Nebula ll
The Butterfly Nebula ll - The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects, and NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 121,000 degrees F, the central star of this particular planetary nebula is exceptionally hot though - shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. This dramatically detailed close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded by the newly upgraded Hubble Space Telescope. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation Scorpius.
The California Nebula/NGC 1499
The California Nebula/NGC 1499 - Drifting through the Orion Arm of the spiral Milky Way Galaxy, this cosmic cloud by chance echoes the outline of California on the west coast of the United States. Our own Sun also lies within the Milky Way's Orion Arm, only about 1,500 light-years from the California Nebula. Also known as NGC 1499, the classic emission nebula is around 100 light-years long. On many images, the most prominent glow of the California Nebula is the red light characteristic of hydrogen atoms recombining with long lost electrons, stripped away (ionized) by energetic starlight. In this image, however, hydrogen is colored green, while silicon is mapped to red and oxygen mapped to blue. The star most likely providing the energetic starlight that ionizes much of the nebular gas is the bright, hot, bluish Xi Persei, just outside the right image edge. The California Nebula can be spotted with a wide-field telescope under a dark sky toward the constellation of Perseus, not far from the Pleiades.
The Milky Way Over the Peak of the Furnace
The Milky Way Over the Peak of the Furnace - A volcanic eruption before a star filled southern sky, appearing somehow contained beneath the arching band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Also visible in the background sky is the Pleiades open star cluster, the constellation of Orion, the brightest star Sirius, and the neighboring Large and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies.
Lightning Eclipse Over Greece
Lightning Eclipse Over Greece - Storm clouds parted during this total eclipse and lightning bolts contributed to the dramatic sky.
Aurora Over Alaska
Aurora Over Alaska - Puffy green aurora helps the Moon illuminate the serene lake and the snowy mountains. Although auroras might first appear to be moonlit clouds, they only add light to the sky and do not block background stars from view. Called northern lights in the northern hemisphere, auroras are caused by collisions between charged particles from the magnetosphere and air molecules high in the Earth's atmosphere. If viewed from space, auroras can be seen to glow in X-ray and ultraviolet light as well. Predictable auroras likely occur a few days after a powerful magnetic event has been seen on the Sun. — at lmage Credit: Paul Alsop/NASA (Eastern Alaska, USA - Sept. '10).
fire rainbow
'u.f.o. shaped' fire rainbow aka circumhorizontal arc over ohio - it is said to be an optical phenomenon - an ice-halo formed by plate shaped ice crystals in high level cirrus clouds. it could also theoretically be a man-induced phenomenon. — at photo by todd sladoje (dublin, ohio, u.s.a. - may '09).
Dancing Auroras of Saturn
Dancing Auroras of Saturn - Saturnian auroras can change not only with the angle of the Sun, but also as the planet rotates. Furthermore, some auroral changes appear related to waves in Saturn's magnetosphere likely caused by Saturn's moons. This image is a false-colored image that shows Saturn in three bands of infrared light. The rings reflect relatively blue sunlight, while the planet itself glows in comparatively low energy red. A band of southern aurora in visible in green. — at lmage Credit: VIMS Team/U. Arizona/U. Leicester/JPL/ASI/NASA.
Aurora Over Norway
Aurora Over Norway - Besides this spectacular mulit-colored aurora, the photographer caught three satellite streaks, one airplane streak, and a friend trying to capture the same sight. Although auroras might first appear to be moonlit clouds, they only add light to the sky and do not block background stars from view. Called northern lights in the northern hemisphere, auroras are caused by collisions between charged particles from the magnetosphere and air molecules high in the Earth's atmosphere. If viewed from space, auroras can be seen to glow in X-ray and ultraviolet light as well. Predictable auroras might occur a few days after a powerful magnetic event has been seen on the Sun. — at lmage Credit: Ole Christian Salomonsen/NASA (Tromsø, Norway - Sept. '10).
Geminid Meteor over Monument Valley
Geminid Meteor over Monument Valley - Snow-tinged image of a Geminid meteor over buttes of the Monument Valley region in the southwestern US. The meteor streak points back to the constellation Gemini and the shower's radiant point, just off the upper left edge of the scene. Along with Rigel, the sword and belt stars of Orion are at the upper right. Near the eastern horizon are bright stars Procyon (left) and Sirius. — at lmage Credit: Wally Pacholka/AstroPics.com/TWAN/NASA - (Dec. '07).
Carina Nebula
Carina Nebula - This image captures the chaotic activity atop a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks. — at lmage Credit: NASA/ESA/M. Livio/Hubble 20th Anniversary Team/STScI.
NGC 1097
NGC 1097 - Coiled galaxy with an eye-like object at its center. This spiral galaxy is located 50 million light-years away. The "eye" at the center of the galaxy is actually a monstrous black hole surrounded by a ring of stars. In this color-coded infrared image, the area around the invisible black hole is blue and the ring of stars, white. The black hole is huge, about 100 million times the mass of our sun, and is feeding off gas and dust along with the occasional unlucky star. Our Milky Way's central black hole is tame in comparison, with a mass of a few million suns. The ring around the black hole is bursting with new star formation. An inflow of material toward the central bar of the galaxy is causing the ring to light up with new stars. The galaxy's red spiral arms and the swirling spokes seen between the arms show dust heated by newborn stars. Older populations of stars scattered through the galaxy are blue. The fuzzy blue dot to the left, which appears to fit snuggly between the arms, is a companion galaxy. Other dots in the picture are either nearby stars in our galaxy, or distant galaxies. — at lmage Credit: NASA/JPL/The SINGS Team/SSC/Caltech.
Dust and the Helix Nebula
Dust and the Helix Nebula - Dust makes this cosmic eye look red. This image shows infrared radiation from the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) a mere 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. The two light-year diameter shroud of dust and gas around a central white dwarf has long been considered an excellent example of a planetary nebula, representing the final stages in the evolution of a sun-like star. But the nebula's central star itself is immersed in a surprisingly bright infrared glow. Models suggest the glow is produced by a dust debris disk. Even though the nebular material was ejected from the star many thousands of years ago, the close-in dust could be generated by collisions in a reservoir of objects analogous to our own solar system's Kuiper Belt or cometary Oort cloud. Formed in the distant planetary system, the comet-like bodies would have otherwise survived even the dramatic late stages of the star's evolution. — at lmage Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kate Su/Steward Obs./U. Arizona.
Crescent Earth
Crescent Earth from Departing Spacecraft - The Rosetta spacecraft zoomed past the Earth on its way back across the Solar System. The Earth is shown as a bright crescent phase featuring the South Pole to the passing rocket ship. — at lmage Credit: ESA/OSIRIS Team/MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA/NASA - (Nov. '09).
Ring Nebula
Ring Nebula - Hundreds of years ago astronomers noticed a nebula with a most unusual shape. It looked like a ring on the sky. Now known as M57 or NGC 6720, the gas cloud became popularly known as the Ring Nebula. It is now known to be a planetary nebula, a gas cloud emitted at the end of a Sun-like star's existence. It is one of the brightest planetary nebula on the sky, & it is in the constellation of Lyra. The Ring Nebula lies about 4,000 light years away, and is roughly 500 times the diameter of our Solar System. In this picture, dust filaments and globules are visible far from the central star. This helps indicate that the Ring Nebula is not spherical, but cylindrical. — at lmage Credit: H. Bond/Hubble Heritage Team/STScI/AURA/NASA.
Halloween's Moon
Halloween's Moon - This dramatic view of the shining lunar orb was captured on Halloween. The picture is actually two digital photos - one short and one long exposure. They were combined to bring out the details of the bright lunar surface and the fainter features in the dark, surrounding clouds, in a single image. — at lmage Credit: Miguel Claro/NASA - ('09).
Reflection Nebula in Cepheus (VdB 152)
Reflection Nebula in Cepheus (VdB 152) - The mysterious reflection nebula really is very faint. The cosmic phantom is nearly 1,400 light-years away - it lies along the northern Milky Way in the royal constellation Cepheus. Near the edge of a large molecular cloud, pockets of interstellar dust in the region block light from background stars or scatter light from the embedded bright star giving parts of the nebula a characteristic blue color. Ultraviolet light from the star is also thought to cause a dim reddish luminescence in the nebular dust. Though stars do form in molecular clouds, this star seems to have only accidentally wandered into the area, as its measured velocity through space is very different from the cloud's velocity. This deep telescopic image of the region spans about 7 light-years. — at lmage Credit: Stephen Leshin/NASA.
Zodiacal Light Over Chile
Zodiacal Light Over Chile - An unusual triangle of light. Once considered a false dawn, this triangle of light is actually Zodiacal Light, light reflected from interplanetary dust particles. The band of our Milky Way Galaxy on the left mirrors the zodiacal band. Zodiacal dust orbits the Sun predominantly in the same plane as the planets: the ecliptic. — at lmage Credit: Manel Soria/NASA (Valparaíso, Chile - July '09).
Crab Nebula (M1)
Crab Nebula (M1) - This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only tremendously complex, but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The Crab Nebula spans about 10 light-years. In the nebula's very center lies a pulsar: a neutron star as massive as the Sun but with only the size of a small town. The Crab Pulsar rotates about 30 times each second. — at lmage Credit: NASA/ESA/J. Hester/A. Loll/ASU/Davide De Martin/Skyfactory.
Fireball Meteor
Fireball Meteor - Accompanied by sonic booms and rumbling sounds, the meteor was seen to break up into bright fragments, eventually leaving a persistent smoke-like trail. Even though there are bright fireball meteors in planet Earth's atmosphere every day, sightings of them are relatively rare because they more often occur over oceans and uninhabited areas. — at lmage Credit: Robert Mikaelyan/NASA (Groningen, The Netherlands - Oct. '09).
Old Faith-Full Moon
Old Faith-Full Moon - The picture combines the regularly occurring lunar phase with Old Faithful Geyser, named for its dependable erruptions. Shining on the well-known geyser's towering pillar from behind, the moonlight creates an eerie halo surrounding convoluted shapes. The Full Moon itself is bright enough to be seen through the dense swirling steam near the top. — at lmage Credit: Jimmy and Linda Westlake/NASA (Yellowstone National Park - Sept. '09).
Fly Free in Space
Fly Free in Space - At about 1/2 a mile from the cargo bay of the space shuttle, Bruce McCandless II was farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), this astronaut was floating free in space. The MMU works by shooting jets of nitrogen and has since been used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. — at lmage Credit: STS-41B/NASA.
Evidence for a Spinning Black Hole
Evidence for a Spinning Black Hole: GRO J1655-40 - In the center of a swirling whirlpool of hot gas is likely a beast that has never been seen directly: a black hole. Studies of the bright light emitted by the swirling gas frequently indicate not only that a black hole is present, but also likely attributes. The gas surrounding GRO J1655-40, for example, has been found to display an unusual flickering at a rate of 450 times a second. Given a previous mass estimate for the central object of seven times the mass of our Sun, the rate of the fast flickering can be explained by a black hole that is rotating very rapidly. — at lmage Credit: April Hobart/CXC/NASA.
Comet Lovejoy
Comet Lovejoy - Rising in dawn's twilight, arcing above the eastern horizon, its tails are swept back by the solar wind and sunlight. Seen here is the comet's early morning appearance alongside the southern Milky Way. The short star trails include bright southern sky stars Alpha and Beta Centauri near the center of the frame, but the long bright streak that crosses the comet tails is a little closer to home. The photographer also caught the International Space Station still glinting in the sunlight as it orbits (top to bottom) above the local horizon. — at Image Credit: Carlos Caccia/NASA - (Intendente Alvear, Argentina - 12/24/11).
SN 1006 Supernova Remnant
SN 1006 Supernova Remnant - A new star, likely the brightest supernova in recorded human history, lit up planet Earth's sky in the year 1006 AD. The expanding debris cloud from the stellar explosion, found in the southerly constellation of Lupus, still puts on a cosmic light show across the electromagnetic spectrum. Now known as the SN 1006 supernova remnant, the debris cloud appears to be about 60 light-years across and is understood to represent the remains of a white dwarf star. Part of a binary star system, the compact white dwarf gradually captured material from its companion star. The buildup in mass finally triggered a thermonuclear explosion that destroyed the dwarf star. Because the distance to the supernova remnant is about 7,000 light-years, that explosion actually happened 7,000 years before the light reached Earth in 1006. Shockwaves in the remnant accelerate particles to extreme energies and are thought to be a source of the mysterious cosmic rays. — at Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Zolt/Levay/STScI.
Gliese 581g
Gliese 581g - A red dwarf star located a mere 20 light-years away in the constellation Libra. Earthbound telescopes had detected the signatures of multiple planets orbiting the cool sun, two at least close to the system's habitable zone - the region where an Earth-like planet can have liquid water on its surface. There is now a detection of another planet, this one squarely in the system's habitable zone - the first potentially habitable planet found around a very nearby star. Shown in this illustration of the inner part of the exoplanetary system, the planet is designated Gliese 581g. The best fit to the data indicates the planet has a circular 37 day orbit, and a mass 3.1 times the Earth's. Finding a habitable planet so close by suggests there are many others in our Milky Way galaxy. — at Illustration Credit: Lynette Cook/NASA.
الاثنين، 20 فبراير 2012
Northern Lights
Northern Lights - In the foreground, lights along the northern horizon give an orange cast to the low clouds. But far above the clouds, at altitudes of 50 miles or more, are alluring green and purple hues of the aurora borealis or northern lights, a glow powered by energetic particles at the edge of space. In the background are familiar stars of the northern sky. In particular, that famous celestial kitchen utensil, the Big Dipper (left), and the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia (right) are easy to spot. Then, just follow the pointer stars of the Big Dipper to Polaris, perhaps the most famous northern light of all. — at lmage Credit: Philippe Moussette/Obs. Mont Cosmos/NASA (Quebec, Canada - July '04).
Helix Nebula
Helix Nebula - The shapes of planetary nebula like the Helix are important because they likely hold clues to how stars like the Sun end their lives. lt's a single Sun-like star that created such beautiful yet geometric complexity. The Helix Nebula is the nearest planetary nebula to Earth, lies only about 700 light years away toward the constellation of Aquarius, and spans about 3 light-years. — at lmage Credit: C.R. O'Dell/Vanderbilt/ESA/NASA .
Fast Gas Bullet from Cosmic Blast N49
Fast Gas Bullet from Cosmic Blast N49 - This might be a speeding remnant of a powerful supernova that was unexpectedly lopsided. Scattered debris from supernova explosion N49 lights up the sky in this composited image. Glowing visible filaments (shown in yellow), and X-ray hot gas (shown in blue), span about 30 light-years in our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Light from the original exploding star reached Earth thousands of years ago, but N49 also marks the location of another energetic outburst - an extremely intense blast of gamma-rays. The source of that outburst is now attributed to a magnetar - a highly magnetized, spinning neutron star also born in the ancient stellar explosion which created supernova remnant N49. The magnetar, visible near the top of the image, hurtles through the supernova debris cloud at over 40 thousand miles per hour. The blue blob on the far right, however, might have been expelled asymmetrically just as a massive star was exploding. If so, it now appears to be moving over 4 million miles per hour. — at lmage Credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State/S. Park/STScI/UIUC/Y.H. Chu/R. Williams.
Color of the Moon
The Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253)
The Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253) - NGC 253 is one of the brightest & dustiest spiral galaxy's that is visible. lt lies only about ten million light-years distant in the constellation of Sculptor. lt is the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest group to our own Local Group of Galaxies. The dense dark dust accompanies a high star formation rate, giving NGC 253 the designation of starburst galaxy. Visible in this image is the active central nucleus, also known to be a bright source of X-rays and gamma rays. — at lmage Credit: Angus Lau/NASA.
Cat's Eye Nebula X-Rays
Cat's Eye Nebula X-Rays - The swirls of this glowing nebula are known to be the gaseous shroud expelled from a dying sun-like star about 3,000 light-years from Earth. This composite picture reveals surprisingly intense x-ray emission indicating the presence of extremely hot gas. X-ray emission is shown as blue-purple hues superimposed on the nebula's center. The nebula's central star itself is clearly immersed in the multimillion degree, x-ray emitting gas. Other pockets of x-ray hot gas seem to be bordered by cooler gas emitting strongly at optical wavelengths, a clear indication that expanding hot gas is sculpting the visible Cat's Eye filaments and structures. Gazing into the Cat's Eye, astronomers see the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution...in about 5 billion years. — at lmage Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/STScI.
Crab Nebula
Crab Nebula - The Crab is now known to be a supernova remnant, expanding debris from the death explosion of a massive star. This intriguing false-color image explores the debris cloud in x-rays (blue-purple), optical (green), and infrared (red) light. One of the most exotic objects known to modern astrono
mers, the Crab Pulsar, a neutron star spinning 30 times a second, is the bright spot near picture center. Like a cosmic dynamo, this collapsed remnant of the stellar core powers the Crab's emission across the electromagnetic spectrum. Spanning about 12 light-years, the Crab Nebula is 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. — at lmage Credit: NASA/CXC/J.Hester/ASU/ESA/A.Loll/JPL-Caltech/R.Gehrz/U. Minn.
Dumbbell Nebula (M27)
Dumbbell Nebula (M27) - The Dumbbell Nebula is one of the brightest planetary nebula, & the type of nebula our Sun will produce when nuclear fusion stops in its core. It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27. The colors shown in this image are emitted by hydrogen and oxygen.
The Double Ring Galaxies of Arp 147
The Double Ring Galaxies of Arp 147 - The rim of the blue galaxy pictured on the right shows an immense ring-like structure 30,000 light years in diameter composed of newly formed, extremely bright, massive stars. This blue galaxy is part of the interacting galaxy system known as Arp 147, and shows a ring because it has recently collided with the other galaxy in the frame, the red galaxy on the left. Unusually, even this red galaxy shows a ring like band, although it is seen nearly edge-on. When galaxies collide, they pass through each other - their individual stars rarely come into contact. Clouds of interstellar gas and dust become condensed, causing a wave of star formation to move out from the impact point like a ripple across the surface of a pond. — at lmage Credit: M Livio/STScI/ESA/NASA.
Mars & Colorful Lunar Fog Bow
Full Sky Aurora Over Norway
Full Sky Aurora Over Norway - Auroras rarely reach below 35 miles, and can range up to 600 miles. Aurora light results from energetic electrons and protons striking molecules in the Earth's atmosphere. Frequently, when viewed from space, a complete aurora will appear as a circle around one of the Earth's magnetic poles. This image is horizontally compressed, & captured an unexpected auroral display that stretched across the sky. — at lmage Credit: Sebastian Voltmer/NASA (Norway - Dec. '11).
Black Hole Close Up
Black Hole Close Up - A black hole has such strong gravity that light noticeably bent towards it - causing some very unusual visual distortions. Every star in the normal frame has at least two bright images - one on each side. Near a black hole, the whole sky can be seen - light from every direction is bent around and comes back. Black holes are thought to be the densest state of matter, and there is indirect evidence for their presence in stellar binary systems and the centers of globular clusters, galaxies, and quasars. — at Digital lmage Credit: Alain Riazuelo/NASA.
Gas Cloud vs. Supermassive Black Hole In Center of Galaxy
Gas Cloud vs. Supermassive Black Hole In Center of Galaxy - Recent observations indicate that a cloud of gas will venture too close to the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center. The gas cloud is being disrupted, stretched out, heated up, and some of it is expected to fall into the black hole over the next two years. In this illustration, what remains of the blob after a close pass to the black hole is shown in red and yellow, arching out from the gravitational death trap to its right. The cloud's orbit is shown in red, while the orbits of central stars are shown in blue. The infalling nebula is estimated to contain several times the mass of our Earth, while the central black hole, thought to correspond to the radio source Sagittarius A*, contains about four million times the mass of our Sun. Once it falls in, the doomed gas will never be seen again. — at Illustration Credit: ESO/MPE/Marc Schartmann/NASA.
Tycho's Nova
Horsehead Nebula
Horsehead Nebula - One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion, is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud. The red glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left. Streams of gas leaving the nebula are funneled by a strong magnetic field. Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebula's base are young stars just in the process of forming. Light takes about 1,500 years to reach us from the Horsehead Nebula. — at lmage Credit: Nigel Sharp/NOAO/KPNO/AURA/NSF/NASA.
Road To The Milky Way
Road To The Milky Way - The glowing celestial band of The Milky Way is due to the collective light of the myriad of stars along the plane of our galaxy...too faint to be distinguished individually. The diffuse starlight is cut by dark swaths of obscuring galactic dust clouds. This is a composited image. — at lmage Credit: Larry Landolfi/NASA.
close encounters with andromeda
close encounters with andromeda - the andromeda galaxy is our nearest galactic neighbor (2.4 million light years away) & one of the few that is moving towards our galaxy - one day we are slated for a close encounter, but it will not be for a long, long time. this is an artistic composite image of an evening landscape & 6.5 hours of exposure of andromeda through a computer guided telescope. — at image by charles warren.
Moon Halo
Moon Halo - Thin clouds of ice crystals hang in the cold, wintry sky creating this gorgeous lunar halo. Refraction of moonlight by the six-sided crystals produce the slightly colored halo with its characteristic radius of 22 degrees. Just below the Moon is bright star Aldebaran. Also well within the halo at the right is the Pleiades star cluster. At the lower left, near the halo's edge lie the stars of Orion with bright Capella, alpha star of the constellation Auriga, just beyond the halo near the top of the frame. — at lmage Credit: Rafael Schmall/NASA (Budapest, Hungary - 2/2/12).
Roll Cloud
Roll Cloud - These rare long clouds are a type of arcus cloud, & may form near advancing cold fronts. In particular, a downdraft from an advancing storm front can cause moist warm air to rise, cool below its dew point, and so form a cloud. When this happens uniformly along an extended front, a roll cloud may form. Roll clouds may actually have air circulating along the long horizontal axis of the cloud. A roll cloud is not thought to be able to morph into a tornado. Unlike a similar shelf cloud, a roll cloud is completely detached from their parent cumulonimbus cloud. — at Image Credit: Pierre cb/Wikipedia/NASA (Racine, Wisconsin, USA - '07).
the Seahorse of the Large Magellanic Cloud
The Seahorse of the Large Magellanic Cloud - A pillar of smoky dust about 20 light years long (or a cosmic seahorse) occurs in our neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud - it is in a star forming region very near the expansive Tarantula Nebula. The energetic nebula is creating a star cluster (NGC 2074) whose center is visible just off the top of the image in the direction of the neck of the seahorse. As young stars in the cluster form, their light and winds will slowly erode the dust pillars away over the next million years. — at lmage Credit: NASA/ESA/M. Livio/STScI.
Pileus Iridescent Cloud
Pileus Iridescent Cloud Over Ethiopia - Behind this darker cloud is a pileus iridescent cloud - a group of water droplets that have a uniformly similar size and so together diffract different colors of sunlight by different amounts. A more detailed picture of the same cloud shows not only many colors, but unusual dark and wavy bands whose origins are thought related to wave disturbances in the cloud. The wave disturbances could theoretically be man-induced by geoengineering. — at lmage Credit: Esther Havens/Light the World.
Moon, Mercury, Jupiter & Mars
Moon, Mercury, Jupiter & Mars Conjunction Sunrise - The Moon rose in predawn skies sporting a sunlit crescent. It also offered a tantalizing view of earthshine, the dark portion of the lunar disk illuminated by sunlight reflected from the Earth. On that morning a remarkable conjunction with three wandering planets added an impressive touch to the celestial scene. Along with the waning crescent Moon, the picture captures (top to bottom) bright Mercury, Jupiter, and Mars. — at lmage Credit: Mike Salway/NASA (New South Wales, Australia - Feb. '09).
Aurora Arch
Aurora Arch Over Greenland - This aurora arched from horizon to horizon. Visible straight through the center of the aurora, found with a careful eye, is the Big Dipper and the surrounding constellation of the Big Bear (Ursa Major). — at lmage Credit: Juan Carlos Casado/TWAN/NASA.
Sun Pillar
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