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zxxlyzq
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Date Posted:09/03/2018 12:10 PMCopy HTML

See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

Horsehead: A Wider View 
Composition and Processing: Robert Gendler 
Image Data: ESOVISTAHLAHubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Explanation: Combined image data from the massive, ground-based VISTA telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope was used to create this wide perspective of the interstellar landscape surrounding the famous Horsehead Nebula. Captured at near-infrared wavelengths, the region's dusty molecular cloud sprawls across the scene that covers an angle about two-thirds the size of the Full Moon on the sky. Left to right the frame spans just over 10 light-years at the Horsehead's estimated distance of 1,600 light-years. Also known as Barnard 33, the still recognizable Horsehead Nebula stands at the upper right, the near-infrared glow of a dusty pillar topped with newborn stars. Below and left, the bright reflection nebula NGC 2023 is itself the illuminated environs of a hot young star. Obscuring clouds below the base of the Horsehead and on the outskirts of NGC 2023 show the tell-tale far red emission of energetic jets, known as Herbig-Haro objects, also associated with newborn stars.

MarilynH Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #61
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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:06/03/2025 12:58 PMCopy HTML


Rockymz Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #62
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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:06/03/2025 8:33 AMCopy HTML

2025 March 6
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

Starburst Galaxy Messier 94
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA

Explanation: Beautiful island universe Messier 94 lies a mere 15 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the hunting dogs, Canes Venatici. A popular target for earth-based astronomers, the face-on spiral galaxy is about 30,000 light-years across, with spiral arms sweeping through the outskirts of its broad disk. But this Hubble Space Telescope field of view spans about 7,000 light-years or so across M94's central region. The sharp close-up examines the galaxy's compact, bright nucleus and prominent inner dust lanes, surrounded by a remarkable bluish ring of young, massive stars. The massive stars in the ring appear to be less than about 10 million years old, indicating the galaxy experienced a corresponding well-defined era of rapid star formation. As a result, while the small, bright nucleus is typical of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, M94 is also known as a starburst galaxy. Because M94 is relatively nearby, astronomers can explore in detail reasons for the galaxy's burst of star formation.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:06/03/2025 7:26 AMCopy HTML

Amazing looks like a person 

Rockymz Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #64
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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:05/03/2025 8:32 AMCopy HTML

2025 March 5
The featured image shows a wide field with the 
red California Nebula on the left, the blue 
Pleiades Star Cluster on the right, and much brown 
interstellar dust in between. 
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Seven Sisters versus California
Image Credit & Copyright: Todd Anderson

Explanation: On the right, dressed in blue, is the Pleiades. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45the Pleiades is one of the brightest and most easily visible open clusters on the sky. The Pleiades contains over 3,000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. Surrounding the stars is a spectacular blue reflection nebula made of fine dustA common legend is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named. On the left, shining in red, is the California Nebula. Named for its shape, the California Nebula is much dimmer and hence harder to see than the Pleiades. Also known as NGC 1499, this mass of red glowing hydrogen gas is about 1,500 light years away. Although about 25 full moons could fit between them, the featured wide angle, deep field image composite has captured them both. A careful inspection of the deep image will also reveal the star forming region IC 348 and the molecular cloud LBN 777 (the Baby Eagle Nebula).


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:05/03/2025 7:15 AMCopy HTML

Rockymz Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #66
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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:04/03/2025 8:45 AMCopy HTML

2025 March 4
A hazy night sky shows four lined up items. The closest
two are lit-up buildings on hills. Looming large in the
background, in alignment, is a gibbous Moon, distorted and
reddened by the Earth's atmosphere. Across the Moon's face 
is a streak that is an airplane.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

A Quadruple Alignment over Italy
Image Credit & Copyright: Valerio Minato

Explanation: Why does this Moon look so unusual? A key reason is its vivid red color. The color is caused by the deflection of blue light by Earth's atmosphere -- the same reason that the daytime sky appears blue. The Moon also appears unusually distorted. Its strange structuring is an optical effect arising from layers in the Earth's atmosphere that refract light differently due to sudden differences in temperature or pressure. A third reason the Moon looks so unusual is that there is, by chance, an airplane flying in front. The featured picturesque gibbous Moon was captured about two weeks ago above TurinItaly. Our familiar hovering sky orb was part of an unusual quadruple alignment that included two historic ground structures: the Sacra di San Michele on the near hill and Basilica of Superga just beyond.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:04/03/2025 7:35 AMCopy HTML

Wow thanks Rocky 

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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:03/03/2025 9:29 AMCopy HTML

2025 March 3
A dark sky is shown above a bright desolate landscape.
The landscape is the Moon and large shadows appear, with
one being the shadow of lunar lander. A bright dot appears
over the horizon that is distant planet Earth. 
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Blue Ghost on the Moon
Image Credit: Firefly Aerospace

Explanation: There's a new lander on the Moon. Yesterday Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost executed the first-ever successful commercial lunar landing. During its planned 60-day mission, Blue Ghost will deploy several NASA-commissioned scientific instruments, including PlanetVac which captures lunar dust after creating a small whirlwind of gas. Blue Ghost will also host the telescope LEXI that captures X-ray images of the Earth's magnetosphereLEXI data should enable a better understanding of how Earth's magnetic field protects the Earth from the Sun's wind and flares. Pictured, the shadow of the Blue Ghost lander is visible on the cratered lunar surface, while the glowing orb of the planet Earth hovers just over the horizon. Goals for future robotic Blue Ghost landers include supporting lunar astronauts in NASA's Artemis program, with Artemis III currently scheduled to land humans back on the Moon in 2027.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:01/03/2025 9:39 AMCopy HTML

Rockymz Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #70
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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:01/03/2025 9:28 AMCopy HTML

2025 March 1
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

Blue Ghost to the Moon
Image Credit: Firefly Aerospace

Explanation: With spacecraft thrusters at top center, the rugged surface of the Moon lies below the Blue Ghost lander in this space age video frame. The view of the lunar far side was captured by the Firefly Aerospace lunar lander on February 24, following a maneuver to circularize its orbit about 100 kilometers above the lunar surface. The robotic lunar lander is scheduled to touch down <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@FireflySpace/streams" tomorrow, Sunday, March 2, at 3:34am Eastern Time in the Mare Crisium impact basin on the lunar near side. In support of the Artemis campaign, Blue Ghost is set to deliver science and technology experiments to the Moon, part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Blue Ghost's mission on the surface is planned to operate during the lunar daylight hours at the landing site, about 14 Earth days.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:28/02/2025 9:25 AMCopy HTML

2025 February 28
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

Athena to the Moon
Image Credit: Intuitive Machines

Explanation: Planet Earth hangs in the background of this space age selfie. The snapshot was captured by the IM-2 Nova-C lander Athena, just after stage separation following its February 26 launch to the Moon. A tall robotic lander, Athena is scheduled to touch down on Thursday, March 6, in Mons Mouton, a plateau near the Moon’s South Pole. The intended landing site is in the central portion of one of the Artemis 3 potential landing regions. Athena carries rovers and experiments as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, including a drill intended to explore beneath the lunar surface in a search for evidence of frozen water. It also carries a propulsive drone dubbed the Micro Nova Hopper. After release to the lunar surface, the autonomous drone is intended to hop into a nearby crater and send science data back to the lander.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:28/02/2025 8:07 AMCopy HTML

Rockymz Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #73
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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:27/02/2025 9:21 AMCopy HTML

2025 February 27
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

Open Star Clusters M35 and NGC 2158
Image Credit & Copyright: Evan Tsai, LATTE: Lulin-ASIAA Telescope

Explanation: Framed in this single, starry, telescopic field of view are two open star clusters, M35 and NGC 2158. Located within the boundaries of the constellation Gemini, they do appear to be side by side. Its stars concentrated toward the upper right, M35 is relatively nearby, though. M35 (also cataloged as NGC 2168) is a mere 2800 light-years distant, with 400 or so stars spread out over a volume about 30 light-years across. Bright blue stars frequently distinguish younger open clusters like M35, whose age is estimated at 150 million years. At lower left, NGC 2158 is about four times more distant than M35 and much more compact, shining with the more yellowish light of a population of stars over 10 times older. In general, open star clusters are found along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Loosely gravitationally bound, their member stars tend to be dispersed over billions of years as the open star clusters orbit the galactic center.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:27/02/2025 7:17 AMCopy HTML

Beautiful Rocky 

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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:26/02/2025 9:18 AMCopy HTML

2025 February 26
A cluster of galaxies is shown with many galaxies
around the cluster center. A close look at this center
shows that it is encompassed by a narrow ring of light.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Einstein Ring Surrounds Nearby Galaxy Center
Image Credit & Copyright: ESANASAEuclid Consortium; Processing: J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi, T. Li

Explanation: Do you see the ring? If you look very closely at the center of the featured galaxy NGC 6505, a ring becomes evident. It is the gravity of NGC 6505, the nearby (z = 0.042) elliptical galaxy that you can easily see, that is magnifying and distorting the image of a distant galaxy into a complete circle. To create a complete Einstein ring there must be perfect alignment of the nearby galaxy's center and part of the background galaxy. Analysis of this ring and the multiple images of the background galaxy help to determine the mass and fraction of dark matter in NGC 6505's center, as well as uncover previously unseen details in the distorted galaxy. The featured image was captured by ESA's Earth-orbiting Euclid telescope in 2023 and released earlier this month.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:26/02/2025 7:26 AMCopy HTML

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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:25/02/2025 11:58 AMCopy HTML

Rockymz Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #78
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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:25/02/2025 9:00 AMCopy HTML

2025 February 25
A starscape is shown with red filaments running 
diagonally from the lower left to the upper right.
Many bright blue stars are visible across the center
of the frame. 
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

M41: The Little Beehive Star Cluster
Image Credit & Copyright: Xinran Li

Explanation: Why are there so many bright blue stars? Stars are usually born in clusters, and the brightest and most massive of these stars typically glow blue. Less-bright, non-blue stars like our Sun surely also exist in this M41 star cluster but are harder to see. A few bright orange-appearing red giant stars are visible. The red-light filaments are emitted by diffuse hydrogen gas, a color that was specifically filtered and enhanced in this image. In a hundred million years or so, the bright blue stars will have exploded in supernovas and disappeared, while the slightly different trajectories of the fainter stars will cause this picturesque open cluster to disperse. Similarly, billions of years ago, our own Sun was likely born into a star cluster like M41, but it has long since drifted apart from its sister stars. The featured image was captured over four hours with Chilescope T2 in Chile.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:24/02/2025 9:34 AMCopy HTML

Rockymz Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #80
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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:24/02/2025 9:10 AMCopy HTML

2025 February 24
A slope of volcano is pictured with red glowing
lava running down its side. A dark starry sky is in
the background. Up into the sky a red column is visible.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Light Pillar over Erupting Etna
Image Credit & Copyright: Davide Caliò

Explanation: Can a lava flow extend into the sky? No, but light from the lava flow can. One effect is something quite unusual -- a volcanic light pillar. More typically, light pillars are caused by sunlight and so appear as a bright column that extends upward above a rising or setting Sun. Alternatively, other light pillars -- some quite colorful -- have been recorded above street and house lights. This light pillar, though, was illuminated by the red light emitted by the glowing magma of an erupting volcano. The volcano is Italy's Mount Etna, and the featured image was captured with a single shot during an early morning in mid-February. Freezing temperatures above the volcano's lava flow created ice-crystals either in the air above the volcano or in condensed water vapor expelled by Mount Etna. These ice crystals -- mostly flat toward the ground but fluttering -- then reflected away light from the volcano's caldera.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:22/02/2025 11:33 AMCopy HTML

Rockymz Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #82
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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:22/02/2025 9:14 AMCopy HTML

2025 February 22
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

Rima Hyginus
Image Credit & Copyright: Vincenzo Mirabella

Explanation: Rima Hyginus is a spectacular fissure, some 220 kilometers long, found near the center of the lunar near side. Easy to spot in telescopic views of the Moon, it stretches top left to bottom right across this lunar closeup. The image was made with exaggerated colors that reflect the mineral composition of the lunar soil. Hyginus crater lies near the center of the narrow lunar surface groove. About 10 kilometers in diameter, the low-walled crater is a volcanic caldera, one of the larger non-impact craters on the lunar surface. Dotted with small pits formed by surface collapse, Hyginus rima itself was likely created by stresses due to internal magma upwelling and collapse along a long surface fault. The intriguing region was a candidate landing site for the canceled Apollo 19 mission.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:21/02/2025 9:01 AMCopy HTML

2025 February 21
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

Hubble's Andromeda Galaxy Mosaic
Image Credit: NASAESAHubble Mission,
B. F. Williams (Univ Washington), Z. Chen (Univ Washington), L. C. Johnson (Northwestern),
Processing; Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Explanation: The largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble Space Telescope image data is a panoramic view of our neighboring spiral Andromeda Galaxy. With 600 overlapping frames assembled from observations made from July 2010 to December 2022, the full Hubble Andromeda Galaxy mosaic spans almost six full moons across planet Earth's sky. A cropped version shown above is nearly two full moons across and partially covers Andromeda's core and inner spiral arms. Also known as M31, the Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light-years away. That makes it the closest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. Our perspective on the spiral Milky Way is anchored to the view from the location of the Sun, a star found within the Milky Way's galactic disk. But Hubble's magnificent Andromeda mosaic offers an expansive view of a large spiral galaxy from the outside looking in. Hubble's comprehensive, detailed data set extending across the Andromeda Galaxy will allow astronomers to make an unprecedented holistic exploration of the mysteries of spiral galaxy structure and evolution.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:21/02/2025 7:41 AMCopy HTML

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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:20/02/2025 10:17 AMCopy HTML

2025 February 20
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

Messier 87
Image Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team

Explanation: Enormous elliptical galaxy Messier 87 is about 50 million light-years away. Also known as NGC 4486, the giant galaxy holds trillions of stars compared to the mere billions of stars in our large spiral Milky Way. M87 reigns as the large central elliptical galaxy in the Virgo galaxy cluster. An energetic jet from the giant galaxy's core is seen to stretch outward for about 5,000 light-years in this sharp optical and near-infrared view from the Hubble Space Telescope. In fact, the cosmic blow torch is seen across the electromagnetic spectrum from gamma-rays to radio wavelengths. Its ultimate power source is M87's central, supermassive black hole. An image of this monster in the middle of M87 has been captured by planet Earth's Event Horizon Telescope.


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:20/02/2025 7:05 AMCopy HTML

Amazing Rocky 

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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:19/02/2025 8:39 AMCopy HTML

2025 February 19
A dark field has a single, colorful, blurry structure 
in its center. Red-colored jets extend out from the center
toward the top and bottom of the frame. A dark disk covers
the center. Blue outflows appear on both sides of the 
horizontal disk. To the lower left, a larger blue outflow
extends. 
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

HH 30: A Star System with Planets Now Forming
Image CreditJames Webb Space TelescopeESANASA & CSAR. Tazaki et al.

Explanation: How do stars and planets form? New clues have been found in the protoplanetary system Herbig-Haro 30 by the James Webb Space Telescope in concert with Hubble and the Earth-bound ALMA. The observations show, among other things, that large dust grains are more concentrated into a central disk where they can form planets. The featured image from Webb shows many attributes of the active HH-30 system. Jets of particles are being expelled vertically, shown in red, while a dark dust-rich disk is seen across the center, blocking the light from the star or stars still forming there. Blue-reflecting dust is seen in a parabolic arc above and below the central disk, although why a tail appears on the lower left is currently unknown. Studying how planets form in HH 30 can help astronomers better understand how planets in our own Solar System once formed, including our Earth.



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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:19/02/2025 7:18 AMCopy HTML

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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:18/02/2025 9:31 AMCopy HTML

2025 February 18
A tall starscape appears to have two bright nebulas.
The large one at the top is colored mostly red and is known
as the Seagull Nebula. The small one near the bottom right
is known as Thor's Helmet. 
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Thor's Helmet versus the Seagull
Image Credit & Copyright: Nicolas Martino, Adrien Soto, Louis Leroux & Yann Sainty

Explanation: Seen as a seagull and a duck, these nebulae are not the only cosmic clouds to evoke images of flight. But both are winging their way across this broad celestial landscape, spanning almost 7 degrees across planet Earth's night sky toward the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major). The expansive Seagull (top center) is itself composed of two major cataloged emission nebulas. Brighter NGC 2327 forms the head with the more diffuse IC 2177 as the wings and body. Impressively, the Seagull's wingspan would correspond to about 250 light-years at the nebula's estimated distance of 3,800 light-years. At the lower right, the Duck appears much more compact and would span only about 50 light-years given its 15,000 light-year distance estimate. Blown by energetic winds from an extremely massive, hot star near its center, the Duck nebula is cataloged as NGC 2359. Of course, the Duck's thick body and winged appendages also lend it the slightly more dramatic popular moniker, Thor's Helmet


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Re:NASA pics

Date Posted:18/02/2025 7:31 AMCopy HTML

Amazing Rocky x

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