Duration : 0:3:21

Technorati Tags: Exploration, landscapes, mars, NASA, photography, planets, satellite, solar-system

Duration : 0:1:36

Technorati Tags: 3D, Astronomy, aviation, computer, cosmology, Exploration, mars, Program, Rover, science, Software, space, video, VRMars, VRPresents

Duration : 0:2:1

Technorati Tags: aaa, amateur, association, Astronomer, Astronomy, Celestron, mars, party, planets, sky, star, stars, telescope

Only 3 hours and 17 minutes of astronomical darkness on Saturday evening. Not many mosquitoes yet fortunately.

Comet C2008 R1 (McNaught) is now about magnitude 7.8 and expected to brighten as it nears the Sun, may get to magnitude 2 according to some predictions. Take a look around 4:15 am.

Duration : 0:4:32

Technorati Tags: 1 Ceres, Amateur Astronomy, asteroid, Astronomy, iss, jupiter, mars, mercury, messier 8, moon, saturn, space station, venus

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► Stardust in Perseus
This cosmic expanse of dust, gas, and stars covers close to three degrees on the sky in the heroic constellation Perseus. Right of center in the gorgeous skyscape is the dusty blue reflection nebula NGC 1333, about 1,000 light-years away. At that estimated distance, the field of view is about 50 light-years across. Next to NGC 1333 is the reddish glow of shocked hydrogen gas created by energetic jets and winds from stars in the process of formation.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100204.html

► Shepherd Moon Prometheus from Cassini
Another moon of Saturn has been imaged in detail by the Cassini spacecraft. Visible in an unprocessed image from 36,000 kilometers away, Prometheus’ 100-km long surface was revealed to have an interesting system of bulges, ridges, and craters. Cassini’s next major targeted flyby is of the moon Rhea.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100201.html

► Hong Kong Sky
This remarkable scene combines multiple exposures recorded from a waterside perspective in Hong Kong, China. It follows a young crescent Moon, with brilliant planet Jupiter to its left, as they set together in the western sky. Their two luminous trails are faintly paralleled by trails of background stars.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100206.html

► The Einstein Cross Gravitational Lens
Most galaxies have a single nucleus — does this galaxy have four? The strange answer leads astronomers to conclude that the nucleus of the surrounding galaxy is not even visible in this image. The central cloverleaf is rather light emitted from a background quasar. The gravitational field of the visible foreground galaxy breaks light from this distant quasar into four distinct images. The quasar must be properly aligned behind the center of a massive galaxy for a mirage like this to be evident. The general effect is known as gravitational lensing, and this specific case is known as the Einstein Cross.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

► Mars and a Colorful Lunar Fog Bow
Even from the top of a volcanic crater, this vista was unusual. For one reason, Mars (on the far upper left) was dazzlingly bright when this picture was taken, as it was nearing its brightest time of the entire year.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100202.html

► P/2010 A2: Unusual Asteroid Tail Implies Powerful Collision
First discovered on ground based LINEAR images, the object appeared unusual enough to investigate further with the Hubble Space Telescope. What Hubble saw indicates that P/2010 A2 is unlike any object ever seen before. At first glance, the object appears to have the tail of a comet. Close inspection, however, shows a 140-meter nucleus offset from the tail center, very unusual structure near the nucleus, and no discernable gas in the tail. Knowing that the object orbits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a preliminary hypothesis that appears to explain all of the known clues is that P/2010 A2 is the debris left over from a recent collision between two small asteroids. If true, the collision likely occurred at over 15,000 kilometers per hour — five times the speed of a rifle bullet — and liberated energy in excess of a nuclear bomb.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100203.html

► Dust Storm on Mars
It’s spring for the northern hemisphere of Mars and spring on Mars usually means dust storms. So the dramatic brown swath of dust (top) marking the otherwise white north polar cap in this picture of the Red Planet is not really surprising.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100205.html

► The Colors of IC 1795
This colorful cosmic portrait features glowing gas and obscuring dust clouds in IC 1795, a star forming region in the northern constellation Cassiopeia. The nebula’s colors were created by adopting the Hubble false-color palette for mapping narrow emission from oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur atoms to blue, green and red colors, and further blending the data with images of the region recorded through broadband filters.
• http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091210.html

► The International Space Station Over the Horizon
The STS-129 crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and returned to Earth. As the shuttle departed the space station, they took the above image. The ISS continues to be home for five astronauts of Expedition 21.
• http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091207.html
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Duration : 0:3:29

Technorati Tags: asteroids, astronomers, Astronomy, atlantis, cassini, cassiopeia, collisions, cross, days, earth, einstein, galaxies, gas, gravitational, hubble, Images, International, iss, lenses, lensing, mars, moons, NASA, nebulae, ngc, nucleus, perseus, pictures, prometheus, quasars, rhea, saturn, Shuttle, space, stars, Station, STS, Telescopes, VISTA, weeks

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has discovered an extrasolar planet, for the first time using direct visible-light imaging. The strange world is far-flung from its parent star, is surrounded by a colossal belt of gas and dust, and may even have rings more impressive than Saturn’s.

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Credit:
- ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)
- Visual design & Editing: Martin Kornmesser
- Animations: Martin Kornmesser & Luis Calçada
- Web Hosting: Leibniz-Rechenzentrum (LRZ)
- Web Technical Support: Lars Holm Nielsen & Raquel Yumi Shida
- Written by: Lee Pullen & Lars Lindberg Christensen
- Host: Dr. J
- Narration: Bob Fosbury
- Cinematography: Peter Rixner
- Music: movetwo
- Footage and photos: A. Fujii, Digitized Sky Survey 2, NASA, ESA, and P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley). Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)
- Directed by: Lars Lindberg Christensen

Dr. J is a German astronomer at the ESO. His scientific interests are in cosmology, particularly on galaxy evolution and quasars. Dr. J’s real name is Joe Liske and he has a PhD in Astronomy.

Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre
Garching/Munich, Germany
• http://www.eso.org
• http://www.spacetelescope.org
• http://hubblesite.org
.

Duration : 0:5:2

Technorati Tags: 22, Astro, astronomers, Astronomy, Bang, Big, black, Cast, clusters, Cobe, Cosmic, Dark, Deep, Directly, Energy, ESA, ESO, Exoplanet, Exoplanets, Field, Fomalhaut, galaxies, gamma, Hawking, HD, herschel, Holes, hubble, Hubblecast, Images, JPL, Kepler, Large, Light, mars, Matter, milky, Mission, moons, NASA, nebulae, Observes, Of, Orbiting, Physics, Planck, planet, planets, rays, Sagan, science, Shuttle, solar, space, Speed, Spitzer, stars, Station, Stellar, sun, supernova, system, telescope, Telescopes, Ultra, universe, Very, Videos, VLT, way

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► Eclipse over the Temple of Poseidon
The Moon moved to partly block the Sun for a few minutes last week as a partial solar eclipse became momentarily visible across part of planet Earth. In the above single exposure image, meticulous planning enabled careful photographers to capture the partially eclipsed Sun well posed just above the ancient ruins of the Temple of Poseidon in Sounio, Greece.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100118.html

► Dust Sculptures in the Rosette Nebula
Noted for the common beauty of its overall shape, parts of the Rosette Nebula, also known as NGC 2237, show beauty even when viewed up close. Visible above are globules of dark dust and gas that are slowly being eroded away by the energetic light and winds by nearby massive stars. Left alone long enough, the molecular-cloud globules would likely form stars and planets. The Rosette Nebula spans about 50 light-years across and lies about 4,500 light-years away.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091202.html

► Watch Jupiter Rotate
What would it be like to coast by Jupiter and watch it rotate? This was just the experience of the New Horizons spacecraft as it approached and flew by Jupiter. Visible above in the extensive atmosphere of the Solar System’s largest planet are bands and belts of light and dark clouds, as well as giant rotating storm systems seen as ovals. The robotic New Horizons spacecraft continues to speed toward the outer Solar System and has recently passed the halfway point between Earth and Pluto.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

► NGC 6992: Filaments of the Veil Nebula
Wisps like this are all that remain visible of a Milky Way star. About 7,500 years ago that star exploded in a supernova leaving the Veil Nebula, also known as the Cygnus Loop. At the time, the expanding cloud was likely as bright as a crescent Moon, remaining visible for weeks to people living at the dawn of recorded history. Today, the resulting supernova remnant has faded.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091201.html

► Dark Sand Cascades on Mars
They might look like trees on Mars, but they’re not. Groups of dark brown streaks have been photographed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on melting pinkish sand dunes covered with light frost. The image was taken near the North Pole of Mars. At that time, dark sand on the interior of Martian sand dunes became more and more visible as the spring Sun melted the lighter carbon dioxide ice. When occurring near the top of a dune, dark sand may cascade down the dune leaving dark surface streaks — streaks that might appear at first to be trees standing in front of the lighter regions, but cast no shadows.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100119.html

► Eclipses in the Shade
Eclipses are everywhere in this shady scene. The picture was taken on the Indian Ocean atoll island of Ellaidhoo, Maldives, in January 2010, during the longest annular solar eclipse for the next 1,000 years. Tall palm trees provided the shade. Their many crossed leaves created gaps that acted like pinhole cameras, scattering recognizable eclipse images across the white sands of a tropical garden near the beach. From this idyllic location near the centerline of the Moon’s shadow track, the ring of fire or annular phase of the eclipse lasted about 10 minutes and 55 seconds.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100123.html

► Dust and the NGC 7771 Group
Some 200 million light-years distant toward the constellation Pegasus, NGC 7771 is the large, edge-on spiral near center, about 75,000 light-years across, with two smaller galaxies just below it. Large spiral NGC 7769 is seen face-on to the right. Galaxies of the NGC 7771 group are interacting, making repeated close passages that will ultimately result in galaxy-galaxy mergers on a cosmic timescale.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100121.html

► Millennium Annular Solar Eclipse
The Moon’s shadow raced across planet Earth on January 15. Observers within the central shadow track were able to witness an annular solar eclipse as the Moon’s apparent size was too small to completely cover the Sun. A visually dramatic ring of fire, the annular phase lasted up to 11 minutes and 8 seconds depending on location, the longest annular solar eclipse for the next 1,000 years. This picture of the Moon’s silhouette just before mid-eclipse was taken within the eclipse path from the city of Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100122.html

► Himalayan Skyscape
Capella, alpha star of the constellation Auriga, rises over Mt. Everest in this panoramic view of the top of the world at night.
• http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091205.html
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Duration : 0:3:36

Technorati Tags: Astronomy, cygnus, days, earth, eclipses, galaxies, jupiter, mars, mergers, milky, moons, NASA, nebula, ngc, orbiter, pegasus, pictures, planets, pluto, reconnaissance, rosette, science, solar, space, Suns, supernova, surface, Systems, Telescopes, universe, veil, way, weeks

Duration : 0:5:47

Technorati Tags: Ganymede transit, great red spot, International Space Station, Io transit, iss, jupiter, mars, moon, neptune, planets, saturn, sun, uranus, venus