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If your eyes could only see the color red, this is how Saturn's rings would look. Many Cassini color images, like this one, are taken in red light so scientists can study the often subtle color variations of Saturn's rings. These variations may reveal clues about the chemical composition and physical nature of the rings. For example, the longer a surface is exposed to the harsh environment in space, the redder it becomes. Putting together many clues derived from such images, scientists are coming to a deeper understanding of the rings without ever actually visiting a single ring particle. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 11 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 6, 2014. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 27 degrees. Image scale is 5 miles (8 kilometers) per pixel. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute; -
Aboard the International Space Station (@ISS), astronaut Barry (Butch) Wilmore snapped this photo and wrote, "Spiral of lights BURSTING from Earth! #Spain looks like it is floating away from #Africa" As the second resupply ship this week prepares to leave the space station another spacecraft is being readied for its launch. Meanwhile, the six-member Expedition 42 crew was working a variety of maintenance and science tasks this week. Image Credit: NASA #space #nasa #iss #isscargo #spacestation #exp42 #sun #earth #science #astrobutch #photography #clouds #night #atmosphere #Mediterranean; -
Exploded Star Blooms Like a Cosmic Flower: Because the debris fields of exploded stars, known as supernova remnants, are very hot, energetic, and glow brightly in X-ray light, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has proven to be a valuable tool in studying them. The supernova remnant called G299.2-2.9 (or G299 for short) is located within our Milky Way galaxy, but Chandra’s new image of it is reminiscent of a beautiful flower here on Earth. G299 was left over by a particular class of supernovas called Type Ia. Astronomers think that a Type Ia supernova is a thermonuclear explosion – involving the fusion of elements and release of vast amounts of energy − of a white dwarf star in a tight orbit with a companion star. If the white dwarf’s partner is a typical, Sun-like star, the white dwarf can become unstable and explode as it draws material from its companion. Alternatively, the white dwarf is in orbit with another white dwarf, the two may merge and can trigger an explosion. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/U.Texas #nasa #chandra #space #supernova #astronomy #science; -
And liftoff for @NOAA’s new deep space solar monitoring satellite! A new mission to monitor solar activity is now making its way to an orbit one million miles from Earth. The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:03 p.m. EST Wednesday from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. DSCOVR, a partnership among the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA and the U.S. Air Force, will provide NOAA space weather forecasters more reliable measurements of solar wind conditions, improving their ability to monitor potentially harmful solar activity. Image Credit: NASA #dscovr #nasa #noaa #satellite #space #science #sun #weather #spacecraft #launch #solarstorm #solarwind #nature #solarsystem #instacool; -
Astronaut Barry 'Butch' Wilmore shared this amazing view of the aurora seen from the International Space Station saying that it showed "dancing, swirling, swimming, pulsing, bridging" and that it was "amazing." The dancing lights of the aurora provide spectacular views of incoming energy and particles from the sun. Aurora are one effect of these energetic particles, which can speed out from the sun both in a steady stream called the solar wind and due to giant eruptions known as coronal mass ejections or CMEs. After a trip toward Earth that can last two to three days, the solar particles and magnetic fields cause the release of particles already trapped near Earth, which in turn trigger reactions in the upper atmosphere in which oxygen and nitrogen molecules release photons of light. The result: an aurora, and a special sight for the astronauts on board the space station. Video credit: NASA/Barry Wilmore;
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A dark line snaked across the lower half of the sun on Feb.10, 2015, as seen in this image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO. SDO shows colder material as dark and hotter material as light, so the line is, in fact, an enormous swatch of colder material hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona. Stretched out, that line – or solar filament as scientists call it – would be more than 533,000 miles long. That is longer than 67 Earths lined up in a row. Filaments can float sedately for days before disappearing. Sometimes they also erupt out into space, releasing solar material in a shower that either rains back down or escapes out into space, becoming a moving cloud known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME. SDO captured images of the filament in numerous wavelengths, each of which helps highlight material of different temperatures on the sun. By looking at such features in different wavelengths and temperatures, scientists learn more about what causes these structures, as well as what catalyzes their occasional eruptions. Image credit: NASA/SDO; -
In the center of this image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is the galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 — and it seems to be smiling. You can make out its two orange eyes and white button nose. In the case of this “happy face”, the two eyes are very bright galaxies and the misleading smile lines are actually arcs caused by an effect known as strong gravitational lensing. Galaxy clusters are the most massive structures in the Universe and exert such a powerful gravitational pull that they warp the spacetime around them and act as cosmic lenses which can magnify, distort and bend the light behind them. This phenomenon, crucial to many of Hubble’s discoveries, can be explained by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. In this special case of gravitational lensing, a ring — known as an Einstein Ring — is produced from this bending of light, a consequence of the exact and symmetrical alignment of the source, lens and observer and resulting in the ring-like structure we see here. Image Credit: NASA/ESA; -
Space Station Flyover of Gulf of Aden and Horn of Africa: European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took this photograph from the International Space Station and posted it to social media on Jan. 30, 2015. Cristoforetti wrote, "A spectacular flyover of the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa. #HelloEarth" Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti #nasa #space #esa #astronauts #africa #spacestation #iss; -
Hubble's Little Sombrero: Galaxies can take many shapes and be oriented any way relative to us in the sky. This can make it hard to figure out their actual morphology, as a galaxy can look very different from different viewpoints. A special case is when we are lucky enough to observe a spiral galaxy directly from its edge, providing us with a spectacular view like the one seen in this picture of the week. This is NGC 7814, also known as the "Little Sombrero." Its larger namesake, the Sombrero Galaxy, is another stunning example of an edge-on galaxy - in fact, the "Little Sombrero" is about the same size as its bright namesake at about 60,000 light-years across, but as it lies farther away, and so appears smaller in the sky. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA #nasa #hst #hubble #hubble25 #galaxy #science; -
Aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Barry (Butch) Wilmore posted this video and wrote, '#sunrise touches #aurora. All we need now are angels singing.' For more images from space station, visit @ISS on Instagram. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #space #iss #spacestation #astronauts #earth;
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Curly-Q Filament Blast: A solar filament erupted in the shape of a twisted arch over a three-hour period (Feb. 4, 2015) with most of it falling back into the sun. The activity in the lower corona was caught in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. Filaments are elongated clouds of particles suspended above the Sun's surface by magnetic forces. They are notoriously unstable. Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA #nasa #sun #sdo #space #spaceweather #science; -
Sun shining down on our planet: This image was taken by astronaut Terry Virts from the International Space Station (@ISS). He posted the photo and wrote, "I wish I could bring all of you up to see this!" Image Credit: NASA #iss #space #spacestation #nasa #exp42 #earth #astronauts; -
Firing off a string of action snapshots, our Hubble Space Telescope captured the rare occurrence of three of Jupiter's largest moons racing across the banded face of the gas-giant planet: Europa, Callisto, and Io. These so-called Galilean moons, named after the 17th century scientist Galileo Galilei, who discovered them with a telescope, complete orbits around Jupiter with durations ranging from 2 days to 17 days. Seeing three moons transiting the face of Jupiter at the same time is rare, occurring only once or twice a decade. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) #hubble #nasa #hubble25 #nasa #space #jupiter #planets #moons #galileo #telescope #science; -
Forty-Four Years Ago Today: Apollo 14 Touches Down on the Moon: On Feb. 5. 1971, the Apollo 14 crew module landed on the moon. The crew members were Captain Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. (USN), commander; Major Stuart Allen Roosa (USAF), command module pilot; and Commander Edgar Dean Mitchell (USN), lunar module pilot. In this photo, Shepard stands by the Modular Equipment Transporter (MET). The MET was a cart for carrying around tools, cameras and sample cases on the lunar surface. Shepard can be identified by the vertical stripe on his helmet. After Apollo 13, the commander's spacesuit had red stripes on the helmet, arms, and one leg, to help identify them in photographs. Image Credit: NASA #throwbackthursday #tbt #otd #nasa #apollo #nasahistory #moon; -
On the Edge of Mercury In this image, Mercury's horizon cuts a striking edge against the stark blackness of space. On the right, sunlight harshly brings the landscape into relief while on the left, the surface is shrouded in the darkness of night. This image was acquired as part of MDIS's limb imaging campaign. Once per week, MDIS captures images of Mercury's limb, with an emphasis on imaging the southern hemisphere limb. These limb images provide information about Mercury's shape and complement measurements of topography made by the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) of Mercury's northern hemisphere. The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. In the mission's more than three years of orbital operations, MESSENGER has acquired over 250,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is capable of continuing orbital operations until early 2015. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington;
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