This serene sand and skyscape finds the Dune of Pilat on the coast of France still in Earth’s shadow during the early morning hours of May 16. Extending into space, the planet’s dark umbral shadow covered the Moon on that date. From that location the total phase of a lunar eclipse had begun before moonset. […]
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is illuminated by spotlights on the launch pad. via NASA https://ift.tt/RnpAPMy
Recorded on May 15/16 this sequence of exposures follows the Full Moon during a total lunar eclipse as it arcs above treetops in the clearing skies of central Florida. A frame taken every 5 minutes by a digital camera shows the progression of the eclipse over three hours. The bright lunar disk grows dark and […]
This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the central region of the gigantic elliptical galaxy NGC 474. via NASA https://ift.tt/qXdw1gQ
Cloudy skies plagued some sky watchers on Sunday as May’s Full Flower Moon slipped through Earth’s shadow in a total lunar eclipse. In skies above Chile’s Atacama desert this telephoto snapshot still captured an awesome spectacle though. Seen through thin high cirrus clouds just before totality began, a last sliver of sunlit crescent glistens like […]
Dr. Kartik Sheth’s career spans academia, non-profits, and government. via NASA https://ift.tt/X8CIP0v
Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of startling sights like NGC 1316. Investigations indicate that NGC 1316 is an enormous elliptical galaxy that started, about 100 million years ago, to devour a smaller spiral galaxy neighbor, NGC 1317, just on the upper right. Supporting evidence includes the dark dust lanes characteristic […]
Quesst is what NASA is calling its mission to enable supersonic air travel over land. via NASA https://ift.tt/kSo4NUa
Quesst is what NASA is calling its mission to enable supersonic air travel over land. via NASA https://ift.tt/kSo4NUa
Real castles aren’t this old. And the background galaxy is even older. Looking a bit like an alien castle, the pictured rock spires are called hoodoos and are likely millions of years old. Rare, but found around the world, hoodoos form when dense rocks slow the erosion of softer rock underneath. The pictured hoodoos survive […]