The arms of a grand design spiral galaxy 60,000 light-years across are unwound in this digital transformation of the magnificent 2005 Hubble Space Telescope portrait of M51. In fact, M51 is one of the original spiral nebulae, its winding arms described by a mathematical curve known as a logarithmic spiral, a spiral whose separation grows […]
Hurricane Genevieve is pictured off the Pacific coast of Mexico from the International Space Station. via wordpress https://wp.me/p4wJUi-7dG
Shrouded in a thick atmosphere, Saturn’s largest moon Titan really is hard to see. Small particles suspended in the upper atmosphere cause an almost impenetrable haze, strongly scattering light at visible wavelengths and hiding Titan’s surface features from prying eyes. But Titan’s surface is better imaged at infrared wavelengths where scattering is weaker and atmospheric […]
We’re celebrating National Aviation Day! After all, we are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Aviation and aeronautics are as much a part of our mission as space travel. via wordpress https://wp.me/p4wJUi-7dw
Does the Sun change as it rotates? Yes, and the changes can vary from subtle to dramatic. In the featured time-lapse sequences, our Sun — as imaged by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory — is shown rotating though an entire month in 2014. In the large image on the left, the solar chromosphere is depicted in […]
The versatile Canadarm2 robotic arm is poised to grapple and remove the HTV-9 resupply craft from the space station’s Harmony module. via NASA https://wp.me/p4wJUi-7dm
Do other stars have planets like our Sun? Previous evidence shows that they do, coming mostly from slight shifts in the star’s light created by the orbiting planets. Recently, however, and for the first time, a pair of planets has been directly imaged around a Sun-like star. These exoplanets orbit the star designated TYC 8998-760-1 […]
Hi-RISE, the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured this avalanche plunging down a 1,640-foot-tall cliff. via wordpress https://wp.me/p4wJUi-7cZ
Why would meteor trails appear curved? The arcing effect arises only because the image artificially compresses (nearly) the whole sky into a rectangle. The meteors are from the Perseid Meteor Shower that peaked last week. The featured multi-frame image combines not only different directions from the 360 projection, but different times when bright Perseid meteors […]
In the center of this serene stellar swirl is likely a harrowing black-hole beast. The surrounding swirl sweeps around billions of stars which are highlighted by the brightest and bluest. The breadth and beauty of the display give the swirl the designation of a grand design spiral galaxy. The central beast shows evidence that it […]