Nasa’s Deep Impact probe was redirected towards comet 103P/Hartley at the start of 2008 as part of the EPOXI mission – see post from the time. On Sunday 5th September the probe opened its eyes and took the first of more than 64,000 images its expected to take of Comet Hartley 2 [Image credit: NASA/JPL/UM]. On 4th November Deep Impact [EPOXI] will fly within 700km of the comet, which might at some point become visible to the naked eye. It will spend 21 …
Another wondrous view of our own modest star from the Solar Dynamics Observatory [SDO]. Here’s what the SDO channel says Spicules pop up from the Sun constantly. These dynamics jets are smaller features of the Sun that are commonly ignored. However, with the detailed close-up that SDO can provide, we can see these much more clearly than ever before. Over a few hours observation of the northern pole area of the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light (Aug. 3, 2010), we can …
Here’s a fun video to consider, via Spaceweather.com. It shows the map of the solar system updating from 1980 to present as more asteroids are discovered. As Spaceweather notes Warning: Feelings of claustrophobia have been reported among some viewers. It’s crowded out there! New discoveries appear in white. Final colour indicates how close the asteroid comes to the inner solar system – Earth crossers in red, Earth approachers (perihelion less than 1.3AU) in yellow, and all others in green. Orbital elements from database …
Via SpaceWeather. Amateur astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa of Kumamoto city, Japan, has recorded another fireball on Jupiter – confirmed by other observations. Like the last time, there doesn’t appear to be any impact scar in the atmosphere. Here’s the short video showing the impact. That’s one less potentially dangerous object for us to worry about. All hail our friend and lord, Jupiter! Keeping Ogdy at bay… For now. Pete Baker
The Moon is shrinking! Or, at least, it has shrunk. That’s the conclusion from images obtained by Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. This video from the NASAexplorer channel explains. Pete Baker
Nasa previews the Dawn mission’s visitation with the asteroid Vesta, due next year as noted here, with a video presentation narrated by Leonard Nimoy – as opposed to the previously noted video narrated by William Shatner. Whether the encounter will be as stunning as that of the Rosetta probe was remains to be seen… The Dawn mission website is here. More Dawn related videos and interviews here. Pete Baker
As the BBC notes, having already observed the most massive star ever discovered ESO’s Very Large Telescope array [VLT] in Chile has now provided the first 3-D image of a supernova remnant. The first video is an artist’s impression of the material around recently exploded star, known as Supernova 1987A [SN 1987A]. Credit ESO/L. Calçada. From the ESO press release Unlike the Sun, which will die rather quietly, massive stars arriving at the end of their brief life explode as supernovae, hurling out …
The discovery of the most massive star ever observed makes the BBC’s, and other’s, headlines. Identified by astronomers using a combination of new observations on ESO’s Very Large Telescope facility in Chile and data gathered previously with the Hubble Space Telescope, R136a1 has a mass about 265 times that of our own Sun. Image credits ESO/P. Crowther/C.J. Evans. It’s sited in a cluster known as RMC 136a, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 165,000 light-years away. From the BBC report Many objects in the very first population of stars to shine …
Using radar data from the Cassini spacecraft’s flybys on June 22, 2009, July 8, 2009, and Jan. 12, 2010, Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have produced this animated flyover of a potential future holiday destination – the lakes of Titan. Just don’t forget to pack the thermal underwear… Video credit: JPL News From the JPL press release Ontario Lacus, the largest lake in the southern hemisphere of Saturn’s moon Titan, turns out to be a perfect exotic vacation spot, provided you can handle the frosty, subzero …
Here’s a short interesting video, with stunning images, on the solar weather under investigation with the help of the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Pete Baker
Launched in May 2009 ESA’s super-cool Planck observatory achieved first light in September. Now, as the BBC’s Jonathan Amos notes, ESA have released Planck’s first all-sky image. “This is the moment that Planck was conceived for,” says ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, David Southwood. “We’re not giving the answer. We are opening the door to an Eldorado where scientists can seek the nuggets that will lead to deeper understanding of how our Universe came to be and how it …
Galileo Galilei didn’t invent the telescope. But he was convicted of heresy by the Catholic Church. I’ve mentioned his trial before. And Pope Benedict XVI’s argument that the “verdict against Gaileo was rational and just, and revisionism can be legitimized solely for motives of political opportunism.” [Adds As tierney comments below, I should have noted that Benedict is quoting the philosopher P Feyerabend] Today Will Crawley noted the arguments of a Fr Ernan McMullin On today’s Sunday Sequence, Fr Ernan McMullin, …
Launched on 18 June 2009, Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter sent back its first images of the lunar surface shortly afterwards and has just completed its first full year in orbit. To celebrate Nasa has put together a short video of ten cool things its found – some of which I may have noted at the time. Image credit: Nasa/Goddard/Arizona State University. Video credit: NASA/Goddard. Pete Baker
As the BBC notes, Japanese scientists are confident they have successfully retrieved the first samples ever grabbed from the surface of an asteroid, Itokawa, after recovering a capsule from the Hayabusa spacecraft in the Australian outback. The Japanese space agency (Jaxa) says the capsule looks to be intact. The return was the culmination of a remarkable seven-year adventure, which saw Hayabusa visit asteroid Itokawa in 2005 and attempt to pluck dust from its surface before firing its engines for home. The …
As the BBC notes, for the first time astronomers have directly observed the orbit of an exo-planet – Beta Pictoris b, a gas giant about nine times the mass of Jupiter, some 60 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Pictar. The team used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. [Image credit: ESO] Only 12 million years old, or less than three-thousandths of the age of the Sun, Beta Pictoris is 75% more massive than our parent …
Via Space Weather. Amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley was the first to observe the Great Black Spot [of Jupiter]. Now he’s gone one better and recorded an actual impact on the gas giant. The resulting fireball was independently confirmed by Christopher Go in the Philipines – his video can be viewed here. Here’s the full processed image of the impact, visible in bottom right. Image credit: Anthony Wesley, Broken Hill Australia. And here’s the raw video observation. The impact occurs in the top left in …
Via Space Weather. “Yesterday (May 22nd) in Switzerland, Thierry Legault photographed the International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttle Atlantis passing directly in front of the sun.” He’s making a habit of this. The small image here doesn’t do justice to the astounding images he’s taken during the 0.49 second solar transit. You have to go to his website to see those in full. Equally astounding are the images of a transit 50 minutes before Atlantis docked with the ISS. …
As I mentioned when noting a previous wondrous image, ESA’s cool infrared Herschel observatory sent its first images back in October last year, just after its launch companion, the even cooler Planck observatory achieved first light. Both are twittering away – Planck and Herschel. And ESA have released another stunning image as Herschel nears its first anniversary in orbit. There’s also an ESA video to mark the anniversary The BBC’s Spaceman, Jonathan Amos, has been contemplating Herschel’s images. He recommends the …
STEREO isn’t the only spacecraft staring at the sun right now. Nasa’s new Solar Dynamics Observatory has successfully achieved first light and they’ve released some stunning videos of recent solar activity as a result. Including this one of an erupting solar prominence on March 30. BBC report here. Also from the SDO YouTube Channel This movie starts with a magnetogram from HMI (Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager) and moves on to 7 different wavebands observed by AIA’s (Atmospheric Imaging Assembly) telescopes. …
