Sunday, September 18, 2011

ASTRONOMY PICTURES YOU MAY NOT HAVE SEEN

Good Lord!!! This is the solar flare that made headlines when it escaped from the sun this June. It's amazing that the sun can lose that kind of mass so frequently and still continue to burn for billions of years.


Above, a peek into a sunspot. The little pieces of yellow "corn" around the rim are not currently understood. Click to enlarge.


Here's (above) the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy. The outer rim of dark gases rotates in the opposite direction of the stars! Why? Who knows? Maybe we're seeing the aftermath of two galaxies that collided.



Here's (above) a detail of the Orion Nebula, shot with the Spitzer Space telescope, which trails the Earth's orbit around the sun. It's farther away from the Earth than it's better known relative, the Hubble, and only takes pictures in the infra-red spectrum.


Above, an even smaller detail of Orion. Be sure to click to enlarge.


Above, what is thought to be evidence of seasonal running water on Mars. The water is believed to be just under the surface in this area. It's puzzling, because even the summers are pretty cold on Mars. Since Mars isn't very geologically active, where does the heat come from that melts the water?


If you were standing in an eroded crater on Mars this (above) is what you might see. It was taken by one of the Mars rovers. This is an impressive picture when seen large.


 What's the name of the nearest star? The answer in grade school textbooks is Alpha Centauri (above), but that's not exactly true.

Actually, I knew that even when I was a kid...I liked to read about astronomy, so I knew things like that. Once a commissioner of schools came to visit and he asked the kids in my class a few general knowledge questions. One of them was, what's the closest star to Earth? I shouted "Proxima Centauri!" and the commissioner frowned and called on another student, the class goody-goody, who answered "Alpha Centauri." I was humiliated in front of all the girls in class, but I was right. Alpha Centauri is a system consisting of a double star and one stand alone sun, all orbiting around a common center, and the closest of them all is Proxima.


This immensely disappointing picture of Saturn (above) was taken by Cassini. It reveals outward-reaching spokes of feint gas plumes, possibly from the moon, Encelydus (spelled right?).  I couldn't bring myself to publish the picture large...I almost didn't publish it at all. I like to think of Saturn as having clean, round rings, and the plumes bugger that up. I'll make an effort to put this picture out of my mind, and I apologize if I disillusioned anyone here.


Aaaargh! Another sad picture (above)! It's America's last space shuttle returning to Earth from the point of view of The International Space Station. The past generation of shuttles simply weren't big enough to carry large payloads into space.


Planetary astronomers are interested in all weather, including the weather on Earth. Here (above) a tornado attempts to form over a farm house in Kansas. I can only imagine how the people inside were reacting to this. The streaks on the pictures are wildly energetic hailstones.

BTW: All the pictures here are from the site called "Astronomy Picture of the Day," URL on the sidebar.

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