Archive for June, 2009
Nebula Halo
This beautiful image by Don Goldman features a ghostly halo around emission nebula NGC 6164:
Beautiful emission nebula NGC 6164 was created by a rare, hot, luminous O-type star, some 40 times as massive as the Sun. Seen at the center of the cosmic cloud, the star is a mere 3 to 4 million years old. In another three to four million years the massive star will end its life in a supernova explosion. Spanning around 4 light-years, the nebula itself has a bipolar symmetry. That makes it similar in appearance to more familiar planetary nebulae – the gaseous shrouds surrounding dying sun-like stars. Also like many planetary nebulae, NGC 6164 has been found to have an extensive, faint halo, revealed in this deep telescopic image of the region. Expanding into the surrounding interstellar medium, the material in the halo is likely from an earlier active phase of the O star. The gorgeous skyscape is a composite of narrow-band image data highlighting the glowing gas, and broad-band data of the surrounding starfield. NGC 6164 is 4,200 light-years away in the southern constellation of Norma.
Retro-Futurist Calendar
Posted by Danielle in Art & Architecture on June 29, 2009
Back in April I posted some retro-futurist art, mostly German. Turns out there’s a 2010 calendar with more of the same… if you can speak German and can pay EUR 24,95. (Via Etherbrian.)
Friday Picspam, part 8
Eventually I had to get back to the series naming I started with, right? This week’s edition would be better-named as “Randomspam”, but oh well. To start, a lovely image of the Iris Nebula by Alvin Jeng.
Next, a page from the Dunhuang Star Atlas, a Chinese work dating from 649-684 AD:
This ancient Chinese map of planet Earth’s northern sky is part of the Dunhuang Star Atlas, one of the most impressive documents in the history of astronomy. The oldest complete star atlas known, it dates to the years 649 to 684, discovered at the Silk Road town of Dunhuang in 1907. A recent analysis that examines the accuracy and projections used to make it notes the atlas marks positions of over 1,300 stars and outlines 257 Chinese star groups or asterisms. The star positions in the hand drawn atlas were found to be accurate to within a few degrees. In this example showing the north polar region, a very recognizable Big Dipper, part of the modern constellation Ursa Major, lies along the bottom of the chart. An additional 12 charts depict equatorial regions in 30 degree sections and also include a grouping resembling the modern constellation Orion. The atlas is on display at the British Library in London to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy.
On June 15th, the LOIRP released another Lunar Orbiter image, this time of the Apollo 12 landing site:
(There’s also a version at the site without annotations, if you want it. Both images come in a large version.)
Finally, as Saturn approaches its equinox in August, Cassini is recording interesting nearly-edge-on images of Saturn’s rings, and a tiny moon among them:
(You really need to see them large to get the full effect. I hate how image sizing puts kinks in diagonal lines, blah.)
To understand what you’re seeing, I highly recommend this article by Phil Plait, as he does a great job explaining what’s going on and why it’s significant. Below is another view of the tiny moon Daphnis, chugging along in Saturn’s rings.
Unseen Apollo 11
Posted by Danielle in Special Events on June 25, 2009
The astronauts were international celebrities. A goodwill tour carried them to 24 countries and 27 cities in 45 days. Thousands swarmed them during a parade in Mexico City on September 23, 1969.
So you’ve seen all the iconic Apollo 11 photos. Odds are, in the media and such, you’re seeing them right now, and will do so for the next month. Well here’s a smattering you’ve probably NEVER seen — *I* certainly had not seen them, until now — showing the befores and afters of America’s first moon-landing mission. (Link via Flight Plan.)
The above photo is my favorite of the bunch — astronauts in sombreros, lol — and below, I had to include a photo of Mr. Enigmatic, Neil Armstrong:
Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, seen with the helicopter he flew to practice landing the Lunar Module.
White Knight Two
Posted by Danielle in News & Happenings on June 24, 2009
WhiteKnightTwo flies over Las Cruces International Airport in New Mexico on the morning of June 20, 2009. Photos by Jeff Foust.
Check out these fantastic photos by Jeff Foust of the Virgin Galactic WhiteKnightTwo fly-over on Saturday. The immediate future of private suborbital spaceflight is almost here, and is viewable in the above-linked Flickr set.
Sorted Solar System
Here’s an amazing image for you: All (known) Bodies in the Solar System Larger than 200 Miles in Diameter (there’s a lot of horizontal scrolling involved.) You can order it through Zazzle as a print, though even the largest size is only 6″ tall (and 52″ long), which makes me wonder how legible it would be. Maybe it’s better to download the screen version, which at 11,060 x 1,000 pixels is quite viewable! Below is a small snippet of it:
Kaguya, End-of-Life
Posted by Danielle in Picspam, Special Events on June 22, 2009
When the Kaguya (SELENE) probe impacted the lunar surface on June 10th, it broadcast images in HD up to the final moments of the craft. JAXA has release those images on the Kaguya site, and here they are for your viewing pleasure, in order:
…at which point, this happened:
Kaguya Impact: IRIS2- AAT - 4 frm, flash in 2, faint in 3 & 4.
2.3 µm nbf - TS=1s ex/0.6s by Jeremy Bailey and Steve Lee
Friday LAUNCHspam
Posted by Danielle in Special Events on June 19, 2009
Today’s Picspam is LAUNCHspam, brought to you by the successful launch yesterday of the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) and LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite):
They are both headed toward the Moon, to do Cool Things:
LCROSS
The LCROSS mission’s objective is to confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the moon’s South Pole.LRO: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
The LRO mission objectives are to find safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology.
And here they are, waiting to go (on the far left, you can see Space Shuttle Endeavour still on the pad after Wednesday’s launch scrub):
Here’s a closer view of the rocket:
And here’s another view of the launch!
Streaming Dark Nebulas
A dramatic APOD from Monday, this amazing image is full of dust and dark streaks between points of light….
Explanation: Dark dust lit by the bright yellow star Antares highlight this photogenic starscape of the southern sky. A wider angle image shows the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy connected to Antares by streams of dust knows as the Dark River. At the head of the Dark River the dust appears in dense knots. One of the densest knots is B44, pictured near the bottom of the above image. Off to the left of the above image lies Antares, a star so bright that the pictured dust reflects its light, giving it a distinct yellow hue. Light from the blue star on the image left creates a surrounding blue reflection nebula named IC 4605. B44 and IC 4605 lies about 500 light years distant toward the constellation of the Scorpion.
A Sense of Scale
This was yesterday’s NASA Image of the Day, which happens to feature the issue on Endeavour that scrubbed today’s launch:
In this image, taken June 14, workers on Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A prepare to remove the 7-inch quick disconnect and flight seal from the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, or GUCP, on space shuttle Endeavour’s external fuel tank. Teams are removing the hardware to change out seals in the internal connection points. The GUCP is the overboard vent to the pad and the flare stack where the vented hydrogen is burned off. On June 12, a hydrogen leak caused the STS-127 mission to be scrubbed. Endeavour is scheduled to launch on its STS-127 mission on June 17, 2009, at 5:40 a.m. EDT. Image Credit: NASA/Tim Jacobs
I have always liked the sensation of feeling quite small while staring up into the night sky — a reminder, a sense of scale, I suppose — and the people in this picture give you an idea of just how big a Space Shuttle is. It’s not something you can really get through your head, looking at a shuttle-on-launch-pad picture. The picture is cropped and shown at larger size on the original page, and I encourage you to go there and look at that as well. (And download the highest resolution possible. Y’know, because I think you should. It will enrich your life to do so.)
It reminds me of one of my geology professors talking about field work; specifically, having a student climb up some impossible cliff, because “I need ya up there, for SCALE.” (The professor was photographing or sketching a formation, as I recall.)
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About Silver Rockets
This blog celebrates space exploration, human spaceflight and the heavens, through lots and lots ofimages.
My name is Danielle Signor, and I am a space cadet.
This is a blog, NOT A SHOP. Click the images for their source or purchase link, if available.
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