Posts Tagged iya09
Medusa
Credit: H. Schweiker/NOAO/AURA/NSF and T. A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage and NOAO/AURA/NSF
This beautiful image came through my Twitter stream Friday night, so I’m passing the savings onto you! (Thanks @TaviGreiner for retweeting it, and @jimcook310 for finding the larger versions!) Scientifically speaking, this nebula is known as Abell 21, but hey, I can see the “Medusa” bit. I really can. [nod nod]
The Medusa nebula, known scientifically as Abell 21, is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. It is estimated to be over 4 light-years across. This image was taken on Oct 24th, 2008 at the Mayall telescope with the mosaic camera, with [OIII] (assigned a blue color) and H-alpha (orange) filters
This image was released during the 100 Hours of Astronomy webcast, “Around the World in 80 Telescopes” held from April 3-4, 2009, during the International Year of Astronomy 2009.
Retro Posters
Posted by Danielle in Art & Architecture on January 8, 2010
These posters are actually new, made for the International Year of Astronomy last year. To me they’re a blast from the 70s and I love them all. (It was hard to choose just two to show you.) I saw them here, you can buy them here.
Blue Eclipse
Credit & Copyright: Jean Paul Roux
This photo was featured on APOD over the weekend, and I simply had to share it. The sharpness and color is just fantastic!
The International Year of Astronomy 2009 ended with a Blue Moon and a partial lunar eclipse, as the second Full Moon of December grazed the Earth’s shadow on December 31st. The New Year’s Eve Blue Moon eclipse was visible throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and parts of Alaska, captured in this two exposure composite in cloudy skies over Saint Bonnet de Mure, France. Playing across the Moon’s southern reaches, the edge of Earth’s umbra, or dark central shadow, appears on the right side along with the prominent ray crater Tycho. At maximum eclipse, the umbra covered only about 8 percent of the diameter of the lunar disk.
Milky Way Waterfall
Milky Way Waterfall © Masahiro Miyasaka, taken at Zengoroodaki Waterfall, Norikura, Nagano, Japan
This is the overall winner of the Galilean Nights Astrophotography competition (part of the International Year of Astronomy), taken at a beautiful waterfall in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. This photo won the Earth and Sky division, as well as the overall competition; oddly enough, second runner-up in Earth and Sky was also shot in Nagano Prefecture. Although I’m surprised to see that a third of the winning photos (2/6) come from Nagano, I really shouldn’t be — it is an exceedingly beautiful place.
Milky Way Central
A colorful examination of the center of our Milky Way galaxy:
In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA’s Great Observatories — the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory — have collaborated to produce an unprecedented image of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy.
In this spectacular image, observations using infrared light and X-ray light see through the obscuring dust and reveal the intense activity near the galactic core. Note that the center of the galaxy is located within the bright white region to the right of and just below the middle of the image. The entire image width covers about one-half a degree, about the same angular width as the full moon.
Each telescope’s contribution is presented in a different color:
- Yellow represents the near-infrared observations of Hubble. These observations outline the energetic regions where stars are being born as well as reveal hundreds of thousands of stars.
- Red represents the infrared observations of Spitzer. The radiation and winds from stars create glowing dust clouds that exhibit complex structures from compact, spherical globules to long, stringy filaments.
- Blue and violet represent the X-ray observations of Chandra. X-rays are emitted by gas heated to millions of degrees by stellar explosions and by outflows from the supermassive black hole in the galaxy’s center. The bright blue blob on the left side is emission from a double star system containing either a neutron star or a black hole.
When these views are brought together, this composite image provides one of the most detailed views ever of our galaxy’s mysterious core.
"You Decide" Hubble Reveal
Posted by Danielle in Advertising & Media, News & Happenings on April 7, 2009
Last week, Hubble observed the winning object from the “You Decide” contest, Galaxy Triplet Arp 274, and released the image as a part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy. Both the Hubble contest and 100 Hours are part of the International Year of Astronomy.
On April 1-2, the Hubble Space Telescope photographed the winning target in the Space Telescope Science Institute’s “You Decide” competition in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA).
The winner is a group of galaxies called Arp 274. The striking object received 67,021 votes out of the nearly 140,000 votes cast for the six candidate targets.
Arp 274, also known as NGC 5679, is a system of three galaxies that appear to be partially overlapping in the image, although they may be at somewhat different distances. The spiral shapes of two of these galaxies appear mostly intact. The third galaxy (to the far left) is more compact, but shows evidence of star formation.
Two of the three galaxies are forming new stars at a high rate. This is evident in the bright blue knots of star formation that are strung along the arms of the galaxy on the right and along the small galaxy on the left.
The largest component is located in the middle of the three. It appears as a spiral galaxy, which may be barred. The entire system resides at about 400 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 was used to image Arp 274. Blue, visible, and infrared filters were combined with a filter that isolates hydrogen emission. The colors in this image reflect the intrinsic color of the different stellar populations that make up the galaxies. Yellowish older stars can be seen in the central bulge of each galaxy. A bright central cluster of stars pinpoint each nucleus. Younger blue stars trace the spiral arms, along with pinkish nebulae that are illuminated by new star formation. Interstellar dust is silhouetted against the starry population. A pair of foreground stars inside our own Milky Way are at far right.
Hubble's next discovery… decided!
Posted by Danielle in Advertising & Media on March 2, 2009
In January I posted about Hubble’s “You Decide” voting opportunity, as part of the International Year of Astronomy. Voting closed last night, and the winner is the above celestial target, Interacting Galaxies: Arp 274:
Arp 274 is a pair of galaxies. Drawn together by their gravity, they are starting to interact. The spiral shapes of these galaxies are mostly intact, but evidence can be seen of the gravitational distortions they are creating within each other. When galaxies interact and merge together, the gas clouds inside them often form tremendous numbers of new stars.
The Hubble image will be released sometime between April 2nd and 5th, 2009, during 100 Hours of Astronomy, “a worldwide event focused on renewing interest in the night sky.”
Cosmic Diary
Posted by Danielle in Computer & Internet, Perspectives on February 11, 2009
Cosmic Diary is part of the International Year of Astronomy; astronomers from all over the globe are talking about their jobs, their thoughts, and trying to share the day-to-day life of astronomy, as well as the science. I read a lovely article there yesterday on astronomy and journalism by Brother Guy Consolmagno, the American-born curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory. Definitely give the site a read; there’s astronomers aplenty reaching out to the public!
Hubble's Next Discovery – You Decide!
Posted by Danielle in Perspectives on January 29, 2009
As part of the International Year of Astronomy, the Hubble Telescope will turn and image a celestial object, never before seen in such detail… and you get to vote for which one! Go to youdecide.hubblesite.org and vote for the one you’d like to see the most. (Also you can enter to win a 16×20″ print of the new image, woo!)
“Hubble’s Next Discovery — You Decide” is part of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA), the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s observations. People around the world can vote to select the next object the Hubble Space Telescope will view. Choose from a list of objects Hubble has never observed before and enter a drawing for one of 100 new Hubble pictures of the winning object. The winning image will be released between April 2 and 5, during the IYA’s 100 Hours of Astronomy, a global astronomy event geared toward encouraging as many people as possible to experience the night sky. Vote by March 1 to swing Hubble toward your favorite target.
International Year of Astronomy 2009
Posted by Danielle in Special Events on January 2, 2009
This week marks the start of the International Year of Astronomy, a year-long celebration of the night sky in all its splendor!
This year was picked by the International Astronomical Union and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization because it occurs 400 years after Galileo turned one of the first telescopes toward the heavens. Peering through that small window, Galileo discovered that the Moon has craters, Venus has phases, Jupiter has moons, and Saturn has rings.
Get out there this year and look up! The IYA09 website has all the details on worldwide events, hopefully some near you!
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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. STS-133 NASA Tweetup Attendee!
This is a blog, NOT A SHOP. Click the images for their source or purchase link, if available.
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