‘Image of the Week’ Archives
Barnard 30 Star Forming Region
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows infant stars "hatching" in the head of the hunter constellation, Orion. Astronomers suspect that shockwaves from a supernova explosion in Orion's head, nearly three million years ago, may have initiated this newfound birth. The region featured in this Spitzer image is called Barnard 30. It [...]
ISS image in the X-band
Here is a cool picture of the International Space Station taken in the microwave spectrum by another satellite . The specific radio wavelength involved is the X-band, radio with wavelengths of a few centimeters. Check out the Planetary Society if you want more details. Nice image....
Nano Trek – Enterprise Model only 1/10 the width of a human hair
That is a model of the USS Enterprise-D (NCC-1701D to be specific!) from Star Trek: The Next Generation, created using an ion beam that guides vaporized chemicals and deposits them into a given shape. This model is only 8.8 microns (millionths of a meter) long. A human hair is about 50-100 microns across. This image is magnified 5000 [...]
Tranquility module is hooked up to ISS
Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick seen here during the second of their three planned spacewalks planned for the STS-130 mission early this Sunday morning at 3:14 AM EST. Working essentially as plumbers during the spacewalk which began at 9:20 PM Saturday night they successfully accomplished all their assigned tasks overnight by connecting [...]
Tethys and Saturnian Rings
While browsing some images online I came across a site that reworks images from space and produces visually stunning and vibrate results. The integrity of the images remain. Take a look at this one. You can see more on wanderingspace.net
Enceladus – Cryovolcanism in Motion
On Oct. 5, 2008, just after coming within 25 kilometers (15.6 miles) of the surface of Enceladus, NASA’s Cassini captured this stunning mosaic of this geologically active moon of Saturn. By active I mean that it experiences cryovolcanism, where water and other volatiles are the materials erupted instead of silicate rock. It is believed that [...]
Top 10 Images of 2009
Happy New Year, to remind you of just how amazing 2009 was I decided to post my favourite top 10 images. I'm overwhelmed with the number of new images generated by Astronomy each year. Here are my selection for 2009. It was a hard choice there was lots of choice! #1 Star Cluster R136 Bursts Out In the center of star-forming region 30 [...]
Orions Belt in gorgeous detail
Explanation: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, are the bright bluish stars from east to west (left to right) along the diagonal in this gorgeous cosmic vista. Otherwise known as the Belt of Orion, these three blue supergiant stars are hotter and much more massive than the Sun. They lie about 1,500 light-years away, born of Orion's well-studied [...]
Titan casts a large shadow…
Titan (5150 kilometers, 3200 miles across) is Saturn's largest moon but is not pictured here. What you can see is its elongated shadow below Saturn's rings in this newly released image from Cassini. This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately [...]
Geminids 2009
It was cloudy here in Dublin, Ireland, so despite a few reports of the odd meteor it was relative quiet from my perspective. However here are a couple of images in case you missed out on all the fun. The first is taken from 2007 while the second one if from this year and appears in the Astronomy Picture of the Day (a great [...]
New Stunning Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image released
This is yet another astonishing image from Hubble. This is a new version of the Ultra Deep Field, in near-infrared light and taken with the newly installed Wide Field Camera 3. This image is of the same region as the visible Ultra Deep Field in 2004, but at longer wavelengths providing more information about the early Universe's history. We are [...]