A Milky Way Shadow at Loch Ard GorgeHave you ever seen the Milky Way's glow create shadows? To do so, conditions need to be just right. First and foremost, the sky must be relatively clear of clouds so that the long band of the Milky Way's central disk can be seen. The surroundings must be very near to completely dark, with no bright …
The Milky Way Galaxy and Orion Nebula over YosemiteYosemite National Park, California, USADecember 2012Image Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka…
A Sailing Stone in Death ValleyHow did this big rock end up on this strange terrain? One of the more unusual places here on Earth occurs inside Death Valley, California, USA. There a dried lakebed named Racetrack Playa exists that is almost perfectly flat, with the odd exception of some very large stones. Now the flatness and tex…
Lightning over AthensHave you ever watched a lightning storm in awe? Join the crowd. Oddly, nobody knows exactly how lightning is produced. What is known is that charges slowly separate in some clouds causing rapid electrical discharges (lightning), but how electrical charges get separated in clouds remains a topic of m…
An Airplane in Front of the MoonIf you look closely at the Moon, you will see a large airplane in front of it. Well, not always. OK, hardly ever. But if you wait for days with your camera attached to a Moon tracker in a place where airplanesare known to pass, you might catch a good photograph of it. Well, if you're lucky. OK, extr…
The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the ExtremeIt is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth - and death - is taking place.Hubble's view of the nebula shows star birth in a new level of detail. The fantasy-like landscape of the nebula is sculpted by the action of outflowing winds and s…
Erupting Volcano Anak KrakatauA volcano on Krakatoa is still erupting. Perhaps most famous for the powerfully explosive eruption in 1883 that killed tens of thousands of people, ash from a violent eruption might also have temporarily altered Earth's climate as long as 1500 years ago. In 1927, eruptions caused smaller Anak Krakat…
Iridescent Glory of Nearby Helix NebulaThe composite picture is a seamless blend of ultra-sharp NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images combined with the wide view of the Mosaic Camera on the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, near Tucs…
Like a Diamond in the SkyA dark Sun hung over Queensland, Australia on 14 November, 2012, during a much anticipated total solar eclipse. Storm clouds threatened to spoil the view along the northern coast, but minutes before totality the clouds parted. Streaming past the Moon's edge, the last direct rays of sunlight produced…
Sun, Moon, the International Space Station and sunspots seen from Earth in one pictureWhile the Moon was busy passing between the Sun and Earth on January 4 for the first eclipse of 2011, the International Space Station (ISS) made its own pass between them. Powered by the Sun, orbiting the Earth, a satellite like the Moon—the ISS is an expression of how humanity is connected to and k…
Wide View of 'Mystic Mountain'This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape from Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" or a Dr. Seuss book, depending on your imagination. The NASA Hubble Space Telescope photograph, which is stranger than fiction, captures the chaotic activity atop a three-…
Milky Way Galaxy above the ESO 3.6-metre TelescopeWhat is in the Milky Way Galaxy?• 300–500 billion stars (like the Sun, Sirius or Betelgeuse)• at least 100 billion planets (like Mars, Jupiter or Kepler-14b)• more than 10 billion planets in the Habitable Zone (like Earth, Gliese 667 Cc or Kepler-22b)And the Milky Way Galaxy is one of at least 200-5…
The Rosette NebulaInside the nebula lies an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244. These stars formed about four million years ago from the nebular material and their stellar winds are clearing a hole in the nebula's center, insulated by a layer of dust and hot gas. Ultraviolet light from the hot clu…
All the water on EuropaHow much of Jupiter's moon Europa is made of water? A lot, actually. Based on the Galileo probe data acquired during its exploration of the Jovian system from 1995 to 2003, Europa posses a deep, global ocean of liquid water beneath a layer of surface ice. The subsurface ocean plus ice layer could ra…
Home from AboveThis view of Earth’s horizon as the sunsets over the Pacific Ocean was taken by an Expedition 7 crewmember onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Anvil tops of thunderclouds are also visible.ISS, Orbit of the Earth21 July, 2003Image Credit: NASA…
Haboob over AustraliaA white shelf cloud caps brownish dirt from a dust storm, or haboob, as it travels across the Indian Ocean near Onslow on the Western Australia coastOnslow, Western Australia, AustraliaJanuary 9, 2013Images Credit: Brett Martin…
Earth's Location in the UniverseEarth → Solar System → Solar Interstellar Neightborhood → Milky Way Galaxy → Local Galactic Group → Virgo Supercluster → Observable Universe → Universe → Unknown (our Universe might be a part of Multiverse)Earth - 12,700 km in diameter - Our planetGeospace - 63,000 km Sunward side; - 6,300,000 km tr…
Looking Back at an Eclipsed EarthWhat's that dark spot on planet Earth? It's the shadow of the Moon. This image of Earth was taken in May 2012 by MTSAT during an annular eclipse of the Sun. The dark spot appears quite unusual as clouds are white and the oceans are blue in this color corrected image. Earthlings residing within the d…
Tyrrhenian Sea and Solstice SkyThis striking composite image follows the Sun's path through the December solstice day of 2005 in a beautiful blue sky, looking down the Tyrrhenian Sea coast from Santa Severa toward Fiumicino, Italy. The view covers about 115 degrees in 43 separate, well-planned exposures from sunrise to sunset.Exp…
Terraforming of MarsTerraforming of Mars is a process by which Mars's climate and surface would be deliberately changed to make large areas of the environment hospitable to humans, thus making the colonization of Mars safer and sustainable (see Planetary engineering).There are a few proposed terraforming concepts, some…
