A Milky Way Shadow at Loch Ard Gorge

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3vKUCQux_xMkzn6QOLw0IuGPrWtTdxwLoGi_NjnEJsfLjZyS6bJ3zG_K6cTpmE7VyIho8g1d1nSVgSBINYLLeOW7elFbppwTp1ijTJHBFKatSmK8Ffs0mwlTUzDHhKxuDnB0Nf52Mks1_/s1600/mwshadow_cherney_big.jpg"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3vKUCQux_xMkzn6QOLw0IuGPrWtTdxwLoGi_NjnEJsfLjZyS6bJ3zG_K6cTpmE7VyIho8g1d1nSVgSBINYLLeOW7elFbppwTp1ijTJHBFKatSmK8Ffs0mwlTUzDHhKxuDnB0Nf52Mks1_/s640/mwshadow_cherney_big.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Have 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 artificial lights visible anywhere. Next, the Moon cannot be anywhere above the horizon, or its glow will dominate the landscape. Last, the shadows can best be caught on long camera exposures. In this picture taken in Port Campbell National Park, Victoria, Australia, seven 15-second images of the ground and de-rotated sky were digitally added to bring up the needed light and detail. In the foreground lies Loch Ard Gorge, named after a ship that tragically ran aground in 1878. The two rocks pictured are the remnants of a collapsed arch and are named Tom and Eva after the only two people who survived that Loch Ard ship wreck. A close inspection of the water just before the rocks will show reflections and shadows in light thrown by our Milky Way galaxy.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Image Credit & Copyright: Alex Cherney</div><div style="text-align: left;">Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100823.html</div>

A Milky Way Shadow at Loch Ard Gorge

Have 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 ...

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The Milky Way Galaxy and Orion Nebula over Yosemite

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHyGY-7TT_eKJ-pX2slkL5gU6FWgyV7woruVpVcePrxLAHPUpyjEB1sac-38zkVZISbgWzHq5rguicdI3nCmvylilU3qS7pxrHn81tG5dA5txYHn5rgzw-xO8rjOHsTWuMRcHSHNwUxkvX/s1600/YosemiteWinterNightPacholka950.jpg"><img border="0" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHyGY-7TT_eKJ-pX2slkL5gU6FWgyV7woruVpVcePrxLAHPUpyjEB1sac-38zkVZISbgWzHq5rguicdI3nCmvylilU3qS7pxrHn81tG5dA5txYHn5rgzw-xO8rjOHsTWuMRcHSHNwUxkvX/s640/YosemiteWinterNightPacholka950.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Yosemite National Park, California, USA</div><div style="text-align: center;">December 2012</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Image Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka</div></div>

The Milky Way Galaxy and Orion Nebula over Yosemite

Yosemite National Park, California, USA December 2012 Image Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka

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A Sailing Stone in Death Valley

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiypbq4eT7Fxqt7NpG2bj3aR0QXG5WHpkqq1KQTA6UzM8LoG5adYZIwsKODw0pQq2_evx4o92Juol77ZJyvZVzJRRgunL9dWAvc-IfwhCkc-dCe3qcrtaa7VfP2WzPrdzP8UfYUHQFozNUp/s1600/sailingstone_alexander_2570.jpg"><img border="0" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiypbq4eT7Fxqt7NpG2bj3aR0QXG5WHpkqq1KQTA6UzM8LoG5adYZIwsKODw0pQq2_evx4o92Juol77ZJyvZVzJRRgunL9dWAvc-IfwhCkc-dCe3qcrtaa7VfP2WzPrdzP8UfYUHQFozNUp/s640/sailingstone_alexander_2570.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">How 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 texture of large playa like Racetrack are fascinating but not scientifically puzzling - they are caused by mud flowing, drying, and cracking after a heavy rain. Only recently, however, has a viable scientific hypothesis been given to explain how 300-kilogram sailing stones ended up near the middle of such a large flat surface. Unfortunately, as frequently happens in science, a seemingly surreal problem ends up having a relatively mundane solution. It turns out that high winds after a rain can push even heavy rocks across a temporarily slick lakebed.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Image Credit: Nathan Alexander<br />Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120222.html

A Sailing Stone in Death Valley

How did this big rock end up on this strange terrain? One of the more unusual places here on Earth occurs inside Death Valley, California, U...

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Lightning over Athens

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp-_XPOXL1jrzsQUCrTxsEaqqriUIn7pBOvSHBBU2RkXvQRWMXUtY9wlMycodAJbxV0sBaKfE-CWPjdXs1qvwt4IpI_6JRvU2qMozYeF0XVRCCwRi6oWCI1exDdkI0YwPgqPATqVUsuP6x/s1600/lightning_kotsiopoulos_big.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp-_XPOXL1jrzsQUCrTxsEaqqriUIn7pBOvSHBBU2RkXvQRWMXUtY9wlMycodAJbxV0sBaKfE-CWPjdXs1qvwt4IpI_6JRvU2qMozYeF0XVRCCwRi6oWCI1exDdkI0YwPgqPATqVUsuP6x/s640/lightning_kotsiopoulos_big.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Have 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 much research. Lightning usually takes a jagged course, rapidly heating a thin column of air to about three times the surface temperature of the Sun. The resulting shock wave starts supersonically and decays into the loud sound known as thunder. Lightning bolts are common in clouds during rainstorms, and on average 6,000 lightning bolts occur between clouds and the Earth every minute. This, an active lightning storm was recorded over Athens, Greece earlier July 2010.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Image Credit & Copyright: Chris Kotsiopoulos<br />Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100720.html

Lightning over Athens

Have you ever watched a lightning storm in awe? Join the crowd. Oddly, nobody knows exactly how lightning is produced. What is known is that...

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An Airplane in Front of the Moon

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVmeBIh7PK1vH4sN_T6XFYu-2qrYGmt-L3eP6lSh0dw6LEa1Frxnsx0mBef-EV2Vnz52zGM6ttB5i6MgMzovy4CjUFnZ3o63LBnKydseC0pGjIDIavXgkyxz1cbxBh_QA0MIzMipgUv2GG/s1600/moonplane_thomas_big.jpg"><img border="0" height="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVmeBIh7PK1vH4sN_T6XFYu-2qrYGmt-L3eP6lSh0dw6LEa1Frxnsx0mBef-EV2Vnz52zGM6ttB5i6MgMzovy4CjUFnZ3o63LBnKydseC0pGjIDIavXgkyxz1cbxBh_QA0MIzMipgUv2GG/s640/moonplane_thomas_big.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">If 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, extremely lucky. This image was taken in September 2010 over South East Queensland, Australia using an exposure time of 1/250th of a second and, in the words of the photographer, "a nerve of steel".</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Image Credit & Copyright: Chris Thomas<br />Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100929.html

An Airplane in Front of the Moon

If 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 w...

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The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLscdqxeRKQYhv3qft3PzjpKbYz53aFoovNgF1B_ZYKO9nEvVP1xj8vLy0UfbkjRWJ7X_T-DPyMkGskYr7D4AwvosM1z-ZlGimZbiHBRhHLpMUFo65BeLYI3FKikUHHkGw7VPSv56OH36/s1600/hs-2007-16-a-xlarge_web.jpg"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLscdqxeRKQYhv3qft3PzjpKbYz53aFoovNgF1B_ZYKO9nEvVP1xj8vLy0UfbkjRWJ7X_T-DPyMkGskYr7D4AwvosM1z-ZlGimZbiHBRhHLpMUFo65BeLYI3FKikUHHkGw7VPSv56OH36/s640/hs-2007-16-a-xlarge_web.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">It 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.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">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 scorching ultraviolet radiation from the monster stars that inhabit this inferno. In the process, these stars are shredding the surrounding material that is the last vestige of the giant cloud from which the stars were born.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The immense nebula contains at least a dozen brilliant stars that are roughly estimated to be at least 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun. The most unique and opulent inhabitant is the star Eta Carinae, at far left. Eta Carinae is in the final stages of its brief and eruptive lifespan, as evidenced by two billowing lobes of gas and dust that presage its upcoming explosion as a titanic supernova.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The fireworks in the Carina region started three million years ago when the nebula's first generation of newborn stars condensed and ignited in the middle of a huge cloud of cold molecular hydrogen. Radiation from these stars carved out an expanding bubble of hot gas. The island-like clumps of dark clouds scattered across the nebula are nodules of dust and gas that are resisting being eaten away by photoionization.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The hurricane blast of stellar winds and blistering ultraviolet radiation within the cavity is now compressing the surrounding walls of cold hydrogen. This is triggering a second stage of new star formation.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Our Sun and our solar system may have been born inside such a cosmic crucible 4.6 billion years ago. In looking at the Carina Nebula we are seeing the genesis of star making as it commonly occurs along the dense spiral arms of a galaxy.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The immense nebula is an estimated 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina the Keel (of the old southern constellation Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, from Greek mythology).</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen. Color information was added with data taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission.</div><br />Image Credit: NASA, ESA, N. Smith, (STScI/AURA) and NOAO/AURA/NSF<br />Explanation from: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/16/image/a/

The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme

It 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. Hu...

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Erupting Volcano Anak Krakatau

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2DUf8hn-MpX0wHMdVLVxesbTbSLtmYoNfmkFsAIeSalKpgBUkfh0U47WxD3w2qqsAAUSEvVMdkQuyjUF-IOrd-NjUIbNIa3us9uMnjU_zOwk7TxHAEcaAQ5hmMnUjdKFT9Oa1_ICbFvAW/s1600/anak-krakatau-eruption.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Anak Krakatau Eruption" border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2DUf8hn-MpX0wHMdVLVxesbTbSLtmYoNfmkFsAIeSalKpgBUkfh0U47WxD3w2qqsAAUSEvVMdkQuyjUF-IOrd-NjUIbNIa3us9uMnjU_zOwk7TxHAEcaAQ5hmMnUjdKFT9Oa1_ICbFvAW/s1600/anak-krakatau-eruption.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;">A 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 Krakatau to rise from the sea, and the emerging volcanic island continues to grow at an average rate of 2 cm per day. The latest eruption of Anak Krakatau started in 2008 April and continues today. In this picture, Anak Krakatau is seen erupting from Rakata, the main island of the Krakatoai group. High above, stars including the Big Dipper are clearly apparent.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Fulle<br />Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090713.html

Erupting Volcano Anak Krakatau

A volcano on Krakatoa is still erupting. Perhaps most famous for the powerfully explosive eruption in 1883 that killed tens of thousands of ...

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Iridescent Glory of Nearby Helix Nebula

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqr_XdNG_R1iw5ABRnFsOEPgPW4J1qFaxzW5T0Pqe6adt1K4AzqsOeZ3hGadYEJIaohuXnHGPrlLiklZKb1PnNZ6xVnDbsnDOt6hFan_I5JlLLJQu1KOFpYn-RCmz1xrPbZKRiiIMmXbXh/s1600/hs-2003-11-a-large_web.jpg"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqr_XdNG_R1iw5ABRnFsOEPgPW4J1qFaxzW5T0Pqe6adt1K4AzqsOeZ3hGadYEJIaohuXnHGPrlLiklZKb1PnNZ6xVnDbsnDOt6hFan_I5JlLLJQu1KOFpYn-RCmz1xrPbZKRiiIMmXbXh/s640/hs-2003-11-a-large_web.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The 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 Tucson, Ariz. Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute assembled these images into a mosaic. The mosaic was then blended with a wider photograph taken by the Mosaic Camera. The image shows a fine web of filamentary "bicycle-spoke" features embedded in the colorful red and blue gas ring, which is one of the nearest planetary nebulae to Earth.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Because the nebula is nearby, it appears as nearly one-half the diameter of the full Moon. This required HST astronomers to take several exposures with the Advanced Camera for Surveys to capture most of the Helix. HST views were then blended with a wider photo taken by the Mosaic Camera. The portrait offers a dizzying look down what is actually a trillion-mile-long tunnel of glowing gases. The fluorescing tube is pointed nearly directly at Earth, so it looks more like a bubble than a cylinder. A forest of thousands of comet-like filaments, embedded along the inner rim of the nebula, points back toward the central star, which is a small, super-hot white dwarf.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The tentacles formed when a hot "stellar wind" of gas plowed into colder shells of dust and gas ejected previously by the doomed star. Ground-based telescopes have seen these comet-like filaments for decades, but never before in such detail. The filaments may actually lie in a disk encircling the hot star, like a collar. The radiant tie-die colors correspond to glowing oxygen (blue) and hydrogen and nitrogen (red).</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Valuable Hubble observing time became available during the November 2002 Leonid meteor storm. To protect the spacecraft, including HST's precise mirror, controllers turned the aft end into the direction of the meteor stream for about half a day. Fortunately, the Helix Nebula was almost exactly in the opposite direction of the meteor stream, so Hubble used nine orbits to photograph the nebula while it waited out the storm. To capture the sprawling nebula, Hubble had to take nine separate snapshots.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Planetary nebulae like the Helix are sculpted late in a Sun-like star's life by a torrential gush of gases escaping from the dying star. They have nothing to do with planet formation, but got their name because they look like planetary disks when viewed through a small telescope. With higher magnification, the classic "donut-hole" in the middle of a planetary nebula can be resolved. Based on the nebula's distance of 650 light-years, its angular size corresponds to a huge ring with a diameter of nearly 3 light-years. That's approximately three-quarters of the distance between our Sun and the nearest star.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Helix Nebula is a popular target of amateur astronomers and can be seen with binoculars as a ghostly, greenish cloud in the constellation Aquarius. Larger amateur telescopes can resolve the ring-shaped nebula, but only the largest ground-based telescopes can resolve the radial streaks. After careful analysis, astronomers concluded the nebula really isn't a bubble, but is a cylinder that happens to be pointed toward Earth.</div><br />Image Credit: NASA, NOAO, ESA, M. Meixner (STScI), and T.A. Rector (NRAO).<br />Explanation from: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2003/11/image/a/

Iridescent Glory of Nearby Helix Nebula

The composite picture is a seamless blend of ultra-sharp NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images combined with the wide view of the Mosaic ...

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Like a Diamond in the Sky

<div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3fsSPLNGJVOGvcwlw7MY_un1ngzbv6FO2e1kvrkwIbz6ZYfW2-zBmPhRf5ab5cqOtaPq4izd48S7yQtpLZQYDUblLVldz4j_TAAs5BHbNzg313oYbdahVz4K7_SpIyNKETdMC7DOFiGxU/s1600/Cherney_EllisBeachDiamondRing3.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3fsSPLNGJVOGvcwlw7MY_un1ngzbv6FO2e1kvrkwIbz6ZYfW2-zBmPhRf5ab5cqOtaPq4izd48S7yQtpLZQYDUblLVldz4j_TAAs5BHbNzg313oYbdahVz4K7_SpIyNKETdMC7DOFiGxU/s640/Cherney_EllisBeachDiamondRing3.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">A 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 a gorgeous diamond ring effect in this scene from Ellis Beach between Cairns and Port Douglas. Winking out in a moment, the diamond didn't last forever though. The area was plunged into darkness for nearly 2 minutes as the Moon's shadow swept off shore toward Australia's Great Barrier Reef and out into the southern Pacific. Ranging from 1/4000 to 1/15 seconds long, five separate exposures were blended in the image to create a presentation similar to the breathtaking visual experience of the eclipse.</div><br />Image Credit & Copyright: Alex Cherney<br />Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121117.html

Like a Diamond in the Sky

A dark Sun hung over Queensland, Australia on 14 November, 2012, during a much anticipated total solar eclipse. Storm clouds threatened to s...

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Sun, Moon, the International Space Station and sunspots seen from Earth in one picture

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe466tgldgTa-ihpmZHa-26Oss4r8kyqLYsjku6pyUgPrSpfIiDQii-9PpjNkonKuTu8AwwkIz4DO1c3nwAFdFhMupwr43Q3daY9quvSBQk9KKi1I505SUHiVW9Du0EH7OuMGWmY3gV3ps/s1600/eclipseISS_20110104_lrg.jpg"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe466tgldgTa-ihpmZHa-26Oss4r8kyqLYsjku6pyUgPrSpfIiDQii-9PpjNkonKuTu8AwwkIz4DO1c3nwAFdFhMupwr43Q3daY9quvSBQk9KKi1I505SUHiVW9Du0EH7OuMGWmY3gV3ps/s640/eclipseISS_20110104_lrg.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">While 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 keeping an eye on all three bodies.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">This photo was taken by astrophotographer Thierry Legault, who set up near Muscat, Oman, to capture this view at 1:09 p.m. local time (9:09 UTC) on January 4, 2011. He had to shoot quickly, as the transit of the space station through the field of view lasted just 0.86 seconds. The ISS was moving at 7.8 kilometers per second (17,000 mph).</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The disk of the Sun is partly obscured on the lower left, as the Moon is 20 minutes past the maximum eclipse. The edges of the image are black because the light filters are strong, like a welder's mask, to prevent sunlight from damaging the camera.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The partial solar eclipse was the first of four in 2011, with others coming on June 1, July 1, and November 25. Eclipses occur when the new Moon passes in the line between Sun and Earth. Because the Moon’s orbit is inclined about 5 degrees to Earth’s, the Moon and its shadow often pass above or below the plane of the Earth. Because both orbits are elliptical, the size and shape of eclipses changes slightly with each event.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The image also includes sunspots 1140 (bottom) and 1142 (center), part of solar cycle 24, which should reach maximum in the next two years. Each spot was only producing relatively weak B-class solar flares on the day of the eclipse. Sunspots, flares, and great eruptions known as coronal mass ejections will become much more common in coming months, and each produces its own type of disturbance on Earth, including radio noise, auroras, and satellite and electric power disruptions. The solar cycle also plays a role in Earth's climate.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">As for the space station, it is passing overhead regularly, as it makes 15 to 16 circuits around the Earth each day. It can pass through your local skies anywhere from one to three times per day, depending on your latitude and the path of the orbit. You don't have much time to spot it, though, as it crosses the sky in just a few minutes.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">“Most people don’t know that, under the right conditions, you can use a telescope to actually see the shuttle and ISS this clearly,” writes astronomer Phil Plait, “and even then it ain’t easy.”</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Image Credit & Copyright: Thierry Legault</div><div style="text-align: left;">Explanation of the image from: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=48442</div>

Sun, Moon, the International Space Station and sunspots seen from Earth in one picture

While the Moon was busy passing between the Sun and Earth on January 4 for the first eclipse of 2011, the International Space Station (ISS) ...

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Wide View of 'Mystic Mountain'

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcPFWdug6JEKu-qHOmuer-sl09PigETkTiUuNsRHV7jDrZxBVaojVOAwZrlPunp0FZ0TilvjWiW_RXjWX17ZS2fj7BnkhZo6IWEHA6fiVOglvxJvTfA8vBpQeUsSBOcqIBsjaII4DI8D4f/s1600/hs-2010-13-e-large_web.jpg"><img border="0" height="628" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcPFWdug6JEKu-qHOmuer-sl09PigETkTiUuNsRHV7jDrZxBVaojVOAwZrlPunp0FZ0TilvjWiW_RXjWX17ZS2fj7BnkhZo6IWEHA6fiVOglvxJvTfA8vBpQeUsSBOcqIBsjaII4DI8D4f/s640/hs-2010-13-e-large_web.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">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-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from hot newborn stars in the nebula are shaping and compressing the pillar, causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of hot ionized gas can be seen flowing off the ridges of the structure, and wispy veils of dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its peaks. The pillar is resisting being eroded by radiation much like a towering butte in Utah's Monument Valley withstands erosion by water and wind.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Nestled inside this dense mountain are fledgling stars. Long streamers of gas can be seen shooting in opposite directions off the pedestal at the top of the image. Another pair of jets is visible at another peak near the center of the image. These jets are the signpost for new star birth. The jets are launched by swirling disks around the stars, as these disks allow material to slowly accrete onto the stars' surfaces.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 observed the pillar on Feb. 1-2, 2010. The colors in this composite image correspond to the glow of oxygen (blue), hydrogen and nitrogen (green), and sulfur (red).</div><br />Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio, STScI<br />Explanation from: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/13/image/e/

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...

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Milky Way Galaxy above the ESO 3.6-metre Telescope

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhadTS7_c_do9dJ_TrVK0H2wV3DefuyoHXqz7fTFcbVXZ6yHqoXvAwRBx7WDrHGuWMTY7hPCkRznkF_-IDDLGvc41czsLA4AmRKPL_u4UqdW16XBEwpqvfqaZJfnFGL4dpmvRzej0UAG-3v/s1600/lv_Brunier_hb-1.jpg"><img border="0" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhadTS7_c_do9dJ_TrVK0H2wV3DefuyoHXqz7fTFcbVXZ6yHqoXvAwRBx7WDrHGuWMTY7hPCkRznkF_-IDDLGvc41czsLA4AmRKPL_u4UqdW16XBEwpqvfqaZJfnFGL4dpmvRzej0UAG-3v/s640/lv_Brunier_hb-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>What is in the Milky Way Galaxy?</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• 300–500 billion stars (like the Sun, Sirius or Betelgeuse)</div><div style="text-align: left;">• at least 100 billion planets (like Mars, Jupiter or Kepler-14b)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>• more than 10 billion planets in the Habitable Zone (like Earth, Gliese 667 Cc or Kepler-22b)</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>And the Milky Way Galaxy is one of at least 200-500 billion galaxies in the Observable Universe (like Andromeda Galaxy, Pinwheel Galaxy or Whirlpool Galaxy)</b></div><br />Image Credit: S. Brunier/ESO

Milky Way Galaxy above the ESO 3.6-metre Telescope

What is in the Milky Way Galaxy? • 300–500 billion stars (like the Sun, Sirius or Betelgeuse) • at least 100 billion planets (like Mars, Jup...

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The Rosette Nebula

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6o8C7ZSAI6XLMiGig2Y891gmsErpuNBWOrbyr09uURZTCGdhVcpOAL-PgdRsB-MLGJp3Q-nWeexIxheCEs-Pgto_XaXof3mdY2TytQTTWqCtysZkYXrwMRvq4JwslOXEmaQELkyOOTW6h/s1600/rosette_lula_1700.jpg"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6o8C7ZSAI6XLMiGig2Y891gmsErpuNBWOrbyr09uURZTCGdhVcpOAL-PgdRsB-MLGJp3Q-nWeexIxheCEs-Pgto_XaXof3mdY2TytQTTWqCtysZkYXrwMRvq4JwslOXEmaQELkyOOTW6h/s640/rosette_lula_1700.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Inside 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 cluster stars causes the surrounding nebula to glow. The Rosette Nebula spans about 100 light-years across, lies about 5000 light-years away, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros).</div><br />Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Lula<br />Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110214.html

The Rosette Nebula

Inside the nebula lies an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244. These stars formed about four million years ago from the n...

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All the water on Europa

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzvua5TinrChqal5NYx1F-A2adzquPu4PZ03EEMh342pvXb5_1r2-7z2Rvc7vaU2P1zueUBWq4Y1nTAvPNCvdJxAHjllcWwSqgz-gW741CGfx8I68LNnfotUmV3tqXDqHORM-xLeNpnrBn/s1600/EuropasOcean_KPHand003.jpg"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzvua5TinrChqal5NYx1F-A2adzquPu4PZ03EEMh342pvXb5_1r2-7z2Rvc7vaU2P1zueUBWq4Y1nTAvPNCvdJxAHjllcWwSqgz-gW741CGfx8I68LNnfotUmV3tqXDqHORM-xLeNpnrBn/s640/EuropasOcean_KPHand003.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">How 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 range from 80 to 170 kilometers in average depth. Adopting an estimate of 100 kilometers depth, if all the water on Europa were gathered into a ball it would have a radius of 877 kilometers. To scale, this intriguing illustration compares that hypothetical ball of all the water on Europa to the size of Europa itself (left) - and similarly to all the water on planet Earth. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">With a volume 2-3 times the volume of water in Earth's oceans, the global ocean on Europa holds out a tantalizing destination in the search for extraterrestrial life in our Solar System</div><br />Image Credit & Copyright: Kevin Hand, Jack Cook and Howard Perlman<br />Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120524.html

All the water on Europa

How much of Jupiter's moon Europa is made of water? A lot, actually. Based on the Galileo probe data acquired during its exploration of ...

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Home from Above

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKaaV-G1J6CmSzzNdWs5fKhC9l_hx-g53PRkmjGZTNZz4iTnIuG6_VYT6n74bH8IQNC54cnaCgtq6gNFnl8ymGAABGWWysWC3I2higUO28XybZguy_aqfZU-4kFHmesbARCU4ssQ77rRd0/s1600/Earth-from-Space.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Earth from Space" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKaaV-G1J6CmSzzNdWs5fKhC9l_hx-g53PRkmjGZTNZz4iTnIuG6_VYT6n74bH8IQNC54cnaCgtq6gNFnl8ymGAABGWWysWC3I2higUO28XybZguy_aqfZU-4kFHmesbARCU4ssQ77rRd0/s640/Earth-from-Space.jpg" title="" /></a></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;">This 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.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">ISS, Orbit of the Earth</div><div style="text-align: center;">21 July, 2003</div><br />Image Credit: NASA

Home from Above

This view of Earth’s horizon as the sunsets over the Pacific Ocean was taken by an Expedition 7 crewmember onboard the International Space S...

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Haboob over Australia

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR5yhzuIznjUhH5GkMs1-sCbI4EyHazxO0kgy0IZF16xToyhGHTruKcBPUeURpMb-7zNvoa91Lc5T2dn8b1tmAmBWMlBGO0v31xBtSfEkEPvXn8HBqKXrQoaR9HqXdvAVSwe4EQ6fo4mgD/s1600/Haboob-Australia.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Haboob Australia" border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR5yhzuIznjUhH5GkMs1-sCbI4EyHazxO0kgy0IZF16xToyhGHTruKcBPUeURpMb-7zNvoa91Lc5T2dn8b1tmAmBWMlBGO0v31xBtSfEkEPvXn8HBqKXrQoaR9HqXdvAVSwe4EQ6fo4mgD/s1600/Haboob-Australia.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wB38mEljLF8hWWV-y5QBp4MxZpcx19mkurawJ2DatLInpnUHfLLFYzGraDPz7lXAYhOqXFLaShvPCqMuNJw8m1c-K8pc03mpQlxH6W6wSeJkhG6PJQUbQgstxPu5UQLBBLOKpKN36wsT/s1600/Haboob-over-Australia.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Australia Haboob" border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wB38mEljLF8hWWV-y5QBp4MxZpcx19mkurawJ2DatLInpnUHfLLFYzGraDPz7lXAYhOqXFLaShvPCqMuNJw8m1c-K8pc03mpQlxH6W6wSeJkhG6PJQUbQgstxPu5UQLBBLOKpKN36wsT/s1600/Haboob-over-Australia.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">A 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 coast</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Onslow, Western Australia, Australia</div><div style="text-align: center;">January 9, 2013</div><br />Images Credit: Brett Martin

Haboob over Australia

  A white shelf cloud caps brownish dirt from a dust storm, or haboob, as it travels across the Indian Ocean near Onslow on the Western Aust...

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Earth's Location in the Universe

<div style="text-align: center;"><b>Earth → 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)</b><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifuP-7eRu5s713hUa3a_kq6bo_78BpC82-xCjxw1ZXeJRDr-h93CDKDeK1snFkaQKBy-fHDy9B6nzqsluR62XiUg_NMRwBbuCxofSFhYTqIusTOjRbIRPll06f_vbc1OEh8TCM1sUhur-W/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifuP-7eRu5s713hUa3a_kq6bo_78BpC82-xCjxw1ZXeJRDr-h93CDKDeK1snFkaQKBy-fHDy9B6nzqsluR62XiUg_NMRwBbuCxofSFhYTqIusTOjRbIRPll06f_vbc1OEh8TCM1sUhur-W/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" title="" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHp1V-0WmoGLU6uPzNlPQhgKMX1qgGFEpa6oDpsi0lx8HrZhAnkM6mC5pF3sg_2YTVSwC5hWqfDYaWpe3zAoxDC_juhlm6f_JYXSfLE4pNxcCu6beJjf60ND3q2eqWgf-nIonVF6fCYhYN/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-solar-system.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - solar system" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHp1V-0WmoGLU6uPzNlPQhgKMX1qgGFEpa6oDpsi0lx8HrZhAnkM6mC5pF3sg_2YTVSwC5hWqfDYaWpe3zAoxDC_juhlm6f_JYXSfLE4pNxcCu6beJjf60ND3q2eqWgf-nIonVF6fCYhYN/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-solar-system.jpg" title="" width="200" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCHgjd5MxLfkuMP6gat4Lcy8_e0kpMfdbZfldNYeysLWoGHmgP_-wq7JytVstKd7ke7q2UGosnvKoGKqswz5Cl__HaJR3sLlg2grfRVs5FrV55RgJazzeLddQdb3L3fnQvBZbamdwSaP4p/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-solar-interstellar-neighborhood.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - solar interstellar neighborhood" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCHgjd5MxLfkuMP6gat4Lcy8_e0kpMfdbZfldNYeysLWoGHmgP_-wq7JytVstKd7ke7q2UGosnvKoGKqswz5Cl__HaJR3sLlg2grfRVs5FrV55RgJazzeLddQdb3L3fnQvBZbamdwSaP4p/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-solar-interstellar-neighborhood.jpg" title="" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9AsaBWVm3jNkpi7xP3zUTK8q6dffOHZrDGbXG7LW9pHabtaCBgbApKGtRcFBN4qTlO5h7zcqZibX13lcV3jsfEjYksrmPjOoMaLUqTe_syQeaPrT3BxlK28z7UBPwWdVbQdeeAFiIUmS/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-milky-way-galaxy.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - milky way galaxy" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9AsaBWVm3jNkpi7xP3zUTK8q6dffOHZrDGbXG7LW9pHabtaCBgbApKGtRcFBN4qTlO5h7zcqZibX13lcV3jsfEjYksrmPjOoMaLUqTe_syQeaPrT3BxlK28z7UBPwWdVbQdeeAFiIUmS/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-milky-way-galaxy.jpg" title="" width="200" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWOjwRPL6VFaXCAlkfJQQ3GKfb37G-yS3oB5kOa0TgX_Q-jPavlBS9YGJV4z_yi4R111gu8fCebgzmqDCTV2OiL8g19oMk-cUDEbX4ecrmIkvrGpYp4KqgmqvlxmbZGVwV-oL9e-7aDs9n/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-local-galactic-group.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - local galactic group" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWOjwRPL6VFaXCAlkfJQQ3GKfb37G-yS3oB5kOa0TgX_Q-jPavlBS9YGJV4z_yi4R111gu8fCebgzmqDCTV2OiL8g19oMk-cUDEbX4ecrmIkvrGpYp4KqgmqvlxmbZGVwV-oL9e-7aDs9n/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-local-galactic-group.jpg" title="" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZoTYSM9CuLvb6C_ESLwn9qIvK9T4AcjlV1jCssRVF5mNMnfR46oS1X7bQ-JIw4q0Pcz0Ek-6aQEfLeSaLeGNboVKy7jWveLySJywfX8iFJzy15F699toVn1EHv4g6xLEk_04KU26Xuw09/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-virgo-supercluster.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - virgo supercluster" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZoTYSM9CuLvb6C_ESLwn9qIvK9T4AcjlV1jCssRVF5mNMnfR46oS1X7bQ-JIw4q0Pcz0Ek-6aQEfLeSaLeGNboVKy7jWveLySJywfX8iFJzy15F699toVn1EHv4g6xLEk_04KU26Xuw09/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-virgo-supercluster.jpg" title="" width="200" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZUbuQ0hUB7LeK24gq9K_I91Se_fuOHXM0Ab1JswcZqp3wgo3yJivGW7JzEiAa-0Jc-yIfCVzp5N200BNCTB4uiWoOlShyphenhyphenqsM2cg7sJ9rMLCZRy9vQVH50kWCClWLtaidI_GJqn-bixWwX/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-local-superclusters.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - local superclusters" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZUbuQ0hUB7LeK24gq9K_I91Se_fuOHXM0Ab1JswcZqp3wgo3yJivGW7JzEiAa-0Jc-yIfCVzp5N200BNCTB4uiWoOlShyphenhyphenqsM2cg7sJ9rMLCZRy9vQVH50kWCClWLtaidI_GJqn-bixWwX/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-local-superclusters.jpg" title="" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZLaQwrwFO08e0GvOUK6dQiRScfTNeK26DD4SnDXVSl6V7LpkYKUVt8LN0-KYMAzHLe1q541A5KdOXbEc1NFQKmgrRNFoX7j4LY22PO8qSiiOFVzcwsIEjVQ9qu5GTo3OrQhshEcxqoSd0/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-observable-universe.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - obervable universe" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZLaQwrwFO08e0GvOUK6dQiRScfTNeK26DD4SnDXVSl6V7LpkYKUVt8LN0-KYMAzHLe1q541A5KdOXbEc1NFQKmgrRNFoX7j4LY22PO8qSiiOFVzcwsIEjVQ9qu5GTo3OrQhshEcxqoSd0/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-observable-universe.jpg" title="" width="200" /></a><br /><br /></div></div>Earth - 12,700 km in diameter - Our planet<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyAsZlOtLUhalAo8z-TWYS6MRqdBkEUIuaGXXjuWzEf7xRIwbD3Bh9vA-BCf62iRbnstVA65NEyvTZT0tLZLjnWZqemWuEz3JynnUgOzKosGZnccsKVnpEeNENvMroOp9tYUVQG5iI-K7/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyAsZlOtLUhalAo8z-TWYS6MRqdBkEUIuaGXXjuWzEf7xRIwbD3Bh9vA-BCf62iRbnstVA65NEyvTZT0tLZLjnWZqemWuEz3JynnUgOzKosGZnccsKVnpEeNENvMroOp9tYUVQG5iI-K7/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Geospace - 63,000 km Sunward side; - 6,300,000 km trailing side - The space dominated by Earth's magnetic field<br /><br />Orbit of the Moon - 770,000 km across - The average diameter of the orbit of the Moon relative to the Earth<br /><br />Earth's Orbit - 300 million km across (2 AU) - The average diameter of the orbit of the Earth relative to the Sun. Contains the Sun, Mercury and Venus<br /><br />Inner Solar System - 6 AU across - Contains the Sun, the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) and the asteroid belt<br /><br />Outer Solar System - 60 AU across - Surrounds the inner Solar System; comprises the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune)<br /><br />Kuiper Belt - 96 AU across - Belt of icy objects surrounding the outer solar system. Contains the dwarf planets Pluto, Haumea and Makemake<br /><br />Heliosphere - 160 AU across - Maximum extent of the Solar wind and the interplanetary medium<br /><br />Scattered Disk - 200 AU across - Region of sparsely scattered icy objects surrounding the Kuiper belt. Contains the dwarf planet Eris<br /><br />Oort Cloud - 100,000–200,000 AU across (2–4 light-years) - Spherical shell of over a trillion comets<br /><br />Solar System - 4 light-years across - Our home planetary system. At this point, the Sun's gravity gives way to that of surrounding stars<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqSqrS_I68EUwbOzK2IEs-19WnF__ndKiHJX09wy-RUNh9_97-RVrnJAjWNn9Hwx8aD5iHGQvjOcz9UC-F1B24hDCHybB2phoArG91f4h9nL3S7LCWCiMtxOmI_AOqM4IrAbl1VOGEFLpK/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-solar-system.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - solar system" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqSqrS_I68EUwbOzK2IEs-19WnF__ndKiHJX09wy-RUNh9_97-RVrnJAjWNn9Hwx8aD5iHGQvjOcz9UC-F1B24hDCHybB2phoArG91f4h9nL3S7LCWCiMtxOmI_AOqM4IrAbl1VOGEFLpK/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-solar-system.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Local Interstellar Cloud - 30 light-years across - Interstellar cloud of gas through which the Sun and a number of other stars are currently travelling<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib98RAiynnFzZOcvpEx38JCOddeCtcXdi9dZPq7hVJYG60pDoyNrX1rxfs4EBkSMHbz8e4O5TR5YQtq7AKCQMmyqlpZaGMmhwMReEsx4qxN6LIDOjNlF6cJi2Z0wmmGoYfkD2g7hGf-oPK/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-solar-interstellar-neighborhood.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - solar interstellar neighborhood" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib98RAiynnFzZOcvpEx38JCOddeCtcXdi9dZPq7hVJYG60pDoyNrX1rxfs4EBkSMHbz8e4O5TR5YQtq7AKCQMmyqlpZaGMmhwMReEsx4qxN6LIDOjNlF6cJi2Z0wmmGoYfkD2g7hGf-oPK/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-solar-interstellar-neighborhood.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Local Bubble - 210–815 light-years across - Cavity in the interstellar medium in which our Sun and a number of other stars are currently travelling. Caused by a past supernova<br /><br />Gould Belt - 3,000 light-years across - Ring of young stars through which our Sun is currently travelling<br /><br />Orion Arm - 10,000 light-years in length - The spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy through which our Sun is currently travelling<br /><br />Orbit of the Solar System - 56,000 light years across - The average diameter of the orbit of the Sun relative to the Galactic Center. Our Sun's orbital radius is roughly 28,000 light years, or slightly over half way to the galactic edge. One orbital period of our Solar System lasts between 225 and 250 million years<br /><br />Milky Way Galaxy - 100,000 light-years across - Our home galaxy, composed of 200 billion to 400 billion stars and filled with the interstellar medium<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge1q1cg7KKRnNFKph5x78xcjDf1-B09__WbR2Ji4OglJZagqJ60nNmS86YAh6nyM_gZinINb0APBConCCIvFnb9BQH_xH39dkl9qzGpbKUrbM4uqbK5M7BU6rVOT1aNQG5EI39-GXjeA15/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-milky-way-galaxy.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - milky way galaxy" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge1q1cg7KKRnNFKph5x78xcjDf1-B09__WbR2Ji4OglJZagqJ60nNmS86YAh6nyM_gZinINb0APBConCCIvFnb9BQH_xH39dkl9qzGpbKUrbM4uqbK5M7BU6rVOT1aNQG5EI39-GXjeA15/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-milky-way-galaxy.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Milky Way Subgroup - 2.74 million light-years across (0.84 megaparsecs) - The Milky Way and those satellite galaxies gravitationally bound to it, such as the Sagittarius Dwarf, the Ursa Minor Dwarf and the Canis Major Dwarf. Cited distance is the orbital diameter of the Leo T Dwarf galaxy, the most distant galaxy in the Milky Way subgroup<br /><br />Local Group - 3 megaparsecs across - Group of at least 47 galaxies. Dominated by Andromeda Galaxy (the largest), The Milky Way and Triangulum; the remainder are small dwarf galaxies<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitKl_PdDlMixxgEwjk-SyZNzc5ylz_RzOcKzERfvpL8yCxX8mngaMl_pthCIuh3AYtGScwYQihoxU6KPdYfob8GKa1lpLXmS_cyxG0LZWoBqdmsxrcc_BAZRCGXLCaqVyyMC_3SOOyI_bv/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-local-galactic-group.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - local galactic group" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitKl_PdDlMixxgEwjk-SyZNzc5ylz_RzOcKzERfvpL8yCxX8mngaMl_pthCIuh3AYtGScwYQihoxU6KPdYfob8GKa1lpLXmS_cyxG0LZWoBqdmsxrcc_BAZRCGXLCaqVyyMC_3SOOyI_bv/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-local-galactic-group.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Virgo Supercluster - 33 megaparsecs across - The supercluster of which our Local Group is a part; comprises roughly 100 galaxy groups and clusters<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfaY7oOMJJw7fAPhYsnZR8P1KEuitxwXpjYSDGyW3IkgGmg97dHBOr5p74YShnKfuUZ1aMiykwXweb0A40BXiRo-UInwVdB37DQipebP7blWSg9nqPAyTkA7JextjdWp4w0_Ad2QPdE_u/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-virgo-supercluster.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - virgo supercluster" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfaY7oOMJJw7fAPhYsnZR8P1KEuitxwXpjYSDGyW3IkgGmg97dHBOr5p74YShnKfuUZ1aMiykwXweb0A40BXiRo-UInwVdB37DQipebP7blWSg9nqPAyTkA7JextjdWp4w0_Ad2QPdE_u/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-virgo-supercluster.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex - 300 megaparsecs across - The galaxy filament of which the Virgo Supercluster is a part<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj1rNUE7s1qMz4FRmMUDNAYV9mLL2OOSkqkrgrnYABbAXfjSDquojc5PL0Kn4kbS9aXNnsDunor7Pv5yMKfIUsXGeFjwAlmvJhQEaNaMfUpQai1m3VmYrdw1d6sbY8DOBft7w0pMGVmvQk/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-local-superclusters.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - local superclusters" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj1rNUE7s1qMz4FRmMUDNAYV9mLL2OOSkqkrgrnYABbAXfjSDquojc5PL0Kn4kbS9aXNnsDunor7Pv5yMKfIUsXGeFjwAlmvJhQEaNaMfUpQai1m3VmYrdw1d6sbY8DOBft7w0pMGVmvQk/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-local-superclusters.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Observable Universe - 28,000 megaparsecs across - The large-scale structure of the Universe consists of more than 100 billion galaxies, arranged in millions of superclusters, galactic filaments, and voids, creating a foam-like superstructure<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhD-TDKT03YzBlPrJ-GTsNGV6Qymz5EIwVDVAS1OjtLZLsjqx8dATuGjXkxJe3JxpjsGJ5Ud-X0kSUfl70vpdDhaBRdaw5-m76Q7eLzxvyJiHTpfvB-eGviEWliXUJ-2cO6BxyVPB0HHJd/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-observable-universe.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="earth location in the universe - obervable universe" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhD-TDKT03YzBlPrJ-GTsNGV6Qymz5EIwVDVAS1OjtLZLsjqx8dATuGjXkxJe3JxpjsGJ5Ud-X0kSUfl70vpdDhaBRdaw5-m76Q7eLzxvyJiHTpfvB-eGviEWliXUJ-2cO6BxyVPB0HHJd/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe-observable-universe.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Universe - Minimum of 28,000 megaparsecs - Beyond the observable Universe lies the unobservable regions where no light from those regions has reached the Earth yet. No information is available about the region, as light is the fastest travelling medium of information. However, since there is no reason to suppose different natural laws, the universe is likely to contain more galaxies in the same foam-like superstructure<br /><br />Beyond - Size Unknown - Our universe might be a part of multiverse, omniverse, and/or other hypothetical concepts<br /><br /><br /><b>Explanation of units:</b><br /><b></b><br /><ul><li><b><b>1 AU or Astronomical Unit is the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or 150 million km. Earth's orbital diameter is twice its orbital radius, or 2 AU</b></b></li></ul><ul><li><b><b>One light-year is the distance light travels in a year; equivalent to 9.46 trillion km or 63,200 AU</b></b></li></ul><ul><li><b><b>A parsec is 3.26 light-years</b></b></li></ul><ul><li><b><b>One megaparsec is equivalent to one million parsecs or 3.26 million light-year</b></b></li></ul><br />Images Credit: Andrew Z. Colvin<br />Explanation from: http://en.wikipedia.org <br /><div align="left" class="photo"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Earth's_Location_in_the_Universe_SMALLER_(JPEG).jpg"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIb61dKiXcnO08_cqezlHJjXlreQKWcdfQZ52FROzp6T6UaH5TGmeyjh2xpsKFz8-znFn9idBst7WIN9f9mBXNhxFdvnz8SkGnnD5T4jmEnPU2YlyRkQhplTvZteVnWsaxTR4sBLgJn1y_/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="http://uofgts.com/Astro/highslide/images/large/600px-8_Observable_Universe_ELitU.png"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixtNlDQh9pszlK8bEvChJcf516HZpi8PWFxMLdOtlzPqARMQIXvwsh1r0B3OA-dZDQfFroGZW-Y7IZqaHizjmsnh7cEpHQHtoYVEv-xtgIpmUHlubzka77p3Tpbi3Kv_2d9WKC-AGDePhB/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Earth's_Location_in_the_Universe_(JPEG).jpg/800px-Earth's_Location_in_the_Universe_(JPEG).jpg"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo14C4ZsUnGFRg1qvTFwUMBqcYcxeW58gN0LiAu64k9YJoopXY_0-IhlzuKstzVvDzPDAqYr5b7NHofo9G2-0lcFyTQrZCgPW5aY3GwwPBs9MPXSdd4TGT-aWYCxIL2lwPZDUMULlAaYgA/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="https://cdn.urbantimes.co/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Virgo-Supercluster-in-universe.png"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtlCnIOkYs6y4zs_AJUiKeEoOXjx1f5mhfWZkC5nmGnnKmD6ph6gaP6dLldOYGYB1f0H1_sl_sPuuDIdBDUaYJhlu7Nwid4yLwkGUzLTt_IXg80yUbbs-pPNyccWqio7KGKkz_uCKUd9bR/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/Earth's_Location_in_the_Universe.jpg"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-_oqqoNKfADxOzTF737yDXzQh3PMXvF4cIcmcYkr39vk-K_y5GPLUTLAMEJrcga4pDko7fM4bbX33IJ17YhDgndPZZK8pA1kekRFZbPZBJ_sO6M6R-OGGtnDoILAH1z32exvWhF3VLB1_/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/imagenes_universo/cosmos15_06.jpg"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNEEt1W1VYYdHlu2PqNDD5uTKtzz_FZLSK_NtAmJiEtiBwfsLn9Obcs3PmaJ0SltS3a5iqW8UVIqfosV22Zj_BWWGQ57YBp04rqWY7DRFNOQAUu_iTABy4FbAmeSgUw7v-ceOdPpAHrNkb/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="http://bp3.uuuploads.com/earths-location-in-the-universe/earths-location-in-the-universe-7.jpg"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrVQQtEgOoLdX7gKiy5psxYqpXyNCkRZF6Y8cchIiuLokg9qy8Q_GSdrTPwKhmbRLaUI1nMIkUmiybHOKlzNvHoSAk9MpeOI1XYTyDIA5LMGVEmL-cFqW3tT6hS_vvrm-sdQHr-xNBrL1K/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="http://wordlesstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Our-Location-in-the-Universe-4.jpg"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyGb-JOYSnx7kR9d0xuAiD7Qkq33ukDsgykjqVm9PJrbHi6qot9s10izd5AoE6S-iILr3N1Pgc4Ic3wV_UaGjIrL9R5G2uE_rm9RgrnQVLpw7T72-NqK6wS5Gx53bIHjeF-n8qAt_bptf4/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="https://cdn.urbantimes.co/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Earth-in-universe.png"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXYeq4GIUjb2MbquugNJ5AgQI8Z8PFU0uym4Cc7lYh1STw4UqSlIB96Gua9DU03pwREKRPeJGiViDvKefXkY_QW7hqEThMFJkk6h_-MZENQadOxO_nbq1UjCTnJSwjkjzyvqeVvK1hpRNq/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.redshift-live.com/binaries/asset/image/23057/image/The_location_of_the_Solar_System_in_the__local__Universe.jpg"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDC4-CL4WskIhYLdEsfGo6UqfoWw1BthZXGa3xdnPRjDsX9KtQGqJ-RYnXKxgAwsSLq1ay9cWMBQfrJ_qFWfdfuIqtBn2jysFMKK-JEiWjG1tRvv2d8OVPV2vlODME28BOrz3k-axdZQUy/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="http://zazenlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Earths_Location_in_the_Universe_JPEG1-639x400.jpg"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Hg6UvjNhvqEvKIG9X99hrjjqjvsMc1qF2EbaMel6U3IGzbx8FDMqaa3cAOlBuNM_beKN8PRdeA_mwIIl3czQTswF2oVEWZCh5X41Nh4HRjy9abvd5uy8LvBBpfIa-HWQe19UbwXMH_sF/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="http://spacefellowship.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/universe_map_en.jpg"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1xGVfx84yagif3y9XhrxbOmBFxn6G4vzx_xAziV74WoLYaHlzZ7fPdv11wUhWdqgZa5i0X_crfXi8jQfBQ93S3SDUrLu4QyRkWNvpp_lWHyLDQQFBcsXhpzdIXqP54y1vsYINHzLgrScH/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.ichthus.info/BigBang/PICS/earthspace.jpg"><img alt="earth location in the universe" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidtA4VepGd11hem6Pifz_dmL8LRbCHD-w4ZBgor40JSTXyBEbUiZT6aRM3z8jAI79C1WjQbIHBRBjSguviuDlDEprq1T89HpzKMsqsC7Y5X6TNtREowOHnOiFLtV0LXILMQqxgpzm-Clnt/s1600/earth-location-in-the-universe.jpg" /></a></div>

Earth's Location in the Universe

Earth → Solar System → Solar Interstellar Neightborhood → Milky Way Galaxy → Local Galactic Group → Virgo Supercluster → Observable Universe...

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Looking Back at an Eclipsed Earth

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_05RclSGgvp1ABv4PfTv2BCaCZTnQkIcncemh4Fwpw-5dJg_zjAaU14Qtkv9mm-6lcT-Jk68smtjUhnhSfNy2SB4N5l5IQW0pK9F3ZHwQzn80ZJ1QO7vvXHFekhAyV-UjHW37YprHDra7/s1600/earthspot_mtsat_2249.jpg"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_05RclSGgvp1ABv4PfTv2BCaCZTnQkIcncemh4Fwpw-5dJg_zjAaU14Qtkv9mm-6lcT-Jk68smtjUhnhSfNy2SB4N5l5IQW0pK9F3ZHwQzn80ZJ1QO7vvXHFekhAyV-UjHW37YprHDra7/s640/earthspot_mtsat_2249.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">What'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 dark spot would see part of the Sun blocked by the Moon and so receive less sunlight than normal. The spot moved across the Earth at nearly 2,000 kilometers per hour, giving many viewers less than two hours to see a partially eclipsed Sun. MTSAT circles the Earth in a geostationary orbit and so took this image from about three Earth-diameters away.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Image Credit: PHL @ UPR Arecibo, NASA, EUMETSAT, NERC Satellite Receiving Station, U. Dundee<br />Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120530.html

Looking Back at an Eclipsed Earth

What'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 ann...

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Tyrrhenian Sea and Solstice Sky

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijdhLx8IKEu-qWS5fsqocLGxpHDDH26bwQP9Z716jRbd9ZO6WDk18veobrEkqOr94VD-PduUTl3fqn-WRR8mDY-vGV4LdFRH8MOiZx2GY-_DnqT29lVuVlko8B56OaTKZWtmHVNQPpRjTN/s1600/wintersolstice_pivato_big.jpg"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijdhLx8IKEu-qWS5fsqocLGxpHDDH26bwQP9Z716jRbd9ZO6WDk18veobrEkqOr94VD-PduUTl3fqn-WRR8mDY-vGV4LdFRH8MOiZx2GY-_DnqT29lVuVlko8B56OaTKZWtmHVNQPpRjTN/s640/wintersolstice_pivato_big.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">This 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.</div><br />Explanation from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101221.html<br />Image Credit & Copyright: Danilo Pivato

Tyrrhenian Sea and Solstice Sky

This striking composite image follows the Sun's path through the December solstice day of 2005 in a beautiful blue sky, looking down the...

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Terraforming of Mars

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8aCOd9c5yycgYOMNX884QCjJ9PEdUmLFrl8_JtzvQiOX8OAFJc106BNrbqZxRbEZmsEQpjSTbdaeOAwSQWPPekPwy77-jpZhpEEjLKF8Z9qHJYAnOAQ4vN9pvPURfi1JLaUjNxshMPKyD/s1600/mars-terraforming-10.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="mars terraforming" border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8aCOd9c5yycgYOMNX884QCjJ9PEdUmLFrl8_JtzvQiOX8OAFJc106BNrbqZxRbEZmsEQpjSTbdaeOAwSQWPPekPwy77-jpZhpEEjLKF8Z9qHJYAnOAQ4vN9pvPURfi1JLaUjNxshMPKyD/s320/mars-terraforming-10.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYuZaD9kdCbGLnModaHBLf8SuhqAyplOzCefYbV6WX3_b90Inh7AlR-WrJ6hBwPGpP4eGiqIXo0pFXt5n22kXe9wL2qrIwhy5GFXo1-2Vm9_RVv9LPtdovgldSG02gnstAsOKEFD6nmNXA/s1600/mars-terraforming-11.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="mars terraforming" border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYuZaD9kdCbGLnModaHBLf8SuhqAyplOzCefYbV6WX3_b90Inh7AlR-WrJ6hBwPGpP4eGiqIXo0pFXt5n22kXe9wL2qrIwhy5GFXo1-2Vm9_RVv9LPtdovgldSG02gnstAsOKEFD6nmNXA/s320/mars-terraforming-11.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil4fNCTNzU8KInV2-YBR1WGnhBIE_FQkkpVCW9P3Op6Ekhi7JIZHre0dNzSO-F5UXRef1k95TUd5kMRaBnmCbtgVYXqiexlJ23AUQn7ZU5481gI8X0ws8L3BTlmwTdwEPvsoDfDbGfLPXG/s1600/mars-terraforming-12.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="mars terraforming" border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil4fNCTNzU8KInV2-YBR1WGnhBIE_FQkkpVCW9P3Op6Ekhi7JIZHre0dNzSO-F5UXRef1k95TUd5kMRaBnmCbtgVYXqiexlJ23AUQn7ZU5481gI8X0ws8L3BTlmwTdwEPvsoDfDbGfLPXG/s320/mars-terraforming-12.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6eYJbSGUiQoGBPLA6FINmSqQSj0wgedRKA7J-MYCcjNoamX_lPsZHEfRE3xM0YJ6Nr3AeLSAPYlMuDd4MkZT-mDlCmpPCtNsp0uPF3WTZkRGJJP5BSE3I6ZjxDnQONXorqijSwsNv_nXD/s1600/mars-terraforming-13.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="mars terraforming" border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6eYJbSGUiQoGBPLA6FINmSqQSj0wgedRKA7J-MYCcjNoamX_lPsZHEfRE3xM0YJ6Nr3AeLSAPYlMuDd4MkZT-mDlCmpPCtNsp0uPF3WTZkRGJJP5BSE3I6ZjxDnQONXorqijSwsNv_nXD/s320/mars-terraforming-13.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Terraforming 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).</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">There are a few proposed terraforming concepts, some of which present prohibitive economic and natural resource costs, and others that may be achievable with foreseeable technology.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 36px;">Motivation and ethics</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Future population growth, demand for resources, and an alternate solution to the Doomsday argument may require human colonization of bodies other than Earth, such as Mars, the Moon, and other objects. Space colonization will facilitate harvesting the Solar System's energy and material resources.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">In many respects, Mars is the most Earth-like of all the other planets in the Solar System. It is thought that Mars had a more Earth-like environment early in its history, with a thicker atmosphere and abundant water that was lost over the course of hundreds of millions of years. Given the foundations of similarity and proximity, Mars would make one of the most plausible terraforming targets in the Solar System.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Ethical considerations of terraforming include the potential displacement or destruction of indigenous life, even if microbial, if such life exists.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 36px;">Challenges and limitations</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Martian environment presents several terraforming challenges to overcome and the extent of terraforming may be limited by certain key environmental factors.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: left;">Low gravity and pressure</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The surface gravity on Mars is 38% of that on Earth. It is not known if this is enough to prevent the health problems associated with weightlessness.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Mars's CO2 atmosphere has about 1% the pressure of the Earth's at sea level. It is estimated that there is sufficient CO2 ice in the regolith and the south polar cap to form a 30 to 60 kPa atmosphere if it is released by planetary warming. The reappearance of liquid water on the Martian surface would add to the warming effects and atmospheric density, but the lower gravity of Mars requires 2.6 times Earth's column airmass to obtain the optimum 100 kPa pressure at the surface. Additional volatiles to increase the atmosphere's density must be supplied from an external source, such as redirecting several massive asteroids containing ammonia (NH3) as a source of nitrogen.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Breathing on Mars</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Current conditions in the Martian atmosphere at less than 1 kPa of atmospheric pressure, are significantly below the Armstrong limit of 6 kPa where very low pressure causes exposed bodily liquids such as saliva, tears, and the liquids wetting the alveoli within the lungs to boil away. Without a pressure suit, no amount of breathable oxygen delivered by any means will sustain life for more than a few minutes. In the NASA technical report Rapid (Explosive) Decompression Emergencies in Pressure-Suited Subjects, after exposure to pressure below the Armstrong limit, a survivor reported that his... "last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil." In these conditions humans die within minutes unless a pressure suit provides life support.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">If Mars atmospheric pressure could rise above 19 kPa then a pressure suit would not be required. Visitors would only need to wear a mask that supplied 100% oxygen under positive pressure. A further increase to 24 kPa of atmospheric pressure would allow a simple mask supplying pure oxygen. This might look similar to mountain climbers who venture into pressures below 37 kPa, also called the death zone where an insufficient amount of bottled oxygen has often resulted in hypoxia with fatalities.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Countering the effects of space weather</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Mars lacks a magnetosphere, which poses challenges for mitigating solar radiation and retaining atmosphere. It is thought that the localized fields detected on Mars are remnants of a magnetosphere that collapsed early in its history.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The lack of a magnetosphere is thought to be one reason for Mars's thin atmosphere. Solar-wind-induced ejection of Martian atmospheric atoms has been detected by Mars-orbiting probes. While Venus has a dense atmosphere, it has only traces of water vapor (20 ppm) because it has no magnetic field.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Earth's ozone layer provides additional protection. Ultraviolet light is blocked before it can dissociate water into hydrogen and oxygen.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 36px;">Advantages</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">According to modern theorists, Mars exists on the outer edge of the habitable zone, a region of the Solar System where life can exist. Mars is on the border of a region known as the extended habitable zone where liquid water on the surface may be supported if concentrated greenhouse gases could increase the atmospheric pressure. The lack of both a magnetic field and geologic activity on Mars may be a result of its relatively small size, which allowed the interior to cool more quickly than Earth's, although the details of such a process are still not well understood.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">It has been suggested that Mars once had an atmosphere as thick as Earth's during an earlier stage in its development, and that its pressure supported abundant liquid water at the surface. Although water appears to have once been present on the Martian surface, water ice appears to exist at the poles just below the planetary surface as permafrost. The soil and atmosphere of Mars contain many of the main elements crucial to life, including sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Large amounts of water ice exist below the Martian surface, as well as on the surface at the poles, where it is mixed with dry ice, frozen CO2. Significant amounts of water are located at the south pole of Mars, which, if melted, would correspond to a planetwide ocean 5–11 meters deep. Frozen carbon dioxide (CO2) at the poles sublimes into the atmosphere during the Martian summers, and small amounts of water residue are left behind, which fast winds sweep off the poles at speeds approaching 400 km/h (250 mph). This seasonal occurrence transports large amounts of dust and water vapor into the atmosphere, forming Earth-like clouds.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Most of the oxygen in the Martian atmosphere is present as carbon dioxide (CO2), the main atmospheric component. Molecular oxygen (O2) only exists in trace amounts. Large amounts of elemental oxygen can be also found in metal oxides on the Martian surface, and in the soil, in the form of per-nitrates. An analysis of soil samples taken by the Phoenix lander indicated the presence of perchlorate, which has been used to liberate oxygen in chemical oxygen generators. Electrolysis could be employed to separate water on Mars into oxygen and hydrogen if sufficient liquid water and electricity were available.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 36px;">Proposed methods and strategies</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Terraforming Mars would entail three major interlaced changes: building up the magnetosphere, building up the atmosphere, and raising the temperature. The atmosphere of Mars is relatively thin and has a very low surface pressure. Because its atmosphere consists mainly of CO2, a known greenhouse gas, once Mars begins to heat, the CO2 may help to keep thermal energy near the surface. Moreover, as it heats, more CO2 should enter the atmosphere from the frozen reserves on the poles, enhancing the greenhouse effect. This means that the two processes of building the atmosphere and heating it would augment one another, favoring terraforming. It will be difficult keeping the atmosphere together, due to lack of a global magnetic field.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Importing ammonia</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Another more intricate method uses ammonia as a powerful greenhouse gas. It is possible that large amounts of it exist in frozen form on minor planets orbiting in the outer Solar System. It may be possible to move these and send them into Mars's atmosphere.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Importing hydrocarbons</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Another way to create a Martian atmosphere would be to import methane or other hydrocarbons, which are common in Titan's atmosphere and on its surface; the methane could be vented into the atmosphere where it would act to compound the greenhouse effect.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Use of fluorine compounds</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Because long-term climate stability would be required for sustaining a human population, the use of especially powerful fluorine-bearing greenhouse gases, possibly including sulfur hexafluoride or halocarbons such as chlorofluorocarbons (or CFCs) and perfluorocarbons (or PFCs), has been suggested. These gases are proposed for introduction because they produce a greenhouse effect many times stronger than that of CO2. This can conceivably be done by sending rockets with payloads of compressed CFCs on collision courses with Mars. When the rockets crash onto the surface they would release their payloads into the atmosphere. A steady barrage of these "CFC rockets" would need to be sustained for a little over a decade while Mars changes chemically and becomes warmer. However, their lifetime due to photolysis would require an annual replenishing of 170 kilotons, and they would destroy any ozone layer.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">In order to sublimate the south polar CO2 glaciers, Mars would require the introduction of approximately 0.3 microbars of CFCs into Mars's atmosphere. This is equivalent to a mass of approximately 39 million metric tons. This is about three times the amount of CFC manufactured on Earth from 1972 to 1992 (when CFC production was banned by international treaty). Mineralogical surveys of Mars estimate the elemental presence of fluorine in the bulk composition of Mars at 32 ppm by mass vs. 19.4 ppm for the Earth.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">A proposal to mine fluorine-containing minerals as a source of CFCs and PFCs is supported by the belief that because these minerals are expected to be at least as common on Mars as on Earth, this process could sustain the production of sufficient quantities of optimal greenhouse compounds (CF3SCF3, CF3OCF2OCF3, CF3SCF2SCF3, CF3OCF2NFCF3, C12F27N) to maintain Mars at 'comfortable' temperatures, as a method of maintaining an Earth-like atmosphere produced previously by some other means.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Use of orbital mirrors</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Mirrors made of thin aluminized PET film could be placed in orbit around Mars to increase the total insolation it receives. This would direct the sunlight onto the surface and could increase Mars's surface temperature directly. The mirror could be positioned as a statite, using its effectiveness as a solar sail to orbit in a stationary position relative to Mars, near the poles, to sublimate the CO</div><div style="text-align: center;">2 ice sheet and contribute to the warming greenhouse effect.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Albedo reduction</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Reducing the albedo of the Martian surface would also make more efficient use of incoming sunlight. This could be done by spreading dark dust from Mars's moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are among the blackest bodies in the Solar System; or by introducing dark extremophile microbial life forms such as lichens, algae and bacteria. The ground would then absorb more sunlight, warming the atmosphere.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">If algae or other green life were established, it would also contribute a small amount of oxygen to the atmosphere, though not enough to allow humans to breathe. The conversion process to produce oxygen is highly reliant upon water. The CO2 is mostly converted to carbohydrates. On 26 April 2012, scientists reported that lichen survived and showed remarkable results on the adaptation capacity of photosynthetic activity within the simulation time of 34 days under Martian conditions in the Mars Simulation Laboratory (MSL) maintained by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Funded research: ecopoiesis</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Since 2014, the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program and 'Techshot Inc' are working together to develop sealed biodomes that would employ colonies of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria and algae for the production of molecular oxygen (O2) on Martian soil. But first they need to test if it works on a small scale on Mars. The proposal is called Mars Ecopoiesis Test Bed. Eugene Boland is the Chief Scientist at Techshot, a company located in Greenville, Indiana. They intend to send small canisters of extremophile photosynthetic algae and cyanobacteria aboard a future rover mission. The rover would cork-screw the 7 cm (2.8 in) canisters into selected sites likely to experience transients of liquid water, drawing some Martian soil and then release oxygen-producing microorganisms to grow within the sealed soil. The hardware would use Martian subsurface ice as its phase changes into liquid water. The system would then look for oxygen given off as metabolic byproduct and report results to a Mars-orbiting relay satellite.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">If this experiment works on Mars, they will propose to build several large and sealed structures called biodomes, to produce and harvest oxygen for a future human mission to Mars life support systems. Being able to create oxygen there, would provide considerable cost-savings to NASA and allow for longer human visits to Mars than would be possible if astronauts have to transport their own heavy oxygen tanks. This biological process, called ecopoiesis, would be isolated, in contained areas, and is not meant as a type of global planetary engineering for terraforming of Mars's atmosphere, but NASA states that "This will be the first major leap from laboratory studies into the implementation of experimental (as opposed to analytical) planetary in situ research of greatest interest to planetary biology, ecopoiesis and terraforming."</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Research at the University of Arkansas presented in June 2015 suggested that some methanogens could survive in Mars's low pressure. Rebecca Mickol, found that in her laboratory, four species of methanogens survived low-pressure conditions that were similar to a subsurface liquid aquifer on Mars. The four species that she tested were Methanothermobacter wolfeii, Methanosarcina barkeri, Methanobacterium formicicum, and Methanococcus maripaludis. Methanogens do not require oxygen or organic nutrients, are non-photosynthetic, use hydrogen as their energy source and carbon dioxide (CO2) as their carbon source, so they could exist in subsurface environments on Mars.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Protecting the atmosphere</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">One key aspect of terraforming Mars is to protect the atmosphere (both present and future-built) from being lost into space. Some scientists hypothesize that creating a planet-wide artificial magnetosphere would be helpful in resolving this issue. According to two NIFS Japanese scientists, it is feasible to do that with current technology by building a system of refrigerated latitudinal superconducting rings, each carrying a sufficient amount of direct current.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">In the same report, it is claimed that the economic impact of the system can be minimized by using it also as a planetary energy transfer and storage system (SMES).</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 36px;">Thermodynamics of terraforming</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The overall energy required to sublimate the CO2 from the south polar ice cap is modeled by Zubrin and McKay. Raising temperature of the poles by 4 K would be necessary in order to trigger a runaway greenhouse effect. If using orbital mirrors, an estimated 120 MWe-years would be required in order to produce mirrors large enough to vaporize the ice caps. This is considered the most effective method, though the least practical. If using powerful halocarbon greenhouse gases, an order of 1000 MWe-years would be required to accomplish this heating.</div><br />Image Credit: Daein Ballard<br />Explanation from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars

Terraforming of Mars

Terraforming of Mars is a process by which Mars's climate and surface would be deliberately changed to make large areas of the environme...

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