Earth and Cygnus spacecraft seen from International Space Station

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8YYU5Pgqn4ph5u6gfGOGab1NWjvp2-jbnNgbn7IX0nh9hB8Yc6X-_0fFziTgIE0PhuMgUOabiYK88RyrPSlQmAeDQYdupL-2CmFmu6PCuxvXVL61YcLmLSHU_-8u1NwIiNgy5oTG9A9cK/s1600/Earth-Cygnus-spacecraft-ISS.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Earth and Cygnus spacecraft seen from International Space Station" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8YYU5Pgqn4ph5u6gfGOGab1NWjvp2-jbnNgbn7IX0nh9hB8Yc6X-_0fFziTgIE0PhuMgUOabiYK88RyrPSlQmAeDQYdupL-2CmFmu6PCuxvXVL61YcLmLSHU_-8u1NwIiNgy5oTG9A9cK/s640/Earth-Cygnus-spacecraft-ISS.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The first Cygnus commercial cargo spacecraft built by Orbital Sciences Corp. is photographed by an Expedition 37 crew member on the International Space Station during rendezvous and docking operations. The two spacecraft converged at 7:01 a.m. EDT on September 29, 2013.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">ISS, Orbit of the Earth</div><div style="text-align: center;">September 29, 2013</div><br />Image Credit: NASA

Earth and Cygnus spacecraft seen from International Space Station

The first Cygnus commercial cargo spacecraft built by Orbital Sciences Corp. is photographed by an Expedition 37 crew member on the Internat...

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Hubble eXtreme Deep Field

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj9mUyAGVEW5islRsb3rYW_BqGj0KTahUjGEu37rH6YIwrMM0sbUo66xOcGTyDcr29Mfm9NBybXHsEvA6w0VQZktH_IDUAU9xPG1W_AmE6VjJXPKVJy82CqtYrQ_l9SFe4NKECly0ZZcJd/s1600/Hubble-eXtreme-Deep-Field.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Hubble eXtreme Deep Field" border="0" height="558" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj9mUyAGVEW5islRsb3rYW_BqGj0KTahUjGEu37rH6YIwrMM0sbUo66xOcGTyDcr29Mfm9NBybXHsEvA6w0VQZktH_IDUAU9xPG1W_AmE6VjJXPKVJy82CqtYrQ_l9SFe4NKECly0ZZcJd/s640/Hubble-eXtreme-Deep-Field.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Like photographers assembling a portfolio of their best shots, astronomers have assembled a new, improved portrait of our deepest-ever view of the Universe. Called the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photo was assembled by combining ten years of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observations taken of a patch of sky within the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The XDF is a small fraction of the angular diameter of the full Moon.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is an image of a small area of space in the constellation of Fornax (The Furnace), created using Hubble Space Telescope data from 2003 and 2004. By collecting faint light over one million seconds of observation, the resulting image revealed thousands of galaxies, both nearby and very distant, making it the deepest image of the Universe ever taken at that time.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The new full-colour XDF image is even more sensitive than the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field image, thanks to the additional observations, and contains about 5500 galaxies, even within its smaller field of view. The faintest galaxies are one ten-billionth the brightness that the unaided human eye can see.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Magnificent spiral galaxies similar in shape to the Milky Way and its neighbour the Andromeda galaxy appear in this image, as do large, fuzzy red galaxies in which the formation of new stars has ceased. These red galaxies are the remnants of dramatic collisions between galaxies and are in their declining years as the stars within them age.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Peppered across the field are tiny, faint, and yet more distant galaxies that are like the seedlings from which today’s magnificent galaxies grew. The history of galaxies — from soon after the first galaxies were born to the great galaxies of today, like the Milky Way — is laid out in this one remarkable image.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Hubble pointed at a tiny patch of southern sky in repeat visits made over the past decade with a total exposure time of two million seconds. More than 2000 images of the same field were taken with Hubble’s two primary cameras: the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3, which extends Hubble’s vision into near-infrared light. These were then combined to form the XDF.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>“The XDF is the deepest image of the sky ever obtained and reveals the faintest and most distant galaxies ever seen. XDF allows us to explore further back in time than ever before,”</i> said Garth Illingworth of the University of California at Santa Cruz, principal investigator of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2009 (HUDF09) programme.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Universe is 13.7 billion years old, and the XDF reveals galaxies that span back 13.2 billion years in time. Most of the galaxies in the XDF are seen when they were young, small, and growing, often violently as they collided and merged together. The early Universe was a time of dramatic birth for galaxies containing brilliant blue stars far brighter than our Sun. The light from those past events is just arriving at Earth now, and so the XDF is a time tunnel into the distant past when the Universe was just a fraction of its current age. The youngest galaxy found in the XDF existed just 450 million years after the Universe’s birth in the Big Bang.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Before Hubble was launched in 1990, astronomers were able to see galaxies up to about seven billion light-years away, half way back to the Big Bang. Observations with telescopes on the ground were not able to establish how galaxies formed and evolved in the early Universe.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Hubble gave astronomers their first view of the actual forms of galaxies when they were young. This provided compelling, direct visual evidence that the Universe is truly changing as it ages. Like watching individual frames of a motion picture, the Hubble deep surveys reveal the emergence of structure in the infant Universe and the subsequent dynamic stages of galaxy evolution.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (Webb telescope), scheduled for launch in 2018, will be aimed at the XDF, and will study it with its infrared vision. The Webb telescope will find even fainter galaxies that existed when the Universe was just a few hundred million years old. Because of the expansion of the Universe, light from the distant past is stretched into longer, infrared wavelengths. The Webb telescope’s infrared vision is ideally suited to push the XDF even deeper, into a time when the first stars and galaxies formed and filled the early “dark ages” of the Universe with light.</div><br />Image Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (Leiden University), and the HUDF09 TeamExplanation from: https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1214/

Hubble eXtreme Deep Field

Like photographers assembling a portfolio of their best shots, astronomers have assembled a new, improved portrait of our deepest-ever view ...

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Lightning over Sierra Nevada

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK7-vfgu-JfW2PEkMvaVt-oWjwbcqXu1j1SUgGK64aNZtKTFiBQARzwzbI6UvB6bGh0sAKNellCKzPC2AjNCAelolPQMxqXJhEDJYKpULAqHJcNxxcymiZYLeOi5O8-OzKBFd8XjEC_IcH/s1600/Lightning-over-Sierra-Nevada.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Lightning over Sierra Nevada" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK7-vfgu-JfW2PEkMvaVt-oWjwbcqXu1j1SUgGK64aNZtKTFiBQARzwzbI6UvB6bGh0sAKNellCKzPC2AjNCAelolPQMxqXJhEDJYKpULAqHJcNxxcymiZYLeOi5O8-OzKBFd8XjEC_IcH/s640/Lightning-over-Sierra-Nevada.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Olancha, California, USA</div><div style="text-align: center;">September 20, 2014</div><br />Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Shainblum

Lightning over Sierra Nevada

Olancha, California, USA September 20, 2014 Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Shainblum

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Barnard 3

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoWuFu5-txqKmms6siu0PhzY3PjJxRPl_FJlJbnJdhne4wzUtgJmj-p35Q16JoGaNfO-70SBuay0adFjA8oDuoe4Vcf9QDfLlWi1ic6EAvXW6NYZGXppD5QMf4CPUl7JGlh4Oackvb10rq/s1600/Barnard-3.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Barnard 3" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoWuFu5-txqKmms6siu0PhzY3PjJxRPl_FJlJbnJdhne4wzUtgJmj-p35Q16JoGaNfO-70SBuay0adFjA8oDuoe4Vcf9QDfLlWi1ic6EAvXW6NYZGXppD5QMf4CPUl7JGlh4Oackvb10rq/s640/Barnard-3.jpg" title="" width="568" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission presents the "Wreath nebula." Though this isn't the nebula's official name (it's actually called Barnard 3, or IRAS Ring G159.6-18.5), one might picture a wreath in these bright green and red dust clouds -- a ring of evergreens donned with a festive red bow, a jaunty sprig of holly, and silver bells throughout. Interstellar clouds like these are stellar nurseries, places where baby stars are being born.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The green ring (evergreen) is made of tiny particles of warm dust whose composition is very similar to smog found here on Earth. The red cloud (bow) in the middle is probably made of dust that is more metallic and cooler than the surrounding regions. The bright star in the middle of the red cloud, called HD 278942, is so luminous that it is likely what is causing most of the surrounding ring to glow. In fact its powerful stellar winds are what cleared out the surrounding warm dust and created the ring-shaped feature in the first place. The bright greenish-yellow region left of center (holly) is similar to the ring, though more dense. The bluish-white stars (silver bells) scattered throughout are stars located both in front of, and behind, the nebula.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Regions similar to this nebula are found near the band of the Milky Way galaxy in the night sky. The "wreath" is slightly off this band, near the boundary between the constellations of Perseus and Taurus, but at a relatively close distance of only about 1,000 light-years, the cloud is a still part of our Milky Way.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The colors used in this image represent specific wavelengths of infrared light. Blue and cyan (blue-green) represent light emitted at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.6 microns, which is predominantly from stars. Green and red represent light from 12 and 22 microns, respectively, which is mostly emitted by dust.</div><br />Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA<br />Explanation from: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15252

Barnard 3

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission presents the "Wreath nebula." Though this isn't the nebula's...

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Globular Cluster NGC 6934

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGBPaOMTz5KL5NBag5cKP1Peiq5AJn3TfRmJqSoW94E9pWkl-J3vZlaHB3b_8bBpP5K7jju_LQqCKTTgVbvwSvt6w7SuC5sDTgYpY0V6wlMC90jRUwHQw9_T7wqvupf22XnuhYeIiPpH48/s1600/Globular-Cluster-NGC-6934.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Globular Cluster NGC 6934" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGBPaOMTz5KL5NBag5cKP1Peiq5AJn3TfRmJqSoW94E9pWkl-J3vZlaHB3b_8bBpP5K7jju_LQqCKTTgVbvwSvt6w7SuC5sDTgYpY0V6wlMC90jRUwHQw9_T7wqvupf22XnuhYeIiPpH48/s640/Globular-Cluster-NGC-6934.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">This bright spray of stars in the small but evocative constellation of Delphinus (the Dolphin) is the globular cluster NGC 6934. Globular clusters are large balls of (typically) a few hundred thousand ancient stars that exist on the edges of galaxies. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Lying 50 000 light-years from Earth, in the outer reaches of our Milky Way galaxy, NGC 6934 is home to some of the most distant stars still to be part of our galactic system — in a sense, it is a far-flung suburb to the Milky Way’s city centre. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">NGC 6934 was first seen by William Herschel in the late eighteenth century. He classified it as a “bright nebula” and was not able to resolve it into stars. The cluster is not bright enough to see with the naked eye, and even in ideal conditions it is very difficult to view with binoculars. However, it is a popular target for amateur astronomers as it can easily be observed using relatively inexpensive telescopes. Broadcaster Patrick Moore, presenter of BBC TV’s The Sky at Night for more than 50 years, included this cluster in his “Caldwell catalogue” of celestial objects that amateur astronomers should look out for.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">NGC 6934’s faintness is down to its distance — not how bright it really is. With its many thousands of stars, the cluster is no minnow. The fact that the huge core of our galaxy dwarfs it, along with the other 150 or so globular clusters that orbit the Milky Way’s galactic centre, is a reminder of the breathtaking scale of the cosmos.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">This picture was taken with the Wide Field Channel of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. It was created from images taken through filters F814W (near infrared) and F606W (orange), coloured red and blue respectively. The exposure times were 29 minutes per filter, and the field of view is 3.3 arcminutes across.</div><br />Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA<br />Explanation from: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1023a/

Globular Cluster NGC 6934

This bright spray of stars in the small but evocative constellation of Delphinus (the Dolphin) is the globular cluster NGC 6934. Globular cl...

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Lightning over Northern Territory

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbkYPIjcLKH7fxqk3fgsma6sKh0pB6PEclbWns0XEKOjbH6aZAJTwDEscVwRDyt8n8pW68QjGIk2Z2Xnyp_zVs22asnMLiIGQKMsj3M1Ya2X_ujBhX4vw4gayjX_Df5RKAg8GE3JoQJ9su/s1600/Lightning-over-Northern-Territory.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Lightning over Northern Territory" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbkYPIjcLKH7fxqk3fgsma6sKh0pB6PEclbWns0XEKOjbH6aZAJTwDEscVwRDyt8n8pW68QjGIk2Z2Xnyp_zVs22asnMLiIGQKMsj3M1Ya2X_ujBhX4vw4gayjX_Df5RKAg8GE3JoQJ9su/s640/Lightning-over-Northern-Territory.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Nightcliff, Northern Territory, Australia</div><br />Image Credit & Copyright: Cathryn Vasseleu

Lightning over Northern Territory

Nightcliff, Northern Territory, Australia Image Credit & Copyright: Cathryn Vasseleu

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International Space Station

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdlPMDXXetwU9-DLnsKqyMww11JvBz6x_G9vo_-Aj-DFF7TQ2bT2bvuER94yhrWOP6dw6C9S3z9QZuN7RQQ09rji4T10_JX8teEhTffySswBLdXwfy7_c1lp247W6fXxrZVTlz9jpBKZlA/s1600/International-Space-Station.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="International Space Station" border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdlPMDXXetwU9-DLnsKqyMww11JvBz6x_G9vo_-Aj-DFF7TQ2bT2bvuER94yhrWOP6dw6C9S3z9QZuN7RQQ09rji4T10_JX8teEhTffySswBLdXwfy7_c1lp247W6fXxrZVTlz9jpBKZlA/s640/International-Space-Station.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Backdropped by rugged Earth terrain, the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-130 crew member on space shuttle Endeavour after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation. Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 7:54 p.m. (EST) on February 19, 2010.</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Space Shuttle Endeavour, Orbit of the Earth</div><div style="text-align: center;">February 19, 2010</div><br />Image Credit: NASA

International Space Station

Backdropped by rugged Earth terrain, the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-130 crew member on spa...

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