SPACE OBSERVERS LUXOR

12/11/2014

APOD: Philae Attempts Comet Nucleus Landing (2014 Nov 12)
Image Credit: ESA
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141112.html

Explanation: Today humanity will make its first attempt to land a probe on the nucleus of a comet. As the day progresses, the Philae (fee-LAY) lander will separate from the Rosetta spacecraft and head down to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Since the texture of the comet's surface is unknown and its surface gravity is surely low, Philae will then attempt to harpoon itself down, something that has never been done before. Featured here is an artist's illustration of dishwasher-sized Philae as it might look on Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko's surface, along with explanation balloons detailing onboard scientific instruments. Many people on a blue planet across the Solar System will be eagerly awaiting news and updates. Whether Philae actually lands, whether it lands on a smooth patch, whether the harpoons take hold, and how far the robotic lander sinks into the surface should all become known as events unfold today.

http://www.esa.int

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=141112

12/11/2014

Watch European Space Agency's Rosetta webcast on Livestream.com. Live webcast from ESA mission control, when Europe's Rosetta spacecraft dispatches the Philae lander to make the first-ever touchdown on a comet. Official hashtag:

12/11/2014

This afternoon ESA 's spacecraft Rosetta is going to send a probe to the comet!

Good morning, for the big day of Rosetta Mission and ... getting towards ! Lander experts currently on ESA TV stage at our Space Operations Centre ! cc German Aerospace Center, DLR CNES Airbus www.esa.int/rosetta

01/11/2014

The Milky Way shines with all its fascinating details above the , in this stunning ultra high-definition fish-eye/fulldome image. http://www.eso.org/public/images/uhd_9428_panorama/
Image credit: Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ ESO Astronomy

28/10/2014

Jupiter is watching you :-D

Spooky Shadow Gives Jupiter a Giant Eye: This trick that the planet is looking back at you is actually a Hubble treat: An eerie, close-up view of Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system. Hubble was monitoring changes in Jupiter's immense Great Red Spot (GRS) storm on April 21, 2014, when the shadow of the Jovian moon, Ganymede, swept across the center of the storm. This gave the giant planet the uncanny appearance of having a pupil in the center of a 10,000 mile-diameter "eye." For a moment, Jupiter "stared" back at Hubble like a one-eyed giant Cyclops.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center)

25/10/2014

APOD: Sunspots and Solar Eclipse (2014 Oct 25)
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Bolte (UCSC)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141025.html

Explanation: A New Moon joined giant sunspot group AR 2192 to dim the bright solar disk during Thursday's much anticipated partial solar eclipse. Visible from much of North America, the Moon's broad silhouette is captured in this extreme telephoto snapshot near eclipse maximum from Santa Cruz, California. About the size of Jupiter, the remarkable AR 2192 itself darkens a noticeable fraction of the Sun, near center and below the curved lunar limb. As the sunspot group slowly rotates across the Sun and out of view in the coming days its activity is difficult to forecast. But the timing of solar eclipses is easier to predict. The next will be a total solar eclipse on March 20, 2015.

http://www.ucolick.org/~bolte/home.html

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=141025

18/10/2014

Yes, the Orienids are here !!

Earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, parent of the annual Orionid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Tuesday, Oct. 21st.

11/10/2014

APOD: Eclipse at Moonrise (2014 Oct 11)
Image Credit & Copyright: Zhou Yannan
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141011.html

Explanation: As the Moon rose and the Sun set on October 8, a lunar eclipse was in progress seen from Chongqing, China. Trailing through this composite time exposure, the rising Moon began as a dark reddened disk in total eclipse near the eastern horizon. Steadily climbing above the populous city's colorful lights along the Yangtze River, the moontrail grows brighter and broader, until a bright Full Moon emerged from the Earth's shadow in evening skies. Although lunar eclipses are not always total ones, this eclipse, along with last April's lunar eclipse, were the first two of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, a series known as a tetrad. The final two eclipses of this tetrad will occur in early April and late September 2015.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zhouyannan

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=141011

10/10/2014

APOD: Moons at Opposition (2014 Oct 10)
Image Credit & Copyright: Rick Baldridge
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141010.html

Explanation: From the early hours of October 8, over the Santa Cruz Mountains near Los Gatos, California, the totally eclipsed Moon shows a range of color across this well-exposed telescopic view of the lunar eclipse. Of course, a lunar eclipse can only occur when the Moon is opposite the Sun in Earth's sky and gliding through the planet's shadow. But also near opposition during this eclipse, and remarkably only half a degree or so from the lunar limb, distant Uranus is faint but easy to spot at the lower right. Fainter still are the ice giant's moons. To find them, slide your cursor over the image (or just follow this link) to check out a longer exposure. While even the darkened surface of our eclipsed Moon will be strongly overexposed, Uranus moons Titania, Oberon, and Umbriel can just be distinguished as faint pinpricks of light.

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=141010

07/10/2014

and extra

Most of North America will witness a total eclipse of the moon on Wednesday (Oct. 8), but the morning sky will also hold a surprise for intrepid skywatchers interested in seeing another celestial body alongside the eclipsed moon.

07/10/2014

Those who are lucky to see the Lunar Eclipse, will have something special. At that time there is also the sun rise!

Observers of Wednesday morning's total lunar eclipse might be able to catch sight of an extremely rare cosmic sight.

07/10/2014

APOD: From the Temple of the Sun to the Temple of the Moon (2014 Oct 07)
Image Credit & Copyright: Dave Lane
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141007.html

Explanation: What connects the Sun to the Moon? Many answers have been given throughout history, but in the case of today's featured image, it appears to be the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. The 16-image panorama was taken in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, USA where two sandstone monoliths -- the Temple of the Moon on the right and the Temple of the Sun on the left -- rise dramatically from the desert. Each natural monument stands about 100 meters tall and survives from the Jurassic period 160 million years ago. Even older are many of the stars and nebula that dot the celestial background, including the Andromeda Galaxy. Tomorrow the Earth will connect the Sun to the Moon by way of its shadow: a total lunar eclipse will be visible from many locations around the globe.

https://www.facebook.com/david.lane.520562

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=141007

22/08/2014

http://earthsky.org/tonight/waning-moon-close-to-jupiter-and-venus-at-dawn-august-23?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=90a5dc27d3-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-90a5dc27d3-393611569

22/08/2014

Comet Jacques (C/2014 E2) and Comet Oukaimeden (C/2013 V5) are just bright enough to see in ordinary binoculars. Use our finder charts to find the comets in your sky.

22/08/2014

Late summer is one of the best times of year to view the full splendor of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Seeing the Milky Way requires a special effort for most of us, but it's well worth the trouble.

22/08/2014

Meanwhile, in orbit around Saturn... ..the Cassini spacecraft took this impressive picture on 4 May 2014.
More at http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/08/Supreme_Saturn

21/08/2014

APOD: Venus and Jupiter at Dawn (2014 Aug 21)
Image Credit & Copyright: Stefano De Rosa
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140821.html

Explanation: On Monday morning, Venus and Jupiter gathered close in dawn skies, for some separated by about half the width of a full moon. It was their closest conjunction since 2000, captured here above the eastern horizon before sunrise. The serene and colorful view is from Istia beach near the city of Capoliveri on the island of Elba. Distant lights and rolling hills are along Italy's Tuscan coast. Of course, the celestial pair soon wandered apart. Brighter Venus headed lower, toward the eastern horizon and the glare of the Sun, while Jupiter continues to rise a little higher now in the sky near dawn. The two brightest planets meet again next June 30th, in the evening twilight above the western horizon.

http://stefanoderosa.com/

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=140821

14/07/2014

The oldest cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud — ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1428a/
Image credit: European Space Agency/ Hubble Space Telescope & NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Acknowlegement: Stefano Campani

14/07/2014

29/06/2014

The Gemini Observatory's Gemini South telescope is churning out spectacular imagery using its laser-guided Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive optics System (GeMS). See the dazzling images from and of the telescope in this SPACE.com gallery.

29/06/2014

The Andromeda Galaxy, the closest galaxy to our own Milky Way, gets the star treatment in this dazzling photo by amateur astronomer and photographer Lorenzo Comolli. See how he snapped the amazing galaxy photo here.

12/05/2014

Even though it may only be a lump of porous rock, Phobos isn’t shy about hogging the limelight in this sequence taken by ESA’s Mars Express. These three images show Phobos, the larger of the two martian moons, darting across the frame in front of Jupiter, visible as the pale dot in the ce…

18/04/2014

officially re-enters space with successful rocket launch

The Russian Soyuz-U rocket carrying EgyptSat-2 launched successfully from Kazakhstan on Wednesday. The Egyptian government hailed the moment as a great achievement and the start of new scientific and technological capabilities for the country.

EgyptSat-2 weighs 1,050 kilograms and was launched on behalf of Egypt's National Authority for remote Sensing and Space Sciences. The satellite is equipped with fixed solar arrays and X-band communications and is expected to be operational for at least 11 years.

The satellite will allow Egypt mapping abilities (for 'spying' and other mapping purposes), environmental monitoring and disaster management capabilities.

[PHOTO: The Soyuz-U rocket carrying EgyptSat-2]

18/04/2014

APOD: Red Moon, Green Beam (2014 Feb 18)
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Long (Apache Point Observatory) - Courtesy: Tom Murphy (UC San Diego)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140418.html

Explanation: This is not a scene from a sci-fi special effects movie. The green beam of light and red lunar disk are real enough, captured in the early morning hours of April 15. Of course, the reddened lunar disk is easy to explain as the image was taken during this week's total lunar eclipse. Immersed in shadow, the eclipsed Moon reflects the dimmed reddened light of all the sunsets and sunrises filtering around the edges of planet Earth, seen in silhouette from a lunar perspective. But the green beam of light really is a laser. Shot from the 3.5-meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory in southern New Mexico, the beam's path is revealed as Earth's atmosphere scatters some of the intense laser light. The laser's target is the Apollo 15 retroreflector, left on the Moon by the astronauts in 1971. By determining the light travel time delay of the returning laser pulse, the experimental team from UC San Diego is able to measure the Earth-Moon distance to millimeter precision and provide a test of General Relativity, Einstein's theory of gravity. Conducting the lunar laser ranging experiment during a total eclipse uses the Earth like a cosmic light switch. With direct sunlight blocked, the reflector's performance is improved over performance when illuminated by sunlight during a normal Full Moon, an effect fondly known as The Full Moon Curse.

http://www.apo.nmsu.edu/
http://physics.ucsd.edu/~tmurphy/

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=140418

18/04/2014

The newly discovered planet, Kepler-186f, is the first Earth-sized exoplanet circling in its star’s habitable zone. While it brings astronomers significantly closer to the goal of finding an Earth twin, we’re not there quite yet.

18/04/2014

http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/nasas-kepler-discovers-first-earth-size-planet-in-the-habitable-zone-of-another-star/index.html #.U1Ech1WSySp

Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet.

30/01/2014

Second New Moon of the month today is called Black moon

Today - January 30, 2014 - gives us the second of two supermoons to occur in a single calendar month. The first supermoon came on January 1.

03/01/2014

This is only the second time that astronomers spotted an asteroid before it struck Earth's atmosphere. It underscores the need to be watching for these objects.

27/12/2013

http://earthsky.org/space/here-is-the-john-lennon-crater-on-mercury

Truman Capote has a crater on Mercury now, too. So does Enrico Caruso ... and seven other artists, musicians, painters and authors.

27/12/2013

Quadrantid meteor shower peaks in early January

New years' fireworks : The Quadrantid meteor shower will be turning on some holiday lights from December 28 to January 12. This year's meteors are fortunate enough to streak across a moonless predawn sky. The Moon will set in the early evening, leaving the sky as dark as your site is. The best time to observe the Quadrantids is during the early morning hours of January 3, when they peak. The climax of their sky-show will produce between 60 and 120 meteors per hour.