# Solar System



## Drone (Nov 27, 2012)

Self-explanatory random thread. The target audience is ... me 

Btw I've updated all my posts here (December 10, 2012), added links, pictures and videos. I spent lots of time, but it's all worth it! And now posts make more sense.

________________


Contents:

part 1: Neptune and Jupiter (Moons and Rings)

part 2: Mars

part 3: Saturn (Moons, Rings)

part 4: Uranus (Moons, Rings)

part 5: new images of Saturn

part 6: Io

part 7: Venus  and part 7a

part 8: Titan

part 9: Mercury

part 10: Moon

part 11: Earth at night

part 12: Martian terrain
____________________

Neptune







Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, Neptune is the last of the hydrogen and helium gas giants in our Solar System. *More than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth, the planet takes almost 165 Earth years to orbit our sun.* _In 2011 Neptune completed its first orbit since its discovery in 1846._






Planet profile.






This picture taken in 2011 shows planet's 16-hour rotation. The snapshots were taken at roughly four-hour intervals, offering a full view of the planet.






Infrared picture of Neptune and its moon Triton (lower right).






Rings of Neptune. Yes, it does have rings!






Triton's (Neptune's largest moon) surface.






Neptune and Triton
__________________________________

*Jupiter* - Largest Planet of the Solar System






Planet profile











*True* color image of Jupiter.










Big, fast, windy (footage from Voyager 1, 1979)










Jupiter Collision September 2012






Rings of Jupiter. So faint but so beautiful. Orange light lines are so sexy.






The comet or asteroid hit near Jupiter's South Pole. Impact happened in 2009.











Jupiter's Great Red Spot is an atmospheric storm that has been raging in Jupiter's southern Hemisphere for at least *400 years*. About 100 years ago, the storm covered over *40 000 km* of the surface. It is currently about one half of that size (twice the diameter of Earth) and seems to be shrinking. It is not known how long the spot will last, or whether the changes in size are a result of normal fluctuations.






Surface of Europa (Jupiter's moon). Looks like a map of some city lol. Scientists think that there can be an ocean of liquid water hidden beneath its icy surface, and maybe some primitive life.






That's Ganymede (Jupiter's moon), the *Largest Moon in the Solar System*. If Ganymede orbited the Sun, it would be considered a planet. It is *larger* than Mercury.






Callisto (Jupiter's moon). It's old and its surface is half rock and half ice. It has _one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System_, measuring about *4000 km* across called Valhalla.

______________________________



It's amazing that scientists and engineers designed such amazing instruments like Voyager, Venera, Galileo, Cassini, Juno, Hubble, Kepler, Herschel, Huygens and many more. And it's so amazing that we have great and restless minds of scientists and thinkers. You rule. Forever and ever.


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## Drone (Nov 27, 2012)

Part 2: Martian Terrain & Moons






Red planet's profile






Reull Vallis






A region close to Ma'adim Vallis, one of the largest canyons on Mars, finding craters, lava flows and tectonic features.






Araneiform channels






Tiu Valles






Argyre Planitia






Olympus Mons is *the largest volcano in the Solar System*. Olympus Mons rises *24 km* high and measures *550 km* across. By comparison, Earth's largest volcano, Mauna Loa in Hawaii, rises 9 km high and measures 120 km across. _*Such large volcanoes can exist on Mars because of the low gravity*_ and lack of surface tectonic motion.






Valles Marineris *is the longest and deepest canyon in the Solar System*. It is *4000 km* long, *200 km* wide, and up to *7 km* deep. It runs along the Martian equator and covers nearly a quarter of the planet's circumference and 59% of its diameter.

Lol Mars is an extreme place. Earth's deepest canyons and highest mountains pale in comparison.

Many pictures of Martian craters, moons, fields and valleys can be found @ HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment).

Deimos and Phobos - Martian moons.











Nice video here: watch


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## Drone (Nov 27, 2012)

Part 3 Moons of Saturn






Planet Profile










Don't forget to check this amazing video! All real footage. Made by Cassini spacecraft.






Saturn's rings close up






*True* color image.






Rings and moons of Saturn






That's Saturn's moon Anthe moving downward and to the right.






Mimas (Saturn's moon). In this view captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on 13 February 2010, Herschel Crater dominates Mimas, making the moon look like the Death Star in the movie "Star Wars." Herschel Crater is 130 km, or 80 miles, wide and covers most of the right of this image. Scientists continue to study this impact basin and its surrounding terrain.

And finally here you can see pictures of Saturn's moons. Enceladus, Rhea, Dione, Tethys (image taken on May 20, 2012), Methone (looks like an egg lol) and Pandora (looks like a potato).































____________________






*Equatorial ridges*

Equatorial ridges are a feature of at least three of Saturn's moons: Iapetus, Atlas and Pan. Ridges make Atlas and Pan look like an UFO lol.






This dramatic picture of the ridge was taken in 2007.










Valterne Mons - ridge that follows the equator of Saturn's moon Iapetus gives it the appearance of a giant walnut. The ridge is 100 km  (62 miles) wide and at times 20 km (12 miles) high. (The peak of Mount Everest, by comparison, is 5.5 miles above sea level.) Scientists are debating how the ridge might have formed.






Truly a moon of mysteries, Iapetus also is stained with a dark material, particularly visible in this infrared image (taken in 2007), of unknown origin.















Saturn's moon Enceladus is a strange place. The cold, tiny moon in the far reaches of the solar system is an unlikely location for liquid water. Yet scientists have not only discovered that Enceladus contains water, it actually shoots magnificent plumes of it out into space. These plumes and their origin remain a major mystery for researchers studying the moon and its environment. Where is the source of their liquid water and what causes them to fire out into space?






Saturn's highly irregular moon Hyperion.


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## Drone (Nov 27, 2012)

Part 4:

*Uranus*






*True* color image. 






Uranus' tilt essentially has the *planet orbiting the Sun on its side*, the axis of its spin is nearly pointing at the Sun. _(Ha, sounds like fun!)_






Uranus is blue-green in color, the result of methane in its mostly hydrogen-helium atmosphere. *The planet is often dubbed an ice giant, since 80% or more of its mass is made up of a fluid mix of water, methane, and ammonia ices.* Unlike the other planets of the solar system, Uranus is tilted so far that it essentially orbits the sun on its side, with the axis of its spin nearly pointing at the star. This unusual orientation might be due to a collision with a planet-sized body soon after it was formed.






Uranus with its moon Ariel (white dot) and its shadow (black dot).






Uranus Ring System






Infrared image of Uranus. Miranda is to the upper left of Uranus, and Puck is a faint smudge to the upper right.







This is a crescent of Uranus.






Titania is Uranus' largest moon.






Oberon is the second largest moon of Uranus.






Umbriel is the darkest of Uranus' largest moons. It reflects only 16% of the light that strikes its surface. The process by which Umbriel's ancient cratered surface was darkened remains a mystery.






Ariel has the brightest surface of the five largest Uranian moons, but none of them reflect more than about a third of the sunlight that strikes them. This suggests that their surfaces have been darkened by a carbonaceous material.






Miranda is thought to consist mostly of roughly equal amounts of water ice and silicate rock. Unlike the other four main Uranian satellites, Miranda's orbit is slightly inclined.


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## Drone (Nov 28, 2012)

*Saturn's north polar vortex*






*Saturn's north polar hexagon and rings*






These images were taken .. when? Today!


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## HammerON (Nov 28, 2012)

Cool pics


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## RCoon (Nov 28, 2012)

Actually kinda like this thread


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## Fleurious (Nov 28, 2012)

Drone said:


> *Saturn's north polar vortex*
> 
> <image snip>
> 
> ...



The first picture is absolutely amazing given how much vertical relief it reveals.


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## Drone (Nov 29, 2012)

Io - Jupiter's moon.






BTW it has an active volcano, here's the picture of an ongoing eruption:






It looks like it's made of cheese 











Volcanic plumes of gas spew sulfur dioxide hundreds of miles into space, as seen by the New Horizons spacecraft. Such activity accounts for a small chunk of the moon's immediate atmosphere, but eventually freezes and builds up a store of the material.











This first-ever complete map of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io released on March 19, 2012

Holy moley ...


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## mlee49 (Nov 29, 2012)

You should organize your first post a bit, give it some structure. 

Today I learned, Pandora is not just a box or an online radio source; it's an inner orbiting moon of Saturn.  Thanks for the knowledge.


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## Drone (Nov 29, 2012)

mlee49 said:
			
		

> You should organize your first post a bit, give it some structure.
> 
> Today I learned, Pandora is not just a box or an online radio source; it's an inner orbiting moon of Saturn.  Thanks for the knowledge.



Thanks for suggestion, mlee  I edited and re-organized my posts. And I've added a picture of Pandora, a potato-shaped moon.  This Saturn's moon was discovered in 1980, it's only 52 miles across.


__________






Venus - Brightest Planet in Solar System. Venus is brighter than any other planet or even any star in the night sky because of its highly reflective clouds and its closeness to our planet.

Venus and Earth are often called twins because they are similar in size, mass, density, composition and gravity. However, the similarities end there.
Venus takes *243 Earth days to rotate on its axis*, (what a slow dog ) by far the *slowest* of any of the major planets. 

*Venus is the hottest world in the Solar System*. Although Venus is not the planet closest to the sun, its dense atmosphere traps heat in a runaway version of the greenhouse effect that warms up the Earth. As a result, temperatures on Venus reach 870 degrees F (465 degrees C), more than hot enough to melt lead. *Probes that scientists have landed there have survived only a few hours before getting destroyed.* (lol, imagine what would happen to human then).

Venus has a hellish atmosphere as well, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid, and scientists have only detected trace amounts of water in the atmosphere. The atmosphere is heavier than that of any other planet, leading to a surface pressure 90 times that of Earth. (Damn, that place is hell: high temperatures, high pressure, acid clouds, CO2, lava  You can find 1000 ways to die on Venus ).

Unfortunately I couldn't find any decent images of Venus only computer simulated shit and some radar crapola which I ain't gonna post 






This is a *real* picture of Venus, taken by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter in 1979.* Its thick atmosphere prevents any view of its surface, even from Venus orbit.* So we can't see a thing. Meh ...






The image taken in 2007 shows the southern hemisphere of Venus.

And now let's see a picture of the surface 

*The only pictures ever returned from the surface of Venus were sent back by the Soviet Venera spacecraft.* _A number of early missions failed to survive the atmospheric pressure of Venus and were crushed before reaching the surface._ Venera 11 and 12 landed but failed to transmit pictures. But Venera 9, 10, 13 and 14 survived to transmit pictures. Here are those epic pictures taken by Venera 13, 9 and 14:
















That's fucking awesome. Why? Because environment temperature was *450 C* and pressure was ... 90 atmospheres (equivalent to 900 meters of water).

It's obvious nobody's gonna send a rover there, that'd be a waste of time and money so these pictures is all we have.


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## Drone (Nov 29, 2012)

Titan (Saturn's largest moon). Image taken with NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Sept. 25, 2008.

Titan's atmosphere is active and complex, and it is mainly composed of nitrogen (95%) and methane (5%). Titan also has a presence of organic molecules that contain carbon and hydrogen, and that often include oxygen and other elements similar to what is found in Earth's atmosphere and that are essential for life.

Surface Temperature: minus 290 Fahrenheit (minus 179 degrees Celsius), which makes water as hard as rocks and allows methane to be found in its liquid form. Because methane exists as a liquid, it also evaporates and forms clouds, which occasionally causes methane rain. 

Titan's diameter is 50% larger than that of Earth's moon. It's larger than Mercury but is half the mass of Mercury. Its mass is mainly composed of water in the form of ice and rocky material.

There is an abundance of methane lakes, which are mainly concentrated near its southern pole.
Large areas of Titan's surface are covered with sand dunes made of hydrocarbon.

Titan's atmosphere extends around 370 miles high (about 600 km), which makes it a lot higher than Earth's atmosphere.

*Possibilities for Life* (in 6 billion years )

It is thought that conditions on Titan could become more habitable in the far future. If the sun increases its temperature (6 billion years from now) and becomes a red giant star, Titan's temperature could increase enough for stable oceans to exist on the surface, according to some models. If this happens, conditions in Titan could be similar to Earth's, allowing conditions favorable for some forms of life.

And now the most exciting part - *Huygens probe*. It is the most distant landing of any craft launched from Earth. It's hard to imagine that it sent data which travelled billion km to reach the Earth. So we could see the images of the surface.






It's a landing site.






Some rocks and stuff. It's the only image from the surface of a planetary body outside the inner Solar System. Fascinating, isn't it?











"Shoreline" panorama.

_______________________

Update: December 3, 2012

Last Thursday, *November 29*, Cassini sailed past Titan for yet another close encounter, coming within 603 miles of the cloud-covered moon in order to investigate its thick, complex atmosphere. So now we have brand *new* images of Titan






Titan's southern hemisphere






Titan's crescent from a distance of 193,460 km


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## Drone (Nov 30, 2012)

*Mercury*






Planet Profile






Mosaic picture. Looks like our moon.

As the planet nearest the sun, the surface of Mercury can reach a scorching 840 degrees F (450 degrees C). However, since this world doesn't have a real atmosphere to entrap any heat, at night temperatures can plummet to minus 275 degrees F (minus 170 degrees C), a more than 1100 degrees F (600 degree C) temperature swing that is the greatest in the solar system.

Mercury is the smallest planet - it is only slightly larger than Earth's moon. It speeds around the sun every 88 Earth days, travelling through space at nearly *180000 km/h*, faster than any other planet. 59 Earth days Mercury takes to rotate on its axis.

Mercury and Earth are the only planets in Solar System that possess a magnetic field.
Mercury's magnetic field is 1% the strength of Earth's. 






Mercury's surface is full of sulfur.

*Water Ice*

And would you imagine that ... there's evidence for *water ice*, organic material at Mercury's poles. Water ice on Mercury, in areas of persistent shadow 






The tilt of Mercury's rotational axis is almost zero, so there are pockets at the planet's poles that never see sunlight. Now the newest data from MESSENGER strongly indicate that* water ice is the major constituent of Mercury's north polar deposits*, that ice is exposed at the surface in the coldest of those deposits, but that the ice is buried beneath an unusually dark material across most of the deposits, areas where temperatures are a bit too warm for ice to be stable at the surface itself.






Caloris basin, image taken in 2008.






Giant impact crater on Mercury discovered in 2008.

More pics of Mercury here


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## Fleurious (Nov 30, 2012)

If only they landed Curiosity near Valles Marineris, or in it!  Perhaps they can do something with that for a future mission instead of that InSight mission.


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## Drone (Nov 30, 2012)

Fleurious said:
			
		

> If only they landed Curiosity near Valles Marineris, or in it!



That'd be cool but Valles Marineris is too rocky. Landing and manoeuvring in such a dangerous place is ... hard.


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## AphexDreamer (Nov 30, 2012)

http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/


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## Drone (Dec 3, 2012)

All posts updated. Everyone who cares can check 

________________

Part 10: *Moon*






Yeah our good ol Moon  The Moon is pristine with no wind, erosion, or present geological activity. This means that lunar features are mainly <frozen> in time with nothing to disturb them






Tycho crater






Copernicus crater






Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains - lovely name )






Pythagoras crater






Aristarchus and Herodotus craters






Mare Moscoviense






Rowland crater






Mare Serenitatis






*Sinus Iridum* (Bay of Rainbows)


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## Drone (Dec 6, 2012)

> *Scientists unveiled today an unprecedented new look at our planet at night. A global composite image shows the glow of natural and human-built phenomena across the planet in greater detail than ever before.*








Amazing!



> Most satellites are designed to observe Earth during the day – a time when they can observe our planet fully illuminated by the sun. NASA says that its new sensor, a Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite or (VIIRS), is sensitive enough to detect the nocturnal glow produced by Earth’s atmosphere and the light from a single ship in the sea.



That's cool!






More and more.


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## Drone (Dec 8, 2012)

Martian terrain part 2






*Utopia Planitia*, May 18, 1979. This color photo shows a thin coating of _water ice_ on the rocks and soil. Another pictures of Utopia Planitia:






Ice frost 











Utopia Planitia (Latin: "Nowhere Plain") is the largest recognized impact basin on Mars and in the Solar System with an estimated diameter of 3300 km.






Chryse Planitia, July 4, 1997






Charitum Montes






Amazonis Planitia






Isidis Planitia - a plain located inside a giant impact basin on Mars






Ice cap at the South Pole on Mars. This picture was shot from Mars orbit in 2000 by a spacecraft called Mars Global Surveyor. The white regions are ice. Most of the ice is water ice, but there is also a thinner layer of dry ice (frozen CO2) on top of the water ice. The ice cap is about 420 km (260 miles) across. It was summer in the southern part of Mars when this picture was taken. In the winter, the area shown in this picture is completely covered by dry ice.


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## Drone (Dec 18, 2012)

New picture of Saturn released *today*  Yeah, the Cassini team has done it again. It's the newest rarest glorious and gorgeous backlit view of Saturn.



> The Cassini spacecraft was deliberately positioned within Saturn's shadow, and the cameras were turned toward Saturn and with the Sun behind the planet.








*True color real image*  Also captured in this image are two of Saturn's moons: Enceladus and Tethys. Both appear on the left side of the planet, below the rings. Enceladus is closer to the rings; Tethys is below and to the left.


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## 3870x2 (Dec 18, 2012)

Is there any reason why it looks like someone cut Saturn and pasted it an inch lower?

I bet if I read the article, I would find out...

Found out why: 





> A new 60-image mosaic of Saturn


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## Drone (Dec 18, 2012)

3870x2 said:


> Is there any reason why it looks like someone cut Saturn and pasted it an inch lower?
> 
> I bet if I read the article, I would find out...
> 
> Found out why:



Almost all huge astronomical pictures are mosaics, when object is huge they need to cut and paste a lot (because of FOV, angle and so on). But I don't mind, they look fantastic anyway.


New image of Saturn's rings captured by Cassini


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## Drone (Dec 24, 2012)

Surface of *Mercury* (new images recently taken by MESSENGER)


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## Morgoth (Dec 24, 2012)

i wonder when the first man goes to mars 
and colonizing the moon


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## Drone (Jan 28, 2013)

More pictures of Mercury






There's Tolkien crater on Mercury. Lol, I never knew.






Magritte crater. Looks like Mickey Mouse.






Atget crater






Boccaccio crater






Bek and Lermontov craters






Donne crater






South Pole of Mercury


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## Drone (Feb 5, 2013)

*This image shows the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan*. The glint off a mirror-like surface is known as a specular reflection. This kind of glint was detected by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer. It confirmed the presence of liquid in the moon's northern hemisphere, where lakes are more numerous and larger than those in the southern hemisphere. *Scientists had confirmed the presence of liquid in Ontario Lacus, the largest lake in the southern hemisphere*.







This mosaic from NASA’s Cassini mission shows the most complete view yet of Titan’s northern land of lakes and seas.










Dunes on Titan


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## D007 (Feb 6, 2013)

Thanks for taking the time to post all this stuff. 
I dig it.


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## Drone (Feb 11, 2013)

New image of Saturn's north polar hexagon






And another new picture


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## WhiteNoise (Feb 11, 2013)

neat thread!


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## Drone (Mar 12, 2013)

Brand new images of Saturn's rings and its moon Rhea


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## Drone (Mar 25, 2013)

*A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of Venus*. These are infrared images from VIRTIS instrument. The vortices are fed by the atmospheric superrotation and are trapped in polar regions.



> Between 45 and 70 km above the surface there is a dense layer of sulphuric acid clouds that completely covers the planet and moves at speeds of 360 km/h in a phenomenon named *superrotation*, where the atmosphere rotates much faster than the surface of the planet. The origin of this effect is still unknown.



Waves in the atmosphere of Venus


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## Drone (Oct 17, 2013)

Bump

Saturn and its rings, as seen from above the planet by the Cassini spacecraft






This colorized mosaic from NASA's Cassini mission shows an infrared view of the Saturn system, backlit by the sun, from July 19, 2013. The image covers a swath of Saturn and its rings about 340,000 miles (540,000 km) across that includes the planet and its rings out to the diffuse E ring, Saturn's second most distant ring. The mosaic covers an area about 9,800 miles (16,000 km) from top to bottom. Credit: NASA


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## Drone (Oct 24, 2013)

*The best visual and infrared wavelength images ever obtained of Titan’s northern land o’ lakes.*

Titan is currently the only other world besides Earth known to have stable bodies of liquid on its surface, but unlike Earth, Titan’s lakes aren’t filled with water — instead they’re full of liquid methane and ethane, organic compounds which are gases on Earth but liquids in Titan’s incredibly chilly *-180º C* environment.






For an idea of scale, *Kraken Mare* (largest lake on Titan) is comparative in size to the Caspian Sea and Lake Superior combined. Kraken Mare is so large that sunlight was seen reflecting off its surface.


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## Drone (Oct 29, 2013)

> *ESA's Mars Express orbited the Red Planet nearly 12500 times by October 2013*. Its high resolution stereo camera images, assembled in this "fly-around," show riverbeds, volcanos, canyons and craters.



This shit is the most fantastic video I've ever seen. This is fucking amazing. What an amazing fly-by. True images of Martian terrain *swoons*


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## Drone (Nov 4, 2013)

Five moons pose for the international Cassini spacecraft to create this beautiful portrait with Saturn’s rings. At the far right, and obscuring Saturn itself, is the planet’s second largest moon Rhea, which spans 1528 km. Rhea is closest to Cassini in this composition, at a distance of 1.1 million km. Its heavily cratered surface bears witness to a violent history, with many craters overlapping or erasing the traces of older impact events.


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## stuartb04 (Nov 6, 2013)

loving all this mate

keep it up!!


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## Drone (Nov 28, 2013)

_Relatively_ new images of Saturnian moons *Janus* & *Epimetheus











Janus






Epimetheus


*


> In their orbital ballet, Janus and Epimetheus swap positions every four years - one moon moving closer to Saturn, the other moving farther away.



That's why they're called *dancing moons




*


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## Drone (Dec 2, 2013)

New High Resolution Images of Martian Terrain obtained by HiRISE spacecraft:






Echus Chasma






Kasei Valles. Download full version










*Around Mars’ North Pole






Juventae Chasma







Asimov Crater*


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## Drone (Dec 21, 2013)

*Mercury*. New pictures and Messenger spacecraft fly over video:






Tolkien crater. 49 km (30 mi.) in diameter






*John Lennon* crater















Terror Rupes


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## Drone (Jan 14, 2014)

Another magnificent video filmed by Mars Express spacecraft.


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## Drone (Jan 24, 2014)

New video: Jupiter rotation from New Horizons (2014)


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## Drone (Jan 30, 2014)

New image of Mercury made by MESSENGER






It's Tolstoj Basin and Nureyev Crater


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## 4ghz (Feb 1, 2014)

Is that in full color photo?


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## Peter1986C (Feb 1, 2014)

Greyscale, Mercury is not of that color.


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## Drone (Feb 1, 2014)

Unlike all of the other planets in the Solar System, Mercury is just bare rock. Mercury has practically no atmosphere, so we just see the rocky surface. And rock is gray. So color of Mercury and Moon is dull *gray*.






And here's a nice article called What color is each planet?


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## Drone (Feb 11, 2014)

Video filmed in ultraviolet shows auroras on Saturn! That's so sexy!


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## Drone (Mar 21, 2014)

New random sexy stuff






waves in Titan's seas






NASA Releases First Interactive Mosaic of Lunar North Pole






Crescent Saturn






Vernal equinox, view from space


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## Drone (Apr 16, 2014)

Interesting views of Saturn











Flyby of Neptune moon - Triton


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## Drone (Apr 21, 2014)

New images of Mercury taken by MESSENGER


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## Drone (May 15, 2014)

New video of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot


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## 4ghz (May 15, 2014)

So it's been shrinking... it won't be the great red spot much longer but soon to be called little red pimple.


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## Drone (May 18, 2014)

Venus in different wave lengths


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## Drone (Jun 13, 2014)

Phoebe, the largest of Saturn's outer moons






Saturn’s moon Prometheus creating gores and streamers in the F ring






Atlas


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## Drone (Jul 8, 2014)

New image of Saturn with vortex and rings






and brand new images of Mercury's scorched surface














And absolutely amazing interactive quick map of the Mercury made by MESSENGER!!!!

Click


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## Drone (Jul 9, 2014)

New image of Europa. The entire image area measures about 163 km x 167 km.






New image of the Moon






'Pillinger Point' Overlooking Endeavour Crater, Mars






One old and one new Solar flare


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## Drone (Jul 28, 2014)

New images of the surface of Mercury






Raditladi basin (Mercury)












Atmospheres of Solar System (infographic)


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## Drone (Jul 29, 2014)

Cassini spacecraft reveals 101 geysers and more on icy Saturn moon Enceladus










*
Northern Hazes* on Titan






Super-close view of Mercury (just 62 miles above the surface !!!)






Endeavour crater on Mars






Lunokhod 2 Crater on Mars


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## Drone (Aug 2, 2014)

New images of Mercury made by MESSENGER, plus MESSENGER's flight path map and of course flyover video!!!


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## Drone (Aug 7, 2014)

Brand new visible+infrared pic of Mercury






And big storms on Uranus


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## Drone (Aug 12, 2014)

Clouds on Titan






Vortex on Saturn


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## Drone (Aug 14, 2014)

New image of Rikyu (impact crater on Mercury)






New image of the rings of Saturn and moon Pandora






Soyuz spacecraft above the Earth


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## Drone (Aug 15, 2014)

New raw images yay!










Seuss crater (Mercury)






Titan






Saturn





Sun






Elysium Planitia (Mars)


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## Drone (Aug 16, 2014)

Enceladus






Bartok crater (Mercury)






Egonu crater (Mercury)






Northern Plains of Mercury





Glaciation at the Eastern Hellas Margin (Mars)






Chasma Boreale (Mars)


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## Drone (Aug 18, 2014)

Saturn and Titan











Craters on Mercury (Ahmad Baba, Balanchine, To Ngoc Van)  














All images are from Cassini and MESSENGER missions


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## Drone (Aug 21, 2014)

New images from Mercury











Rachmaninoff - double ring basin






Hokusai - one of the youngest large craters on Mercury. Hokusai has a diameter of 114 km (71 miles).


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## Drone (Aug 21, 2014)

New images of the rings of Saturn. Saturn’s rings are believed to be ~ 4.4 billion years old.


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## Ahhzz (Aug 21, 2014)

nice images, thanks Drone


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## patrico (Aug 21, 2014)

lovely thread thx @Drone


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## Peter1986C (Aug 22, 2014)

Drone said:


> New images of the rings of Saturn. Saturn’s rings are believed to be ~ 4.4 billion years old.


Broken pic embeds


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## Drone (Aug 22, 2014)

Chevalr1c said:


> Broken pic embeds


Nope, everything's fine. Checked on different machines, works everywhere. Try to refresh (clean cookies or use another browser)


New image of Mercury






Triton















Europa


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## Peter1986C (Aug 22, 2014)

Drone said:


> Nope, everything's fine. Checked on different machines, works everywhere. Try to refresh (clean cookies or use another browser)



It is rumoured it was TPU having issues. I did not know that at the time.


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## Drone (Aug 30, 2014)

New image from Mercury






and from Saturn and its rings


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## Drone (Sep 3, 2014)

Image from *Mercury*






Mantled Terrain in the Southern Mid-Latitudes of *Mars
*





As if trying to get our attention, *Mimas* is positioned against the shadow of Saturn's rings, bright on dark. With a reflectivity of ~ 96%, Mimas (396 km across) appears bright against the less-reflective Saturn.


Images are taken by Messenger, HIRISE and Cassini instruments.


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## Drone (Sep 9, 2014)

Surface of Mercury






Pan and rings of Saturn






Ridges in Saheki Crater (Mars)






Solar prominence


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## Drone (Sep 12, 2014)

New image from Mercury






Chaos in Eridania Basin, Mars


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## Drone (Sep 12, 2014)

Mars







Atlas, Endymion, Hercules (craters on the Moon)


----------



## Drone (Sep 14, 2014)

Another series of images: (Mercury, Mars, Saturn)







*Hemingway* crater






Dunes






Rings


----------



## Drone (Sep 15, 2014)

*Mercury*






Eberswalde Crater (*Mars*)






*Mimas*






Pluto's moon *Hydra*


----------



## Drone (Sep 18, 2014)

New images: Mercury, Mars, Titan, Saturn


----------



## Drone (Sep 19, 2014)

Mercury, Saturn (false colour), Janus, Sun


----------



## Drone (Oct 10, 2014)

From Mercury, Earth and Moon normally appear as if they were two very bright stars. During a lunar eclipse on October 8, 2014, Moon seems to disappear during its passage through Earth's shadow. You can see Earth and Moon from Mercury in this new image by Messenger






New image by Opportunity rover (Mars)






Continual dune and ripple migration in Nili Patera. Picture by HIRISE (Mars)






Saturn's polar hexagon vortex. Brand new image by Cassini


----------



## Drone (Oct 15, 2014)

Lermontov crater in 3D (Mercury)






This observation shows a small sand dune field on the floor of Newton Crater, an ~300 km wide crater in the Southern hemisphere of Mars.






Tethys appears to be stuck to the Saturn's A and F rings






And here's Earth


----------



## Drone (Oct 16, 2014)

NASA's MESSENGER made first photos of *water ice on Mercury*. It's in the Kandinsky, Prokofiev and Berlioz craters.















New Image from Mars by Curiosity






Eastern Elysium Planitia on Mars. Image by HIRISE






Close up of Jupiter's atmosphere (image by Cassini)






Titan and Dione (image by Cassini)






Mauritania, the Eye of the Sahara, planet Earth


----------



## Drone (Oct 21, 2014)

3D image of Waters crater on Mercury






3D flight over chaotic Martian terrain










Hydraotes Chaos






Visible light image of the Sun






And an active region on the Sun (October 20)


----------



## Drone (Oct 21, 2014)

New image of Comet Siding Spring from Mars and lots of other Martian pics (old and new):

http://www.universetoday.com/115496...sculpted-surface-captured-by-nasa-spacecraft/
http://www.sci-news.com/space/science-aram-chaos-ancient-ice-lake-mars-01382.html
http://themeridianijournal.com/2013/11/unusual-oval-pit-near-galaxias-chaos-mars/
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/releases/siding-spring/











Looks like piece of skin XD (Frost deposits in Louth Crater)






A close-up of “chaotic terrain” in Valles Marineris






A section of the vast Valles Marineris called Melas Chasma






A section of Eastern Elysium Planitia






A huge impact crater, Aram Chaos

And little bit of Venus:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/hawaiivolcanoes/slidespages/slide_08.html
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00146






Numerous large overlapping lava flows are shown in this radar image of Sapas Mons. Sapas Mons is ~ 400 km across and 1.5 km high.






This image covers much of Ovda Regio, which forms the western part of Aphrodite Terra.


----------



## Drone (Oct 23, 2014)

New images from Space:

Pandora and Atlas






ISS over Nebraska






Hubble Space Telescope composite image shows the comet Siding Spring and Mars






On October 22nd, 2014, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an M-class and X-class flare erupting from sunspot AR2192.


----------



## Drone (Oct 25, 2014)

Mercury






Methane ice cloud in the stratosphere over Titan's north pole




​New image of rings and moons of Saturn






Solar eclipse and flare


----------



## Drone (Oct 28, 2014)

Mercury






Saturn






Partial eclipse


----------



## Drone (Oct 28, 2014)

Bit of everything ...

A view of Earth and Moon on October 24, 2014 from the Chinese Chang'e-5 T1 spacecraft
















Rosetta’s 67P Comet compared to everything, including the Death Star






Close-up view of the shadow of the Jovian moon Ganymede swept across the center of the Great Red Spot (a giant storm on the planet).






Enceladus






Pluto and Charon






Did you know that you could fit all Solar System planets between Earth and Moon because ...


----------



## Drone (Nov 5, 2014)

New image from Mercury






Marte Vallis lava on Mars






This amazing image shows Saturn & Titan as crescents






A double shadow transit of Jupiter's moons from 2013






Close-ups of Vesta's equatorial troughs obtained by Dawn's framing camera in August and September 2011. And video


----------



## Drone (Nov 11, 2014)

Mercury






Mars






Meteor shower on Mars






Sunrise on Saturn






C/2013 P2 Pan-STARRS and C/2014 S3 Pan-STARRS comets


----------



## Drone (Nov 18, 2014)

New images:


Mercury






Located near Mercury's north pole, inside this unnamed crater there are locations that are in *permanent darkness*. Mercury's axial tilt is nearly zero, so the tall crater walls cast shadows that the Sun never pierces. There is evidence that this crater contains ice within its permanently shadowed interior.

Wow eternal darkness!!!!


Mars






Spring in Inca City. Looks amazing.


Let's come back to Saturn






Brand new image of Saturn's surface

And here's Titan's Kraken Mare


----------



## Drone (Nov 18, 2014)

Storm on Uranus


----------



## Drone (Nov 20, 2014)

New images of Mercury's unnamed polar crater






Martian soil






Sunspot AR2209 that produced M5.7-class solar flare






Geological map of asteroid Vesta


----------



## Drone (Nov 22, 2014)

Earth timeplapse 4k!










Mercury






NASA Scientists Release Remastered Image of Europa (best quality ever)
















Some info about Earth:

The speed of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun is 108000 km/h, which means that our planet travels 940 million km during a single orbit.
















More info about Earth, seasons and Lagrange Points can be found here


----------



## Drone (Nov 26, 2014)

I can't live a single day without Solar porn so I'll post some stuff:

New images of Mercury











and Saturn






and videos of Earth, Moon, Sun


----------



## Drone (Nov 28, 2014)

Hellas Chaos, Mars











Earth










New Map of Ocean Currents


----------



## Mr.Scott (Nov 28, 2014)

Thanks for this thread.


----------



## Drone (Dec 4, 2014)

Mercury










Dunes and wind streaks in Arabia Terra (Mars)






Saturn


----------



## Drone (Dec 10, 2014)

Sun, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn:


----------



## Drone (Dec 16, 2014)

Sinan crater (Mercury)







Tethys appears to be peeking out from behind Rhea, watching the watcher.






Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2)






Sunspots


----------



## Drone (Dec 18, 2014)

New solar flare






Color view of the largest impact crater Couperin (Mercury)






Central uplift of Elorza Crater (Mars)


----------



## Drone (Dec 29, 2014)

New images:

Mars






Mimas






Saturn






Jupiter, Europa and Io


----------



## Drone (Jan 13, 2015)

Crater, located approximately 265 km of Angkor Vallis (Mercury)






New close-up of comet 67P







Moonlit Earth






New images from Mars











Crescent moon Rhea and Saturn's rings


----------



## Drone (Jan 15, 2015)

New amazing pictures and videos:

Alver basin (Mercury)






Earth






Comet Lovejoy and the Pleiades
















For the probe landing’s 10th anniversary, a new sequence has been rendered from Huygens' Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) data. The craft landed on Saturn's largest moon Titan on 14 Jan 2005


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 15, 2015)

Lovin Lovejoy.

That pic with Seven Sisters in the shot is ace.


Just found this ... wait for it to load then zoom/ scroll Its from NASA

*How big is the universe*

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120312.html


----------



## Drone (Jan 15, 2015)

Interesting links. Thanks CAPSLOCKSTUCK



New image from ISS


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 15, 2015)

*Evolution of the Moon*


Fetch the kids, this is briliiant




http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120320.html


----------



## Drone (Jan 18, 2015)

Almost no sunspots these days, hehe






New mosaic from Mercury






A Plateau in Ares Vallis (Mars)






Lovejoy is in Taurus now






Weird things going on: first, Ganymede partially eclipsed Callisto; then Europa partially eclipsed Io. Hah, what the hell? Basically the two pairs of Io-Europa and Ganymede-Callisto swap their apparent positions.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 19, 2015)

The double mutual event in the pic above........ where is that observed from ?
If you were standing on Mars you wouldnt see that alignment?


----------



## Drone (Jan 19, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> The double mutual event in the pic above........ where is that observed from ?
> If you were standing on Mars you wouldnt see that alignment?


Observed from Earth with normal Nikon camera (no telescope).
Obviously from Mars it's not the same.


Anywho new images of comet Finlay











Martian sky and Martian land











Good ol' Blue Marble






Image of lightning inside Cyclone Bansi in the Indian Ocean, taken from ISS


----------



## Drone (Jan 20, 2015)

Situated high in Mercury's southern hemisphere, Han Kan is a 50-km-diameter impact crater with a well preserved central peak and a smooth floor that is likely solidified impact melt.







Swirling vortex at Venus' south pole






New images of comet Lovejoy










new Martian landscape






new image of Janus


----------



## Bow (Jan 20, 2015)

Great pic guys


----------



## Drone (Jan 21, 2015)

Cape Tribulation (Mars)











Triple shadow of Jovian moons






Ceres


----------



## Drone (Jan 22, 2015)

New image from Mercury






Liu Hsin Crater (Mars)






Martian horizon






New close-up of comet 67P


----------



## Drone (Jan 28, 2015)

Sun






Melville crater (Mercury)






Mars















Saturn's rings and moons. Pandora is in the upper right






asteroid 2004 BL86






Comet 67P










Ceres


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 28, 2015)

Drone said:


> asteroid 2004 BL86




Am i reading it right.    That is a 2 second real time vid or time lapse ?  So it was actually visible like that ?


----------



## Drone (Jan 28, 2015)

It's 2 hours, not 2 seconds.


----------



## Drone (Jan 30, 2015)

New images



Sun






Venus






Mars



















Martian hemisphere






Sinai and Solis Plana






A triple crater in Elysium Planitia






Seth (region on comet 67P)






Diagram showing Titan in the Solar Wind






Triple shadow transit on Jupiter


----------



## Drone (Feb 2, 2015)

new updates


Sun






Philae above the comet 67P






Mars
















Striking lightning from space


----------



## Drone (Feb 3, 2015)

Mercury






Mars











Tiny *Epimetheus* is dwarfed by adjacent slivers of the A and F rings. But is it really? Looks can be deceiving! There is approximately 10 to 20 times more mass in that tiny dot than in the piece of the A ring visible in this image!






Earth













And finally: *Every round object in the solar system under 10000 km in diameter, to scale
*





Source


----------



## vega22 (Feb 3, 2015)

dude this thread is so good you're making me waste so much time drooling and dreaming about them!!!!!


----------



## Drone (Feb 3, 2015)

marsey99 said:


> dude this thread is so good you're making me waste so much time drooling and dreaming about them!!!!!



It isn't waste of time. It's exploration of Solar system. It's getting to know our place in the Universe. It's science and imagination. Just imagine how many new pictures and videos of other worlds we'll get to see in the next couple of years.

In the meantime another coronal hole


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 3, 2015)

Drone said:


> In the meantime another coronal hole





*Icy Halo around the Moon   Last night    2/2/15*



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ing-light-caused-ice-crystals-atmosphere.html


*Almost Full Moon and Almost Full Tide and Jupiter from my back yard, just now.*







ive got a brilliant app on my phone which tells me that tonight the moon is *404,544.14 km away* 





.


----------



## Drone (Feb 4, 2015)

More updates

Sun






Mars






Moon, w/ halo and Jupiter











Earth with twin tropical cyclones. LOL they look like two interacting galaxies






Download and read more here


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 4, 2015)

24,.5  hours after the last photo from my back yard


Jupiter

Moon                           rose 1hr 2 minutes later today and is about 1,322 km further away

Moons reflection         high tide was 32 minutes later today at 18.42








then 30 mins later








For reference this is the view at dawn


----------



## Drone (Feb 5, 2015)

New!


Sun






Mercury's horizon






Mars



















Jupiter














Pluto and Charon as seen by New Horizons






Bushfires in Australia






A waxing gibbous Moon with an American Airlines flyby on Feb. 2, 2015


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 5, 2015)

*200 Billion Earth like Worlds



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...two-habitable-planets-orbit-study-claims.html*


----------



## Drone (Feb 5, 2015)

Thanks for these links, CAPSLOCKSTUCK



> *http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...iew-Earth-space-collection-worth-500-000.html
> 
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...two-habitable-planets-orbit-study-claims.html*




New pics


Hayn crater, Humboldtianum Basin, Mare Undarum (Moon)





















Jupiter with moons


----------



## Drone (Feb 6, 2015)

Mare Ingenii (Moon)






Mars












closer look at Ceres


----------



## Drone (Feb 6, 2015)

Lunar goodness






Unnamed crater






A crescent Earth and Moon: an unfamiliar view of familiar worlds






Earth and the lunar farside.






Evolving view of the lunar farside over 60 years






The lunar nearside


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 6, 2015)

That is a fabulous video, i love the Moon.

Place names on visible side of the Moon are predominantly from the Classical age








Place names on the far side of the moon are predominantly from the Soviet space era as they saw them first.

http://www.universetoday.com/105326/oct-7-1959-our-first-look-at-the-far-side-of-the-moon/


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 6, 2015)

The Lunar Reconnaisance Orbitor launched with Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, mission.

It was a mission to basically launch a projectile at the moon.
I heard locally at the time that the projectile was tested about 3 miles from my house on a sled track,

from what i can work out, this was the track they used. They have other tracks that go out under the sea, but as they smashed the missile into a huge block of ice i think they used this overground one.






It used to be Ministry of Defence property, now it is privately owned.


----------



## Drone (Feb 7, 2015)

Mercury






Yardangs in Arsinoes Chaos (Mars)






Jupiter






Firsov crater (Moon)


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 7, 2015)

Watch a satellite being fired into space from a FIGHTER JET....................in theory


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...d-plan-low-cost-launches.html#v-4036271260001


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 8, 2015)

The bag that Neil Armstrong was supposed to leave on the moon 
  ( but took home and put in a cupboard instead)

A good read and ace pics.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...sed-remain-space-discovered-widow-closet.html


----------



## Drone (Feb 10, 2015)

* Mercury*






Mount chain in *Antarctica (Earth)*














*Moon*






*Mars*















*Lovejoy*










Rings of *Saturn*


----------



## Drone (Feb 11, 2015)

new images

Sun (filament and hole)











Mars (South pole and landscapes)














Lovejoy


----------



## Drone (Feb 12, 2015)

Mercury






Mars














Mississippi River


----------



## Ebo (Feb 12, 2015)

nice pics


----------



## Drone (Feb 13, 2015)

Mars














Comet 67P






Titan






Pluto & Charon


----------



## Drone (Feb 14, 2015)

Sun






Mercury






Mars






Moon










Titan






Volcanoes in Africa






Atlantic Ocean


----------



## Drone (Feb 16, 2015)

Sun










Best image of Lovejoy *saves*






Bigbee and Holden craters on Mars











Best image of Kraken Mare Shores (Titan)


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 16, 2015)

@Drone  what do you think will have caused the "turbulence" in Lovejoys plume, is it caused by the comet tumbling ?


----------



## Drone (Feb 16, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> @Drone  what do you think will have caused the "turbulence" in Lovejoys plume, is it caused by the comet tumbling ?



Hmmm interesting question, shows how little we know, I don't know lol. I hate to guess but maybe it was solar wind or because of Lovejoy's accelerated motion.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 16, 2015)

Odd though isnt it, i wonder if its because the angle of view has changed you know in the same way that orbiting objects dont travel in straight lines relative to each other. (perspective?)


Unless a chunk flew/blew  apart.

Proves i study these pics you post.   I love 'em.


----------



## Drone (Feb 16, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> orbiting objects dont travel in straight lines relative to each other



Objects in space orbit not only around barycenter but they also spin on their axis which creates torque. Maybe that makes comet's tail look like a spiral.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 16, 2015)

Great link.  ta


----------



## Drone (Feb 17, 2015)

So many cool stuff for today:

Colored sharp image of Mercury, yay!






Mysterious Plumes on Mars











A Viking picture of the Tharsis volcanic region of Mars. At left is Olympus Mons. The chain of volcanoes at lower right, from bottom to top, is Arsia, Pavonis, and Ascraeus Mons.






The Search For Volcanic Eruptions On Mars Reaches The Next Level 

Craters and mysterious bright spots pop out in the latest images of *Ceres*. Dawn spacecraft will arrive at Ceres March 6! Can't waaaaaait!!!!!!

These two views of Ceres were acquired from a distance of about 83000 km as the dwarf planet rotated






Janus






A Long View of the Arctic










Great images here and here


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 19, 2015)

NASA's Dawn spacecraft will have plenty of mysteries to investigate when it begins orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres next month, as the probe's latest photos attest.

Dawn's most recent images of Ceres, taken Feb. 12 at a distance of 52,000 miles (83,000 kilometers) away, show an abundance of craters on the dwarf planet, as well as numerous bright spots that have scientists baffled.

"As we slowly approach the stage, our eyes transfixed on Ceres and her planetary dance, we find she has beguiled us but left us none the wiser," Dawn principal investigator Chris Russell of UCLA said in a statement. "We expected to be surprised; we did not expect to be this puzzled."





The new photos, which have a resolution of 4.9 miles (7.8 km) per pixel, are the sharpest ever taken of Ceres, NASA officials said.

A large, flickering white spot was also visible in photos Dawn took of Ceres last month.

"We can confirm that it is something on Ceres that reflects more sunlight, but what that is remains a mystery," Dawn mission director and chief engineer Marc Rayman, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 21, 2015)

A NASA spacecraft speeding toward an epic flyby of Pluto on July 14 has beamed home its first good looks at two moons of the dwarf planet.

The New Horizons probe captured images of Nix and Hydra, two of Pluto's five known satellites, from Jan. 27 through Feb. 8, at distances ranging from 125 million miles to 115 million miles (201 million to 186 million kilometers), NASA officials said.



New Horizons team members discovered Nix and Hydra in 2005 using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists think both moons are between 25 miles and 95 miles (40 to 153 km) wide; New Horizons should nail down their sizes when it zooms through the Pluto system this summer.

Hydra is Pluto’s outermost known moon and circles the dwarf planet every 38 days, at a distance of about 40,200 miles (64,700 km). Nix lies 30,260 miles (48,700 km) from Pluto and completes one orbit every 25 days.

Two other Pluto moons, Styx and Kerberos, are smaller than Nix and Hydra, and are too faint to show up in the latest New Horizons images.

The $700 million New Horizons mission launched in January 2006, tasked with lifting the veil on faraway, mysterious Pluto. On July 14, New Horizons will come within 8,500 miles (13,600 km) of the dwarf planet's surface.

That highly anticipated flyby may not mark the end of the probe's deep-space work. Mission team members want to send New Horizons on to explore a second body in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy objects beyond Neptune that Pluto calls home. If NASA fu



http://www.space.com/28597-new-hori...eo.html#ooid=YycHFnczpaJ1q_RG4Y2mGc8x6a2iGfdW


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 23, 2015)

Mars shown above a bright Venus above a sliver of Moon............................gorgeous.
The pairing is known as a *‘conjunction’*, which means the planets are positioned in such a form that they appear aligned from Earth.



They wont appear this close together 'til Oct 2017





Isle of Wight  UK


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 24, 2015)

*Solar Eclipse 20th March 2015*     in case you are interested


A solar eclipse is set to block out nearly 90 per cent of sunlight across parts of Europe next month - and it will be the biggest event of its kind in 16 years. 

On 20 March, the moon's orbit will see it travel in front of the sun, casting a shadow over Earth. 

The eclipse will see up to 84 per cent of the sun covered in London - and around 94 per cent in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, electricity system operators have warned the eclipse poses a serious risk of blackouts all over Europe as the continent increasingly relies on solar power.  











In London, the partial eclipse - when the moon starts touching the sun's edge - will start at 8.45am GMT. The maximum eclipse will hit at 9.31am and this will be the point when the moon is closest to the centre of the sun.

By 10.41am the moon will leave the sun's edge and the partial eclipse will end





This animation is designed to appear from the 'point of view' of the eclipse as it will occur on March 20. It shows the shadow being cast over the UK, Greenland, Europe and into Russia


*WHAT IS A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE? *




A total solar eclipse is only visible from a certain region on Earth and those who can see it are in the centre of the moon's shadow when it hits Earth. For a total eclipse to take place, the sun, moon and Earth must be in a direct line. The totality of the 11 August 1999 eclipse is shown

An eclipse occurs when one heavenly body, such as a moon or planet, moves into the shadow of another. On Earth there are two types - lunar eclipses and solar eclipses.

Lunar eclipse: For a lunar eclipse, the Earth moves between the sun and the moon and blocks sunlight normally reflected by the moon. 

Instead of light hitting the moon’s surface, Earth's shadow falls on it and a lunar eclipse can only happen when the moon is full. 

Solar eclipse: By comparison, a solar eclipse occurs when the orbit of the moon moves it between the sun and Earth. 





A solar eclipse occurs when the orbit of the moon moves it between the sun and Earth. When this happens, the moon blocks the light of the sun 

When this happens, the moon blocks the light of the sun reaching Earth and the moon casts a shadow on Earth. 

Types of shadow: During a solar eclipse, the moon casts two shadows on Earth.

The first shadow is called the umbra, and this gets smaller as it reaches Earth.

The second shadow is known as the penumbra, and this gets larger as it reaches Earth. 

There are additionally three types of solar eclipses:

Total: A total solar eclipse is only visible from a certain region on Earth and those who can see it are in the centre of the moon's shadow when it hits Earth. 

For a total eclipse to take place, the sun, moon and Earth must be in a direct line.

People standing in the umbra will see a total eclipse and this will occur over the Faroe Islands on 20 March. 

Partial solar eclipse: This occurs when the sun, moon and Earth don't line up exactly.

People standing in the penumbra will see a partial eclipse. 

Annular: An annular eclipse happens when the moon is farthest from Earth. Because the moon is further from Earth, it appears smaller. 

As a result, it doesn't block the entire view of the sun. The moon in front of the sun resembles a dark disk on top of a larger sun-colored disk and creates what looks like a ring around the moon. 

Source: Nasa


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 10, 2015)

Not Solar System........galactic
*
Now THAT'S a shooting star! White dwarf breaks galactic speed record by travelling at 745 miles per SECOND*

*Astronomers in Hawaii have found the fastest 'unbound' star in the galaxy*
*Called US 708 it is moving at 745 miles (1,200km) per second*
*It will leave the galaxy in about 25 million years*
*The star was given its rapid speed due to its companion going supernova*
*It is the first star found to be leaving the galaxy caused by such an event *

A star that is travelling fast enough to escape the gravitational clutches of our galaxy has been discovered by a team of astronomers.
The amazing stellar object attained its rapid speed when a nearby star exploded as a supernova, sending it out of the Milky Way.
At its current speed it would make the journey from Earth to the moon in just five minutes - a trip which took the Apollo spacecraft three days.

The star, known as US 708, was first discovered in 1982 by Dr Peter Usher of Pennsylvania State University but had since then remained ignored.
However, a team of astronomers led by the University of Hawaii at Manoa has now re-examined the star, and found that it breaks the galactic speed record for an 'unbound' star.
US 708 is almost 62,000 light-years from Earth, and is on a path that will take it out of the Milky Way in about 25 million years.
Using the 10-metre Keck II and Pan-Starrs1 telescopes in Hawaii, the astronomers calculated that the star is moving at about 745 miles (1,200km) per second.
This makes it the fastest ‘rogue’ star in the galaxy - one that is no longer orbiting the centre.
‘At that speed, you could travel from Earth to the moon in five minutes,’ said Dr Eugene Magnier of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
‘By observing the sky repeatedly over several years, the Pan-Starrs1 survey, let us make a movie of the motions of the stars in the sky.
‘That enables us to study the behavioirs of extremely rare and weird stars like US 708.’
While a handful of other stars escaping the galaxy are known, this is the first to have been found that was ejected by a thermonuclear supernova explosion.
US 708, which is a helium-rich white dwarf, was propelled at high speeds when a more massive white dwarf star nearby in a tight binary blew up.

This particular class of supernova is known as type 1a, where material is transferred between one star and another until one reaches a critical mass, and explodes.
Often, the secondary star is obliterated in the resulting explosion, or pushed away at a more sedate speed.
It is 'pushed' away because the loss of its companion means it no longer has a star to orbit, but retains its forwards momentum, so it is flung into space. 
The specific characteristics of this binary system, its distance and the mass of its companion, allowed US 708 to remain intact while still achieving record speeds for an unbound star.
Stars like the sun are bound to our galaxy by its gravity, and orbit its centre at relatively moderate velocities, typically tens to a few hundreds of kilometres per second.
Only so-called hyperveolocity stars are known to travel so fast that they are unbound to the galaxy.
In addition, to escape from the Milky Way an object needs to exceed the ‘escape velocity’ - the strength of its gravitational pull.

The escape velocity of our galaxy is about 375 miles (600km) per second, which US 708 easily exceeds.
Astronomers hope that studying the star could help reveal how such helium-rich stars and thermonuclear supernovae are linked.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 17, 2015)

Astronomers uncover a second minor planet in our solar system that may have rings

Minor planet is known as Chiron and located between Saturn and Uranus
Discovery was made by studying dimming of star as it passed behind Chiron
Astronomers say ringed bodies may be more common than first thought
Researchers are still unsure how rings stay place on such a small 'planet'
Rings of gas and dust are known to encircle Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune.
Scientists recently discovered a fifth member of this haloed group known as Chariklo, which is one of a class of minor 'centaur' planets.
Now astronomers have detected a possible ring system around a second centaur, Chiron, suggesting that ringed bodies may be more common in our solar system previously thought.


*WHAT IS A CENTAUR PLANET? *
Like their mythological counterparts, centaurs are hybrids, embodying traits of both asteroids and comets.
Today, scientists estimate there are more than 44,000 centaurs in the solar system, concentrated mainly in a band between the orbits of Jupiter and Pluto.
Chiron, discovered in 1977, was the first planetary body categorised as a centaur, after the mythological Greek creature -- a hybrid of man and beast.











Pictured are the positions of known outer solar system objects. The centaurs are those objects (in green) that lie generally inwards of the Kuiper belt (in blue)




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...d-minor-planet-solar-rings.html#ixzz3UdLS9Tlm


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 18, 2015)

With just weeks left before it crashes into its host planet,  (APRIL 30th) NASA's Messenger spacecraft is making the most of its extremely low altitude and finding that Mercury isn't a completely dead world. - 







Good stuff here
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/messenger-mercury-mysteries-03172015/


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 18, 2015)

National Geograhic Top 10 Hubble images.   
more galactic than solar system but whatever...... they are remarkable and beautiful, (yes we all know they are false colour.)

Hubble Space Telescope  *launched on 24 April 1990
*
As a taster....this is # 9






http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/hubble-telescope/hubble-photography


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## tanvirnabi (Apr 30, 2015)

It is amazing. You labor hard. Thanks for all works. I would visit this thread more.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 30, 2015)

*NASA's MESSENGER probe*,
which has been orbiting Mercury since March 2011, is nearly out of fuel and will smash into the planet on Thursday (April 30), probably around 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT), space agency officials say. NASA released the new MESSENGER video on Monday (April 27) as a tribute, and a memorial of sorts.










wiki for more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MESSENGER


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 1, 2015)

This is the last photo captured and sent to Earth by NASA’s MESSENGER Mercury probe. The spacecraft took the image on April 30, 2015, shortly before crashing into Mercury’s surface in a death dive that ended four years of operations at the solar system’s innermost planet.

Here is a video compilation of Messengers' mission

http://www.space.com/29281-messenge...5-05-01#ooid=ZtbXhydDp1f81Aj3OdGdsUOpu4wnAmop

http://www.space.com/29281-messenger-spacecraft-mercury-crash.html?cmpid=NL_SP_weekly_2015-05-01


----------



## Ahhzz (May 1, 2015)

I think the article I read stated that the probe actually had a thousand images that they would never see because the probe was on the far side for impact. I'll have to look it up and see what changed....


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 5, 2015)

Stunning close-up reveals Saturn's crumpet moon.
Named Hyperion, the moon's porous surface can be seen in incredible detail in this image taken by Cassini as it performed a flyby of the satellite.





measuring 255 by 161 miles (410 by 260km)

Esa has just released a refined, false-colour perspective of the moon in which its surface features were highlighted by toning down its natural redness.

During the flyby, the probe got more than it bargained for as Hyperion unleashed a burst of charged particles towards the spacecraft, effectively delivering a giant 200-volt electric shock.

It appears that Hyperion's surface becomes electrostatically charged as it is bathed in charged particles.
These particles are constantly streaming out into space from the sun, but Hyperion also has to deal with ones trapped within the magnetic field of its host planet, Saturn

Hyperion is shaped like a potato and is one of the largest bodies in the solar system known to be so irregular.

Its odd, almost 'bubbly' appearance, can be attributed to it having a very low density for its size.

Because of these properties the entire moon is porous, like a sponge, with well-preserved craters of various sizes packed together across its surface.

Scientists think that this moon is mostly made up of water ice, with small amounts of rock, and around 40 per cent of it is empty space. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(moon)


----------



## Caring1 (May 5, 2015)

It looks like a piece of dead coral, filled with holes where the animals used to live.


----------



## dorsetknob (May 5, 2015)

Caring1 said:


> It looks like a piece of dead coral, filled with holes where the animals used to live.



Well you know that as the outer solar system cooled and this moon became
uninhabitable  "THE CLANGERS" migrated to our MOON "

Green Cheese anyone ?


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 5, 2015)

Ahhzz said:


> I think the article I read stated that the probe actually had a thousand images that they would never see because the probe was on the far side for impact. I'll have to look it up and see what changed....



Nothing changed, the pic i showed was the last one received. In the same way that Apollo craft were out of signal on the far side of the moon.
Mercury was "in the way". So the 1000 or so pics that were taken behind Mercury's shadow were taken, probably sent but never received.


----------



## Ahhzz (May 5, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> Nothing changed, the pic i showed was the last one received. In the same way that Apollo craft were out of signal on the far side of the moon.
> Mercury was "in the way". So the 1000 or so pics that were taken behind Mercury's shadow were taken, probably sent but never received.


sorry, I took your "shortly before crashing" to mean that they had some images directly before the "Final Impact"


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 5, 2015)

*Messenger.......Mercury*

Excuse my indulgence but i like these missions and i especially like good photos so ive gathered a few here.

The Messenger probe, seen here lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on board a Boeing Delta II rocket in August 2004





Here is the launch.   August 3, 2004 at 2:15:56 a.m









Here is a wiki link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MESSENGER


Mercury's sunlit side is photographed by the Wide Angle Camera of the Mercury Dual Imaging System on board Nasa's Messenger spacecraft





 an image of Mercury made during a January 2008 flyby. According to Nasa scientists the image shows 'that volcanoes were involved in plains formation and suggest that its magnetic field is actively produced in the planet's core.





The Rembrandt impact basin discovered by the Messenger spacecraft during its second flypast of Mercury in October 
2008





October 2008











And finally..........the view back to Earth and our Moon






If you fancy a quick read (2/3 mins) there are something interesting facts here, nothing too technical.   
http://www.space.com/11147-nasa-mercury-spacecraft-surprising-facts-messenger.html


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 13, 2015)

Send your selfie into space





Join in the adventure of space exploration and send your selfie to space aboard  2016 LightSail mission!  LightSail is designed to demonstrate solar sailing, using the momentum of sunlight to propel small spacecraft through space. Submit your selfie and be a part of the world's first citizen-funded solar sail adventure.






http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/messages/lightsail/


I am #  4028........climb aboard there's loads of room !  I managed to bag a window seat.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 14, 2015)

Bumping my previous post.......

*SEND YOUR FACE TO SPACE*.......


theres a badger coming with me........my avatar   # 4927

the wife heard i was off to space without her.......she wants to come now, bloody typical,







at least i wont have to sit next to her..


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 16, 2015)

Bumping my previous post.......

*SEND YOUR FACE TO SPACE*.......

Guess What ?  you are all coming with me 


@W1zzard i dont know if it is a first, but TPU is off to space !!! Hope you dont mind.









http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/messages/lightsail/


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 16, 2015)

@DinaAngel  is up for it, shes coming too !


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 16, 2015)

@Knoxx29 is coming along


and his dogs


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 18, 2015)

Konstantinos Emmanouilidis   took these amazing pics I think they are fabulous, keep looking up folks.

A golden-coloured moon rises above the famous Temple of the ancient Greek God Poseidon in Athens 





the ruins of the Temple of Dimitra on Naxos Island, Greece






An ancient ruined church glows an eerie shade of blue, lit up against the backdrop of the Milky Way






WOW   just   WOW





In this time lapse photograph, a golden full moon transitions into the sky - turning from yellow to red - above Mount Athos






A horizontal trail shows  ISS, as well as several other smaller satellites, passing above Mount Athos in Greece


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 23, 2015)

*Polish photographer Bartosz Wojczyski took the images over half an hour from his balcony Piekary Iskie, Poland*

*He spent six hours stitching together 32,000 separate images of the lunar surface to create the final photograph*

*It reveals the spray of debris thrown out by meteorite impacts and the patterns made by ancient volcanic flows*



Spoiler: Moon Facts



http://space-facts.com/the-moon/


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jun 9, 2015)

LightSail has deployed







A spacecraft designed to glide across space using light from the sun has deployed its giant sail after several delays.

The LightSail spacecraft has been beset with problems since it was launched at the end of May after engineers lost contact with it shortly after it entered orbit.

However, after managing to make contact with the vehicle again, scientists have now confirmed that the space vehicle has deployed its 344 sq ft (32 square metre) sail.


Although the tiny LightSail 1, which was launched on 20 May atop an Atlas V rocket from Florida, will not travel high enough to sail on the sun's light, it has shown the design can be deployed effectively.

LightSail has four metal booms that unwind four triangular Mylar sails, each of which is around a fourth as thick as the average plastic bin bag.

Managers behind the mission at the Planetary Society said they attempted to download pictures from the spacecraft but the files came back incomplete. They are hoping to attempt again later today so they can see how the sail has been deployed.

This mission will serve as a precursor for two further missions that will aim to send light sails out of the Earth's orbit and prove the technology can be effectively used.

David Spencer, mission manager for LightSail said the tiny motor that deployed LightSail's solar sails sprung into life at around 3.47pm EDT on Sunday.

He said: 'All indications are that the solar sail deployment was proceeding nominally.'

According to the LightSail's Mission Control page, the Planetary Society is now downloading the first image of the solar sail in deployment.

Fragments of the image have already been downloaded and show the sail apparently unfurled.

The test has been dogged with problems after a software glitch shortly after launch caused the spacecraft to reboot.

It is thought that a stray cosmic particle triggered the reboot of the spacecrafts system.

However, after eight days in orbit scientists on the ground were able to make contact with LightSail again.

According to a post on the The Planetary Society's website, LightSail deployed its solar sail while tracking across the sky above the southwestern United States through the Gulf of California. 

Writing on the LightSail blog, Jason Davis said: 'Because LightSail’s orbit is already beginning to deteriorate, the engineering team will convene at 4 a.m. EDT tomorrow to plan the day’s actitivies, based on the contents of the completed sail image. 

'If the sail is not completely tensioned, the booms will be "walked out" incrementally, providing important motor count data in preparation for the second flight in 2016. 

LightSail was launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on 20 May from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

At its core is a tiny craft made up of three 'CubeSats', which are essentially tiny spacecraft that can be launched relatively cheaply.

In total, the core of the vehicle weighs 22lbs (10kg) and is just 11.8-inches (30cm) high and 3.9-inches (10cm) wide - about the size of a loaf of bread. 

At the bottom of the spacecraft on each of its four sides, a huge solar sail has been 'folded up'.

This sail, measuring 345 square ft (32 square metres) in size, is made of an extremely reflective material called Mylar.

It is just 4.5 microns thick - about a quarter of the thickness of a bin bag.

If it is unfurled, photons from the sun will strike the sail and push it forwards, similar to how a sail on Earth catches the wind.

The push is extremely minimal - less than holding a sheet of paper in your hand - but it is theorised that, over time, this push could build up enough to reach high speeds. 


Dont forget  WE ARE ONBOARD


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jun 30, 2015)

Today is World Asteroid Day






Barringer Crater, near Flagstaff, Arizona, is one of the youngest impact craters on Earth. It was excavated about 50,000 years ago when an iron mass (or perhaps several) struck flat-lying sedimentary rocks at more than 11 km per second. Between 15 and 20 megatons of kinetic energy were released during the impact, which left a bowl-shaped crater 1.2 km in diameter and 200 m deep.



We Will Rock You











Cool Asteroid Database
http://www.asterank.com/


Asteroid Day
http://www.asteroidday.org/



This is a really good gif, it is only about a minute long.


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## R-T-B (Jun 30, 2015)

Curse you CAPSLOCKSTUCK!  I thought this update would be a new photo of Pluto....  

When is that due anyhow?


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 1, 2015)

@R-T-B sorry mate, please uncurse me forthwith.

Astronomers have spotted a white patch close to the north pole of Pluto in the latest batch of images sent back to Earth by the New Horizon's spacecraft. The two images above of the dwarf planet above were captured 30 seconds apart and have had the brightness and contrast enhanced to reveal the bright spots more clearly








Some have even suggested it could be frozen methane or even water ice on the surface of the distant dwarf planet, which is around 3.67 billion miles (5.9 billion km) from the sun.

*WHAT IS NEW HORIZONS? *
In July this year New Horizons will become the first spacecraft ever to visit Pluto.

It was launched on 19 January 2006 at a speed of 36,373 mph (58,536 km/h) - the fastest spacecraft ever to leave Earth orbit, 100 times faster than a jetliner

After passing the orbits of all the major planets from Earth to Neptune, New Horizons is now beginning its final leg of its three billion-mile (4.8 billion km) journey.

On 14 July 2015 the flyby of Pluto will begin. Using a suite of instruments, the spacecraft will map the surface of Pluto and its moon Charon to a resolution of 25 miles (40km) - far better than anything possible before.

This will reveal the surface features of Pluto - which may include ice.

As it flies past, it will also look back at the two bodies against the sun, to look for telltale signs of an atmosphere.

Despite the long journey, New Horizons will be travelling at such a speed that the flyby will last only around two hours - beginning at 11.49am GMT (06.49am EST) on 14 July and ending just after 2.15pm GMT (9.15am EST).

After passing Pluto, New Horizons will flyby one or several Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), other bodies beyond the orbit of Pluto. The mission will officially end in 2026.

Dr Philip Plait, an astronomer who writes a regular blog for the Slate, was among the first to spot the bright spots in images released by Nasa.

He said: ‘As the New Horizons spacecraft nears Pluto, more details are coming into view, and we are beginning to see surface features on the tiny world.

‘Both Pluto and its large moon Charon show all kinds of features.

‘But that bright spot on Pluto surprised me. That’s near its north pole and its been seen before in earlier images, basically as a splotch. In this image it’s quite obvious.’

New Horizons is due to become the first spacecraft to ever visit Pluto on July 14 when it will pass around 7,750 miles (12,500 km) from the surface of the dwarf planet.

It will provide scientists with their closest view of the mysterious planet in the furthest reaches of our solar system.

Most of what we currently know about Pluto has been gleaned from distant observations and measurements.

Astronomers have found Pluto, despite its size, has a thin atmosphere containing nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide.

The balance of methane – a greenhouse gas that warms the planet – and carbon monoxide – a coolant – are thought to play a key role in the decades long seasons on Pluto.

The bright spots captured by New Horizons have now helped to raise the anticipation of what New Horizons may find as it gets closer to Pluto and its moon Charon.


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## Pill Monster (Jul 2, 2015)

Didn't they decide a few years ago that Pluto wasn't a planet, but a big ball of ice?   I was wondering why astronomers are interested in it..


Cool pics tho.


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## R-T-B (Jul 2, 2015)

Pill Monster said:


> Didn't they decide a few years ago that Pluto wasn't a planet, but a big ball of ice?   I was wondering why astronomers are interested in it..
> 
> 
> Cool pics tho.



It's a dwarf planet, thank you.

And we still have no idea what it's composed of...  part of the reason we are interested.

@CAPSLOCKSTUCK, I'd like to help you but I'm afraid evil frog curses are permanent and can only be lifted by service to frog kind for all eternity.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 2, 2015)

@R-T-B

At your service Sir.


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## Pill Monster (Jul 2, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> It's a dwarf planet, thank you.
> 
> And we still have no idea what it's composed of...  part of the reason we are interested.
> 
> @CAPSLOCKSTUCK, I'd like to help you but I'm afraid evil frog curses are permanent and can only be lifted by service to frog kind for all eternity.


So it's not a planet then.... (no offence to dwarfs)... 

https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=Pluto+wasn't+a+planet&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=UtmUVen2Hsa48gXErYawBQ


I find deep space most fascinating.........and a mindfk.. lol     Hope Nasa completes their warp drive study in time for me to jump on the next shuttle to Alpha Centuri.... 

The vastness of space reminds me  how insignificant I am,.


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## R-T-B (Jul 2, 2015)

Pill Monster said:


> So it's not a planet then.... (no offence to dwarfs)...



Never said it was...


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 2, 2015)

The Pluto planet debate rumbles on,

meanwhile, up in space






NASA's New Horizons space probe has fired its thrusters for the last time to get it into position before it buzzes Pluto on July 14. The little science lab has also detected evidence of methane on the halfling planet.

"We are really on the final path," said New Horizons Project Manager Glen Fountain, of APL. "It just gets better and more exciting every day."

Ground controllers squirted hydrazine into the probe's thruster for a 23-second burn that changed its course slightly and sped it up by 27 centimetres per second – a tiny fraction of its 32,500 miles per hour velocity.

The maneuver allows the probe to skim Pluto's surface from 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometres) above its surface, taking photos and readings from the dwarf world. Without the course correction, New Horizons would have been 20 seconds late, and 114 miles (184 kilometres) off the planned route.

"This maneuver was perfectly performed by the spacecraft and its operations team," said mission principal investigator Alan Stern, of Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. "Now we're set to fly right down the middle of the optimal approach corridor."

Ground control is now focused on checking all of the probe's instruments to make sure everything is ready for the flyby. The probe has started taking photographs of the alien world, but the high speed means it will have a very limited period of time to take the close up images that scientists are lusting after.

There's then the tricky problem of getting all that data back. Due to the distances involved, the probe can only manage a data rate of 1Kbps, so it's going to be a while before instrument readings are back on Earth in a usable form.

However, signs of methane have been detected on Pluto by the New Horizons craft.

"We already knew there was methane on Pluto, but these are our first detections," said Will Grundy, the New Horizons Surface Composition team leader with the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

"Soon we will know if there are differences in the presence of methane ice from one part of Pluto to another."

New Horizons now only has 10 million miles (16 million kilometres) to go before it buzzes Pluto. The probe was launched in 2006, and has travelled 2.95 billion miles (4.75 billion kilometres) in that time.

Once past Pluto, the probe will head out further into the Kuiper Belt. NASA is hoping to use it to discover more about the band of icy rocks and planetoids that encircle the Solar System. From there it will join the Voyager probes as a deep space explorer, and is expected to leave the Solar System by 2047.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 4, 2015)

*PLUTO*
NASA's New Horizons probe is about to lift the veil on Pluto.


This colour view of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, was captured by NASA's approaching New Horizons spacecraft. The image is a still from a six-frame movie composed of photos New Horizons took between June 23 and June 29,






On July 14, New Horizons will perform the first-ever flyby of the faraway dwarf planet, zooming within 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) of its frigid surface. The close encounter will give researchers their first up-close looks at Pluto, which has remained mysterious since its 1930 discovery.

The highly anticipated flyby will cap a lengthy deep-space journey for New Horizons, which launched in January 2006 and is now nearly 3 billion miles (4.8 billion km) from Earth. But July 14 will not mark the end of the $700 million mission; New Horizons will continue beaming flyby data home for months afterward, and it may cruise past a second distant object in 2019, if NASA approves and funds a proposed mission extension. [Photos of Pluto and Its Moons]

http://www.space.com/29850-new-hori...5-07-03#ooid=5taGIwdjpw1S3k1u8s-Cg8WjK4FGmCS0

Here is a veritable cornucopia of Pluto videos

Pluto Has Strange 'Finger Print-Like' Marks In New Color Imagery
Methane On The Ice Dwarf Pluto, Plus Dancing With Charon
Pluto's Face and Charon's Dark Pole - New From New Horizons
Pluto is 'Beige-Orange' In Latest Pixelated New Horizons' Images
Pluto And Charon Orbital Dance - New Horizons Gets Closer
Pluto: 'We're Going Exploring' - New Horizons' Quest
Pluto-Palooza! Anticipation Grows For New Horizons' Fly-By
Pluto's 5 Moons In Motion - New Horizons Probe Captures First View
Pluto May Have An Ice Cap, New Photos Reveal
Is Pluto Really Red? Chemistry Says It Could Be
Pluto New Horizons' 'Bulletproof Vest' Isn't Its Only Defense
New Horizons’ Pluto Imagery Will Amaze Us
Pluto's Moons Nix and Hydra Spotted By NASA Probe
Pluto/Charon Wobbly Dance Proves It's A Double Planet
Onward To Pluto - New Horizons' Epic Journey Animated
Pluto and Giant Moon Charon Imaged By Probe
Pluto Mission's Close Approach Is Less Than Year Away
Pluto's Planetary Identity Still In Question
Pluto 'Up-Close' Coming Soon: Spacecraft's Historic Encounter
Passport to Pluto

@R-T-B  pleeeeeeeeeeeease uncurse me, i feel all weird........


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## R-T-B (Jul 4, 2015)

> @R-T-B pleeeeeeeeeeeease uncurse me, i feel all weird.......



It's ok, it's just the curse-venom transforming your body tissue into that of a frog.  It'll be over soon...

Seriously, thanks for the color pluto pic.  I can't wait for better ones!  Been waiting for that since I was a kid and all we had was this garbage from Hubble's best:


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 4, 2015)

@R-T-B 

i curse your spelling of colour.


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## R-T-B (Jul 4, 2015)

Who's taking the pluto photos, you or NASA?  What's the "NA" in NASA stand for? 

I know, I'm mean...

EDIT:  And it's early.  "NA" does not stand for "North America..."  But my point is still valid, grumble grumble...


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 6, 2015)

Pluto and Charon Surfaces in Living Color colour



 

I am really starting to get excited about this now


You can follow along with this journey using the Pluto Safari app, and by keeping tabs on the New Horizons website.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 9, 2015)

Astonishing images of Mercury captured by NASA spacecraft before smashing into planet






The psychedelic appearance is explained by NASA overlaying the pictures from the spacecraft’s Visual and Infrared Spectrometer (Virs) onto a black and white mosaic in order to accentuate features such as craters and volcanic vents.






Scientists have hailed the probe’s mission as a success, stating Messenger has answered lots of questions about the planet’s make-up. Some of the biggest discoveries include:

*1. Water*
Finding frozen water so close to the Sun was a major surprise, though there had been hints in earlier radar observations.

*2. What lies above*
Something was covering the ice, an unexplained dark layer. More investigation will be carried out but NASA is putting its money on it being carbon-rich compounds, similar to substances found in certain meteorites and in comets.

*3. It used to be bigger*
To be exact, over the past four and a half billion years Mercury has shrunk by over 7 kilometres in radius.

Reams of data have yet to be analyzed.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 17, 2015)

An asteroid worth a potential £3.5 trillion ($5.4 trillion) is due to pass by Earth on Sunday, and you can watch it live from 11pm UK time (6.30pm ET).
Asteroid 2011 UW-158's fly-by will be streamed live on the internet from an observatory in the Canary Islands.

The space rock has attracted the attention of asteroid mining company Planetary Resources, because it is thought to have a 100 million ton core of platinum that the company might one day want to exploit.
Asteroid 2011 UW-158 will pass within 1.5 million miles (2.4 million km) from Earth on Sunday - 30 times closer than our nearest planet.

It is less than half a mile (1km) across, but is thought to be immensely valuable because of its platinum core.
An organisation call Slooh, that links telescopes to the internet for public viewing, will be providing the images live from their website, along with a discussion about the asteroid and its possible value to space prospectors.

http://main.slooh.com/



*WHAT IS AN X-TYPE ASTEROID? *
Asteroids like 2011 UW-158 are described as ‘X-type’ asteroids.

X-type asteroids are composed primarily of metal, and appear to be the remnants of large asteroids that fully separated into core and mantle.

Many of these were destroyed in huge collisions in the solar system’s early history, leaving just their tough metallic cores.




'It's always fun when an asteroid whooshes past our world so the Slooh telescopes will be watching live when asteroid 2011 UW-158 passes 30 times closer to us than the nearest planet, on July 19.’ Slooh Astronomer Bob Berman said.
'What makes this unusual is the large amount of platinum believed to be lurking in the body of this space visitor.
‘Can it be mined someday, perhaps not too far in the future?'







Planetary Resources considers asteroids like 2011 UW-158 as ‘X-type’ asteroids.

X-type asteroids are composed primarily of metal, and appear to be the remnants of large asteroids that fully separated into core and mantle.

Many of these were destroyed in huge collisions in the solar system’s early history, leaving just their tough metallic cores.

Planetary Resources yesterday launched an asteroid mining test vehicle from the ISS, beginning a 90 day mission that will involve testing its software and control systems.

The company one day hope to send the probe to venture far into the solar system to prospect for resource-rich near-Earth asteroids

The vehicle, called the Arkyd 3 Reflight (A3R) will test components that Planetary Resources hope will allow a future probe to extract water from asteroids.




Finding water on asteroids is central to Planetary Resources' mission, as it can be broken down in to hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel, allowing crafts to stay out longer and explore further for precious metals.

A3R won't actually be doing any drilling, but it will test avionics that will be used in the probe that they hope to send, as well as test Planetary Resources' systems' resilience to the harsh environment in deep space.

'The successful deployment of the A3R is a significant milestone for Planetary Resources as we forge a path toward prospecting resource-rich asteroids,’ said Peter H. Diamandis, co-founder and co-chairman of Planetary Resources.

'Our team is developing the technology that will enable humanity to create an off-planet economy that will fundamentally change the way we live on Earth.'

the last minute of this 3 minute vid is relevant









https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_Resources


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 18, 2015)

*Friday, July 17, 2015*:
NASA's Dawn spacecraft caught a portion of the northern hemisphere of dwarf planet Ceres from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers)






NASA's Dawn spacecraft has resumed its trek to a new orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, more than two weeks after a glitch halted the probe in its tracks.

Dawn began spiraling down to its third Ceres science orbit on June 30 but experienced a problem almost immediately and went into a protective "safe mode." After an investigation, the mission team has now determined what happened and cleared Dawn to return to work.

"Engineers traced this anomaly to the mechanical gimbal system that swivels ion engine #3 to help control the spacecraft's orientation during ion-thrusting. Dawn has three ion engines and uses only one at a time," NASA officials wrote in an update today (July 17). [Photos of Ceres, Queen of the Asteroid Belt]

It will take Dawn about five weeks to maneuver from its second science orbit, which lies 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above Ceres' surface, down to the third, which lies at an altitude of 900 miles (1,500 km), NASA officials said. (Ion engines are extremely efficient but very low-thrust, hence the long maneuver time.)

The third science orbit will not be Dawn's last; later in the mission, the spacecraft is scheduled to study Ceres from a distance of just 230 miles (375 km). Dawn will stay in this fourth science orbit through the end of its mission, in June 2016


----------



## AsRock (Jul 18, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> It's a dwarf planet, thank you.
> 
> And we still have no idea what it's composed of...  part of the reason we are interested.
> 
> @CAPSLOCKSTUCK, I'd like to help you but I'm afraid evil frog curses are permanent and can only be lifted by service to frog kind for all eternity.



They will have new pics tomorrow of it and they doing some thing on Friday 1pm est, would of thought it be available from www.nasa.gov  as i was watching it on my ROKU 3 just 10 minutes ago and they had some pretty sweet pictures wish are said with some luck  we see even better ones showing much more detail over the next week.
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...s-frozen-plains-in-the-heart-of-pluto-s-heart


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 18, 2015)

@AsRock 
there a nice Pluto thread here
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/new-horizons-pluto-mission-update-thread.214106/


----------



## AsRock (Jul 18, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> @AsRock
> there a nice Pluto thread here
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/new-horizons-pluto-mission-update-thread.214106/



I seen better ones but it was though  Roku 3 NASA channel and like i said we all should have some new ones to view in the next week .


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 24, 2015)

Enjoy a flight around CERES


----------



## dorsetknob (Sep 2, 2015)

This Photo of Saturn's Moon Dione Crossing the Planet Is Simply Jaw-Dropping





Saturn's moon Dione crosses the face of the ringed planet in an image obtained on May 21, 2015.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute


Saturn's moon Dione crosses the face of the ringed planet in an image obtained on May 21, 2015.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
An icy moon of Saturn hangs against the face of its giant parent planet in a breathtaking new image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
The photo, which Cassini took on May 21, shows the moon Dione crossing Saturn's disk. Careful study of such "transits" can help astronomers better understand the orbits of Dione and other moons in the solar system, NASA officials said.
Furthermore, NASA's Kepler space telescope and some other instruments hunt for exoplanets by looking for tiny dips in a star's brightness caused by transiting alien worlds. Studying the light coming from such extrasolar systems can also reveal details about the composition of these exoplanets' atmospheres.
At 696 miles (1,120 kilometers) in diameter, Dione is the fourth-largest of Saturn's sixty-odd moons; only Titan, Rhea and Iapetus are bigger. Parts of Dione are heavily cratered, and the satellite's trailing side features mysterious ice cliffs and fractures that run for tens or hundreds of kilometers. Cassini has also detected a wispy oxygen atmosphere surrounding the frigid moon.
Cassini snapped the new photo, which was released today (Aug. 31), when the probe was about 1.4 million miles (2.3 million km) from Saturn. The image's resolution is 9 miles (14 km) per pixel.


----------



## Drone (Sep 2, 2015)

Goodnight from Space








Flight over Atlantis Chaos, Mars










Mars


----------



## Drone (Sep 3, 2015)

Martian surface











Saturn (2009 equinox)






Comet 'Cherry-Gerry'






Departing Dione


----------



## Drone (Sep 4, 2015)

Stormy Pacific







Sunspot AR2403







Venus


----------



## Drone (Sep 5, 2015)

Mars







Jovian system






Sun


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 7, 2015)

A "lonely mountain" stands unaccompanied on the icy gray surface of the dwarf planet Ceres, in amazing new photographs from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

http://www.space.com/30364-ceres-lo...m-space#ooid=ZtcTA3dzoB8dvUL5XeTi23E_DakLf0WG

The mountain, with an altitude of 21,120 feet (6,437 meters), is one of many gorgeous features captured in the new images, which Dawn took on Aug. 19. Shining craters, sloping ridges and round dimples also cover the surface of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. We at Space.com combined the photos into a video that explores the new Ceres images in detail.

Dawn currently orbits Ceres at an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers), but in October, the probe will start spiraling down to an orbit just 230 miles (375 km) above the surface. So Dawn will soon be sending back even higher-resolution images of the icy body's surface. [See more amazing photos of dwarf planet Ceres]








The new images offer a closer look at some of the mysterious aspects of Ceres' surface, including the massive Gaue crater, which is 52 miles (84 km) in diameter. The images feature a resolution of about 450 feet (140 m) per pixel. Additionally, the pictures show "narrow, braided features" on the surface, according to a statement from NASA. 

Ceres is about 590 miles (950 km) wide and holds joint status as an asteroid and a dwarf planet. In Dawn's current orbit, the probe takes 11 days (or 14 orbits around Ceres) to create a complete map of the dwarf planet's entire surface. Dawn will map the surface of Ceres six times in the next two months, NASA officials said.

This extensive imaging allows scientists to model the surface in 3D, and instruments on board the spacecraft are collecting information about the distribution and composition of materials on Ceres' surface. Of particular interest are the mysterious white spots seen on Ceres. (To cast your vote as to what the white spots might be made of, go to NASA's online poll.)

Dawn's instruments are also studying Ceres' gravitational field, making measurements that will be essential in planning the spacecraft's dip down to a lower orbit in October.

The $466 million Dawn spacecraft left Earth in September 2007 and orbited the massive asteroid Vesta for 14 months in 2011 and 2012. The probe arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015.


----------



## Drone (Sep 7, 2015)

^ Unfortunately we didn't get lots of Ceres images lately. It's been weeks since the last photo:


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 9, 2015)

Nasa's Comet Hitchhiker could tour the Kuiper Belt by 'jumping' from one asteroid to another.
explained





The Comet Hitchhiker concept (illustrated) was developed by Masahiro Ono at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. A reusable tether would replace the fuel used in current spacecrafts by harvesting kinetic energy from the comets or asteroids and using this to harpoon the tether to various small bodies in space.





While closely flying by a target, a spacecraft would cast the extendable tether toward the asteroid or comet and become attached using a harpoon. Next, the spacecraft would reel out the tether while applying a brake that harvests energy as the spacecraft moves (illustrated). Nasa compared it to fishing on Earth





The proposal is described in the above diagrams. The researchers have been studying whether a harpoon could tolerate an impact of this magnitude, and whether a tether could be created strong enough to support this kind of manoeuvre. They found that a tether made of Kevlar longer than 62 miles (100km) could work


----------



## Drone (Sep 16, 2015)

Goodnight, Saturn










3000th Comet Spotted by SOHO






Moon photobombing Sun


----------



## dorsetknob (Sep 16, 2015)

ESA's sun-watching satellite Proba-2 captured Sept. 13's partial solar eclipse three times as it orbited the Earth; in each, its extreme ultraviolet SWAP imager caught the moon approaching and overshadowing part of the sun.
Credit: ESA/Royal Observatory of Belgium






K.J. Mulder snapped a series of partial-solar-eclipse photos Sept. 13 from his home in South Africa, using a 3.5-inch Skywatcher refractor telescope equipped with a Baader solar filter. Hazy clouds occasionally blocked his view.
Credit: K.J. Mulder/Worlds in Ink

Sunday, Sept. 27 will bring another spectacular sight: Observers throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, western Asia and the eastern Pacific Ocean region will be able to see a "supermoon" lunar eclipse, when an extra-bright and large full moon will be blotted out by the Earth's shadow — the first such eclipse since 1982. A similar event will not occur again until 2033, so be sure to look up.

http://www.space.com/30510-total-solar-eclipse-visible-from-united-states-in-2017-visualization.html


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 16, 2015)

Is the Earth causing the moon to SHRINK? 

Nasa scientists have identified more than 3,200 cracks, each several miles long and dozens of feet deep, crisscrossing the moon's surface.




Gravitational forces exerted by the Earth on the moon are causing cracks to form on the satellite's surface as it cools and shrinks, shown in the animation above (© NASA/Arizona State University/Smithsonian Institution)

Analysis of these faults, which are thought to be a result of the moon shrinking in size as its core cools, has revealed they are forming due to the gravitational tidal forces from Earth.
Dr Thomas Watters, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, said: 'There is a pattern in the orientations of the thousands of faults.
'It suggests something else is influencing their formation, something that's also acting on a global scale - 'massaging' and realigning them.'
Scientists first noticed these faults, known as lobate scarps in 2010 when Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft spotted them littering the moon's surface.
They initially thought the cooling and subsequent contracting of the liquid outer core was causing the solid crust above to buckle and crack.
This would result in a pattern of so-called thrust faults with no particular pattern in their orientation.
However, analysis of high-resolution images of almost three-quarters of the lunar surface from the spacecraft has revealed more than 3,000 more of the features.
Researchers found the faults appeared to have particular orientations which suggests they are forming under the influence of other forces.
They said changes in the gravitational pull on the moon as is moves around the Earth in its elliptical orbit would be sufficient to cause distinctive stress on the surface.

Dr Watters said when the tidal forces on the moon were superimposed on the global contraction caused by the cooling interior, the combined stresses produced cracks to form in distinct patterns.







+5
Scientists have now identified more than 3,200 lobate thrust faults, or cracks, on the surface of the moon. The red lines on the map above show their location and the arrows show their average orientation





The faults are the most common tectonic formations to appear on the surface of the moon. The image above from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera shows a prominent fault in the geological features in the Vitello Cluster, with a degraded crater in the middle that has been raised up as a result of the slippages

The fault scarps are very young and still seem to be actively forming today, and are thought to be the most common tectonic land formation on the moon.
Most are under 6.2 miles (10 km) long and only tens of yards high.
The researchers, whose work is published in the journal Geology, found that the stress on the moon reaches its peak when it is farthest from the Earth in its orbit, known as apogee.
If the faults are still active, the occurrence of shallow moonquakes related to slippage on the faults could be detected at this point.





Most of the faults, like the one shown above, are under 6.2 miles (10 km) long and only tens of yards high. Boulders in the crater can be seen to have aligned in rows parallel to the orientation of the fault scarp





While the moon is more commonly known to influence the Earth (pictured) by causing the ebb and flow of the tides, it seems our planet is having a far more devastating impact on the surface of the moon

Dr Mark Robinson, a researcher at the Arizona State University, principal investigator of the LRO Camera and co-author of the study, said: 'The discovery of so many previously undetected tectonic features as our LROC high-resolution image coverage continues to grow is truly remarkable.

'Early on in the mission we suspected that tidal forces played a role in the formation of tectonic features, but we did not have enough coverage to make any conclusive statements.

'Now that we have Narrow Angle Camera images with appropriate lighting for more than half of the moon, structural patterns are starting to come into focus.'

Launched in June 2009, the LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments.

John Kelly, LRO project scientist at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, said: 'With LRO we've been able to study the moon globally in detail not yet possible with any other body in the solar system beyond Earth, and the LRO data set enables us to tease out subtle but important processes that would otherwise remain hidden.'





The lobate thrusts faults create step-like cliff formations on the surface of the moon, like the one shown above. They were initially thought to be due to the cooling of the interior causing the moon to shrink, cracking the brittle crust, but the new research has shown the Earth's gravity is also taking its toll.


*MOON WAS ONCE COVERED WITH LAVA SPITTING FIRE FOUNTAINS *
The moon was once home to 'fire fountains', similar to those seen in Hawaii today.
The Apollo missions found remnants of these lava fountains in tiny beads of volcanic glass on the moon.
Now, US scientists believe they have identified the volatile gas that drove those eruptions, finally solving the mystery to how they formed.
The moon's surface was hot and magma often bubbled up from below and broke the surface.
Lava associated with lunar fire fountains contained significant amounts of carbon, acording to new research.
As it rose from the lunar depths, that carbon combined with oxygen to make substantial amounts of carbon monoxide (CO) gas. 
Carbon, as it combines with oxygen to form CO gas, would have degassed before other volatiles. 
The CO gas was responsible for the fire fountains that sprayed volcanic glass over parts of the lunar surface.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 17, 2015)

A spacecraft that launched in 1995 to study the sun has discovered its 3,000th comet, further bolstering its credentials as history's greatest comet hunter.





_The dot in the cross-hairs is the 3,000th comet discovered by the NASA/European Space Agency Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), as seen on Sept. 14, 2015. The comet was spotted in SOHO data by Worachate Boonplod of Thailand_


The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint effort of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), spotted comet number 3,000 on Sunday (Sept. 13). The landmark discovery was pulled out of SOHO's database by Worachate Boonplod of Thailand, NASA officials said.







"I am very happy to be part of a great milestone for SOHO's comet project," Boonplod said in a statement. "I would like to thank SOHO, ESA and NASA for making this opportunity possible, including other fellow comet hunters who I have learned a lot from." [Sungrazing Comets: How They Dive-Bomb the Sun (Infographic)]


excellent comet vid
http://www.space.com/30562-soho-spa...ts.html#ooid=AzZmdqdzp0arAi_4i3Bb3PBsIgMC6hif



Boonplod is one of many laypeople around the world who sift through SOHO's data in search of comets. Indeed, 95 percent of the spacecraft's comet discoveries have been made by such citizen scientists, NASA officials said.

SOHO has also proven extremely proficient at discovering and tracking "sungrazing" comets, which veer close to the sun (and sometimesplunge into the star).

"SOHO has a view of about 12.5 million miles [20.1 million kilometers] beyond the sun," said SOHO mission scientist Joe Gurman, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "So we expected it might from time to time see a bright comet near the sun. But nobody dreamed we'd approach 200 a year."

Studying sungrazers can reveal insights about the solar system's early days, because comets are relics from the planet-forming period 4.5 billion years ago, NASA officials said. And tracing their paths around and near the sun can help researchers learn more about the solar magnetic field and the solar wind.

Before SOHO's launch two decades ago, just 12 comets had been discovered by spacecraft, and a mere 900 others had been found by ground-based instruments, officials said.

SOHO spotted its 1,000th comet in 2005 and number 2,000 in December 2010.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 18, 2015)

A global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus, researchers have revealed.
They say the find explains the moon's wobble, and mysterious icy sprays seen at its south pole.
The findings show the fine spray of water vapour, icy particles and simple organic molecules Cassini has observed coming from fractures near the moon's south pole is being fed by this vast liquid water reservoir.







Using data from NASA's Cassini mission, researchers found the magnitude of the moon's very slight wobble, as it orbits Saturn, can only be accounted for if its outer ice shell is not frozen solid to its interior, meaning a global ocean must be present. 

The research is presented in a paper published online this week in the journal Icarus.
Previous analysis of Cassini data suggested the presence of a lens-shaped body of water, or sea, underlying the moon's south polar region.
However, gravity data collected during the spacecraft's several close passes over the south polar region lent support to the possibility the sea might be global, the team say. 
The new results confirmed this.

'This was a hard problem that required years of observations, and calculations involving a diverse collection of disciplines, but we are confident we finally got it right,' said Peter Thomas, a Cassini imaging team member at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and lead author of the paper.
Cassini scientists analyzed more than seven years' worth of images of Enceladus taken by the spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn since mid-2004. 
They carefully mapped the positions of features on Enceladus - mostly craters - across hundreds of images, in order to measure changes in the moon's rotation with extreme precision.
As a result, they found Enceladus has a tiny, but measurable wobble as it orbits Saturn. 






Because the icy moon is not perfectly spherical - and because it goes slightly faster and slower during different portions of its orbit around Saturn - the giant planet subtly rocks Enceladus back and forth as it rotates.
The team plugged their measurement of the wobble, called a libration, into different models for how Enceladus might be arranged on the inside, including ones in which the moon was frozen from surface to core.
'If the surface and core were rigidly connected, the core would provide so much dead weight the wobble would be far smaller than we observe it to be,' said Matthew Tiscareno, a Cassini participating scientist at the SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, and a co-author of the paper.
'This proves that there must be a global layer of liquid separating the surface from the core,' he said.
The mechanisms that might have prevented Enceladus' ocean from freezing remain a mystery.
Thomas and his colleagues suggest a few ideas for future study that might help resolve the question, including the surprising possibility that tidal forces due to Saturn's gravity could be generating much more heat within Enceladus than previously thought.






'This is a major step beyond what we understood about this moon before, and it demonstrates the kind of deep-dive discoveries we can make with long-lived orbiter missions to other planets,' said co-author Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at Space Science Institute (SSI), Boulder, Colorado, and visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. 'Cassini has been exemplary in this regard.'
The unfolding story of Enceladus has been one of the great triumphs of Cassini's long mission at Saturn. Scientists first detected signs of the moon's icy plume in early 2005, and followed up with a series of discoveries about the material gushing from warm fractures near its south pole. They announced strong evidence for a regional sea in 2014, and more recently, in 2015, they shared results that suggest hydrothermal activity is taking place on the ocean floor.
Cassini is scheduled to make a close flyby of Enceladus on Oct. 28, in the mission's deepest-ever dive through the moon's active plume of icy material. The spacecraft will pass a mere 30 miles (49 kilometers) above the moon's surface. 
Researchers say rather than having a solid stone centre, like the Earth or our own moon, Enceladus may be formed around a core of boulders and ice.
The gravitational pull of Saturn would cause this unconsolidated rubble to flex and move around, generating heat which would melt the ice above.
This tidal heating, according to the scientists, would be enough to prevent the ocean below the surface from freezing solid.
The theory, which was put forward by Dr James Roberts, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland, may also mean the ocean on Enceladus is more hospitable than previously believed.
Scientists had previously believed Saturn's tiny moon needed extremely high concentrations of antifreeze agents such as ammonia to keep oceans from forming.
The existence of Enceladus's subsurface ocean has been suspected for some time since Nasa's Cassini spacecraft spotted plumes of vapour and ice shooting out from the moon's surface.







Measurements by Cassini have also detected several gigawatts of heat being emitted from beneath the surface.
Dr Roberts said: 'There are several reasons why a liquid water layer is suspected to exist beneath the ice shell.
I find that fragmentation of the core increases tidal dissipation by a factor of 20, consistent with the long-term dynamically sustainable level, even when the interior is completely frozen, but only if the interior starts out warm and tidal heating is strong from the beginning.
'Although an ocean need not be present in order for the interior to experience significant tidal heating, all models that dissipate enough heat to prevent runaway cooling are also warm enough to have an ocean.








'Tidal dissipation in the weak core provides an additional source of heat that may prevent a global subsurface ocean from freezing.'
Saturn has been found to have 62 moons orbiting around the giant gas planet. Many of these are frozen inactive worlds, while others show signs of tectonic activity.
Discovered in 1789 by astronomer William Herschel, Enceladus orbits around 147,500 miles from Saturn every 32.8 hours.
It is around 318 miles across, while temperatures on the surface rarely rise above -330°F (-201°C).
Yet despite this extreme cold, Enceladus appears to have an extremely young icy surface, which suggests it is geologically active.
Giant plumes of ice and water vapour have been seen shooting out into space from the surface.
This has suggested that beneath the scarred and icy surface, there is an ocean of liquid salty water which may even contain organic molecules.
However, with a solid rocky core, as was suspected, the moon would lose heat over millions of years and be unable to maintain this liquid layer.
According to Dr Roberts, whose work is published in the journal Icarus, a soft, rubble-filled core would allow sufficient movement to produce enough heat to keep this layer liquid.
He found that an ocean beneath the surface would help to regulate the temperature of the moon's interior, preventing runaway cooling or widespread melting.
He added that it is possible the moon undergoes freezing and thaw cycles which leads to a rocky ocean floor.
Dr Roberts said: 'If the ocean cyclically freezes and thaws, the resulting expansion of the core fragments may result in size-sorting in the outermost layer of the core.
'During freeze cycles, meter-sized and smaller fragments may be suspended in a layer of dirty ice a few km thick, just above the core.
'During thaw cycles, these fragments form a regolith on the seafloor.'


----------



## Drone (Sep 19, 2015)




----------



## Drone (Sep 20, 2015)

New CME






ISS over America


----------



## Drone (Sep 23, 2015)

Moon






Prometheus and Pandora are almost hidden in Saturn's rings in this image






An elongated solar filament that extended almost half the Sun broke away into space


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## dorsetknob (Sep 28, 2015)

Moon starting to be eclipsed   its 02:26 am GMT  here in Dorset   pity i got just a smartphone   crap pictures  looks nice through a fieldscope   no blood moon yet

0:2:54 GMT  moon 3/4 obscured by earths shadow   can see some red tinge Now

and time for bed for me


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## Ahhzz (Sep 28, 2015)

*sigh* I wanted to stay up for the Superblood moon, but we had a major day yesterday, and I gave up about an hour early....


----------



## Drone (Sep 29, 2015)

New images from ISS











Some old videos from Cassini


----------



## Drone (Oct 6, 2015)

Another active region and solar flare






Hurricane Joaquin






ISS over Asia






Nili fossae region and Mount Sharp, Mars


----------



## Drone (Oct 7, 2015)

Sunspots






Moon eclipse






Comet Catalina. Looking sexy!


----------



## Drone (Oct 13, 2015)

Tempel 1






Eros














All images of Eros can be found here






Nasa released 4K 60FPS video of Jupiter. Saturn, Uranus, Neptune will come later so stay tuned.










You can download it here, it's *11GB*.


Some cool maps:


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## Drone (Oct 14, 2015)

Solar Wind






Impact craters on Pluto & Charon






Comet Encke










Enceladus






Titan & Saturn






Titan & Pandora






Mimas & Pandora






Giant close-up of Dione







New close-ups of Enceladus and more things are yet to come (late October - mid December). Stay tuned!


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 14, 2015)

Absolutely remarkable................i reckon ive got a time machine in my head, cos pics like these turn me in to a kid again. 

Nice one @Drone please keep ,em coming pal.


Mimas


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## Drone (Oct 14, 2015)

*Gently wipes ashes off Aqua's face*

Mars






Halley’s Comet






Moon


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 14, 2015)

That video is even more beautiful than the woman who presented the weather report this morning on local tv.


----------



## Drone (Oct 14, 2015)

Dione & Saturn










Map of Titan























The Colorado River canyon, just above Grand Canyon (left), and Nanedi Vallis on Mars (right) pictured at the same scale shows how both canyons were formed by rivers that appear to have been approximately the same width. The river channel on Earth looks darker because it is filled with water, whereas Nanedi Vallis has been dry for billions of years.


----------



## Drone (Oct 16, 2015)

Another day, another coronal hole






Moon's South Pole & Mafic Mound


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## Drone (Oct 19, 2015)

Mangala Valles






The capital and largest city in Coahuila is sometimes called the “Athens of Mexico.”


----------



## Drone (Oct 23, 2015)

Oxia Planum (Mars)












More solar activity










Venus










Orionid and Draconid meteor showers















Jupiter's moon Io

to scale






Diagram






_The magnetic field of Jupiter and co-rotation enforcing currents with Io's plasma torus




_


----------



## Drone (Oct 23, 2015)

Part 2:

Dione on a Diagonal






Dione to scale







brand new image of Earth






And *Io*. Yes, again.


----------



## Drone (Oct 24, 2015)

Io
















Venus, Jupiter And Mars Conjunction


----------



## Drone (Oct 24, 2015)

Saturn

true colors






Quadruple Saturn moon transit snapped by Hubble






Gored Clump in Saturn's F Ring


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## Drone (Oct 26, 2015)

Martian landscape










A small amount of impact melt pooled and froze on the floor of this Copernican impact crater (Moon)






Explore Moon with these awesome global maps:




















Download the maps made by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Wide Angle Camera:

Sheet 1 (hi_res) *251 MB pdf!!!*

Sheet 2 (hi_res) *427 MB pdf!!!*


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 26, 2015)

Massive hugs for the pdf links


----------



## Drone (Oct 27, 2015)

red graffiti on Tethys






Titan and Dione






Channelized impact melt flow cut through pre-existing rock [Moon]


----------



## Drone (Oct 28, 2015)

Europa's Jupiter facing surface






Dione






NASA Releases New Image of Ceres' Enigmatic Bright Spots












October Solar Storms


----------



## Drone (Oct 29, 2015)

Today's image of Enceladus (more to come in 24-48 hours)






Jupiter in infrared






Great Red Spot






Waves of impact melt in Jackson crater, Moon






new CME


----------



## Drone (Nov 4, 2015)

M1.9 flare






In October 2015, a deluge of rain flooded desert valleys in the U.S. Southwest.






Saturn's frigid moon Titan has some characteristics that are oddly similar to Earth, but still slightly alien. It has clouds, rain and lakes (made of methane and ethane), a solid surface (made of water ice), and vast dune fields (filled with hydrocarbon sands).

The dark, H-shaped area seen here contains two of the dune-filled regions, Fensal (in the north) and Aztlan (to the south).


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 9, 2015)

Scientists leading the Cassini-Huygen's mission to Saturn and its moons have released new pictures which show vast dunes of shifting hydrocarbon sand on Titan's surface.






Professor Philippe Paillou, a planetologist at the University of Bordeaux, and his colleagues compared images of the hydrocarbon dunes with sand dunes in the Namib Desert in Namibia and the Great Sand Sea in western Egypt.

Writing in a paper published on the open source website arxiv.org, the team said: 'It appears that we can discriminate between two types of dunes - bare interdunes as in Egypt and sand-covered interdunes as in Namibia, and between two types of mega-yardangs - young yardangs as in Iran and older ones as in Chad.

'We applied our understanding of the radar scattering to the analysis of Cassini Radar T8 acquisitions over the Belet Sand Sea on Titan, and show that the linear dunes encountered there are likely to be of both Egyptian and Namibian type.

'We also show that the radar-bright linear features observed in Cassini Radar T64 and T83 acquisitions are very likely to be mega-yardangs, possible remnants of ancient lake basins at mid-latitude, formed when Titans climate was different.'

Titan, which has a diameter of 3,200 miles (5,150km), is the solar system's second largest moon and is larger than the planet Mercury.

It receives just one per cent of the sunlight that Earth does, however, meaning temperatures on the surface are an average of −290 °F (-179 °C).

Its atmosphere is known to comprise mainly of nitrogen and methane while the surface is made from frozen water that has turned into rock hard ice in the frigid tempeartures.







Titan is being revealed as a harsh and inhospitable place but despite having a toxic atmosphere of methane and nitrogen and freezing temperatures, it is also remarkably Earth-like





A dark H-shaped region around Titan's equator (pictured) has been shown to contain enormous dunes made of frozen methane sand, which scientists say are the remains of enormous methane lakes that have since evaporated. It suggests the distant moon was once a much colder place and has undergone climate change






The dark, H-shaped area seen around Titan's equator (pictured) contains two dune filled regions - Fensal in the north and Aztlan to the south. Researchers have used the Cassini spacecraft to study in in greater detail and compared it to dunes found in deserts on Earth.





French researchers compared Titan's dunes with four different types of sand dunes found in the Great Sand Sea in Egypt (a), the Namib Desert in Namibia (b) the mega-yardangs of the Lut Desert in Iran (c) and the Borkou Desert in Chad (d). The dunes on Saturn's moon were more similar to the first two






Images of Titan's surface sent back by the Cassini spacecraft have revealed large areas around the equator of the moon that are covered in linear dunes that are thousands of miles long (pictured)





*TITAN: EARTH'S TOXIC TWIN? *
*



*
Aside from Earth, Titan is the only place in the solar system known to have rivers, rainfall and seas - and possibly even waterfalls.
Of course, in the case of Titan these are liquid methane rather than water on Earth.
Regular Earth-water, H2O, would be frozen solid on Titan where the surface temperature is -180°C (-292°F).
With its thick atmosphere and organic-rich chemistry, Titan resembles a frozen version of Earth several billion years ago, before life began pumping oxygen into our atmosphere.
Because Titan is smaller than Earth, its gravity does not hold onto its gaseous envelope as tightly, so the atmosphere extends 370 miles (595km) into space.
As on Earth, the climate is driven mostly by changes in the amount of sunlight that comes with the seasons, although the seasons on Titan are about seven Earth years long.
With Titan's low gravity and dense atmosphere, methane raindrops could grow twice as large as Earth's raindrops. 
As well as this, they would fall more slowly, drifting down like snowflakes. 
Saturn's moon has also been found to be have a 'polar wind' in its atmosphere mimicking a process on our planet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)


----------



## Drone (Nov 10, 2015)

Enceladus facts











Although *Epimetheus* appears to be lurking above the rings here, it's actually just an illusion resulting from the viewing angle. In reality, Epimetheus and the rings both orbit in Saturn's equatorial plane.

*Inner moons and rings orbit very near the equatorial plane of each of the four giant planets in our solar system, but more distant moons can have orbits wildly out of the equatorial plane. It has been theorized that the highly inclined orbits of the outer, distant moons are remnants of the random directions from which they approached the planets they orbit.*







The *Venus*'s atmosphere is the densest of all the terrestrial planets, and is composed almost entirely of *carbon dioxide*. The planet is also wrapped in a thick layer of cloud made mostly of *sulphuric acid*. This combination of greenhouse gas and perennial cloud layer led to an enormous greenhouse warming, leaving Venus’ surface extremely hot (*> 450ºC*) and hidden from our eyes.

Although winds on the planet's surface move very slowly, at a few km/h, the atmospheric density at this altitude is so great that they exert greater force than much faster winds would on Earth.

Winds at the 65 km-high cloud-tops, however, are a different story altogether. The higher-altitude winds whizz around at up to *400 km/h*, some 60 times faster than the rotation of the planet itself. This causes some especially dynamic and fast-moving effects in the planet's upper atmosphere, one of the most prominent being its ‘*polar vortices*’.

_The polar vortices arise because there is more sunlight at lower latitudes_. As gas at low latitudes heats it rises, and moves towards the poles, where cooler air sinks. The air converging on the pole accelerates sideways and spirals downwards, like water swirling around a plug hole.

In the center of the polar vortex, sinking air pushes the clouds lower down by several kilometers, to altitudes where the atmospheric temperature is higher. The central ‘eye of the vortex’ can therefore be clearly seen by mapping thermal-infrared light, which shows the cloud-top temperature: the clouds at the core of the vortex are at a higher temperature, indicated by yellow tones, than the surrounding region, and therefore stand out clearly in these images.


----------



## Drone (Nov 12, 2015)

*Mercury receives a meteoroid shower from Comet Encke
*
Comet Encke has the shortest period of any comet, returning to perihelion every 3.3 years at a distance of 48 million km from the Sun. Its orbit is stable enough so, over millennia, a dense dust stream would have formed. *The dust, rather than shift away from the comet's orbit, simply spreads along it, forming a stream that encounters Mercury exactly when the comet does. *A subtle interaction between the dust grains and sunlight called Poynting-Robertson drag exerts an extra, though tiny, force on the grains which, over long periods of time, could amount to a significant change in the orbit.

******

NASA's Cassini Finds Monstrous Ice Cloud in Titan's South Polar Region






Cassini's camera had already imaged an impressive cloud hovering over Titan's south pole at an altitude of ~ 300 km. However, that cloud, first seen in 2012, turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. *A much more massive ice cloud system has now been found lower in the stratosphere, peaking at an altitude of ~ 200 km*.

*Titan's polar clouds form higher in the atmosphere. Circulation in the atmosphere transports gases from the pole in the warm hemisphere to the pole in the cold hemisphere. At the cold pole, the warm air sinks, almost like water draining out of a bathtub, in a process known as subsidence.
The sinking gases – a mixture of smog-like hydrocarbons and nitrogen-bearing chemicals called nitriles – encounter colder and colder temperatures on the way down. Different gases will condense at different temperatures, resulting in a layering of clouds over a range of altitudes.*







This 2012 close-up offers an early snapshot of the changes taking place at Titan's south pole. Cassini's camera spotted this impressive cloud hovering at an altitude of ~ 300 kilometers. *Cassini's thermal infrared instrument has now detected a massive ice cloud below it. The new cloud was found in the lower stratosphere, where temperatures are even colder. The ice particles are made up of a variety of compounds containing hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen.
*
“The opportunity to see the early stages of winter on Titan is very exciting,” said Robert Samuelson, a Goddard researcher working with Anderson. “Everything we are finding at the south pole tells us that *the onset of southern winter is much more severe than the late stages of Titan's northern winter*.”


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 12, 2015)

^^^^^

theres a lot of interesting stuff in that post , nice one @Drone 

i love that big pic of Titan


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## revin (Nov 12, 2015)

Drone said:


>



I listen to SomaFM NASA Misson Control on TuneIn Radio going to sleep 


CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> ^^^^^
> 
> theres a lot of interesting stuff in that post , nice one @Drone
> 
> i love that big pic of Titan



Indeed ! Huge Thank You to all the contribution's to these awesome threads !  

Now then  ......where did that sun tornado get off to


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## Drone (Nov 13, 2015)

The main-belt asteroid *Griseldis* was probably hit by another object last March. 
Observations taken with Subaru Telescope showed that the main-belt asteroid Griseldis had “an extended feature,” which is astronomer-speak for a tail. However, unlike the tails of comets, which flow in the direction opposite from the sun due to the solar wind, the extension on Griseldis was not in the antisolar direction, and the extension proved to be a short-lived phenomenon.






A piece of space junk named WT1190F is going to hit Earth on Nov. 13th. It will burn up in the atmosphere off the coast of Sri Lanka, with some debris possibly reaching the water's surface. According to the ESA, "its mass is not sufficient to cause any threat to the area, but the show will still be spectacular, since for a few seconds the object will become quite bright in the noon sky."






A dark filament of magnetism in the sun's southern hemisphere has curled upon itself to form a circle of gargantuan proportions. The *circumference of the ring is almost a million km.

UMD-led Team Maps Gas Emissions from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
*
The group focused on gases produced by the breakdown of water molecules (H2O) and hydrogen cyanide molecules (HCN). Both reactions are caused by UV radiation from the sun, and the gases produced by these reactions give off light at characteristic wavelengths that can help researchers identify where and when the specific gases are produced.

When water (H2O) is broken down, it produces molecular hydrogen (H2) and a single oxygen atom. This* oxygen remains in an excited state, which allows it to directly emit a photon instead of waiting to absorb a photon from the sun. This means that this excited oxygen can be used as a proxy to track the location and amount of water.*

The team was also surprised by the signature from cyanide gas (CN), produced as a byproduct of the breakdown of hydrogen cyanide (HCN). In early Earth-based observations, cyanide could be seen emitting light thousands of kilometers away from 67P's nucleus. However, when viewed up close as the comet approached the sun, the light emitted by cyanide fragments dropped off very sharply within about 10 km.

*This indicates that, as with oxygen formed by the breakdown of water, cyanide also emits light immediately after it is formed*. _As an interesting historical note, cyanide emission is very bright and was the first molecular emission identified in comets_. This led to panicked news headlines in 1910, when both Halley's comet and the Daylight comet visited Earth. *We now know that cyanide concentrations in comets are too low to be of any concern*.


----------



## dorsetknob (Nov 13, 2015)

*New Dwarf Planet In Our Solar System May Be The Farthest One Yet*
A newly found object may set a new record for the most distant dwarf planet in the solar system.

The object, called V774104, lies about nine and a half billion miles from the sun, or two to three times farther away than Pluto. V774104 is a little less than half Pluto's size, and like Pluto it may move closer toward or farther away from the sun during its orbit




Object V774104 was discovered in late October, 2015, and is one of the most distant objects ever detected. It appears to be about half the size of Pluto, but with an orbit two to three times larger than Pluto's. 
Credit: Scott Sheppard, Chad Trujillo and Dave Tholen: Subaru Telescope

Full Story and relevent credits here
http://www.space.com/31100-most-distant-dwarf-planet-found.html


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## Drone (Nov 13, 2015)

A new study in the journal _Science_ suggests that _water-soaked grains of dust present early in the Solar System are the source of Earth's water_.

Researchers have long been uncertain whether water was present at the formation of Earth, or if it arrived later, perhaps carried by comets or meteorites.

Now, a team of scientists has found that rocks from Baffin Island in Canada contain evidence that *Earth's water was a part of our planet from the beginning*.

Scientists can learn about the origins of water on a planet by studying the water's deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratio. Different factors, like tectonic mixing, can affect this ratio over time. Only areas deep within Earth that have not been affected by these processes are likely to preserve Earth's initial D/H ratio.

The Baffin Island rocks were collected back in 1985, and scientists have had a lot of time to analyze them in the intervening years. As a result of their efforts, we know that they contain a component from Earth's deep mantle.

Deep lava flows that churned up basalt from the mantle to the surface of Baffin Island provided the team with relatively unaltered samples. On their way to the surface, these rocks were never affected by sedimentary input from crustal rocks.

_Analysis of the basalt's D/H ratio revealed lower amounts of deuterium than found in previous studies, providing a new baseline for Earth's original D/H signature_.

“We found that the water had very little deuterium, which strongly suggests that it was not carried to Earth after it had formed and cooled,” Dr Hallis said.

“Instead, water molecules were likely carried on the dust that existed in a disk around our Sun before the planets formed. Over time this water-rich dust was slowly drawn together to form our planet.”


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## dorsetknob (Nov 13, 2015)

I expect that there was water in the formation of our planet and it was cooked off in the planets semi molten early phase this water that was outgassesd as steam and water vapor  was again gravitational drawn back to the surface its also a scientific premise that the earth water supply was ""Topped up with Cometry ice and water""


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## Drone (Nov 18, 2015)

Enceladus behind Dione






Titan Flyby T-114










What's Tidal Locking?










Comet 67/P






Mars


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## Drone (Nov 22, 2015)

Mars











Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina)
















At the time of the transit, the ISS was 400 km from Earth and almost 400 _thousand_ km from the Moon. So it still has a ways to go. One day, perhaps, those distances will be reversed, and the lunar transits we see today will be a preview of things to come.

Nov. 19, 1969, Apollo 12 Lunar Module Intrepid






Pffft ... Moon is yours, Aqua!


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 2, 2015)

Superpositions.......
*Titan Beyond Saturn's Rings*

 In April 2006, Cassini captured Saturn's A and F rings stretching in front of cloud-shrouded Titan. Near the rings and appearing just above Titan was Epimetheus, a moon which orbits just outside the F ring. The dark space in the A ring is called the Encke Gap, although several thin knotted ringlets and even the small moon Pan orbit there.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 10, 2015)

Saturn's Prometheus moon has been captured in glorious detail in one of the highest resolution images ever taken of it by the Cassini probe.



The spacecraft took the image of the  moon's surface during a flyby on 6 December.

The shot shows the side of Prometheus that sits opposite Saturn, facing north and upwards.





Flyby on 6 December 2015

The moon  measures just 84 miles (136km) wide and 53 miles (86km) in diameter. ( Even Wales is bigger than that)

However, some of Prometheus' distinctive craters reach 12 miles (19km) in diameter. (roughly from here to Carmarthen)

By comparison, the diameter of our moon is 2,159 miles (3,474 km.)

Prometheus is located within Saturn's narrow ring F, which is in fact visible in the upper section of the picture.

Some astronomers think Prometheus acts as F's 'shepherd satellite', keeping the ring confined on its current trajectory.

When it captured its craterous face in visible light, Nasa's Cassini probe was 23,000 miles (37,000 kilometers) above the satellite.








During the fly-by, the probe also used its narrow-angle camera to take new pictures of Saturn's inner moon Epimetheus, which has a more standard round-looking shape.






Titan........Saturns largest moon. Recently.

Cassini will have carried out 27 different science investigation when it flies to its ultimate demise into Saturn's atmosphere in 2017.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 11, 2015)

Santas' early warning system is predictable as ever -------10 days of panic buying to left to go....... 


The Geminid meteor shower, which peaks from 13 to 15 December, is expected to bring up to 120 meteors shooting across the heavens every hour.







The meteors appear to originate from a 'radiant' point in the constellation of Gemini, which is why they have been given the name Geminids.

This year, the moon will not be present in the sky during the period of maximum activity, making viewing conditions better than usual.

Meteors are best seen without a telescope and are safe to watch with the naked eye.

The Geminid shower is less well known than those at other times of year, probably because, in the UK at least, the weather in December is less reliable.

Forecasters are predicting clear skies in southern parts of the United States, including Texas and southern California.

Sadly in the north and over much of the UK the visibilty is expected to be poor.

Geminid meteors travel fairly slowly, at around 22 miles (35 km) per second.

They are bright and have a yellowish hue, making them distinct and easy to spot.

According to the International Meteor Organisation, which coordinates meteor observations, the Geminids meteor shower will peak at around 6pm GMT on 14 December, and the greatest activity is spread over a period lasting a day or more.

The best time to view the Geminids in the US will be around 2am EST on December 13, according to Accuweather.

In recent years, the shower has also become more intense, because the gravitational influence of Jupiter and Saturn shifted a denser debris stream to be closer to the Earth.

*WHAT ARE GEMINIDS? *
Geminids are pieces of debris from an object called 3200 Phaethon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3200_Phaethon

Long thought to be an asteroid, Phaethon is now classified as an extinct comet.




Phaethon imaged on December 25, 2010, with the 37 cm F14 Cassegrain telescope


Nasa says it's essentially a rocky skeleton of a comet that lost its ice after too many close encounters with the sun.

Earth runs into a stream of debris from 3200 Phaethon every year in mid-December, causing meteors to fly from the constellation Gemini.

Geminids can be seen from December 4 to 16 every year, peaking on the 12 to 14 December.

They travel at 22 miles (35km) a second.

When the Geminids first appeared in the early 19th century, shortly before the US Civil War, the shower was weak and attracted little attention. There was no hint that it would ever become a major display.


----------



## Drone (Jan 29, 2016)

Enceladus Dalmatian Terrain Close-up






Matter Tears Through Sun's Atmosphere As Magnetic Filament Ruptures


----------



## Drone (Feb 1, 2016)

Anaglyph images of Lobate scarp in Aitken Crater (Moon)


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## Drone (Feb 2, 2016)

new images from ISS











5 Planets And Moon From Southern Hemisphere (Taken by Denis Crute on February 2, 2016)






Methane Saturn






The soft, bright-and-dark bands displayed by Saturn in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft are the signature of *methane* in the planet's atmosphere.
This image was taken in wavelengths of light that are absorbed by methane on Saturn. Dark areas are regions where light travels deeper into the atmosphere (passing through more methane) before reflecting and scattering off of clouds and then heading back out of the atmosphere. In such images, the deeper the light goes, the more of it gets absorbed by methane, and the darker that part of Saturn appears.

The moon Dione hangs below the rings at right. Shadows of the rings are also visible here, cast onto the planet's southern hemisphere, in an inverse view compared to early in Cassini's mission at Saturn


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 2, 2016)

The Chinese space agency has made its library of high-resolution images of the moon available to the public for the first time.
Hundreds of images released this week show the incredibly uneventful, yet spectacular, lunar surface in detail and are some of the best pictures of the moon available.
China National Space Administration (CNSA) lifted the veil of government secrecy to showcase the wealth of images and video clips captured by its Chang'e 3 lunar lander and Yutu rover.







While the CNSA website is difficult to navigate - not to mention entirely in Chinese - the US Planetary Society has reposted the images from both *Yutu* and *Chang'e 3* in accessible formats. 




























Writing on *her blog* for the Planetary Society, Emily Lakdawalla said: 'So far, the data center contains 797 unique observations from TCAM, and 578 for PCAM.


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## Drone (Feb 2, 2016)

new NASA wallpapers: Enceladus and Dione


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 2, 2016)

The supermoon as seen in a radio telescope ...








Spoiler



photoshopped of course


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## Drone (Mar 1, 2016)

Aurora






41-km wide crater named Sekhet on Ceres. A smaller crater at upper left is surrounded by a smooth plain, which probably resulted from seismic shaking during the impact that created it.






Earth blocking Sun






*Tethys & Janus*






*Antoniadi crater* is 140 km in diameter and rises 4 km. Some lunar mountains rise more than twice that height above the local terrain. The bottom of the small bowl-shaped crater tucked behind peaks in the center is the Moon's lowest point. It lies > 9 km below the lunar mean radius (comparable to sea level on Earth).






*Phobos* as observed by MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph. Orange shows mid-ultraviolet sunlight reflected from the surface of Phobos, exposing the moon's irregular shape and many craters. Blue shows far ultraviolet light detected at 121.6 nm, which is scattered off of hydrogen gas in the extended upper atmosphere of Mars. Phobos, observed here at a range of 300km, blocks this light, eclipsing the ultraviolet sky.






California Coastal Current


----------



## Drone (Mar 4, 2016)

Close encounters with Jupiter and Solar Eclipse






These images from the Radar instrument aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft show the evolution of a transient feature in the large hydrocarbon sea named Ligeia Mare on Saturn's moon Titan.


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## Ahhzz (Mar 5, 2016)

Drone, I do appreciate you trying to keep us up to date with the scientific goings-on  *cheers* mate


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## Drone (Mar 5, 2016)

Ahhzz said:


> Drone, I do appreciate you trying to keep us up to date with the scientific goings-on  *cheers* mate



Not a problem  Archiving/spreading/sharing/ and most of all understanding new things is one of the coolest things


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## Drone (Mar 5, 2016)

Beautiful image of aurora taken by Alan Dyer on March 3, 2016 @ Churchill, Manitoba.







Nostalgic [ Jan. 8, 2002] image (dedicated to SOHO's 20th anniversary) shows an enormous eruption of solar material, called a coronal mass ejection, spreading out into space.






Latest images of Sun (by SOHO and SDO) at different wavelengths











New images of *Chaplygin* crater (*Chappy*) (on the *Moon*) by LRO






The dark smooth material (bottom right) is solidified impact melt that originally pooled on the crater floor; the dark, middle and bright tones on the slope wall indicate various proportions of impact melt rock mixed with local regolith (soil).






Full LROC view of Chappy crater (1.4 km diameter) shrunk by a factor of 19x. Chappy's ejecta spreads out more than 10 diameters from the crater, much further than previously thought.






Close-up of ejecta on the western side of Chappy. Note the sharp terminations of flows, and the way that flows are diverted around small obstructions. The latter form shows that significant portions of ejecta traveled as a ground hugging flow, rather than on a ballistic trajectory.




Latest image, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows the rim of an unnamed crater on *Ceres*.






Today's VIS image shows where several channels join together. These channels are located in *Terra Sabaea* (on *Mars*)


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## Drone (Mar 7, 2016)

Bunch of new stuff




__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1108098532563265
		



From Spain and Portugal, over France to Moscow, on a cloudy night...

Video from Tim Peake's facebook










Pluto news from Geobeats news






Sun now

Btw don't forget partial solar eclipse tomorrow





















And finally latest images of Mars by Curiosity and Opportunity


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## Drone (Mar 8, 2016)

Heavily-shadowed craters in the northernmost latitudes of Ceres are seen in this view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.






*Rhea* (1527 km across) and *Tethys* (1062 km across) are medium-sized moons that are large enough to have pulled themselves into round shapes. They are both composed largely of ices and are generally thought to be geologically inactive today.






Sun today










Mars today


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 8, 2016)

Engulfed by clouds, astronomers are slowly beginning to get a glimpse of the surface of Titan.
Now, radar images from the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn have revealed just how much it changes.
They say the surface could be covered in waves, bubbling foam or something else altogether.






When imaging the flat - and hence radar dark - surface of the methane and ethane lake called Ligeia Mare, an object appeared in 2013 July just was not there in 2007,' Nasa said.
'Subsequent observations in 2014 August found the object remained - but had changed.
In a new image released last week, the mystery object seems to have disappeared in 2015 January. 
The featured false-color image shows how the 20-km long object has come, changed, and gone. 
'Current origin speculative explanations include waves, bubbling foam and floating solids, but still no one is sure,' said Nasa.

TITAN






'Future observations, in particular Cassini's final close flyby of Titan in 2017 April, may either resolve the enigma or open up more speculation.'
It comes amid a growing body of evidence that suggests there are waves on Saturn's moon Titan.
This is based on readings from Nasa's Cassini spacecraft, which is in orbit around the gas giant planet and its moons.
And, if confirmed, would suggest Titan is even more Earth-like than thought, with a surprisingly active weather system.
The evidence for the waves was reported by scientists at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco this week, reported Eric Hand for *Science Magazine*.
Based on flybys of Titan in the last six months, it seems that three separate seas of Titan may have waves on their surface.









The waves are not on 'watery' bodies like on Earth, but instead on lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons - composed largely of methane.
These are much more viscous than water on Earth, comparable almost to tar, so they likely move much less than our own oceans and lakes.
But regardless, any ripples on the surface - most likely waves - would have to be caused by wind, just like on Earth.
Spotting waves on the surface therefore suggests there is an active windy environment on Titan.
'To me, it's exciting,' said Nasa Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan. 'It says that Titan is a dynamic place.'
Other results from Cassini also revealed the depths of some of its largest bodies.
Kraken Mare, for example, is thought to be 525ft (160 metres) deep, while Ligeia Mare could be up to 655 ft (200 metres) deep.
In addition, some estimates suggest Ligeia Mare could contain 55 times the oil reserves of Earth.
And as radar was able to bounce off the sea bottoms, it suggests they are transparent and made mostly of methane, about 90 per cent, rather than ethane.
The evidence is also a boost for those that think Titan has some form of seasonal changes.
This was further evidenced last month when scientists used a wind tunnel on Earth to explain the appearance of sand tunes on Titan.
Based on their research, they estimate there are winds on Titan, and they increase in speed by 50 per cent on rare occasions.
This may occur when parts of it tilt towards the sun, with increased light causing winds to kick up.


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## Drone (Mar 9, 2016)

Mars today






Nostalgic image of the Sun











Sun today


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## Drone (Mar 12, 2016)

Aurora. Image taken by Martin Guth on March 11, 2016






'Spooky' Lightning On Earth From Space










Sun today






Recent Solar eclipse from space






Mars today
















Solar System model


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## Drone (Mar 17, 2016)

Photo of Aurora by Marketa S Murray on March 15, 2016.






This magnetic map was created using the PFSS [Potential Field Source Surface] – model, a model of the magnetic field in the Sun's atmosphere based on magnetic measurements of the solar surface. The underlying image was taken in extreme UV wavelengths of 171 angstroms. This type of light is invisible to our eyes, but is colorized here in gold.










Sandstone Nodule Beside 'Naukluft Plateau' on Mount Sharp, Mars.






This image is at the eastern edge of a very large deposit of wind-blown dust that occupies Ganges Chasma on Mars.






NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this view of Saturn's moon Enceladus that shows wrinkled plains that are remarkably youthful in appearance, being generally free of large impact craters.



















Ceres's bright spots


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## Drone (Mar 21, 2016)

Sun today with new Active Regions











Spring Aurora and Airglow











Glaciers and lakes, Patagonia






Beijing at night from ISS






Mountainous terrain along the rim of Ikapati Crater, located in the northern hemisphere of Ceres






Mars today, new images from Opportunity and Curiosity


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## Drone (Mar 23, 2016)

Cassini captures a crater duo on Saturn's moon Dione that is superimposed on older, linear features. The upper of the pair, named *Italus*, is overprinted on a grouping of ancient troughs called Petelia Fossae. The lower crater, *Caieta*, sits atop a feature named Helorus Fossa.






Solar storms are triggering X-ray aurorae on Jupiter that are about 8 times brighter than normal over a large area of the planet and _hundreds of times more energetic than Earth's ‘northern lights’_. CMEs compress Jupiter's magnetosphere shifting its boundary with the solar wind inward by more than a million miles.
The interaction at the boundary triggers the X-rays in Jupiter's aurorae, which cover an _area bigger than the surface of the Earth_.


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## laszlo (Mar 23, 2016)

can't see all pictures even after refreshing page several times.... only me who have this problem?


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## Drone (Mar 24, 2016)

^ This is an image/video heavy thread, maybe forum engine can't handle it. Try other browsers or load less pages.


New MARS images from HIRISE











Ancient Polar Ice Reveals Tilting of Moon











Polar hydrogen map of the Moon's northern/southern hemispheres identifies the location of the Moon's *ancient/present day poles*. In the image, the lighter/darker areas show higher/lower concentrations of hydrogen.






A cross-section through the Moon, highlighting the antipodal nature of lunar polar volatiles (in purple), and how they trace an ancient spin pole. The reorientation from that ancient spin pole (red arrow) to the present-day spin pole (blue arrow) was driven by the formation and evolution of the Procellarum [a region on the nearside of the Moon] associated with a high abundance of radiogenic heat producing elements (green), high heat flow, and ancient volcanic activity.










Jupiter’s ‘Northern Lights’ Caused By Solar Storms


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## Drone (Mar 25, 2016)

Biggest update day ever. How in Solar System can I fit it in one post .. anyway here it comes:

New research suggests that some of Saturn's icy moons, as well as its famous rings, might be modern adornments.






Rhea and all other moons and rings closer to Saturn may be only 100 million years old. Outer satellites (not pictured here), including Saturn's largest moon Titan, are probably as old as the planet itself.





Titan in infrared

For some of the most important satellites [Tethys, Dione and Rhea] the orbits are less dramatically altered than previously thought.  They must have formed not far from where they are now.






Saturn's moon Tethys, with its giant canyon Ithaca Chasma. Ithaca Chasma was opened by strong tidal forces [gravitational interaction with fluids deep in Saturn's interior] millions of years ago when Tethys was in an orbital resonance with the neighboring moon Dione.



_Saturn had a similar collection of moons before, but their orbits were disturbed by a special kind of orbital resonance involving Saturn's motion around the Sun.  Eventually, the orbits of neighboring moons crossed, and these objects collided.  From this rubble, the present set of moons and rings formed.








The trio of ridges on Titan known as Mithrim Montes is home to the hazy Saturnian moon's tallest peak [3.3 km high]._






Titan map


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## Drone (Mar 25, 2016)

part 2:

















Radar images of comet P/2016 BA14 were taken on March 23, 2016, by scientists using an antenna of NASA's Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California. At the time, the comet was about 3.6 million km from Earth. Radar images from the flyby indicate that the comet is about 1 km in diameter and it appears to spin around its axis once every 35-40 hours.






This image, acquired on Nov. 24, 2015 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the western side of an elongated pit depression in the eastern *Noctis Labyrinthus* region of Mars. Along the pit's upper wall is a light-toned layered deposit. Noctis Labyrinthus is a huge region of tectonically controlled valleys located at the western end of the *Valles Marineris* canyon system.



Frozen, former lake of liquid nitrogen, located in a mountain range just north of Pluto's informally named Sputnik Planum. At its widest point the possible lake appears to be ~ 30 km across.






Quebec Canada and Manicouagan crater






Sahara sands meet blue horizon.


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## Drone (Mar 25, 2016)

Mars:











Sun






Earth










Comet P/2016 BA14











Really funny and amazing videos by Glyn Collinson (NASA scientist)


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## Drone (Mar 28, 2016)

Two moons hover above the rings from this perspective - Enceladus (504 km across), at left, and Janus (179 km across), at right.










Some Martian news:



















Bad news for our good ol' Earth. Sea ice is melting, ice caps are shrinking and _nobody knows why_.


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## Drone (Mar 30, 2016)

Sun today






Aurora






Mars today
















Interesting theory about "nebular winter"


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## Drone (Apr 1, 2016)

Interesting theory:


The Earth's magnetic field permanently protects us from the charged particles and radiation that originate in the Sun. This shield is produced by the *geodynamo*, the rapid motion of huge quantities of liquid iron alloy of very low viscosity in the Earth's outer core. To maintain this magnetic field until the present day, the classical model required the Earth's core to have cooled by around 3000 °C over the past 4.3 billion years. Now, a team of researchers from CNRS and Université Blaise Pascal suggests that, on the contrary, its temperature has fallen by only 300 °C. The action of the Moon, overlooked until now, is thought to have compensated for this difference and kept the geodynamo active. This new model shows that the Moon's effect on the Earth goes well beyond merely causing tides.





The Earth continuously receives *3.7 TW *(terawatt) of power through the _transfer of the gravitational and rotational energy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system_, and > 1 TW is thought to be _enough to generate the Earth's magnetic field_.







Sun today






AR2526 Sunspot In H-Alpha

Another interesting theory:

Planet X Blamed for Earth's Mass Extinctions




















Pluto's Bladed Terrain in 3D






Opportunity Takes on Steepest Slope Ever Tried on Mars






The rover's tilt hit _32 degrees_ while Opportunity was making its closest approach to an intended target near the crest of "Knudsen Ridge."


----------



## Drone (Apr 3, 2016)

Another Solar system overdose for me:

Ceres, Earth (Aurora), Mars, Sun, Pluto, Charon


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 3, 2016)

Scientists have discovered fragments from an extremely rare meteorite strike that took place above *Germany* earlier this month. 
Experts from Munster said they are 'delighted' to recover several fragments identified as being of the 'LL Chondritenklasse' (LL chondrite) class of meteorite - mostly stone with very little metal inside.
The latest fragments, which struck the earth in the municipality of Stubenberg in Bavaria, are already being studied excitedly by experts, who anticipate more fragments will still turn up.






Meteorite expert Professor Dr Addi Bischoff from the Institute for Planetary Studies at the University of Munster (WWU) said: 'Alert sky watchers spotted the meteorites burning into the atmosphere on 6 March.
'By analysing images of the entry, we were able to locate the impact point and find fragments on the ground, in total weighing 40g.

'What we have found so far from studying the fragments indicates that the main body of the meteorite had been struck several times by other celestial objects. 
'The fragment that came into our atmosphere had probably broken off from the main body of the meteorite after one of these collisions.










*The fireball was spotted over Bavaria on 6 March (pictured). In Germany, experts say a meteorite actually strikes the ground only once every eight years or so, with the previous time happening at Braunschweig - also known as Brunswick - in 2013 and before that at Neuschwanstein in 2002*


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 5, 2016)

Individual pictures taken of the sun in one year to create a full curve. (credit below pic)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analemma


Summer solstice at the top.....winter solstice at the bottom and equinox where the lines cross.





http://imgur.com/gallery/N5TPXt1


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## Drone (Apr 5, 2016)

Moon and Saturn
















Earth






Earth's Pulsating Ionosphere






Airglow and Earth's Magnetic Field










NASA Examines El Niño's Impact on Ocean’s Food Source










NASA's Rover Spots Dust Devil On Mars  






Sentinel-2A captured Lake Amadeus in Australia's Northern Territory on 19 December 2015.


----------



## Drone (Apr 6, 2016)

Sun and aurorae















Earth from ISS






The *Gulf Stream* waters flow in somewhat parallel layers, slicing across what is otherwise a fairly turbulent western North Atlantic Ocean. The turbulence - made visible by the _pigmented phytoplankton_ it entrains - extends across the whole North American Basin from Anegada to Bermuda to Cape Cod.






This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows two relatively young craters superimposed on a larger, older impact feature. The smaller craters have streaks of *bright material* on their walls. (Ceres)






Mars today


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## Drone (Apr 7, 2016)

Sun, you've been angry today, goodnight, see you tomorrow XD
















Mars










Ceres today. (Tupo crater)










Amazing video, showing 2 years of NEOWISE Asteroid Data




























"Spider" on Pluto and how supernovae showered Earth with radioactive elements. Actually it happened a few million years ago when I was 23.


----------



## Drone (Apr 11, 2016)

AR2529 Sunspot






The 4800-km-wide *division* in Saturn's rings is thought to be caused by the moon Mimas. Particles within the division orbit Saturn almost exactly twice for every time that Mimas orbits, leading to a build-up of gravitational nudges from the moon. These repeated gravitational interactions sculpt the outer edge of the B ring and keep its particles from drifting into the Cassini Division.










The North Pole Is Moving Toward The UK










Astronaut Tim Peake Shares Stunning Video Of Aurora Australis From ISS






New image from Curiosity (Mars)


















New images from HIRISE (Mars); Holden, Jezero, Masursky (craters)










How is Pluto Classified as a Rocky World?


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## dorsetknob (Apr 11, 2016)

Drone said:


> The North Pole Is Moving Toward The UK


Bit of a Gross Exageration the North magnetic pole has a tendency to "wander "

Still in Canada 
The North Magnetic Pole moves over time due to magnetic changes in the Earth's core.[1] In 2001, it was determined by the Geological Survey of Canada to lie near Ellesmere Island in northern Canada at 81.3°N 110.8°W. It was situated at 83.1°N 117.8°W in 2005. In 2009, while still situated within the Canadian Arctic territorial claim at 84.9°N 131.0°W,[2] it was moving toward Russia at between 55 and 60 kilometres (34 and 37 mi) per year.[3] As of 2015, the pole is projected to have moved beyond the Canadian Arctic territorial claim to 86.3°N 160.0°W.


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## Drone (Apr 11, 2016)

Exaggerated. Yup seems so.

Found good (old and new) articles:

No one's 100% sure why it happens (core flux and climate change), we only know that it happens. Pole's shifting.

http://www.nature.com/news/polar-wander-linked-to-climate-change-1.12994
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091224-north-pole-magnetic-russia-earth-core.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-the-earths-magnetic-p/
http://gisgeography.com/magnetic-north-vs-geographic-true-pole/


edit: in one of that articles they assume that 'Earth's north magnetic pole is racing toward Russia'


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## dorsetknob (Apr 11, 2016)

Nothing to worry about when donald is Elected he can build another wall to keep it out of Russia


----------



## Drone (Apr 15, 2016)

new image of comet 67P (Cherry-Gerry)











NASA's Dawn spacecraft took new images of Ceres's terrain






Detections of aircraft in flight made by ESA CubeSat GomX-3 during the last 6 months, since it was released from the ISS on 5 October 2015.














The Sun Isn't Yellow Or Orange; It's White










What Awaits Earth When Our Sun Dies


Sun  us






Moon


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## Drone (Apr 18, 2016)

simple but pretty informative videos from Nasa Earth Observatory

Radiation from Sun/Earth & Radiative Equilibrium



















New Ultra High Definition (4K) Crew Earth Observations from Nasa Johnson










Dry lake not far from Perth, Australia






Curiosity and Mars today











North of Occator crater, Ceres






Sun today


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## Drone (Apr 19, 2016)

Jupiter exerts a strong gravitational pull on Europa, creating far more heat than earlier thought on the moon's ice-sheet that is enough to support a sub-surface ocean. A team of geoscientists from Brown and Columbia universities set up experiments to estimate the heat created by the heaves and falls of Europa's icy surface - a process called *tidal dissipation*.















Cassini Spacecraft Catches Some Interstellar Space Dust






Bangkok from space






X-ray images of two comets ISON and PanSTARRS. The X-ray emission is produced when a wind of particles from the Sun strikes the comet's atmosphere.






During a December 2013 solar flare, three NASA missions observed a *current sheet* (very fast & flat flow of electrically-charged material)






Current sheets form when two oppositely-aligned magnetic fields come in close contact, creating very high magnetic pressure. Electric current flowing through this high-pressure area is squeezed, compressing it down to a very fast and thin sheet. It's a bit like putting your thumb over the opening of a water hose – the water, or, in this case, the electrical current, is forced out of a tiny opening much, much faster. This configuration of magnetic fields is unstable, meaning that the same conditions that create current sheets are also ripe for *magnetic reconnection*.


----------



## Drone (Apr 20, 2016)

Researchers from Princeton University & the University of Chicago show that the mysterious persistence of the massive fissures known as *tiger stripes* on the surface of Enceladus could be sustained by the _sloshing of water in the vast ocean beneath the moon's thick ice shell_. Scientists suggests that the *water in the slots alternately rises and falls as the slots are flexed by tidal stresses in Enceladus' icy shell*. _The heat that this regular motion produces is sufficient to keep the water from freezing even though the moon is encased in ice roughly 30 km thick_.















Terrain seen in this view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft is in the northern hemisphere of Ceres. A sharp cliff separates Dada Crater, the smaller crater at top center, from Roskva Crater, the larger crater at left.











Aurora and Sun today










UHD (4K) View of Planet Earth






Reconstruction of the motion of Venus's polar atmosphere






The southern polar vortex on Venus






Mars today


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## Drone (Apr 22, 2016)

South Carolina at night






Comet 67/P now














Sun now
























Mars today















Omonga Crater on Ceres is 77 km in diameter and is located in the northern hemisphere.






Achita Crater on Ceres is ~ 40 km in diameter and is located in the northern hemisphere.


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## Drone (Apr 24, 2016)

Morning Sunglint Over the Pacific






Aurorae






Hot smoke rising over the factory distorted the shape of the lunar disk and made it seem that the Moon was being drawn into the smokestack






The many faces of Earth










Sahara desert, Algeria






Broad plain covered with cratered cones and domes in the Northern lowlands of Mars






Chaminuka Crater on Ceres






Sun today


----------



## Drone (Apr 25, 2016)

Comet 67/P






Earth: Love It - Or Leave It - Or Both (watch on youtube)

Giant Sunspot






Aurorae






Astrophotographer Joshua Snow captured the Milky Way arching over the Finger Lakes National Forest near Watkins Glen, NY. He entitled it: "The Burning Tree."






First high resolution mosaic of the Antarctic continent produced by RADARSAT-2






A comparison of the newly compiled map of the Uummannaq fjord area (left) and an older map (right) (Greenland). Red areas indicate shallower depths, blues and purples deeper.






Nasa's new horizons team released a new video: near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto's horizon


----------



## Drone (Apr 26, 2016)

NASA's Dawn spacecraft spotted a pair of craters on Ceres. The crater at left is named Jaja. It's 21 km in diameter and is located in the northern hemisphere.






Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite acquired this large natural-color image showing a view of the Caspian Sea around the Tyuleniy Archipelago on April 16, 2016. On its own, the image was strikingly beautiful. Shallow waters surrounding the Tyuleniy Archipelago allow you to see the dark green vegetation on the sea bottom.






At first glance, Saturn's rings appear to be intersecting themselves in an impossible way. In actuality, this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the rings in front of the planet, upon which the shadow of the rings is cast. And because rings like the A ring and Cassini Division, which appear in the foreground, are not entirely opaque, the disk of Saturn and those ring shadows can be seen directly through the rings themselves.






Astronaut Tim Kopra's twitter images:

Sunrise; Himalayas; Caribbean; Moonset




















Spacecraft orbiting Earth can provide global views of the ebb and flow of different types of air pollution, but getting down to the local scale where people live and breathe can be a challenge. This map shows concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in the lower atmosphere as detected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard the Aura satellite. Air pollution causes an estimated 152000 deaths a year across the Americas and more than 2 million deaths in the Western Pacific, according to the UN.






Fuck that NO2   Little bit better news:

NASA satellite data indicates the layer of ozone molecules in the upper atmosphere is headed slowly back toward normal levels.










Heavy Rainfall Seen in Texas


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 27, 2016)

The Hubble Space Telescope has detected a tiny, dark moon circling the dwarf planet on the frozen fringes of our solar system. 

The moon — provisionally designated S/2015 (136472) 1 and nicknamed MK 2 — is more than 1,300 times fainter than Makemake 

Scientists announced the discovery today, which was made by some members of the team that spotted Pluto's smaller moons years ago.






Makemake, dubbed 'Pluto's little sister', is just 870 miles wide and more than four billion miles from our sun. 

The dwarf planet, discovered in 2005, is named for a creation deity of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island.

It is the second brightest icy dwarf planet — after Pluto — in the Kuiper Belt. 


The Kuiper Belt is a vast reservoir of leftover frozen material from the construction of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago and home to several dwarf planets.

Some of these worlds have known satellites, but this is the first discovery of a companion object to Makemake. 

Makemake is one of five dwarf planets recognized by the International Astronomical Union.

The observing team used the same Hubble technique to observe the moon as they did for finding the small satellites of Pluto in 2005, 2011, and 2012. 

Several previous searches around Makemake had turned up empty. 

'Our preliminary estimates show that the moon's orbit seems to be edge-on, and that means that often when you look at the system you are going to miss the moon because it gets lost in the bright glare of Makemake,' said Alex Parker of Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, who led the image analysis for the observations.

A moon's discovery can provide valuable information on the dwarf-planet system. 
By measuring the moon's orbit, astronomers can calculate a mass for the system and gain insight into its evolution.

Uncovering the moon also reinforces the idea that most dwarf planets have satellites.

'Makemake is in the class of rare Pluto-like objects, so finding a companion is important,' Parker said. 

'The discovery of this moon has given us an opportunity to study Makemake in far greater detail than we ever would have been able to without the companion.'

Finding this moon only increases the parallels between Pluto and Makemake.

Both objects are already known to be covered in frozen methane. 

As was done with Pluto, further study of the satellite will easily reveal the density of Makemake, a key result that will indicate if the bulk compositions of Pluto and Makemake are also similar.

'This new discovery opens a new chapter in comparative planetology in the outer solar system,' said team leader Marc Buie of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado.

The researchers will need more Hubble observations to make accurate measurements to determine if the moon's orbit is elliptical or circular. 

Preliminary estimates indicate that if the moon is in a circular orbit, it completes a circuit around Makemake in 12 days or longer.

Determining the shape of the moon's orbit will help settle the question of its origin.

A tight circular orbit means that MK 2 is probably the product of a collision between Makemake and another Kuiper Belt Object.

If the moon is in a wide, elongated orbit, it is more likely to be a captured object from the Kuiper Belt. Either event would have likely occurred several billion years ago, when the solar system was young.

The discovery may have solved one mystery about Makemake. Previous infrared studies of the dwarf planet revealed that while Makemake's surface is almost entirely bright and very cold, some areas appear warmer than other areas.

Astronomers had suggested that this discrepancy may be due to the sun warming discrete dark patches on Makemake's surface. 

However, unless Makemake is in a special orientation, these dark patches should make the dwarf planet's brightness vary substantially as it rotates. 

But this amount of variability has never been observed.

These previous infrared data did not have sufficient resolution to separate Makemake from MK 2. 

The team's reanalysis, based on the new Hubble observations, suggests that much of the warmer surface detected previously in infrared light may, in reality, simply have been the dark surface of the companion MK 2. 


'It is a very exciting discovery' Parker said.

'It means that Makemake is no longer the odd-one-out in the moon-hosting Kuiper Belt dwarf planet club, and it means that we can do detailed studies of the mass and density of Makemake that would have been impossible without the moon.'

Makemake is second to Pluto in brightness among the dwarf planets known to inhabit the Kuiper Belt.


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## Drone (Apr 27, 2016)

Makemake (almost sounds like monkey monkey lol)







Satellites have documented that human-produced and natural air pollution can travel a long way.
This 2014 NASA satellite image shows a long river of dust from western Africa (bottom of image) push across the Atlantic Ocean.






Alps and Northern Italy






Ernutet Crater is featured in this image from Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. The crater measures ~52 km in diameter and is located in the northern hemisphere.






On April 26th, Jack Newton photographed * plumes of hot magnetized plasma* rising over the Sun's northeastern limb:










NASA's 4K View of April 17 M6.7 Solar Flare (download 4K video *5 GB*)






From a quarter to half of Earth's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a new study published in the journal _Nature Climate Change_ on April 25.










Green leaves use energy from sunlight through photosynthesis to chemically combine carbon dioxide drawn in from the air with water and nutrients tapped from the ground to produce sugars, which are the main source of food, fiber and fuel for life on Earth. Studies have shown that increased concentrations of carbon dioxide increase photosynthesis, spurring plant growth.






Cassini Explores a Methane Sea on Titan


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## Drone (Apr 28, 2016)

Sun today






Mars today















Comet Cherry-Gerry now






Sekhet Crater on Ceres has prominent shadows accentuating its central peak and mounds of material that have slumped downward from its walls.






One Of The Most Inhospitable Areas On Earth Looks Like An Alien World










Coast of Cuba from ISS






Sardinia from ISS


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## Drone (Apr 30, 2016)

Sun today






Mars today






Rosetta is 28 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P






An image of the Reiner Gamma lunar swirl from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Lunar swirls can be tens of miles across and appear in groups or just as an isolated feature.
























The rim of Hamori Crater on Ceres is seen in the upper right portion of this image, which was taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Hamori is located in the southern hemisphere of Ceres and measures 60 km wide.






NASA's New Horizons mission science team has produced this updated panchromatic (black-and-white) global map of Pluto. The map includes all resolved images of Pluto's surface acquired between July 7-14, 2015, at pixel resolutions ranging from 30 km on the Charon-facing hemisphere (left and right edges of the map) to 235 m on the hemisphere facing New Horizons during the spacecraft's closest approach on July 14, 2015 (map center). The non-encounter hemisphere was seen from much greater range and is, therefore, in far less detail.






The newest shaded relief view of the region surrounding the left side of Pluto's heart-shaped feature [Sputnik Planum] shows that the vast expanse of the icy surface is on average 3 km lower than the surrounding terrain. Angular blocks of water ice along the western edge of Sputnik Planum can be seen “floating” in the bright deposits of softer, denser solid nitrogen.


----------



## Drone (May 1, 2016)

Astronomers have discovered a new satellite orbiting the main belt asteroid *Elektra* - the smallest object visible in this image.















The unique rocky comet C/2014 S3






Berlin from Sentinel-1A






Aurora






Massive storm northeast of Japan










Another episode of Space to Ground






Mars


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## Drone (May 2, 2016)

Latest image of Saturn by Cassini






New images from ISS and Aurora























An elongated, streaming arch of darker, cooler plasma rose up at the edge of the Sun before it broke apart, sending some particles into space (Apr. 28, 2016), while some of the material fell back into the Sun. The particles were streaming along curved magnetic field lines connecting areas of north and south polarity. These details were captured in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.






How Hot is Mercury?






This image of Mercury's south polar region from NASA's Messenger probe shows a map colored on the basis of the percentage of time that a given area is sunlit; areas appearing black in the map are regions of permanent shadow.
The day side of the planet reaches temperatures of up to 427 C. In contrast, the chilly night side can get as cold as -173 C. These variations are relatively long-lived. Scientists once thought that Mercury kept a single side perpetually facing the Sun, in a condition known as tidal locking. Because the planet lies so close to the Sun, it could only be studied when it showed the same rocky, cratered face toward Earth, though at different points in its orbit. *However, further studies revealed that the planet spun very slowly - only three times every two Mercury years, or once every 60 Earth days*. Mercury's low mass and close proximity to the Sun keep it from having anything but the thinnest of atmospheres, and this is the reason it must pass on being the hottest planet. An atmosphere helps to cloak a planet, keeping heat from leaking into space and balancing it, to some degree. Without an atmosphere, Mercury loses a great deal of heat into space, rather than sharing with its night side.

*Mercury has essentially no tilt*, which means that the hemispheres experience no significant difference in temperature from one another. However, *Mercury has the least circular, most eccentric orbit of all the planets* (Pluto's is more eccentric but the tiny rock is only considered a dwarf planet). The huge range in its distance from the Sun means that the planet does feel some variation in temperature based on where it travels over the course of its 88 Earth-day year.


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## Drone (May 3, 2016)

Moon Jupiter and Earth

















Sun today






Faint Aurora






Mars today











Zadeni Crater, at 128 km wide, is a prominent impact feature in the southern hemisphere of Ceres.






Although boiling, water does shape Martian terrain

It's well known that water boils at 100°C. But this is only true at sea level, since _boiling point depends on atmospheric pressure_: the higher the altitude, the thinner the atmosphere, and the lower the boiling point. For instance, at the top of Mount Everest, water boils at 60°C. But on Mars, where the atmosphere is much thinner than on Earth, it can boil at temperatures as low as 0°C. *During the Martian summer, when the subsurface water ice begins to melt and emerge at the surface, where the mean temperature reaches 20°C, it immediately starts to boil.

A team of scientists has now shown that even though water that emerges onto the surface of Mars immediately begins to boil, it creates an unstable turbulent flow that can eject sediment and cause dry avalanches.*


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## Drone (May 6, 2016)

New images of Ceres's surface by Dawn






Prague from Space by Sentinel-2A satellite






New image of comet Cherry-Gerry by Rosetta












Data from MESSENGER have been used to create this animation of the first global digital elevation model of Mercury. Surface is colored according to the topography of the surface, with regions with higher elevations colored brown, yellow, and red, and regions with lower elevations shown in blue and purple.

More than 100000 images were used to create the new model.






A view of Mercury's northern volcanic plains. In the bottom right portion of the image, the 291 km diameter Mendelssohn impact basin, named after the German composer, appears to have been once nearly filled with lava. Toward the bottom left portion of the image, large wrinkle ridges, formed during lava cooling, are visible. Also in this region, the circular rims of impact craters buried by the lava can be identified. Near the top of the image, the bright orange region shows the location of a volcanic vent.






Sun today


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## Drone (May 9, 2016)

Greek Islands from Space






Aurora






New Horizons image of Elliot crater, (90 km in diameter) in Cthulhu region, Pluto.


























******************************************







A team of scientists has found that the *dehydration of chlorite* is likely to be crucial in explaining the *anomalously high electrical conductivity observed in the Earth's mantle* (regions between depths of 40 and 100 km). The further increase in electrical conductivity is related to the growth of an interconnected network of highly conductive and chemically impure magnetite mineral phases.






An instrument onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) detected atomic oxygen ([O I]) in the atmosphere of Mars for the first time since the last observation 40 years ago. These atoms were found in the upper layers of the Martian atmosphere known as the mesosphere.






*Sitting at Saturn's south pole is a vortex of monstrous proportions*. The dark 'eye' of this feature is some 8000 km across, or ~ 2/3 the diameter of Earth.
Clouds are produced by *convection*. As warm rising gases reach higher, and therefore colder, layers of the atmosphere, the gases condense and appear as clouds. At the 10 o’clock position, a stream of upwelling gas has created its own smaller vortex inside the larger one. Like earthly hurricanes, the eye of this storm is composed of warmer gas than the surroundings. However, whereas hurricanes are powered by warm water and move across the surface of our planet, this vortex has no liquid ocean at its base and remains fixed to Saturn's south pole.


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## Drone (May 10, 2016)

Researchers have compiled the first global set of observations of flow within the Earth's mantle and found that it's moving much faster than has been predicted.
The Earth's surface bobs up and down like a yo-yo. _Over a period of a million years the movement of the mantle can cause the surface to move up and down by hundreds of meters_. These movements have a huge influence on the way that the Earth looks today – the circulation causes the formation of mountains, volcanism and other seismic activity in locations that lie in the middle of tectonic plates.










Sunlight over the Ocean






Epimetheus (113 km across), seen here with Saturn in the background, is too small to have sufficient self-gravity to form itself into a round shape, and it has too little internal heat to sustain ongoing geological activity. Thus, its battered shape provides hints about its formation, and the myriad craters across its surface bear testament to the impacts it has suffered over its long history.






Cassini's raw image of Titan






Mars today






This image, taken by the framing camera aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows Ceres' enigmatic mountain _Ahuna Mons_. The rugged plateau of this feature is sparsely cratered, inferring_ the mountain was formed in the relatively recent past_.


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## Drone (May 11, 2016)

A constant outflow of solar material streams out from the Sun. This solar wind is always passing by Earth.






The magnetic field and electric currents in and around Earth generate complex forces that have immeasurable impact on every day life. The field can be thought of as a huge bubble, protecting us from cosmic radiation and charged particles that bombard Earth in solar winds.






Recent data from ESA's Swarm satellite trio shows clearly that the field has weakened by ~ 3.5% at high latitudes over North America, while it has strengthened ~ 2% over Asia. _The region where the field is at its weakest – the South Atlantic Anomaly_ – has moved steadily westward and weakened further by ~ 2%. In addition, the magnetic north pole is wandering east, towards Asia.






*****************






This image from Ceres features a relatively fresh crater with prominent spurs of compacted material and gullies along its rim. Boulders of a variety of sizes litter the crater's floor and the area around its rim. A smooth blanket of fine, ejected material spreads out radially, muting features in the landscape around the crater.

********















Transit of Mercury seen by Proba-2

********

Early Earth's air weighed less than half of today's atmosphere

The idea that the young Earth had a thicker atmosphere turns out to be wrong. New research from the University of Washington uses bubbles trapped in _2.7 billion-year-old_ rocks to show that _air at that time exerted at most half the pressure of today's atmosphere_. Earth 2.7 billion years ago was home only to single-celled microbes, _sunlight was about one-fifth weaker._ 

Other geological evidence clearly shows liquid water on Earth at that time, so the _early atmosphere must have contained more heat-trapping greenhouse gases, like methane and carbon dioxide, and less nitrogen_. The result also reinforces finding that microbes were pulling nitrogen out of Earth's atmosphere some 3 billion years ago.

********

Cassini's raw image of Saturn







******


Scotland, Northern Ireland and Isle of Man from ISS






*******

Sea-level variations from Sentinel-3A


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## Drone (May 12, 2016)

Sun & Venus






This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows two medium-sized craters at high northern latitudes on Ceres.

********


*2007 OR10: Largest Unnamed World in the Solar System*






Scientists used NASA's repurposed planet-hunting Kepler space telescope along with the archival data from the infrared Herschel Space Observatory to reveal something surprising: a dwarf planet named 2007 OR10 is significantly larger than previously thought.

2007 OR10 is the largest unnamed body in our Solar System and the 3rd largest of the current roster of about half a dozen dwarf planets.
2007 OR10's diameter is 1535 km [~100 kilometers greater than Makemake, or about one-third smaller than Pluto].
Haumea, has an oblong shape that is wider on its long axis than 2007 OR10, but its overall volume is smaller.
Although 2007 OR10's elliptical orbit brings it nearly as close to the Sun as Neptune, it is currently twice as far from the Sun as Pluto.

The study also found that the object is quite dark and reddish and rotating more slowly than almost any other body orbiting our sun, taking close to *45 hours to complete its daily spin*.

According to the new measurements the *planet is covered in volatile ices of methane, carbon monoxide and nitrogen*.










The apparent movement of 2007 OR10 (indicated with the arrow) among the stars is caused by the changing position of Kepler as it orbits around the Sun. The diffuse light sweeping across is a reflection from the much brighter planet Mars passing nearby.


----------



## Drone (May 13, 2016)

Operation IceBridge, NASA's airborne survey of polar ice, has returned from the Umanaq B mission along Greenland's western coast. This top-down view from a NOAA P-3 aircraft shows the calving front of Sermeq Kujatdleq glacier.






This image shows the rim of Occator crater, just east of the area containing the brightest spots on Ceres. The crater rim has collapsed here, leaving structures geologists refer to as terraces. Boulders of various sizes are visible among the terraces.






The Olympus Mons volcano on Mars with a height of 22 km is ~ 2.5 times as high as Mount Everest. Its diameter is 600 km, which is about the distance between Berlin and Munich. Olympus Mons is thus the largest volcano in our Solar System. The volcano shield is shaped in the form of arched terraces and the foot of the otherwise very flat volcano drops steeply. New study indicates that the observed deformations of the volcano are due to gravity, which on Mars is ~ 40 % of the Earth's gravity, and to low frictional resistance in the volcano subsurface.











Abu-Dhabi & Taipei from ISS











Sun & Mars today




























New findings - new videos


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## Drone (May 16, 2016)

from ISS






A filament of magnetism connecting sunspots AR2542 & AR2543 erupted on May 15th and hurled a CME into space.






Auxiliary Telescope at the VLT, located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, looks to be pointing at the greenish emerald glow of the comet 252P/LINEAR high above it.






NY as seen from the ISS by ESA astronaut Tim Peake.

CH4 & CO2 increase






This image from Ceres shows a small, double-impact crater (at bottom) near a larger crater.
The larger structure has a crater floor with roughly the same crater density, and therefore roughly the same age, as the material outside the crater rim.
Within the large crater is a small impact scar with rays of bright material.


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## Drone (May 17, 2016)

Filled with kinks, jets, strands and gores, Saturn's F ring has been sculpted by its two neighboring moons Prometheus (seen here) and Pandora. Even more amazing is the fact that the moons remain hard at work reshaping the ring even today.






Unnamed crater on Ceres






Saturn and the red giant star Antares are forming a beautiful triangle with Mars. All three are brightly visible to the naked eye.






Haumea, a dwarf planet on the edge of our Solar system doesn't have the same kind of moons as its well-known cousin Pluto. Haumea has two known satellites, an unusually high spin rate and is also the “parent” of a large family of icy bodies in the outer Solar system that used to be chunks of its surface, but which now orbit the Sun on their own. These unique features are indicative of an ancient collision and make Haumea one of the most interesting objects in the Kuiper Belt.






MinXSS CubeSat Deployed From ISS to Study Sun's Soft X-Rays






Himalayas from ISS






ISS

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Interesting theories:

Earth's atmosphere experienced the first significant, irreversible influx of oxygen as early as 2.33 billion years ago. This period marks the start of the Great Oxygenation Event, which was followed by further increases later in Earth's history. The rise of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere was an inevitable consequence of the formation of continents in the presence of life and plate tectonics.


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## Drone (May 18, 2016)

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows the western rim of Azacca Crater on Ceres. A smaller impact feature sits on its flank.

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Europa's Ocean May Have An Earthlike Chemical Balance

A new NASA study modeling conditions in the ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa suggests that the necessary balance of chemical energy for life could exist there, even if the moon lacks volcanic hydrothermal activity. Researchers previously speculated that volcanism is paramount for creating a habitable environment in Europa's ocean. If such activity is not occurring in its rocky interior, the thinking goes, the large flux of oxidants from the surface would make the ocean too acidic, and toxic, for life. But actually, if the rock is cold, it's easier to fracture. This allows for a huge amount of hydrogen to be produced by serpentinization that would balance the oxidants in a ratio comparable to that in Earth's oceans.

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New images from ISS







Memnonia Fossae, Mars

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OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken on 11 May 2016, when Rosetta was 9.9 km from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The scale is 0.16 m/pixel.

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This illustration shows how New Horizons' Alice ultraviolet spectrometer instrument “watched” as two bright ultraviolet stars passed behind Pluto and its atmosphere. The light from each star dimmed as it moved through deeper layers of the atmosphere, absorbed by various gases and hazes.

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Above, the first two of the 20 observations that New Horizons made of *1994 JR1* in April 2016. The _Kuiper Belt object_ is the bright moving dot indicated by the arrow. The dots that do not move are background stars. The moving feature in the top left is an internal camera reflection (a kind of selfie) caused by illumination by a very bright star just outside of LORRI's field of view; it shows the three arms that hold up LORRI's secondary mirror. New Horizons scientists used light curve data – the variations in the brightness of light reflected from the object's surface – to determine JR1's* rotation period *of* 5.4 hours*.


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## Drone (May 20, 2016)

Uranus May Have a Layer That Keeps Its Glow Dim






Jupiter is hit by an average of 6.5 objects per year that create impacts large enough to be visible from Earth, according to preliminary results from a worldwide campaign by amateur astronomers to observe the giant planet.

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The Netherlands by night from ISS






African mosaic

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Bright, frosty polar caps, and clouds above a vivid, rust-colored landscape reveal  Mars as a dynamic seasonal planet in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope view taken on May 12, 2016, when Mars was 50 million miles from Earth. The Hubble image reveals details as small as 20 to 30 miles across.

The large, dark region at far right is Syrtis Major Planitia, one of the first features identified on the surface of the planet by seventeenth century observers. Christiaan Huygens used this feature to measure the rotation rate of Mars. (A Martian day is about 24 hours and 37 minutes.) Today we know that Syrtis Major is an ancient, inactive shield volcano. Late-afternoon clouds surround its summit in this view.

A large oval feature to the south of Syrtis Major is the bright Hellas Planitia basin. About 1,100 miles across and nearly five miles deep, it was formed about 3.5 billion years ago by an asteroid impact.

The orange area in the center of the image is Arabia Terra, a vast upland region in northern Mars that covers about 2,800 miles. The landscape is densely cratered and heavily eroded, indicating that it could be among the oldest terrains on the planet. Dried river canyons (too small to be seen here) wind through the region and empty into the large northern lowlands.

South of Arabia Terra, running east to west along the equator, are the long dark features known as Sinus Sabaeus (to the east) and Sinus Meridiani (to the west). These darker regions are covered by dark bedrock and fine-grained sand deposits ground down from ancient lava flows and other volcanic features. These sand grains are coarser and less reflective than the fine dust that gives the brighter regions of Mars their ruddy appearance. Early Mars watchers first mapped these regions.

An extended blanket of clouds can be seen over the southern polar cap. The icy northern polar cap has receded to a comparatively small size because it is now late summer in the northern hemisphere. Hubble photographed a wispy, afternoon, lateral cloud extending for at least 1,000 miles at mid-northern latitudes. Early morning clouds and haze extend along the western limb.


****************







*The geologic shape of what were once shorelines through Mars' northern plains convinces scientists that two large meteorites – hitting the planet millions of years apart – triggered a pair of **mega-tsunamis**. These gigantic waves forever scarred the Martian landscape and yielded evidence of cold, salty oceans conducive to sustaining life*.






Regional view of sections of circum-Chryse highland-lowland boundary region made up of Chryse and Acidalia Planitiae lowlands and Tempe, Xanthe, and Arabia Terrae highlands. The boundary is breached by the planet's largest outflow channels. *The red and black lines trace the margins of the two documented tsunami events*.

~ 3.4 billion years ago, a big meteorite impact triggered the first tsunami wave. This wave was composed of liquid water. It formed widespread backwash channels to carry the water back to the ocean.

In the millions of years between the two impacts and their associated mega-tsunamis, Mars went through frigid climate change, where water turned to ice.

The ocean level receded from its original shoreline to form a secondary shoreline, because the climate had become significantly colder.

The second tsunami formed rounded lobes of ice. These lobes froze on the land as they reached their maximum extent and the ice never went back to the ocean – which implies the ocean was at least partially frozen at that time.



















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In looking over images of Pluto's Venera Terra region, New Horizons scientists have spotted an expanse of terrain they describe as '*fretted'*.
As shown in the enhanced-color image at top, this terrain consists of bright plains divided into polygon-shaped blocks by a network of dark, connected valleys typically reaching 3-4 km wide. Numerous impact craters of up to 25 km in diameter also dot the area, implying the surface formed early in Pluto's history.


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This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows the center of Datan Crater on Ceres. Datan measures ~ 60 km in diameter.






This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows Attis Crater on Ceres, which measures 22 km in diameter. The long shadows in and around the crater reflect Attis's far-southern location.

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Sun's active region today AR2546

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*The rise and fall of Martian lakes*

*There is a wealth of evidence, collected over the past few decades, that suggests liquid water was abundant in the early history of Mars. A recent study, using data from several spacecraft operating at Mars, paints a detailed picture of the rise and fall of standing bodies of water in a region of Mars which once hosted one of its largest lakes. 





*
Region of Eridania Lake.
*







Perspective view of the Atlantis Chaos basin







Perspective view of the Simois Colles basin

*


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## Drone (May 23, 2016)

Comet Cherry-Gerry close-up by Rosetta






Saturn by Cassini











Mondamin & Meanderi craters, Ceres (by Dawn)






Mars (image by Curiosity)






Examples of Earth-based observations of the mysterious plume seen on 21 March 2012 (top right) and of Mars Express solar wind observations during March and April 2012 (bottom right).
















Alaska, Canada and Moon from ISS (images by Tim Peake)










Watch this movie to see how energy from our young Sun - 4 billion years ago - aided in creating molecules in Earth's atmosphere that allowed it to warm up enough to incubate life.


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## Drone (May 24, 2016)

Sun today















Casablanca from ISS










NASA's Global Tour of Precipitation in Ultra HD (4K)










ScienceCasts: Red and Golden Planets at Opposition 






View of the Chang'e-3 landing site (on the Moon) from the LROC NAC.


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## Drone (May 26, 2016)

Juarez, Mexico from ISS
























In this remarkable movie, the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on Mars Express was used for the first time to image the limb of Mars during most of a complete orbit, showing in good detail the atmosphere seen 'on edge' at the apparent border between the planet's surface and space.






OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken on 21 May 2016, when Rosetta was 7.4 km from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.






ISS & Moon











New images of Ceres by Dawn spacecraft






Mars shines 242000 times brighter than Phobos and 741000 times brighter than Deimos. The two moons are easily lost in the glare.

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*New model could offer an explanation for cracks like the one on Charon*
A new model developed by University of Rochester researchers could offer a new explanation as to how cracks on icy moons, such as Pluto's Charon, formed.

Until now, it was thought that the cracks were the result of geodynamical processes, such as plate tectonics, but the models run by Alice Quillen and her collaborators suggest that _a close encounter with another body might have been the cause_.

Astronomers have long known that the craters visible on moons were caused by the impact of other bodies, billions of years ago. But for every crash and graze, there would have been many more close encounters. By devising and running a new computer model, Quillen, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rochester, has now shown that _the tidal pull exerted by another, similar object could be strong enough to crack the surface of such icy moons_. Quillen also thinks that “it might even offer a possible explanation for the crack on Mars, but that's much harder to model.”


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## Drone (May 27, 2016)

NASA Radar Finds Ice Age Record in Mars' Polar Cap












Scientists using radar data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have found a record of the _most recent Martian ice age_ recorded in the planet's north polar ice cap. The new results agree with previous models that indicate a _glacial period ended about 400000 years ago_, as well as predictions about how much ice would have been accumulated at the poles since then.






On Earth, ice ages take hold when the polar regions and high latitudes become cooler than average for thousands of years, causing glaciers to grow toward the mid-latitudes. In contrast, the Martian variety occurs when - as a result of the planet's increased tilt - its poles become warmer than lower latitudes. During these periods, the polar caps retreat and water vapor migrates toward the equator, forming ground ice and glaciers at mid-latitudes. As the warm polar period ends, polar ice begins accumulating again, while ice is lost from mid-latitudes.


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The Sentinel-2A satellite takes us to the diverse landscape of the eastern Atacama desert in South America.


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This picture from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows craters near the equator of Ceres. Faint patches and streaks of bright material can be seen in various parts of the scene. The two largest craters have streaks of material on their walls.

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Latest videos:


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## Drone (May 28, 2016)

NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured this daytime view of developing System 91L between the Bahamas and Bermuda on Friday, May 27
















View of a boulder-rich surface deposited by the older tsunami on Mars. These were then eroded by channels produced as the tsunami water returned to the ocean elevation level (white arrow shows flow return direction). Yellow bars are 10 m.






Left: Color-coded digital elevation model of the study area showing the two proposed shoreline levels of an early Mars ocean that existed ~ 3.4 billion years ago. Right: Areas covered by the documented tsunami events extending from these shorelines.

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This picture shows a portion of the northeastern rim of Yalode Crater, one of the largest impact features on Ceres. Yalode has a diameter of 260 km. A set of narrow, roughly parallel fractures can be seen at top center.

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Sun today

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The Rosina-DFMS instrument detected ingredients considered important for life as we know it on Earth, in the coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

One important detection was that of the simple amino acid glycine (top, C2H5NO2), a biologically important organic compound commonly found in proteins. Phosphorus was also detected (bottom, P), a key element in all living organisms. It's found in the backbone of DNA and RNA, in cell membranes, and in adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism. *The multitude of organic molecules identified by Rosetta confirms the idea that comets have the potential to deliver key molecules for prebiotic chemistry on Earth*.

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Scandinavia from ISS

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Dramatic Footage Shows Mount Etna's Eruptions


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## Drone (May 30, 2016)

Sun today










A 1-Minute 'Rock Avalanche' 4800 Years Ago Was Instrumental In Forming Utah's Zion National Park 






Red Sea from Copernicus Sentinel






Greenland, photo by NASA's IceBridge






Asteroid *Phaethon* is suspected to be a member of the Pallas family of asteroids. It approaches the Sun more closely than any other named asteroid - its perihelion is only 0.14 AU (~ 21 million km).










As part of ESA's proposed Asteroid Impact Mission would come the Agency's next landing on a small body since Rosetta's Philae lander reached 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. In 2022 the Mascot-2 microlander would be deployed from the main AIM spacecraft to touch down on the approximately 170-m diameter Didymoon, in orbit around the larger 700-m diameter Didymos asteroid.










Scientists say Kepler-62f [a planet roughly 1200 ly away from Earth] might be suited for habitability


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## Drone (May 31, 2016)

Cherry-Gerry






Mercury, ISS and Sun






On 25 May 2016, the Sentinel-2A satellite captured these images of smoke and fires raging north of the Athabasca River near Fort McMurray in Canada's Alberta province.










Not Solar system related but I put it here :

UBC astronomy student discovers 4 exoplanets










Chile's salt flat from space










ESA's active debris removal mission: e.Deorbit. Sounds pretty cool! 






ISS & BEAM










Astronomers show that it's highly likely that the so-called Planet IX is an exoplanet. This would make it the first exoplanet to be discovered inside our own solar system. The theory is that our Sun, in its youth some 4.5 billion years ago, stole Planet IX from its original star.

Sun is the thief!


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## Drone (Jun 1, 2016)

On June 7th, Venus will be at superior conjunction - a wonderful sight if only we could see it. The entire hemisphere facing Earth will be illuminated. Venus's acid-laced clouds are terrific reflectors and full Venus would surely be visible in broad daylight, an intense pinprick of light in the blue sky.






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Gwendolyn Eadie is getting closer to an accurate answer to a question that has defined her early career in astrophysics: *what is the mass of the Milky Way*?

The short answer, so far, is *7x10^11 solar masses*. In terms that are easier to comprehend, that's about the mass of our Sun, multiplied by 700 billion. The Sun, for the record, has a mass of 2 nonillion (that's 2 followed by 30 zeroes) kg, or 330 000 times the mass of Earth.

"And our galaxy isn't even the biggest galaxy," Eadie says.

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This picture from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows terrain on Ceres in which the rim of a more recent impact crater, at center, has partially collapsed into its adjacent neighbor, just below. Boulders are visible in and around the younger, smaller crater.

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Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupts sending lava flows from one of its cones


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Saturn's moons Janus and Mimas in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.


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An astronaut aboard the ISS used a powerful lens to photograph these three reefs in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The photo area spans about 15 km of the 2300-km reef system. Reefs are easy to spot from space because the iridescent blues of shallow lagoons contrast sharply with the dark blues of deep water.

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Mars today


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## Drone (Jun 2, 2016)

Just what sustains Earth’s magnetic field anyway?

Earth accreted from rocky material that surrounded our Sun in its youth, and over time the most-dense stuff, iron, sank inward, creating the layers that we know exist today - core, mantle, and crust. Currently, the inner core is solid iron, with some other materials that were dragged along down during this layering process. The outer core is a liquid iron alloy, and its motion gives rise to the magnetic field.

Scientists found that *thermal conductivity in Earth's core is 18-44 W/(m·K)*. This translates to predictions that the energy necessary to sustain the geodynamo has been available since very early in the history of Earth.


****************

A new study led by Purdue University and the University of Colorado Boulder indicates the bodies of some periodic comets – objects that orbit the Sun in < 200 years – may regularly split in two, then reunite down the road. In fact, this may be a repeating process fundamental to comet evolution. Scientists hypothesized that the repeated break-up and make-up of bilobed comets may have caused them to erode too much to have survived their journeys into the inner solar system 4 billion years ago when it was a shooting gallery of asteroids, moons and protoplanets.

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Scientists from NASA's New Horizons mission used state-of-the-art computer simulations to show that the surface of Pluto's informally named Sputnik Planum is covered with churning ice "cells" that are geologically young and turning over due to a process called convection. Scientists believe the pattern of these cells stems from the slow thermal convection of the nitrogen-dominated ices that fill Sputnik Planum. A reservoir that's likely several miles deep in some places, the solid nitrogen is warmed by Pluto's modest internal heat, becomes buoyant and rises up in great blobs – like a lava lamp – before cooling off and sinking again to renew the cycle.

Ridges that mark where cooled nitrogen ice sinks back down can be pinched off and abandoned, resulting in Y- or X-shaped features in junctions where 3 or 4 convection cells once met. These convective surface motions average only a few cm a year – about as fast as your fingernails grow – which means cells recycle their surfaces every 500 000 years or so. This activity probably helps support Pluto's atmosphere by continually refreshing the surface of 'the heart'.

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Sentinel-1A radar satellite test image taken on 26 May 2016, _recorded and relayed to Earth by EDRS-A on 31 May 2016 via laser_. The image covers the island of La Reunion and surrounding waters, and was acquired in 'Stripmap' mode. A false-color composite based on the radar's two polarization channels.

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This Ceres scene captured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows an ancient crater wall that has been disrupted, possibly by a landslide.

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Mars & Sun today


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## Drone (Jun 3, 2016)

*ASTEROID EXPLODES OVER ARIZONA




*

*The Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over southern Maine and part of New Hampshire in the northeast United States.






L.A. from ISS
*








*
America's First Lunar Surveyor: 50 Years Later






This picture from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a crater in the northern hemisphere of Ceres with spurs of compacted material on its walls.










'Does Jupiter Have a Core?' with Bill Nye










Elon Musk: Humans May Just Be Characters In Another Civilization's Video Game






Pluto's 'Twilight Zone'










Universe Expanding Faster Than Previously Thought
*


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## Drone (Jun 4, 2016)

Astronomers using the upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico have produced the most detailed radio map yet of the atmosphere of Jupiter, revealing the massive movement of ammonia gas that underlies the colorful bands, spots and whirling clouds visible to the naked eye. The radio map shows ammonia-rich gases rising into and forming the upper cloud layers: an ammonium hydrosulfide cloud at a temperature near 200 K and an ammonia-ice cloud in the approximately 160 K cold air.




A radio image of Jupiter from the VLA at three wavelengths: 2 cm in blue, 3 cm in gold, and 6 cm in red. The pink glow surrounding the planet is synchrotron radiation produced by spiraling electrons trapped in Jupiter's magnetic field. Banded details on the planet's disk probe depths of 30-90 km below the clouds.

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Craters on the surface of the asteroid Lutetia


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Swirling night clouds off the coast of Africa from ISS

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This picture captured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a crater that lies just north of Occator Crater on Ceres.

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This pictures shows how the solar wind interacts with comet 67P.

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Asteroid Collision Simulation (video)


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LORRI image of Pluto taken July 12, 2015, 2 days before closest approach.






LORRI images of Pluto's small moon Kerberos




At left is one of more than 200 LORRI images obtained to image the dark side of Charon by 'Plutoshine'. At right, after all of the images are combined and corrected for the scattered light - Charon's crescent and nightside are revealed!

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Brian Greene Explains The Most Powerful Explosions In The Universe


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## Drone (Jun 6, 2016)

Sun was quite active a couple of days ago.

A relatively small but growing active region illustrated the fierce battle of magnetic fields as they connect and reconnect and struggle over a little more than one day (May 30-31, 2016). As we observe it close-up in extreme UV light, we can see the magnetic field lines shift and change very quickly. The field lines are visible because charged particles, visible in this wavelength, are spinning along the magnetic arcs reaching between areas of opposite polarities. The area was the source of numerous small eruptions, including one or two solar flares.






But today it's blank. Solar minimum is Coming.






An inverted crater on Mars















France from ISS


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## Drone (Jun 7, 2016)

Beautiful aurorae






Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Tim Peake of the ESA photographed rare, high-altitude noctilucent clouds from the ISS on May 29, 2016.






Triple Play: Moon, Venus & Jupiter






Distant Titan, its northern hemisphere drenched in the sunlight of late spring, hangs above Saturn's rings. What might at first glance look like a gap between the rings and the planet is actually *Saturn's shadow*. During most of Saturn's long year, the projection of the planet's shadow extends well beyond the edge of the A ring.  But, with summer solstice fast approaching, the Sun is now higher in Saturn's sky and most of Saturn's A ring is completely shadow-free.










NASA Studies Details of a Greening Arctic










NOAA Team Helps NASA's Operation IceBridge Tackle Arctic Spring






This picture captured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a portion of the northern rim of Occator Crater, which measures 92 km across and 4 km deep.


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## Drone (Jun 8, 2016)

Tiny sunspot, Moon and Jupiter


















*Concordia* sits on a plateau 3.2 km above sea level. A place of extremes, temperatures can drop to –80°C in the winter, and the Sun does not rise above the horizon in the winter, forcing the crew to live in isolation without sunlight for four months of the year.






New photos taken by ISS astronauts






















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This picture shows a crater in the southern hemisphere of Ceres with a complex of central peaks.







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It's late winter in the southern hemisphere of Mars, and dunes are just getting enough sunlight to start defrosting their seasonal cover of CO2. Spots form where pressurized CO2 gas escapes to the surface.


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## Drone (Jun 10, 2016)

Otjizonjati outcrop on Mars
















3D perspective view of Mars' polar ice cap.











NASA : 2016 Mercury Transit in 4K UHD













The Race To See The Black Hole At The Center Of Our Galaxy






Airglow





















New images by ISS astronauts











New images of Ceres (by Dawn)








This enhanced color view from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft zooms in on the southeastern portion of Pluto's great ice plains, where at lower right the plains border rugged, dark highlands informally named Krun Macula.








The recently launched Sentinel-3A satellite takes us over the *United Kingdom

*


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## Drone (Jun 11, 2016)

Sun today











Earth from ISS






Poyang Lake, Chine: image by ASTER instrument






Radio image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot






Venus: image by Akatsuki instrument






This graphic overlays Martian atmospheric temperature data as curtains over an image of Mars taken during a regional dust storm. The temperature profiles extend from the surface to about 80 km up. Temperatures are color coded, ranging from minus -153° C [purple] to -23° C [red].






Titan











Supermassive black holes








Cerberus Fossae, Mars. The narrow linear features are graben, formed by a block of material moving downward along paired faults.












Single frame enhanced NavCam image taken on June 2016, when Rosetta was 23.6 km from the center of the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The average scale is 2 m/pixel and the image measures about 2.1 km across.















Milky Way rising over the horizon


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## Drone (Jun 14, 2016)

Solar Storms May Have Been Key to Life on Earth















This graphic maps the first 14 sites where NASA's Curiosity Mars rover collected rock or soil samples for analysis using the rover's onboard laboratory. It also presents images of the drilled holes where 12 rock-powder samples were acquired. At the other two sites Curiosity scooped soil samples.















Occator Crater, home of the brightest area on Ceres, also has an intriguing rim. The jagged slopes of this 80-million-year-old basin, and linear features on its floor, contrast with the relatively smooth terrain around it, blanketed by ejecta from the ancient impact. Boulders and braided fractures are also visible along the rim.










Astronomers Find Largest Known Planet To Orbit Two Suns [Kepler-1647b 3700 ly from Earth]






One minute over Hawaii, California and Utah


























New images by ISS astronauts


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## Drone (Jun 16, 2016)

Marathon valley on Mars






New image of Ceres's surface










Small Asteroid (2016 HO3) Is Earth's Constant Companion










JOI: Into the Unknown (NASA Juno Mission Trailer)










Thrashing black holes make gravitational waves










We'll Have To Wait 1,500 Years Before Aliens Contact Us










*LIGO again detects gravitational waves*


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## Drone (Jun 17, 2016)

Scientists Detect Oxygen In Galaxy 13.1 Billion ly From Earth










Why with Nye (Ep. 5)






This beautiful image was captured on Tuesday, 14 June, by Diego Aloi, working as part of the local engineering team at Malargüe station. The dish is located 30 km south of the city of Malargüe, ~ 1200 km west of Buenos Aires, Argentina.






Sun, Venus and farside CME






Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Jeff Williams of NASA captured a series of photos on April 25, 2016, for this composite image of the setting sun reflected by the ocean.






Comet 67P






Pluto's moons Charon, Nix and Hydra. Charon and Nix were imaged in color by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, but Hydra was not.






A comparison of the compositional spectra of Pluto's moons Charon, Hydra and Nix to pure water ice.
*Nix's surface displays the deepest water-ice spectral features*.






Tupo crater, Ceres.


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## Drone (Jul 3, 2016)

video update:


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## Drone (Jul 5, 2016)

latest news:

NASA just extended the New Horizons mission for another flyby










Glaciers on Pluto










After Five-Year Journey, NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Enters Jupiter’s Orbit


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## Drone (Jul 6, 2016)

This is amazing. Knowledge is just like some crazy ocean engulfing everything. It's getting harder to keep up   I just love this 


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Chaotic orbit of Comet Halley explained 

[_An accurate integration of the orbits of the 8 planets and Halley’s Comet for the next 10k years_]










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Mystery solved: Martian moons formed by a giant impact










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A complete overview of all of Juno's science instruments and their placement on the spacecraft






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This illustration displays how supermassive black holes eject intergalactic gas as they consume matter.







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This image of *Jupiter's rings* came from NASA's Galileo mission, which became the first spacecraft to orbit the planet. Galileo explored Jupiter and its moons from 1995 through 2003. Credit: NASA, JPL







Illustration of Jupiter's interior layers, including its potential dense inner core. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech






*Dark hydrogen* would be found beneath the surface of gas giant planets like Jupiter.






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Renowned UK astro-imager Damian Peach created this stunning video of a rotating Jupiter with images captured from Barbados in early to mid-June, 3 weeks before Juno's arrival at the gas giant.











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First Evidence for Water Ice Clouds Found outside Solar System












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Celestial circles







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A false-color image of the Netherlands, as seen in infrared by ESA's Proba-V minisatellite, with vegetation shown in red, woodland in red–brown and built-up areas as green.






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Plumes of icy material extend above the southern polar region of Saturn's moon *Enceladus* as imaged by the Cassini spacecraft in February 2005.







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Enceladus and its paper-thin crust








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Launched from Japan on February 17, 2016, the Japanese space agency (JAXA) Hitomi X-ray Observatory functioned for just over a month before contact was lost and the craft disintegrated.  But the data obtained during those few weeks was enough to paint a startling new picture of the dynamic forces at work within galaxies.


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## Drone (Jul 8, 2016)

*Astronomers Discovered An Exoplanet Stuck Between 3 Suns*










*Hubble Takes A Close-Up Of The Crab Nebula's Beating Heart*










*Saturn's Moon Titan May Have Ingredients To Support Life* 










*Monitoring Air Quality
*









*Earth from Space: Malaspina Glacier*


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## Drone (Jul 9, 2016)

Some Mercury fun:






The globe on the left was created from the MDIS monochrome surface morphology base map campaign. The globe on the right was produced from the MDIS color base map campaign.















*Mercury's sodium tail*

The amount of sodium in Mercury's exosphere depends on the planet's position in its orbit around the Sun. In this video, the large whitish-reddish mass is the sodium in exosphere around Mercury (dark blue circle). In the upper left corner, Mercury's position (purple ball) in its orbit (light blue circle) around the Sun (yellow ball) is shown. (TAA stands for true anomaly angle - the angle between Mercury, the Sun, and the closest point to the Sun along the orbit, which is known as the perihelion point.)

As Mercury orbits, the distance between the planet and the Sun changes and so does the speed at which Mercury is moving relative to the Sun. These changes, in turn, affect both the brightness of the sodium emission and the amount of radiation pressure a sodium atom experiences. These factors yield the greatest amount of sodium in the exosphere when Mercury is at a middle distance from the Sun.







*Gravity Anomalies*

Red tones indicate mass concentrations, centered on the *Caloris basin *(center) and the *Sobkou* region (right limb). Such large-scale gravitational anomalies are signatures of subsurface structure and evolution. The north pole is near the top of the sunlit area in this view.


----------



## Drone (Jul 11, 2016)

Milky Way over La Silla






Martian news



















Juno Team Begins Powering Up Spacecraft's Instruments
























New Crew Completes 2-Day Trip to ISS


----------



## Drone (Jul 12, 2016)

Around local midnight time on April 8, 2015, astronauts aboard the ISS took this photograph of Paris, often referred to as the “City of Light.”


















An illusion of perspective, Saturn's moon Tethys seems to hang above the planet's north pole in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.






For only the second time in a year, a camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite captured a view of the Moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth.






OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken on 3 July 2016, when Rosetta was 11.2 km from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.













Astronomers with the Outer Solar System Origins Survey have discovered a new dwarf planet *2015 RR245*.


----------



## Drone (Jul 18, 2016)

6-minute footage called Vorticity by storm chaser photographer Mike Olbinski, will show you Nature's force, like never before…






















This week's CometWatch images were taken with Rosetta's NAVCAM, when the spacecraft was ~ 12 km from the nucleus of *Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko*.










These images show *Homshuk* and *Sekhet* craters on *Ceres*.






Images of Jupiter, taken through the narrow angle camera of NASA's Cassini spacecraft from a distance of 77.6 million km.
The image on the left was taken through the blue filter. The one in the middle was taken in the UV. The one on the right was taken in the near infrared.






Dragon on its way to ISS, Falcon on its way home






Dione (1123 km across) & Epimetheus (113 kilometers across) are seen in this view, above the rings at left and right respectively.






Mars today


----------



## Drone (Jul 19, 2016)

Venus' surface revealed through the clouds

*Using observations from ESA's Venus Express satellite, scientists have shown for the first time how weather patterns seen in Venus' thick cloud layers are directly linked to the topography of the surface below. Rather than acting as a barrier to our observations, Venus' clouds may offer insight into what lies beneath.
*
As well as helping us understand more about Venus, the finding that surface topography can significantly affect atmospheric circulation has consequences for our understanding of planetary super-rotation, and of climate in general.








*****************

Milky Way







*****************
























*****************


New raw image of Saturn by Cassini






******

Latest news:

There Are A LOT More Galaxies Than We Previously Thought Existed










NASA's Kepler Spots Over 100 New Exoplanets, Some In Habitable Zone


----------



## Drone (Jul 20, 2016)

Two new Kuiper Belt objects, 2014 FZ71 and 2015 FJ345, are among the most distant bodies in the Solar System. They are always further than 50AU from the Sun, and only Sedna and 2012 VP113 have larger perihelia.






An arrow indicates the approximate position of 2014 FZ71, which moves relative to the background stars and galaxies in this sequence of 3 images taken approximately 3 hours apart.

*******************

Rosetta's last act 










****************

SpaceX Capsule Arrives at ISS










SpaceX wants to land 3 rockets at once










**************

One Year on Earth Seen From 1 Million Miles










*************

NASA'S Hubble Telescope Makes First Atmospheric Study of Earth-Sized Exoplanets











*************






On July 20, 1976, at 8:12 a.m. EDT, NASA received the signal that the Viking Lander 1 successfully reached the Martian surface. This color image of the Martian surface in the Chryse area was taken by Viking Lander 1, looking southwest, about 15 minutes before sunset on the evening of August 21.






In February 1917, Albert Einstein wrote in a letter: “*It is a pity that we do not live on Mars and just observe man's nasty antics by telescope*.” We do have a telescope at Mars, but we use it to image Mars rather than Earth, such as this image of bizarre landforms in Gorgonum Basin.


----------



## Drone (Jul 21, 2016)

Kon43 said:


> I came across a picture of south-pole of jupiter once before.


This one? 












********

A 'Protoplanet-Sized' Asteroid Deemed Responsible For Man In Moon's Eye












*******

Trojan Asteroid Shares Orbit With Earth










******

New images of Martian rocks and sand by Curiosity and Opportunity rovers


----------



## Drone (Jul 23, 2016)

Martian news






Sun's rays illuminate the SpaceX Dragon after it was attached to the ISS's Harmony module.






OSIRIS wide-angle camera image taken on 16 July 2016, when Rosetta was 12.8 km from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.






Bright galactic center above the pitch black volcanic landscape of La Palma.















Sun today










Tropical storm






Liber Crater is featured at lower left in this image from Ceres.


----------



## Drone (Jul 26, 2016)

Saturn's A & F rings






Sun today






Aurora Australis - From Wellington, New Zealand. Taken by Jonathan Usher on July 25, 2016.






This image shows a double impact feature at high northern latitudes on Ceres, just south of the large crater named Ghanan.










Mars today






The rugged coastal landscape of Stavanger in southwest Norway, with its distinctive rocks and hills was captured by the Sentinel-2A satellite on 15 March 2016.






The island of Tongatapu and the nearby smaller islands – all part of the Kingdom of Tonga archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean – are pictured in this Sentinel-2A image from 23 May.


----------



## Drone (Jul 26, 2016)

Albuquerque New Mexico, Sandia mountain foothills to the Rio Grande Valley (image from ISS)

Latest news/videos:






































******

Bye bye Philae


----------



## SK-1 (Jul 27, 2016)

*As it reaches the end of its life...*
Philae, the first robot to land on a comet, has reached the end of its life and is bidding a final farewell to Earth through a series of sad tweets.

“It’s time for me to say goodbye,”Philae tweeted on Tuesday. “Tomorrow, the unit on@ESA_Rosetta for communication with me will be switched off forever…”

http://time.com/4424055/comet-philae-farewell-earth/


----------



## Drone (Jul 28, 2016)

Earth is entering a broad stream of debris from comet Swift-Tuttle, source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. NASA cameras detected the first Perseid fireballs of 2016 on July 26th.






No sunspots for today. Blank Sun is a sign that Solar Maximum is over and Solar Minimum is coming - a natural transition of the 11-year sunspot cycle.






The Sentinel-3A satellite caught this image of a _dust storm blowing east across the Red Sea_ on 25 July 2016.






OSIRIS wide-angle camera image taken on 20 July 2016, when Rosetta was 9.1 km from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.






Annona and Mondamin craters on Ceres. 











Mars today (Opportunity rover)






Latest discoveries:


----------



## Drone (Jul 28, 2016)

Blue hole, sounds pretty cool 










Urmia turns red 

**********

Some space madness beyond Solar System:





























**********

Self-explanatory and informative diagrams:


----------



## Drone (Jul 29, 2016)

Wild looking ice flows off of Newfoundland






On July 27, 2016 the Aqua satellite captured this close up image of the Soberanes fire in northern California







Latest news:


----------



## Ahhzz (Jul 29, 2016)

Jeeeezuss.... data overload... images are taking forever to load.....


----------



## Drone (Jul 29, 2016)

Ahhzz said:


> Jeeeezuss.... data overload... images are taking forever to load.....


I know. But those images are awesome, I don't mind waiting for them to load. Everyday there's a new stream of data on Solar System and beyond. We're living in a really good and interesting time when every single day brings a tiny piece of knowledge.


New images of Martian landscape:
















A complex of craters in mid-southern latitudes on Ceres, just west of the peaks known as Niman Rupes.






Aurora. Photo Taken by Jim Bishop on July 28, 2016 @ Manitoba, Canada


----------



## Drone (Aug 1, 2016)

A gigantic ribbon of hot gas bursts upwards from the Sun, guided by a giant loop of invisible magnetism. This remarkable image was captured on 27 July 1999 by SOHO.






Mt. Saint Helens






Crescent Moon rising through a subtle display of noctilucent clouds.






New image of Atacama Desert by ESO






New image of Rhea by Cassini. Rhea, like many moons in the outer Solar System, appears dazzlingly bright in full sunlight. This is the signature of the water ice that forms most of the moon's surface.






New image of Ceres by Dawn


----------



## Drone (Aug 2, 2016)

Acadia National Park






Mars today















*************

Faintest hisses from space reveal famous star's past life










************


----------



## Drone (Aug 3, 2016)

NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured a visible image of Earl at 1:30 p.m. EDT on Aug. 2, 2016. Earl is a small storm. An area of strong thunderstorms was forming near or over the center.






The low angle of sunlight creates stark shadows in this Cerean scene.
















OSIRIS wide-angle camera images taken on July 2016, when Rosetta was 9.1 km from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.


**************

Latest discoveries


----------



## Drone (Aug 4, 2016)

Latest news:


----------



## Caring1 (Aug 4, 2016)

That woman in the videos has an annoying nasal voice and accent.
It makes her hard to understand.


----------



## Drone (Aug 5, 2016)

@Caring1 Yeah, sometimes I rewind or turn subtitles on. But anyway their channel is great. Latest discoveries, straight to the point, short and informative and no bullshit.

...








NASA's SDO saw a lunar transit – when the moon passes between the spacecraft and the sun – on Aug. 2, 2016, from 7:13 a.m. to 8:08 a.m. EDT.








This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft features Liber Crater (14 miles, 23 km wide) in Ceres' northern hemisphere, at right.


Latest videos:


----------



## Caring1 (Aug 5, 2016)

How did I end up on You Tube, I seem to get lost in there for hours


----------



## ste2425 (Aug 5, 2016)

Amazing pictures and videos, i was mesmerized transfixed by the various stary vistas until i saw this:






Now i cant get this out my head


----------



## Drone (Aug 5, 2016)

^ loooooooool


Here's another bunch of new videos by ESA, NASA and CAASTRO

TESS, ROSETTA, Curiosity, SpaceToGround, Redshift explanation and much more:


----------



## Drone (Aug 8, 2016)

This image shows an unnamed impact feature that lies on the northern rim of Chaminuka Crater in Ceres' southern hemisphere.






The shadow of Saturn on the rings, which stretched across all of the rings earlier in Cassini's mission, now barely makes it past the Cassini division.















Curiosity drills Mars / Lol that didn't come out right










Mankind sucks, doesn't it?



















Bad (or maybe good ) news for particle physicists?


----------



## Drone (Aug 10, 2016)

Latest news







Rao crater on Ceres






Impressive image of the Sun






Aurora from ISS. @ste2425 might like this picture lol. Yeah yeah cannot be unseen.






Swirling pastels of Saturn's clouds appear majestic in this infrared view


----------



## Drone (Aug 10, 2016)

ESA's VLT







A view of the Sun on 23 May 1967, in a narrow visible wavelength of light called Hydrogen-alpha. The bright region in the top center shows the area where the large flare occurred.










*A solar storm that jammed radar and radio communications at the height of the Cold War could have led to a disastrous military conflict* if not for the U.S. Air Force's budding efforts to monitor the Sun's activity, a new study finds. 

*******************



















Look Up! Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Aug. 11-12

******************

Some cool read:


Most Volcanic Activity on Mercury Stopped About 3.5 Billion Years Ago

Humanity may not need a warp drive to go interstellar

NASA releases over 1000 new images of the Red Planet and don't forget to check out this beautifully rendered image of Mawrth Vallis by Kevin Gill: 






***************






Sun on August 10


----------



## Drone (Aug 11, 2016)

Latest news:





























Weird object spotted beyond Neptune. Named Niku  











NASA Climate Modeling Suggests Venus May Have Been Habitable


----------



## Drone (Aug 12, 2016)

Perseid meteor shower

























Amazing photo of San and its activity






New images from Mars and Ceres












TEN TRILLIONTHS OF YOUR SUNTAN COMES FROM BEYOND OUR GALAXY

RELATIVITY: HOW IT WORKS


----------



## Drone (Aug 15, 2016)

This image of Mercury was posted by @CAPSLOCKSTUCK before but link died so here's the repost.










New processed 2160p video of Mercury











New beautiful images














New images of Mars by Curiosity and Opportunity rovers






Strands and arches of plasma streamed above the edge of the Sun for over a day, pulled by powerful magnetic forces (Aug. 11-12, 2016). The tug and pull of material heated to ~ 60000 degrees C was viewed in extreme UV light. This kind of dynamic flow of material is rather common, though this grouping was larger than most. Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA.






Saturn's moons Tethys (the larger body on the left) and Hyperion appear to be near neighbors in this Cassini view, even though they are actually 1.5 million km apart here.


----------



## Drone (Aug 18, 2016)

New Earth images from ISS











Coronal Hole






OSIRIS wide-angle camera images taken on 10-11 August 2016, when Rosetta was 12.8 km from the centre of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.


----------



## Drone (Aug 19, 2016)

Curiosity at Mars















Planetary alignment






New image of Ceres






New image from ISS










Even novae need to hibernate 













Brilliant video by NAOJ


----------



## Drone (Aug 21, 2016)

Venus may have been first planet to sustain life










Arctic Sea Ice and the Impact of Record Summer Heat 










Solar Storms










Lost in Light, a short film on how light pollution affects the view of the night skies. Shot mostly in California, the movie shows how the view gets progressively better as you move away from the lights.






When Black Holes Collide


----------



## Drone (Aug 22, 2016)

New short and extremely informative video by Carnegie Institution










I totally forgot what *Mercator projection* is. I'm really glad I watched this video:











Some new images:

Stereo image of Martian land by Curiosity:







NASA's Dawn spacecraft captured this tortured landscape just south of *Ghanan Crater on Ceres*.






*Comet Lovejoy* Visits La Silla Observatory






*Dione* reveals its past via contrasts in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The features visible here are a mixture of tectonics -- the bright, linear features -- and impact cratering -- the round features, which are spread across the entire surface.


----------



## Drone (Aug 23, 2016)

OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken on 15 August 2016, when Rosetta was 6.7 km from the centre of *Comet 67P*.






NASA's Dawn spacecraft spied this relatively smooth area of *Ceres*.






Large impact craters rebound from the initial shock, raising deep bedrock to the surface in the central uplift of the crater. (*Mars*)


Latest news:




























A Stroll through the ALMA Array Operations Site (360 Video)


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Aug 24, 2016)

Nasa reveals stunning simulation of Daphnis up close


The images created by Kevin Gill, a software engineer at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Lab, illustrates the interactions between Daphnis and Saturn’s ring system.

While the photos captured by Cassini show this from a great distance, Gill’s renditions reveal a close-up look at the effects of the tiny moon on the Keeler Gap, as it induces a wavy pattern along the edge.








The Keeler Gap is roughly 26 miles wide and lies in Saturn’s A Ring, about 155 miles from the outer edge, according to Universe Today.

While Daphnis is far smaller – just under 5 miles in diameter – it has a powerful effect on this system.

Based on images from the Cassini craft, scientists found that Daphnis induces a wavy pattern in the edge of the Keeler Gap that extends nearly a mile above the ring.

This is the result of the tiny moon’s slight inclination toward the ring’s plane.






This shows the ripples caused by Daphnis along the edge of the A Ring, along with the moon’s position in relation to the system, which causes the waves to reach upward.


----------



## Drone (Aug 26, 2016)

Great Salt Lake, the largest salt lake in the western hemisphere, captured by ESA's Proba-V satellite last June.


Scientific American & New Scientist videos about Earth-like exoplanet Proxima b:



















And other fun stuff:


----------



## Drone (Aug 29, 2016)

Turkey's Third Bosphorus Bridge






Namibia






This image shows ESO’s La Silla Observatory, where domes housing some of the most advanced astronomical instruments in the world sit beneath a sky shimmering with stars.






Ceres






OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken on 24 August 2016, when Rosetta was 9.3 km from the center of Comet 67P






Saturn's B ring


----------



## Drone (Aug 30, 2016)

Latest exciting news:


----------



## Drone (Aug 31, 2016)

New images of Mars:





















Earth from Space


----------



## lorraine walsh (Aug 31, 2016)

Great informative read. I messaged this thread to my nephew who's working on one of his school projects. The Earth looks so serene and beautiful at night amazing


----------



## Drone (Aug 31, 2016)

For me it's like a drug. I want to punch myself in the teeth when there's no food for thought.

New image from ISS







And here ISS over the Pacific and the Atlantic











Latest news and just cool stuff:


----------



## Drone (Sep 1, 2016)

Mars






Earth from ISS










The Apollo 17 landing site in the Taurus Littrow Valley, Moon






View of Ceres from NASA's Dawn spacecraft features a small crater at upper left that adjoins Messor Crater.






Some videos:


----------



## Drone (Sep 2, 2016)

Sulfur, Sulfur Dioxide and Graphitized Carbon on Ceres







The sulfur species are likely associated with regions of recent activity. The presence of graphitized carbon is consistent with weathering of carbonaceous material on the asteroid's surface, caused by processes such as charged particle bombardment.




Other news


----------



## Drone (Sep 2, 2016)

Rosetta's just 3 km above Comet 67/P's surface


----------



## Drone (Sep 5, 2016)

_The new geological epoch, was proposed by Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen just 15 years ago. New age of Man. Anthropocene._




















Annular Solar Eclipse










Top 5 facts about Saturn and Rings










Saturn's rings appear to bend as they pass behind the planet's darkened limb due to refraction by Saturn's upper atmosphere.








Milky Way over VLT






Solar activity & Aurora


----------



## Drone (Sep 6, 2016)

Earth from ISS






Asteroids named after Freddie Mercury and Brian May











News














































Mars Today


----------



## Drone (Sep 9, 2016)

Latest news:


----------



## Drone (Sep 10, 2016)

Mars Rover Views Spectacular Layered Rock Formations























New mammoth Jupiter/Earth infographic by NASA






Airglow in the Acadia National Park of Maine. Photo by Mike Taylor






This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows part of Kaikara Crater (72 km wide) on Ceres.


----------



## Drone (Sep 12, 2016)

New image of Saturn













Milky Way over ESA's La Silla Observatory






Magnificent prominence on the western limb of the Sun


----------



## Drone (Sep 16, 2016)

The Cassini spacecraft has logged impressive numbers in the 12 years since it arrived at Saturn on July 1, 2004. This infographic offers a snapshot of just a few of the mission's big numbers on Sept. 15, 2016, as it heads into a final year of science at Saturn.










This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows *Takel Crater* (at top left) on Ceres. Takel is 22 km wide and exhibits streaks of bright material on its walls.






Other news:


----------



## Drone (Sep 16, 2016)

More videos:


----------



## Drone (Sep 19, 2016)

Aurora






OSIRIS narrow-angle camera images taken on September 2016 (Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko)










This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows Rongo Crater, located near Ceres' equator.







Rings of Saturn







What Will Happen When Earth's Magnetic Poles Reverse?


----------



## Drone (Sep 22, 2016)

Aurora






NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained the view of Laukumate Crater (30 km) on Ceres.


----------



## Caring1 (Sep 22, 2016)

Which idiot declared it illegal to dispose of a body in space?
I couldn't think of a more efficient method than shoving one out of the airlock, and letting it drift off, hopefully it would re-enter the atmosphere and burn off, or just drift off never to be seen again.


----------



## Drone (Sep 23, 2016)

This view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows terrain in the northern hemisphere of Ceres, near Jarovit Crater.


----------



## Drone (Sep 26, 2016)

NASA's Dawn spacecraft views Abellio Crater (32 km wide) on Ceres in this image.






Aurorae











ESA's VLT


----------



## Drone (Sep 27, 2016)

New image of Saturn and Ceres











Sun's magnetic field






This topographical map of Ceres, made with images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows all of the dwarf planet's named features as of September 2016. Dawn celebrated 9 years since launch on September 27, 2016.







NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Spots Possible Water Plumes Erupting On Jupiter's Moon Europa




























India's space agency set a new milestone Sept. 26 by _launching 8 satellites into 2 separate orbits during a single flight_.


----------



## Drone (Sep 28, 2016)

Ceres and Mars


----------



## Drone (Sep 30, 2016)

Aurora






Mars










Kupalo crater, Ceres


----------



## Drone (Oct 3, 2016)

Ring of Saturn






New images from ISS











Mars






Rosetta in numbers


----------



## Drone (Oct 5, 2016)

Amazing Airglow Over Easter Island (photo by Yuri Beletsky)






NASA's Dawn spacecraft spies *Achita Crater* (40 km wide) on Ceres






Hurricane Matthew from ISS Oct. 3 - speed x4










Mars in UV (looks like Titan) 






*Scientists from Carnegie and Caltech have taken a closer look at the mysterious star called KIC 8462852 and found it's even weirder than first believed*


----------



## Drone (Oct 6, 2016)

New images from Mars and Ceres


----------



## Drone (Oct 7, 2016)

New images of Earth and Ceres


----------



## Drone (Oct 8, 2016)

Earth






NASA's Opportunity Rover to Explore Mars Gully

















NASA's Kepler gets the 'Big Picture' of Comet 67P


----------



## Drone (Oct 11, 2016)

Aurora







Ceres











Curiosity on Mars


----------



## Drone (Oct 12, 2016)

*Scientists found another dwarf planet in Solar System*. It's called 2014 UZ224 and located ~ 8.5 billion miles from the Sun.










*Proxima Centauri Might Be More Sunlike Than We Thought*

New research shows that Proxima Centauri is sunlike in one surprising way: it has a regular cycle of starspots. Its cycle lasts 7 years from peak to peak but is much more dramatic. At least a full 1/5 of the star's surface is covered in spots at once.

New image from Dawn. Piuku Crater, Ceres.






Earth from ISS






Tropical storm Nicole






Operations Support Facility & ALMA


----------



## Drone (Oct 13, 2016)

Martian news, RR Lyrae, black holes. Universe is a busy place lol


----------



## Drone (Oct 14, 2016)

Aurora






New images from Ceres











Mars

Original, topographic and perspective view of Colles Nili
















Curiosity






Coronal hole







******************

On 10 October, ESA's deep-space 35 m-diameter radio dish in Cebreros, Spain, transmitted an 866 sec interstellar message towards the North Star as part of the international '*A Simple Response*' project.







******************************

A team of astrophysicists at the University of Portsmouth has created the *largest ever map of voids and superclusters in the Universe*.

Light from the CMB travels through such voids and superclusters on its way to us. According to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, the stretching effect of dark energy causes a tiny change in the temperature of CMB light depending on where it came from. *Photons of light travelling through voids should appear slightly colder than normal and those arriving from superclusters should appear slightly hotter*. This is known as the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect.

It was thought that there was some exotic gravitational effect contradicting Einstein which would simultaneously explain both the Cold Spot and the unusual ISW results.









But scientists found that the new result agreed extremely well with predictions using Einstein's gravity.






The supervoid isn't big enough to explain the Cold Spot. The mystery remains unexplained.


----------



## Drone (Oct 14, 2016)

Progress spacecraft re-entering the Earth's atmosphere in a blazing trail of plasma, as seen from ISS


----------



## Drone (Oct 17, 2016)

Aurorae, monsoon, Earth
















Pandora in isolation beside Saturn's kinked and constantly changing F ring


----------



## Drone (Oct 18, 2016)

Taikonauts enter Shenzhou-11 Spacecraft










Shenzhou-11 highlights










This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft features bright material (at upper left) along the rim of the giant crater named Kerwan (280 km wide) on Ceres.








Cygnus






The Ob River runs a course through the middle of Russia's largest and most important gas and oil region.


----------



## Drone (Oct 19, 2016)

Today's videos






































Using statistical analysis and scientific computing, astronomers at Western University have charted a path that most likely pinpoints the very origins of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is vital information in discovering what kind of material it is made from and just how long it has been present in our Solar System.










This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows part of Lono Crater (at bottom) within the giant Yalode impact basin on Ceres. Lono is 20 km wide, and Yalode is 260 km in diameter.






Aurorae






Moonset behind ISS






Cloudy Nights, Sunny Days on Distant Hot Jupiters

This illustration represents how hot Jupiters of different temperatures and different cloud compositions might appear to a person flying over the dayside of these planets on a spaceship, based on computer modeling.


----------



## Drone (Oct 21, 2016)

Ceres






New image from ISS






Solar Wave


----------



## Drone (Oct 24, 2016)

New images and videos:

Martian landscape and Saturn's clouds


----------



## Drone (Oct 26, 2016)

Aurorae






New images from Mars and Ceres


----------



## Drone (Oct 28, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Oct 31, 2016)

Aurorae











New images from Ceres, Mars, Saturn


----------



## Drone (Nov 1, 2016)

New images from Mars and Ceres


----------



## Drone (Nov 3, 2016)

Aurora & Taurids











Earth from ISS






NASA's SDO images of the Sun











Ceres






Martian egg rock










Western Acheron Fossae, Mars


----------



## Drone (Nov 4, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Nov 7, 2016)

Marrakesh, Morocco captured by Sentinel-2






New images from Mars and rings of Saturn











Milky Way






Latest news-videos:


----------



## Drone (Nov 11, 2016)

virtual Milky Way






Aurora






Coronal hole






Manila from Sentinel-1A






New images from Mars ..











.. and Ceres
















Latest videos:


----------



## Drone (Nov 14, 2016)

*Mars*


----------



## Drone (Nov 18, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Nov 23, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Nov 25, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Nov 28, 2016)

New image from Saturn






Adamas Labyrinthus, Mars







NdGT's new book and other cool stuff:


----------



## Drone (Dec 2, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Dec 3, 2016)

Mars

National geographic: TIL (Today I Learned)


----------



## Caring1 (Dec 3, 2016)

Drone said:


>


Underwater Ice reserve?


----------



## Drone (Dec 3, 2016)

Caring1 said:


> Underwater Ice reserve?


'underground' That error is in the thumbnail, video itself is fine. A (Frozen) Great Lake of Water Is Found Beneath the Surface of Mars


Whatever. More Martian stuff


----------



## Drone (Dec 6, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Dec 7, 2016)

Colour composite of Phobos taken with the ExoMars orbiter's Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) on 26 November 2016. The observation was made at a distance of 7700 km and yields a resolution of 87 m/pixel.







Colourful swirls depict an unprecedented storm that played out in the northern hemisphere of the gas giant Saturn from December 2010 until June 2011.








Cassini Beams Back First Images from New Orbit












New images from ISS











Dec. 2, 2016, view from the Navigation Camera on the mast of NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover shows rocky ground within view while the rover was working at an intended drilling site called "Precipice" on lower Mount Sharp.






New image from Opportunity Rover on Mars






Sahara Desert From the Space Station's EarthKAM






Part of Ezinu Crater on Ceres is seen at top left in this image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.







Dark Matter May be Smoother than Expected


----------



## Drone (Dec 9, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Dec 13, 2016)

New images from Ceres and Saturn


----------



## Drone (Dec 14, 2016)

Earth from ISS











Cassini beams back images of Hyperion, Tethys & Enceladus
















This stunning aerial image shows the hills and mountains surrounding ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile.







Impact of a Solar Storm 28 October 2003


----------



## Drone (Dec 19, 2016)

New images of Sun, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Mimas




































*********


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 19, 2016)

The world's largest digital survey of the visible universe, mapping billions of stars and galaxies, has been published for the first time.


Researchers will now be able to study the 'farthest reaches of the universe and gain insights into elusive dark energy and dark matter' using the map, experts say.

The map is the product of a project using a 6 foot (1.8 metre) telescope at the summit of the Haleakala volcano in Maui, Hawaii, which captured large images of the sky every 30 seconds for four years.







The Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) captures fast-moving objects and tracked exploding stars across the sky.

The project is part of an international collaboration including the universities of Edinburgh and Durham, and Queen's University Belfast, and was also supported by Nasa and the National Science Foundation.

Images from the project, released today by the Space Telescope Science Institute and the University of Hawaii, will now be analysed to identify and catalogue astronomical objects.








http://www.hawaii.edu/news/2016/12/19/largest-digital-sky-survey-released-by-pan-starrs/


----------



## Drone (Dec 19, 2016)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> The world's largest digital survey of the visible universe, mapping billions of stars and galaxies, has been published for the first time.












Thanks, here are alternative links from Durham and Queen's universities. They say this immense collection of information contains _2 petabytes_ of computer data.


----------



## Drone (Dec 20, 2016)

Lots of exciting discoveries:

*********

Experiment resolves mystery about wind flows on Jupiter
Using a spinning table and a massive garbage can, UCLA geophysicist leads team in simulating the planet's atmosphere






*****

Many muons: Imaging the underground with help from the cosmos

******

Lunar sonic booms

Sonic boomlets are being generated by protons in the solar wind - moving at supersonic speed - colliding with pockets of magnetic fields that bubble up from the Moon's crust.

******

The climate-changing desert dust fertilising our oceans

******

Teasing Out the Secrets beneath Jupiter's Cloud Tops

Did Jupiter form closer to the Sun and then move out? Is helium rain continuously falling on a supersized Jovian core of metallic hydrogen?







*******

Large, Exceptional Gem Diamonds Formed from Metallic Liquid inside Earth's Mantle

*******

Researchers discover hot hydrogen atoms in Earth's upper atmosphere (thermosphere)


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 23, 2016)

Cassini captured this image roughly 25,200 miles from *Pandora* during its closest-ever flyby on December 18. It’s one of the highest-resolution views yet, showing the 52-mile-wide moon that orbits just outside the F ring









According to the space agency, the image was captured in green light using Cassini’s narrow-angle camera, at a scale of 787 feet (240 meters) per pixel.


----------



## Drone (Dec 23, 2016)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> Cassini captured this image roughly 25,200 miles from *Pandora* during its closest-ever flyby on December 18. It’s one of the highest-resolution views yet, showing the 52-mile-wide moon that orbits just outside the F ring



Great shot. Pandora kinda looks like Phobos (post 429 on this page)



recent videos:


----------



## Drone (Dec 27, 2016)

Astronomer *Vera Rubin* who did pioneering work on dark matter, passes away at 88 










**********

Dwarf star *Gliese 710* gonna kick our butts ... in 1.35 million years










*********






























***********

Aurora






Earth from ISS


----------



## Drone (Dec 29, 2016)

Earth from space (image from astronaut Thomas Pesquet)






Energetic particles from Sun smashed into Earth's magnetic field Dec. 22, stirring up a display of northern lights: (NASA)






Sunlight truly has come to Saturn's north pole (Cassini mission NASA/ESA)


----------



## Drone (Jan 2, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Jan 6, 2017)

Latest news/discoveries


----------



## Drone (Jan 11, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Jan 13, 2017)

Latest news/discoveries


----------



## Drone (Jan 22, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Jan 27, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Feb 1, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Feb 8, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Feb 18, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Mar 10, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Mar 15, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Mar 21, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Mar 24, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Mar 27, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Mar 31, 2017)

Latest videos:


----------



## Drone (Apr 6, 2017)

latest news:


----------



## Drone (Apr 13, 2017)

*H₂* on Enceladus


----------



## Drone (Apr 14, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Apr 19, 2017)

Latest news


----------



## Drone (May 3, 2017)

NEW!


----------



## Drone (May 5, 2017)




----------



## Drone (May 10, 2017)




----------



## WiseMe (May 14, 2017)

Wow everything I need to know about solar system compiled in one thread. Thanks for sharing.


----------



## dorsetknob (May 14, 2017)

TPU has an Active Science Sub Forum well worth browsing the Threads


----------



## Drone (May 15, 2017)

WiseMe said:


> Wow everything I need to know about solar system compiled in one thread. Thanks for sharing.


hehe sometimes I go beyond Solar System 

new stuff:


----------



## Drone (May 20, 2017)

New images:

Sun, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn


















If Earth was the size of a nickel (21mm), Jupiter would be about as big as a basketball






Saturn's rings


----------



## Drone (May 26, 2017)

new videos:





































Brilliant ama w/ NdGT


----------



## Drone (May 29, 2017)




----------



## Drone (May 31, 2017)

Latest images from Cassini mission (Saturn's rings & Enceladus)


----------



## Drone (Jun 5, 2017)

new videos:














































New image:

Saturn & Mimas


----------



## Drone (Jun 9, 2017)

New 





































Perspective view across a crater in Erythraeum Chaos  (Mars)


----------



## Drone (Jun 16, 2017)

New images of Titan, Jupiter plus bunch of awesome videos:


----------



## Drone (Jun 23, 2017)

New images of Sun, Jupiter, Saturn and new videos:


----------



## Drone (Jun 30, 2017)

New videos:


----------



## Drone (Jul 1, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Jul 4, 2017)

The Puzzling Detection of X-Rays from Pluto






Striking Gemini Images Point Juno Spacecraft Toward Discovery








Mid-Infrared Images from the Subaru Telescope Extend Juno Spacecraft Discoveries







Subaru Telescope's Prime Focus Camera Suprime-Cam Takes Its Final Data (Barred spiral galaxy NGC 7479)






Researchers find out how bromine fits into Venusian chemistry






Saturn and rings, 7 June 2017






Surprise methanol detection points to an evolving story of Enceladus's plumes






Musical Sun reduces range of magnetic activity






Shining a light on solar energetic particles and jets










Arianespace Flight VA238 / Hellas Sat 3-Inmarsat S EAN and GSAT-17




The busiest week for astronomers ever


----------



## Drone (Jul 7, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Jul 12, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Jul 13, 2017)

metalslaw said:


> I guess I got reported (for some reason?) in regards to my post on how it is possible the universe is accelerating away from us???



In a nutshell:

When Einstein built his model of the Universe he assumed that the Universe must be static (so it won't collapse on itself). But Friedman found that Einstein's Static Universe can't exist because it'd be unstable. So it must be expanding. Later Hubble found that distant galaxies are red-shifted (moving away from us). 

Later, in 1965 Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation was discovered. It implied that the Universe is cooling down. In the 90s Supernova observations showed that the Universe is expanding. Other observations showed that the expansion is accelerating. WMAP found that Universe is flat and there was inflation.

Anywho new images of Jupiter's Great Red Spot!


----------



## Drone (Jul 14, 2017)

New mind-blowing stuff:


----------



## Drone (Jul 17, 2017)




----------



## DeathtoGnomes (Jul 17, 2017)

Did Jupiter's Red spot get bigger recently?


----------



## dorsetknob (Jul 17, 2017)

DeathtoGnomes said:


> Did Jupiter's Red spot get bigger recently?



I believe there is speculation its actually shrinking


----------



## Drone (Jul 17, 2017)

It is shrinking. You can't sustain a planet-size hurricane for that long, even on Jupiter. It's caused by pressure gradient force [Coriolis effect].


----------



## Drone (Jul 21, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Jul 22, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Jul 28, 2017)

New images (Sun & Jupiter's great red spot in true clolor) & new discoveries


----------



## Drone (Jul 29, 2017)

Membrane molecule vinyl cyanide on Titan, aurorae on Saturn and more:


----------



## Norton (Jul 29, 2017)

A 3D rendering of Jupiter's Great Red Spot

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing?id=1671


----------



## Drone (Jul 31, 2017)

New image of Saturn & some videos


----------



## Drone (Aug 6, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Aug 12, 2017)

Enjoy new videos!


----------



## Drone (Aug 15, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Aug 17, 2017)

Eclipse science:


----------



## Drone (Aug 19, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Aug 22, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Aug 22, 2017)

It could be snowing on Mars right now










NASA/ESA/JAXA videos/image of the 2017 eclipse


----------



## Drone (Aug 31, 2017)

news




























and not so good news


----------



## Drone (Sep 8, 2017)

a wave structure in Saturn's rings known as the Janus 2:1 spiral density wave


----------



## Drone (Sep 11, 2017)

Sun & Aurora
















Hurricane Harvey







New videos:


----------



## Drone (Sep 12, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Sep 13, 2017)

Video of the four solar flares taken by Hinode spacecraft










Exploring Saturn's moons (NatGeo video)










New Soyuz crew launches to the ISS (NASA video)










New photos of Jupiter taken by NASA's Juno


----------



## Drone (Sep 14, 2017)

Aurora






Water-rich impact crater on Mars












Timelapse




























Lol these new videos made me chuckle


----------



## Ahhzz (Sep 15, 2017)

Cassini 3d 
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/s...tm_campaign=Content&utm_rd=15885789 #preamble


----------



## Drone (Sep 15, 2017)

*Final* raw images from Cassini


----------



## Ahhzz (Sep 15, 2017)

Drone said:


> Lol these new videos made me chuckle



"Well, technically, it did land... just in multiple pieces..."

I'm reminded. Everything is air-droppable at least once.


----------



## Drone (Sep 15, 2017)

First Messenger and now Cassini ...

Both are great missions. Having idea about Mercury, Saturn, Titan and other celestial bodies is awesome.


----------



## Drone (Sep 16, 2017)

New


----------



## Drone (Sep 22, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Sep 25, 2017)

These images were taken by Cassini on 13 September 2017:


Saturn's outer A Ring, moon Daphnis and the waves it raises in the edges of the Keeler Gap






Saturn's rings







Aurora






18 September 2017, the low-resolution webcam on ESA’s Mars Express captured some impressive images from between 3000 km to 5000 km altitude.






Latest ESA videos:


----------



## Drone (Sep 27, 2017)

OSIRIS-REx Views the Earth During Flyby






Jupiter











Enceladus


----------



## Drone (Sep 29, 2017)

Last image from Rosetta (reconstructed)






Aurorae











Latest videos


----------



## Drone (Oct 6, 2017)

Launch of a Soviet Union's first articficial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, on 4 October 1957






Sun & ISS






A bright fireball was spotted over the Netherlands and Belgium on 21 September






Dune field in a crater, perspective view (Mars)






Neil & Bill


----------



## Drone (Oct 13, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Oct 20, 2017)

Friday goodness


----------



## Drone (Oct 24, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Oct 27, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Nov 3, 2017)




----------



## metalfiber (Nov 3, 2017)

Just thought i'd touch on the apocalypse a little.

Asteroid 666, Desdemona, was discovered July 23, 1908 by August Kopff at Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. It has a period of 4 years, 64 days and is about 18 miles in diameter. Michael needs to knock it down this way and there are plenty of them.


----------



## Drone (Nov 10, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Nov 11, 2017)

NASA's Juno just sent back stunning new photos of Jupiter


----------



## Drone (Nov 17, 2017)

Massive, raging tempest in Jupiter's northern hemisphere


----------



## Drone (Nov 21, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Nov 24, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Nov 29, 2017)

Approaching the Sun just beyond the orbit of Mars, the tail of Comet PanSTARRS is interrupted by gaps, knots, and billowing clouds. The tail is so dynamic, it is changing visibly during a single observing session.






Solar Wind


----------



## Drone (Dec 1, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Dec 4, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Dec 6, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Dec 8, 2017)

new videos


----------



## Drone (Dec 10, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Dec 12, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Dec 13, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Dec 15, 2017)

Latest videos:


----------



## Drone (Dec 19, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Dec 21, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Dec 22, 2017)




----------



## Drone (Jan 3, 2018)

North to South (Mars)







The parallax effect is the apparent displacement (larger for nearby stars and smaller for more distant stars) of an object caused by a change in the observer’s point of view. The extent of the parallax has been exaggerated for illustration purposes.




























Some old stuff


----------



## Drone (Jan 8, 2018)

New image of Jupiter






Comet C/2016 R2


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 11, 2018)

*An Immersive Visualization of the Galactic Center*

The Galactic Centre visualisation is a 360° movie that immerses a viewer into a simulation of the centre of our galaxy.

The footage shows the complex web of interactions between the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) and the surrounding Wolf-Rayet stars. The viewer is placed at the location of Sgr A* and is able to see about 20 of the giant stellar objects. These appear as white, twinkling objects, orbiting around the viewer. They continuously eject stellar winds, which are shown in a black to red to yellow colour scale. These winds collide with each other, and then some of this material spirals towards Sgr A*. 

The visualisation shows two scenarios, both of which start 350 years in the past and span 500 years.

The first simulation shows Sgr A* in a calm state, while the second contains a more violent Sgr A* that is expelling its own material.

This negates the build up of clumped material, depicted as yellow blobs, that is so prominent in the first portion.



*







*


----------



## Drone (Jan 12, 2018)

Rings of Saturn






Barred Spiral Galaxy UGC 6093


----------



## Drone (Jan 20, 2018)

New image of Jupiter






Comet PANSTARRS


----------



## Drone (Feb 5, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Feb 6, 2018)

Latest news:


----------



## Drone (Feb 14, 2018)

New videos about Earth!


----------



## Drone (Mar 2, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Mar 13, 2018)

Saturn's moon Dione


----------



## Drone (Mar 16, 2018)

Rose-Colored Jupiter






Floor of Ceres' Juling Crater


----------



## Drone (Mar 21, 2018)

Coronal hole






Radar image of Mercury






Rings of Saturn


----------



## Drone (Mar 27, 2018)

Jupiter






La Silla Observatory


----------



## Drone (Apr 9, 2018)

Images of Jupiter and Venus

Latest videos:


----------



## Drone (Apr 12, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Apr 17, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Apr 25, 2018)

@dorsetknob  and @Ahhzz  will probably like these new videos lol


----------



## Ahhzz (Apr 25, 2018)

Drone said:


> @dorsetknob  and @Ahhzz  will probably like these new videos lol


Thanks  I saw those this morning, but was too harried to get them posted here heheh thanks!


----------



## Drone (May 3, 2018)




----------



## Drone (May 23, 2018)

Sun







Mars (Curiosity's Successfully Drills 'Duluth') 






Titan






Time-lapse: Preparing Sentinel-3B for liftoff


----------



## Drone (May 24, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Jun 1, 2018)

Mars from horizon to horizon







New videos


----------



## Drone (Jun 4, 2018)

Latest photos and videos


Ceres







Solar flare






Mars






Jupiter


----------



## Drone (Jun 21, 2018)

Rosetta’s final images 










Mars


----------



## Drone (Jul 1, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Jul 18, 2018)

12 new moons of Jupiter discovered, including one “oddball”

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/...t_12_new_spanking_moons_around_the_gas_giant/
https://carnegiescience.edu/node/2367










Thanks for the links, @dorsetknob 

New images:

Explosive merger of two neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993






Cerealia Facula in Occator Crater, Ceres







Vinalia Faculae in Occator Crater, Ceres






(Nasa, Dawn mission)


New videos:


----------



## Drone (Jul 20, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Jul 25, 2018)

*Mars*



















Dust is anything but boring on the Red Planet. It is one of the most dynamic geological processes on the alien world: a whopping 2.9 trillion kg of dust is exchanged between the surface and atmosphere every year. It also controls the planet’s temperature by absorbing and scattering solar and infrared radiation.

Interesting read, thanks @dorsetknob

Noachis Terra, Hephaestus Fossae, Indus Vallis, Ophir Chasma, Doublet Crater


----------



## Drone (Jul 26, 2018)

Liquid water 'lake' revealed on Mars
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44952710


----------



## Drone (Jul 27, 2018)

A swirling storm somersaults through Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt in this view taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft.


----------



## Drone (Jul 29, 2018)




----------



## Ahhzz (Jul 30, 2018)

Drone said:


>


.... "Mysteriously Hot".....

riiiiiight.....


----------



## Drone (Jul 30, 2018)

Ahhzz said:


> .... "Mysteriously Hot".....
> 
> riiiiiight.....


 Huh? Sun's atmoshere is x1000 hotter than its surface and it's a big mystery in physics

Blood Moon Saturn Mars


----------



## Ahhzz (Jul 30, 2018)

Drone said:


> Huh? Sun's atmoshere is x1000 hotter than its surface and it's a big mystery in physics
> 
> Blood Moon Saturn Mars



sorry, I realize that there are definitely things in nature and the various *dynamics worlds we don't understand, and I don't argue that we don't understand this specific principle. I just find any statement referring to the Sun as "mysteriously hot!" as amusing as hell  . It's the sun. A ball of burning gas that won't stop burning for millennia. We feel the heat from it 93 million miles away. I'm going to conjecture that the Sun itself, and the area immediately surrounding it, is _freaking _hot, not "mysterious" heheheh.


----------



## StrayKAT (Jul 30, 2018)

Ahhzz said:


> sorry, I realize that there are definitely things in nature and the various *dynamics worlds we don't understand, and I don't argue that we don't understand this specific principle. I just find any statement referring to the Sun as "mysteriously hot!" as amusing as hell  . It's the sun. A ball of burning gas that won't stop burning for millennia. We feel the heat from it 93 million miles away. I'm going to conjecture that the Sun itself, and the area immediately surrounding it, is _freaking _hot, not "mysterious" heheheh.



I get you, but it is kind of mysterious that a dense area apparently produces less heat than something more diffuse. My completely uneducated and wild guess is that explosive powers must be hotter, I guess? I mean, look at supernovas. For a brief moment, they're the most powerful and brightest things in the galaxy.. despite originating from the last stage of a star's life.


----------



## Drone (Jul 30, 2018)

Ah I see. They call it mysterious because its behavior isn't straightforward. And Sun is more than just a ball of plasma. It has brothers and sisters somewhere in the Universe. There are more red dwarf stars than Sun-like stars. Sun and Earth aren't super mega special but unique.


----------



## Drone (Aug 6, 2018)




----------



## Ahhzz (Aug 6, 2018)

Drone said:


>


Because of mass injustice!!!!! Justice For Pluto!!! MaPaPA!!!!


----------



## Drone (Aug 8, 2018)

New, mind blowing sexy videos! Just Wow!


----------



## Drone (Aug 14, 2018)

Comet Swift-Tuttle







Partial Solar Eclipse






Rings Of Saturn


----------



## dont whant to set it"' (Aug 14, 2018)

"paritial polar solar eclipse" wha the letterword f did I just read, oh my drunk bad this one anyways thumbs up for @Drone .


----------



## Drone (Aug 23, 2018)

@Ahhzz 






The second data release of ESA’s Gaia mission, made in April, has marked a turning point in the study of our Galactic home, the Milky Way. With an unprecedented catalogue of 3D positions and 2D motions of more than a billion stars, plus additional information on smaller subsets of stars and other celestial sources, Gaia has provided astronomers with an astonishing resource to explore the distribution and composition of the Galaxy and to investigate its past and future evolution.

The majority of stars in the Milky Way are located in the Galactic disc, which has a flattened shape characterised by a pattern of spiral arms similar to that observed in spiral galaxies beyond our own. However, it is particularly challenging to reconstruct the distribution of stars in the disc, and especially the design of the Milky Way’s arms, because of our position within the disc itself.

This is where Gaia’s measurements can make the difference.






Space Station Flight Over Hurricane Lane


----------



## Ahhzz (Aug 23, 2018)

Gorgeous, mate!!

edit: ok. 'splain what I'm looking at there?

double edit: went looking, haven't found yet, but did stumble into this page... wonderful look at the stars in the galaxy!
http://sci.esa.int/gaia-stellar-family-portrait/


----------



## Drone (Aug 23, 2018)

@Ahhzz 

It's the map based on 400000 OB stars [hottest/brightest/most massive stars in our Galaxy] within < 10kly from the Sun. 
It is centred on the Sun and shows the Galactic disc as if we were looking at it face-on from a vantage point outside the Milky Way.


----------



## MatGrow (Aug 23, 2018)

Spectacular views. The most enchanting fact for me is retrograde Jupiter of all the times.


----------



## Drone (Aug 26, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Aug 31, 2018)

Nasa's Opportunity rover on Mars











Nasa's Juno mission,  Jupiter


----------



## StrayKAT (Aug 31, 2018)

It's sad to think how lonely these worlds are... and unimaginative number of them.

How different would our solar system really be if there was one missing? Do they all play a part in making the Earth work? I know Jupiter helps ward off debris.. and the moon with tides.. but what the hell is the point of Mars?


----------



## sepheronx (Aug 31, 2018)

Yes and no.  The current rotation of the planets around the sun is the reason why our world was able to sustain life.  If that balance is broken, I believe the rotation would be broken.

That said, it is depressing to see that loneliness.  Would be fun to know of other living forms to interact with.


----------



## Drone (Sep 1, 2018)

Spotless Sun






Saturn's northern lights


----------



## Drone (Sep 8, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Sep 12, 2018)

Hurricane Florence Viewed from ISS






Saturn & its moons at opposition


----------



## Drone (Sep 22, 2018)

Thanks for these links, @dorsetknob 

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45598156
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/09/21/jaxa_hayabusa2_ryugu_asteroid_landing/










Some fun with NdGT


----------



## StrayKAT (Sep 22, 2018)

I don't care what anyone says, I still like Sagan's Cosmos more than Neil's.  Even with the outdated info... I must have seen it a dozen times.

Neil has a wonderful, enthusiastic personality though, don't get me wrong.


----------



## Drone (Sep 23, 2018)

New videos



















Some old NatGeo stuff




























First Light Data from NASA's Parker Solar Probe






Antarctic sunset from Sentinel-3B satellite


----------



## Drone (Sep 28, 2018)

Jovian Swirls



















































Fracture Network on the Floor of Occator Crater


----------



## Drone (Oct 4, 2018)

Fracture Pattern on the Floor of Occator Crater






What is nothing?



















Subaru Telescope Discovers a New Extremely Distant Solar System Object During Hunt for Planet X






JAXA probe's lucky MASCOT plonks down on space rock Ryugu without a hitch  (thanks @dorsetknob for info)

Black holes ruled out as Universe’s missing dark matter

New Simulation Sheds Light on Spiraling Supermassive Black Holes


----------



## Drone (Oct 8, 2018)

Curiosity, Mars











A third box bounced its way across asteroid Ryugu






Jupiter


----------



## Ahhzz (Oct 8, 2018)

Love those pics    Looking forward to seeing what pics we get from the Japanese and their asteroid


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 8, 2018)

StrayKAT said:


> How different would our solar system really be if there was one missing? Do they all play a part in making the Earth work? I know Jupiter helps ward off debris.. and the moon with tides.. but what the hell is the point of Mars?


Very different and Yes. Mars is theorized to have been very Earth-like early in the history of the solar system, which is supported by the information being retrieved by the probes on the surface of Mars. It's very exciting time to be and astronomer/astrophysicist.


----------



## Drone (Oct 11, 2018)

ISS transits our Sun
























Rotation of the Large Magellanic Cloud






*Positions and orbits of 20 high-velocity stars were identified using data from the second release of ESA’s Gaia mission*. ( @Ahhzz )
The seven stars shown in red are sprinting away from the Galaxy and could be travelling fast enough to eventually escape its gravity. Surprisingly, the study revealed also thirteen stars, shown in orange, that are racing towards the Milky Way: these could be stars from another galaxy, zooming right through our own.


----------



## Ahhzz (Oct 11, 2018)

Very cool!!!


----------



## Drone (Oct 15, 2018)

Asteroid Ryugu






Tiny sunspots


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 15, 2018)

The Sun has only once been this free of major spots since observation began. Extreme solar storms will be incoming in the next few years.


----------



## Drone (Oct 17, 2018)

Southern California as Seen From Apollo 7 (on Oct. 12, 1968)







ISS


----------



## Drone (Oct 19, 2018)

Space Shuttle Atlantis deploys the Galileo spacecraft, Oct. 18, 1989


----------



## Drone (Nov 3, 2018)




----------



## StrayKAT (Nov 3, 2018)

A documentary bound to anger some people, but it needs to be out there. If only to be mulled over and refuted..










It's not fringe per se or unfair (gives plenty of air time to big names like Kaku, Krauss, and Max Tegmark), but it questions the Cosmological Principle (but again, not in some fringe, flat earth sort of way).


----------



## Drone (Nov 7, 2018)

^ @StrayKAT  Video unavailable? 

Some cool stuff


----------



## StrayKAT (Nov 7, 2018)

Drone said:


> ^ @StrayKAT  Video unavailable?



Oh.. weird. Here's another copy.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Nov 8, 2018)

Drone said:


> ^ @StrayKAT Video unavailable?


Likely a copyright pull.


----------



## StrayKAT (Nov 8, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Likely a copyright pull.



Yeah, very likely. I actually rented it myself, but want everyone to see it any way they can now (everyone interested in cosmology).


----------



## Drone (Nov 8, 2018)




----------



## Ahhzz (Nov 8, 2018)

Drone said:


>


Is it bad the first thing I thought of was "Civilization" ?


----------



## Drone (Nov 8, 2018)

Ahhzz said:


> Is it bad the first thing I thought of was "Civilization" ?


You mean video game?  Never played the series. Recommend?


----------



## Ahhzz (Nov 8, 2018)

Drone said:


> You mean video game?  Never played the series. Recommend?


Oh, it's a classic, but only if you like that style of game   It's a world builder, with minor diplomacy options. As described : "_Originally created by legendary game designer Sid Meier, Civilization is a turn-based strategy game in which you attempt to build an empire to stand the test of time. Become Ruler of the World by establishing and leading a civilization from the Stone Age to the Information Age.". _The reason I thought of it when you posted all the Alpha Centauri vids was because that was one of the ways you could "win" the game: by being the first to launch a spaceship to Alpha Centauri 
As we're off topic a bit, behind the spoiler: 



Spoiler


----------



## Drone (Nov 9, 2018)

^  @Ahhzz  I see 


Friday goodness:

Jupiter:






Medusa Nebula. Medusa?! Looks like bird to me 










Yay! 500th Anniversary of Humanity's First Circumnavigation of Earth










What We Learned from the Kepler Space Telescope










ISS timelapse


----------



## lexluthermiester (Nov 10, 2018)

Drone said:


> Medusa Nebula. Medusa?! Looks like bird to me


Same here. The ancients needed glasses!


----------



## Drone (Nov 10, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Same here. The ancients needed glasses!


Medusa was originally discovered in 1955 by UCLA astronomer George Abell. So I would say Abell needed better telescope 
Isn't it awesome that as technical limitations get broken we get to know Universe better


----------



## micropage7 (Nov 10, 2018)

why i always thinking that there more "rooms" beyond our sight?
there's more to find beyond and this is just a dot from a bigger picture


----------



## Drone (Nov 10, 2018)

micropage7 said:


> why i always thinking that there more "rooms" beyond our sight?
> there's more to find beyond and this is just a dot from a bigger picture


Because laws of maths and phys totally allow infinite (in size and/or in number) Universes. If that's the case then our local observable 'Universe' is just one of them.
Infinities and hyper dimensions scare the hell out of people because those theories can't be falsified atm but I'm sure sooner or later mankind will find out.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Nov 11, 2018)

Drone said:


> Medusa was originally discovered in 1955 by UCLA astronomer George Abell. So I would say Abell needed better telescope


My comment was a "Stargate" joke.. LOL!


Drone said:


> Isn't it awesome that as technical limitations get broken we get to know Universe better


Exactly.


----------



## Drone (Nov 11, 2018)

New stuff:


----------



## Drone (Nov 13, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Nov 16, 2018)

Io Rising


----------



## Drone (Nov 18, 2018)

Antares Seen from Washington D.C. Tidal Basin on Nov. 17, 2018.


----------



## Drone (Nov 19, 2018)

On ancient Mars, water carved channels and transported sediments to form fans and deltas within lake basins. Examination of spectral data shows that some of these sediments have minerals that indicate chemical alteration by water. Here in Jezero Crater delta, sediments contain clays and carbonates.






































@Ahhzz  check this out


----------



## Drone (Nov 23, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Nov 29, 2018)

This Hubble Space Telescope mosaic is of a portion of the immense Coma cluster of > 1000 galaxies, located 300 million ly from Earth. Hubble's incredible sharpness was used to conduct a comprehensive census of the cluster's most diminutive members: a whopping 22426 globular star clusters.


----------



## Drone (Dec 2, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Dec 11, 2018)

NASA’s Newly Arrived OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Already Discovers Water on Asteroid







Astronaut Anne McClain's First Voyage to the ISS


----------



## Drone (Dec 17, 2018)




----------



## lexluthermiester (Dec 18, 2018)

@Drone You are always coming up with great video's!


----------



## MrGenius (Dec 19, 2018)

A new record breaker for the most distant object in the Solar System ever observed was discovered on November 10. The trans-Neptunian object *2018 VG18*, nicknamed Farout, is currently at a distance of ~120 AU from the Sun. Which is more than 3 times the average distance of Pluto from the Sun. And nearly 2 times the average distance from the Sun of Eris, the former record holder for most distant observed object in the Solar System. Farout is pinkish in color, and with an estimated diameter of roughly 500 km (310 mi), is a candidate for designation as a dwarf planet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_VG18


----------



## Drone (Dec 19, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Dec 21, 2018)

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 8's Launch Into History


----------



## Drone (Dec 22, 2018)




----------



## Drone (Jan 1, 2019)

Some E8 fun, new photos from Jupiter and more:


----------



## Drone (Jan 10, 2019)

*Gaia reveals how Sun-like stars turn solid after their demise*

Stellar evolution






XMM-Newton's view of star-shredding black hole


----------



## Drone (Jan 15, 2019)




----------



## Drone (Jan 22, 2019)




----------



## Drone (Feb 1, 2019)

Sun in 2018






This image is a mosaic of sky photographs taken by the Pan-Pan-STARRS Observatory.







Curiosity on Mars






Orion bubble






ISS and Earth


----------



## Drone (Feb 15, 2019)

Robert Curbeam: Building the Space Station (December 2006)






Opportunity (rip), Mars






Rosetta (Earth flyby)


----------



## lexluthermiester (Feb 15, 2019)

Drone said:


> Opportunity (rip), Mars


Is it really gone? I read somewhere they'd managed to get it back up and running.


----------



## Drone (Feb 15, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> Is it really gone? I read somewhere they'd managed to get it back up and running.


It's gone


















But long live Mars 2020


----------



## Drone (Feb 17, 2019)

Thanks @dorsetknob  for these links:

Nasa's New Horizons: 'Space snowman' appears squashed

NASA’s twin probes studying Earth’s radiation belts are in the last stages of their mission – and will end their lives by nosediving into our planet’s atmosphere, the US space agency announced Thursday.


----------



## Drone (Feb 22, 2019)

ISS















Perspective view of ancient river valley network on Mars






Hayabusa-2: Japan spacecraft touches down on asteroid










Thanks @dorsetknob  for these links:
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...llet-at-asteroid-to-obtain-samples/ar-BBTSYOo
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47293317


----------



## Drone (Feb 23, 2019)




----------



## Drone (Feb 26, 2019)

Jupiter


----------



## Drone (Feb 28, 2019)

Curiosity, Mars










































Sun and iss


----------



## Drone (Mar 13, 2019)




----------



## witkazy (Mar 15, 2019)

Howdy neighbour 
https://gizmodo.com/mercury-not-venus-is-the-closest-planet-to-earth-1833290616/amp


----------



## FCG (Mar 16, 2019)

Drone said:


> *Gaia reveals how Sun-like stars turn solid after their demise*
> 
> Stellar evolution



*Actual stellar evolution*





Age limit (Type II supernova) results in creation of white dwarf (invisible, X-ray emitter) -- what conventional astronomy incorrectly labels a "black hole" -- and cloud of low speed (1-x) 3D spherically-distributed matter, intermediate speed (2-x) 2D rings, and ultra high-speed (3-x) 1D polar jets.

Outer layers of supernova star explode in space.  Inner core explodes in time (inward in space), being confined, and atoms are accelerated past the "speed of light."

Over time gravity re-forms the exploded star.  As spacial gravity re-condenses the low-speed matter (heating and condensing in space), temporal gravity does the same with the white dwarf causing it to cool and expand in space (heat and contract in time).  Given time, both stars re-enter the main sequence... this time the former white dwarf is hanging out for the next thermal/age limit destruction (Type I or Type II supernova).

Edit: just like heating up a bar of metal... first a dull red glow as it gets hot, then orange, then yellow, then yellow-white (Sol's stage in evolution... at least 3rd gen now), then white-hot, then blue-hot, then it fractures (supernova).

P.S. Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune are closer to stars than planets


----------



## lexluthermiester (Mar 16, 2019)

@FCG 
There are so many problems with your comment.. Let's just say your understanding of astrophysics needs help.


----------



## FCG (Mar 16, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> @FCG
> There are so many problems with your comment.. Let's just say your understanding of astrophysics needs help.



Roger.
Recommend you take a look at something other than what you've been taught (i.e. TOLD).


----------



## lexluthermiester (Mar 16, 2019)

FCG said:


> Roger.
> Recommend you take a look at something other than what you've been taught (i.e. TOLD).


Or I can rely on my own research. Yeah, I think I'm gonna do that. Thanks for the tip though.


----------



## FCG (Mar 16, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> Or I can rely on my own research. Yeah, I think I'm gonna do that. Thanks for the tip though.



You bet!  Good luck with that research.
Let me know how your research into Dark Energy and Dark Matter go.
Make sure you throw Black Holes and Neutron Stars in the mix as well.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Mar 16, 2019)

FCG said:


> Let me know how your research into Dark Energy and Dark Matter go.


Happily. Can already do that. News flash for you there bub; dark matter and dark energy do not exist. More to the point the energy/matter science thinks is "dark" actually isn't. It's simply beyond our range of observation. All of the work being done to "find" dark energy/matter is a waste of time, money and effort. We will never find such because we are physically incapable of interacting with them.


----------



## FCG (Mar 16, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> Happy, can already do that. News flash for you there bub; dark matter and dark energy do not exist. More to the point the energy/matter science thinks is "dark" actually isn't. It's simply beyond our range of observation. All of the work being done to "find" dark energy/matter is a waste of time, money and effort. We will never find such because we are physically incapable of interacting with them.



I agree with a lot you have to share... to a point.
I do disagree that we are incapable of interacting with the cosmic sector... this forms the basis for our universe.
Good to see you haven't fallen for the Dark Energy/Dark Matter ruse.
There must be explanation for the "physical" observed as so there must be an answer laying wait to be found.
I submit to you that you will not find any such answer by following today's "modern" astronomy forums.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Mar 16, 2019)

FCG said:


> I do disagree that we are incapable of interacting with the cosmic sector... this forms the basis for our universe.


That only shows your misunderstanding of the dynamics of the universe and cosmos at large.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Mar 16, 2019)

Did you post pics of uranus


----------



## FCG (Mar 16, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> That only shows your misunderstanding of the dynamics of the universe and cosmos at large.



What otherwise would be force fields if not the effect of time on space?
The two are a balance in one.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Mar 16, 2019)

FCG said:


> What otherwise would be force fields if not the effect of time on space?
> The two are a balance in one.


That assumes the universe exists as it is described, a "Space Time Continuum". However that can not be correct as the universe behaves is ways that contradict that description.


----------



## FCG (Mar 16, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> That assumes the universe exists as it is described, a "Space Time Continuum". However that can not be correct as the universe behaves is ways that contradict that description.



The true nature of the universe is scalar.
What you and I experience as our reality is our own 3D construct that we call extension space which exists in three dimensions of coordinate space with scalar (clock) time.  Would you believe there exists this relationship in reciprocal: 3D time with scalar (clock) space?  It's true.

Have you read Plato's The Allegory of the Cave?  Classic.
https://web.stanford.edu/class/ihum40/cave.pdf


----------



## Drone (Mar 18, 2019)

This image captures a landform on Mars peculiar to the Hellas Basin, sometimes referred to as ‘banded terrain’.







A New Crew Heads to the Space Station






Saturn at equinox






This photo of Ceres and the bright regions in Occator Crater was one of the last views NASA's Dawn spacecraft transmitted before it depleted its remaining hydrazine and completed its mission.


----------



## FCG (Mar 18, 2019)

Drone said:


> This image captures a landform on Mars peculiar to the Hellas Basin, sometimes referred to as ‘banded terrain’.
> 
> Saturn at equinox



Equatorial rings such as those shown in the image above are caused when a star reaches supernova and portions of some layers are accelerated FTL into the 2-x intermediate speed range and has only a 2D spacial representation in or fixed 3D coordinate system.  This 2-x motion will give off X-rays as matter drop back down to the low speed (1-x) range.  Yes, Saturn's rings are an X-ray source.

This is similar to the effect seen in some supernova where the explosion is violent enough to create 1D polar jets.  This motion, also FTL, has been accelerated to the 3-x ultra high-speed range.  Matter dropping below "Light speed" from the ultra high-speed range will emit gamma rays.

Low speed (1-x) matter is distributed spherically (3D) in space.

Matter accelerated FTL will emit RF.  An example would be a spark gap interrupter in a LC tank circuit.  Pop! + RF "interference."

Saturn has much more in common with an early Main Sequence star than a planet.
That it has rings means that it has supernova'ed at least once already.
Judging by the faint glow... I would suspect not much fuel to fission at the moment.


----------



## biffzinker (Mar 20, 2019)

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Uh oh: 
"The probe, known as a “mole”, started to burrow into the surface Feb. 28, hammering its way into the surface. Tilman Spohn of the German space agency DLR, principal investigator for HP3, said that it appeared to reach a depth of about 30 centimeters after a four-hour hammering session. The probe, though, went no deeper during a second, five-hour hammering session March 2, after which the instrument team decided to hold off on further efforts to burrow into the surface.

Spohn said at the conference that the team speculated that the probe hit a rock shortly after burrowing into the surface that deflected it by about 15 degrees but allowed it to continue. “At about 30 centimeters depth we encountered something,” he said. “We don’t know yet if it’s a harder layer of regolith or a rock.”

https://spacenews.com/engineers-still-studying-problem-with-insight-heat-flow-probe/


----------



## Drone (Mar 26, 2019)

Sun











NASA's InSight lander took this series of images on Tuesday, March 5, 2019, capturing the moment when Phobos, one of Mars' moons, crossed in front of the Sun and darkened the ground around the lander. The images were taken by InSight's Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), located on the lander's robotic arm.


----------



## dorsetknob (Mar 26, 2019)

Martian lunar Eclipse wow that's a Rare event ( especially for us Terran's to observe in any way)


----------



## juiseman (Mar 26, 2019)

that's a pretty good close up of the moon; where did you get that?
its really too bad we didn't actually go there...

EDIT: oops, my bad... I just saw it was Mars....wait...if we can see Mars that good; cant we
see 1/2 inch pebbles on the moon?...


----------



## dorsetknob (Apr 28, 2019)

*Watch a debate over whether Pluto should get its planet status back *

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/tech...lanet-status-back/ar-BBWnm5E?ocid=mailsignout

my Opinion is that its a Planet with 5 moons  Confirmed !!!


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 29, 2019)

dorsetknob said:


> *Watch a debate over whether Pluto should get its planet status back *
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/tech...lanet-status-back/ar-BBWnm5E?ocid=mailsignout
> 
> my Opinion is that its a Planet with 5 moons  Confirmed !!!



In mo opinion, this is the most important thing, it has to have cleared its orbital neighbourhood, which pluto did not.


----------



## DeathtoGnomes (Apr 29, 2019)

dorsetknob said:


> *Watch a debate over whether Pluto should get its planet status back *
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/tech...lanet-status-back/ar-BBWnm5E?ocid=mailsignout
> 
> my Opinion is that its a Planet with 5 moons  Confirmed !!!


3 of those moons are just stopping in for lunch. Mr. Nash....nvm.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Apr 30, 2019)

tigger said:


> In mo opinion, this is the most important thing, it has to have cleared its orbital neighbourhood, which Pluto did not.


What do you mean by "cleared"? Do you mean debris in it's orbit? Earth hasn't done that either..


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 30, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> What do you mean by "cleared"? Do you mean debris in it's orbit? Earth hasn't done that either..



It basically means it's the big fish in it's oribit in terms of being the majority of mass.  Pluto is not.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 30, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> What do you mean by "cleared"? Do you mean debris in it's orbit? Earth hasn't done that either..



lol Earth hasn't done that. Of course it has, that is one of the definitions of being a planet and the reason it was decided Pluto was not one.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Apr 30, 2019)

tigger said:


> lol Earth hasn't done that. Of course it has, that is one of the definitions of being a planet and the reason it was decided Pluto was not one.


If that were true, we would not be pelted every 30 seconds by meteors and meteorites and other such leftover rubbish from the formation of the solar system. No it hasn't. By the same measure, none of the other planets have either. Such a condition is a completely lacking way to define what a "planet" is, even if partly. Just because general academia accepts it doesn't make it correct.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Apr 30, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> If that were true, we would not be pelted every 30 seconds by meteors and meteorites and other such leftover rubbish from the formation of the solar system. No it hasn't. By the same measure, none of the other planets have either. Such a condition is a completely lacking way to define what a "planet" is, even if partly. Just because general academia accepts it doesn't make it correct.



Well forgive me, It seems the definition of a planet will have to be re-written because you don't agree with it. Clearing the orbit does not include specks. the earth and the other planets have cleared their orbits, whether you agree with it or not.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Apr 30, 2019)

R-T-B said:


> It basically means it's the big fish in it's oribit in terms of being the majority of mass. Pluto is not.


This is more acceptable. However, Pluto is the big fish in most of it's orbital path. It is possible, and entirely likely, that Pluto was "nudged" out of it's original orbit by an unknown astronomical event. Pluto is in it's own orbit around this home star. It also has a mass sufficiant to maintain satellites in stable orbit around itself. Those are acceptable definitions.


tigger said:


> Well forgive me, It seems the definition of a planet will have to be re-written because you don't agree with it.


Lots of qualifed people don't agree with it. I'm hardly alone.


tigger said:


> the earth and the other planets have cleared their orbits, whether you agree with it or not.


Your opinion of course.


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 30, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> It also has a mass sufficiant to maintain satellites in stable orbit around itself.



Some co-orbit it though.  Therein lies part of the issue with the present definition.  Pluto is more a system than a planet, there is more mass in moons than there is in Pluto if I'm not mistaken.

If that's the case, you need to revise the definition to readmit it, honestly.



lexluthermiester said:


> Lots of qualifed people don't agree with it. I'm hardly alone.



I'm unaware of any, but would be open to being proven wrong..  Keep in mind trojan bodies don't count.


----------



## dorsetknob (Apr 30, 2019)

Think we all agree Pluto/Charon is unique for our Solar system
I Believe they were considering calling  Pluto/Charon a Binary planetry system .


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 30, 2019)

dorsetknob said:


> Think we all agree Pluto/Charon is unique for our Solar system
> I Believe they were considering calling  Pluto/Charon a Binary planetry system .



I'm all for that, frankly.  Sounds way cooler than "Dwarf Planet" and has none of the "haha you're not a planet, go play with the asteroids!" connotation which it really doesn't need.


----------



## dorsetknob (Apr 30, 2019)

R-T-B said:


> Some co-orbit it though. Therein lies part of the issue with the present definition. Pluto is more a system than a planet, there is more mass in moons than there is in Pluto if I'm not mistaken.


Pluto and Charon have a common Center of orbit that lies somewhere between the 2
the other 4 minor moons co orbit this pair and they speculate that there might also be a fine ring system


----------



## Ahhzz (Apr 30, 2019)

R-T-B said:


> Some co-orbit it though.  Therein lies part of the issue with the present definition.  Pluto is more a system than a planet, there is more mass in moons than there is in Pluto if I'm not mistaken.
> 
> If that's the case, you need to revise the definition to readmit it, honestly.
> 
> ...


_"It's a sloppy definition," Metzger said of the IAU's definition. "They didn't say what they meant by clearing their orbit. If you take that literally, then there are no planets, because no planet clears its orbit." _"  

Here's an article from the University of Central Florida, Their recommendation:  

"_Metzger recommends classifying a planet based on if it is large enough that its gravity allows it to become spherical in shape.
"And that's not just an arbitrary definition, Metzger said. "It turns out this is an important milestone in the evolution of a planetary body, because apparently when it happens, it initiates active geology in the body."_


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 30, 2019)

dorsetknob said:


> Pluto and Charon have a common Center of orbit that lies somewhere between the 2
> the other 4 minor moons co orbit this pair and they speculate that there might also be a fine ring system



I'm aware.  "Some" was just poor wording.  Before it's demotion, Pluto was my favorite planet (and Charon was it's only moon).


----------



## dont whant to set it"' (May 2, 2019)

So the solar system has 4 planets, 4 gas giants(brown dwarfs) and the planetoid Pluto?


----------



## R-T-B (May 2, 2019)

dont whant to set it"' said:


> So the solar system has 4 planets, 4 gas giants(brown dwarfs) and the planetoid Pluto?



Gas giants are planets.  Brown dwarfs are stars.


----------



## Caring1 (May 2, 2019)

R-T-B said:


> Brown dwarfs are stars.


Google image search is too P.C.
I actually expected images other than stars


----------



## R-T-B (May 2, 2019)

Caring1 said:


> Google image search is too P.C.



Yes, but in this case it is probably doing it's job properly.


----------



## dorsetknob (May 2, 2019)

dont whant to set it"' said:


> So the solar system has 4 planets, 4 gas giants(brown dwarfs) and the planetoid Pluto?


Current Belief is
4 inner planets ( Mercury Venus Earth Mars)
2 planetoid in Asteroid Belt (Ceres Vesta).
4 Gas Giants (Jupiter Saturn Neptune Uranus )
5+ Kuiper Belt Planetoids ( Pluto Sedna Eris  Quoaor 38628 Huya Salacia 2002 UX25 + more yet to be found and named)

NO Brown Dwarf Stars and The planet of _Nibiru_ also not found


----------



## lexluthermiester (May 2, 2019)

R-T-B said:


> Brown dwarfs are stars.


Technically, that is incorrect. A star is any body of mass that has nuclear reactions taking place in it's core. Brown dwarfs do not. It would be better to call them "Proto-Stars" or something similar.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (May 2, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> Technically, that is incorrect. A star is any body of mass that has nuclear reactions taking place in it's core. Brown dwarfs do not. It would be better to call them "Proto-Stars" or something similar.



Or a dead dwarf


----------



## cornemuse (May 2, 2019)

tigger said:


> Or a dead dwarf



Hey! no dwarf tossing!!


----------



## dorsetknob (May 3, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> Technically, that is incorrect. A star is any body of mass that has nuclear reactions taking place in it's core. Brown dwarfs do not. It would be better to call them "Proto-Stars" or something similar.


Brown Dwarf's are Classed as Stars
Many do have a "Nuclear Reaction" ongoing at their core   (hydrogen fusing to Deuterium) but this is not enough to Ignite into full Fusion

Case in Point Jupiter is outputting more heat as a Solar Body than it receives from our Sun which is probably due to Radioactive Decay at the core.


----------



## Drone (May 22, 2019)




----------



## Drone (May 29, 2019)




----------



## R-T-B (May 30, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> Technically, that is incorrect. A star is any body of mass that has nuclear reactions taking place in it's core.



Seems you are correct.  Cookie for you...  Be careful a frog made it.



dorsetknob said:


> Brown Dwarf's are Classed as Stars



Wikipedia seems to agree with him.  I think they can have stellar properties (like being the center of a solar system) but they are not technically stars.


----------



## lexluthermiester (May 30, 2019)

R-T-B said:


> Wikipedia seems to agree


Not just Wikipedia..









						Are brown dwarfs failed stars or super-planets?
					

Brown dwarfs fill the "gap" between stars and the much smaller planets—two very different types of astronomical objects. But how they originate has yet to be fully explained. Astronomers from Heidelberg University may now be able to answer that question. They discovered that the star ν Ophiuchi...




					phys.org
				






			What is a brown dwarf?
		










						Are brown dwarfs stars, planets or neither?
					

The saga continues...



					www.astronomy.com


----------



## dorsetknob (May 30, 2019)

Mass and therefore gravity Determin what elements Fuze together
Because of their Size and mass it is Suspected Brown Dwarf's can only Fuze hydrogen to Deuterium and that is the maximin status of their Fusion.
and of course this limits the Power/Temputure they can achive


----------



## MatGrow (May 31, 2019)

Is it modeling or real shoot?


----------



## lexluthermiester (May 31, 2019)

MatGrow said:


> Is it modeling or real shoot?


Who are you talking to? And what are you talking about? 

Using TPU's builtin reply function helps everyone know these things. Otherwise, it's all just guessing games and none of us are mind-readers.


----------



## R-T-B (May 31, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> Who are you talking to? And what are you talking about?
> 
> Using TPU's builtin reply function helps everyone know these things. Otherwise, it's all just guessing games and none of us are mind-readers.



Looking at his comment history I would guess he is talking about the older black hole photos.  Or maybe these?  Regardless he's asking I think if the photos are "real."


----------



## lexluthermiester (May 31, 2019)

R-T-B said:


> Looking at his comment history I would guess he is talking about the older black hole photos.  Or maybe these?  Regardless he's asking I think if the photos are "real."


That's exactly the point, it's a guessing game unless he quotes what he's replying too..


----------



## dont whant to set it"' (Jun 29, 2019)

NASA is "about" to send a helicopter drone to Saturn's satellite Titan for research and exploration of course, it is part of NASA's New Frontier Program.



			NASA is sending a drone helicopter to Saturn’s Titan in search of life
		









						Nasa to send Dragonfly drone to explore Titan, Saturn's largest moon
					

Major new mission, in which Dragonfly will hunt potential landing sites, to help scientists research whether Titan could support microbial life




					www.theguardian.com


----------



## Space Lynx (Jul 25, 2019)

since @Drone is getting lazy these days. thought I'd share instead.  hehehehe 









						NASA releases magnificent new images of the Milky Way
					

It's the Chandra X-ray Observatory's 20th anniversary, and NASA is celebrating in...




					www.sfgate.com


----------



## Drone (Jul 25, 2019)

@lynx29  XD

























When observed with the unaided eye, Omega Centauri, the object in this image, appears as a fuzzy, faint star. But the blue orb we see here is, in fact, a collection of 10 million stars.






Astronomers using the Nobeyama Radio Obeservatory (NRO) 45-m telescope found that high-density gas, the material for stars, accounts for only 3% of the total mass of gas distributed in the Milky Way. This result provides key information for understanding the unexpectedly low production rate of stars


----------



## metalfiber (Jul 30, 2019)

A Japanese space probe captures video showing asteroid Ryugu being shot so that it could capture material.









						Japanese space probe captures video showing touchdown on comet
					

Images from the Japanese space probe Hayabusa 2 shows the moment that it touched down for the second time on the asteroid Ryugu on July 11. Credit: JAXA, Chiba Institute of Technology & collaborators via Storyful This footage, which is made up of still images taken at intervals of between 0. 5...




					newschannel9.com
				




More info on the mission.


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## Space Lynx (Jul 30, 2019)

pretty cool. thanks for sharing it metalfiber


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## delshay (Jul 30, 2019)

I'm surprised no one here is talking about "Asteroid 2019 OK" which just miss the earth a few days ago.


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## dorsetknob (Jul 30, 2019)

just read a couple of news items about this
"came out of Nowhere to cross earths orbit  ( a couple of Hours warning)"



			How astronomers missed the huge asteroid that just whizzed past Earth
		










						Asteroid 2019 OK to flyby Earth at 0.19 LD on July 25 - the largest of the year
					

A newly discovered asteroid designated 2019 OK is expected to flyby Earth at a distance of just 0.19 LD / 0.00048 AU (71 806 km / 44 618 miles) at 01:22 UTC on July 25, 2019. This object is slightly…




					watchers.news
				




Astronomers in Brazil and the United States separately discovered 2019 OK a couple of days ago, but its surprise visit was only announced a couple of hours before it passed by. "The lack of warning shows how quickly potentially dangerous asteroids can sneak up on us," Brown wrote. And though this asteroid "is not a threat to Earth right now," other such near-Earth asteroids can be.


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## delshay (Jul 30, 2019)

dorsetknob said:


> just read a couple of news items about this
> "came out of Nowhere to cross earths orbit  ( a couple of Hours warning)"
> 
> 
> ...



Here's a kicker.

I pointed out many of us are thinking about asteroid(s) hitting earth, but I pointed out what will happen if an asteroid hits the moon. Will it kick the moon out of orbit. I then got an answer that the moon is to big by a user in the thread, & the answer was no. Then what seems like an expert told me the real answer.

If the asteroid has enough mass it will push the moon ever so slightly out of orbit. So it's not the size, it's the mass compared to the moon.


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## kapone32 (Jul 30, 2019)

delshay said:


> Here's a kicker.
> 
> I pointed out many of use are thinking about asteroid(s) hitting earth, but I pointed out what will happen if an asteroid hits the moon. Will it kick the moon out of orbit. I then got an answer that the moon is to big by a user in the thread, & the answer was no. Then what seems like an expert told me the real answer.
> 
> If the asteroid has enough mass it will push the moon ever so slightly out of orbit. So it's not the size, it's the mass compared to the moon.



Yes it totally depends on size or composition.


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## lexluthermiester (Aug 1, 2019)

delshay said:


> Will it kick the moon out of orbit.


Such an impact would need to be greatly massive. No one would miss such an impact as even if it happened on the far side of the moon, we would still see the results of such an impact within seconds of it taking place. At a maximum of 130m estimated size, even if it were solid gold(which it wasn't), it just isn't massive enough to change the trajectory of the moon in any meaningful way.


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## Drone (Aug 9, 2019)

Latest NASA/ESA images

ISS transiting the Sun






Asteroid '2019 OK' observed moving against backdrop of stars






Terra Cimmeria (Mars)






Sun






Seven Years After Landing, Curiosity Rover is Still Rock N' Rolling







Jupiter


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## Drone (Aug 13, 2019)

The crew of the ISS snapped this image of a full Moon as the orbiting complex flew 270 miles above the South Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America.


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## lexluthermiester (Aug 13, 2019)

Drone said:


>


This video illustrates two important points.
1, that our understanding of the way we look the universe as a whole is flawed, even if only just slightly, and
2, the we need to find a way to fix the problems with General & Special Relativity.


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## Drone (Aug 17, 2019)

Absolutely mind-blowing video, highly recommended
The history of the Universe in the blink of an eye










Other stuff






































NGC 2022 - vast orb of gas in space, cast off by an aging star. The star is visible in the orb's center, shining through the gases.


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## Drone (Aug 19, 2019)




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## lexluthermiester (Aug 20, 2019)

Several of those video's are so misinformed and flawed it makes me want to go on a rant... However, I will refrain...


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## Drone (Aug 25, 2019)

This atmospheric image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows dark, gloomy nebulae (known as NGC 2371 and NGC 2372) in the constellation of Gemini


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## Drone (Aug 30, 2019)

This Picture of the Week from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 5307, a planetary nebula which lies ~ 10000 light years from Earth. It can be seen in the constellation Centaurus.
A star like our Sun will, at the end of its life, transform into a red giant. Stars are sustained by the nuclear fusion that occurs in their core, which creates energy. The nuclear fusion processes constantly try to rip the star apart. Only the gravity of the star prevents this from happening. At the end of the red giant phase of a star, these forces become unbalanced. Without enough energy created by fusion, the core of the star collapses in on itself, while the surface layers are ejected outward. After that, all that remains of the star is what we see here: glowing outer layers surrounding a white dwarf star, the remnants of the red giant star’s core. This isn’t the end of this star’s evolution though — those outer layers are still moving and cooling. In just a few thousand years they will have dissipated, and all that will be left to see is the dimly glowing white dwarf.


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## Drone (Sep 3, 2019)

Dividing night from day on Saturn's rings


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## Drone (Sep 11, 2019)

Rustaveli crater on Mercury






Infrared view of the M81 Galaxy






Satellite Captures Four Tropical Cyclones from Space






Dwarf galaxy named UGC 685


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## Space Lynx (Sep 11, 2019)

The Water Vapor Find on 'Habitable' Exoplanet K2-18 b Is Exciting — But It's No Earth Twin
					

But who says the confirmation of alien life will come on Earth 2.0?




					www.space.com
				




Also, since in space we have no resistance... if we were going near the speed of light would are bodies even feel it? There would be no force of gravity correct? So its a matter of finding out how to get to a habitable planet elsewhere. Since it curves and matter tells the curve what to do, I wonder if its possible if we could figure out a way to create a makeshift slingshot by using the suns gravity in accord with a nuclear powered future spaceship that starts far away but increases its speed as it comes closer to the sun, and right before burn up max temp reached it can sling shot itself using the gravity to reach near light speed.  i dunno, just daydreaming don't mind me

speaking of dreams, i'd def volunteer for one of these missions, the 0.00000000001% chance of having a planet all to yourself


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## Drone (Sep 11, 2019)

lynx29 said:


> Also, since in space we have no resistance... if we were going near the speed of light would are bodies even feel it? There would be no force of gravity correct? So its a matter of finding out how to get to a habitable planet elsewhere. Since it curves and matter tells the curve what to do, I wonder if its possible if we could figure out a way to create a makeshift slingshot by using the suns gravity in accord with a nuclear powered future spaceship that starts far away but increases its speed as it comes closer to the sun, and right before burn up max temp reached it can sling shot itself using the gravity to reach near light speed.  i dunno, just daydreaming don't mind me
> 
> speaking of dreams, i'd def volunteer for one of these missions, the 0.00000000001% chance of having a planet all to yourself



When body moves with the constant speed it doesn't feel the motion at all. It's acceleration and jerk (lol) aka change in acceleration that make difference. Photons move with the speed of light, but they don't accelerate to that speed, they just get it from the start [photon either moves with the speed of light or it doesn't exist at all].

So if human moves super fast it won't hurt them, even better they will age much slower. Two good things in one package, you're moving hyper fast and you don't age, woooohooooo.
*back to Earth* Accelerating to that speed will generate enormous g-force and that will .. rip you a new one.

Other than that slingshot idea is super cool. Black holes can and do accelerate entire star systems to 99.999% speed of light. But Sun's mass is not enough to provide such acceleration.


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## Drone (Sep 13, 2019)

and for fun


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## Drone (Sep 18, 2019)

North polar dunes on Mars
During winter in the polar regions, a thin layer of carbon dioxide ice covers the surface and then sublimates with the first light of spring. In the dune fields, this springtime defrosting occurs from the bottom up, trapping gas between the ice and the sand. As the ice cracks, this gas is released violently and carries sand with it, forming the dark patches and streaks.





Bouncing boulder on Comet 67P/C-G


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## Drone (Nov 11, 2019)

The telescopes at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile and 22-degree halo


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## biffzinker (Nov 12, 2019)

Drone said:


> The telescopes at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile and 22-degree halo


Thanks for sharing the photo. That's something I haven't seen before.


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## Drone (Nov 29, 2019)

Scientists have discovered a 'monster' black hole that's so big it shouldn't exist

thanks @dorsetknob for this news


----------



## Drone (Dec 5, 2019)




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## Drone (Dec 17, 2019)




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## Drone (Jan 7, 2020)

Glittering Lights of Earth As Seen From the ISS






The Milky Way stretches across the sky over Paranal, the site of ESO's VLT.


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## Space Lynx (Jan 7, 2020)

@Drone What are your thoughts on the astronaut Mark Kelly when he said after living in space for so long he could see the atmosphere looking sicker? Now combined with the massive fires that have never lasted this long in the Amazon and Australia, just in your opinion/observations at looking at images like this over the years... do you think we are in more trouble than we realize? 

The cycles of nature are extremely extremely complex, and I don't think the common man, even many members of Congress understand that. I watched a documentary once, talking about how the sand from the sahara gets transported  to fertilize other parts of the world, the rains from Amazon delivered on clouds all the way across the world to the Sahara Desert to allow the initial explosion of growth, etc. It's all very interesting how massive distance wise everything is integrated.


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## Drone (Jan 7, 2020)

@lynx29  Atmosphere and oceans can 'heal' themselves iff humans won't @#$%& it all up. Earth was in trouble many times before, so many times it lost so many life forms, now with humans around Earth kinda became a ticking bomb with faulty clocks. 50% of trees is gone, 75% of fish is gone, plastic, space junk. With intelligent people, science and technology Earth can be saved. With improved space program dangerous asteroids can be deflected. At least humans were smart enough and in 1963 'Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water' was signed. Do I have faith in humanity? I dunno, I hope so. Even though with corrupted politicians, jerks and freaks and human stupidity in general things don't always look so promising lol


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## Space Lynx (Jan 7, 2020)

Drone said:


> @lynx29  Atmosphere and oceans can 'heal' themselves iff humans won't @#$%& it all up. Earth was in trouble many times before, so many times it lost so many life forms, now with humans around Earth kinda became a ticking bomb with faulty clocks. 50% of trees is gone, 75% of fish is gone, plastic, space junk. With intelligent people, science and technology Earth can be saved. With improved space program dangerous asteroids can be deflected. At least humans were smart enough and in 1963 'Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water' was signed. Do I have faith in humanity? I dunno, I hope so. Even though with corrupted politicians, jerks and freaks and human stupidity in general things don't always look so promising lol



At least people are having less kids for a couple generations now, that should help the Earth heal some, once population levels even out some. 

I did not know 75% fish were gone though, holy crap... and even the fish we have now is mercury level so high it's really not healthy to eat. Heh, it's a shame.

I still have faith in humanity though, Bill Gates shows statistics on it sometimes, especially about how population control is improving immensely. Once the older generation is gone, population will be relatively manageable I think after that. It's weird to think of human issues and Earth healing as a population issue, but really it is important to be objective about the numbers of it all... I mean the 75% fish one just proves my point on it. It's to many damn people, lol


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## Drone (Jan 7, 2020)

@lynx29  I don't know _exact_ percentage now but in 2015 scientists reported that Earth lost half of its marine life, it's a global problem of overfishing. Scientists' guesstimation that probably in this century there will be no fish in Earth's ocean. I mean seriously, it's a big tragedy. 









						Ocean Fish Numbers Cut in Half Since 1970
					

The amount of fish in the oceans has plunged to the "brink of collapse" caused by over-fishing and other threats, the WWF conservation group said




					www.scientificamerican.com
				











						Report: Marine life has taken devastating hit over 40 years | CNN
					

A new report from the World Wildlife Fund indicates a nearly 50% decline in marine life populations between 1970 and 2012.




					edition.cnn.com


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## kapone32 (Jan 7, 2020)

Drone said:


> @lynx29  I don't know _exact_ percentage now but in 2015 scientists reported that Earth lost half of its marine life, it's a global problem of overfishing. Scientists' guesstimation that probably in this century there will be no fish in Earth's ocean. I mean seriously, it's a big tragedy.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



It is not just overfishing. The warming and acidification of the Oceans are one cause and the amount of plastic in our Oceans can also be blamed for the drop in fish stocks.


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## Space Lynx (Jan 8, 2020)

Yeah, and we will never be able to stop the super rich exploiting illegal fisherman/black markets. Humans are just that way... and it's too big to patrol. So yeah. Major upheaval is coming to the cycles of life, since we are not the only ones who rely on fish, then the chain begins to break down. Wow I am depressed now lmao


rabbit hole deep dive regrets... lol  damn.


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## biffzinker (Jan 20, 2020)

Caltech said:
			
		

> A rare asteroid orbiting snugly within the inner confines of our solar system has been discovered by Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, a survey camera based at Palomar Observatory. The newfound body, named 2020 AV2, is the first asteroid found to orbit entirely within the orbit of Venus.











						First Asteroid Found Inside Orbit of Venus
					

ZTF has discovered an asteroid that circles the sun every 151 days.




					www.caltech.edu


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## Drone (Jan 22, 2020)




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## Drone (Feb 6, 2020)

European Space Agency astronaut and International Space Station commander Luca Parmitano finalizes repairs to the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. The instrument, which detects a dark matter and antimatter, was repaired during a spacewalk on Jan. 25, 2020, that lasted 6 hours and 16 minutes.

If someone wants to watch/listen: latest cosmology/quantum mechanics talks by Brian Greene and Sean Carroll.


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## Space Lynx (Feb 7, 2020)

We are entering the Golden Age of studying our Sun
					

"There is no doubt that the observations and insight will be unprecedented."




					arstechnica.com


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## Drone (Feb 27, 2020)

Gullies on Mars form during the winter, fluidized by carbon dioxide frost.






ESO facilities observed the asteroid Pallas for the first time at extremely high angular resolution.
Although Pallas is the largest known asteroid in the Solar System after Ceres and Vesta, it is the only one of these large asteroids that has not been visited by a spacecraft. 
This is due to its orbit, which has an unusually high inclination to the plane of the Earth’s orbit — which means it is particularly challenging to land a spacecraft on.


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## Drone (Mar 9, 2020)

Moreux crater (Mars)






Barred spiral galaxy NGC 3887






Spiral galaxy NGC 1589


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## Space Lynx (Mar 9, 2020)

@Drone 

What is the ETA of James Webb Space Telescope getting launched, is it 2021 or 2022?


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## kapone32 (Mar 9, 2020)

lynx29 said:


> @Drone
> 
> What is the ETA of James Webb Space Telescope getting launched, is it 2021 or 2022?



I think it is supposed to be 2021.


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## Space Lynx (Mar 9, 2020)

kapone32 said:


> I think it is supposed to be 2021.



Let's hope so!!!!


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## Drone (Mar 9, 2020)

@lynx29 March 30, 2021








						New launch date for James Webb Space Telescope
					

After completion of an independent review, a new launch date for the James Webb Space Telescope has been announced: 30 March 2021.



					www.esa.int


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## kapone32 (Mar 9, 2020)

lynx29 said:


> Let's hope so!!!!



I can't wait to see the images from this telescope. It would be interesting to see what else we find in the Keiper belt. Maybe we may even be able to see Niburu or whatever is effecting the comets and mini ice planets in the Keiper belt.


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## Drone (Mar 9, 2020)

Cool videos


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## dorsetknob (Apr 15, 2020)

A newly discovered asteroid about the size of a house will zip safely by Earth on Wednesday (April 15), passing just inside the orbit of the moon. 
The asteroid 2020 GH2 will pass Earth at a range of about 223,000 miles (359,000 kilometers). The average distance from the Earth to the moon is about 239,000 miles (385,000 km).


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## Space Lynx (Apr 15, 2020)

dorsetknob said:


> A newly discovered asteroid about the size of a house will zip safely by Earth on Wednesday (April 15), passing just inside the orbit of the moon.
> The asteroid 2020 GH2 will pass Earth at a range of about 223,000 miles (359,000 kilometers). The average distance from the Earth to the moon is about 239,000 miles (385,000 km).



let's say hypothetically the calculation was slightly for some hypothetical rare reason, the size of a house may very well burn up in the atmosphere still? perhaps if it had a weak center and broke in two upon impact? if not, the size of a house still wouldn't do to much damage would it?


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## dorsetknob (Apr 15, 2020)

lynx29 said:


> let's say hypothetically the calculation was slightly for some hypothetical rare reason, the size of a house may very well burn up in the atmosphere still? perhaps if it had a weak center and broke in two upon impact? if not, the size of a house still wouldn't do to much damage would it?




The *Chelyabinsk* meteor was a small *asteroid* — about the size of a six-story building — that broke up over the city of *Chelyabinsk*, *Russia*, on Feb. 15, 2013. The blast was stronger than a nuclear explosion, triggering detections from monitoring stations as far away as Antarctica.

*The three broad composition classes of asteroids are C-, S-, and M-types.*

The C-type (chondrite) asteroids are most common, probably consist of clay and silicate rocks, and are dark in appearance. ...
The S-types ("stony") are made up of silicate materials and nickel-iron.
The M-types are metallic (nickel-iron).
The *Chelyabinsk* meteor was Believed to be Type S


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## lexluthermiester (Apr 15, 2020)

lynx29 said:


> the size of a house may very well burn up in the atmosphere still?


As Dorsetknob alluded to, it would depend on many variables such as the type of object it is, it's speed and it's atmospheric entry vector. For example: A metallic type going fast with steep angle of entry would impact hard before atmospheric friction could disintegrate it. However, if it's angle of entry is shallow, it would likely disintegrate before impact.

With the particular object stated above, if it were to impact it's angle of entry is too shallow to cause much damage to the ground. It's speed in relation to Earth is actually rather low, so it might hit ground, but again damage would be minimal, even in a populated area. Not much to worry about.


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## VulkanBros (Apr 15, 2020)

Interesting shape - and maybe an explanation for it!

*Interstellar object ‘Oumuamua believed to be ‘active asteroid’*





Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1065-8
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/science...bject-oumuamua-believed-to-be-active-asteroid


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## Drone (Apr 16, 2020)

After the successful completion of its “Checkpoint” rehearsal, NASA’s first asteroid-sampling spacecraft is one step closer to touching down on *asteroid Bennu*. Yesterday, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft performed the first practice run of its sample collection sequence, reaching an approximate altitude of 75 m over site Nightingale before executing a back-away burn from the asteroid. Nightingale, OSIRIS-REx’s primary sample collection site, is located within a crater in Bennu’s northern hemisphere.


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## Drone (Apr 17, 2020)

NASA's Juno mission captured these elaborate atmospheric jets in Jupiter's northern mid-latitude region.





New images from a NASA sounding rocket provide the *highest-resolution views ever captured of the Sun’s outer atmosphere (corona)*, revealing fine strands of million-degree solar material.




NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope took this image of the California Nebula on Jan. 25, 2020, five days before the spacecraft was decommissioned.


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## Drone (Apr 24, 2020)

Hubble's 30th anniversary!!!

































						Hubble Marks 30 Years in Space with Tapestry of Blazing Starbirth
					






					hubblesite.org


----------



## lexluthermiester (Apr 26, 2020)

This was a very interesting video;


----------



## Drone (Apr 26, 2020)




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## Drone (May 1, 2020)

Newly Reprocessed Images of Europa Show 'Chaos Terrain' in Crisp Detail
					

Work is ongoing to refine images NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured of Europa as scientists prepare for exploration of Jupiter's icy moon.




					www.jpl.nasa.gov


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## stinger608 (May 2, 2020)

I think I see an old Ford pickup in that first picture.


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## Drone (May 2, 2020)

stinger608 said:


> I think I see an old Ford pickup in that first picture.


Europa's surface always reminds me of eyeball blood vessels  XD All these intricate zigzagging 'canals' look so cool.
Unfortunately Jupiter's radiation belt will make any manned mission to Europa a one-way mission.


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## Drone (May 8, 2020)

Hubble and Gemini watch from afar, capturing high-resolution global views of Jupiter that are key to interpreting Juno's close-up observations of the planet.


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## Drone (May 15, 2020)




----------



## Drone (Jun 6, 2020)

NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory captured these images of comet ATLAS as it swooped by the Sun from May 25 – June 1.
































						A faint resemblance of Sun and Earth
					

The star Kepler-160 is probably orbited by a planet less than twice the size of the Earth with a star-planet distance that could permit planetary surface temperatures conducive to life. The newly discovered exoplanet, which was found by a team of scientists led by the Max Planck Institute for...




					www.mpg.de


----------



## Drone (Jun 10, 2020)

Candor Chasma in central Valles Marineris on Mars is filled with light-toned layered deposits thought to be sandstones, perhaps formed in an ancient wet and potentially habitable environment.
This view comes from the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.







The wonders of time and erosion are on full display in this image of layered hills in Arabia Terra, Mars, as imaged by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Along with the hills, we see dark dunes that the HiRISE team is monitoring for activity due to the wind.















Japan's resupply ship, the H-II Transfer Vehicle-9 (HTV-9)






Newly-Processed Views of *Venus* from Mariner 10


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## Drone (Jun 13, 2020)

The Space In-between: Aurora Australis






Much of Mars is covered by sand and dust but in some places stacks of sedimentary layers are visible. In this image, exquisite layering is revealed emerging from the sand in southern Holden Crater. Sequences like these offer a window into Mars' complicated geologic history.






Looking deep into the universe, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope catches a passing glimpse of the numerous arm-like structures that sweep around this barred spiral galaxy, known as NGC 2608. Appearing as a slightly stretched, smaller version of our Milky Way, the peppered blue and red spiral arms are anchored together by the prominent horizontal central bar of the galaxy.






This two-frame animation of Proxima Centauri blinks back and forth between New Horizons and Earth images of each star, clearly illustrating the different view of the sky New Horizons has from its deep-space perch.






This two-frame animation of Wolf 359 blinks back and forth between New Horizons and Earth images of each star, clearly illustrating the different view of the sky New Horizons has from its deep-space perch.






These NASA Hubble Space Telescope snapshots reveal an impact scar on Jupiter fading from view over several months between July 2009 and November 2009.


----------



## Drone (Jul 1, 2020)

On June 21, 2020, as the ISS orbited over Kazakhstan and into China, an external high-definition camera captured this picture of the solar eclipse shadowing a portion of Asia.


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## Drone (Jul 10, 2020)

Jupiter's Magnificent Swirling Clouds






Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE appears as a string of fuzzy red dots in this composite of several heat-sensitive infrared images taken by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission on March 27, 2020.






Comet NEOWISE captured on July 6, 2020, above the northeast horizon just before sunrise in Tucson.









						The Lion’s Roar: New Telescope Spots Superflare in Leo
					

A new telescope in Okayama, Japan observed a superflare on a star in the constellation Leo to better understand how superflares on the Sun can affect technology and life on Earth.




					www.nao.ac.jp
				




https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/10/planet_nine_black_hole/  (thanks @dorsetknob)


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## Drone (Jul 22, 2020)

石垣島天文台
					






					www.miz.nao.ac.jp
				




Comet C/2020 F3, NEOWISE









						IMAGE RELEASE: Magnetic Field of a Spiral Galaxy - National Radio Astronomy Observatory
					

A new image from the VLA dramatically reveals the extended magnetic field of a spiral galaxy seen edge-on from Earth.




					public.nrao.edu
				




Radio/Optical composite image of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4217. Magnetic field lines (green), revealed by the VLA, extend far above and below the plane of the galaxy.


----------



## Drone (Jul 30, 2020)

Juno Takes First Images of Jovian Moon Ganymede's North Pole






Hubble Sees Summertime on Saturn. Two of Saturn's icy moons are also clearly visible in this exposure: Mimas at right, and Enceladus at bottom.


----------



## Drone (Aug 5, 2020)

Curiosity's selfie taken on Sol 2082 (June 15, 2018). A Martian dust storm has reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover's location in Gale Crater.

More pictures from Curiosity
























































						'Shallow Lightning' and 'Mushballs' Reveal Ammonia to NASA's Juno Scientists
					

The spacecraft may have found where the colorless gas has been hiding on the solar system's biggest planetary inhabitant.




					www.jpl.nasa.gov


----------



## Drone (Aug 12, 2020)




----------



## Drone (Aug 19, 2020)

High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured this avalanche plunging down 500m-tall) cliff on May 29, 2019.


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## Drone (Sep 2, 2020)

*‘Dragon' Feature on Mars*
Part of the canyon floor and wall rock in southwestern Melas Chasma on Mars meanders in a pattern resembling a *dragon*.
The HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the image on July 4, 2007.






As ISS orbited more than 200 miles above our home planet, the crew caught this glimpse of the sunrise casting long shadows over a cloudy Philippine Sea as the station orbited off the coast of the Philippines northeast of Manila.


----------



## delshay (Sep 14, 2020)

We are lucky again but it just made the news page two hours ago. I only found one video on this on Youtube 



			Amateur astronomer spots potentially dangerous asteroid just days before it flies past Earth
		


Youtube 








EDIT: If this is in the wrong thread please move to the correct thread or delete.


----------



## the54thvoid (Sep 14, 2020)

Mars versus Venus.... Which has got more chance of life?









						Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus - Nature Astronomy
					

The detection of ~20â€‰ppb of phosphine in Venus clouds by observations in the millimetre-wavelength range from JCMT and ALMA is puzzling, because according to our knowledge of Venus, no phosphine should be there. As the most plausible formation paths do not work, the source could be unknown...




					www.nature.com
				




Phosphine has been detected in the clouds and the study's authors are stumped after trying to recreate it without biological inference.



> The presence of PH3 is unexplained after exhaustive study of steady-state chemistry and photochemical pathways, with no currently known abiotic production routes in Venus’s atmosphere, clouds, surface and subsurface, or from lightning, volcanic or meteoritic delivery. PH3 could originate from unknown photochemistry or geochemistry, or, by analogy with biological production of PH3 on Earth, from the presence of life. Other PH3 spectral features should be sought, while in situ cloud and surface sampling could examine sources of this gas.



All those probes that get boiled up in the atmosphere? Aliens. Gotta be. Tiny little microbial aliens.


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## Drone (Sep 14, 2020)




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## lexluthermiester (Sep 15, 2020)

the54thvoid said:


> Mars versus Venus.... Which has got more chance of life?


My personal opinion, I think it's equally likely that both may have had life on some basic level.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 1, 2020)

John Done said:


> I always think that there was no life on Mars or any other planets in the Solar System. What are the real facts that prove there could be life on them even in the past? The weird 50 years of research and nothing else. They always find different arguments about life on the and then they find arguments against life there.


So you think Earth is the only place life can or could exist?


----------



## R-T-B (Oct 1, 2020)

John Done said:


> What are the real facts that prove there could be life on them even in the past?



Phosphine is pretty damn convincing.  And that's a recent "real fact."


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 1, 2020)

R-T-B said:


> Phosphine is pretty damn convincing.  And that's a recent "real fact."


Have to agree here. Phosphine is a very strong bio indicator. There are no known naturally occurring non-biological processes that can produce that compound. That's not to say it isn't possible, it's just unknown and the only known process is biological.


----------



## delshay (Oct 19, 2020)

Sorry, we have another asteroid on it's way. It's going to be close.



			Asteroid 'could hit Earth' on eve of US election, says Neil deGrasse Tyson


----------



## ThrashZone (Oct 19, 2020)

Hi,
Refrigerator size drama queen much lol


----------



## Drone (Oct 23, 2020)

ESO’s Very Large Telescope






						Anemic Star Cluster Breaks Metal-poor Record – W. M. Keck Observatory
					

The Keck Observatory telescopes on Maunakea in Hawaii, are the world’s largest optical and infrared telescopes. Keck Observatory's vision is to advance the frontiers of astronomy and share our discoveries with the world.




					keckobservatory.org
				












						"Touchdown declared" on asteroid, NASA probe attempts to collect samples for return to Earth
					

The dramatic effort to collect a sample is the centerpiece of an $800 million mission.




					www.cbsnews.com
				












						Smile, wave: Some exoplanets may be able to see us, too | Cornell Chronicle
					

Some exoplanets – planets from beyond our own solar system – have a direct line of sight to observe Earth’s biological qualities from far, far away, according to research led by Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute.




					news.cornell.edu
				









Bennu, a well-preserved, ancient asteroid, is currently > 321 million km from Earth and offers scientists a window into the early solar system as it was first taking shape billions of years ago and flinging ingredients that could have helped seed life on Earth.

ALMA Shows Volcanic Impact on Io’s Atmosphere


----------



## delshay (Nov 3, 2020)

Voyager 2 still working.



			Voyager 2: Nasa finally gets in contact with 50-year-old spacecraft from 12 billion miles away


----------



## Space Lynx (Nov 3, 2020)

delshay said:


> Voyager 2 still working.
> 
> 
> 
> Voyager 2: Nasa finally gets in contact with 50-year-old spacecraft from 12 billion miles away




that is insane lmao


----------



## lexluthermiester (Nov 3, 2020)

delshay said:


> Voyager 2 still working.
> 
> 
> 
> Voyager 2: Nasa finally gets in contact with 50-year-old spacecraft from 12 billion miles away


Thought Voyager2 was written off because they though the power supply had run down. Guess not! Or maybe I was thinking of Voyager1...


----------



## Space Lynx (Nov 3, 2020)

lexluthermiester said:


> Thought Voyager2 was written off because they though the power supply had run down. Guess not! Or maybe I was thinking of Voyager1...



ah I was thinking of Voyager1 too. lol woops.

still 12 billion miles away is mighty impressive imo


----------



## lexluthermiester (Nov 3, 2020)

lynx29 said:


> still 12 billion miles away is mighty impressive imo


Indeed. And this new radio array is going to make communications much better in many ways.


----------



## delshay (Nov 3, 2020)

lexluthermiester said:


> Indeed. And this new radio array is going to make communications much better in many ways.



What's impressing me is they can still transmit & receive from that distance. Where is the cut-off point.


----------



## R-T-B (Nov 3, 2020)

delshay said:


> Sorry, we have another asteroid on it's way. It's going to be close.
> 
> 
> 
> Asteroid 'could hit Earth' on eve of US election, says Neil deGrasse Tyson



And not matter.  It won't do anything.



delshay said:


> Voyager 2 still working.
> 
> 
> 
> Voyager 2: Nasa finally gets in contact with 50-year-old spacecraft from 12 billion miles away



I love voyager 2... the fact that it is that far out and still sending signals is amazing.


----------



## Space Lynx (Nov 3, 2020)

delshay said:


> What's impressing me is they can still transmit & receive from that distance. Where is the cut-off point.



there is no cutoff point depending how big your transmission signal is.  we can detect radio waves and various other lenses of frequency from 8 billion years ago I think, and James Webb Telescope will up that 12-14 billion years ago I think. the signal doesn't vanish, its just it only goes at a certain speed.


----------



## rtwjunkie (Nov 3, 2020)

lynx29 said:


> ah I was thinking of Voyager1 too. lol woops.
> 
> still 12 billion miles away is mighty impressive imo


Even more impressive is they are able to continue to do workarounds that upgrade it!


----------



## Bones (Nov 3, 2020)

lexluthermiester said:


> Thought Voyager2 was written off because they though the power supply had run down. Guess not! Or maybe I was thinking of Voyager1...


It all depends on how much power is left for the probe to transmit with, I did see sometime ago an estimate of the year 2022-2023 could be the cutoff. It would also need enough power to keep running experiments and so on, if not then all it can do is say "Hello" and that's about it. Many of the probe's insturments have already been shutdown to conserve power anyway for extending it's life. 
Actually both are still going with Voyager 2 supposedly being the first that will go silent with Voyager 1 doing the same not too long after if I recall things correctly. 

A true testament to the work that was put into it all those years ago.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Nov 3, 2020)

Bones said:


> It all depends on how much power is left for the probe to transmit with, I did see sometime ago an estimate of the year 2022-2023 could be the cutoff. It would also need enough power to keep running experiments and so on, if not then all it can do is say "Hello" and that's about it. Many of the probe's insturments have already been shutdown to conserve power anyway for extending it's life.
> Actually both are still going with Voyager 2 supposedly being the first that will go silent with Voyager 1 doing the same not too long after if I recall things correctly.
> 
> A true testament to the work that was put into it all those years ago.


Let's be fair, they have nuclear power units. I'm surprised they haven't lasted longer. It's the electronics lasting this long that I find interesting.


----------



## metalfiber (Nov 4, 2020)

Is 10,000 quadrillion enough of an incentive to do a startup mining operation in the asteroid belt? 

They think that Psyche could have been a past or future planet core if it wasn't for Jupiter...









						Hubble Examines 16 Psyche, the Asteroid Worth $10,000 Quadrillion - ExtremeTech
					

Researchers just finished an ultraviolet survey of 16 Psyche, the ultra-valuable asteroid NASA plans to visit in 2026.




					www.extremetech.com
				




https://www.zmescience.com/space/as...hought-to-be-worth-10000-quadrillion-dollars/


----------



## R-T-B (Nov 4, 2020)

lexluthermiester said:


> Let's be fair, they have nuclear power units. I'm surprised they haven't lasted longer. It's the electronics lasting this long that I find interesting.



Their RTGs.  They have a finite lifetime.  They've gone through their halflife a few times already.

The electronics ate cool though.  Radiation hardening computers is basically massive shielding coupled with massive redundancy.  To keep it from being too heavy, where you use it is a very strategic decision.

I think we can all agree they did well with the Voyager platform.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Nov 4, 2020)

R-T-B said:


> Their RTGs.


Right, but aren't they supposed to last a few decades longer? I'll admit, my understanding of them is not so great.


R-T-B said:


> I think we can all agree they did well with the Voyager platform.


Of course!

EDIT;
According to several sources the half-life for those RTG power units is 87years. Both Voyagers were launched in 1977 which puts them about half way through the first half-life cycle. Each probe had three units each so they should still have ample power, strictly by the numbers.


----------



## R-T-B (Nov 4, 2020)

lexluthermiester said:


> Let's be fair, they have nuclear power units. I'm surprised they haven't lasted longer. It's the electronics lasting this long that I find interesting.





lexluthermiester said:


> Right, but aren't they supposed to last a few decades longer?



I believe lasting from the 80's like they did is rather impressive given these are early tech RTGs, not like the stuff on New Horizons.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Nov 4, 2020)

R-T-B said:


> I believe lasting from the 80's like they did is rather impressive given these are early tech RTGs, not like the stuff on New Horizons.


See edit.. But I agree with you.


----------



## metalfiber (Nov 5, 2020)

It would look as if the capacitor life is a factor...if the Voyagers even used capacitors. I do know that's a major issue in old tech.

I'm trying to find Voyager schematics and i'm mostly very detailed Star Trek ship schematics.













						Voyager - The Spacecraft
					





					voyager.jpl.nasa.gov
				












						Voyager - Spacecraft Instruments
					





					voyager.jpl.nasa.gov
				












						Voyager - Mission Status
					





					voyager.jpl.nasa.gov
				






			http://www.ninfinger.org/models/vault2007/Voyager%20plans/voyager-stitche2.jpg


----------



## delshay (Nov 12, 2020)

Not sure if any TPU user(s) is aware of this space news.



			Scientists spot ‘unexplained brightness’ after violent explosion in space


----------



## rtwjunkie (Nov 12, 2020)

delshay said:


> Not sure if any TPU user(s) is aware of this space news.
> 
> 
> 
> Scientists spot ‘unexplained brightness’ after violent explosion in space


The conquering alien mothership had a power malfunction.


----------



## R-T-B (Nov 13, 2020)

rtwjunkie said:


> The conquering alien mothership had a power malfunction.



District 9 time, only with the current populist movement, we'll probably build a space-wall to keep the aliens out.


----------



## Space Lynx (Nov 25, 2020)

Don’t Miss It: Jupiter, Saturn Will Look Like Double Planet for First Time Since Middle Ages
					

Just after sunset on the evening of December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer together in Earth’s night sky than they have been since the Middle Ages, offering people the world over a celestial treat to ring in the winter solstice. “Alignments between these two planets are rather r



					scitechdaily.com
				




this is awesome...


----------



## biffzinker (Dec 6, 2020)

Neowin said:
			
		

> A Japanese space capsule carrying large quantities of rock from the asteroid Ryugu has landed back on Earth, more specifically, near Woomera in South Australia. According to BBC News, the capsule was captured on camera streaking across the sky before parachuting down to the ground. It was subsequently found at 19:47 UTC after it transmitted a beacon which was tracked from a helicopter.




__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1335280970308587521








						Japan's asteroid return mission arrives on Earth
					

Japan's Hayabusa-2 has dropped off a capsule containing samples from the asteroid Ryugu. The mission launched at the end of 2014 and arrived at Ryugu in 2018. It began returning in November 2019.




					www.neowin.net
				




More Photos at JAXA: https://global.jaxa.jp/news/2020/#news17615


----------



## Caring1 (Dec 7, 2020)

"A Japanese space capsule carrying large quantities of rock from the asteroid Ryugu has landed back on Earth, more specifically, near Woomera in South Australia. According to BBC News, the capsule was captured on camera streaking across the sky before parachuting down to the ground. It was subsequently found at 19:47 UTC after it transmitted a beacon which was tracked from a helicopter."
Oh sure, target Australia.
Why not aim the capsule at Tokyo?


----------



## lexluthermiester (Dec 7, 2020)

Caring1 said:


> "A Japanese space capsule carrying large quantities of rock from the asteroid Ryugu has landed back on Earth, more specifically, near Woomera in South Australia. According to BBC News, the capsule was captured on camera streaking across the sky before parachuting down to the ground. It was subsequently found at 19:47 UTC after it transmitted a beacon which was tracked from a helicopter."
> Oh sure, target Australia.
> Why not aim the capsule at Tokyo?


Wide open spaces that are safe for landing a capsule. Japan is almost entirely filled with dense population.


----------



## Caring1 (Dec 7, 2020)

lexluthermiester said:


> Wide open spaces that are safe for landing a capsule. Japan is almost entirely filled with dense population.


I know, but I'll still complain about other countries thinking we are a good spot for space crap to crash.
They seem to think because it looks empty on a map there's no people there, when that region is littered with mines and people.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Dec 7, 2020)

Land, not crash. Big difference. And there is most definitely economic considerations going on.


----------



## Drone (Dec 9, 2020)




----------



## Drone (Jan 14, 2021)




----------



## the54thvoid (Jan 14, 2021)

Brian Cox is one of our UK national treasures. Physicist AND former member of a pop band called D:ream (?) who had UK hits with the tracks 'Things Can Only Get Better' and 'You're the Best Thing'. Not to be confused with the guy who played 'Dr Lecter' in the original film 'Manhunter' with William Peterson. Trivia makes science more acessible.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Jan 14, 2021)

the54thvoid said:


> Brian Cox is one of our UK national treasures. Physicist AND former member of a pop band called D:ream (?) who had UK hits with the tracks 'Things Can Only Get Better' and 'You're the Best Thing'. Not to be confused with the guy who played 'Dr Lecter' in the original film 'Manhunter' with William Peterson. Trivia makes sense more accessible.


I'm more of a fan of Brian May myself...


----------



## rtwjunkie (Jan 15, 2021)

the54thvoid said:


> Brian Cox is one of our UK national treasures. Physicist AND former member of a pop band called D:ream (?) who had UK hits with the tracks 'Things Can Only Get Better' and 'You're the Best Thing'. Not to be confused with the guy who played 'Dr Lecter' in the original film 'Manhunter' with William Peterson. Trivia makes science more acessible.


I keep thinking of the other Brian Cox: 








						Brian Cox (actor) - Wikipedia
					






					en.m.wikipedia.org


----------



## lexluthermiester (Jan 16, 2021)

This was interesting;


----------



## R-T-B (Jan 16, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> Land, not crash. Big difference. And there is most definitely economic considerations going on.



That and if they really want to deorbit something with no plan for recovery, there is a designated spot.  Point Nemo Spacecraft Cemetery.


----------



## Drone (Feb 10, 2021)

Sunrise Over the Pacific (ISS)​





This stunning image captures a small region on the edge of the inky Coalsack Nebula


----------



## Drone (Feb 12, 2021)




----------



## delshay (Feb 20, 2021)

One day something is going to hit & we will not even know it's coming.

Incredible moment security camera captures meteor streaking across sky (msn.com)


----------



## Drone (Feb 22, 2021)




----------



## Drone (Feb 24, 2021)

This is the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras on the underside of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after its landing on Feb. 18, 2021.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Mar 4, 2021)

This was a few months ago and I only just watched it, but it was very interesting.


----------



## Drone (Mar 6, 2021)

The heat shield drops away toward Mars after being released from the Mars 2020 back shell during the spacecraft’s descent through the Martian atmosphere on Feb. 18, 2021. The heat shield and back shell encapsulated NASA’s Perseverance rover on its journey to the Red Planet. This image was taken by the rover’s Lander Vision System Camera, serving as part of the Terrain-Relative Navigation system.









						Scientists confirm third-nearest star with a planet—and it’s rocky like Earth
					

The new planet, called Gliese 486 b, is located just over two dozen light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Virgo, and is also made out of rock—though it is hotter and three times larger than our home.




					news.uchicago.edu
				









						Hubble Solves Mystery of Monster Star's Dimming
					






					hubblesite.org


----------



## Drone (Mar 11, 2021)

This image was captured while NASA’s Perseverance rover drove on Mars for the first time on March 4, 2021






From Sunlight to Starlight [ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile]


----------



## metalfiber (Mar 17, 2021)

Give that person a cookie not a cigar.










						Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua Is Likely A Piece Of A Pluto-like Planet
					

The first known interstellar object to pass through our solar system is likely a piece of a Pluto-like planet from another solar system, according to a new study published as […]




					spaceref.com


----------



## Drone (Mar 18, 2021)




----------



## Drone (Mar 24, 2021)

Planetary nebula Abell 78






More than 11000 years ago, a massive, supergiant star Cassiopeia A came to the end of its life. The star's core collapsed to form an incredibly dense ball of neutrons, and its exterior was blasted away in an immense release of energy astronomers call a supernova.






Saturn's Spring






At the very top of the frame, within the band of the Milky Way, lies a pair of bright stars. These form part of Crux (The Southern Cross), one of the most recognizable constellations in the southern sky. Just below Crux, a dark, irregular shape is silhouetted against the central band of our galaxy. This is a prominent dark nebula lying just 600 light-years away: a giant cloud of molecules so dense it blocks out the light of anything behind it.






This week’s Hubble/ESA Picture of the Week features NGC 7678 — a galaxy located ~ 164 million ly away in the constellation of Pegasus.


----------



## Space Lynx (Mar 25, 2021)

this is fascinating...  after watching it I still don't really understand. so the universe isn't 14 billion years old? well I guess I get it, the measurements are + or - 1 billion years.

but if we have a star that is older than our current estimates, we prob should just adjust the universe estimated age to 15 billion to be safe. lol


----------



## Drone (Mar 25, 2021)

Here's latest findings if you want to know about the age/expansion of the Universe

How fast is the universe expanding? Galaxies provide one answer. | Berkeley News






More new cool stuff:

New Images Reveal Magnetic Structures Near Supermassive Black Hole - National Radio Astronomy Observatory (nrao.edu)







A field of sand dunes occupies this frosty 5-km diameter crater in the high-latitudes of the northern plains of Mars. Some dunes have separated from the main field and appear to be climbing up the crater slope along a gully-like form.






This image from NASA’s Juno mission captures the northern hemisphere of Jupiter around the region known as Jet N7. The planet’s strong winds create the many swirling storms visible near the top of its atmosphere.



Just for fun


----------



## lexluthermiester (Mar 27, 2021)

lynx29 said:


> so the universe isn't 14 billion years old?


No and for several reasons. The primary reason is that not only is the Universe expanding and accelerating, time seems to be accelerating as well. Actually measuring the age of the universe relative to our current time point is going to be a challenge. However, there one estimate that puts the actual age of the universe at nearly 38billion years old. Remember, time is not a constant, it is a variable.


----------



## Drone (Mar 31, 2021)

Astronomers found a number of baby stars hiding around the center of the Milky Way using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Previous studies had suggested that the environment there is too harsh to form stars because of the strong tidal forces, strong magnetic fields, high energy particles, and frequent supernova explosions. These findings indicate that star formation is more resilient than researchers thought. These observations suggest there is ubiquitous star formation activity hidden deep in dense molecular gas, which may allow for the possibility of a future burst of star formation around the Galactic Center.

Stellar Eggs near Galactic Center Hatching into Baby Stars | ALMA (almaobservatory.org)

X-ray from Uranus…


----------



## Drone (Apr 9, 2021)

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Mastcam to take an image of this hill, nicknamed "Rafael Navarro Mountain" after Rafael Navarro-González, an astrobiologist who worked on the mission until he passed away January 26, 2021. He was a member of the team working with Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM, instrument.






On March 21, 2021, the large asteroid 2001 FO32 made a close approach with our planet, passing at a distance of ~ 2 million km. While there was no risk of the near-Earth asteroid colliding with Earth as its orbit is very well known, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California took the opportunity to capture these radar images of the asteroid as it tumbled past.


----------



## Drone (Apr 15, 2021)

This extraordinary image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the galaxy cluster Abell 2813 (also known as ACO 2813) has an almost delicate beauty, which also illustrates the remarkable physics at work within it. The image spectacularly demonstrates the concept of gravitational lensing.





Arabia Terra (Mars)​





This false-color image, taken by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory in 2012, shows an extraordinary outburst from a black hole – where its X-ray output increased at least 3000 times – in the galaxy M83. Chandra observed what is called a ULX, or ultraluminous X-ray source. The remarkable behavior of this ULX in M83 provides direct evidence for a population of older, volatile, stellar-mass black holes.









						‘It’s very exciting’: Scientists discover another layer in Earth’s core
					

For many years, it has been widely believed that the Earth has four layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. A group of scientists now claims to have confirmed the existence of Earth’s “innermost inner core.”




					www.aol.com


----------



## Drone (May 13, 2021)

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy cluster MACS J0416. 
This is one of six galaxy clusters being studied by the Hubble Frontier Fields program, which produced the deepest images of gravitational lensing ever made. 
Scientists used intracluster light (visible in blue) to study the distribution of dark matter within the cluster.


----------



## lexluthermiester (May 14, 2021)

Jupiter in IR is very fascinating!

Speaking of;


----------



## Space Lynx (Jun 4, 2021)

@lexluthermiester 

I think you particular might like this, a summarization of the latest dark matter data compilation of the last 3 years... Dr. Becky is excellent at explaining, and has timestamps so you can skip the parts that you already know about.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Jun 4, 2021)

lynx29 said:


> @lexluthermiester
> 
> I think you particular might like this, a summarization of the latest dark matter data compilation of the last 3 years... Dr. Becky is excellent at explaining, and has timestamps so you can skip the parts that you already know about.


I like Dr Becky. Her channel is already in my list!


----------



## Space Lynx (Jun 4, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> I like Dr Becky. Her channel is already in my list!



ya she is great, I used to watch dr. tyson, but his channel has mostly become a comedy channel, i learn tons more from Dr Becky.  I love when she reviews science movies/shows too... the carl sagan contact movie, she does a "an astrophysicists take on contact"  its hilarious at times, insightful at other times. just golden, she is 10/10 deserves a bigger audience honestly.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Jun 4, 2021)

lynx29 said:


> ya she is great, I used to watch dr. tyson, but his channel has mostly become a comedy channel, i learn tons more from Dr Becky.  I love when she reviews science movies/shows too... the carl sagan contact movie, she does a "an astrophysicists take on contact"  its hilarious at times, insightful at other times. just golden, she is 10/10 deserves a bigger audience honestly.


Professor Sutter's channel should appeal to you then!


----------



## Drone (Jun 8, 2021)

In this view from aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour, a pair of the ISS's main solar arrays seemingly drape across the Earth's horizon as the orbital lab soars 271 miles above the south Atlantic in between Argentina and South Africa.

Earth is a pale, blue dot when seen from space because our home planet is 71% water. NASA monitors Earth's water from space, the skies, ground stations on land, ships sailing the seas and even with apps on mobile phones.

While Earth is so wet it looks blue from space, most of that water is saltwater. % of Earth's water is fresh water and nearly all of that water is frozen – locked up in polar ice caps, glaciers and other ice. The small amount of fresh water that remains is all that's available for all the ways we use water.


----------



## dorsetknob (Jun 9, 2021)

Northern Hemisphere Eclipse mid morning BST Tomorrow 10 June


----------



## lexluthermiester (Jun 9, 2021)

dorsetknob said:


> Northern Hemisphere Eclipse mid morning BST Tomorrow 10 June


Long time no see! Welcome back! Back on topic, you folks over in the UK are going to have a great view of it!


----------



## dorsetknob (Jun 9, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> Back on topic, you folks over in the UK are going to have a great view of it!


Not so good view in the South  the further north you go the more of the Partial eclipse your see








						Solar eclipse: Shetland 'will be best place in UK for view'
					

Shetlanders can expect to have 39% of the Sun obscured during the annular eclipse on Thursday.



					www.bbc.co.uk


----------



## Drone (Jun 10, 2021)

dorsetknob said:


> Not so good view in the South  the further north you go the more of the Partial eclipse your see
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## lexluthermiester (Jun 10, 2021)

dorsetknob said:


> Not so good view in the South  the further north you go the more of the Partial eclipse your see
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Oh I am sorry. Misread an article...


----------



## Drone (Jun 10, 2021)

A partial solar eclipse is seen as the Sun rises behind the United States Capitol Building, Thursday, June 10, 2021, as seen from Arlington, Virginia. 
_Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls


















_


----------



## 64K (Jun 30, 2021)

Scientists Find ‘Monster’ Black Hole So Big They Didn’t Think it Was Possible
					

Scientists did not think it was possible for a stellar black hole, one that forms from a dying star, to be as large as the “monster” it discovered in our own galaxy.




					getpocket.com


----------



## lexluthermiester (Jun 30, 2021)

64K said:


> Scientists Find ‘Monster’ Black Hole So Big They Didn’t Think it Was Possible
> 
> 
> Scientists did not think it was possible for a stellar black hole, one that forms from a dying star, to be as large as the “monster” it discovered in our own galaxy.
> ...


Considering that the universe itself was an enormously massive black-hole to begin with(before the big bang), I'm left wondering why they didn't think it possible.


----------



## Drone (Jul 1, 2021)

Picturing Our Solar System's Asteroid Belt​





A spectacular lunar halo — known as a 22° halo — formed in the sky above ESO’s La Silla Observatory. *The optical phenomenon is a result of moonlight interacting with millions of ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere*, forming a ring with an apparent radius of approximately 22° around the moon. It is also known as the “moon ring” or “winter halo”.


----------



## Drone (Jul 10, 2021)

Two enormous galaxies capture your attention in this spectacular image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy on the left is a lenticular galaxy, named 2MASX J03193743+4137580. The side-on spiral galaxy on the right is more simply named UGC 2665. Both galaxies lie ~ 350 million ly from Earth, and they both form part of the huge Perseus galaxy cluster.


----------



## Drone (Jul 19, 2021)




----------



## Drone (Jul 27, 2021)




----------



## lexluthermiester (Aug 7, 2021)

This was interesting.


----------



## Drone (Aug 9, 2021)




----------



## Drone (Aug 13, 2021)

The stunning arch of the Milky Way stretches across the Chilean night sky, accompanied by the Magellanic Clouds on the left and admired from the control building of ESO’s Paranal Observatory, home to the Very Large Telescope (VLT). 






This image, taken from aboard the ISS, shows the aurora australis as it streams across the Earth's atmosphere as the station orbited 271 miles above the southern Indian Ocean in between Asia and Antarctica.






This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features *AFGL 5180*, a beautiful stellar nursery located in the constellation of Gemini. At the center of the image, a massive star is forming and blasting cavities through the clouds with a pair of powerful jets, extending to the top right and bottom left of the image. Light from this star is mostly escaping and reaching us by illuminating these cavities, like a lighthouse piercing through the storm clouds.


----------



## Drone (Aug 18, 2021)

Astronomers Find a ‘Break’ in One of the Milky Way’s Spiral Arms
					

The newly discovered feature offers insight into the large-scale structure of our galaxy, which is difficult to study from Earth’s position inside it.




					www.nasa.gov


----------



## Drone (Sep 4, 2021)

Perseverance's Navigation Camera Captures Sample Borehole​


----------



## Drone (Sep 9, 2021)

This picture shows data from NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), launched in 2009 under the moniker WISE. 
The object in the bottom left corner is a brown dwarf officially named WISEA J153429.75-104303.3 and nicknamed “The Accident.”


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## pyrotenax (Sep 30, 2021)

*Enceladus* the sixth-largest moon of Saturn ...








Below is tiny Enceladus and and to its left an even smaller tiny spec of Epimetheus with the giant Saturn in the background ...


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## ARF (Oct 1, 2021)

Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is coming. It's the largest ever detected - around 150 km wide and will be closest to the Sun in 2031.





One of the largest comets ever seen is headed our way (nationalgeographic.com)


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 14, 2021)

This was a very interesting video:


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## Space Lynx (Dec 28, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> This was a very interesting video:



I still don't understand how that New Horizons spacecraft can escape the gravity of the giant sun. It says it will run out of energy in 2038... its just sooo tiny and thrust is so small... I thought gravity/orbit pull in from the sun would be greater than that. I know its lesser the further you go, but still.  I don't get it, lol

just finished video, it was good thanks for sharing


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## lexluthermiester (Dec 28, 2021)

lynx29 said:


> I still don't understand how that New Horizons spacecraft can escape the gravity of the giant sun. It says it will run out of energy in 2038... its just sooo tiny and thrust is so small... I thought gravity/orbit pull in from the sun would be greater than that. I know its lesser the further you go, but still. I don't get it, lol


The key is, it's so far out and moving so fast that it easily overpowers the pull of gravity at that range. Gravity is a tricky and sometimes very unintuitive force of physics.


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## the54thvoid (Dec 28, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> Gravity is a tricky and sometimes very unintuitive force of physics.



It's very peculiar indeed (link is mostly paywalled).









						Gravity mysteries: Why is gravity so weak?
					

The other forces seem to have strengths that are roughly comparable with each other – but again gravity breaks the rule




					www.newscientist.com
				






> Gravity is a real weakling – 10 to the power 40 times weaker than the electromagnetic force that holds atoms together


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## lexluthermiester (Dec 28, 2021)

Exactly right. Gravity is very weak indeed.


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## Space Lynx (Dec 29, 2021)

I suppose the reason gravity doesn't feel weak to me cause of my spinal cord issues I have, it sure kicks my ass quite often 

but yes if I zoom out, your logic makes sense in outer space. so amazing to think where Voyager is now, what the solar system looks like to Voyager right now... so beautiful, its existence - proof of our manifestation - even if the sun exploded tomorrow, that manifestation most likely will carry some of our story as a self-aware species to the end times...  

does entropy exist in outer space? or will voyager simply live forever with no deterioration (assuming it stays far enough away from stars radiation and doesn't hit anything)  @Drone


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