Official Space is Awesome Thread

[Argonne69]

The galaxy cluster Abell 370 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in visible and near infrared. According to NASA, Abel 370 is the last of six distant galaxy clusters imaged in the “Frontier Fields” campaign, which harnessed observatories across the world to image some of the most distant structures in our universe. Click on the image to magnify it.

 

[MMB1500]

Live NASA stream of Earth

 

[i*windows]

Big news from last week

 

http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1716/

[i*windows]

one of the mirrors being made http://microsites.schott.com/us-schott_and_e-elt/english/news/cast-m2-mirror-substrate.html

what the article doesn't state is that when the glass is reheated it then takes 12 weeks to cool down to ensure there are very few imperfections

[Argonne69]

An eclipse of the Sun by Jupiter taken by Juno on August 27, 2016. Note the Jovian ring system.

 

 

Image: NASA, JPL, Galileo Project, (NOAO), J. Burns (Cornell) et al.

[Argonne69]

The Eye of God Nebula

 

[driverwedge]

Very cool!

[Argonne69]

On the other end of the stellular spectrum, it was reported this week that the Hubble telescope detected a vanishing supermassive star approximately 22 million light-years from Earth. The phenomenon has never before been witnessed, but it's likely to be an unnova, the direct collapse of a large star into a black hole without the supernova explosion. Now you see it. Now you don't.

 

[Argonne69]

Talk about feeling tiny. IC 1101 is the largest galaxy in the observable universe. The supergiant elliptical galaxy is 1.04 billion light years from Earth, and measures a whopping 6 million light years across. It contains an estimated 100 trillion stars. By comparison, the Milky Way is a measly 100,000 light-years across, and contains ~100 to 400 billion stars.

 

[Argonne69]

The European Southern Observatory has photographed a region in the Milky Way that is 7000 light years away. The very large (3 gigapixel) image shows three nebulas, Eagle (center), Sharpless 2-54 (right), and Omega (left). The image was created by stitching together dozens of photographs taken by the VLT Survey Telescope in Chile. The Eagle contains the infamous Pillars of Creation.

 

Image: http://www.cbc.ca/po...Image/image.jpg

 

Zoomable image: http://www.eso.org/p...1719a/zoomable/

 

 

The newest version of the famous 'Pillars of Creation' image of the Eagle Nebula produced by the Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA/ESA/STSci)

[Argonne69]

The universe is comprised of hundreds of billions of galaxies. Rather than being randomly distributed through space, the galaxies form clusters. Clusters are grouped into larger structures called superclusters. Superclusters are gravitationally linked into walls (a subtype of filament). A filament is the largest know cosmic structure, taking the form of a thread that weaves itself between large voids in space. In the standard model of the evolution of the universe, filaments form along and follow strings of dark matter. Basically, the structure looks like a giant sponge.

 

The largest wall identified to date (2016) is the BOSS Great Wall, which is comprised of 830 galaxies spread across 1+ billion light years. It contains approximately 10,000 times the mass of the Milky Way, and is located ~5 billion light years from the Milky Way.

 

[MMB1500]

Turns out Mars is covered in toxic chemicals, so not too dissimilar to earth.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/06/mars-covered-in-toxic-chemicals-that-can-wipe-out-living-organisms-tests-reveal

[Argonne69]

Jupiter taken by Juno on its 7th Jovian flyby (7/10/2017 10:12 am EDT, 10,274 miles).

 

 

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran

[MattTheTaff]

Would it surprise anyone on this forum to learn that the Taff has a Masters in Astrophysics?

 

NOW DO YOU ALL UNDERSTAND WHY I'M INTO FEET?

[Argonne69]

ISS photobombs solar eclipse. Lol.

 

 

 

Source: NASA

[MMB1500]

Cassini's grand finale is fast approaching, when it will be plunged into Saturn and destroyed. The images and information it has gathered from the Saturn moon, Titan are just astounding:

 

https://saturn.jpl.n...o-a-true-titan/

 

[media=]

[/media]

 

Interestingly the rivers on Titan are not composed of water, but rather methane. I had a river of methane in my underpants once, when teeing off in a local competition in front of about 50 people.

[PixlPutterman]

I guess less of a space question, but would it be possible to view a total eclipse, and then, because it now dark for a few minutes, experience aurora borealis/northern lights?

[Argonne69]

I guess less of a space question, but would it be possible to view a total eclipse, and then, because it now dark for a few minutes, experience aurora borealis/northern lights?

 

In theory yes, but the odds would be astronomical. In the U.S., the highest latitude of totality was ~45 degrees north. While the lights have been visible as far south as 21 degrees north, they generally stay 50 degrees north or higher.

[PixlPutterman]

I guess less of a space question, but would it be possible to view a total eclipse, and then, because it now dark for a few minutes, experience aurora borealis/northern lights?

 

In theory yes, but the odds would be astronomical. In the U.S., the highest latitude of totality was ~45 degrees north. While the lights have been visible as far south as 21 degrees north, they generally stay 50 degrees north or higher.

 

I only ask as there is a totality path in like 2045 or something that comes down from Canada. Gotta plan a head :)

 

I was wondering you would still see the "lights" since they are feed by the suns energy, and thought the eclipse would prevent the feed of that energy.

[Argonne69]

Cassini passes through the gap between Saturn and its rings, taking 21 photos within 4 minutes (August 20, 2017).

 

 

Image: NASA

[i*windows]

cloudless earth

https://s2maps.eu/

[Argonne69]

Happy 40th, Voyager 1.

 

 

 

 

 

[Argonne69]

Image sequence from ESA’s billion-star surveyor taken on February 7, 2017 – Gaia – looks toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy and captures some 2.8 million stars. The stellar density here is an amazing 4.6 million stars per square degree. Imagine if the 2.7 million residents of Chicago got together for a group photo. We'd still be short 100,000 people.

 

 

Amazing full resolution image: http://esamultimedia...OTW20170904.png

[Argonne69]

More fantastic pics from Cassini. Highest resolution ones to date.

 

 

Image: NASA

[Argonne69]

Solar flare from September 6th.

 

 

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

 

[NV825]

Saw this enhanced colored image of Jupiter from NASA's FB page and thought it was worth sharing here. The detail of each layer is incredible.

 

[Argonne69]

So long, Cassini. You'll be missed.

 

 

 

Final ringscape:

 

 

Impact site: Cassini's final image:

 

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

[MMB1500]

Some cool images in this gallery

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2017/sep/30/the-universe-as-seen-by-art-and-science-in-pictures-phaidon

[Argonne69]

An Einstein ring taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy in the foreground is bending and magnifying the light from a more distant galaxy behind it.

 

 

Photo: NASA, ESA

[Argonne69]

The Antennae galaxies, a pair of merging galaxies 45 million light years away that started colliding a few hundred million years ago.

 

 

Photo: NASA, ESA