(Source: meganleestudio)
If you’ve only seen this photo and haven’t watched the video yet, stop what you’re going and press play:
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A beautiful time elapse image of the Earth, taken in a single shot by Russia’s latest weather satellite Electro-L, has enchanted Internet users around the world.
The images are a combination of visible and near-infrared wavelengths, depicting the Earth in a way not visible to the human eye. For example, the planet’s vegetation looks red.
So far, these 21 megapixels depict the highest resolution Earth images ever made. That’s 60 miles of the earth’s surface packed into every pixel.
Iconic Images of Earth from Space
Blue Marble: NASA has produced several Blue Marble images. The original, taken by the crew of Apollo 17, shows the Eastern Hemisphere and is thought to be one of the most famous and widely distributed images of Earth ever. Above-left, one of the most recent Blue Marble images was created by stitching together satellite imagery and reveals the Western Hemisphere in all its glory. The first pictures from space were not nearly as routine as the Blue Marbles are now.
1. A “Blue Marble” image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA’s most recently launched Earth-observing satellite, Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on Jan. 4, 2012.
First Picture of Earth and Moon in Single Frame: It was incredible to see Earth from deep space for the first time. It was yet another amazing experience to see both our world and its moon suspended in the black void together for the first time. That feat was accomplished by Voyager 1 on its way to the outer planets.
2. This NASA picture of the Earth and the moon in a single frame, the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft, was recorded Sept. 18, 1977, by Voyager 1 when it was 7.25 million miles (11.66 million kilometers) from Earth. The moon (top) is beyond the Earth as viewed by the space probe. Because the Earth much brighter than the moon, the moon was artificially brightened by a factor of three by computer enhancement so that both bodies would show clearly in the image.
Earthrise: Imagine coming around the moon in a spaceship, looking out the window, and being the first humans to see your own planet rise. This iconic image of the Earth rising, popularly called the “Earthrise” picture, is the first of its kind taken by an astronaut from lunar orbit.
3. This view of the rising Earth greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts as they came from behind the moon after the lunar orbit insertion burn. The photo is displayed here in its original orientation, though it is more commonly viewed with the lunar surface at the bottom of the photo. Earth is about five degrees left of the horizon in the photo. The unnamed surface features on the left are near the eastern limb of the moon as viewed from Earth. The lunar horizon is approximately 780 kilometers from the spacecraft. The height of the photographed area at the lunar horizon is about 175 kilometers.
Moonrise from Earth Orbit: The horizon is tilted and seems far away. The moon appears to float on Earth’s atmosphere. It’s one of many incredible views that can come only from space, yet by name it’s totally familiar: a moonrise.
4. A quarter moon rises above Earth’s horizon and above the airglow of our atmosphere. The image was made with a digital still camera on the final mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Columbia’s crew was killed on Feb. 1, 2003, when the shuttle broke up on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
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The most spectacular photograph of last weekend’s Lyrid meteor shower
It’s only fitting that one of the most breathtaking photographs of this weekend’s Lyrid meteor shower would be captured from the rim of Oregon’s Crater Lake.
Last weekend’s dark, moonless nights made for some of the best meteor-spotting conditions in close to a year — conditions astrophotographer Brad Goldpaint had planned to take full advantage of, had it not been for Oregon’s crummy weekend weather. He claims to have spotted just one meteor the entire night, but if the photograph up top is any indication [click here for higher res], it was definitely worth the wait. Besides, I’d imagine it’s pretty hard to be bummed about a lack of meteor activity when your default backdrop is an absurdly beautiful view of the Milky Way. [Brad Goldpaint via Bad Astronomy]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m348n5USzo1qbkzabo1_500.jpg)
The most spectacular photograph of last weekend’s Lyrid meteor shower
It’s only fitting that one of the most breathtaking photographs of this weekend’s Lyrid meteor shower would be captured from the rim of Oregon’s Crater Lake.
Last weekend’s dark, moonless nights made for some of the best meteor-spotting conditions in close to a year — conditions astrophotographer Brad Goldpaint had planned to take full advantage of, had it not been for Oregon’s crummy weekend weather. He claims to have spotted just one meteor the entire night, but if the photograph up top is any indication [click here for higher res], it was definitely worth the wait. Besides, I’d imagine it’s pretty hard to be bummed about a lack of meteor activity when your default backdrop is an absurdly beautiful view of the Milky Way. [Brad Goldpaint via Bad Astronomy]
dvdp:
Astronomical is a scale model of our solar system in twelve 500 page volumes printed-on-demand. On page 1 the Sun, on page 6,000 Pluto. The width of each page equals one million kilometres. -
//via olenaA powerful demonstration of astronomical distances.
Vastness.
(Source: vimeo.com)
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Hubble Discovers the First ‘Waterworld,’ an Exoplanet Covered in Water
Really, really hot water
In the Image : Exoplanet ‘Waterworld’ GJ1214b David A. Aguilar (CfA)
The James Webb Space Telescope may someday put Hubble out of business, but until then NASA’s old standby is still making new discoveries. Today, that comes to us in the form of the first exoplanet “waterworld”—a water-covered planet shrouded by a dense, steamy atmosphere, the first confirmed planet of its kind.
The planet, known as GJ1214b, was discovered in 2009 by ground-based observations. But at that time it was difficult to glean much from the data other than the fact that the planet was indeed out there orbiting a red dwarf and is roughly 2.7 times Earth’s diameter. But its nearness to its star—just 1.3 miles away—meant that scientists could be reasonably sure it is hot there, likely around 450 degrees.
When astronomers from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics more recently turned Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 toward GJ1214b while it was transiting its host star, they were able to analyze the light passing through the atmosphere for the first time. That analysis suggests that GJ1214b is swathed in a fairly consistent and dense atmosphere of water vapor. Further analysis of size and mass (and thus density) further suggest that GJ1214b contains more water than Earth, and less rock.
That’s not to say GJ1214b is the kind of watery paradise in which you’d want to go sailing, or even face down a cartel of hapless but well-armed future-thugs. Even if GJ1214b is exactly what the Hubble data suggests it is, it’s very hot there and the high pressures and temperatures would make for some conditions vastly different than those on Earth. Superfluid water and other exotic phenomena likely occur there regularly—things that would be cool to see from a distance but highly incompatible with life as we know it on this planet.
The CfA astronomers responsible for the Hubble research speculate that GJ1214b probably formed further away from its star where water ice is more plentiful. It then resettled into a closer orbit, becoming the steamy sphere Hubble sees today. That means at some point this waterworld would have had to pass through the star’s habitable zone, though there’s no telling how long it hung around there. More at CfA.
[Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m005216Xs71qbkzabo1_500.jpg)
Hubble Discovers the First ‘Waterworld,’ an Exoplanet Covered in Water
Really, really hot waterIn the Image : Exoplanet ‘Waterworld’ GJ1214b David A. Aguilar (CfA)The James Webb Space Telescope may someday put Hubble out of business, but until then NASA’s old standby is still making new discoveries. Today, that comes to us in the form of the first exoplanet “waterworld”—a water-covered planet shrouded by a dense, steamy atmosphere, the first confirmed planet of its kind.
The planet, known as GJ1214b, was discovered in 2009 by ground-based observations. But at that time it was difficult to glean much from the data other than the fact that the planet was indeed out there orbiting a red dwarf and is roughly 2.7 times Earth’s diameter. But its nearness to its star—just 1.3 miles away—meant that scientists could be reasonably sure it is hot there, likely around 450 degrees.
When astronomers from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics more recently turned Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 toward GJ1214b while it was transiting its host star, they were able to analyze the light passing through the atmosphere for the first time. That analysis suggests that GJ1214b is swathed in a fairly consistent and dense atmosphere of water vapor. Further analysis of size and mass (and thus density) further suggest that GJ1214b contains more water than Earth, and less rock.
That’s not to say GJ1214b is the kind of watery paradise in which you’d want to go sailing, or even face down a cartel of hapless but well-armed future-thugs. Even if GJ1214b is exactly what the Hubble data suggests it is, it’s very hot there and the high pressures and temperatures would make for some conditions vastly different than those on Earth. Superfluid water and other exotic phenomena likely occur there regularly—things that would be cool to see from a distance but highly incompatible with life as we know it on this planet.
The CfA astronomers responsible for the Hubble research speculate that GJ1214b probably formed further away from its star where water ice is more plentiful. It then resettled into a closer orbit, becoming the steamy sphere Hubble sees today. That means at some point this waterworld would have had to pass through the star’s habitable zone, though there’s no telling how long it hung around there. More at CfA.
Constellations by Mike Lemanski
