Nuestro Bello Universo- Our Beautiful Universe

MAGICAL UNIVERSO

2012-01-26T13:30:00.001-08:00

AURORA BOREALIS

2011-06-05T11:52:00.000-07:00

ESPACIO

2011-03-01T00:21:00.000-08:00

OUR SUN

2011-03-01T00:13:00.000-08:00

COMETS AND STARS

2011-02-20T21:44:00.001-08:00

MAGICAL SPACE

2011-02-19T11:53:00.000-08:00

STARS OVER COTOPAXI

2011-02-07T17:05:00.000-08:00

<a href="http://www.bing.com/videos/browse?mkt=en-us&from=en-us_msnhp&vid=939ce987-cec2-4828-83df-497f554bfd71&from=en-us&fg=dest" target="_new" title="Amazing Scene Captured over Volcano">Video: Amazing Scene Captured over Volcano</a>

AURORAS

2011-01-28T22:34:00.000-08:00

Steve Faulkner

Image taken: Jan. 28, 2011

Location: Yelloknife, NWT Canada

LLUVIA DE METEORITOS

2011-01-03T06:58:00.000-08:00

QUADRANTID METEOR SHOWER: Sky watchers in the northern hemisphere should be  alert for meteors before sunrise on Tuesday, Jan. 4th.  Earth is about to pass  through a narrow stream of debris from shattered comet 2003 EH1, the parent of  the annual Quadrantid meteor shower.  Forecasters say the encounter could  produce a fast flurry of 100 meteors per hour during the early hours of Jan.  4th. Details and observing tips may be found at http://spaceweather.com .

LLUVIA DE ESTRELLAS

2010-12-14T05:03:00.000-08:00

CABO CAÑAVERAL, Florida, EE.UU.-

Como cada año, y muy acorde a la temporada decembrina, el hemisferio norte goza esta semana de la lluvia de estrellas de las gemínidas.

La lluvia de estrellas podría ser la mejor del año ante la posibilidad de que la bóveda celeste nocturna registre poco más de 100 trazos de luz por hora, debido a meteoritos que se desintegran por la fricción al ingresar en la atmósfera, según los astrónomos.

El periodo más espectacular del fenómeno de varias noches ocurrirá a primeras horas del martes, entre la medianoche y la madrugada.

El espectáculo cósmico alcanzará sus mayores dimensiones en el hemisferio norte y podrá verse a simple vista. Las gemínidas son residuos rocosos espaciales que flotan sobre una zona de la órbita terrestre alrededor del Sol.

Cada mediados de diciembre, La Tierra cruza la zona de residuos que pertenecieron a 3200 Faetón, que se creía era un asteroide pero que ahora es considerado un cometa extinto sin hielo. Para el observador en el planeta, esta lluvia de meteoritos, o estrellas fugaces, siempre parece originarse de la constelación de Géminis: de ahí su nombre de gemínidas.

Los meteoritos ocurren cuando fragmentos espaciales ingresan en la atmósfera y se desintegran como bolas de fuego. Las gemínidas estarán visibles en el cielo nocturno del 12 al 16 de diciembre, a condición de que no esté nublado.

El espectáculo celeste será previo a otro días más tarde: un eclipse lunar total que tendrá lugar la noche del lunes 20 de diciembre a las primeras horas del martes, dependiendo del uso horario en el que el observador se encuentre.

El eclipse lunar total será el único del año y estará visible para América del Norte y América Central. Será menos visible para América del Sur, Groenlandia e Islandia.

___ En internet: NASA:

http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/geminids2010.html

MARS, MOON AND SPACE

2010-11-26T20:17:00.000-08:00

THE EARTH RISING OVER THE MOON

2010-11-19T15:41:00.001-08:00

"Apollo 8 Earthrise Photo"

The rising Earth is about five degrees above the lunar horizon in this telephoto view taken from the Apollo 8 spacecraft near 110 degrees east longitude. The horizon, about 570 kilometers (250 statute miles) from the spacecraft, is near the eastern limb of the Moon as viewed from the Earth. On the earth, the sunset terminator crosses Africa. The south pole is in the white area near the left end of the terminator. North and South America are under the clouds.December 22, 1968 Credits: NASA JSC

SPACE

2010-11-18T23:27:00.001-08:00

PLANET X

2010-11-18T23:19:00.001-08:00

FROM THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE

2010-11-13T20:30:00.000-08:00

Spiral Galaxy

Mystic Mountain

Dark Matter

AURORAS

2010-11-13T20:28:00.000-08:00

ROCKET LAUNCH FROM VANDENBERG AFB

2010-11-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

Alan Holmes
Image taken:
Nov. 5, 2010
Location:
Goleta, California at 7:20 PM 11/5/2010
Details:
Snakes in the sky! Delta 2 Launch from Vandenberg as seen in 2 minute All Sky camera exposure. My guess is a chase plane taking pictures of the launch made the snake-shaped track.

Anthony Galvan III
Image taken:
Nov. 5, 2010
Location:
Goleta, California
Details:
The launch of a COSMOS 2 satellite was finally realized this evening after many delays from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

NORTHERN LIGHTS

2010-11-06T17:10:00.000-07:00

A minor geomagnetic storm on Nov. 4th made the ice crack in Norway.
Actually, it was the weight of the photographer that did it. Ole Christian Salomonsen walked out on the water's frozen surface to get this shot:

"I had to walk out on the ice," he explains, "because there were so many trees on shore blocking the view.
The temperature was below -10 degrees celsius.
You could see your breath turning to steam, and it was really silent in the woods.
The only thing you could hear was the ice cracking and freezing together--a really awesome sound!
The crisp clear ice made a lovely surface for catching the aurora's reflections."
The next chance for a shot like this could come on Nov. 9th when a solar wind stream is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field.
It's only a minor stream, but often that's enough for a vivid display around the Arctic Circle. High latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

X RAY SOLAR FLARE

2010-11-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

Active sunspot 1121 has just unleashed one of the brightest x-ray solar flares in several years, an M5.4-class eruption at 15:36 UT on Nov. 6th.
Radiation from the flare created a wave of ionization in Earth's upper atmosphere that altered the propagation of low-frequency radio waves.
There was, however, no bright CME (plasma cloud) hurled in our direction, so the event is unlikely to produce auroras in the nights ahead.
Visit http://spaceweather.com for a movie of the eruption and more information about this increasingly active sunspot.

So far none of the eruptions has been squarely Earth-directed, but this could change in the days ahead as the sun's rotation turns the active region toward our planet.

Now might be a good time to sign up for space weather alerts.

CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH JUPITER:

2010-09-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH JUPITER: Tonight, Earth and Jupiter converge for their closest encounter until 2022. The giant planet will soar overhead at midnight, outshining everything except the Moon itself. At this time, even a small telescope pointed at Jupiter will reveal the planet's moons, cloud belts and swirling storms. Take a look!
If Jupiter is up at midnight, it must be opposite the sun: diagram. Indeed, astronomers call this "Jupiter's night of opposition." The effect of opposition may be seen in the shadow of Jupiter's moon Io, shown here in a photo taken last night by Anthony Wesley of Australia:

"Io was almost on top of its own shadow," points out Wesley. "This is due to the near-perfect alignment of Jupiter, Earth and the sun."
In a coincidence of interplanetary proportions, Uranus is also at opposition tonight. This rare double opposition of two giant planets is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Unlike Jupiter, Uranus is barely visible to the naked eye, a result of its smaller size and greater distance. It looks great, however, through a small telescope. Just point your optics at Jupiter and you will find emerald Uranus about 1o away.

OUR SUN

2010-09-07T09:39:00.001-07:00

AURORA BOREALIS

2010-08-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

AURORAS UNDERFOOT: On August 13th a minor solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field. The impact did not trigger widespread displays of auroras on Earth, but the view from orbit was sublime:

NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock took the picture from the International Space Station and quickly tweeted it down to Earth, captioned by lyrics from the Don McLean ballad "Vincent" (aka "Starry Starry Night"). Note how the planet directly below the auroras is partially sunlit. The auroras are nevertheless visible against the black, starry backdrop beyond the planet's limb. The ISS is a nice place for sky watching!
Another solar wind stream is heading for Earth, due to arrive on August 24th (see "Coronal Hole," below). Stay tuned to Wheelock's twitter feed for more aurora sightings from space.

CORONAL HOLE

2010-08-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

CORONAL HOLE:

August 20. 2010

A coronal hole on the sun is turning to face Earth. Coronal holes are places in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. Here is a magnetic map of the hole from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
Image credit: Karel Schrijver, Lockheed Martin SAL
In the image, magnetic field lines are color-coded. White field lines are closed; they hold the solar wind in. Golden field lines are open; they allow the solar wind out.
A stream of solar wind flowing from this coronal hole is expected to reach Earth on or about August 24th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives.

NEW MEXICO FIREBALL

2010-08-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

Dawn came early to New Mexico on Saturday around 4:54 am local time when a brilliant meteor exploded near Santa Fe. "It turned night into day," says amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft who recorded the fireball using an all-sky video camera: must-see movie. The movie's soundtrack is the signal from a 61 MHz forward-scatter meteor radar also operated by Ashcraft. Ghostly echoes from the meteor's debris continue long after the meteor itself explodes. Listen again.

HUGE SOLAR FLAIR

2010-08-01T20:07:00.001-07:00

COMPLEX ERUPTION ON THE SUN: This morning around 0855 UT, Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare. The origin of the blast was sunspot 1092. At about the same time, an enormous magnetic filament stretching across the sun's northern hemisphere erupted. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:
Click to launch a 304 Å movie
The timing of these events suggest they are connected, and a review of SDO movies strengthens that conclusion. Despite the ~400,000 km distance between them, the sunspot and filament seem to erupt together; they are probably connected by long-range magnetic fields. In this movie (171 Å), a shadowy shock wave (a "solar tsunami") can be seen emerging from the flare site and rippling across the northern hemisphere into the filament's eruption zone. That may have helped propel the filament into space.
In short, we have just witnessed a complex global eruption involving almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun.
A coronal mass ejection (CME) produced by the event is heading directly for Earth: SOHO movie. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on or about August 3rd.
more images: from Francois Rouviere of Mougins, France; from Rogerio Marcon of Campinas SP Brasil; from Didier Favre of Brétigny-sur-Orge, France; from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from Wouter Verhesen of Sittard, The Netherlands; from Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California

HUBBLE'S BEST SHOTS

2010-04-23T20:28:00.000-07:00

PlutoTaken in 2002 and 2003, this is the most detailed and highest resolution image of the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto, a member of the population of bodies that reside in a part of our Solar System known as the Kuiper Belt. It is believed that the methane on Pluto's surface is broken up by the ultraviolet radiation from the sun, leaving behind a dark, carbon-rich residue..time.

Horsehead Nebula
Located approximately 1,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Orion, this dark nebula is one of the most photographed and identifiable nebulae; its cloud dust and gases form what appears to be a horsehead in the night sky.

V838 Monocerotis
In the beginning of 2002, a dull star floating some 20,000 light-years away from the sun, in the constellation Monceros, experienced a major outburst that threw illuminating dust or 'light echos' into space, temporarily making it the brightest star in the Milky Way galaxy. Since its explosion, this mysterious star's apparent brightness has changed to mere obscurity.

Butterfly Nebula

Also known as the Bug Nebula, the butterfly-shaped nebula consists of heated gas made up of oxygen and nitrogen, the whole of which tears through space at speeds in excess of 60,000 miles an hour. The dying star in the center is not unlike our sun.

Saturn Aurora

A large amount of solar wind activity from the sun creates a bright aurora around the south pole of the planet Saturn, rising more than a thousand miles above its cloud tops.

AN AWESOME VIDEO

2010-04-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/21apr_firstlight/

INCREDIBLE PHOTOS OF THE SUN

2010-04-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

"We've seen solar prominences before—but never quite like this," says Alan Title of Lockheed Martin, principal investigator of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), the observatory's main telescope array. "Some of my colleagues say they've learned new things about prominences just by watching this one movie."
SDO is the first mission of NASA's Living with a Star (LWS) program. The goal of LWS is to understand the sun as a magnetic variable star and to measure its impact on life and society on Earth. Program scientist Lika Guhathakurta of NASA headquarters envisions big things for the new observatory:
"SDO is our 'Hubble for the sun'," she says. "It promises to transform solar physics in the same way the Hubble Space Telescope has transformed astronomy and cosmology."
"No solar telescope has ever come close to the combined spatial, temporal and spectral resolution of SDO," adds Title. "This is possible because of the combination of 4096 x 4096-pixel CCDs with huge dynamic range and a geosynchronous orbit which allows SDO to observe the sun and communicate with the ground around the clock."

One of the most amazing things about the observatory is its "big picture" view. SDO is able to monitor not just one small patch of sun, but rather the whole thing--full disk, atmosphere, surface, and even interior. "We're going to make connections that were impossible in the past," says Title.
As an example he offers the events of April 8th:
With SDO looking on, decaying sunspot 1060 unleashed a minor "B3-class" solar flare. A shock wave issued from the blast site and raced across the surface of the sun (movie). SDO images clearly show magnetic loops and other structures rocking back and forth when the wave passes over them. Eventually, the wave disappeared over the sun's horizon--but the show wasn't over. Four hours after the initial blast, and some 200,000 km away, a massive prominence erupted (image).
Coincidence? Not according to Title.
"As the wave swept across the surface of the sun, it de-stabilized magnetic fields it encountered en route. I believe the magnetic underpinnings of the prominence were upset by the wave, and this led to the eruption."
A seemingly insignificant B-flare triggered a massive prominence eruption halfway across the sun. This is the sort of unexpected connection that, when fully understood, could lead to big advances in space weather forecasting. So far, SDO's prettiest pictures have come from the bank of telescopes called AIA. Other instruments on the spacecraft are working just as well—and they promise similarly exciting results.
"The Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI) is performing splendidly," reports HMI principal investigator Phil Scherrer of Stanford University. "We're getting very high-quality, high signal-to-noise data."
HMI is designed to look inside the sun using a technique called helioseismology. Just as geologists use seismic waves to map the interior of our planet, solar physicists can use acoustic waves to map the interior of our star. On the sun, acoustic waves are generated by the sun's own internal motions. HMI detects the waves pulling the sun's surface back and forth, revealing indirectly what lies within.
"We're processing the data now," says Scherrer, "and soon we expect to have some nice maps of the sun's interior." The Extreme UV Variability Experiment (EVE) is online, too, "and we're getting great data as well," says principal investigator Tom Woods of the University of Colorado, Boulder.
EVE monitors the sun where it is most variable—in the extreme UV part of the electromagnetic spectrum. At these wavelengths, the brightness of the sun can rise and fall a hundredfold in the blink of an eye, heating and "puffing up" Earth's upper atmosphere, and dragging down satellites. EVE measures these changes with unprecedented time and spectral resolution.
"EVE has already detected a number of very interesting solar flares," says Woods. "We're excited; the flares evolved in a way we didn't expect. This is something we wouldn't have seen without the capabilities of EVE." He plans to offer more details at a later date when the EVE team has had time to fully analyze the data.
Mission scientists stress that all of this is preliminary. The observatory is still being commissioned, and a good deal of testing and calibration remains to be done before regular, daily images become available in mid-May. Even more effort must be put in before hard science appears in refereed journals.
"First Light is just a first look," says Pesnell. "The best is yet to come."
A complete gallery of SDO's First Light images and data may be found at http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/SDOFirstLight.html.

COMET CRASHES INTO OUR SUN

2010-04-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

SUNGRAZING COMET:

Today, the sun had a comet for breakfast. The icy visitor from the outer solar system appeared with no warning on April 9th and plunged into the sun during the early hours of April 10th. One comet went in, none came out. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) had a good view of the encounter:
Click to launch a movie
The comet was probably a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after a 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet at least 2000 years ago. Several of these fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most are too small to see but occasionally a big fragment like today's attracts attention.
This has been an active year for big, bright sungrazers. There was one on Jan. 4th, one on March 12th, and now one today. Normally we see no more than 3 or 4 bright ones in a whole year; now we're seeing them almost once a month. It could be a statistical fluctuation or, maybe, a swarm of Kreutz fragments is nearing perihelion (closest approach to the sun). Stay tuned for doomed comets!

ESTRELLAS

2010-01-29T17:49:00.000-08:00

THE CRAB NEBULA

2010-01-25T19:04:00.000-08:00

A new Hubble image - among the largest ever produced with the Earth-orbiting observatory - gives the most detailed view so far of the entire Crab Nebula.
The Crab is arguably the single most interesting object, as well as one of the most studied, in all of astronomy. The image is the largest ever taken with Hubble’s WFPC2 workhorse camera.

GIANT INTERGALACTIC GAS STREAM

2010-01-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

Giant Intergalactic Gas Stream Longer Than Thought
ScienceDaily (Jan. 5, 2010) — A giant stream of gas flowing from neighbor galaxies around our own Milky Way is much longer and older than previously thought, astronomers have discovered. The new revelations provide a fresh insight on what started the gaseous intergalactic streamer.

DOUBLE HELIX NEBULA

2010-01-25T18:54:00.000-08:00

Astronomers report an unprecedented elongated double helix nebula near the center of our Milky Way galaxy, using observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The part of the nebula the astronomers observed stretches 80 light years in length.

CAT'S PAW NEBULA

2010-01-25T14:02:00.000-08:00

ESO has just released a stunning new image of the vast cloud known as the Cat's Paw Nebula or NGC 6334.
This complex region of gas and dust, where numerous massive stars are born, lies near the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, and is heavily obscured by intervening dust clouds.

Few objects in the sky have been as well named as the Cat's Paw Nebula, a glowing gas cloud resembling the gigantic pawprint of a celestial cat out on an errand across the Universe. British astronomer John Herschel first recorded NGC 6334 in 1837 during his stay in South Africa. Despite using one of the largest telescopes in the world at the time, Herschel seems to have only noted the brightest part of the cloud, seen here towards the lower left.

HUBBLE

2010-01-14T21:33:00.001-08:00

TIERRA

2010-01-06T22:07:00.000-08:00

ICE CRYSTALS

2009-12-14T00:38:00.001-08:00

AFTER THE STORM: Last week, a powerful blizzard paralyzed parts of the US midwest. Mike Hollingshead of Blair, Nebraska, walked outside after the storm and this is what he saw;

Sunlight shining through ice crystals had produced a bright pair of sundogs and a vivid circumzenithal arc. "These tend to appear on the backside of a storm's clearing line as ice crystals blow through the air," notes Hollingshead. "It's a beautiful sight but not a ton of fun to photograph at 5o F with winds blowing 40 mph."

METEOR OVER NORWAY

2009-12-14T00:32:00.001-08:00

Early this morning (Dec. 14th), Bjørnar G. Hansen photographed a Geminid fireball streaking through the Northern Lights over Kvaløya, Norway:

"I took the picture using a Nikon D3," says Hansen. "It is a 30 second exposure."
Robin Busscher sends this report from the Netherlands: "Between midnight and 2 am, we saw a big show of Geminids with as many as 5 meteors in only 10 seconds. That's a lot more than the predicted maximum of 140 per hour!"

STRANGE LIGHTS OVER NORWAY:

2009-12-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

Wednesday morning, Dec. 9th,

people in arctic Norway were stunned when a gigantic luminous spiral formed in the northern sky.

"We are used to seeing lots of auroras here in Norway, but this was different," says Nick Banbury of Harstad who witnessed the phenomenon on his way to work "between 7:50 and 8:00 a.m. local time."

Jan Petter Jorgensen took this photo:
The first reaction of many readers when they see this picture is Photoshop! Surely this must be a fake.

But no, many independent observers witnessed and phtotographed the apparition. It is real.
Banbury continues: "It consisted initially of a green beam of light similar in color to the aurora with a mysterious rotating spiral at one end.

This spiral then got bigger and bigger until it turned into a huge halo in the sky with the green beam extending down to Earth.

According to press reports, this could be seen all over northern Norway and must therefore have been very high up in the atmosphere to be seen hundreds of km apart."
HYPOTHESIS: Evidence is mounting that the phenomenon was caused by a malfunctioning suborbital rocket, possibly a Bulava ICBM launched from a Russian submarine in the White Sea.

A Navtex no-fly alert was issued for the White Sea on Dec. 9th, and photographers have recorded what appears to be the initial boost phase of a launch beneath the spiral (see inset). A rocket motor spinning out of control could indeed explain the spiral pattern, as shown in this video of a Trident II missile launched from a US submarine in 2007.

CONFIRMED:

The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed the launch and subsequent failure of a submarine-based missile

MOON DUST

2009-11-29T15:36:00.000-08:00

Forty years ago, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon for the first time ever.

The historic Apollo 11 Mission landed at the Sea of Tranquility, a large, dark basaltic lava flow

They returned to earth with samples of lunar rocks, sand, and dust

so scientists could search for clues to the origin of the moon and its geologic development

Since that time, microscopes have been greatly improved,

allowing us to see moon dust in ways that were not possible 40, 20 or even just a few years ago.

THE HAND OF GOD

2009-11-28T22:09:00.001-08:00

Hand of God
An X-ray nebula, spanning 150 light-years, swirls around a pulsar in a color-coded image captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite and unveiled April 3. The pulsar spews out blue-colored streams of particles that collide with a neighboring gas cloud, sparking orange-colored emissions. The blue streams have taken on the appearance of a hand with fingers and a thumb, and that has led some to nickname this image "the Hand of God."

Green space
Starlight illuminates parts of the Orion Molecular Cloud with greenish light in this April 19 image, based on data from the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The image is part of a survey charting a star factory in the constellation Orion. Energetic jets punch through the cloud and can be seen as a multitude of tiny pink-purple arcs, knots and filaments. The young stars that drive the jets are usually found along each jet and are colored golden orange.

GALAXIES

2009-11-28T21:57:00.001-08:00

One smooth galaxy
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, showing the spiral galaxy known as NGC 2841, is helping astronomers solve one of the oldest puzzles in astronomy: Why do galaxies look so smooth, with stars sprinkled evenly throughout? An international team of astronomers has discovered that rivers of young stars flow from their hot, dense stellar nurseries, dispersing out to form the large, smooth distribution that we see in spiral galaxies like this one.

NEBULAS, GALAXIES AND PLANETS

2009-11-28T21:50:00.000-08:00

Parting shot
This beautiful picture of the planetary nebula Kohoutek 4-55, taken on May 4, was the last image delivered by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, the instrument credited with saving the once-troubled observatory. Spacewalkers from the shuttle Atlantis replaced the 16-year-old camera with a new instrument.

Hi, neighbor!
This image, released April 28, blends the Galaxy Evolution Explorer's ultraviolet view of the galaxy M33 and an infrared view from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. M33, one of our closest galactic neighbors, is about 2.9 million light-years away in the constellation Triangulum, part of what's known as our Local Group of galaxies.

Message from Mercury
New observations from NASA's Messenger spacecraft reveal never-before-seen portions of Mercury, including a giant impact crater that spans a length equivalent to the distance between Washington and Boston. This imagery was acquired in 2008 and published in the May 1 issue of the journal Science.

COSMIC ACCELERATOR

2009-11-28T21:24:00.000-08:00

Cosmic accelerator
Cosmic rays from our Milky Way galaxy are accelerated efficiently in the remnants of an exploded star, as shown in this June 25 imagery from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Researchers studied the color-coded emissions from the supernova remnant RCW 86, which is 8,200 light-years from Earth, to learn how such "super-accelerators" work. They found that the shock wave created by the stellar explosion moves at 1 to 3 percent of the speed of light.

SOAP BUBBLE IN SPACE

2009-11-28T21:23:00.001-08:00

Soap bubble in space
Informally known as the "Soap Bubble Nebula," this planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus (officially known as PN G75.5.7) was discovered by amateur astronomer Dave Jurasevich in 2008. This image was obtained with the Kitt Peak Mayall 4-meter telescope on June 19, 2009.

TOUGH UNIVERSE

2009-11-28T21:05:00.000-08:00

Galaxies collision

A pileup on an intergalactic freeway
There are freeway pileups, and then there are pileups such as the one shown in this composite image from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope and Hawaii's Keck Observatory. The picture reveals a massive collision of four separate clusters of galaxies along a 13 million light-year-long stretch of intergalactic highway known as a filament, filled with galaxies, gas and dark matter. As the clusters plow into each other, they release heat, giving the pileup in the filament one of the highest temperatures ever seen in such a system, scientists noted.

Galactic collision reveals dark matter
Evidence for the existence of dark matter, a mysterious and invisible substance that is thought to make up most of the mass in the universe, was revealed when astronomers watched two giant galaxy clusters collide. The observation, made with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and other telescopes, shows how the collision separated the dark matter from ordinary matter. In the image, the pink color represents ordinary matter from the collided galaxies. The blue is the dark matter, which passed right through the galactic wreckage and is inferred by the effect its gravity has on light from more distant galaxies.

Jets blast from galactic black hole
This composite radio, X-ray and visible-light image shows lobes and jets of electrons screaming out from a supermassive black hole at the center of Centaurus A, a giant elliptical galaxy about 13 million light years from Earth. The black hole has a mass equal to 100 million suns. The jets are emitted as matter is sucked into the massive black hole, and they travel at about half the speed of light. When the jets slam into the surrounding gas, they create a shock wave – the bluish x-ray emissions seen most prominently in the lower right lobe.

Black hole rips apart a star
For some black holes, star gas apparently isn't enough sustenance: They go for the whole thing. This artist's rendering shows how a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy called RX J1242-11, located about 700 million light years away, likely ripped apart a star the size of our sun. The gravitational tug of the black hole stretched the star apart. Only about 1 percent of the star was actually consumed by the black hole, scientists told reporters in a news briefing. The rest was flung off into the galaxy by the momentum of the interaction.

Stellar explosion sends out jet of gamma rays
A stellar explosion in a galaxy 7.5 billion light years away was powerful and bright enough to be seen with the naked eye on Earth. Astronomers picked up more detailed observations of the explosion, called a gamma ray burst, with NASA's Swift satellite. Then they conducted follow-up observations with ground- and space-based telescopes around the world. The pile of data drew the best picture yet of the poorly understood gamma ray bursts and showed that Earth was in the near direct path of a jet that shot out of the star. Had the explosion happened in our galaxy, astronomers said, it would have spelled big trouble for life on Earth. The illustration here shows how the gamma ray burst may have appeared up close.

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

2009-11-28T20:34:00.001-08:00

View from space
Astronauts aboard the international space station snapped this picture from 230 miles above Earth as the shadow of the moon fell on the planet during a total solar eclipse on March 29, 2006. Visible near the shadow are portions of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea and the coast of Turkey.

Red sky at morning
The new moon covers up part of the sun during an eclipse seen from a fishing spot on the Rio de la Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on June 21, 2001.

Solar streams
The sun's corona is a tenuous outer atmosphere composed of streams of energetic charged particles, but it is seen easily from Earth only during a total solar eclipse. This 1991 image of totality from atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, provides a fleeting glimpse of the corona's intricate structures and streams.

A total solar eclipse darkens the skies in Chongqing municipality in China.

NEWBORN STARS

2009-11-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

Clouds of creation
A molecular cloud known as Cepheus B sparkles with newborn stars in this Aug. 12 image, which combines data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope. Star formation in Cepheus B, which is 2,400 light-years from Earth, appears to be mainly triggered by radiation from one bright, massive star outside the cloud.

THE SUN

2009-11-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

This all-around view of the sun and its surroundings was created from three perspectives. The sun itself was imaged by the Extreme-Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO. The inner corona was recorded by Williams College observers during the July 22 total solar eclipse. The outer view of the corona was produced using SOHO's Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph.

NOVEMBER IN SPACE

2009-11-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

Crab Nebula reloaded
A star's spectacular death in the constellation Taurus was observed on Earth as the supernova of the year 1054. Now, almost a millennium later, a super-dense neutron star left behind by the explosion is seen spewing out a blizzard of high-energy particles into the expanding debris field known as the Crab Nebula. This composite view, released Nov. 23, combines imagery from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (shown in blue) with visible-light data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red and yellow) and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (purple).

A galaxy's leftovers
This near-infrared image from the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope in Chile, released Nov. 20, shows the giant cannibal galaxy Centaurus A eating a smaller spiral galaxy. The dark brown, parallelogram-shaped band of material represents "leftovers" from the galaxy that was gulped down 200 to 700 millon years earlier. Centaurus A is an elliptical galaxy 11 million light-years from Earth in the southern sky.

Martian lessons in the layers
Different layers of rock stand out in this color-coded picture of the Martian region known as Arabia Terra, acquired by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and released Nov. 18. Scientists think the picture may show how different beds of sediment were laid down during climatic cycles on Mars.

Power-packed Pinwheel
This Hubble Space Telescope image, released Nov. 11, shows a detailed view of starbirth in the spiral galaxy M83, 15 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. The image reveals in unprecedented detail the current rapid rate of starbirth in this famous "grand design" spiral galaxy, known as the "Southern Pinwheel.

Milky Way Marathon
A new panoramic image of the full night sky — with the Milky Way as its centerpiece — has been made by piecing together 3,000 individual photographs.

Dark dunes
Martian sand dunes seem to glow a deep violet in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The picture, acquired Aug. 24 and released Oct. 28, is actually color-coded to reflect subtle variations in surface composition.

Red Planet blobs
A close-up from the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, released Oct. 28, provides a rare look at different layers in the carbon dioxide ice near Mars' south pole.

Chaos on Mars
This mosaic of images from Europe's Mars Express orbiter, released Nov. 6, provides a spectacular view of the chaotic terrain at the boundary between Kasei Valles and Sacra Fossae. The area shown is roughly half the size of the Netherlands. The rim of the crater seen at far right was likely eroded in ancient times by flowing water.

Polar patterns
Carbon dioxide ice makes weird patterns in Mars' south polar region, as seen in this picture from the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, released Nov. 18. High-standing smooth material is broken up by semicircular depressions and linear, branching troughs that look like fingerprints.

Milky Way: Some like it hot...
This spectacular image uses different colors to chart the Milky Way's central region in visible light (yellow) as well as infrared (shown in red) and X-ray light (blue and violet). The Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer space telescopes all contributed to the picture, which was released Nov. 10. Telescopes that detect infrared and X-ray wavelengths can see through obscuring dust and reveal the intense activity near the galactic core.

Sunny day in space
The sun greets the International Space Station on Nov. 22, as seen from the Russian section of the orbital outpost. The photo was taken by a visiting member of the shutltle Atlantis' crew.

BOLIDE METEOR

2009-11-18T21:47:00.000-08:00

SALT LAKE CITY -- A fast-moving meteor lit up the night skies over most of Utah just after midnight Wednesday. Moments later, the phones lit up at KSL as people across the state called to tell us what they saw and ask what it was.
Scientists are calling it a "remarkable midnight fireball." The source of all the excitement was basically a rock, falling from space.

LEONIDS METEOR SHOWER

2009-11-18T21:41:00.000-08:00

FIREBALLS AND METEORS

2009-11-18T21:05:00.000-08:00

As forecasters predicted, the Leonid meteor shower peaked during the late hours of Nov. 17th, favoring sky watchers in Asia with an outburst of 100+ meteors per hour.

Just as the outburst was dying down, an even bigger event took place over the western USA.

Something hit Earth's atmosphere and exploded with an energy equivalent of 0.5 to 1 kiloton of TNT. Witnesses in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and elsewhere say the fireball "turned night into day" and "shook the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time. Researchers who are analyzing infrasound recordings of the blast say the fireball was not a Leonid. It was probably a small asteroid, now scattered in fragments across the countryside. Efforts are underway to measure the trajectory of the asteroid and guide meteorite recovery efforts.
A remarkable midnight fireball that "turned night into day" over parts of the western United States last night was not a Leonid. Infrasound measurements suggest a sporadic asteroid not associated with the Leonid debris stream. The space rock exploded in the atmosphere with an energy equivalent to 0.5 - 1 kilotons of TNT.
Approximately 6 hours later, observers in Utah and Colorado witnessed a twisting iridescent-blue cloud in the dawn sky. Debris from the fireball should have dissipated by that time, but the cloud remains unexplained; we cannot yet rule out a connection to the fireball event. Stay tuned for further analysis

http://www.spaceweather.com/

MARTIAN CARBON DIOXIDE ICE

2009-11-17T10:02:00.000-08:00

Lines in the ice
A high-resolution image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, captured in April and released in September, shows a sawtooth pattern in the Red Planet's carbon dioxide ice.

MARS

2009-11-17T10:01:00.001-08:00

Lines in the (Martian) sand
Whirlwinds have left behind subtle dark tracks that are visible in this orbital image of a Martian dune field. The picture was taken by a high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in August and released on Sept. 16.

DANCE OF THE GALAXIES

2009-11-17T09:59:00.000-08:00

Dance of the galaxies
An arrangement of galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet sparkles in a Hubble Space Telescope image released on Sept. 9. Four of the galaxies are interacting in a gravitational dance - but the fifth galaxy, at upper left, is actually much closer to us and just happens to be in the same line of sight.

BUTTERFLY IN SPACE

2009-11-17T09:56:00.001-08:00

Butterfly in space
Colorful jets stretch out into space from the planetary nebula NGC 6302, also known as the Butterfly Nebula or the Bug Nebula. The image, captured on July 27 and released on Sept. 9, was one of the first taken by the Hubble Space Telescope since its overhaul in May

NOCTIS LABYRINTHUS

2009-11-17T09:53:00.000-08:00

Layers upon layers
Deposits of light-colored material lie atop sand dunes in the Noctis Labyrinthus formation on Mars, as shown in this picture from the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Readings from another instrument, known as CRISM, suggest that the material contains iron-bearing sulfates and clay minerals.

The photo was released on Oct. 7.2009

A CLASH OF GALAXIES

2009-11-17T09:51:00.000-08:00

Clash of galaxies
An image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows two galaxies merging into one beautiful mess known as NGC 2623.

The picture, based on data acquired in 2007, was released on Oct. 13.2009

SATURNIAN MOON

2009-11-17T09:49:00.001-08:00

Two-tone moon
Dark dust coats half of a Saturnian moon named Iapetus, as seen in this photo captured by the Cassini orbiter in September 2007. In the Oct. 8 issue of Nature, researchers suggested that the source of the dust was a nearly invisible ring of debris kicked off from another moon, Phoebe. The ring starts about 3.7 million miles away from Saturn and extends outward another 7.4 million miles.

WHERE STARS ARE BORN

2009-11-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

Where stars are born
An infrared image from the European Space Agency's Herschel probe, released Oct. 2, shows clouds of dust and gas in our own Milky Way galaxy. Scientists say the clouds shroud hordes of newborn stars.

LAVA ON MARS

2009-11-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

Lava on Mars
Over the course of Martian geological history, volcanic lava has flowed repeatedly over a region known as Daedalia Planum, southeast of a large volcano called Arsia Mons. This picture from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, released Oct. 9, shows the tracks left behind by those flows.

OCTOBER 2009 IN SPACE

2009-11-17T09:22:00.000-08:00

Blast from the sun
A huge prominence erupts from the left side of the sun's disk in one of a series of images recorded in the ultraviolet spectrum over a 30-hour period by NASA's STEREO spacecraft. The Sept. 26-27 prominence, which was powered by the sun's magnetic field, was one of the first that was large enough for both of the STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Reflection Observatory) spacecraft to observe it over a period of hours.

Dark dunes
Martian winds have piled sand into strange-shaped dunes, as seen in a picture captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and released on Oct. 7. The dunes are shown in shades of blue rather than red because the image has been color-coded to indicate subtle differences in surface composition.

Blobs in space
This portrait of Barnard's Galaxy, made by the European Southern Observatory in Chile and released Oct. 14, shows curiously shaped star-forming nebulae in shades of red and purple. Also known as NGC 6822, this dwarf irregular galaxy is one of the Milky Way's galactic neighbors - situated a mere 1.6 million light-years away.

Warp speed
The spiral galaxy NGC 4402 is being stripped of its gas content as it moves through the Virgo Cluster at a speed of millions of miles an hour. The pressures give it a warped or convex appearance. This picture was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2007 and was released on Sept. 30, 2009

Earth's moon, seen here in a photo taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft, was targeted by another probe in October. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, crashed into a polar crater on Oct. 9. Although the impact could not be seen from Earth, data collected by spacecraft with a better view of lunar surface should help scientists learn more about water ice trapped in the moon's soil.

Scribbles on Mars
Mini-tornadoes known as dust devils have left behind dark, twisting tracks on Martian sand dunes in this image, captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in August and released on Oct. 14.

Whirling winds create the patterns by stirring up darker material beneath the surface.

NEW SUN SPOT

2009-10-29T19:10:00.001-07:00

The sunspot's large dark core is about the size of Earth, while the entire sunspot group stretches about 50,000 km from end to end.

The behemoth has been crackling with magnetic activity, producing 10 C-class solar flares in the past few days.

That more than triples the number of C-flares (3) previously detected in all of 2009.

According to NOAA forecasters, there is a 5% chance of an even stronger M-class flare during the next 24 hours

NUESTRA TIERRA

2009-10-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

LUNAR IMPACT

2009-10-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

Space Weather News for Oct. 6, 2009
http://spaceweather.com

LUNAR IMPACT: This Friday morning, Oct 9th, at approximately 4:30 am PDT, NASA's LCROSS spacecraft and its Centaur booster rocket will plunge one after another into a shadowed crater near the Moon's south pole.

The spectacular double-impact will be shown live on NASA TV from the point of view of the LCROSS spacecraft.
Meanwhile, impact debris plumes emerging from the crater may be visible through backyard telescopes.
North American sky watchers west of the Mississippi river are favored with darkness and good views of the Moon at the time of impact.
Visit http://spaceweather.com for observing tips and full coverage.

COSMIC RAYS HIT SPACE AGE HIGH

2009-10-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

September 29, 2009:

Planning a trip to Mars?

Take plenty of shielding.

According to sensors on NASA's ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) spacecraft, galactic cosmic rays have just hit a Space Age high.
"In 2009, cosmic ray intensities have increased 19% beyond anything we've seen in the past 50 years," says Richard Mewaldt of Caltech.

"The increase is significant, and it could mean we need to re-think how much radiation shielding astronauts take with them on deep-space missions."The cause of the surge is solar minimum, a deep lull in solar activity that began around 2007 and continues today. Researchers have long known that cosmic rays go up when solar activity goes down. Right now solar activity is as weak as it has been in modern times, setting the stage for what Mewaldt calls "a perfect storm of cosmic rays."
Sign up for EXPRESS SCIENCE NEWS delivery "We're experiencing the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century," says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center, "so it is no surprise that cosmic rays are at record levels for the Space Age."
Galactic cosmic rays come from outside the solar system. They are subatomic particles--mainly protons but also some heavy nuclei--accelerated to almost light speed by distant supernova explosions. Cosmic rays cause "air showers" of secondary particles when they hit Earth's atmosphere; they pose a health hazard to astronauts; and a single cosmic ray can disable a satellite if it hits an unlucky integrated circuit.
The sun's magnetic field is our first line of defense against these highly-charged, energetic particles. The entire solar system from Mercury to Pluto and beyond is surrounded by a bubble of magnetism called "the heliosphere." It springs from the sun's inner magnetic dynamo and is inflated to gargantuan proportions by the solar wind. When a cosmic ray tries to enter the solar system, it must fight through the heliosphere's outer layers; and if it makes it inside, there is a thicket of magnetic fields waiting to scatter and deflect the intruder.
Right: An artist's concept of the heliosphere, a magnetic bubble that partially protects the solar system from cosmic rays. [larger image]
"At times of low solar activity, this natural shielding is weakened, and more cosmic rays are able to reach the inner solar system," explains Pesnell.
Mewaldt lists three aspects of the current solar minimum that are combining to create the perfect storm:
1. The sun's magnetic field is weak. "There has been a sharp decline in the sun's interplanetary magnetic field down to 4 nT (nanoTesla) from typical values of 6 to 8 nT," he says. "This record-low interplanetary magnetic field undoubtedly contributes to the record-high cosmic ray fluxes." [data]
2. The solar wind is flagging. "Measurements by the Ulysses spacecraft show that solar wind pressure is at a 50-year low," he continues, "so the magnetic bubble that protects the solar system is not being inflated as much as usual." A smaller bubble gives cosmic rays a shorter-shot into the solar system. Once a cosmic ray enters the solar system, it must "swim upstream" against the solar wind. Solar wind speeds have dropped to very low levels in 2008 and 2009, making it easier than usual for a cosmic ray to proceed. [data]
3. The current sheet is flattening. Imagine the sun wearing a ballerina's skirt as wide as the entire solar system with an electrical current flowing along its wavy folds. It's real, and it's called the "heliospheric current sheet," a vast transition zone where the polarity of the sun's magnetic field changes from plus to minus. The current sheet is important because cosmic rays are guided by its folds. Lately, the current sheet has been flattening itself out, allowing cosmic rays more direct access to the inner solar system.
Right: The heliospheric current sheet is shaped like a ballerina's skirt. Image credit: J. R. Jokipii and B. Thomas, Astrophysical Journal 243, 1115, 1981.
"If the flattening continues, we could see cosmic ray fluxes jump all the way to 30% above previous Space Age highs," predicts Mewaldt. [data]
Earth is in no great peril. Our planet's atmosphere and magnetic field provide some defense against the extra cosmic rays. Indeed, we've experienced much worse in the past. Hundreds of years ago, cosmic ray fluxes were at least 200% to 300% higher than anything measured during the Space Age. Researchers know this because when cosmic rays hit the atmosphere, they produce an isotope of beryllium, 10Be, which is preserved in polar ice. By examining ice cores, it is possible to estimate cosmic ray fluxes more than a thousand years into the past. Even with the recent surge, cosmic rays today are much weaker than they have been at times in the past millennium. [data]
"The space era has so far experienced a time of relatively low cosmic ray activity," says Mewaldt. "We may now be returning to levels typical of past centuries."
NASA spacecraft will continue to monitor the situation as solar minimum unfolds. Stay tuned for updates.

BIG (FOOT) DISCOVERY

2009-10-02T17:52:00.000-07:00

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has made a stunning discovery.

Bigfoot is an extraterrestrial!

His tracks have been found on Mercury

MESSENGER took the picture during a flyby of Mercury on Sept. 29th. The giant paw print was just one of many wonders

MESSENGER's cameras saw imprinted on thousands of square kilometers of previously unseen terrain.

In this case, a cluster of small craters--"toes"--were by chance arranged in an arc above a stack of larger, partially overlapping craters--the "heel." MESSENGER also photographed a happy crater, a double crater, and a crater splash.
Although early results from the flyby are dominated by pictures of craters, the spacecraft also made new measurements of Mercury's magnetic tornadoes and its comet-like tail.

Mission scientists are still analyzing those data, which are more complicated than crater-snapshots and potentially much more interesting. Stay tuned for updates.

www.spaceweather.com

HARVEST MOON

2009-10-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend's full Moon has a special name--The Harvest Moon.

It's the full moon closest to the northern autumnal equinox (Sept. 23).

In years past, farmers depended on the light of the Harvest Moon to gather ripening crops late into the night.

Post-Edison, we appreciate it mainly for its beauty.

Shown above is last year's Harvest Moon, photographed by P-M Hedén of Hedesunda, Sweden. "It was a lovely sight," he recalls.
When the Moon is Harvest-bright, it often lights up ice crystals and water droplets in high clouds, producing luminous haloes and coronas.

Keep an eye out for those beauties, too!

LOVELY UNIVERSE

2009-09-30T08:03:00.001-07:00

PERSEID METEOR SHOWER

2009-08-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

Brian Emfinger, Ozark, Arkansas, USAug. 1, 2009

Peter McCabe, Dundalk, Co. Louth, IrelandAug. 7, 2009

Forecasters expect the 2009 Perseid meteor shower to peak on August 11th and 12th. Moonlight will interfere with the display, but not ruin it. Sky watchers in dark country locations could see more than 100 meteors per hour, and perhaps as many as 200 if Earth passes through an anticipated filament of comet dust that is crossing Earth's path. NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office warns of a possible outburst at 0800 UT (01 a.m. PDT) on August 12th.
www.spaceweather.com

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

2009-07-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE: Chasing an eclipse can be a nerve-wracking experience. Just ask Alan Dyer, who on July 21st was sailing through the path of totality in the south Pacific Ocean when clouds began to gather overhead. "The early, partial stages of the eclipse were blocked," says Dyer. "We had to chase into a clear hole to catch this view of totality."The sight of the low-hanging Sun in eclipse was spectacular with an impressively large Sun/Moon disk caused by the 'moon illusion' effect," he says. "In the end, we were a happy ship of 300 eclipse chasers!"

AURORA BOREALIS

2009-07-23T16:47:00.000-07:00

AURORA SURPRISE: Last night, July 21st and 22nd, a solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field and surprised observers with an unexpected display of auroras. Northern Lights swept across parts of Canada and descended as far south as the Dakotas, Montana, Iowa and Wisconsin in the United States. Photos of the display are featured on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com .

THE LONGEST SOLAR ECLIPSE OF A CENTURY

2009-07-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

2009 Total Solar Eclipse: The Longest of the 21st CenturyOn Wed., July 22, 2009, a total eclipse of the sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of Earth. The path of the eclipse begins in India and crosses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar (Burma) and China. After leaving mainland Asia, the path crosses Japan's Ryukyu Islands and curves southeast through the Pacific Ocean. This is the longest total solar eclipse that will occur during the 21st century, and will not be surpassed in duration until June 13, 2132. Totality will last for up to 6 minutes and 39 seconds

NASA Brings Total Solar Eclipse to the Masses
06.12.08

This photograph shows the total solar eclipse of Oct. 24, 1995, as seen from Dundlod, India. Credit: Fred Espenak/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center> Larger image Save the date Aug. 1, 2008, to watch a total eclipse of the sun. NASA Television will share this stunning visual treat with observers around the world in a live streaming webcast, thanks to a partnership with the University of California at Berkeley and the Exploratorium.On August 1, a total solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Canada, northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia, and China. The eclipse will sweep across Earth in a narrow path that begins in Canada’s northern province of Nunavut and ends in northern China’s Silk Road region at sunset.Watch NASA TV’s streaming live webcast of the event from 6 a.m. (EST) until 11 a.m. (EST). The eclipse coverage is part of the Sun-Earth Day celebration, an annual event that strives to share the many ways in which the sun interacts with Earth and the other planets in our solar system. An eclipse of the sun occurs when the moon passes directly between Earth and the sun. When the moon’s shadow falls on Earth, people within that shadow see the moon block a portion of the sun’s light.The moon’s shadow has two parts, an umbra and a penumbra. The umbra is the “inner” part of the moon’s shadow. The penumbra is the moon’s faint “outer” shadow. During a total solar eclipse, like the one that takes place August 1, the moon appears to cover all of the sun for observers located in the moon’s umbral shadow, also known as the “path of totality.” Those viewing the eclipse from the moon’s penumbral shadow see the moon cover a portion of the sun.At the moment of totality, when the sun is totally obscured by the moon’s shadow, the sun’s outer atmosphere, called the solar corona, becomes visible. It’s a seldom-seen sight coveted by experienced eclipse watchers and an awe-inspiring vision for first-time viewers. The solar corona extends farther than 620,000 miles from the sun’s visible surface and reaches temperatures up to 2 million degrees.Be sure to catch the event August 1 on NASA TV’s streaming live webcast and celebrate this magnificent sight, courtesy of our nearest neighbors, the sun and moon.

SUN PLUNGES UNTO THE QUIETES SOLAR MINIMUN IN A CENTURY

2009-07-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower. 2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73 percent). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days. Prompted by these numbers, some observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008.Maybe not. Sunspot counts for 2009 have dropped even lower. As of March 31st, there were no sunspots on 78 of the year's 90 days (87 percent). It adds up to one inescapable conclusion: "We're experiencing a very deep solar minimum," says solar physicist Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "This is the quietest sun we've seen in almost a century," agrees forecaster David Hathaway of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Quiet suns come along every 11 years or so. It's a natural part of the sunspot cycle, discovered by German astronomer Heinrich Schwabe in the mid-1800s. Sunspots are planet-sized islands of magnetism on the surface of the sun, and they are sources of solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and intense UV radiation. Plotting sunspot counts, Schwabe saw that peaks of solar activity were always followed by valleys of relative calm—a clockwork pattern that has held true for more than 200 years.> Click for larger imageThe sunspot cycle from 1995 to the present. The jagged curve traces actual sunspot counts. Smooth curves are fits to the data and one forecaster's predictions of future activity. Credit: David Hathaway, NASA/MSFC The current solar minimum is part of that pattern. In fact, it's right on time. But is it supposed to be this quiet? Measurements by the Ulysses spacecraft reveal a 20 percent drop in solar wind pressure since the mid-1990s—the lowest point since such measurements began in the 1960s. The solar wind helps keep galactic cosmic rays out of the inner solar system. With the solar wind flagging, more cosmic rays penetrate the solar system, resulting in increased health hazards for astronauts. Weaker solar wind also means fewer geomagnetic storms and auroras on Earth.Careful measurements by several NASA spacecraft have also shown that the sun's brightness has dimmed by 0.02 percent at visible wavelengths and a whopping 6 percent at extreme UV wavelengths since the solar minimum of 1996. These changes are not enough to reverse global warming, but there are some other, noticeable side-effects. Earth's upper atmosphere is heated less by the sun and it is therefore less "puffed up." Satellites in Earth orbit experience less atmospheric drag, extending their operational lifetimes. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, space junk also remains in orbit longer, posing an increased threat to useful satellites.> Click for larger image An artist's concept of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Bristling with advanced sensors, "SDO" is slated to launch later this year--perfect timing to study the ongoing solar minimum. Credit: NASA Finally, radio telescopes are recording the dimmest "radio sun" since 1955. After World War II, astronomers began keeping records of the sun's brightness at radio wavelengths, particularly 10.7 cm. Some researchers believe that the lessening of radio emissions during this solar minimum is an indication of weakness in the sun's global magnetic field. No one is certain, however, because the source of these long-monitored radio emissions is not fully understood.All these lows have sparked a debate about whether the ongoing minimum is extreme or just an overdue market correction following a string of unusually intense solar maxima. "Since the Space Age began in the 1950s, solar activity has been generally high," notes Hathaway. "Five of the ten most intense solar cycles on record have occurred in the last 50 years. We're just not used to this kind of deep calm."Deep calm was fairly common a hundred years ago. The solar minima of 1901 and 1913, for instance, were even longer than what we're experiencing now. To match those minima in depth and longevity, the current minimum will have to last at least another year. In a way, the calm is exciting, says Pesnell. "For the first time in history, we're getting to observe a deep solar minimum." A fleet of spacecraft — including the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), the twin probes of the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), and several other satellites — are all studying the sun and its effects on Earth. Using technology that didn't exist 100 years ago, scientists are measuring solar winds, cosmic rays, irradiance and magnetic fields and finding that solar minimum is much more interesting than anyone expected.> Click for larger imageThe "blankest years" of the past century. Vertical bars in this histogram represent the number of days in each year that the sun was blank--i.e., had no sunspots. Credit: Tony Phillips Modern technology cannot, however, predict what comes next. Competing models by dozens of solar physicists disagree, sometimes sharply, on when this solar minimum will end and how big the next solar maximum will be. The great uncertainty stems from one simple fact: No one fully understands the underlying physics of the sunspot cycle.Pesnell believes sunspot counts should pick up again soon, "possibly by the end of the year," to be followed by a solar maximum of below-average intensity in 2012 or 2013. But like other forecasters, he knows he could be wrong. Bull or bear? Stay tuned for updates.

MYSTERY SOURCE OF SOLAR WIND HEATING IDENTIFIED

2009-07-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

Mystery Source of Solar Wind Heating Identified The solar wind, shown here in a plot of data from the Ulysses spacecraft, flows away from the sun at a million miles per hour and is heated by a "turbulent cascade." Credit: NASALarger ImageThe solar wind is hotter than it should be, and for decades researchers have puzzled over the unknown source of energy that heats it. In a paper published in the June 12 issue of Physical Review Letters, NASA scientists say they may have found the answer."The energy source is turbulence," says co-author Melvyn Goldstein, chief of the Geospace Physics Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "The sun heats the solar wind by stirring it up."

JUPITER HIT BY SOMETHING..THE SPOT BIGGER THAN EARTH

2009-07-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

This image shows a large impact shown on the bottom left on Jupiter's south polar region captured on July 20, 2009, by NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Infrared Telescope Facility

Scientists have found evidence that another object has bombarded Jupiter, exactly 15 years after the first impacts by the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Following up on a tip by an amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley of Australia, that a new dark "scar" had suddenly appeared on Jupiter, this morning between 3 and 9 a.m. PDT (6 a.m. and noon EDT) scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, gathered evidence indicating an impact. New infrared images show the likely impact point was near the south polar region, with a visibly dark "scar" and bright upwelling particles in the upper atmosphere detected in near-infrared wavelengths, and a warming of the upper troposphere with possible extra emission from ammonia gas detected at mid-infrared wavelengths. "We were extremely lucky to be seeing Jupiter at exactly the right time, the right hour, the right side of Jupiter to witness the event. We couldn't have planned it better," said Glenn Orton, a scientist at JPL. Orton and his team of astronomers kicked into gear early in the morning and haven't stopped tracking the planet. They are downloading data now and are working to get additional observing time on this and other telescopes. This image was taken at 1.65 microns, a wavelength sensitive to sunlight reflected from high in Jupiter's atmosphere, and it shows both the bright center of the scar (bottom left) and the debris to its northwest (upper left). "It could be the impact of a comet, but we don't know for sure yet," said Orton. "It's been a whirlwind of a day, and this on the anniversary of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Apollo anniversaries is amazing." Shoemaker-Levy 9 was a comet that had been seen to break into many pieces before the pieces hit Jupiter in 1994. Leigh Fletcher, a NASA postdoctoral fellow at JPL who worked with Orton during these latest observations said, "Given the rarity of these events, it's extremely exciting to be involved in these observations. These are the most exciting observations I've seen in my five years of observing the outer planets!" The observations were made possible in large measure by the extraordinary efforts of the Infrared Telescope Facility staff, including telescope operator William Golisch, who adroitly moved three instruments in and out of the field during the short time the scar was visible on the planet, providing the wide wavelength coverage. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov

SPACE WEATHER NEWS

2009-06-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

Space Weather News for June 17, 2009

http://spaceweather.com

NIGHT-SHINING CLOUDS:
On June 16th, a remarkably intense display of electric-blue noctilucent clouds (NLCs) swept across Europe.
Sightings were made in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland and the British Isles.
These mysterious clouds are known to flourish during years of solar minimum--and 2009 is such a year.
This means more NLCs may be in the offing, not only over Europe but also North America and elsewhere.
Check http://spaceweather.com for images, movies, and observing tips.

THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING SUNSPOTS:

The sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century.
Where have all the sunspots gone?
Scientists studying a jet stream deep inside the sun may have found the answer.
Find the full story at http://spaceweather.com

THE CRAB NEBULA

2009-06-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

Hubble's image of the Crab Nebula shows a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion.

Japanese and Chinese astronomers witnessed this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, together with, possibly, Native Americans.

The orange filaments are the remains of the star and consist mostly of hydrogen. The rapidly spinning neutron star embedded in the center of the nebula is the dynamo powering the nebula's eerie interior bluish glow.

The blue light comes from electrons whirling at nearly the speed of light around magnetic field lines from the neutron star.

The neutron star, the crushed ultra-dense core of the exploded star, ejects twin beams of radiation that appear to pulse 30 times a second due to the neutron star's rotation.

STRANGE LIGHTNING

2009-06-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

STRANGE LIGHTNING: High above Earth, in the realm of meteors and noctilucent clouds, a strange and beautiful form of lightning dances at the edge of space. Researchers call the bolts "sprites"; they are red, fleeting, and tend to come in bunches. Atmospheric scientist Oscar van der Velde of Sant Vicenç de Castellet, Spain, photographed this specimen on June 5th:

PLANET X NEXT TO THE SUN

2009-06-07T21:23:00.001-07:00

EL PORTE DE LA TIERRA COMPARADO A LAS ERUPCIONES SOLARES

2009-05-30T14:42:00.001-07:00

EL SOL

2009-05-30T14:36:00.000-07:00

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS

2009-05-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

Rick Klawwitter

Brian Whittaker

Space Weather News for May 30, 2009

http://spaceweather.com/

FIRST NLCs of 2009:

The first noctilucent clouds (NLCs) of 2009 have been sighted over northern Europe.

Last night, May 29th, photographers recorded wispy electric-blue tendrils spreading across the twilight skies of Denmark, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

This follows a similar display over Russia on May 27th.

These sightings signal the beginning of the 2009 NLC season, which is expected to last until late July.

Early-season NLCs are usually feeble, but these were fairly bright and vibrant, suggesting that even better displays are in the offing.

Check today's edition of http://spaceweather.com/

for photos.

Noctilucent clouds are an unsolved puzzle.

They float 83 km above Earth's surface at the edge of space itself.

People first noticed NLCs in the late 19th century.

In those days you had to travel to high northern latitudes to see them.

In recent years, however, the clouds have been sighted in the United States as far south as Oregon, Washington and even Colorado.

Climate change, space dust, and rocket launches have all been cited as possible explanations for the phenomenon.

Interestingly, low solar activity seems to promote the clouds, so the ongoing deep solar minimum could set the stage for a good season in 2009.

The best time to look for NLCs is just after sunset or just before sunrise when the sun is between 6 and 16 degrees below the horizon.

That's when the geometry is just right for sunlight to illuminate the tiny ice crystals that make up the clouds.

Observing tips and sample photos may be found in the 2008 Noctilucent Cloud Gallery:

http://spaceweather.com/nlcs/gallery2008_page10.htm

EL MAGICO ESPACIO

2009-05-28T14:44:00.001-07:00

THE SUN IS ERUPTING

2009-05-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

Space Weather News for May 6, 2009

http://spaceweather.com

NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft is monitoring an active region hidden behind the sun's eastern limb.
On May 5th, it produced an impressive coronal mass ejection (CME) and a burst of radio emissions signalling the passage of a shock wave through the sun's outer atmosphere.
Activity has continued apace today, May 6th, with at least two more eruptions. The blast site is not yet visible from Earth, but the sun is turning the region toward us for a better view. Is a new-cycle sunspot in the offing?
Readers with solar telescopes could see it emerge as early as May 7th or 8th.
Visit http://spaceweather.com
for images, movies and updates.

NEWS FOR APRIL

2009-04-25T21:49:00.001-07:00

Space Weather News for April 25, 2009http://spaceweather.comSUNSET CONJUNCTION: When the sun goes down on Sunday, April 26th, step outside and look west. An exquisitely-slender crescent Moon is lining up with Mercury and the Pleiades star cluster for a three-way conjunction in the sunset sky. Click here for the full story and a sky map: http://spaceweather.com/headlines/y2009/24apr_eveningsky.phpUNEXPECTED SOLAR ACTIVITY: The sun produced an unexpected burst of activity on April 23rd when an enormous prominence rose over the northeastern limb and erupted. A coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed away from the blast site, but the billion-ton cloud is not heading toward Earth. Visit http://spaceweather.com for movies of the event.

SPACE NEWS

2009-04-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Space Weather News for April 21, 2009

http://spaceweather.com

MORNING METEORS: Earth is entering a stream of debris from Comet Thatcher, the source of the annual Lyrid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Wednesday, April 22nd, with a display of 10 to 20 meteors per hour over the northern hemisphere.
Occasionally, Earth passes through a dense region of the comet's tail and rates surge five- to ten-fold. In 1982, for instance, observers were surprised by an outburst of 90 Lyrids per hour. Because Thatcher's tail has never been mapped in detail, the outbursts are unpredictable and could happen again at any time. The best time to look, no matter where you live, is during the dark hours before dawn on Wednesday morning April 22nd. Visit http://spaceweather.com for full coverage.

LUNAR OCCULTATION OF VENUS: Even if the Lyrids fizzle, there is still something wonderful to see on Wednesday morning, April 22nd.
The crescent Moon and Venus are going to have a close encounter of jaw-dropping beauty.
Look low and to the east just before sunrise.
Observers in western parts of North America will see a lunar occultation: Venus will disappear behind the Moon's limb just after 5 am PDT and reappear again an hour or so later.
Details may be found in this Science@NASA story: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/17apr_lyrids.htm

RADIO STORMS ON JUPITER

2009-04-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

Space Weather News for April 13, 2009

http://spaceweather.com

RADIO STORMS ON JUPITER:

On April 11th, an amateur radio astronomer in New Mexico heard loud pops and crackles coming from the loudspeaker of his shortwave receiver.
The sounds resembled terrestrial lightning, but the source was not on Earth. It was a radio storm on Jupiter.
You can listen to the sounds on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com
Astronomers have long known that Jupiter produces strong shortwave radio bursts detectable from Earth; the fact of Jupiter's "radio activity" is not news.
However, now may be the best time in decades to listen to the giant planet.
The sun is in the pits of a century-level solar minimum.
Low solar activity increases the transparency of Earth's atmosphere to shortwave radio waves, allowing signals from Jupiter to more easily and clearly reach the ground.
At the same time, terrestrial radio interference subsides (another side-effect of solar minimum), so Jupiter bursts are easier to identify
2009 is going to be a good year for Jupiter.
The planet is moving away from the sun and may now be seen shining brightly in the eastern sky before dawn.
Students, teachers and amateur scientists who wish to try listening as well as watching should consider building their own radio telescope.
Kits are available from NASA's Radio JOVE program: http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov

COMETA Y LUNA

2008-11-23T08:20:00.001-08:00

NEBULAS

2008-11-01T17:59:00.001-07:00

The Trifid Nebula. A 'stellar nursery', 9,000 light years from here, it is where new stars are being born.

The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation.

Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way.

The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'.

The Cone Nebula. The part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length (the equivalent of 23 million return trips to the Moon).

The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a 'pinched-in-the-middle' look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre.

Cat's Eye Nebula.

Nebula NGC 2392, called 'Eskimo' because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth.

The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes... The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth.

EAS ENTERS OUR ATMOSPHERE ON NOV 3

2008-11-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

Space Weather News for Nov. 1, 2008

http://spaceweather.com

More than a year ago, in July 2007, International Space Station astronauts threw an obsolete, refrigerator-sized ammonia reservoir overboard.
Ever since, the 1400-lb piece of space junk has been circling Earth in a decaying orbit--and now it is about to reenter.
If predictions are correct, the "Early Ammonia Servicer" (EAS for short) will turn into a brilliant fireball as it disintegrates in Earth's atmosphere during the early hours of Monday, Nov. 3rd.

Uncertainties in the exact reentry time are so great (plus or minus 15 hours at the time of this alert) that it is impossible to pinpoint where the fireball will appear.
At the moment, every continent except Antarctica has some favorable ground tracks.

Readers should check our Satellite Tracker (http://spaceweather.com/flybys/) for possible overflights.
Before reentry, the EAS will seem about as bright as a 2nd or 3rd magnitude star, similar to the stars of the Big Dipper.
During re-entry, the disintegrating reservoir could light up like a full Moon.

Flyby predictions should be regarded as approximate because the orbital elements of the EAS are now changing so rapidly.
Updates will be posted on http://spaceweather.com.

AURORAS

2008-10-30T16:19:00.000-07:00

COMETAS

2008-10-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2), 23 March 1996, 09:30 UT.

30 minute guided exposure on Ektachrome 100.

This image was taken with a camera piggybacked on my SCT.

The head of the comet is seen at R.A. 14:46:48, dec 27° 38' 21", just passing 2.4 mag Izar (36 epsilon Boötes).

The bright star near the bottom of the image is Arcturus.

The tail is about 15° long.

Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2), 27 March 1996, 00:00 UT.

15 minute exposure on Ektachrome 100.

The comet is passing about 4° from Polaris.

The two bright stars in the 11 o'clock direction are 23 delta Ursa Minor and 22 epsilon Ursa Minor, the middle two stars in the handle of the Little Dipper (Polaris is the end star in the handle).

The tail is about 12° long.

LA TIERRA DESDE LA LUNA

2008-10-02T23:07:00.000-07:00

GALERIA DE AURORAS

2008-09-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

AURORA WATCH: A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and causing geomagnetic storms around the Arctic Circle. "Stunning!

The auroras took my breath away," says photographer "Tomal" of Tromsø, Norway. He took this picture before daybreak on Oct. 1st:

Aleksander Chernucho, Lake Imandra, Kolyskia peninsula, RussiaSep. 4, 2008

Yuichi Takasaka, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, CanadaSep. 3, 2008

Lance Parrish, Skiland, AlaskaSep. 2-4, 2008

Yuichi Takasaka, Lady Evelyn Falls, near Kakisa, Northwest Territories, CanadaSep. 2, 2008

JULES VERNE ENTERED THE EARTH ATMOSPHERE

2008-09-30T21:54:00.001-07:00

Goodbye, Jules Verne. The robotic cargo carrier was deliberately guided into the atmosphere by European mission controllers, bringing an end to a successful 6-month mission.
In April 2008, Jules Verne performed the first-ever automated docking to the International Space Station (ISS), delivering more than 2 tons of supplies without any assistance from human controllers. The spacecraft quickly became a valuable part of the ISS. Several times Jules Verne used its engines to reboost the space station's orbit, once helping to dodge a piece of space junk, while the spacious interior of the cargo ship became an impromptu bedroom and "hygiene center" for the crew. Eventually, Jules Verne was re-filled with trash and on Sept. 29th it was sent back to Earth.
Scientists onboard a NASA DC-8 research plane photographed the reentry. They're studying how spacecraft and meteoroids break apart in Earth's atmosphere--and Jules Verne provided valuable data. Stay tuned for their findings.

DOOMED SPACECRAFT

2008-09-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Jules Verne is about to become a fireball.
On Sept. 29th, with NASA aircraft looking on, the 22-ton European spacecraft will plunge into Earth's atmosphere over the south Pacific Ocean and harmlessly disintegrate.
Jules Verne recently spent five months docked to the space station where it delivered supplies, used its engines help the station avoid a piece of space junk, and served as an impromptu bedroom for the ISS crew.
Mission accomplished, the doomed spacecraft is now making its final orbits around Earth glowing about as brightly as Polaris (the North Star).
US and European observers are favored with flybys this weekend.
If you'd like to see Jules Verne, check the Simple Satellite Tracker for viewing times: http://spaceweather.com/flybys/

ALINEACION DE CUATRO PLANETAS

2008-09-17T09:42:00.001-07:00

Miles de personas la alineación de cuatro planetas
Miles de personas se han dado cita en el Planetario de Madrid para observar la alineación de cuatro planetas Mercurio, Venus, Saturno y Marte-, la Luna y una estrella muy brillante llamada Régula
Los aficionados, se han acercado con sus prismáticos a las pasarelas del Planetario para lograr visualizar la alineación de los cuatro planetas en la constelación de Leo
El primer planeta en distinguirse como un punto brillante ha sido Mercurio, mucho más alto se ha divisado Venus, justo encima Saturno y más elevado aún Marte, aunque su visión resultó afectada por las condiciones meteorológicas y contaminación del día
Este fenómeno se produce cuando, por un efecto de perspectiva al mirar desde la Tierra, se puede observar en el cielo dos o más planetas muy próximos entre sí, aunque en realidad estén separados por millones de kilómetros en el espacio
A la hora del crepúsculo, se ha podido contemplar Júpiter y ya entrada la noche, la Luna, justo en fase de cuarto creciente en la constelación de Libra, cuya imagen ha sido proyectada en directo por una gran pantalla

ASTRONAUT

2008-09-07T23:30:00.000-07:00