Sunday, November 23, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
NEBULAS
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
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.
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.
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