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795 ♥ / 31 March, 2013

hellanne:

the space unknown (by Dylan_Murphy)

1956 ♥ / 30 March, 2013

cosmosscience:

Amateur astronomer Igor Cekalin, of Russia, won the European Southern Observatory’s Hidden Treasures 2010 astrophotography contest with this image of M78 nebular complex in the constellation Orion.

572 ♥ / 3 December, 2012

4 ♥ / 11 March, 2012

123 ♥ / 10 March, 2012

9430 ♥ / 3 November, 2011

Asstronette 00 Detail by Manuel Augusto Dischinger Moura

100 ♥ / 19 September, 2011

Astronomers discover ‘Star Wars planet’ with two sunsAn astrological discovery that would make Luke Skywalker a little homesick is making waves this week — a faraway planet has been found to have two suns.A team of experts used the NASA Kepler space telescope to discover the planet, which orbits around two large stars — similar to Tatooine, the fictional home of Skywalker in the Star Wars films.In this case, however, the discovery doesn’t get the Hollywood treatment in terms of a name.Its name is the far more prosaic Kepler-16b.

1070 ♥ / 19 September, 2011

The wildfires burning in Texas are visible all the way from space, as seen in photos by astronauts on the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut Mike Fossum was particularly saddened to see the fires, because Bastrop State Park, one of the damaged areas, is a favorite spot of his.
Fossum asked Mission Control to update him about the fires, which have raged over thousands of acres in Central Texas during the past week. The fires are thought to have been spurred by winds from Tropical Storm Lee, which swirled over the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend and made landfall on the Gulf Coast.
“Did you guys confirm that the state park Bastrop is one of the directly affected areas with the fire in that region?” Fossum asked from space on Tuesday (Sept. 6). [Photos: Hurricane Irene Views From Space]
“Yes Mike, unfortunately that’s true,” capcom Jay Marschke replied from Houston. “The news agencies are reporting up to two-thirds of the park has been burned and hundreds of homes in the area have been destroyed.”
Fossum, an “avid outdoorsman,” according to NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters, was stunned.
“Oh, wow,” he said. “Wow, that’s rough news. Thanks. We’re really thinking about all those folks through there.”
Fossum has experience as a scout leader and hiker, Cloutier-Lemasters said, and counts Bastrop State Park as one of his favorite hiking spots.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected,” Fossum wrote on Twitter, under the name @astro_aggie, Tuesday.
The Bastrop County Complex fire is now 30 percent contained. Texas, in the grip of one of the worst droughts in the states’ history, has seen 3.5 million acres burn so far this year.
Fossum wasn’t the only one in orbit affected by the news. His crewmate on the space station, Ron Garan, also tweeted about the fires. [Earth From Space: Amazing Photos by Astronaut Ron Garan]
“Prayers for those in harm’s way,” Garan wrote Tuesday under the name “Astro_Ron.” Garan posted a series of photos of the fires from above, where wisps of gray smoke can be seen wafting away from our planet.
Garan and Fossum are currently living on the International Space Station along with one Japanese astronaut and three Russian cosmonauts. Garan was originally scheduled to return to Earth Sept. 8, but a Russian rocket failure has delayed his return to Sept. 15. Fossum is expected to fly back home in mid November.

People are currently offering their prayers for rain. Srsly, guys? Let’s get real. If you are willing to and if you can, check out these links to see how you can help.

3 ♥ / 7 September, 2011

0 ♥ / 31 August, 2011

0 ♥ / 18 August, 2011

What a meteor looks like from space.

1 ♥ / 15 August, 2011

5 ♥ / 4 August, 2011

sciencecenter:

Saturn’s icy moon may have an ocean
According to the Cassini orbiter, Saturn’s moon Encealdus may have an underground ocean of salty molten liquid. The moon shoots ice from geysers that burst from fissures in the moon as confirmed by Cassini, which swooped to within 21 kilometers of the surface. The icy geysers are responsible for Saturn’s E Rings.

791 ♥ / 21 July, 2011

Hubble Uncovers Fourth Moon Around Pluto
Pluto may not have full planet status but the distant, icy rock at the fringe of the solar system has three more moons than Earth—scientists with the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI) on Wednesday announced that they have discovered a fourth satellite orbiting the dwarf planet.
“I find it remarkable that Hubble’s cameras enabled us to see such a tiny object so clearly from a distance of more than three billion miles,” Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., who led a team mapping Pluto with the Hubble Space Telescope, said in a statement.
Pluto’s new moon has been temporarily designated P4. It’s the smallest of Pluto’s known satellites, with an estimated diameter of eight to 21 miles, according to its discoverers. Pluto’s largest moon, Charon is 746 miles across, while Nix and Hydra are between 20 and 70 miles in diameter.
Charon was discovered in 1978, while Nix and Hydra were spotted in Hubble images in 2005.
The discovery of P4 was the result of work being done to support NASA’s $700-million New Horizons mission, which aims to send a probe through the Pluto system in 2015. Pluto’s fourth moon was spotted while Hubble was being used to search for rings around the dwarf planet, scientists said.
“This is a fantastic discovery,” said Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Calif., principal investigator on the New Horizons mission. “Now that we know there’s another moon in the Pluto system, we can plan close-up observations of it during our flyby.”
Scientists first spotted P4 in a photo taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 on June 28, the STSI statement said. Its existence was confirmed in two more pictures taken on July 3 and July 18. It may also appear as “a very faint smudge” in Hubble images from 2006, according to the statement.
P4 is located between the orbits of Nix and Hydra, according to the STSI statement.
“This surprising observation is a powerful reminder of Hubble’s ability as a general purpose astronomical observatory to make astounding, unintended discoveries,” said Jon Morse, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

How awesome is this? Space, man … its awesome!

4 ♥ / 20 July, 2011