Mount Rainier shadow casts on the sky at sunrise. It only happens when the sun rises farther to the south and has to be in the exact position to where Rainier blocks the first rays of morning light. (Source)
More cool space words:
Apastron: the point where two binary stars are farthest apart.
Azimuth: distance of an object in angular.
Bolide: an especially bright meteor, especially one that explodes in the atmosphere (also called fireballs!).
Catena: a chain or series of craters.
Ejecta: material that is strewn about a crater by an impact, usually a meteorite or other similar object.
Ephemeris: a table that lists the positions of the sun, moon, and planets by date.
Heliosphere: the magnetic bubble of space that contains our solar system, solar wind, and the entire solar magnetic field. It is so large it goes beyond pluto's orbit.
Meridian: an imaginary circle that goes through the north and south poles, and the zenith and nadir of a location.
Nadir: the point in the sky directly underneath you.
Nova: when a dying star suddenly flares in brightness. The star becomes thousands of times its original luminosity.
Prominence: an explosion on the surface of the Sun.
Singularity: the impossibly small space in the center of a black hole where density and gravity are infinite, and space-time curves infinitely.
Spicules: a jet of gas ejected from the sun's atmosphere that resembles grass.
Supernova: one of the most powerful forces in the universe. When a star uses up all of its fuel it ends its life in a spectacular and devastating explosion.
Terminator: line on a planetary body that separates the light side from the dark side.
Umbra: the darkest part of a shadow.
Zenith: the point in the sky directly overhead.
Zodiac: an imaginary belt across the sky that the sun, moon, and planets are always in. The zodiac is made up of 12 constellations.
aphelion - the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is farthest from the Sun. astral - relating to or resembling the stars. caldera - a large volcanic crater, especially one formed by a major eruption leading to the collapse of the mouth of the volcano. celestial - positioned in or relating to the sky, or outer space as observed in astronomy. constellation - a group of stars forming a recognizable pattern. cosmos - the universe seen as a well-ordered whole. equinox - the time or date at which the sun crosses the celestial equator, when day and night are of equal length. faculae - bright patches that are visible on the Sun’s surface. lunation - the interval of a complete lunar cycle, between one new Moon and the next. interstellar - occurring or situated between stars. nebula - a cloud of gas and dust in outer space, visible in the night sky either as an indistinct bright patch or as a dark silhouette against other luminous matter. perihelion - the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is closest to the Sun. synodic - relating to or involving the conjunction of stars, planets, or other celestial objects.
the most optimistic letter that any human has ever written
This is Kjell Lindgren. He’s a NASA astronaut who just got back from 5 months on the International Space Station. There are two reasons why this picture is hilarious:
His wife is flawless and makes bad space puns to make him do household chores.
I have that shirt. Thousands of people have that shirt. That shirt is available at Target. Which means actual astronaut Kjell Lindgren, with his wardrobe already full of NASA-issued and logo-emblazoned clothes, was at Target, saw a NASA shirt, and was like, “Yes, I am buying this because this is what I want to spend my actual astronaut salary on.”
tl;dr NASA employs a bunch of fucking nerds
Jupiters Great Red Spot is likely a sunburn, not a blush. New science from NASAs Cassini Mission to Saturn based on lab and flyby data.
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The stunning Sombrero galaxy (seriously, there should be a blog that’s just photos of the Sombrero galaxy)
Picture I took of the milky way while in New Mexico. Straight up on my D3000 with a tripod
The star cluster Westerlund 2
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