Blue Glow - 220506

A crater on Mars, observed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: “This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta, the material thrown out of the crater when a meteorite hit Mars. The steep inner slopes are carved by gullies and include possible recurring slope lineae (known as RSL) on the equator-facing slopes. RSL could be a sign that water, its freezing point lowered by a high concentration of salt, could be seeping down these steep slopes. MRO has seen RSL appear in warmer seasons and disappear in cooler seasons in a few locations on Mars, indicating a planet with plenty of active processes.” (NASA)

What caused this outburst of this star named V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, this star’s outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the entire Milky Way Galaxy in January 2002. Then, just as suddenly, it faded. A stellar flash like this had never been seen before – supernovas and novas expel matter out into space.

Although the V838 Mon flash appears to expel material into space, what is seen in the above GIF from the Hubble Space Telescope is actually an outwardly moving light echo of the bright flash.

In a light echo, light from the flash is reflected by successively more distant rings in the complex array of ambient interstellar dust that already surrounded the star. V838 Mon lies about 20,000 light years away toward the constellation of the unicorn (Monoceros), while the light echo above spans about six light years in diameter.

Credit: NASA, ESA

To discover more, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2472.html

Reticulating Splines.

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Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the Moon, photographed by Neil Armstrong, July 1969. (LIFE)

View these celestial beauties taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released as a set of views in a modern day “Messier Catalog." 

Spotting comets was all the rage in the middle of the 18th century, and at the forefront of the comet hunt was a young French astronomer named Charles Messier. In 1774, in an effort to help fellow comet seekers steer clear of astronomical objects that were not comets (something that frustrated his own search for these elusive entities), Messier published the first version of his “Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters,” a collection of celestial objects that weren’t comets and should be avoided during comet hunting. Today, rather than avoiding these objects, many amateur astronomers actively seek them out as interesting targets to observe with backyard telescopes, binoculars or sometimes even with the naked eye.

Hubble’s version of the Messier catalog includes eight newly processed images never before released by NASA. The images were extracted from more than 1.3 million observations that now reside in the Hubble data archive. Some of these images represent the first Hubble views of the objects, while others include newer, higher resolution images taken with Hubble’s latest cameras.

Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-messier-catalog

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Harrower-class Sith Dreadnought - Ansel Hsiao

Quantum Physics: The study of Super Cold and Super Small.

Via The cosmos way

meirl

“First Men on The Moon” by Robert McCall, 1971.

Aggressive globe. Wonderful World. 1959.

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