Top image shows the Andromeda Galaxy rising above the inner-most dwarf planet. From here, the great spiral galaxy covers over 11 degrees of the sky or almost 22 times larger than a full moon on Earth.
Other three images show the inner-most planet, a large ice giant 50 times the mass of Earth orbiting 0.30 AU from the sun.
In the last shot, each of the small stars in the background are actually large bright asteroids in the systems asteroid belt.
High Resolution Links Below
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Pictures of the day - December 24, 2018
Insight A-VII is a cold super-Earth and largest rocky planet orbiting Insight A. The planet has a mass of 3.10 Earths, and a diameter 53% larger than Earth. It orbit’s its sun at an average distance of 1.97 AU, completing an orbit once every 2.55 years. A day lasts only 13 hours and 20 minutes.
The surface is covered in a carbon dioxide atmosphere with a surface pressure of 1.73 atmospheres, and an average surface temperature of -105 F. The atmosphere is extremely cloudy with clouds of water-ice and dry ice. An extensive system of rings orbit’s the planet, and a large moon.
Insight A-VII
Closeup
Duality
The Atmosphere
The Surface
Today, we and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the detection of light and a high-energy cosmic particle that both came from near a black hole billions of trillions of miles from Earth. This discovery is a big step forward in the field of multimessenger astronomy.
People learn about different objects through their senses: sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell. Similarly, multimessenger astronomy allows us to study the same astronomical object or event through a variety of “messengers,” which include light of all wavelengths, cosmic ray particles, gravitational waves, and neutrinos — speedy tiny particles that weigh almost nothing and rarely interact with anything. By receiving and combining different pieces of information from these different messengers, we can learn much more about these objects and events than we would from just one.
Much of what we know about the universe comes just from different wavelengths of light. We study the rotations of galaxies through radio waves and visible light, investigate the eating habits of black holes through X-rays and gamma rays, and peer into dusty star-forming regions through infrared light.
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which recently turned 10, studies the universe by detecting gamma rays — the highest-energy form of light. This allows us to investigate some of the most extreme objects in the universe.
Last fall, Fermi was involved in another multimessenger finding — the very first detection of light and gravitational waves from the same source, two merging neutron stars. In that instance, light and gravitational waves were the messengers that gave us a better understanding of the neutron stars and their explosive merger into a black hole.
Fermi has also advanced our understanding of blazars, which are galaxies with supermassive black holes at their centers. Black holes are famous for drawing material into them. But with blazars, some material near the black hole shoots outward in a pair of fast-moving jets. With blazars, one of those jets points directly at us!
Today’s announcement combines another pair of messengers. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory lies a mile under the ice in Antarctica and uses the ice itself to detect neutrinos. When IceCube caught a super-high-energy neutrino and traced its origin to a specific area of the sky, they alerted the astronomical community.
Fermi completes a scan of the entire sky about every three hours, monitoring thousands of blazars among all the bright gamma-ray sources it sees. For months it had observed a blazar producing more gamma rays than usual. Flaring is a common characteristic in blazars, so this did not attract special attention. But when the alert from IceCube came through about a neutrino coming from that same patch of sky, and the Fermi data were analyzed, this flare became a big deal!
IceCube, Fermi, and followup observations all link this neutrino to a blazar called TXS 0506+056. This event connects a neutrino to a supermassive black hole for the very first time.
Why is this such a big deal? And why haven’t we done it before? Detecting a neutrino is hard since it doesn’t interact easily with matter and can travel unaffected great distances through the universe. Neutrinos are passing through you right now and you can’t even feel a thing!
The neat thing about this discovery — and multimessenger astronomy in general — is how much more we can learn by combining observations. This blazar/neutrino connection, for example, tells us that it was protons being accelerated by the blazar’s jet. Our study of blazars, neutrinos, and other objects and events in the universe will continue with many more exciting multimessenger discoveries to come in the future.
Want to know more? Read the story HERE.
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Pictures of the day - December 27, 2018
Parting Shots of the Insight A and Insight B Systems, Alien Skies.
Now that all of the worlds of the Insight A and Insight B systems have been revealed, here are some parting shots before I begin my exploration of new star systems.
Space Engine System ID: RS 5581-42-6-76887-1116
Insight B-IV-M3 sky
Insight A-VII Sky
Insight A-V Sky
Insight A-IV-M8 Sky
Insight B-V Sky
Insight B-VI-M2 Sky
Insight B-I Sky
Picture of the Day - January 6, 2019
Ringed ice giant orbiting a star located near a beautiful red-colored nebula.
Space Engine System ID: RS 8550-3584-8-657793-464 5 to visit the planet in Space Engine.
PS: I apologize for the inconsistency of pictures lately. Personal issues are making my regular post schedule something erratic.
Picture of the day 2 - November 14, 2018
An earth-like moon orbiting a gas giant. This moon has purple-colored vegetation and extremely large ice caps.
Space Engine System ID: RSC 8475-0-4-2269-22 A4
If Mars were Terraformed (tablet) Click the image to download the correct size for your tablet in high resolution
Two planets in the O’Sirus System have rings, the 7th and 10th planets respectively.
The 7th planet is an ice-world with a thick icy crust floating on a sub-surface ocean. It is roughly 0.30 Earth-masses, has a radius 75% that of Earth and orbits 1.32 AU from the sun. The surface has a carbon dioxide atmosphere of approximately the same pressure as the atmosphere of Mars and surface temperatures of 133 K or -224 °F.
The 10th world is small ice giant 10.5 times more massive than Earth, has a radius 2.8 times larger than Earth and orbits at a distance of 6.02 AU. This world also has a pronounced ring system.
High Resolution Pics
Picture 1 - The 7th Planet
Picture 2 - Ring Closeup
Picture 3 - Another Closeup
Picture 4 - The 10th Planet
Picture 5 - Closeup
Picture 6- Ring Transit
Picture of the Day - February 11, 2019 (Late post)
Blue ice giant with blue rings.
Picture of the day - November 20, 2018
Dark red nebula rises over a dim set of rings orbiting a gas giant.
My Space Engine Adventures, also any space related topic or news. www.spaceengine.org to download space engine. The game is free by the way. Please feel free to ask me anything, provide suggestions on systems to visit or post any space related topic.Check out my other blog https://bunsandsharks.tumblr.com for rabbit and shark blog.
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