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Astronomy History Solar System

A new star in heavens: how Crab Nebula was born

Crab Nebula (ESO image)
This photo shows a three color composite of the well-known Crab Nebula (also known as Messier 1), as observed with the FORS2 instrument in imaging mode in the morning of November 10, 1999. It is the remnant of a supernova explosion at a distance of about 6,000 light-years. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, as did, almost certainly, Native Americans. It contains a neutron star near its center that spins 30 times per second around its axis. In this picture, the green light is predominantly produced by hydrogen emission from material ejected by the star that exploded. The blue light is predominantly emitted by very high-energy ("relativistic") electrons that spiral in a large-scale magnetic field (so-called synchrotron emission). It is believed that these electrons are continuously accelerated and ejected by the rapidly spinning neutron star at the centre of the nebula and which is the remnant core of the exploded star. This pulsar has been identified with the lower/right of the two close stars near the geometric center of the nebula, immediately left of the small arc-like feature, best seen in ESO Press Photo eso9948. Technical information: ESO Press Photo eso9948 is based on a composite of three images taken through three different optical filters: B (429 nm; FWHM 88 nm; 5 min; here rendered as blue), R (657 nm; FWHM 150 nm; 1 min; green) and S II (673 nm; FWHM 6 nm; 5 min; red) during periods of 0.65 arcsec (R, S II) and 0.80 (B) seeing, respectively. The field shown measures 6.8 x 6.8 arcminutes and the images were recorded in frames of 2048 x 2048 pixels, each measuring 0.2 arcseconds. North is up; East is left. Image: ESO

This is how the Crab Nebula was born: in 1054 A.D, a new, very bright star has appeared in Earth’s sky, in the constellation Taurus. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arab astronomers observed the event and noted: “a new bright star emerged in the heavens”. The star was so bright: for nearly three weeks, it was visible even during the daytime, under the hot, shiny summer sun, and remained visible for around two years (653 days to be exact). Today, we know that that “heavenly star” was actually a supernova (SN 1054, see notes 1), and its remnant is what we now know as the Crab Nebula today (catalog designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A).

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Climate Earth from Space

Earth Wind Map: See Current Wind Speeds all over the Earth

Earth Wind Map screenshot
A screenshot of the Earth Wind Map. It is an interactive map showing current wind speeds all over the Earth.

This is so cool! With this tool, called “Earth Wind Map”, an animated map of global wind, weather, and ocean conditions, you can see current wind speeds all over the Earth, in real time!

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Earth from Space Climate Space Exploration

Bomb Cyclone from space [amazing NASA Image]

Historic Bomb Cyclone from Space
Historic Bomb Cyclone from Space. Image: NASA.gov On January 4, 2018, NASA has published an amazing Geocolor image of so-called "Bomb Cyclone", a very powerful storm off the East coast of the United States. It was taken from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-16 satellite (previously known as GOES-R). Dubbed as "historic bomb cyclone", January 2018 North American blizzard is a major and extremely powerful nor'easter that affected the Northeastern United States with severe blizzard conditions. It has battered coastal areas with heavy snow and strong winds, from Florida to Maine. In the image below, notice the long line of clouds stretching over a thousand miles south of the storm, which is drawing moisture all the way from deep in the Caribbean.

On January 4, 2018, NASA has published an amazing GeoColor (see notes 1) image of the so-called “Bomb Cyclone”, a very powerful storm off the East coast of the United States. It was taken from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-16 satellite (previously known as GOES-R) (see notes 2).

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Earth from Space Planet Earth Space Exploration

Equinoxes and Solstices from Space

Winter Solstice (December 21, 2010)
Winter Solstice from the space. This NASA image is acquired on December 21, 2010. On the "winter solstice" day (which marks the beginning of the summer in the southern hemisphere - December solstice is a more accurate term) the Sun appears to reach its lowest point in the sky in the northern hemisphere. And it's the longest night for any place other than the Equator. The Earth is positioned in its orbit so that the sun stays below the north pole horizon. After the winter solstice, the days get longer, and the nights shorter in the northern hemisphere (and the opposite is true for the southern hemisphere).

Every year, there are two Equinoxes (around March 20 and September 23) and two Solstices (on about June 21 and December 21). Spring and autumn start with an equinox – daylight, and nighttime are of approximately equal duration all over the Earth during Equinoxes. Winter and summer start with a solstice – daylight time is the longest of the year during the summer solstice, and obviously, the night time is the longest during the winter solstice.

The video below, published by NASA Earth Observatory, is a time-lapse from geosynchronous orbit (see notes 1) that shows the four changes of the seasons, related to the position of sunlight on the planet.

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Earth from Space Astronomy Solar System Space Exploration

Earth and Moon in the same photo

Earth and Moon as seen by OSIRIS-REx. October 2, 2017.
Earth and Moon as seen by OSIRIS-REx. October 2, 2017. The purpose of OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) is to study, map and return samples for detailed analysis from asteroid 101955 Bennu, a carbon-rich hunk of rock that might contain organic materials or molecular precursors to life. It was launched on September 8, 2016, and expected return date is September 24, 2023. If successful, OSIRIS-REx will be the first NASA spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid.

An amazing image showing both the Earth and Moon. The distance between our planet and its satellite is actually much more than many would conceptualize. It is 384,400 kilometers (about 239,000 miles) on average, but as usual, our brains cannot deal with such large numbers. Only seeing that distance makes us realize how far even the closest body in the solar system to us – and gives some clues about how big is our Solar system actually. What’s more, we’ve actually been there, humanity managed to cover that vast distance and walked on the moon!

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Earth from Space Places Space Exploration

10 Most Beautiful Earth Photos Taken From the International Space Station in 2017

Istanbul from International Space Station. December 10, 2017
In the photo above, taken by Randy "Komrade" Bresnik, the commander of the Expedition 53 (the 53rd expedition to the International Space Station) on December 10, we see Istanbul, the only intercontinental city on Earth and the biggest city of Turkey, the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, the Marmara Sea and Prince Islands (south is up). The Bosphorus is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. The Princes' Islands are a cluster of 9 car-free islands southeast of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara.

Here are the top ten most beautiful Earth photos taken by the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017. Which one is your favorite? Or if your favorite image was not listed here, please leave a comment below. To see all images taken from the International Space Station and published by NASA, visit Space Station Images.

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Categories
Astronomy Physics Planet Earth

The hottest place in the Universe exists on Earth

The hottest place in the Universe is on Earth and it is much hotter than a supernova
After a supernova, a newly formed neutron core has an initial temperature of about 100 billion kelvin, 6000 times the temperature of the sun’s core. The record temperature, that achieved at the LHC, over 5 trillion K and perhaps as high as 5.5 trillion K is around 5000-5500 times hotter than that! Or about 30-33 million times hotter than that of the sun’s core! During the experiment, the hottest place in the Universe was here on Earth. Image: Artist’s impression of a Type II supernova explosion which involves the destruction of a massive supergiant star. A Type II supernova results from the rapid collapse and violent explosion of a massive star. A star must have at least 8 times, but no more than 40 to 50 times, the mass of the Sun (M☉) to undergo this type of explosion.

The hottest place in the Universe exists here on Earth, like the coldest place in the Universe. Both these extreme temperatures are not natural, they are human-made. The coldest temperature was achieved in the German physicist and professor of physics Wolfgang Ketterle’s laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The hottest temperature, also recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, was achieved at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

On 13 August 2012 scientists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, Geneva, Switzerland, announced that they had achieved temperatures of over 5 trillion K and perhaps as high as 5.5 trillion K (more than 9.9 trillion °F). The team had been using the ALICE experiment to smash together lead ions at 99% of the speed of light to create a quark-gluon plasma – an exotic state of matter believed to have filled the universe just after the Big Bang.

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Space Exploration Mars Moon Landing

NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin’s Rockets comparison

NASA, SpaceX Blue Origin rockets comparison
Tech Insider published a video titled "How NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin's Monster Rockets Compare". Still, the old Saturn V, which was used by NASA between 1967 and 1973 and took humans to the Moon, is the biggest and strongest rocket ever built. But new rockets are coming and that's finally about the change. Here is the past and future monster rockets comparison.

Tech Insider published a video titled “How NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin’s Monster Rockets Compare”. Still, the old Saturn V, which was used by NASA between 1967 and 1973 and took humans to the Moon, is the biggest and strongest rocket ever built. But new rockets are coming and that’s finally about the change. Here is the past and future monster rockets comparison:

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Categories
Astrobiology Evolution Life on Earth Prehistoric

The oldest fossils suggest that life should be common in the Universe

Life should be common in the Universe - Otherworldly plant life growing on an alien planet in a distant universe.
Image: "Strange Plant Formations in an Alien Garden" on Deposit Photos

Are we alone in the Universe? Or do any other life forms exist out there? A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS, see notes 1) suggests that life emerged so early on Earth, so it should be widespread. In other words, the Universe should be filled with life.

The story goes back to the year 1982 when UCLA Scholar and Pioneer in Study of the Evolution of Life, J. William Schopf collected 3.465-billion-year-old fossils from the Apex Chert in Western Australia, and interpreted them as early life. When he described the fossils in the journal Science in 1993, critics argued that they were not early lifeforms – they were just odd minerals that only looked like biological specimens.

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Space Exploration Photography

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launch [Video]

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch (December 22, 2017)
On Friday, December 22, 2017, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket delivered the fourth set of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites in a series of 75 total satellites to low-Earth orbit for Iridium, a global leader in mobile voice and data satellite communications. Photographer Erica Kelly Martin captured this amazing view while the rocket soaring over the palm trees of Hollywood, California.

On Friday, December 22, 2017, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket delivered the fourth set of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites in a series of 75 total satellites to low-Earth orbit for Iridium, a global leader in mobile voice and data satellite communications. A Youtube user Jim Mudgett published amazing footage of the Falcon 9 rocket launch. Enjoy!

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