Sam's Astrophtography Thread

[YosemiteSam]

Night on Venus in Infrared from Orbiting Akatsuki
Image Credit & Copyright: ISAS, JAXA

Explanation: Why is Venus so different from Earth? To help find out, Japan launched the robotic Akatsuki spacecraft which entered orbit around Venus late last year after an unplanned five-year adventure around the inner Solar System. Even though Akatsuki has passed its original planned lifetime, the spacecraft and its instruments are operating so well that much of its original mission has been reinstated. In the featured image taken by Akatsuki late last month, Venus was captured in infrared light showing a surprising amount of atmospheric structure on its night side. The vertical orange terminator stripe between night and day is so wide because of light is so diffused by Venus' thick atmosphere. Also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki has cameras and instruments that will investigate unknowns about the planet, including whether volcanoes are still active, whether lightning occurs in the dense atmosphere, and why wind speeds greatly exceed the planet's rotation speed.

 

[Seven]

Night on Venus in Infrared from Orbiting Akatsuki
Image Credit & Copyright: ISAS, JAXA
Explanation: Why is Venus so different from Earth? To help find out, Japan launched the robotic Akatsuki spacecraft which entered orbit around Venus late last year after an unplanned five-year adventure around the inner Solar System. Even though Akatsuki has passed its original planned lifetime, the spacecraft and its instruments are operating so well that much of its original mission has been reinstated. In the featured image taken by Akatsuki late last month, Venus was captured in infrared light showing a surprising amount of atmospheric structure on its night side. The vertical orange terminator stripe between night and day is so wide because of light is so diffused by Venus' thick atmosphere. Also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki has cameras and instruments that will investigate unknowns about the planet, including whether volcanoes are still active, whether lightning occurs in the dense atmosphere, and why wind speeds greatly exceed the planet's rotation speed.

" Even though Akatsuki has passed its original planned lifetime, the spacecraft and its instruments are operating so well that much of its original mission has been reinstated."

That's impressive.

 

[Seven]

Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
Image Credit: Viking Project, USGS, NASA

Explanation: Mars will look good in Earth's skies over the next few days -- but not this good. To get a view this amazing, a spacecraft had to actually visit the red planet. Running across the image center, though, is one the largest canyons in the Solar System. Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. The origin of the Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled. Several geologic processes have been identified in the canyon. The featured mosaic was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s. Tomorrow, Mars and Earth will pass the closest in 11 years, resulting in the red planet being quite noticeable toward the southeast after sunset.

"Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep."


Mars always 'one uppin' earth............

 

[YosemiteSam]

"Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep."


Mars always 'one uppin' earth............

Yes, but Mars is basically a dead planet. Earth for the win!

 

[Seven]

Yes, but Mars is basically a dead planet. Earth for the win!

Touche'!

Europa really fascinates me.........could there be life under that ice? Seems it has the compounds to do so.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Touche'!

Europa really fascinates me.........could there be life under that ice? Seems it has the compounds to do so.

I think odds are extremely good that there is in fact life there. It may only be micro-biological, but then it could also be some type of fish, crustacean, or even cephalopod.

 

[YosemiteSam]

NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Miller, Jimmy Walker

Explanation: NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This sharp telescopic portrait uses narrow band image data that isolates light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the wind-blown nebula. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the detailed folds and filaments. Visible within the nebula, NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years. The nebula's complex structures are likely the result of this strong wind interacting with material ejected in an earlier phase. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of its stellar life this star should ultimately go out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion. Found in the nebula rich constellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years away.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Cat's Eye Wide and Deep
Image Credit & Copyright: Josh Smith

Explanation: The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of the nebula in this impressive wide-angle view. But the composite image combines many short and long exposures to also reveal an extremely faint outer halo. At an estimated distance of 3,000 light-years, the faint outer halo is over 5 light-years across. Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase in the life of a sun-like star. More recently, some planetary nebulae are found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material shrugged off during earlier episodes in the star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of this halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years. Visible on the left, some 50 million light-years beyond the watchful planetary nebula, lies spiral galaxy NGC 6552.

 

[YosemiteSam]

The Fornax Cluster of Galaxies
Image Credit: European Southern Observatory
Acknowledgment: Aniello Grado and Luca Limatola

Explanation: Named for the southern constellation toward which most of its galaxies can be found, the Fornax Cluster is one of the closest clusters of galaxies. About 62 million light-years away, it is almost 20 times more distant than our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy, and only about 10 percent farther than the better known and more populated Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Seen across this two degree wide field-of-view, almost every yellowish splotch on the image is an elliptical galaxy in the Fornax cluster. A standout barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is visible on the lower right as a prominent Fornax cluster member. The spectacular image was taken by the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory.

 

[YosemiteSam]

The North America and Pelican Nebulas
Image Credit & Copyright: Ezequiel Etcheverry

Explanation: Here lie familiar shapes in unfamiliar locations. On the left is an emission nebula cataloged as NGC 7000, famous partly because it resembles our fair planet's continent of North America. The emission region to the right of the North America Nebula is IC 5070, also known for its suggestive outlines as the Pelican Nebula. Separated by a dark cloud of obscuring dust, the two bright nebulae are about 1,500 light-years away. At that distance, the 4 degree wide field of view spans 100 light-years. This spectacular cosmic portrait combines narrow band images to highlight bright ionization fronts with fine details of dark, dusty forms in silhouette. Emission from atomic hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen is captured in the narrow band image in scientifically assigned colors. These nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location.

 

[YosemiteSam]

The Double Cluster (two open star clusters)
Credit: Terry Hancock (one of my favorite astrophotographers)

The Double Cluster in the constellation of Perseus lie very close to us at only 7500 light years and is one of the most popular targets in the Night Sky for amateur Astronomers and imagers, a perfect object for testing a refractor.

This is only (3) 180 second exposures in each filter of LRG & B.

https://lh3.***BROKEN***/-2R9pyaOIzGU/V2Cje2cMZ9I/AAAAAAAAD8I/5uJf9nDERrUDTveoEb6IwNkKvgGKMlcEwCL0B/w834-h709-no/NGC869_NGC884_Double%2BCluster_AT65_3x18_LRGB%2BTerry%2BHancock_web.jpg

 

[YosemiteSam]

Inside a Daya Bay Antineutrino Detector
Image Credit & Copyright: DOE, Berkeley Lab - Roy Kaltschmidt, photographer

Explanation: Why is there more matter than antimatter in the Universe? To better understand this facet of basic physics, energy departments in China and the USA led in the creation of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. Located under thick rock about 50 kilometers northeast of Hong Kong, China, eight Daya Bay detectors monitor antineutrinos emitted by six nearby nuclear reactors. Featured here, a camera looks along one of the Daya Bay detectors, imaging photon sensors that pick up faint light emitted by antineutrinos interacting with fluids in the detector. Early results indicate an unexpectedly high rate of one type of antineutrino changing into another, a rate which, if confirmed, could imply the existence of a previously undetected type of neutrino as well as impact humanity's comprehension of fundamental particle reactions that occurred within the first few seconds of the Big Bang.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Comet PanSTARRS in the Southern Fish
Image Credit & Copyright: José J. Chambó

Explanation: Now approaching our fair planet this Comet PanSTARRS (C/2013 X1) will come closest on June 21-22, a mere 5.3 light-minutes away. By then its appearance low in northern hemisphere predawn skies (high in the south), will be affected by the light of a nearly Full Moon, though. Still the comet's pretty green coma is about the apparent size of the Full Moon in this telescopic portrait, captured on June 12 from the southern hemisphere's Siding Spring Observatory. The deep image also follows a broad, whitish dust tail up and toward the left in the frame, sweeping away from the Sun and trailing behind the comet's orbit. Buffeted by the solar wind, a fainter, narrow ion tail extends horizontally toward the right. On the left edge, the brightest star is bluish Iota Picis Austrini. Shining at about fourth magnitude, that star is visible to the unaided eye in the constellation of the Southern Fish.

 

[YosemiteSam]

July 4th, the Juno spacecraft goes into orbit around Juniper.

 

[Shunpike]

July 4th, the Juno spacecraft goes into orbit around Juniper.

Can't wait. 20 million RAD compared to 0.39 RAD on Earth? Somebody kill me please.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Can't wait. 20 million RAD compared to 0.39 RAD on Earth? Somebody kill me please.

Contract Accepted.

 

[panchucko]

July 4th, the Juno spacecraft goes into orbit around Juniper.

Is Juno going to stay in orbit? The way he said we are going up in get the data and get out makes me think Juno will leave

 

[YosemiteSam]

Is Juno going to stay in orbit? The way he said we are going up in get the data and get out makes me think Juno will leave

It's not going to leave, but it is there for a limited time. The radiation is pretty stout there and will probably at some point kill the craft. Here is what Wikipedia says about it.

Juno is on a five-year cruise to Jupiter, with arrival expected on 4 July 2016. The spacecraft will travel over a total distance of roughly 2.8 billion kilometers (18.7 AU; 1.74 billion miles). The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter 37 times over the course of 20 months.​

 

[MonsterD]

No news on the asteroid that is now in orbit around earth? Can imagine if it actually hit the earth 100 years ago, it is 300ft X 120 ft. that would have been game over for a lot of people.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Sputnik Planum vs. Krun Macula
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute

Explanation: Pluto's pitted plains meet rugged highlands in this stunning view. On the left lies a southeastern extent of the bright region still informally known as Sputnik Planum. At right the edge of a dark region, informally Krun Macula, rises some 2.5 kilometers above the icy plains. Along the boundary, connected clusters of large pits form deep valleys, some over 40 kilometers long with shadowy floors. Nitrogen ice is likely responsible for the more reflective plains. The dark red color of the highlands is thought to be from complex compounds called tholins, a product of ultraviolet light induced chemical reactions with methane in Pluto's atmosphere. The enhanced color image includes portions of the highest and second highest resolution image data from the New Horizons July 2015 flyby of the distant world.