Morning Glory Clouds Over Australia

What causes these long, strange clouds? No one is sure. A rare type of cloud known as a Morning Glory cloud can stretch 1,000 kilometers long and occur at altitudes up to two kilometers high. Although similar roll clouds have been seen at specific places across the world, the ones over Burketown, Queensland Australia occur predictably every spring. Long, horizontal, circulating tubes of air might form when flowing, moist, cooling air encounters an inversion layer, an atmospheric layer where air temperature atypically increases with height. These tubes and surrounding air could cause dangerous turbulence for airplanes when clear. Morning Glory clouds can reportedly achieve an airspeed of 60 kilometers per hour over a surface with little discernible wind. On this picture, photographer Mick Petroff photographed some Morning Glory clouds from his airplane near the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia.

Image Credit & Copyright: Mick Petroff
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090824.html

Lightning strikes over the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano, over 500 miles south of Santiago, Chile

June 6, 2011

Image Credit & Copyright: Francisco Negroni

Earth's Location in the Universe

Earth → Solar System → Local Interstellar Cloud → Milky Way Galaxy → Local Group → Virgo Supercluster → Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex → Observable Universe → Universe


Earth - 12,700 km in diameter - Our planet

Solar System - 4 light-years across - Our home planetary system. At this point, the Sun's gravity gives way to that of surrounding stars

Local Interstellar Cloud - 30 light-years across - Interstellar cloud of gas through which the Sun and a number of other stars are currently travelling

Milky Way Galaxy - 100,000 light-years across - Our home galaxy, composed of 200 billion to 400 billion stars and filled with the interstellar medium

Local Group - 3 megaparsecs across - Group of at least 47 galaxies. Dominated by Andromeda (the largest), The Milky Way and Triangulum; the remainder are small dwarf galaxies

Virgo Supercluster - 33 megaparsecs across - The supercluster of which our Local Group is a part; comprises roughly 100 galaxy groups and clusters

Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex - 300 megaparsecs across - The galaxy filament of which the Virgo Supercluster is a part

Observable Universe - 28,000 megaparsecs across - The large-scale structure of the universe consists of more than 100 billion galaxies, arranged in millions of superclusters, galactic filaments, and voids, creating a foam-like superstructure

Universe - Minimum of 28,000 megaparsecs - Beyond the observable universe lies the unobservable regions where no light from those regions has reached the Earth yet. No information is available about the region, as light is the fastest travelling medium of information. However, since there is no reason to suppose different natural laws, the universe is likely to contain more galaxies in the same foam-like superstructure



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Interstellar_Cloud
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way_Galaxy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgo_Supercluster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisces-Cetus_Supercluster_Complex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe

A Supercell Thunderstorm Cloud Over Montana

Is that a spaceship or a cloud? Although it may seem like an alien mothership, it's actually a impressive thunderstorm cloud called a supercell. Such colossal storm systems center on mesocyclones -- rotating updrafts that can span several kilometers and deliver torrential rain and high winds including tornadoes. Jagged sculptured clouds adorn the supercell's edge, while wind swept dust and rain dominate the center. A tree waits patiently in the foreground. This supercell cloud was photographed in July 2010 west of Glasgow, Montana, USA, caused minor damage, and lasted several hours before moving on.

Image Credit & Copyright: Sean R. Heavey
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101130.html

Aurora over Abisko National Park, Sweden

January 24, 2012

Image Credit & Copyright: Chad Blakley

Ash and Lightning Above Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland

April 17, 2010

Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Fulle

January Aurora Over Norway

What's that in the sky? An aurora. A large coronal mass ejection occurred on our Sun five days ago, throwing a cloud of fast moving electrons, protons, and ions toward the Earth. Although most of this cloud passed above the Earth, some of it impacted our Earth's magnetosphere and resulted in spectacular auroras being seen at high northern latitudes. Pictured above is a particularly photogenic auroral corona captured last night above Grotfjord, Norway. To some, this shimmering green glow of recombining atmospheric oxygen might appear as a large eagle, but feel free to share what it looks like to you. This round of solar activity is not yet over -- a new and even more powerful solar flare occurred yesterday that might provide more amazing aurora as soon as tonight.

Image Credit & Copyright: Bjørn Jørgensen
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120124.html

This Tuesday/Wednesday will be last Transit of Venus in this CENTURY - next in 2117. Don't miss it!

And before it happens again, the Earth will change beyond recognition

It won't happen again until December 2117. On June 5/6th, 2012, Venus will transit the face of the Sun in an event of both historical and observational importance. The best places to watch are in the south Pacific, but travel is not required

Check on map where will be visible → http://goo.gl/iSDsT
Watch NASA video → http://goo.gl/ARlC1
See picture from the last transit → http://goo.gl/JGpWX

Image Credit: NASA/JPL

→ SHARE TO EVERYONE ←

Rare 360-degree Panorama of the Southern Sky

The +Milky Way arches across this rare 360-degree panorama of the night sky above the Paranal platform, home of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The image was made from 37 individual frames with a total exposure time of about 30 minutes, taken in the early morning hours. The +Moon is just rising and the zodiacal light shines above it, while the Milky Way stretches across the sky opposite the observatory.

The open telescope domes of the world’s most advanced ground-based astronomical observatory are all visible in the image: the four smaller 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes that can be used together in the interferometric mode, and the four giant 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes. To the right in the image and below the arc of the Milky Way, two of our galactic neighbours, the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, can be seen.

Image Credit: ESO/H.H. Heyer
Explanation of the image from: http://www.eso.org/public/images/vlt-mw-potw/

A Roll Cloud Over Uruguay

What kind of cloud is this? A roll cloud. These rare long clouds may form near advancing cold fronts. In particular, a downdraft from an advancing storm front can cause moist warm air to rise, cool below its dew point, and so form a cloud. When this happens uniformly along an extended front, a roll cloud may form. Roll clouds may actually have air circulating along the long horizontal axis of the cloud. A roll cloud is not thought to be able to morph into a tornado. Unlike a similar shelf cloud, a roll cloud, a type of Arcus cloud, is completely detached from their parent cumulonimbus cloud.

Las Olas Beach in Maldonado, Uruguay
January 2009

Image Credit & Copyright: Daniela Mirner Eberl
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100105.html

Ash and Lightning Above Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland

April 17, 2010

Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Fulle

Aurora over Pacific Ocean from the +International Space Station

September 17, 2011

Image Credit: NASA

Clouds, Birds, +Moon, +Venus

Sometimes the sky above can become quite a show. Last week, for example, the Moon and Venus converged, creating quite a sight by itself for sky enthusiasts around the globe. From some locations, though, the sky was even more picturesque. In the above image taken last week from Spain, a crescent Moon and the planet Venus, on the far right, were captured during sunset posing against a deep blue sky. In the foreground, dark storm clouds loom across the image bottom, while a white anvil cloud shape appears above. Black specks dot the frame, caused by a flock of birds taking flight. Very soon after this picture was taken, however, the birds passed by, the storm ended, and Venus and the Moon set. The Moon and Venus have now separated, although Venus will remain visible at sunset for the rest of this month.

Image Credit & Copyright: Isaac Gutiérrez Pascual
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100915.html

Aurora over Hidden Lake Territorial Park near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada at altitudes of 100 kilometers

September 2011

Image Credit & Copyright: Yuichi Takasaka

A Pileus Iridescent Cloud Over Ethiopia

Pictured, behind this darker cloud, is a pileus iridescent cloud, a group of water droplets that have a uniformly similar size and so together diffract different colors of sunlight by different amounts. This image was taken just after the picturesque sight was noticed by chance by a photographer in Ethiopia.

Image Credit & Copyright: Esther Havens
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110824.html

Waterfall, Moonbow, and Aurora from Iceland

The longer you look at this image, the more you see. Perhaps your eye is first drawn to the picturesque waterfall called Skogarfoss visible on the image right. Just as prevalent, however, in this Icelandic visual extravaganza, is the colorful arc of light on the left. This chromatic bow is not a rainbow, since the water drops did not originate in rainfall nor are they reflecting light from the Sun. Rather, the drops have drifted off from the waterfall and are now illuminated by the nearly full Moon. High above are the faint green streaks of aurora. The scene, captured one night last month, also shows a beautiful starscape far in the background, including the Big Dipper, part of the constellation of the Great Bear (Ursa Major).

Image Credit & Copyright: Stephane Vetter
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111114.html

Iberian Peninsula at Night from the +International Space Station

The city lights of Spain and Portugal define the Iberian Peninsula in this photograph from the International Space Station (ISS). Several large metropolitan areas are visible, marked by their relatively large and brightly lit areas, including the capital cities of Madrid, Spain—located near the center of the peninsula’s interior—and Lisbon, Portugal—located along the southwestern coastline. The ancient city of Seville, visible to the north of the Strait of Gibraltar, is one of the largest cities in Spain. The astronaut view is looking toward the east, and is part of a time-lapse series of images.

The network of smaller cities and towns along the coastline and in the interior attest to the extent of the human presence on the Iberian landscape. The blurring of city lights is caused by thin cloud cover (image left and center), while cloud tops are dimly illuminated by moonlight. Though obscured, the lights of France are visible near the horizon line on the upper left, while the lights of northern Africa are more clearly discernable at right. The faint gold and green line of airglow—caused by ultraviolet radiation exciting the gas molecules in the upper atmosphere—parallels the horizon (or Earth limb).

The Iberian Peninsula is the southwestern-most of the European peninsulas (together with the Italian and Balkan peninsulas), and includes the Principality of Andorra, as well as the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic. The approximately 590,000 square kilometer landmass is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the northwest, west, and southwest and the Mediterranean Sea to the east. Its northeastern boundary is marked by the Pyrenees mountain range.

Image Credit: NASA
Explanation of the image from: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=76777

On June 5/6th, 2012 will be last Transit of Venus in this CENTURY - next in 2117. Don't miss it!

And before it happens again, the Earth will change beyond recognition

It won't happen again until December 2117. On June 5/6th, 2012, Venus will transit the face of the Sun in an event of both historical and observational importance. The best places to watch are in the south Pacific, but travel is not required

Check on map where will be visible → http://goo.gl/iSDsT
Watch video → http://goo.gl/ARlC1

Image Credit & Copyright: David Cortner

→ SHARE TO EVERYONE ←

Lightning Strikes over the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcano

Puyehue-Cordón Caulle, Chile
June 6, 2011

Image Credit & Copyright: Francisco Negroni

A Full Sky Aurora Over Norway

Higher than the highest building, higher than the highest mountain, higher than the highest airplane, lies the realm of the aurora. Auroras rarely reach below 60 kilometers, and can range up to 1000 kilometers. Aurora light results from energetic electrons and protons striking molecules in the Earth's atmosphere. Frequently, when viewed from space, a complete aurora will appear as a circle around one of the Earth's magnetic poles. The above wide angle image, horizontally compressed, captured an unexpected auroral display that stretched across the sky one month ago over eastern Norway.

Image Credit & Copyright: Sebastian Voltmer
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120103.html

A plume of ash, estimated six miles (10km) high and three mile wide is seen after a volcano erupted in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain, about 575 miles (920 km) south of the capital

Santiago, Chile
June 4, 2011

Image Credit & Copyright: Ivan Alvarado

Milky Way is Destined for Head-on Collision with Andromeda Galaxy

NASA astronomers announced Thursday they can now predict with certainty the next major cosmic event to affect our Galaxy, +Sun, and +Solar System: the titanic collision of our +Milky Way Galaxy with the neighboring +Andromeda Galaxy.

The Milky Way is destined to get a major makeover during the encounter, which is predicted to happen four billion years from now. It is likely the Sun will be flung into a new region of our Galaxy, but our Earth and Solar System are in no danger of being destroyed.

"Our findings are statistically consistent with a head-on collision between the Andromeda Galaxy and our Milky Way Galaxy," said Roeland van der Marel of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore.

The solution came through painstaking NASA +Hubble Space Telescope measurements of the motion of Andromeda, which also is known as M31. The galaxy is now 2.5 million light-years away, but it is inexorably falling toward the Milky Way under the mutual pull of gravity between the two galaxies and the invisible dark matter that surrounds them both.

"After nearly a century of speculation about the future destiny of Andromeda and our Milky Way, we at last have a clear picture of how events will unfold over the coming billions of years," said Sangmo Tony Sohn of STScI.

The scenario is like a baseball batter watching an oncoming fastball. Although Andromeda is approaching us more than two thousand times faster, it will take four billion years before the strike.

Computer simulations derived from Hubble's data show that it will take an additional two billion years after the encounter for the interacting galaxies to completely merge under the tug of gravity and reshape into a single elliptical galaxy similar to the kind commonly seen in the local +Universe.

Although the galaxies will plow into each other, stars inside each galaxy are so far apart that they will not collide with other stars during the encounter. However, the stars will be thrown into different orbits around the new galactic center. Simulations show that our solar system will probably be tossed much farther from the galactic core than it is today.

To make matters more complicated, M31's small companion, the Triangulum galaxy, M33, will join in the collision and perhaps later merge with the M31/Milky Way pair. There is a small chance that M33 will hit the Milky Way first.

The universe is expanding and accelerating, and collisions between galaxies in close proximity to each other still happen because they are bound by the gravity of the dark matter surrounding them. The Hubble Space Telescope's deep views of the universe show such encounters between galaxies were more common in the past when the universe was smaller.

A century ago astronomers did not realize that M31 was a separate galaxy far beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Edwin Hubble measured its vast distance by uncovering a variable star that served as a "milepost marker."

Edwin Hubble went on to discover the expanding universe where galaxies are rushing away from us, but it has long been known that M31 is moving toward the Milky Way at about 250,000 miles per hour. That is fast enough to travel from here to the Moon in one hour. The measurement was made using the Doppler Effect, which is a change in frequency and wavelength of waves produced by a moving source relative to an observer, to measure how starlight in the galaxy has been compressed by Andromeda's motion toward us.

Previously, it was unknown whether the far-future encounter will be a miss, glancing blow, or head-on smashup. This depends on M31's tangential motion. Until now, astronomers have not been able to measure M31's sideways motion in the sky, despite attempts dating back more than a century. The Hubble Space Telescope team, led by van der Marel, conducted extraordinarily precise observations of the sideways motion of M31 that remove any doubt that it is destined to collide and merge with the Milky Way.

"This was accomplished by repeatedly observing select regions of the galaxy over a five- to seven-year period," said Jay Anderson of STScI.

"In the 'worst-case-scenario' simulation, M31 slams into the Milky Way head-on and the stars are all scattered into different orbits," said team member Gurtina Besla of Columbia University in New York, N.Y. "The stellar populations of both galaxies are jostled, and the Milky Way loses its flattened pancake shape with most of the stars on nearly circular orbits. The galaxies' cores merge, and the stars settle into randomized orbits to create an elliptical-shaped galaxy."

Science Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), and A. Mellinger
Science Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. van der Marel (STScI)
Explanation of the image from: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2012/20/full/

On June 5/6th, 2012 will be last Transit of Venus in this CENTURY - next in 2117. Don't miss it!

Before it happens again, the Earth will change beyond recognition

It won't happen again until December 2117. On June 5/6th, 2012, Venus will transit the face of the Sun in an event of both historical and observational importance. The best places to watch are in the south Pacific, but travel is not required

Check on map where will be visible → http://goo.gl/iSDsT

SHARE TO EVERYONE

The +Milky Way Galaxy seen from the Earth over Devils Tower

Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka

Red and Purple Aurora over Southern Coast of Australia

January 22-23, 2012

Image Credit & Copyright: Alex Cherney

+Moon and +Venus Over Switzerland

Sometimes a morning sky can be a combination of serene and surreal. Such a sky perhaps existed before sunrise this past Sunday as viewed from a snowy slope in eastern Switzerland. Quiet clouds blanket the above scene, lit from beneath by lights from the village of Trübbach. A snow covered mountain, Mittlerspitz, poses dramatically on the upper left, hovering over the small town of Balzers, Liechtenstein far below. Peaks from the Alps can be seen across the far right, just below the freshly rising Sun. Visible on the upper right are the crescent Moon and the bright planet Venus. Venus will remain in the morning sky all month, although it will likely not be found in such a photogenic setting.

Image Credit & Copyright: David Kaplan
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110202.html

+Milky Way Over Piton de l'Eau

Sometimes, if you wait long enough for a clear and moonless night, the stars will come out with a vengeance. One such occasion occurred earlier this month at the Piton de l'Eau on Reunion Island. In the foreground, surrounded by bushes and trees, lies a water filled volcanic crater serenely reflecting starlight. A careful inspection near the image center will locate Piton des Neiges, the highest peak on the island, situated several kilometers away. In the background, high above the lake, shines the light of hundreds of stars, most of which are within 100 light years, right in our stellar neighborhood. Far is the distance, arching majestically overhead, is the central band of our home Milky Way Galaxy, shining by the light of millions of stars each located typically thousands of light years away. The astrophotographer reports waiting for nearly two years for the sky and clouds to be just right to get the above shot.

Image Credit & Copyright: Luc Perrot
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120625.html

Aurora over Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada

September 3, 2011

Image Credit & Copyright: Steve Milner

Aurora Over Greenland

This aurora arched from horizon to horizon. During the current Shelios expedition to observe and learn about the northern lights, the sky last weekend did not disappoint. After sunset and some careful photographic planning, the above image was taken from the expedition's Qaleraliq campsite in southern Greenland. Visible straight through the center of the aurora, found with a careful eye, is the Big Dipper and the surrounding constellation of the Big Bear (Ursa Major). The brightest orb on the far right is the +Moon, while +Jupiter can be seen even further to the right.

Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110823.html

Morning, Moon, and Mercury

Last week +Mercury wandered far to the west of the +Sun. As the +Solar System's innermost planet neared its greatest elongation or greatest angle from the Sun (for this apparition about 27 degrees) it was joined by an old crescent +Moon. The conjunction was an engaging sight for early morning risers in the southern hemisphere. There the pair rose together in predawn skies, climbing high above the horizon along a steeply inclined ecliptic plane. This well composed sequence captures the rising Moon and Mercury above the city lights of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. A stack of digital images, it consists of an exposure made every 3 minutes beginning at 4:15 am local time on April 19. Mercury's track is at the far right, separated from the Moon's path by about 8 degrees.

Image Credit & Copyright: Stephen Mudge
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120426.html

Laser Meets Lightning

On Thursday August 18, 2011 the sky above the Allgäu Public Observatory in southwestern Bavaria was an amazing sight, with the night lit up by two very different phenomena: one an example of advanced technology, and the other of nature’s dramatic power.

As ESO tested the new Wendelstein laser guide star unit by shooting a powerful laser beam into the atmosphere, one of the region’s intense summer thunderstorms was approaching — a very visual demonstration of why ESO’s telescopes are in Chile, and not in Germany. Heavy grey clouds threw down bolts of lightning as Martin Kornmesser, visual artist for the ESO outreach department, took timelapse photographs of the test for ESOcast 34. With purely coincidental timing this photograph was snapped just as lightning flashed, resulting in a breathtaking image that looks like a scene from a science fiction movie. Although the storm was still far from the observatory, the lightning appears to clash with the laser beam in the sky.

Laser guide stars are artificial stars created 90 kilometres up in the Earth’s atmosphere using a laser beam. Measurements of this artificial star can be used to correct for the blurring effect of the atmosphere in astronomical observations — a technique known as adaptive optics. The Wendelstein laser guide star unit is a new design, combining the laser with the small telescope used to launch it in a single modular unit, which can then be placed onto larger telescopes.

The laser in this photograph is a powerful one, with a 20-watt beam, but the power in a bolt of lightning peaks at a trillion (one million million) watts, albeit for just a fraction of a second! Shortly after this picture was taken the storm reached the observatory, forcing operations to close for the night. While we may have the ability to harness advanced technology for devices such as laser guide stars, we are still subject to the forces of nature, not least among them the weather!

Image Credit & Copyright: ESO/M. Kornmesser
Explanation of the image from: http://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1136a/

Meteor Over Crater Lake

Did you see it? One of the more common questions during a meteor shower occurs because the time it takes for a meteor to flash is typically less than the time it takes for a head to turn. Possibly, though, the glory of seeing bright meteors shoot across and knowing that they were once small pebbles on another world might make it all worthwhile, even if your observing partner(s) could not share in every particular experience. Peaking over the past few days, a dark moonless sky allowed the Lyrids meteor shower to exhibit as many as 30 visible meteors per hour from some locations. A bright Lyrid meteor streaks above picturesque Crater Lake in Oregon, USA, in this composite of nine exposures taken last week. Snow covers the foreground, while the majestic central band of our home galaxy arches well behind the serene lake. Other meteor showers this year include the Perseids in mid-August and the Leonids in mid-November, both expected to also dodge the glare of a bright Moon in 2012.

Image Credit & Copyright: Brad Goldpaint
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120425.html

The Milky Road

Credit & Copyright: Larry Landolfi

It's Coming!

Tomorrow starts the last Transit of Venus in this CENTURY - next in 2117. Don't miss it!

And before it happens again, the Earth will change beyond recognition

It won't happen again until December 2117. On June 5/6th, 2012, Venus will transit the face of the Sun in an event of both historical and observational importance. The best places to watch are in the south Pacific, but travel is not required

Check on map where will be visible → http://goo.gl/iSDsT
Watch NASA video → http://goo.gl/ARlC1
See picture from the last transit → http://goo.gl/JGpWX

→ SHARE TO EVERYONE ←

Full Moonrise

Rising as the +Sun sets, tonight's Full +Moon could be hard to miss. Remarkably, its exact full phase (May 6 03:36 UT) will occur less than two minutes after it reaches perigee, the closest point to Earth in the Moon's orbit, making it the largest Full Moon of 2012. The Full Perigee Moon will appear to be some 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than a Full Moon near apogee, the most distant point in the elliptical lunar orbit. In comparison, though, it will appear less than 1 percent larger and almost as bright as April's Full Moon, captured in this telephoto image rising over suburban Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. For that lunation, Full Moon and perigee were about 21 hours apart. Of course, if you manage to miss May's Full Perigee Moon, make a note on your calendar. Your next chance to see a Full Moon close to perigee, will be next year on June 23.

Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Arn
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120505.html

Voyager Points to Interstellar Future

Humanity's first emissary to interstellar space is on the edge of Solar System

Data from NASA's +Voyager 1 spacecraft indicate that the venerable deep-space explorer has encountered a region in space where the intensity of charged particles from beyond our solar system has markedly increased. Voyager scientists looking at this rapid rise draw closer to an inevitable but historic conclusion – that humanity's first emissary to interstellar space is on the edge of our +Solar System

"The laws of physics say that someday Voyager will become the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, but we still do not know exactly when that someday will be," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The latest data indicate that we are clearly in a new region where things are changing more quickly. It is very exciting. We are approaching the solar system's frontier."

The data making the 16-hour-38 minute, 11.1-billion-mile (17.8-billion-kilometer), journey from Voyager 1 to antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network on Earth detail the number of charged particles measured by the two High Energy telescopes aboard the 34-year-old spacecraft. These energetic particles were generated when stars in our cosmic neighborhood went supernova.

"From January 2009 to January 2012, there had been a gradual increase of about 25 percent in the amount of galactic cosmic rays Voyager was encountering," said Stone. "More recently, we have seen very rapid escalation in that part of the energy spectrum. Beginning on May 7, the cosmic ray hits have increased five percent in a week and nine percent in a month."

This marked increase is one of a triad of data sets which need to make significant swings of the needle to indicate a new era in space exploration. The second important measure from the spacecraft's two telescopes is the intensity of energetic particles generated inside the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself. While there has been a slow decline in the measurements of these energetic particles, they have not dropped off precipitously, which could be expected when Voyager breaks through the solar boundary.

The final data set that Voyager scientists believe will reveal a major change is the measurement in the direction of the magnetic field lines surrounding the spacecraft. While Voyager is still within the heliosphere, these field lines run east-west. When it passes into interstellar space, the team expects Voyager will find that the magnetic field lines orient in a more north-south direction. Such analysis will take weeks, and the Voyager team is currently crunching the numbers of its latest data set.

"When the Voyagers launched in 1977, the space age was all of 20 years old," said Stone. "Many of us on the team dreamed of reaching interstellar space, but we really had no way of knowing how long a journey it would be -- or if these two vehicles that we invested so much time and energy in would operate long enough to reach it.”

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 are in good health. +Voyager 2 is more than 9.1 billion miles (14.7 billion kilometers) away from the sun. Both are operating as part of the Voyager Interstellar Mission, an extended mission to explore the solar system outside the neighborhood of the outer planets and beyond. NASA's Voyagers are the two most distant active representatives of humanity and its desire to explore.

The Voyager spacecraft were built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which continues to operate both. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Explanation of the image from: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20120614.html

Aurora Australis Observed from the International Space Station

Among the views of Earth afforded astronauts aboard the +International Space Station (ISS), surely one of the most spectacular is of the aurora. These ever-shifting displays of colored ribbons, curtains, rays, and spots are most visible near the North (aurora borealis) and South (aurora australis) Poles as charged particles (ions) streaming from the Sun (the solar wind) interact with Earth’s magnetic field.

While aurora are generally only visible close to the poles, severe magnetic storms impacting the Earth’s magnetic field can shift them towards the equator. This striking aurora image was taken during a geomagnetic storm that was most likely caused by a coronal mass ejection from the +Sun on May 24, 2010. The ISS was located over the Southern Indian Ocean at an altitude of 350 kilometers (220 miles), with the astronaut observer most likely looking towards Antarctica (not visible) and the South Pole.

The aurora has a sinuous ribbon shape that separates into discrete spots near the lower right corner of the image. While the dominant coloration of the aurora is green, there are faint suggestions of red left of image center. Dense cloud cover is dimly visible below the aurora. The curvature of the Earth’s horizon (the limb) is clearly visible, as is the faint blue line of the upper atmosphere directly above it (at image top center). Several stars appear as bright pinpoints against the blackness of space at image top right.

Auroras happen when ions in the solar wind collide with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere. The atoms are excited by these collisions, and they typically emit light as they return to their original energy level. The light creates the aurora that we see. The most commonly observed color of aurora is green, caused by light emitted by excited oxygen atoms at wavelengths centered at 0.558 micrometers, or millionths of a meter. (Visible light is reflected from healthy (green) plant leaves at approximately the same wavelength.) Red aurora are generated by light emitted at a longer wavelength (0.630 micrometers), and other colors such as blue and purple are also sometimes observed.

Image Credit: NASA
Explanation of the image from: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=44348

Aurora Over Alaska

Credit & Copyright: Paul Alsop

A Sun Halo Beyond Stockholm

What's happened to the +Sun? Sometimes it looks like the Sun is being viewed through a large lens. In the above case, however, there are actually millions of lenses: ice crystals. As water freezes in the upper atmosphere, small, flat, six-sided, ice crystals might be formed. As these crystals flutter to the ground, much time is spent with their faces flat, parallel to the ground. An observer may pass through the same plane as many of the falling ice crystals near sunrise or sunset. During this alignment, each crystal can act like a miniature lens, refracting sunlight into our view and creating phenomena like parhelia, the technical term for sundogs. This image was taken two years ago in Stockholm, Sweden. Visible in the image center is the Sun, while two bright sundogs glow prominently from both the left and the right. Also visible is the bright 22 degree halo -- as well as the rarer and much fainter 46 degree halo -- also created by sunlight reflecting off of atmospheric ice crystals.

Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Rosén
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110110.html

Earth from Mars as seen by Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on March 7, 2004

This is the first image ever taken of Earth from the surface of a planet beyond the Moon. It was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit one hour before sunrise on the 63rd Martian day, or sol, of its mission.

The image is a mosaic of images taken by the rover's navigation camera showing a broad view of the sky, and an image taken by the rover's panoramic camera of Earth. The contrast in the panoramic camera image was increased two times to make Earth easier to see.The inset shows a combination of four panoramic camera images zoomed in on Earth. The arrow points to Earth. Earth was too faint to be detected in images taken with the panoramic camera's color filters.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M
Explanation of the image from: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=1483

Aurora over Fairbanks, Alaska, USA

February 29, 2012

Image Credit & Copyright: Dennis Mammana

Aurora over Hidden Lake Territorial Park

Hidden Lake Territorial Park, Northwest Territories, Canada
September 2011

Image Credit & Copyright: Yuichi Takasaka

+Space Shuttle Discovery's Last Flight

April 18, 2012

Image Credit & Copyright: Ben Cooper

Earth's City Lights

This image of Earth’s city lights was created with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). Originally designed to view clouds by moonlight, the OLS is also used to map the locations of permanent lights on the Earth’s surface.

The brightest areas of the Earth are the most urbanized, but not necessarily the most populated. (Compare western Europe with China and India.) Cities tend to grow along coastlines and transportation networks. Even without the underlying map, the outlines of many continents would still be visible. The United States interstate highway system appears as a lattice connecting the brighter dots of city centers. In Russia, the Trans-Siberian railroad is a thin line stretching from Moscow through the center of Asia to Vladivostok. The Nile River, from the Aswan Dam to the Mediterranean Sea, is another bright thread through an otherwise dark region.

Even more than 100 years after the invention of the electric light, some regions remain thinly populated and unlit. Antarctica is entirely dark. The interior jungles of Africa and South America are mostly dark, but lights are beginning to appear there. Deserts in Africa, Arabia, Australia, Mongolia, and the United States are poorly lit as well (except along the coast), along with the boreal forests of Canada and Russia, and the great mountains of the Himalaya.

Image Credit: Data courtesy Marc Imhoff of NASA GSFC and Christopher Elvidge of NOAA NGDC. Image by Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC.
Explanation of the image from: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=55167

An Iridescent Cloud Over Colorado

Why would a cloud appear to be different colors? A relatively rare phenomenon known as iridescent clouds can show unusual colors vividly or a whole spectrum of colors simultaneously. These clouds are formed of small water droplets of nearly uniform size. When the Sun is in the right position and mostly hidden by thick clouds, these thinner clouds significantly diffract sunlight in a nearly coherent manner, with different colors being deflected by different amounts. Therefore, different colors will come to the observer from slightly different directions. Many clouds start with uniform regions that could show iridescence but quickly become too thick, too mixed, or too far from the Sun to exhibit striking colors. This iridescent cloud was photographed above Boulder, Colorado.

Image Credit & Copyright: August Allen
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap071125.html

Puyehue-Cordón Caulle

Image Credit & Copyright: Claudio Santana

Green Arc

Northwest Territories, Canada
September 2011

Image Credit & Copyright: Yuichi Takasaka

All the Water on Europa

How much of +Jupiter's moon +Europa is made of water? A lot, actually. Based on the Galileo probe data acquired during its exploration of the Jovian system from 1995 to 2003, Europa posses a deep, global ocean of liquid water beneath a layer of surface ice. The subsurface ocean plus ice layer could range from 80 to 170 kilometers in average depth. Adopting an estimate of 100 kilometers depth, if all the water on Europa were gathered into a ball it would have a radius of 877 kilometers. To scale, this intriguing illustration compares that hypothetical ball of all the water on Europa to the size of Europa itself (left) - and similarly to all the water on planet Earth.

With a volume 2-3 times the volume of water in Earth's oceans, the global ocean on Europa holds out a tantalizing destination in the search for extraterrestrial life in our +Solar System.

Illustration Credit & Copyright: Kevin Hand (JPL/Caltech),
Jack Cook (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Howard Perlman (USGS)
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120524.html

Aurora over Tromvik, Troms Fylke, Norway

January 22, 2012

Image Credit & Copyright: Lars Tiede

+Moon, +Venus, +Jupiter and the +Milky Way Galaxy seen over ESO’s Very Large Telescope from Earth

Paranal Observatory, Cerro Paranal, Chile

Image Credit: ESO/Y. Beletsky

Solar Eclipse over El Dorado Springs

El Dorado Springs, Missouri, USA
May 20, 2012

Image Credit & Copyright: Elon Gane

Solar Eclipse over Grand Canyon

May 20, 2012
Grand Canyon. Arizona, USA

Image Credit & Copyright: Brian A. Klimowski

Tornado and Rainbow Over Kansas

The scene might have been considered serene if it weren't for the tornado. During 2004 in Kansas, storm chaser Eric Nguyen photographed this budding twister in a different light -- the light of a rainbow. Pictured above, a white tornado cloud descends from a dark storm cloud. The Sun, peeking through a clear patch of sky to the left, illuminates some buildings in the foreground. Sunlight reflects off raindrops to form a rainbow. By coincidence, the tornado appears to end right over the rainbow. Streaks in the image are hail being swept about by the high swirling winds. Over 1,000 tornadoes, the most violent type of storm known, occur on Earth every year, many in tornado alley. If you see a tornado while driving, do not try to outrun it -- park your car safely, go to a storm cellar, or crouch under steps in a basement.

Image Credit & Copyright: Eric Nguyen
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110814.html

Most Amazing High Definition Image of Earth - Blue Marble 2012

A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.

Suomi NPP is NASA's next Earth-observing research satellite. It is the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth.

Download Full Resolution Image:

JPG | 16.4 MB | 8000x8000px
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/618486main_earth_full.jpg

Image Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring
Explanation of the image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6760135001/

Shooting a Laser at the Galactic Centre

This impressive image, taken on 10 May 2010 by ESO astronomer Yuri Beletsky, beautifully depicts the sky above Paranal. One of the 8.2-metre telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope, Yepun, Unit Telescope 4, is seen against the wonderful backdrop of the myriad of stars and dust that makes up the Milky Way. A laser beam is coming out of Yepun, aiming perfectly at the Galactic Centre. When used with the adaptive optics system the artificial star created by the beam allows the telescope to obtain images and spectra that are free from the blurring effect of the atmosphere. When this image was taken, astronomers Stefan Gillessen and Hauke Enkel were using the SINFONI instrument, together with the laser guide star facility, to study the centre of our Milky Way, where a supermassive black hole is lurking.

The field of view of the image is very wide, about 180 degrees. One of the 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes used for interferometry can be seen on the right.

Image Credit: Y. Beletsky/ESO
Explanation of the image from: http://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1045a/

+Venus and +Jupiter seen on March 3, 2012 from Earth

Downhill, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Image Credit & Copyright: Martin McKenna

A Circumhorizontal Arc Over Ohio

Why would clouds appear to be different colors? The reason here is that ice crystals in distant cirrus clouds are acting like little floating prisms. Sometimes known as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a circumhorizon arc lies parallel to the horizon. For a circumhorizontal arc to be visible, the Sun must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky where cirrus clouds are present. Furthermore, the numerous, flat, hexagonal ice-crystals that compose the cirrus cloud must be aligned horizontally to properly refract sunlight in a collectively similar manner. Therefore, circumhorizontal arcs are quite unusual to see. This circumhorizon display was photographed through a polarized lens above Dublin, Ohio.

May 2009

Image Credit & Copyright: Todd Sladoje
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090512.html

A Lenticular Cloud Over New Zealand

What's happening above those mountains? Several clouds are stacked up into one striking lenticular cloud. Normally, air moves much more horizontally than it does vertically. Sometimes, however, such as when wind comes off of a mountain or a hill, relatively strong vertical oscillations take place as the air stabilizes. The dry air at the top of an oscillation may be quite stratified in moisture content, and hence forms clouds at each layer where the air saturates with moisture. The result can be a lenticular cloud with a strongly layered appearance. This picture was taken in 2002 looking southwest over the Tararua Range mountains from North Island, New Zealand.

Image Credit & Copyright: Chris Picking
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090121.html

The Southern Milky Way Above ALMA

ESO Photo Ambassador Babak Tafreshi snapped this remarkable image of the antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), set against the splendour of the +Milky Way. The richness of the sky in this picture attests to the unsurpassed conditions for astronomy on the 5000-metre-high Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama region.

This view shows the constellations of Carina (The Keel) and Vela (The Sails). The dark, wispy dust clouds of the Milky Way streak from middle top left to middle bottom right. The bright orange star in the upper left is Suhail in Vela, while the similarly orange star in the upper middle is Avior, in Carina. Of the three bright blue stars that form an “L” near these stars, the left two belong to Vela, and the right one to Carina. And exactly in the centre of the image below these stars gleams the pink glow of the +Carina Nebula.

ESO, the European partner in ALMA, is providing 25 of the 66 antennas that will make up the completed telescope. The two antennas closest to the camera, on which the careful viewer can find the markings “DA-43” and “DA-41”, are examples of these European antennas. Construction of the full ALMA array will be completed in 2013, but the telescope is already making scientific observations with a partial array of antennas.

ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

Image Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi/TWAN
Explanation of the image from: http://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1222a/

Solar Eclipse over Gail

May 20, 2012
Gail, Texas, USA

Image Credit & Copyright: Jacob Thumberger

Aurora over Antarctica and Australia seen from +International Space Station

March 10, 2012

Image Credit: ESA/NASA

Milky Way Galaxy above the ESO 3.6-metre Telescope

What is in the Milky Way Galaxy?

• 300–500 billion stars (like the Sun, Sirius, Betelgeuse)
• at least 100 billion planets (like Mars, Jupiter, Kepler-14b)
• more than 10 billion planets in the Habitable Zone (like Earth, Gliese 667 Cc, Kepler-22b)

And the Milky Way Galaxy is one of at least 200-500 billion galaxies in the Observable Universe (like Andromeda Galaxy, Pinwheel Galaxy, Whirlpool Galaxy)

Earth's Location in the Universe → http://goo.gl/eKo67
When will be first contact with alien civilization? → http://goo.gl/nJur8

Image Credit: S. Brunier/ESO

Annular Solar Eclipse

Tomorrow, May 20, the +Moon's shadow will race across planet Earth. Observers within the 240-300 kilometer wide shadow track will be able to witness an annular solar eclipse as the Moon's apparent size is presently too small to completely cover the +Sun. Heading east over a period of 3.5 hours, the shadow path will begin in southern China, cross the northern Pacific, and reach well into North America, crossing the US west coast in southern Oregon and northern California. Along the route, Tokyo residents will be just 10 kilometers north of the path's center line. Of course a partial eclipse will be visible from a much larger area within North America, the Pacific, and eastern Asia. This safely filtered telescopic picture was taken during the annular eclipse of January 15, 2010 from the city of Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India

Learn more → http://goo.gl/M03Jy .

Image Credit & Copyright: Mikael Svalgaard
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120519.html

Watch live Transit of Venus - last in this CENTURY - next in 2117

Watch live on 5:45 PM EDT

→ http://venustransit.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/ ←

Image Credit & Copyright: David Cortner

→ SHARE TO EVERYONE ←

+Venus Transit seen from our Planet Earth

The rare transit of Venus across the face of the Sun in 2004 was one of the better-photographed events in sky history. Both scientific and artistic images flooded in from the areas that could see the transit: Europe and much of Asia, Africa, and North America. Scientifically, solar photographers confirmed that the black drop effect is really better related to the viewing clarity of the camera or telescope than the atmosphere of Venus. Artistically, images might be divided into several categories. One type captures the transit in front of a highly detailed Sun. Another category captures a double coincidence such as both Venus and an airplane simultaneously silhouetted, or Venus and the International Space Station in low Earth orbit. A third image type involves a fortuitous arrangement of interesting looking clouds, as shown by example in the above image taken from North Carolina, USA.

The next transit of Venus across the Sun will be in 2012 June

Image Credit & Copyright: David Cortner
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111016.html

The Milky Way Galaxy over El Teide in Spain

April 2011

Image Credit & Copyright: Terje Sorgjerd

A Partial Eclipse Over Manila Bay

Today Solar Eclipse! Learn more → http://goo.gl/M03Jy .

What's happened to the setting +Sun? An eclipse! In early 2009, the +Moon eclipsed part of the Sun as visible from parts of Africa, Australia, and Asia. In particular this image, taken from the Mall of Asia seawall, caught a partially eclipsed Sun setting over Manila Bay in the Philippines. Piers are visible in silhouette in the foreground. Eclipse chasers and well placed sky enthusiasts captured many other interesting and artistic images of the year's only annular solar eclipse, including movies, eclipse shadow arrays, and rings of fire. Today parts of the Sun again will become briefly blocked by the Moon, again visible to some as a partial eclipse of a setting Sun. A small swath of Earth, however, will be exposed to the unusual ring of fire effect when the Moon is completely surrounded by the glowing light of the slightly larger Sun.

Image Credit & Copyright: Armando Lee (Astron. League Philippines), F. Naelga Jr., 100 Hours of Astronomy (IYA2009)
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120520.html

Nile River Delta at Night from the +International Space Station

November 8, 2010

Image Credit: NASA

Comparing the size of the +Sun to Earth

Earth Diameter: 12,742 km
Sun Diameter: 1,392,000 km

http://en.wikipedia.org

Aurora over Hessdalen, Norway

Image Credit & Copyright: Bernd Proschold

Jupiter and the Moons of Earth

Planet Earth has many moons. Its largest artifical moon, the +International Space Station, streaks through this lovely skyview with clouds in silhouette against the fading light of a sunset. Captured from Stuttgart, Germany last Sunday, the frame also includes Earth's largest natural satellite 1.5 days after its New +Moon phase. Just below and left of the young crescent is +Jupiter, another bright celestial beacon hovering near the western horizon in early evening skies. Only briefly, as seen from the photographer's location, Jupiter and these moons of Earth formed the remarkably close triple conjunction. Of course, Jupiter has many moons too. In fact, close inspection of the photo will reveal tiny pin pricks of light near the bright planet, large natural satellites of Jupiter known as Galilean moons.

Image Credit & Copyright: Stefan Seip
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120427.html

+Venus and +Jupiter seen on March 11, 2012 from Earth

Szubin, Nakło County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland

Image Credit & Copyright: Marek Nikodem

When will be first contact with alien civilization?

Remember that Earth is just One of Trillions (10^12) of Planets in the Milky Way Galaxy and just One of at least Septillions (10^24) of Planets in the Observable Universe...

In the Milky Way Galaxy are at least 500 billion stars, and every star has at least one planet, and the Milky Way Galaxy is just one of at least 500 billion galaxies in the Observable Universe

500 000 000 000 stars * 500 000 000 000 galaxies * at least one planet = 250 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 planets and Earth is just one of them, just one of 250 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 planets in the Observable Universe

OK, this everything is in the Observable Universe, and what is beyond?

How many are civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy?
How many are civilizations in the Observable Universe?
How many are civilizations beyond the Observable Universe?

To know more we have to wait for:
James Webb Space Telescope (2018)
European Extremely Large Telescope (2022)

What do you think about this?

Image Credit: ESO/S. Guisard

Earth and +Moon from MESSENGER

What does Earth look like from the planet +Mercury?

The Earth and Moon are visible as the double spot on the lower left of this image.

Image Credit: NASA/JHU APL/CIW

Aurora over Alberta, Canada

August 20, 2009

Image Credit & Copyright: Zoltan Kenwell

Spaceport America - the world's first commercial spaceport

Operated by +Virgin Galactic

Opened by +Richard Branson on October 17, 2011 in New Mexico, USA

Transit of Venus over Louisburg

June 5, 2012
Louisburg, Kansas, USA

Image Credit & Copyright: Tom J. Martinez

+Mars and a Colorful Lunar Fog Bow

Even from the top of a volcanic crater, this vista was unusual. For one reason, Mars was dazzlingly bright on 2010 January, when this picture was taken, as it was nearing its brightest time of the entire year. Mars, on the far upper left, is the brightest object in the above picture. The brightness of the red planet peaked last week near when Mars reached opposition, the time when Earth and Mars are closest together in their orbits. Arching across the lower part of the image is a rare lunar fog bow. Unlike a more commonly seen rainbow, which is created by sunlight reflected prismatically by falling rain, this fog bow was created by moonlight reflected by the small water drops that compose fog. Although most fog bows appear white, all of the colors of the rainbow were somehow visible here. The above image was taken from high atop Haleakala, a huge volcano in Hawaii, USA.

Image Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100202.html

Mammatus Clouds Over Olympic Valley

What's happened to these clouds? Normal cloud bottoms are flat because moist warm air that rises and cools will condense into water droplets at a very specific temperature, which usually corresponds to a very specific height. After water droplets form that air becomes an opaque cloud. Under some conditions, however, cloud pockets can develop that contain large droplets of water or ice that fall into clear air as they evaporate. Such pockets may occur in turbulent air near a thunderstorm, being seen near the top of an anvil cloud, for example. Resulting mammatus clouds can appear especially dramatic if sunlit from the side. These mammatus clouds were photographed in August 2010 over Olympic Valley, California, USA.

Image Credit & Copyright: Matt Saal
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110220.html

The +Milky Way Galaxy over El Teide in Spain

April 2011

Image Credit & Copyright: Terje Sorgjerd

Sunrise

On Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011, International Space Station astronaut +Ron Garan used a high definition camera to film one of the sixteen sunrises astronauts see each day. This image shows the rising sun as the station flew along a path between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Image Credit: NASA
Explanation of the image from: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2047.html

The view from NASA astronaut Don Pettit's window on our world from the +International Space Station

January 8, 2012

Image Credit & Copyright: Fragile Oasis

Solar Eclipse over Sundown

May 20, 2012
Sundown, Texas, USA

Image Credit & Copyright: Jimmy Westlake & Linda Westlake

Dubai at night from the +International Space Station

February 22, 2012

Image Credit: NASA

+Moon, +Venus and +Jupiter seen on February 26, 2012 from Earth

Edgecomb Pond, Bolton Landing NY, USA

Image Credit & Copyright: John Cordiale