New view of moon's Sea of Storms unveiled

June 10, 2009

 

A grass-roots effort to retrieve high-resolution lunar images from long-dead probes has hit paydirt, with a new view of a region of the moon known as the Sea of Storms.

The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project published the picture, which was originally taken in February 1967. The photo shows the region around the crater Galilaei and Planitia Descensus in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as Sea of Storms.

The project is working to retrieve images taken by five NASA space probes that preceded the Apollo moon missions in the 1960s. You can read more about the program here.

 

Solar Eclipse -- As Seen From the Moon

February 25, 2009

If you happened to be orbiting the moon on Feb. 9, 2009, and looked back at Earth, you'd find the home planet slipping neatly in front of the sun, a view in fact captured by Japan's Kaguya spacecraft (formerly known as Selene.)

From the satellite's perspective, the sun, Earth and moon were perfectly aligned producing a diamond-ring eclipse for Kaguya's high-definition camera. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency stitched the images together into a movie. 

The images above were shot over 47 seconds. You can read more about the feat on the JAXA website. 

Hubblerrific!

August 13, 2008

In a not-so-subtle reminder of what's riding on NASA's plans to refurbish the beloved Hubble Space Telescope in a couple of months, the space agency this week released an image as vibrant as a summertime garden in full bloom.

Rather than tomatoes and flowers, this region of space in the Tarantula nebula is brimming with baby stars. The image, taken on the occasion of Hubble's 100,000th orbit, encompasses 100 light years of space. The pillar shaped like a seahorse itself is is 20 light years long -- four times the distance between the sun and the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.

Not to put the pressure on the Hubble servicing crew, but you guys know what you're doing, yes?

No Life Here

July 23, 2008

Looking for life in the universe? Here’s one place you can skip: a new view of the Pinwheel Galaxy, aka Messier 101, in infrared light shows a coral-red outer ring devoid of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

If you’re wondering what those are take a look in your barbecue pit, your car’s exhaust pipe or anyplace combustion takes place, advises the witty Whitney Clavin, a CalTech press officer who covers news from the Spitzer Space Telescope team.

She reports on a paper in this week’s Astrophysical Journal explaining why Pinwheel’s outer rim is red not blue like the interior arms. Seems radiation has killed off the carbon-containing molecules at the galaxy’s edge.

"There's a threshold at the rim of this galaxy, where the organic material is getting destroyed," says Karl Gordon of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md.

Image tech specs: infrared light with a wavelength of 3.6 microns in blue; 8 microns in green; 24 microns in red. Image taken with Spitzer infrared array camera, multiband imaging photometer and infrared spectrograph. Not available in stores.

Stranded in Space

June 06, 2008

That big sparkling new laboratory attached to the International Space Station this week has one short-coming: It's so spacious you can get stuck mid-air, says the commander of the shuttle crew that delivered Kibo.

“You have to be a little extra careful," Kelly explained during an inflight interview. “You can get out in the middle of it and you can’t reach a handrail and you could possibly get stuck there for a little while.”

Phoenix, Descending

May 26, 2008

Phoenix's arrival at Mars did not go unnoticed... this image of its parachute descent toward the northern arctic region was captured by a sister spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Welcome to Mars

A view from Phoenix

Good night, Mars

May 25, 2008

This time of year, the sun never sets on the northern polar region of Mars. But it does here, so I'll leave you with this. (Can't wait for the color views!)

What's That??

A white object sticking up in the distance is sparking discussions ..

New View of Mars, footpad 2