保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2021年02月04日 Apollo 14: A View from Antares Image Credit: Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14, NASA; Mosaic – Eric M. Jones Explanation: Fifty years ago this Friday, Apollo 14’s Lunar Module Antares landed on the Moon. Toward the end of the stay astronaut Ed Mitchell snapped a series of photos of the lunar surface while looking out a window, assembled into ...
2021年02月03日 Found on the Moon: Candidate for Oldest Known Earth Rock Video Credit: NASA, Astromaterials 3D, Erika Blumenfeld et al. Explanation: Was the oldest known rock on Earth found on the Moon? Quite possibly. The story opens with the Apollo 14 lunar mission. Lunar sample 14321, a large rock found in Cone crater by astronaut Alan Shepard, when analyzed ...
2021年02月02日 A Colorful Quadrantid Meteor Image Credit & Copyright: Frank Kuszaj Explanation: Meteors can be colorful. While the human eye usually cannot discern many colors, cameras often can. Pictured is a Quadrantids meteor captured by camera over Missouri, USA, early this month that was not only impressively bright, but colorful. The radiant grit, li...
2021年02月01日 Lunar Halo over Snowy Trees Image Credit & Copyright: Göran Strand Explanation: Have you ever seen a halo around the Moon? This fairly common sight occurs when high thin clouds containing millions of tiny ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each ice crystal acts like a miniature lens. Because most of the crystals have a similar elongated hex...
2021年01月31日 Asteroids in the Distance Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; R. Evans & K. Stapelfeldt (JPL) Explanation: Rocks from space hit Earth every day. The larger the rock, though, the less often Earth is struck. Many kilograms of space dust pitter to Earth daily. Larger bits appear initially as a bright meteor. Baseball-sized rocks and ice-balls stre...
2021年01月30日 Southern Sky from 38,000 Feet Image Credit & Copyright: Ralf Rohner Explanation: Celestial sights of the southern sky shine above a cloudy planet Earth in this gorgeous night sky view. The scene was captured from an airliner’s flight deck at 38,000 feet on a steady westbound ride to Lima, Peru. To produce the sharp airborne astrophotog...
2021年01月29日 North American Nightscape Composite Image Credit & Copyright: Liron Gertsman Explanation: On January 21, light from the Moon near first quarter illuminated the foreground in this snowy mountain and night scene. Known as The Lions, the striking pair of mountain peaks are north of Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, North America, planet Eart...
2021年01月28日 Messier 66 Close Up Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Leo Shatz Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 66 lies a mere 35 million light-years away. The gorgeous island universe is about 100 thousand light-years across, similar in size to the Milky Way. This reprocessed Hubble Space Telescope close-up view spa...
2021年01月27日 The Vertical Magnetic Field of NGC 5775 Image Credit: NRAO, NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Text: Jayanne English (U. Manitoba) Explanation: How far do magnetic fields extend up and out of spiral galaxies? For decades astronomers knew only that some spiral galaxies had magnetic fields. However, after NRAO’s Very Large Array (VLA) radio...
2021年01月26日 Central NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Daniel Nobre Explanation: How did this strange-looking galaxy form? Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of unusual jumbles of stars, gas, and dust like NGC 1316. Inspection indicates that NGC 1316 is an enormous ellip...
