保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2022年3月20日 A Picturesque Equinox Sunset Image Credit & Copyright: Roland Christen Explanation: What’s that at the end of the road? The Sun. Many towns have roads that run east – west, and on two days each year, the Sun rises and sets right down the middle. Today is one of those days: an equinox. Not only is today a day of equal night (“...
2022年3月19日 2MASS J17554042+6551277 Image Credit : NASA, STScI, JWST Explanation: 2MASS J17554042+6551277 doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue but that’s the name, a coordinate-based catalog designation, of the star centered in this sharp field of view. Fans of the distant universe should get used to its spiky appearance though. The diffraction pat...
2022年3月18日 A Filament in Monoceros Image Credit & Copyright: Giorgio Ferrari Explanation: Bluish reflection nebulae seem to fill this dusty expanse. The sharp telescopic frame spans over 1 degree on the sky toward the faint but fanciful constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn. Seen within the Monoceros R1 cloud complex some 2,500 light-years away, bluish I...
2022年3月17日 Centaurus A Image Credit & Copyright: David Alemazkour Explanation: A mere 11 million light-years away, Centaurus A is the closest active galaxy to planet Earth. Spanning over 60,000 light-years, the peculiar elliptical galaxy also known as NGC 5128, is featured in this sharp telescopic view. Centaurus A is apparently the result of a collisio...
2022年3月16日 The Observable Universe Illustration Credit & Licence: Wikipedia, Pablo Carlos Budassi Explanation: How far can you see? Everything you can see, and everything you could possibly see, right now, assuming your eyes could detect all types of radiations around you — is the observable universe. In light, the farthest we can see comes from t...
2022年3月15日 A Road to the Stars Image Credit: ESO, Petr Horálek (ESO Photo Ambassador, Inst. of Physics in Opava) Explanation: Pictured — a very scenic road to the stars. The road approaches La Silla Observatory in Chile, with the ESO’s 3.6-meter telescope just up ahead. To the left are some futuristic-looking support structures for the planned Bl...
2022年3月14日 Star Formation in the Eagle Nebula Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Ignacio Diaz Bobillo & Diego Gravinese Explanation: Where do stars form? One place, star forming regions known as “EGGs”, are being uncovered at the end of this giant pillar of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula (M16). Short for evaporat...
2022年3月13日 Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Milky Way Image Credit & Copyright: Xiaohan Wang Explanation: Why would the sky glow like a giant repeating rainbow? Airglow. Now air glows all of the time, but it is usually hard to see. A disturbance however — like an approaching storm — may cause noticeable rippling in the Earth’s atmospher...
2022年3月12日 Point Reyes Milky Way Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Zafra Explanation: Northern winter constellations and a long arc of the Milky Way are setting in this night skyscape looking toward the Pacific Ocean from Point Reyes on planet Earth’s California coast. Sirius, alpha star of Canis Major, is prominent below the starry arc toward the lef...
2022年3月11日 When Rainbows Smile Image Credit & Copyright: Marcella Giulia Pace Explanation: Want to see a rainbow smile? Look near the zenith (straight up) when the sun is low in the sky and you might. This example of an ice halo known as a circumzenithal arc was captured above a palm tree top from Ragusa, Sicily on February 24. The vividly colorful arcs...