保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2022年2月5日 Symbiotic R Aquarii Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/R. Montez et al.; Optical: Data: NASA/ESA/STScI, Processing: Judy Schmidt (CC BY-NC-SA) Explanation: Variable star R Aquarii is actually an interacting binary star system, two stars that seem to have a close symbiotic relationship. Centered in this space-based optical/x-ray composite image it li...
2022年2月4日 Moons at Twilight Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Fedez Explanation: Even though Jupiter was the only planet visible in the evening sky on February 2, it shared the twilight above the western horizon with the Solar System’s brightest moons. In a single exposure made just after sunset, the Solar System’s ruling gas giant is at the ...
2022年2月3日 Embraced by Sunlight Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Luis Cánovas Pérez Explanation: Even though Venus (left) was the brightest planet in the sky it was less than 1/30th the apparent size of the Moon on January 29. But as both rose before the Sun they shared a crescent phase. For a moment their visible disks were each about 12 percent illuminat...
2022年2月2日 The Galactic Center in Radio from MeerKAT Image Credit: Ian Heywood (Oxford U.), SARAO; Color Processing: Juan Carlos Munoz-Mateos (ESO) Explanation: What’s happening at the center of our galaxy? It’s hard to tell with optical telescopes since visible light is blocked by intervening interstellar dust. In other bands of light, though, su...
2022年2月1日 Moon Phases 2022 Video Credit: Data: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ; Animation: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio; Music: Build the Future (Universal Production Music), Alexander Hitchens Explanation: What will the Moon phase be on your birthday this year? It is hard to predict because the Moon’s appearance changes nightly. As the M...
2022年1月31日 Carina Nebula North Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Colombari Explanation: The Great Carina Nebula is home to strange stars and iconic nebulas. Named for its home constellation, the huge star-forming region is larger and brighter than the Great Orion Nebula but less well known because it is so far south — and because so much of humani...
2022年1月30日 A Solar Prominence from SOHO Image Credit: NASA, ESA, SOHO-EIT Consortium Explanation: How can gas float above the Sun? Twisted magnetic fields arching from the solar surface can trap ionized gas, suspending it in huge looping structures. These majestic plasma arches are seen as prominences above the solar limb. In 1999, this dramatic and detailed...
2022年1月29日 The Fornax Cluster of Galaxies Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Lorenzi, Angus Lau, Tommy Tse 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...
2022年1月28日 Western Moon, Eastern Sea Image Credit & Copyright: Tom Glenn Explanation: The Mare Orientale, Latin for Eastern Sea, is one of the most striking large scale lunar features. The youngest of the large lunar impact basins it’s very difficult to see from an earthbound perspective. Still, taken during a period of favorable tilt, or libratio...
2022年1月27日 South of Orion Image Credit & Copyright: Vikas Chander Explanation: South of the large star-forming region known as the Orion Nebula, lies bright blue reflection nebula NGC 1999. At the edge of the Orion molecular cloud complex some 1,500 light-years distant, NGC 1999’s illumination is provided by the embedded variable star V380 Orionis...