保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2021年11月22日 Lunar Eclipse over a Skyscraper Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN) Explanation: Why is the Moon on top of this building? Planning. It took the astrophotographer careful planning — including figuring out exactly where to place the camera and exactly when to take the shot — to create t...
2021年11月21日 Introducing Comet Leonard Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett Explanation: Here comes Comet Leonard. Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) was discovered as a faint smudge in January 2021 when it was out past Mars — but its orbit will take the giant shedding ice-ball into the inner Solar System, passing near both Earth and Venus in December bef...
2021年11月20日 An Almost Total Lunar Eclipse Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Fedez Explanation: Predawn hours of November 19 found the Moon in partly cloudy skies over Cancun, Mexico. Captured in this telephoto snapshot, the lunar disk is not quite entirely immersed in Earth’s dark umbral shadow during a long partial lunar eclipse. The partial eclip...
2021年11月19日 NGC 281: Starless with Stars Image Credit & Copyright: Wido Oerlemans – X-ray: Chandra, Infrared: Spitzer Explanation: In visible light the stars have been removed from this narrow-band image of NGC 281, a star forming region some 10,000 light-years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia. Stars were digitally added back to the result...
2021年11月18日 Full Moonlight Image Credit & Copyright: Zhengjie Wu and Jeff Dai (TWAN) Explanation: A photographer in silhouette stands in bright moonlight as the Full Moon rises in this well-planned telephoto image. Of course, the Full Moon is normally the brightest lunar phase. But on November 18/19, the Full Moon’s light will be dimmed during a d...
2021年11月17日 NGC 3314: When Galaxies Overlap Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: William Ostling (The Astronomy Enthusiast) Explanation: Why doesn’t the nearby galaxy create a gravitational lensing effect on the background galaxy? It does, but since both galaxies are so nearby, the angular shift is much smaller than the angular...
2021年11月16日 Geminids from Gemini Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Jin Explanation: Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Gemini. That is why the major meteor shower in December is known as the Geminids — because shower meteors all appear to come from a radiant toward G...
2021年11月15日 Light Pillar over Volcanic Etna Image Credit & Copyright: Giancarlo Tinè Explanation: What happening above that volcano? Something very unusual — a volcanic light pillar. More typically, light pillars are caused by sunlight and so appear as a bright column that extends upward above a rising or setting Sun. Alternatively, other light pi...
2021年11月14日 How to Identify that Light in the Sky Illustration Credit & Copyright: HK (The League of Lost Causes) Explanation: What is that light in the sky? Perhaps one of humanity’s more common questions, an answer may result from a few quick observations. For example — is it moving or blinking? If so, and if you live near a city, the answ...
2021年11月13日 Rosetta’s Comet in Gemini Image Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri (CARA Project, CAST) Explanation: Returning along its 6.4 year orbit, periodic comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) is caught in this telescopic frame from November 7. Sweeping past background stars in the constellation Gemini the comet’s dusty tail stretches towar...