保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2021年10月13日 NGC 7822: Cosmic Question Mark Image Credit & Copyright: Yizhou Zhang Explanation: It may look like a huge cosmic question mark, but the big question really is how does the bright gas and dark dust tell this nebula’s history of star formation. At the edge of a giant molecular cloud toward the northern constellation Cepheus, the glowing...
2021年10月12日 Fireball over Lake Louise Image Credit & Copyright: Hao Qin Explanation: What makes a meteor a fireball? First of all, everyone agrees that a fireball is an exceptionally bright meteor. Past that, the International Astronomical Union defines a fireball as a meteor brighter than apparent magnitude -4, which corresponds (roughly) to being brig...
2021年10月11日 Juno Flyby of Ganymede and Jupiter Video Credit: Images: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SWRI, MSSS; Animation: Koji Kuramura, Gerald Eichstädt, Mike Stetson; Music: Vangelis Explanation: What would it be like to fly over the largest moon in the Solar System? In June, the robotic Juno spacecraft flew past Jupiter’s huge moon Ganymede and took images tha...
2021年10月10日 Full Moon Silhouettes Video Credit & Copyright: Mark Gee; Music: Tenderness (Dan Phillipson) Explanation: Have you ever watched the Moon rise? The slow rise of a nearly full moon over a clear horizon can be an impressive sight. One impressive moonrise was imaged in early 2013 over Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, New Zealand. With detai...
2021年10月9日 50 Light-years to 51 Pegasi Image Credit & Copyright: Josselin Desmars Explanation: It’s only 50 light-years to 51 Pegasi. That star’s position is indicated in this snapshot from August, taken on a hazy night with mostly brighter stars visible above the dome at Observatoire de Haute-Provence in France. Twenty-six years ago, in Oct...
2021年10月8日 The Double Cluster in Perseus Image Credit & Copyright: Jack Groves Explanation: This pretty starfield spans about three full moons (1.5 degrees) across the heroic northern constellation of Perseus. It holds the famous pair of open star clusters, h and Chi Persei. Also cataloged as NGC 869 (top) and NGC 884, both clusters are about 7,000 ligh...
2021年10月7日 NGC 6559: East of the Lagoon Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Sartori Explanation: Slide your telescope just east of the Lagoon Nebula to find this alluring field of view in the rich starfields of the constellation Sagittarius toward the central Milky Way. Of course the Lagoon nebula is also known as M8, the eighth object listed in Charles M...
2021年10月6日 M43: Streams of Orion Image Credit & Copyright: Jari Saukkonen Explanation: Where do the dark streams of dust in the Orion Nebula originate? This part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, M43, is the often imaged but rarely mentioned neighbor of the more famous M42. M42, seen in part to the upper right, includes many bright stars from the Tr...
2021年10月5日 Sunrise at the South Pole Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Wolf (U. Wisconsin), IceCube Neutrino Obs., NSF; ht: Alice Allen Explanation: Sunrise at the South Pole is different. Usually a welcome sight, it follows months of darkness — and begins months of sunshine. At Earth’s poles, it can take weeks for the Sun to rise, in contras...
2021年10月4日 NGC 4676: When Mice Collide Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: William Ostling (The Astronomy Enthusiast) Explanation: These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as the “Mice” because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other. The long tails a...