保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2021年9月28日 Night of the Perseids Video Credit & Copyright: Vikas Chander & Dorje Angchuk; Music: Tea Time via PremiumBeat Explanation: Have you ever experienced a meteor shower? To help capture the wonder, a video was taken during the peak of the recent Perseid meteor shower above the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle, India, high up in the ...
2021年9月27日 Unwrapped: Five Decade Old Lunar Selfie Image Credit: NASA, Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong; Processing: Michael Ranger Explanation: Here is one of the most famous pictures from the Moon — but digitally reversed. Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969 and soon thereafter many pictures were taken, including an iconic picture of Buzz Aldrin taken by N...
2021年9月26日 The Red Square Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Tuthill (Sydney U.) & James Lloyd (Cornell U.) Explanation: How did a round star create this square nebula? No one is quite sure. The round star, known as MWC 922 and possibly part of a multiple star system, appears at the center of the Red Square Nebula. The featured image combines i...
2021年9月25日 The Bubble and the Star Cluster Image Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes Explanation: To the eye, this cosmic composition nicely balances the Bubble Nebula at the right with open star cluster M52. The pair would be lopsided on other scales, though. Embedded in a complex of interstellar dust and gas and blown by the winds from a single, massive...
2021年9月24日 Perseid Outburst at Westmeath Lookout Image Credit & Copyright: Pierre Martin Explanation: This year an outburst of Perseid meteors surprised skywatchers. The reliable meteor shower’s peak was predicted for the night of August 12/13. But persistent visual observers in North America were deluged with a startling Perseid shower outburst a...
2021年9月23日 Harvest Moon Trail Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Cohea Explanation: Famed in festival, story, and song the best known full moon is the Harvest Moon. For northern hemisphere dwellers that’s a traditional name of the full moon nearest the September equinox. Seen from Saunderstown, Rhode Island, planet Earth, this Harvest Moon left a broa...
2021年9月22日 Equinox on a Spinning Earth Image Credit: Meteosat 9, NASA, earthobservatory, Robert Simmon Explanation: When does the line between night and day become vertical? Today. Today is an equinox on planet Earth, a time of year when day and night are most nearly equal. At an equinox, the Earth’s terminator — the dividing line between day and...
2021年9月21日 Sun Spot Hill Image Credit & Copyright: Jordi Coy Explanation: Is this giant orange ball about to roll down that tree-lined hill? No, because the giant orange ball is actually the Sun. Our Solar System’s central star was captured rising beyond a hill on Earth twelve days ago complete with a delightfully detailed foreground. The Sun̵...
2021年9月20日 Lynds Dark Nebula 1251 Image Credit & Copyright: Cristiano Gualco Explanation: Stars are forming in Lynds Dark Nebula (LDN) 1251. About 1,000 light-years away and drifting above the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the dusty molecular cloud is part of a complex of dark nebulae mapped toward the Cepheus flare region. Across the spectrum, astrono...
2021年9月19日 Rings and Seasons of Saturn Image Credit & Copyright: Damian Peach/SEN Explanation: On Saturn, the rings tell you the season. On Earth, Wednesday marks an equinox, the time when the Earth’s equator tilts directly toward the Sun. Since Saturn’s grand rings orbit along the planet’s equator, these rings appear most prominent &#...