Japan tests innovative magnetic tether for slowing space junk
Japan launches a cargo ship carrying a space junk collector designed to gather debris in space.
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I just saw the moon
- Thread starter TheMadDabber
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Bazinga
Well-Known Member
I once photographed a field of Tulips and used Lightroom to make the photo appear to be in black and white while leaving one tulip bright red. I got the idea from a photo of Michael Jordan in black and white except for the bottle of Gatorade he is holding. Inspired me to do produce something similar.
Digga
Well-Known Member
You still got this pic?
Yeah my edit was very basic since most of the background was black, i just adjusted the blackness level all the way down & that neatened it up.
Bakin4Life
Oink
I was today years old on FC when I found this thread. Holy crap. Shows how thread titles can be deceiving (on a 'drug site', lol)
Anywho... I've been lucky enough to see the two total eclipses in IL (since I live here), and the annular in NM a couple years ago this Oct. For the first of the three ('17 -?), I remember reading about it in 8th freaking grade and making plans THEN. And oh, do I have a story about it, for a later post. For now, just saying 'hi' to my fellow astro geeks.
PS: I saw an article the other day suggesting that our little off-axis galaxy, shoved in the corner, as it were, may be in an unusually large void in the larger universe, compared to the whole (based on measurement of expansion of farther-away objects, vs closer in). I'm butchering the explanation, but if anyone's especially interested, I can track down a link.
PPS: I live in an area with a lot of light pollution, so looking at others' contributions is about all I'll be doing here, along with an occasional 'ooh' or 'ahh' ( ... insert dirty double entendre of choice, here)
Anywho... I've been lucky enough to see the two total eclipses in IL (since I live here), and the annular in NM a couple years ago this Oct. For the first of the three ('17 -?), I remember reading about it in 8th freaking grade and making plans THEN. And oh, do I have a story about it, for a later post. For now, just saying 'hi' to my fellow astro geeks.
PS: I saw an article the other day suggesting that our little off-axis galaxy, shoved in the corner, as it were, may be in an unusually large void in the larger universe, compared to the whole (based on measurement of expansion of farther-away objects, vs closer in). I'm butchering the explanation, but if anyone's especially interested, I can track down a link.
PPS: I live in an area with a lot of light pollution, so looking at others' contributions is about all I'll be doing here, along with an occasional 'ooh' or 'ahh' ( ... insert dirty double entendre of choice, here)
CrazyDiamond
HAL is a StarChild
I saw tons of stars when I was just up in western North Carolina, very little light pollution as opposed to my normal residence in central Florida which has horrible light pollution, but I see Cape Canaveral launches being only 100 miles away.
CrazyDiamond
HAL is a StarChild
The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often given the names of flowers or insects, and its whopping 3 light-year wingspan, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the central star of the planetary nebula is transforming into a white dwarf star, becoming exceptionally hot, and shining brightly in ultraviolet light. The central star is hidden from direct view by a torus of dust, but its energetic ultraviolet light ionizes atoms in the nebula. In this sharp, telescopic view composed with narrowband image data, the ionized hydrogen and doubly ionized oxygen atoms are shown in their characteristic red and blue-green hues to reveal a stunning complex of knots and filaments within the nebula's wing-like bipolar outflows. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).
Had to do it, seeing Scorpius in the above writing made me think of one of my favorite all-time shows that got cut short prematurely...FARSCAPE...Scorpius or "Scorpy" as nicknamed by John Crichton.
Can you find the Rosette Nebula? The red flowery-looking nebula just above the image center may seem a good choice, but that's not it. The famous Rosette Nebula is really located on the lower right, here colored blue and white, and connected to the other nebulas by gold-colored filaments. Because the featured image of Rosette's field is so wide, and because of its deep red exposure, it seems to contain other flowers. Designated NGC 2237, the center of the Rosette Nebula is populated by the bright blue stars of open cluster NGC 2244, whose winds and energetic light are evacuating the nebula's center. The Rosette Nebula is about 5,000 light years distant and, just by itself, spans about three times the diameter of a full moon. This flowery field can be found toward the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros).
This interstellar skyscape spans over 4 degrees across crowded starfields toward the constellation Sagittarius and the central Milky Way. A First Look image captured at the new NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the bright nebulae and star clusters featured include famous stops on telescopic tours of the cosmos: Messier 8 and Messier 20. An expansive star-forming region over a hundred light-years across, Messier 8 is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. About 4,000 light-years away the Lagoon Nebula harbors a remarkable cluster of young, massive stars. Their intense radiation and stellar winds energize and agitate this cosmic lagoon's turbulent depths. Messier 20's popular moniker is the Trifid. Divided into three parts by dark interstellar dust lanes, the Trifid Nebula's glowing hydrogen gas creates its dominant red color. But contrasting blue hues in the colorful Trifid are due to dust reflected starlight. The Rubin Observatory visited the Trifid-Lagoon field to acquire all the image data during parts of four nights (May 1-4). At full resolution, Rubin's magnificent Sagittarius skyscape is 84,000 pixels wide and 51,500 pixels tall.
Face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 and open star cluster NGC 6939 share this cosmic snapshot, composed with over 68 hours of image data captured with a small telescope on planet Earth. The field of view spans spans about 1 degree or 2 full moons on the sky toward the northern constellation Cepheus. Seen through faint interstellar dust clouds near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the stars of open cluster NGC 6939 are 5,600 light-years in the distance, near bottom right in the frame. Face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 is at top left, but lies some 22 million light-years away. In the last 100 years, 10 supernovae have been discovered in NGC 6946, the latest one seen in 2017. By comparison, the average rate of supernovae in our Milky Way is about 1 every 100 years or so. Of course, NGC 6946 is also known as The Fireworks Galaxy.
Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet? The bland New General Catalog designation of NGC 2237 doesn't appear to diminish the appearance of this flowery emission nebula, as captured by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the NSF's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Inside the nebula lies an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244. These stars formed about four million years ago from the nebular material and their stellar winds are clearing a hole in the nebula's center, insulated by a layer of dust and hot gas. Ultraviolet light from the hot cluster stars causes the surrounding nebula to glow. The Rosette Nebula spans about 100 light-years across, lies about 5000 light-years away, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros).
Had to do it, seeing Scorpius in the above writing made me think of one of my favorite all-time shows that got cut short prematurely...FARSCAPE...Scorpius or "Scorpy" as nicknamed by John Crichton.
Can you find the Rosette Nebula? The red flowery-looking nebula just above the image center may seem a good choice, but that's not it. The famous Rosette Nebula is really located on the lower right, here colored blue and white, and connected to the other nebulas by gold-colored filaments. Because the featured image of Rosette's field is so wide, and because of its deep red exposure, it seems to contain other flowers. Designated NGC 2237, the center of the Rosette Nebula is populated by the bright blue stars of open cluster NGC 2244, whose winds and energetic light are evacuating the nebula's center. The Rosette Nebula is about 5,000 light years distant and, just by itself, spans about three times the diameter of a full moon. This flowery field can be found toward the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros).
This interstellar skyscape spans over 4 degrees across crowded starfields toward the constellation Sagittarius and the central Milky Way. A First Look image captured at the new NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the bright nebulae and star clusters featured include famous stops on telescopic tours of the cosmos: Messier 8 and Messier 20. An expansive star-forming region over a hundred light-years across, Messier 8 is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. About 4,000 light-years away the Lagoon Nebula harbors a remarkable cluster of young, massive stars. Their intense radiation and stellar winds energize and agitate this cosmic lagoon's turbulent depths. Messier 20's popular moniker is the Trifid. Divided into three parts by dark interstellar dust lanes, the Trifid Nebula's glowing hydrogen gas creates its dominant red color. But contrasting blue hues in the colorful Trifid are due to dust reflected starlight. The Rubin Observatory visited the Trifid-Lagoon field to acquire all the image data during parts of four nights (May 1-4). At full resolution, Rubin's magnificent Sagittarius skyscape is 84,000 pixels wide and 51,500 pixels tall.
Face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 and open star cluster NGC 6939 share this cosmic snapshot, composed with over 68 hours of image data captured with a small telescope on planet Earth. The field of view spans spans about 1 degree or 2 full moons on the sky toward the northern constellation Cepheus. Seen through faint interstellar dust clouds near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the stars of open cluster NGC 6939 are 5,600 light-years in the distance, near bottom right in the frame. Face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 is at top left, but lies some 22 million light-years away. In the last 100 years, 10 supernovae have been discovered in NGC 6946, the latest one seen in 2017. By comparison, the average rate of supernovae in our Milky Way is about 1 every 100 years or so. Of course, NGC 6946 is also known as The Fireworks Galaxy.
Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet? The bland New General Catalog designation of NGC 2237 doesn't appear to diminish the appearance of this flowery emission nebula, as captured by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the NSF's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Inside the nebula lies an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244. These stars formed about four million years ago from the nebular material and their stellar winds are clearing a hole in the nebula's center, insulated by a layer of dust and hot gas. Ultraviolet light from the hot cluster stars causes the surrounding nebula to glow. The Rosette Nebula spans about 100 light-years across, lies about 5000 light-years away, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros).
Bakin4Life
Oink
I hope that the next time we visit the Moon, that the spacesuits are at least as equally robust as what we see here, 55-ish years ago.
Still amazing that we managed to putthem people there, when I was five years old. And in less than 10 years. Seems unfathomable, today.
Still amazing that we managed to put
CrazyDiamond
HAL is a StarChild
The first four are the first images from the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory
Made from over 1100 images captured by NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, this image contains an immense variety of objects, demonstrating the broad range of science Rubin will transform with its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time. The image includes about 10 million galaxies, roughly .05% of the approximately 20 billion galaxies Rubin Observatory will capture over the next decade.
This image captures a small section of NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s view of the Virgo Cluster, revealing both the grand scale and the faint details of this dynamic region of the cosmos. Bright stars from our own Milky Way shine in the foreground, while a sea of distant reddish galaxies speckle the background.
This image captures a small section of NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s view of the Virgo Cluster, offering a vivid glimpse of the variety in the cosmos. Visible are two prominent spiral galaxies, three merging galaxies, galaxy groups both near and distant, stars within our own Milky Way, and much more.
This image combines 678 separate images taken by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in just over seven hours of observing time. Combining many images in this way clearly reveals otherwise faint or invisible details, such as the clouds of gas and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth.
The Bullet Cluster is made up of two very massive collections of galaxies, known as galaxy clusters, that are themselves bound by gravity. This cluster is found in the Carina constellation 3.8 billion light-years from Earth.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope captured the central region of the Bullet Cluster with its NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). The scene contains two massive galaxy clusters that sit on either side of the large, light blue spiral galaxy at the center. Webb’s extremely precise images revealed many more distant galaxies and faint objects, allowing a research team to refine the amount of mass in the two galaxy clusters.
This image spans roughly 6.3 million light-years across. It was created with Webb data captured on 20 January 2025 from proposal #4598 (PI: M. Bradac). Several filters were used to sample specific wavelength ranges.
The sixth object in Charles Messier's famous catalog of things which are not comets, Messier 6 is a galactic or open star cluster. A gathering of 100 stars or so, all around 100 million years young, M6 lies some 1,600 light-years away toward the central Milky Way in the constellation Scorpius. Also cataloged as NGC 6405, the pretty star cluster's outline suggests its popular moniker, the Butterfly Cluster. Surrounded by diffuse reddish emission from the region's hydrogen gas the cluster's mostly hot and therefore blue stars are near the center of this colorful cosmic snapshot. But the brightest cluster member is a cool K-type giant star. Designated BM Scorpii it shines with a yellow-orange hue, seen near the end of one of the butterfly's antennae. This telescopic field of view spans nearly 2 Full Moons on the sky. That's 25 light-years at the estimated distance of Messier 6.
To celebrate the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s third year of highly productive science, astronomers used the telescope to scratch beyond the surface of the Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334), a massive, local star-forming region. This area is of great interest to scientists, having been subject to previous study by NASA’s Hubble and retired Spitzer space telescopes, as they seek to understand the multiple steps required for a turbulent molecular cloud to transition to stars.
With its near-infrared capabilities and sharp resolution, the telescope “clawed” back a portion of a singular “toe bean,” revealing a subset of mini toe bean-reminiscent structures composed of gas, dust, and young stars.
Webb’s view reveals a chaotic scene still in development: Massive young stars are carving away at nearby gas and dust, while their bright starlight is producing a bright nebulous glow represented in blue. This is only a chapter in the region’s larger story. The disruptive young stars, with their relatively short lifespans and luminosity, will eventually quench the local star formation process.
The Cat’s Paw Nebula is located approximately 4,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.
Made from over 1100 images captured by NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, this image contains an immense variety of objects, demonstrating the broad range of science Rubin will transform with its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time. The image includes about 10 million galaxies, roughly .05% of the approximately 20 billion galaxies Rubin Observatory will capture over the next decade.
This image captures a small section of NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s view of the Virgo Cluster, revealing both the grand scale and the faint details of this dynamic region of the cosmos. Bright stars from our own Milky Way shine in the foreground, while a sea of distant reddish galaxies speckle the background.
This image captures a small section of NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s view of the Virgo Cluster, offering a vivid glimpse of the variety in the cosmos. Visible are two prominent spiral galaxies, three merging galaxies, galaxy groups both near and distant, stars within our own Milky Way, and much more.
This image combines 678 separate images taken by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in just over seven hours of observing time. Combining many images in this way clearly reveals otherwise faint or invisible details, such as the clouds of gas and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth.
The Bullet Cluster is made up of two very massive collections of galaxies, known as galaxy clusters, that are themselves bound by gravity. This cluster is found in the Carina constellation 3.8 billion light-years from Earth.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope captured the central region of the Bullet Cluster with its NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). The scene contains two massive galaxy clusters that sit on either side of the large, light blue spiral galaxy at the center. Webb’s extremely precise images revealed many more distant galaxies and faint objects, allowing a research team to refine the amount of mass in the two galaxy clusters.
This image spans roughly 6.3 million light-years across. It was created with Webb data captured on 20 January 2025 from proposal #4598 (PI: M. Bradac). Several filters were used to sample specific wavelength ranges.
The sixth object in Charles Messier's famous catalog of things which are not comets, Messier 6 is a galactic or open star cluster. A gathering of 100 stars or so, all around 100 million years young, M6 lies some 1,600 light-years away toward the central Milky Way in the constellation Scorpius. Also cataloged as NGC 6405, the pretty star cluster's outline suggests its popular moniker, the Butterfly Cluster. Surrounded by diffuse reddish emission from the region's hydrogen gas the cluster's mostly hot and therefore blue stars are near the center of this colorful cosmic snapshot. But the brightest cluster member is a cool K-type giant star. Designated BM Scorpii it shines with a yellow-orange hue, seen near the end of one of the butterfly's antennae. This telescopic field of view spans nearly 2 Full Moons on the sky. That's 25 light-years at the estimated distance of Messier 6.
To celebrate the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s third year of highly productive science, astronomers used the telescope to scratch beyond the surface of the Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334), a massive, local star-forming region. This area is of great interest to scientists, having been subject to previous study by NASA’s Hubble and retired Spitzer space telescopes, as they seek to understand the multiple steps required for a turbulent molecular cloud to transition to stars.
With its near-infrared capabilities and sharp resolution, the telescope “clawed” back a portion of a singular “toe bean,” revealing a subset of mini toe bean-reminiscent structures composed of gas, dust, and young stars.
Webb’s view reveals a chaotic scene still in development: Massive young stars are carving away at nearby gas and dust, while their bright starlight is producing a bright nebulous glow represented in blue. This is only a chapter in the region’s larger story. The disruptive young stars, with their relatively short lifespans and luminosity, will eventually quench the local star formation process.
The Cat’s Paw Nebula is located approximately 4,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.