Universe

spacettf:

NGC3628-M66 COLORE FINITA by Giuseppe Petralia on Flickr.

astronemma:

The Egg Nebula

Image credit: NASA, W. Sparks (STScI) and R. Sahai (JPL)

spacettf:

Messier 109 
Image Credit & Copyright: Bob Franke

Explanation: Beautiful barred spiral galaxy M109, 109th entry in Charles Messier’s famous catalog of bright Nebulae and Star Clusters, is found just below the Big Dipper’s bowl in the northern constellation Ursa Major. In telescopic views, its striking central bar gives the galaxy the appearance of the Greek letter “theta”, θ, a common mathematical symbol representing an angle. Of course M109 spans a very small angle in planet Earth’s sky, about 7 arcminutes or 0.12 degrees. But that small angle corresponds to an enormous 120,000 light-year diameter at the galaxy’s estimated 60 million light-year distance. The brightest member of the now recognized Ursa Major galaxy cluster, M109 (aka NGC 3992) is joined by three spiky foreground stars strung out across this frame. The three small, fuzzy bluish galaxies also on the scene, identified left to right as UGC 6969, UGC 6940 and UGC 6923, are possibly satellite galaxies of the larger M109.

(via astronemma)

scienceisbeauty:

Vaccine infographic.

Credit: Leon Farrant

Source: How Vaccines Have Changed Our World In One Graphic, Forbes.

spacettf:

C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) with Apo-Elmarit-R 180mmF2.8 May 21 2013UTC by hirocun on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Our globe will pass the orbit plane of the comet on May 27, 2013, and the dust tail looked sharper and longer recently than before, though the location got far away outside of the orbit radius of Mars.

spacettf:

Rosette Nebula - 9 Mar 13 by Astro Steve on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I wanted to get more time on the Rosette Nebula but I never did take more lights. The Rosette Nebula is also known as Caldwell 49 and surrounds the open cluster NGC 2244 (Caldwell 50)

Image Taken: 9 Mar 13
Object: Rosette Nebula (Caldwell 49), NGC 2244 (Caldwell 50) in Monoceros
Mount: AP Mach 1
Imaging scope: Equinox 80ED Imaging FL: 500mm

spacettf:

M13 the long and short of it by Terry Hancock www.downunderobservatory.com on Flickr.

spacettf:

Messier 109 
Image Credit & Copyright: Bob Franke

Explanation: Beautiful barred spiral galaxy M109, 109th entry in Charles Messier’s famous catalog of bright Nebulae and Star Clusters, is found just below the Big Dipper’s bowl in the northern constellation Ursa Major. In telescopic views, its striking central bar gives the galaxy the appearance of the Greek letter “theta”, θ, a common mathematical symbol representing an angle. Of course M109 spans a very small angle in planet Earth’s sky, about 7 arcminutes or 0.12 degrees. But that small angle corresponds to an enormous 120,000 light-year diameter at the galaxy’s estimated 60 million light-year distance. The brightest member of the now recognized Ursa Major galaxy cluster, M109 (aka NGC 3992) is joined by three spiky foreground stars strung out across this frame. The three small, fuzzy bluish galaxies also on the scene, identified left to right as UGC 6969, UGC 6940 and UGC 6923, are possibly satellite galaxies of the larger M109.

Nasa Apod 23 May 2013

spaceplasma:

Hubble reveals the Ring Nebula’s true shape

In this composite image, visible-light observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are combined with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble a dramatic view of the well-known Ring Nebula.

The Ring Nebula’s distinctive shape makes it a popular illustration for astronomy books. But new observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of the glowing gas shroud around an old, dying, sun-like star reveal a new twist.

Full Article

Credit: NASA, ESA, C.R. Robert O’Dell (Vanderbilt University), G.J. Ferland (University of Kentucky), W.J. Henney and M. Peimbert (National Autonomous University of Mexico)

(via astrotastic)

astrodidact:

Planck Time

What is the smallest unit of time you can conceive? A second? A millisecond? Hard to say seeing as how time is relative. Under the right circumstances, hours can fly by and seconds can feel like a lifetime. But unfortunately for physicists, time is not something that can be delt with so philosophically. And since they deal with cosmological forces both infinitesimally large and small, they need units that can objectively measure them. When it comes to dealing with the small, Planck Time is the measurement of choice. Named after German physicist Max Planck, the founder of quantum theory, a unit of Planck time is the time it takes for light to travel, in a vacuum, a single unit of Planck length. Taken together, they part of the larger system of natural units known as Planck units.

Originally proposed in 1899 by German physicist Max Planck, Planck units are physical units of measurement defined exclusively in terms of five universal physical constants. These are the Gravitational constant (G), the Reduced Planck constant (h), the speed of light in a vacuum (c), the Coulomb constant(ke or k), and Boltzmann’s constant (kB, sometimes k). Each of these constants can be associated with at least one fundamental physical theory: c with special relativity, G with general relativity and Newtonian gravity, with quantum mechanics, with electrostatics, and kB with statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. They were invented as a means of simplifying the particular algebraic expressions appearing in theoretical physics, especially in quantum mechanics.

Ultimately, Planck time is derived from the field of mathematical physics known as dimensional analysis, which studies units of measurement and physical constants. The Planck time is the unique combination of the gravitational constant G, the relativity constant c, and the quantum constant h, to produce a constant with units of time. They are often semi-humorously referred to by physicists as “God’s units” because eliminate anthropocentric arbitrariness from the system of units, unlike the meter and second, which exist for purely historical reasons and are not derived from nature. Some challenges to Planck’s Time have been mounted. For example, in 2003 during the analysis of the Hubble Space Telescope Deep Field images, some scientists speculated that where there are space-time fluctuations on the Planck scale, images of extremely distant objects should be blurry. The Hubble images, they claimed, were too sharp for this to be the case. Other scientists disagreed with this assumption however, with some saying the fluctuations would be too small to be observable, others saying that the speculated blurring effect that was expected was off by a very large magnitude. A unit of Planck Time can be expressed (in the third picture).

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/79418/planck-time/#ixzz2U4Nz4Ov1

(via paranoia-strikes-deep)

spacettf:

Three Gossips Night by Scott Ackerman Photography on Flickr.

astronemma:

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Celebrates 15 Years of Success

With this new view of a spectacular stellar nursery ESO is celebrating 15 years of the Very Large Telescope — the world’s most advanced optical instrument. This picture reveals thick clumps of dust silhouetted against the pink glowing gas cloud known to astronomers as IC 2944. These opaque blobs resemble drops of ink floating in a strawberry cocktail, their whimsical shapes sculpted by powerful radiation coming from the nearby brilliant young stars.

Read more: [x]

(via astronomnomy)

astronomynerd:

M42COLORI2000 by Giuseppe Petralia on Flickr.

atomstargazer:

 APOD | 2013 May 22 |Red Sprite Lightning with Aurora
Image Credit & Copyright: Walter Lyons (FMA Research), WeatherVideoHD.TV

Explanation: What’s that in the sky? It is a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 25 years ago: a red sprite. Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light and are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The above image, taken a few days ago above central South Dakota, USA, captured a bright red sprite, and is a candidate for the first color image ever recorded of a sprite and aurora together. Distant storm clouds cross the bottom of the image, while streaks of colorful aurora are visible in the background. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.

(via astronemma)