Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[DennisN]

In Saturn's Shadow

With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the sun's blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world.

This marvelous panoramic view was created by combining a total of 165 images taken by the Cassini wide-angle camera over nearly three hours on Sept. 15, 2006. The full mosaic consists of three rows of nine wide-angle camera footprints; only a portion of the full mosaic is shown here. Color in the view was created by digitally compositing ultraviolet, infrared and clear filter images and was then adjusted to resemble natural color.

Source page: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/23/
An bigger picture is here.

 

[1oldman2]

good show Dennis, That ones a "keeper"
I find http://www.ciclops.org/index.php?js=1 to be very good for images.

 

[OmCheeto]

...
Source page: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/23/
An bigger picture is here.

Ha ha!
I became obsessed with that image about 5 years ago: Old news as new news. Saturn 5 years ago.. PF, Sept 6, 2011

I think everyone thought I was hallucinating, as looking back, no one seemed to have a problem with the image, except for me.
It took me almost a week to figure out why things didn't make sense, when you look really closely at the dark side of Saturn.

 

[DennisN]

Night Lights 2012 - The Black Marble

This new global view and animation of Earth’s city lights is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite. The data was acquired over nine days in April 2012 and thirteen days in October 2012. It took satellite 312 orbits and 2.5 terabytes of data to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth’s land surface and islands. This new data was then mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery to provide a realistic view of the planet.

Source page with images and nice animations here:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=79803

 

[rollete]

Center of the Milky Way seen through IR and X-ray light. Somewhere in that bright spot on the lower right a supermassive black hole is thought to exist.

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12348

 

[1oldman2]

 

[1oldman2]

Source page with images and nice animations here:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=79803

Google Earth has a cool KLM layer of that.

 

[1oldman2]

My local universe as seen from the ISS (zoomed)

 

[DennisN]

Orange Sun Simmering
Credit & Copyright: Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination)
Explanation: Even a quiet Sun can be a busy place.

Source page: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100609.html

 

[DennisN]

And a repost from the New Horizons flyby of Pluto thread... two of my favorite photos of Pluto:

1) Pluto's Majestic Mountains, Frozen Plains and Foggy Hazes
2) Closer Look: Majestic Mountains and Frozen Plains

From the page: Pluto ‘Wows’ in Spectacular New Backlit Panorama

 

[1oldman2]

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/f...bnails/image/jsc2016e096370.jpg?itok=iBJbSh5Z

Also, http://www.space.com/33931-ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse-captured-from-reunion-island-video.html

 

[DennisN]

Northern Equinox Eclipse
Source page: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150321.html

 

[1oldman2]

Northern Equinox Eclipse
Source page: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150321.html

That shot is so sweet!

 

[1oldman2]

From, http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160909.html

 

[1oldman2]

 

[Andy Resnick]

Veil nebula, near Cygnus:

This is, by far, the most difficult object I have ever imaged, and I'm very happy with the result. Had a great moon-free 3-day weekend to acquire this: 6.5 hours through a 5.5" f/2.8 refractor, a total of 2000 images. DSS took 8 hours to register and 18 hours to stack, at the end compressing 150 GB down to 100 MB. A couple 100% crops:

 

[Redbelly98]

BBC has posted some pretty awesome astronomy photos:
http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-37337537

 

[DennisN]

BBC has posted some pretty awesome astronomy photos:
http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-37337537

Thanks, those photos were really cool!

 

[DennisN]

"This spectacular NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope picture shows NGC 1872, a rich cluster of thousands of stars lying in our small neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud."
Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1013a/
A larger image is here.

 

[DennisN]

"Five moons -- dominated by Rhea in the foreground -- share this Cassini spacecraft view with Saturn's rings seen nearly edge-on."
Source: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/5310/
A larger image is here.

 

[DennisN]

NGC 634: A Perfect Spiral with an Explosive Secret
"The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is renowned for its breathtaking images and this snapshot of NGC 634 is definitely that — the fine detail and exceptionally perfect spiral structure of the galaxy make it hard to believe that this is a real observation and not an artist’s impression or a screenshot taken straight from Star Wars."
Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1122a/
A larger image is here.

 

[DennisN]

"Deep within the Milky Way lies the ancient globular cluster Terzan 5. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the cluster in wonderful detail, but it is the chaotic motions of its stars that make it particularly interesting to astronomers."
Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1121a/
A larger image is here.

 

[DennisN]

Warning: This post links to a site that may keep you occupied for longer than you had intended . Prepare some coffee...

Hubble Space Telescope/ESA Site - Top 100 Images (and more)
Link to Top 100 Images: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/top100/
Home page: http://www.spacetelescope.org/

Example:
5. The Bubble Nebula

 

[DennisN]

A nice shot from earlier this month:
"Hubble Peers into the Storm
This shot from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a maelstrom of glowing gas and dark dust within one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)."

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/hubble-peers-into-the-storm
A larger image is here.

 

[DennisN]

Teasers about the upcoming Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST);
----------------------------------------------------------
Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST)
WFIRST Site: http://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov/

WFIRST: The Best of Both Worlds


WFIRST: Uncovering the Mysteries of the Universe

----------------------------------------------------------
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
JWST Site: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

Image: The golden mirror of JWST.

James Webb Space Telescope Deployment In Detail

Seeing Beyond - The James Webb Space Telescope

 

[puneeth8]

Is the moon orbiting the Sun?
http://mycuriositysite.com/does-the-moon-orbits-the-sun/

 

[DennisN]

Alpha Centauri A and B
"The closest star system to the Earth is the famous Alpha Centauri group. Located in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur), at a distance of 4.3 light-years, this system is made up of the binary formed by the stars Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, plus the faint red dwarf Alpha Centauri C, also known as Proxima Centauri."
Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1635a/
A larger image is here.

 

[DennisN]

(An addition to my previous post #173)

The Hubble/ESA site also has a special weekly feature called "Picture of the Week", here is the link:
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw/ (currently 335 images)[PLAIN]http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw/[/PLAIN]

 

[1oldman2]

Oh man! you have no idea how much I miss visiting this site, long story but "I shall return".
in the mean time here is an APOD worth pondering.

 

[DennisN]

An oldie but goldie...
"Color mosaic of Olympus Mons volcano on Mars from the Viking 1 Orbiter. The mosaic was created using images from orbit 735 taken 22 June 1978. Olympus Mons is about 600 km in diameter and the summit caldera is 24 km above the surrounding plains. The complex aureole terrain is visible at the top of the frame. North is up."
Source: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA02982
A larger image is here.

 

[1oldman2]

From, http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161011.html

 

[1oldman2]

Lots of "Eyeball candy" here.
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/main

This 4K stuff really pushes my video to the limit but it's so awesome I play it anyway.
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/ultra_hd/0171304Whip_best.mp4
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/ultra_hd/01715flares_171_sm.mp4

 

[DennisN]

"The Mice (NGC 4676): Colliding Galaxies With Tails of Stars and Gas
[...]
The Mice presage what may happen to our own Milky Way several billion years from now when it collides with our nearest large neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).
This picture is assembled from three sets of images taken on April 7, 2002, in blue, orange, and near-infrared filters.
Object Names: NGC 4676, The Mice
"
Source: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2002/11/image/d/

 

[DennisN]

...and a link to HubbleSite which has a lot of images of many different categories...

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/

e.g.
"Supernova 1994D in Galaxy NGC 4526"
Source: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/star/pr1999019i/

 

[1oldman2]

"The Mice (NGC 4676): Colliding Galaxies With Tails of Stars and Gas
[...]
The Mice presage what may happen to our own Milky Way several billion years from now when it collides with our nearest large neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).
This picture is assembled from three sets of images taken on April 7, 2002, in blue, orange, and near-infrared filters.
Object Names: NGC 4676, The Mice
"
Source: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2002/11/image/d/

I love the collision simulation videos, this is probably my favorite.

This is a good one of the Andromeda vs. Milky way mash up.


Weird how I posted the first video like it was a part of your message I was replying to.

 

[davenn]

Weird how I posted the first video like it was a part of your message I was replying to.

you just didn't quite get your quotes in the right place

 

[1oldman2]

you just didn't quite get your quotes in the right place

You would think I'd quit doing that by now.

 

[davenn]

You would think I'd quit doing that by now.

probably those "senior moments" kicking in ... I have them all the time

 

[1oldman2]

I have them all the time

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161017.html

 

[1oldman2]

The Red Spider Nebula, located some 3,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius.
From, http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html

 

[1oldman2]

From, http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161019.html
Pleiades star cluster

 

[DennisN]

Ok, today I have a very special one for us...

GN-z11, the (currently) most distant and oldest object we have seen:

This surprisingly bright infant galaxy, named GN-z11, is seen as it was 13.4 billion years in the past, just 400 million years after the Big Bang. GN-z11 is located in the direction of the constellation of Ursa Major.
[...]
Before astronomers determined the distance for GN-z11, the most distant galaxy measured spectroscopically had a redshift of 8.68 (13.2 billion years in the past). Now, the team has confirmed GN-z11 to be at a redshift of 11.1, nearly 200 million years closer to the Big Bang.
[...]
The combination of Hubble’s and Spitzer’s imaging reveals that GN-z11 is 25 times smaller than the Milky Way and has just one percent of our galaxy’s mass in stars. However, the newborn GN-z11 is growing fast, forming stars at a rate about 20 times greater than our galaxy does today. This makes an extremely remote galaxy bright enough for astronomers to find and perform detailed observations with both Hubble and Spitzer.

Source:
Hubble Team Breaks Cosmic Distance Record (March[/PLAIN] 3, 2016)
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/hubble-team-breaks-cosmic-distance-record[/URL]

Two more sources:

• http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/07/image/a/
  
• [URL]http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1604a/

GN-z11 video clip:


An old video clip describing the most distant galaxy at that time (2010), UDFy-38135539, not GN-z11:

 

[1oldman2]

Great post. I can't wait for JWST to come on line, it will be interesting to see how far the next generation telescopes can push the limits beyond what the current systems are doing.

 

[DennisN]

Great post. I can't wait for JWST to come on line, it will be interesting to see how far the next generation telescopes can push the limits beyond what the current systems are doing.

Thanks, and I agree with you completely!

 

[1oldman2]

Speaking of JWST,

And a very cool video as a bonus.

 

[1oldman2]

From, http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/measuring-a-day

 

[1oldman2]

And now a few shots of one of my favorites.

 

[OmCheeto]

And now a few shots of one of my favorites.
...

One of my favorites also. I downloaded a 6000 x 2906 pixel image quite some time ago.

Coincidentally, about the same time you posted those images, I was watching a video about Eta Carinae.
Fun, fascinating, and informative:

The Amazing Eta Carinae - Sixty Symbols
​

 

[1oldman2]

 

[1oldman2]