Friday, January 27, 2012

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects such as stars, planets, comets, nebulae, star clusters and galaxies. It also looks at phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere.

Opportunity Rover Spots Greeley Haven on Mars

by Father Sky on January 26, 2012

Opportunity Rover Spots Greeley Haven on Mars </b>

Where on Mars should you spend the winter?

As winter approached in the southern hemisphere of Mars last November, the
Opportunity rover had just this problem -- it needed a place to go.

The reduced amount of sunlight impacting
Opportunity's solar panels combined with the extra power needed to keep equipment warm could drain Opportunity's batteries.

Therefore
Opportunity
was instructed to climb onto the 15 degree incline of Greeley's Haven, shown as the
rocky slope ahead.

The incline increased power input as Opportunity's solar panels now have
greater exposure to sunlight, while also giving the rolling robot some interesting landscape to explore.

Visible in the distance, beyond Greeley Haven, lies expansive
Endeavour Crater, the ancient impact basin that Opportunity will continue exploring as the
Martian winter concludes in a few months, if it survives.

Read the full story:
Opportunity Rover Spots Greeley Haven on Mars

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January Aurora Over Norway

by Father Sky

What's that in the sky? An aurora. A large coronal mass ejection occurred on our Sun five days ago, throwing a cloud of fast moving electrons, protons, and ions toward the Earth. Although most of this cloud passed above the Earth, some of it impacted our Earth's magnetosphere and resulted in spectacular auroras being seen [...]

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Deep Orion Over the Canary Islands

by Father Sky

Which attracts your eye more -- the sky or the ground? On the ground are rocky peaks in Teide National Park on Tenerife Island of the Spanish Canary Islands off the northwestern coast of Africa. The volcanic landscape features old island summits and is sometimes used as a testbed for instruments on future Martian rovers. [...]

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Saturn's Hexagon Comes to Light

by Father Sky

Believe it or not, this is the North Pole of Saturn. It is unclear how an unusual hexagonal cloud system that surrounds Saturn's north pole was created, keeps its shape, or how long it will last. Originally discovered during the Voyager flybys of Saturn in the 1980s, nobody has ever seen anything like it elsewhere [...]

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Days in the Sun

by Father Sky

From solstice to solstice, this six month long exposure compresses time from the 21st of June till the 21st of December, 2011, into a single point of view. Dubbed a solargraph, the unconventional picture was recorded with a pinhole camera made from a drink can lined with a piece of photographic paper. Fixed to a [...]

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The Hunter's Stars

by Father Sky

Begirt with many a blazing star, Orion, the Hunter, is one of the most easily recognizable constellations. In this night skyscape from January 15, the hunter's stars rise in the northern hemisphere's winter sky, framed by bare trees and bounded below by terrestrial lights around Lough Eske (Lake of Fish) in County Donegal, Ireland. Red [...]

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CygnusX the Inner Workings of a Nearby Star Factory

by Father Sky

How do stars form? To help study this complex issue, astronomers took a deep infrared image of Cygnus X, the largest known star forming region in the entire Milky Way Galaxy. The above recently-released image was taken in 2009 by the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope and digitally translated into colors humans can see, with the [...]

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IC 2118 the Witch Head Nebula

by Father Sky

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble -- maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. This suggestively shaped reflection nebula is associated with the bright star Rigel in the constellation Orion. More formally known as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula glows primarily by light reflected from bright star Rigel, [...]

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Zodiacal Light and the False Dawn

by Father Sky

Is it dawn or false dawn? During certain times of the year, the horizon near the rising Sun will begin to glow unusually early. This early glow does not originate directly from the Sun, but rather from sunlight reflected by interplanetary dust. Called zodiacal light, the glowing triangle of light may be mistaken, for a [...]

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