Posts Tagged ‘NASA’
Astronomy Photo of the Day
Visit the NASA/JPL website to view more Astronomy Pictures of the Day NanoSail-D Illustration Credit: courtesy NASA Explanation: Featured in this artist's illustration, NASA's NanoSail-D finally unfurled a very thin, 10 square meter reflective sail on January 20th, becoming the first solar sail spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Often considered the stuff of science fiction, sailing through space was suggested 400 years ago by astronomer Johannes Kepler who observed ... Full Story
Astronomy Photo of the Day
The Whirlpool Galaxy in Infrared Dust Credit: Infrared: NASA, ESA, M. Regan & B. Whitmore (STScI), & R. Chandar (U. Toledo); Explanation: How do spiral galaxies form stars? To help find out, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the nearby photogenic spiral M51 in infrared light to highlight the dust that traces the dense gas that best forms stars. To further isolate the dust, much of the optical light from stars has also been digitally removed. The ... Full Story
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660 Image Credit & Copyright: Stephen Leshin Explanation: NGC 660 lies near the center of this intriguing skyscape, swimming in the boundaries of the constellation Pisces. Over 20 million light-years away, its peculiar appearance marks it as a polar ring galaxy. A rare galaxy type, polar ring galaxies have a substantial population of stars, gas, and dust orbiting in rings nearly perpendicular to the plane of the galactic disk. The bizarre ... Full Story
