UniverseShots

spaceporn:

The Flame Nebula

Also known as NGC 2024, the nebula’s suggestive reddish color is due to the glow of hydrogen atoms at the edge of the giant Orion molecular cloud complex some 1,500 light-years away. The hydrogen atoms have been ionized, or stripped of their electrons, and glow as the atoms and electrons recombine.

[Source]

sweetchildintime:

fakefurcoat:

youcouldntaffordme:

raise-high-the-roofbeam:

fuckyeahtrippyfuck:

Astronomers using the twin 10-meter telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii have explored one of the most compact dust disks ever resolved around another star. If placed in our own solar system, the disk would span about four times Earth’s distance from the sun, reaching nearly to this artist’s rendition of 51 Ophiuchi’s inner and outer dust disks illustrates the size difference of their constituent grains. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC)

suneoke:

d-d-d:

Image Display

“The U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane prototype, called the Orbital Test Vehicle 1, is primed for its debut launch into space in April 2010.”

今日打ち上げられた、次世代再利用型スペースプレーン、X-37B。
シャトルを中止にしても、こういうのが用意されてるところがすごいな。

(via tatsukii)

yinyangity:

oceanofmind:

cosmicpower:fuckyeahspace:spaceandstuffidk:starsystems:

First Picture of the Earth and Moon in a Single Frame

This picture of the Earth and Moon in a single frame, the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft, was recorded September 18, 1977

via grin.hq.nasa.gov

CRIRES model-based computer-generated impression of the Plutonian surface by ESO—L. Calçada, with atmospheric haze, and Charon and the Sun in the sky.

via (mynners)

crookedindifference:

Space Shuttle Atlantis rides piggyback on the Boeing 747 (aircraft ID of NASA911) on departure from Columbus Air Force Base (Mississippi) on its last leg on the return flight from Edwards Air Force Base (California) to Kennedy Space Center (Florida). (via)

Just as Earth experiences earthquakes, the Sun also experiences solar quakes. These occur during a solar flare, where vast amounts of energy - the equivalent of millions of nuclear bombs - shoot out from the sun’s surface. A lot of energy is ejected out of the sun but some of it is forced back down inside it. These particles shoot down inside the sun and can sometimes cause solar quakes.

The above image are stills from actual footage of one of these quakes happening in 1988. The waves visible were over 2 miles high, traveling at a max. of 250,000 mph. The quake would have measured over 11 on the Richter scale. Remember, the Richter scale is logarithmic, which means the power is actually millions of times greater than anything ever recorded on earth.

Space shuttle Endeavour’s second last flight before it’s planned decommissioning later this year. Endeavour first flew in May 1992 giving 18 years of service. It is one of three orbiters currently in operation.

thecosmos:

Millions of Stars in Omega Centauri