Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)

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Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660



Source: APOD, 2017 February 23

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NGC 3621: Far Beyond the Local Group



Source: APOD, 2017 February 24

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Four Quasar Images Surround a Galaxy Lens

Explanation: An odd thing about the group of lights near the center is that four of them are the same distant quasar. This is because the foreground galaxy -- in the center of the quasar images and the featured image -- is acting like a choppy gravitational lens. A perhaps even odder thing is that by watching these background quasars flicker, you can estimate the expansion rate of the universe. That is because the flicker timing increases as the expansion rate increases. But to some astronomers, the oddest thing of all is that these multiply imaged quasars indicate a universe that is expanding a bit faster than has been estimated by different methods that apply to the early universe. And that is because ... well, no one is sure why. Reasons might include an unexpected distribution of dark matter, some unexpected effect of gravity, or something completely different. Perhaps future observations and analyses of this and similarly lensed quasar images will remove these oddities.

Source: APOD, 2017 February 27

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Images of the Sun From the GOES-16 Satellite



Source: NASA Image of the Day, 2017 February 27

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Hubble Showcases a Remarkable Galactic Hybrid

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image showcases the remarkable galaxy UGC 12591. UGC 12591 sits somewhere between a lenticular and a spiral. It lies just under 400 million light-years away from us in the westernmost region of the Pisces–Perseus Supercluster, a long chain of galaxy clusters that stretches out for hundreds of light-years — one of the largest known structures in the cosmos.

The galaxy itself is also extraordinary: it is incredibly massive. The galaxy and its halo together contain several hundred billion times the mass of the sun; four times the mass of the Milky Way. It also whirls round extremely quickly, rotating at speeds of up to 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) per hour.

Observations with Hubble are helping astronomers to understand the mass of UGC 1259, and to determine whether the galaxy simply formed and grew slowly over time, or whether it might have grown unusually massive by colliding and merging with another large galaxy at some point in its past.

Source: NASA Image of the Day, 2017 March 03

[Dekalb_Blues]

~


















http://rense.com/general48/aliens.htm
http://firstcontact29.blogspot.com/2009/...nt_22.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWzqFKF5CIA
http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/de...oductions/
http://www.livescience.com/19360-humans-...liens.html
http://www.blastr.com/2013-2-4/economist...t-be-ready
http://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/6421...s-for-help
[The alien's name is Mogay... hmmm... perhaps some terrestrial is mischievously engaged in mo' better jokin' 'round?]



And that inverted bowl we call The Sky, where under crawling cooped we live and die,
Lift not thy hands to It for help -- for it rolls impotently on as thou or I.
― (modern mistranslation misattributed to Omar Khayyam)


O lovers, lovers [of Truth] -- it is time to set out from the world.
I hear a drum in my soul's ear coming from the depths of the stars.
Our camel driver is at work; the caravan is being readied.
He asks that we forgive him for the disturbance he has caused us;
He asks why we travelers are asleep.
Everywhere the murmur of departure;
The stars, like candles, thrust at us from behind the blue veils of this inverted bowl of the sky,
From which, and as if to make the invisible Mysteries plain, a wondrous people have come forth.
--- Jalaluddin Rumi

http://tfclardy.blogspot.com/2015/12/the...ebula.html  Somehow familiar solar system, coming right up!

  (O_o) ?!
[from https://thefourthangelsbowl.wordpress.co...#more-8419]

Meanwhile, here on an ever-more-sociologically-schismed-&-sub-schismed, ever-more-polarizing Earth: Sample verbiage from the website of a contemporary human racist cult, exhibiting negative-themed mean-spirited misuse of millennia-old Eyptian memes involving Aten-Ra, the Sun God:
"The Divine Racial Karma Killing of Racist Kansas City Police Regime Terrorist Capt. Robert Melton! 'f*** Melton. We are happy he is dead & no longer has any opportunity to racially profile or racially terrorized our people. Brothers Jamaal Lewis & DaQon Sipple are heroes whose sacrifice will never be forgotten.' -- Kansas City Black Foot Soldier William Hugh".
On my computer screen literally within an inch of that calm, cool, and collected statement is the blogger Foot Soldier's disclaimer:
"The Black Foot Soldiers Does Not Advocate Black On White Violence Or Hatred". . .

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New View of the Crab Nebula



Source: NASA Image of the Day, 2017 May 13

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Lightning Eclipse from the Planet of the Goats



Source: APOD, 2017 July 16

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July 14 Solar Flare and a Coronal Mass Ejection



Source: NASA Image of the Day, 2017 July 19

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A Hybrid Solar Eclipse over Kenya



Source: APOD, 2017 July 24

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Watching the Aurora From Orbit



Source: NASA Image of the Day, 2017 July 25

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The Milky Way over Monument Valley



Source: APOD, 2017 July 26

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A Sagittarius Triplet



Source: APOD, 2017 July 27

[Dekalb_Blues]

New View of the Crab Nebula
[Colorful -- and new!!  -- view of big ol' crabby-nebulosity 'way out yonder, aloft in the aether]
Source: NASA Image of the Day, 2017 May 13

"The Crab Nebula is the in the Northern Hemisphere and is one of the most important and interesting objects in the sky.
[. . . T]he filaments of the Crab Nebula are the [. . .] remains of a star destroyed in an enormous explosion. [. . .]
On July 4, 1054, astronomers in China and Japan were startled by the arrival of a 'guest star' near the lunar mansions
Tsui and Shen (which correspond to the Western constellation of Taurus).  Of course the actual explosion had occurred
6,500 years earlier, around 5500 B.C., because the Crab Nebula is 6,500 light-years away.  Despite its considerable distance,
the dying star was bright enough to be seen by day for a while in 1054. Nonetheless, its sighting was not recorded by
European stargazers.  This is quite surprising, given that the appearance of Halley's Comet, twelve years later, was woven
into the famous Bayeux Tapestry.

"For a few seconds during the course of its explosion, the conditions in the core of the star were so extreme that chemical
elements heavier than iron were created.  It is in such explosions that almost all the heavy elements are forged from the
otherwise lightweight components of a star.  The presence of traces of copper, tin, mercury, and gold and large amounts
of iron in the crust of the Earth reveals that the ingredients of the solar system were stirred and enriched by supernova
explosions such as this long before the Sun and its retinue of planets appeared almost five billion years ago.  Ashes change
to gold, and dust to iron and copper, but not on Earth.  The forces that drive this transmutation are difficult to imagine,
but without them there could be no imagining." [latter italics added for emphasis]

----  from David Malin, The Invisible Universe (NY: Bullfinch Press/Little, Brown, 1999



"When Joni Mitchell, in her song 'Woodstock,' sang, 'We are stardust..." [not to mention "we are golden"!] she was being
factual as well as poetic. Every element on earth, except for the lightest, was created in the heart of some massive star.
And the heaviest elements -- such as gold, lead, and uranium -- were produced in a supernova explosion during the cata-
clysmic end of a huge star's life, says Louisiana State University physicist Edward Zganjar."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/19...080416.htm



"I had been attempting to label this grand idea of interconnectedness as either positive or negative. I eventually realized
that I was approaching the idea in a way that was too narrow-minded. This is not an either/or situation. . . . [W]e are at
the same time lovely and doomed by the fact that we are all joined together so inherently."
http://blogs.cofc.edu/whitman/2010/11/03...onnection/


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


http://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/astrono...erter.html



Was it a dream? ---- that crowded concert-room
In Bath;  that sea of ruffles and laced coats;
And William Herschel, in his powdered wig,
Waiting upon the platform, to conduct
His choir and Linley's orchestra? He stood
Tapping his music-rest, lost in his own thoughts
And (did I hear or dream them?) all were mine:

[. . . .]  
Round me the music throbs
With an immortal passion.  I grow aware
Of an appalling mystery. . . . We, this throng
Of midgets, playing, listening, tense and still,
Are sailing on a midget ball of dust
We call our planet;  will have sailed through space
Ten thousand leagues before this music ends.
What does it mean?  O, God, what can it mean? ----
This weird hushed ant-hill with a thousand eyes;
These midget periwigs;  all those little blurs,
Tier over tier, of faces, masks of flesh,
Corruptible, hiding each its hopes and dreams,
In tragi-comic dreams.

And all this throng
Will be forgotten, mixed with dust, crushed out,
Before this book of music is outworn
Or that tall organ crumbles.  Violins
Outlast their players.  Other hands may touch
That harpsichord;  but ere this planet makes
Another threescore journeys round its sun,
These breathing listeners will have vanished.
Whither?
I watch my moving hands, and they grow strange!
What is it moves this body?  What am I?
How came I here, a ghost, to hear that voice
Of infinite compassion, far away,
Above the throbbing strings, hark! Comfort ye . . .

If music lead us to a cry like this,
I think I shall not lose it in the skies.
I do but follow its own secret law
As long ago I sought to understand
Its golden mathematics;  taught myself
The way to lay one stone upon another,
Before I dared to dream that I might build
My Holy City of Song. I gave myself
To all its branches.  How they stared at me,
Those men of "sensibility," when I said
That algebra, conic sections, fluxions, all
Pertained to music.  Let them stare again.
Old Kepler knew, by instinct, what I now
Desire to learn.  I have resolved to leave
No tract of heaven unvisited.

To-night,
-- The music carries me back to it again! --
I see beyond this island universe,
Beyond our sun, and all those other suns
That throng the Milky Way, far, far, beyond,
A thousand little wisps, faint nebulae,
Luminous fans and milky streaks of fire;
Some like soft brushes of electric mist
Streaming from one bright point;  others that spread
And branch, like growing systems,  others discrete,
Keen, ripe, with stars in clusters;  others drawn back
By central forces into one dense death,
Thence to be kindled into fire, reborn,
And scattered abroad once more in a delicate spray
Faint as the mist by one bright dewdrop breathed
At dawn, and yet a universe like our own;
Each wisp a universe, a vast galaxy
Wide as our night of stars.

The Milky Way
In which our sun is drowned, to these would seem
Less than to us their faintest drift of haze;
Yet we, who are borne on one dark grain of dust
Around one indistinguishable spark
Of star-mist, lost in one feather of light,
Can by the strength of our own thought, ascend
Through universe after universe;  trace their growth
Through boundless time, their glory, their decay;
And, on the invisible road of law, more firm
Than granite, range through all their length and breadth,
Their height and depth, past, present, and to come.
So, those who follow the great Workmaster's law
From small things up to great, may one day learn
The structure of the heavens, discern the whole
Within the part, as men through Love see God.

Oh, holy night, deep night of stars, whose peace
Descends upon the troubled mind like dew,
Healing it with the sense of that pure reign
Of constant law, enduring through all change;
Shall I not, one day, after faithful years,
Find that thy heavens are built on music, too,
And hear, once more, above thy throbbing worlds,
This voice of all compassion, Comfort ye, --
Yes -- comfort ye, my people, saith your God ?


----  from Alfred Noyes, The Torch-Bearers: Vol. I, The Watchers of the Skies (Edinburgh & London: 1922), "William Herschel Conducts"
http://archive.org/details/torchbearers00noyeuoft
[for context see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Noyes (sub-heading 6: The Torch-Bearers)]


 

One night during the wee hours I watched in awe as the waxing moon rode splendidly across the zenith of the heavens like a
glorious silver chariot towards the ebony void of infinite space, wherein the tethered belts of Jupiter and Mars hang forever
festooned in their orbital majesty. And as I gazed wonderingly at all this, the thought occurred to me: I really must patch that
big hole in the outhouse roof.   

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Cheshire Cat galaxy group: Gravity's Grin



Source: APOD, 2017 August 05

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NGC 2442: Galaxy in Volans



Source: APOD, 2017 August 17

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The Crown of the Sun

Explanation: During a total solar eclipse, the Sun's extensive outer atmosphere, or corona, is an inspirational sight. Streamers and shimmering features visible to the eye span a brightness range of over 10,000 to 1, making them notoriously difficult to capture in a single photograph. But this composite of telescopic images covers a wide range of exposure times to reveal the crown of the Sun in all its glory. The aligned and stacked digital frames were taken in clear skies above Stanley, Idaho in the Sawtooth Mountains during the Sun's total eclipse on August 21. A pinkish solar prominence extends just beyond the right edge of the solar disk. Even small details on the dark night side of the New Moon can be made out, illuminated by sunlight reflected from a Full Earth.

Source: APOD, 2017 August 23

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The Eagle and The Swan



Source: APOD, 2017 August 24

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Hubble's Megamaser Galaxy



Source: NASA Image of the Day, 2017 September 01

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The Flash Spectrum of the Sun



Source: APOD, 2017 September 7

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NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula



Source: APOD, 2017 September 13

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Flare Well AR2673

Explanation: Almost out of view from our fair planet, rotating around the Sun's western edge giant active region AR2673 lashed out with another intense solar flare followed by a large coronal mass ejection on September 10. The flare itself is seen here at the right in an extreme ultraviolet image from the sun-staring Solar Dynamics Observatory. This intense flare was the fourth X-class flare from AR2673 this month. The active region's most recent associated coronal mass ejection collided with Earth's magnetosphere 2 days later. Say farewell to the mighty AR2673, for now. For the next two weeks, the powerful sunspot group will be on the Sun's far side.

Source: APOD, 2017 September 14

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100 Steps Forward

A beautiful conjunction of Venus and Moon, human, sand, and Milky Way is depicted in this night skyscape from planet Earth.

Source: APOD, 2017 September 15

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*lol*

Crop Circles in Sharq El Owainat



Source: NASA Image of the Day, 2017 September 18

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Orion above Easter Island



Source: APOD, 2017 September 18

Veil Nebula: Wisps of an Exploded Star



Source: APOD, 2017 September 19

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Is it only me or does something seem to be missing there...?



Source: APOD, 2017 September 24

[Dekalb_Blues]

~

 
Believe me, when I see Courtney hovering aloft I bug out out of there toot sweet!
Not so much if I spy a http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Ma...dSpaceBabe  
who evinces a worthy scientific curiosity for understanding human behaviour http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Ma...ouCallLove 

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Flow_chart The Father of Flowcharts
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kbbd8w/rip-frank-gilbreth-sr-father-of-the-flowchart-twelve-kids  The Real Father of Flowcharts
http://cimsec.org/wp-content/uploads/201...Ularge.jpg The Mother of All Flowcharts




  A bit chauvinist, vulgar, and debunkist, that -- but quite sound on the crucial face-latching issue

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheXenophile
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Ma...ByHumanity

 Mark 1 Maxwell Demon-powered engine for interstellar craft
http://www.terrycolon.com/2features/ufo.html



https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/...stellation  Sure and begorrah, 'tis himself


https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/mi...er-of-flow

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Layers of a Total Solar Eclipse

Explanation: Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night can keep a space-based spacecraft from watching the Sun. In fact, from its vantage point 1.5 million kilometers sunward of planet Earth, NASA's SOlar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) can always monitor the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona. But only during a total solar eclipse can Earth-based observers also see the lovely coronal streamers and structures - when the Moon briefly blocks the overwhelmingly bright solar surface. Then, it becomes possible to follow detailed coronal activity all the way down to the Sun's surface. In the outside layer of this composite image, SOHO's uninterrupted view of the solar corona during last month's eclipse is shown in orange hues. The middle, donut-shaped region is the corona as recorded by the Williams College Eclipse Expedition to Salem, Oregon. Simultaneously, the inner view is from NASA's Earth-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, which, being outside of totality, was able to image the face of the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light, shown in gold.

Source: APOD, 2017 September 27

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Two Comets and the Pleiades Star Cluster

Explanation: Two unusual spots are on the move near the famous Pleiades star cluster. Shifting only a small amount per night, these spots are actually comets in our nearby Solar System that by chance wandered into the field of the light-years distant stars. On the far left is comet C/2017 O1 ASAS-SN, a multi-kilometer block of evaporating ice sporting a bright coma of surrounding gas dominated by green-glowing carbon. Comet ASAS-SN1 shows a slight tail to its lower right. Near the frame center is comet C/2015 ER61 PanSTARRS, also a giant block of evaporating ice, but sporting a rather long tail to its right. On the upper right is the Pleiades, an open cluster dominated by bright blue stars illuminating nearby reflecting dust. This exposure, taken about two weeks ago, is so deep that the filamentary interstellar dust can be traced across the entire field. The Pleiades is visible to the unaided eye, but it should require binoculars to see the comets.

Source: APOD, 2017 October 02

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Milky Way and Zodiacal Light over Australian Pinnacles



Source: APOD, 2017 October 10