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  1. Dawn Mission: News & Events Vesta Full Rotation Movie

    You know how I love my space rocks… This is a movie of the asteroid Vesta rotating, taken from NASA’s spacecraft, Dawn. Dawn will move off towards another asteroid, Ceres, later this year. Vesta is one of the largest asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and measures 330 miles in diameter. It takes about 5h20m to rotate fully.

  2. (skip to 3m50s for the best view)

    I have to come out of semi-retirement to bring you the last moments of the US Space Flight Program. This program saw humans landing on the moon in 1969, but sadly it declined shortly afterwards, and the last time we went to the moon was in 1972. Almost 40 years later the STS-135 Atlantis takes off from Cape Canaveral on its last mission to the International Space Station. After it lands, the shuttle will be retired, and there is no replacement. A sad day for space science.

    http://abstrusegoose.com/377

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  3. (Source: vaginablood)

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    Reblogged: vaginablood
  4. Enceladus spews out water in a geyser from its south pole. Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, responsible for creating one of the rings around the planet, has an active surface which ejects material into space. The bright crescent on the left side of the icy moon is sunlight, whilst the right side of Enceladus in this picture is lit by Saturn-shine. Another amazing image from Cassini. Image credit: NASA

    Enceladus spews out water in a geyser from its south pole. Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, responsible for creating one of the rings around the planet, has an active surface which ejects material into space. The bright crescent on the left side of the icy moon is sunlight, whilst the right side of Enceladus in this picture is lit by Saturn-shine. Another amazing image from Cassini.

    Image credit: NASA

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  5. Rock on! This bunch of rocks comprises the nine asteroids and four comets we’ve launched spacecraft towards. The next close encounter will be in four years’ time, when Rosetta rendez-vous with and lands on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. What a beautiful bunch of space rocks. Image credit: Emily Lakdawalla

    Rock on! This bunch of rocks comprises the nine asteroids and four comets we’ve launched spacecraft towards. The next close encounter will be in four years’ time, when Rosetta rendez-vous with and lands on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. What a beautiful bunch of space rocks.

    Image credit: Emily Lakdawalla

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  6. A few days late for 4th July, but here is massive star cluster NGC 3603, courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA

    A few days late for 4th July, but here is massive star cluster NGC 3603, courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope.

    Image credit: NASA

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  7. Triton is Neptune’s largest moon, but only three-quarters the size of the Earth’s moon. Its surface is covered with ice, with the different colours in this three-colour image indicating different compositions: the pinkish colour towards the south pole is due to frozen methane and its derivatives, whilst the blue and green colours around the equator are thought to be due to nitrogenous ices. This photograph was taken by Voyager 2 on its way past Nepture, over 20 years ago. Image credit: NASA

    Triton is Neptune’s largest moon, but only three-quarters the size of the Earth’s moon. Its surface is covered with ice, with the different colours in this three-colour image indicating different compositions: the pinkish colour towards the south pole is due to frozen methane and its derivatives, whilst the blue and green colours around the equator are thought to be due to nitrogenous ices. This photograph was taken by Voyager 2 on its way past Nepture, over 20 years ago.

    Image credit: NASA

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  8. Released today, this image is of the entire galaxy in far-infrared and millimetre-wave emission, taken with ESA’s Planck satellite. This composite image is so sensitive that it shows the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at the top and bottom, and the rich dust emission which comes from the Galactic Plane is shown in purple. In the centre of the image is the Galactic Centre, where a huge black hole resides. Along the plane to the left is Perseus, to the right is Orion. And through our galaxy, other galaxies can be seen - the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are bottom-right, M31 is centre-left, below the plane, and Centaurus A is centre-right, above the plane. Image credit: ESA/Planck

    Released today, this image is of the entire galaxy in far-infrared and millimetre-wave emission, taken with ESA’s Planck satellite. This composite image is so sensitive that it shows the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at the top and bottom, and the rich dust emission which comes from the Galactic Plane is shown in purple. In the centre of the image is the Galactic Centre, where a huge black hole resides. Along the plane to the left is Perseus, to the right is Orion. And through our galaxy, other galaxies can be seen - the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are bottom-right, M31 is centre-left, below the plane, and Centaurus A is centre-right, above the plane.

    Image credit: ESA/Planck

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  9. This is the all-seeing eye of Sauron. I’m just kidding, this is Fomalhaut, a young stellar system characterised by a huge disc of rocky debris. This image has become famous, not only for its striking visuals, but also because it is the first image of a planet around another star. The planet, Fomalhaut b, is visible above Sauron’s lower eyelid, just to the right of his iris. It is a few times bigger than Jupiter. A debris disk like this was present in our own early Solar system, and the planets that we know well coagulated out of a similar rubble-pile. Image credit: NASA/Hubble

    This is the all-seeing eye of Sauron. I’m just kidding, this is Fomalhaut, a young stellar system characterised by a huge disc of rocky debris. This image has become famous, not only for its striking visuals, but also because it is the first image of a planet around another star. The planet, Fomalhaut b, is visible above Sauron’s lower eyelid, just to the right of his iris. It is a few times bigger than Jupiter. A debris disk like this was present in our own early Solar system, and the planets that we know well coagulated out of a similar rubble-pile.

    Image credit: NASA/Hubble

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  10. In addition to providing great images for science purposes, the Cassini spacecraft also produces some amazing photography, as we see here in this image of Dione, one of the 62+ moons of Saturn. Dione is one of the mid-sized Saturnine moons, but even so is the 15th biggest moon in the Solar System. This image shows the cratered surface, thought to be mainly composed of water ice. Image credit: Cassini/NASA

    In addition to providing great images for science purposes, the Cassini spacecraft also produces some amazing photography, as we see here in this image of Dione, one of the 62+ moons of Saturn. Dione is one of the mid-sized Saturnine moons, but even so is the 15th biggest moon in the Solar System. This image shows the cratered surface, thought to be mainly composed of water ice.

    Image credit: Cassini/NASA

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