Posted by SpaceSightSeer on April 22, 2009 under Deep Space Imagery | 
Scientificblogging previews an article from the May 2009 Astrophysical Journal. Researchers have located a mysterious “blob” 55 light-years across, 12.9 billion light years away with the mass of 40 billion suns. This one-of-a-kind distant object is intriguing to researchers. “Even for astronomers, we don’t understand,” Carnegie Institution researcher, Masami Ouchi told Space.com.
Update (4-30): Scientific Blogging has added a good video about Himiko that explains this phenomenon better than I could.
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on April 16, 2009 under Deep Space Imagery, Unmanned Missions |
Kepler Image Gallery
Kepler, NASA’s first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars, has returned its first pictures revealing millions of stars within its field of view.
“Kepler’s first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring,” said Lia LaPiana, Kepler’s program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking.”
One new image from Kepler shows its entire field of view — a 100-square-degree portion of the sky, equivalent to two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper. The regions contain an estimated 14 millions stars, more than 100,000 of which were selected as ideal candidates for planet hunting.
Over the next three-and-a-half years, Kepler will scan pre-selected stars for planetary evidence. It is the first NASA mission optimized specifically to seek out Earth-sized planets.
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on April 10, 2009 under Collections, Deep Space Imagery, Manned Spaceflight |
Google Sky
Google Moon
Google Mars
From the people who brought us Google Earth come three cool tools for exploring the beyond.
For Google Sky, Google has teamed with observatories and astronomers around the world to put astronomy at the fingertips of the most casual space fan. Find constellations, planets and distant galaxies through a point-and-click interface. Google Sky is an excellent resource for beginning astronomy for circumstances when a star party might not be feasible.
Google Moon uses images taken by Clementine to display a mosaic of lunar landing sites. Visitors can select a specific Apollo landing site and then navigate to features of interest related to that mission. Several have first-person panoramic views simulating the perspective of our explorer astronauts.
Image: NASA
Google Mars represents the latest addition to the family and uses the same tools found in Google Earth - you can zoom in and out, change the camera view, or spin the entire planet with a click of the mouse. A search box allows you to quickly locate interesting features. Type in the word “face” in the search box, for example, to locate two of the more popular features of the red planet – the “face on Mars” and the “happy face crater.”
There is also an option to “View in 3D with Mars in Google Earth. Through this view, one can apply antique historic maps of Mars or “Live from Mars” streaming from NASA’s Mars Odyssey.
Tags: apollo, astronomy, face on mars, google, happy face crater, images, mars, moon, photos, pictures, sky
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on April 7, 2009 under Collections, Deep Space Imagery |
ESO Public Image Archive
ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organization in Europe. Created in 1962, ESO provides state-of-the-art research facilities to astronomers and astrophysicists.
This gallery includes a stunning array of images including objects in our own solar system as well as deep space objects. ESO operates telescopes at three sites, including the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Cerro Paranal.
Colossal Cosmic Eye
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on April 1, 2009 under Deep Space Imagery |
WikiSky.org
Here’s a great site to help space fans and potential astronomers (along with those of us who like the breathtaking views) get a sense of what’s “out there”. WikiSky is an innovative approach to star mapping and digital imaging all rolled into one. A point and click sky interface gets you quickly to those amazng views. An intuitive menu of the “attractive spots of the universe” helps you find images of interesting objects even if you don’t know where to find them in the night sky. Amazing, intuitive and innovative.
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on March 11, 2009 under Deep Space Imagery |
HubbleSite.org
This stuff never gets old. The Hubble Space Telescope has awed us for years with jaw-dropping views of the cosmos. Plans to cut costs and retire the Hubble proved so unpopular that NASA now plans to keep this national treasure in service through 2013. This site is loaded with photo albums, wallpaper, and the best Hubble has to offer. The latest images are easily found in a dedicated portion of the main page.
For the diehard fan:
Track the Hubble Space Telescope in real time
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on February 6, 2009 under Deep Space Imagery |
University of Alabama Department of Physics and Astronomy
The front page may look old school, but the content makes a visit worthwhile. The images here form a nice collection of galaxies, quasars and other deep space objects.
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 28, 2009 under Collections, Deep Space Imagery, Manned Spaceflight, Spacecraft, Unmanned Missions |
Planetary Photojournal
This site provides easy access to the publicly released images from NASA’s various Solar System exploration programs. The site includes an excellent variety of images with intuitive navigation. There’s a bit of everything, spacecraft, deep space images, and views of the planets as well as the panoramic Marscapes sent back by the rovers. New images are added just about every day.
Posted by SpaceSightSeer on January 14, 2009 under Deep Space Imagery |
2Mass Showcase
Headlines were made when the 2 Micron All Sky Survey released over 4 million images of the night sky. Accessing this vast quantity of imagery is not for the faint-of-heart. It requires knowledge of object names and coordinates in order to use the search tools provided by the Infrared Science Archive. Fortunately the 2Mass site also includes several galleries for the casual observer such as a 2Mass Showcase and the 2MASSier Object Gallery.
