Galilean Nights

3

(via Astronomy Picture of the Day)
Star Formation in the Tarantula Nebula
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, ESO, D. Lennon (ESA/STScI) et al., and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

77

unknownskywalker:

Majestic Elements by Ole C. Salomonsen

Star Trails in Space

These are a series of images photographed from a mounted camera on the Earth-orbiting International Space Station, from approximately 240 miles above Earth. Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit relayed some information about photographic techniques used to achieve the images:

“My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.”

50 notes | 20 hours ago

1487

n-a-s-a:

All the Water on Planet Earth
Illustration Credit & Copyright: Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Howard Perlman, USGS
Explanation: How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth’s surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth’s radius. The above illustration shows what would happen is all of the water on or near the surface of the Earth were bunched up into a ball. The radius of this ball would be only about 700 kilometers, less than half the radius of the Earth’s Moon

88

unknownskywalker:

Lightning & Stars by Torrey G

7325

fuckyeahspaceexploration:

Drool.
Space shuttle Atlantis, 1991.

447

n-a-s-a:

Jupiter Eclipsing Ganymede
Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Karkoschka (U. Arizona)

36

unknownskywalker:

Sun glinting off the surface of the Earth
Photographed on May 10, 2012 by ESA astronaut and Expedition 30 flight engineer André Kuipers.

8

(via Astronomy Picture of the Day)
Spiral Galaxy NGC 1672 from Hubble
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: L. Jenkins (GSFC/U. Leicester)

13

framesandflames:

image credit: Helge Mortensen