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This has been on my bucket list for a while, but I’ve never had the opportunity to witness it myself: seeing the International Space Station transit the Moon. And now thanks to my friend Gadi Eidelheit, I want to see it for myself even more! He captured video and imagery of the ISS scooting in front of the Moon, from Ganot, Israel. “This was just about 10km from my house!” Gadi told me via email. “I used a Canon 700d with Sigma 18-250 for the first clip and Canon sx50HS for the second clip (maximum zoom which equivalent to 1200mm). To find the best place I used Heavens-Above and a little trial and error! I just choose different locations near my home until I found the correct spot.” (...)
Read the rest of Cool Video: Space Station Flies in Front of the Moon (102 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Gadi Eidelheit, International Space Station (ISS), Moon, transit
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 Two spacecraft, Dawn and New Horizons, will reach their final objectives in 2015 – Dwarf Planets Ceres and Pluto, respectively. (Credit: NASA, Illustration – T.Reyes) Together, the space probes Dawn and New Horizons have been in flight for a collective 17 years. One remained close to home and the other departed to parts of the Solar System of which little is known. They now share a common destination in the same year: dwarf planets. At the time of these NASA probes' departures, Ceres had just lost its designation as the largest asteroid in our Solar System. Pluto was the ninth planet. Both probes now stand to deliver measures of new data and insight that could spearhead yet another revision of the definition of planet. (...)
Read the rest of 2015: NASA’s Year of the Dwarf Planet (1,265 words)
© Tim Reyes for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | 3 comments |
Post tags: Alan Stern, Atlas V, caltech, ceres, dawn, dwarf planet, IAU, ion propulsion, JHUAPL, JPL, Michael Brown, NASA, New Horizons, orbital sciences corp., planet, Pluto, SwRI
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It hard to think of a more influential modern planetary scientist than Carolyn Porco, the leader of the imaging team for NASA’s Cassini mission exploring Saturn. But before Cassini, Porco was involved in Voyager missions, and she’ll be leading up the imaging team for New Horizons. Visit the Astronomy Cast Page to subscribe to the audio podcast! We record Astronomy Cast as a live Google+ Hangout on Air every Monday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch here on Universe Today or from the Astronomy Cast Google+ page.
© susie for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | No comment |
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 Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy photographed overnight December 28-29, 2014 remotely from Siding Spring, Australia as it swooped within 1/6 degree of the globular cluster M79. The coma glows green from fluorescing carbon molecules while the narrow ion tail, composed of carbon monoxide gas, glows blue in UV sunlight. Credit: Rolando Ligustri Oh my, oh my. Rolando Ligustri captured this scene last night as Comet Q2 Lovejoy swished past the globular cluster M79 in Lepus. If you’ve seen the movie Wild or read the book, you’ll be familiar with the phrase “put yourself in the way of beauty”, a maxim for living life adopted by one of its characters. When I opened up my e-mail today and saw Rolando’s photo, I felt like the beauty truck ran right over me.(...)
Read the rest of Put Yourself in the Way of Beauty (363 words)
© Bob King for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: coma, Comet Q2 Lovejoy, Globular Cluster, M79
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As we get ready to wrap up the year and the month, here’s an absolutely beautiful compilation of views of the aurora — or norðurljós as they are called in Icelandic — from the month of December 2014 in Iceland. “Even though the month is not over yet, the weather forecast does not allow any shooting the rest of the month,” said photographer Ólafur Haraldsson via email. Haraldsson’s timelapse captures the quiet and magical beauty of the aurora and the majestic and varied landscapes of Iceland. (...)
Read the rest of Stunning Aurora Timelapse from Iceland, December 2014 (49 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Astrovideos, aurora, iceland, Ólafur Haraldsson, Timelapse
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 A Dec. 24, 2014 (EST) timelapse of Io transiting Jupiter. Credit: IKYLSP/Reddit On Christmas Eve, as millions upon millions of people focused on wrapping gifts and getting ready for the holidays, an amateur astronomer gave a small gift to the world. The person turned a telescope and camera to Jupiter and caught volcanic Io going across the face of the gas giant. This happened just a few days after professional astronomers caught a rare eclipse involving that very same moon. (...)
Read the rest of Marvelous Moondance: Jupiter Satellites Caught Eclipsing And Transiting (305 words)
© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Europa, Io
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While the world was enchanted with Chris Hadfield’s social media posts last year, a new video has the retired astronaut talking about loftier things. Say, for example, how humanity landed a camera on the Saturn moon Titan back in 2005. Or to be more practical, the fact that smallpox was eradicated in its naturally occurring form. In his talks and books, Hadfield describes himself as one who never focuses on complaining. He was almost yanked from his command of the International Space Station due to a medical issue, but he pressed on and convinced the doctors to let him fly. And in this new video, he focuses on what humans do generally to make the world better — imperfect as it is. (...)
Read the rest of Space-y Charity: Some Ideas To Respond To Astronaut Hadfield’s Challenge (231 words)
© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Astronomers Without Borders, Chris Hadfield, CosmoQuest, Uwingu
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 Vertical structures cause shadows on Saturn’s B ring in this July 2009 picture from the Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute From a distance, Saturn’s rings look like a sheer sheet, but peer up close and you can see that impression is a mistake. Shadows from rubble believed to be two miles (3.2 kilometers) high are throwing shadows upon the planet’s B ring in this image from the Cassini spacecraft. While the picture is from 2009, it caught the eye of the lead of the Cassini imaging team, who wrote eloquently about it in a blog post recently celebrating the link between wonder and the holidays. (...)
Read the rest of Incredible Towering Structures Cast Shadows Across Saturn’s Rings (490 words)
© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | No comment |
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 The half-moon creeps up on the planet Uranus this evening. The two will be near one other all night in the constellation Pisces but closest – less than one-third of a Moon diameter apart – around 11:45 p.m. (CST). The views are what you’ll see in a pair of binoculars. The 4th magnitude star Delta Piscium is at top. Source: Stellarium Sunlight. Moonlight. Starlight. I saw all three for the first time in weeks yesterday. Filled with photons, I feel lighter today, less burdened. Have you been under the clouds too? Let’s hope it’s clear tonight because there’s a nice event you’ll want to see if only because it’s so effortless. The half-moon will pass very close to the planet Uranus for skywatchers across North America this evening Sunday, Dec. 28th. Pop the rubber lens caps off those binoculars and point them at the Moon. If you look a short distance to the left you’ll notice a star-like object. That’s the planet!(...)
Read the rest of Half-Moon Makes Dramatic Pass at Uranus Tonight (528 words)
© Bob King for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | 10 comments |
Post tags: conjunction, Moon, Uranus
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 Hasta la vista, baby! Panel of negative images showing the outer tail of Comet Lovejoy disconnecting and drifting away from the comet on and around December 23-24th. Credit: Hisayoshi Kato Maybe you’ve seen Comet Q2 Lovejoy. It’s a big fuzzy ball in binoculars low in the southern sky in the little constellation Lepus the Hare. That’s the comet’s coma or temporary atmosphere of dust and gas that forms when ice vaporizes in sunlight from the nucleus. Until recently a faint 3° ion or gas tail trailed in the coma’s wake, but on and around December 23rd it snapped off and was ferried away by the solar wind. Just as quickly, Lovejoy re-grew a new ion tail but can’t seem to hold onto that one either. Like a feather in the wind, it’s in the process of being whisked away today.(...)
Read the rest of Comet Q2 Lovejoy Loses Tail, Grows Another, Loses That One Too! (706 words)
© Bob King for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | 5 comments |
Post tags: 2P/encke, aurora, CME, Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy, disconnection, ion tail
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