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Pictured is a Delta IV rocket launch from Cape Canaveral on November 21st, 2010. The image is a 20 second exposure taken at dusk, shot from about 100 miles west of the launch site. The launch placed a classified payload in orbit for the United States Air Force.
Difficult but not impossible to catch against the dawn or dusk sky, spotting an extreme crescent moon can be a challenge. The slender crescent pictured was shot 30 minutes before sunrise when the Moon was less than 20 hours away from New. A true feat of visual athletics to catch, a good pair of binoculars or a well aimed wide field telescopic view can help with the hunt.
The Sun is our nearest star, and goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. This image was taken via a properly filtered telescope, and shows the Sun as it appeared during its last maximum peak in 2003. This was during solar cycle #23, a period during which the Sun hurled several large flares Earthward. The next solar cycle is due to peak around 2013-14.
Located in the belt of the constellation Orion, Messier 42, also known as the Orion Nebula is one of the finest deep sky objects in the northern hemisphere sky. Just visible as a faint smudge to the naked eye on a clear dark night, the Orion Nebula is a sure star party favorite, as it shows tendrils of gas contrasted with bright stars. M42 is a large stellar nursery, a star forming region about 1,000 light years distant.
Orbiting the planet in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every 90 minutes, many people fail to realize that you can see the International Space Station (ISS) from most of the planet on a near-weekly basis. In fact, the ISS has been known to make up to four visible passes over the same location in one night. The image pictured is from the Fourth of July, 2011 and is a 20 second exposure of a bright ISS pass.
Next to the Sun, the two brightest objects in the sky are the Moon and the planet Venus. In fact, when Venus is favorably placed next to the Moon, it might just be possible to spot the two in the daytime. Another intriguing effect known as earthshine or ashen light is also seen in the image on the night side of the Moon; this is caused by sunlight reflected back off of the Earth towards our only satellite.
A mosaic of three images taken during the total lunar eclipse of December 21st, 2010. The eclipse occurred the same day as the winter solstice. The curve and size of the Earth’s shadow is apparent in the image.
27.10.09: Exploring Shiva Crater.
Move over, Chicxulub; we may have a new contender in the realm of cosmic extinction events. Recently, paleontologist Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University has dubbed a ring shaped subsurface structure off of the western coast of India Shiva crater. If Chaterjee is correct, it would be one of the largest impact basins on Earth recorded, at a diameter of about 500 km wide. Aptly named after the Hindu goddess of destruction, Shiva would have been caused by an asteroid or comet of about 40 km in diameter. Chaterjee has been following data accrued by decades of off-shore oil drilling projects in the area; the existence of iridium deposits suggests a calamity of cosmic origin. Rare on Earth but common on asteroids, the element iridium was considered a “smoking gun” in dating the aforementioned K-T extinction event of about 65 million years ago. Tantalizingly, the Shiva Crater event also seems to date from the same era. This raises the question; could a hail of cometary debris have been common in that far gone time? Bodies without rapid erosion, such as our Moon or Mars, should show evidence of impacts dating from around this epoch. Of course, the crater hypothesis is not without its critics…the area surrounding the Indian subcontinent is very geologically active as it pushes under the plates of the Asian continent. In particular, an area known as the Deccan Traps extends to the edge of Shiva and was very active during the Cretaceous period. Also, Shiva appears to have rock from the Earth’s underlining mantle exposed, again tantalizing evidence for a past cataclysm… this area of our own near space begs for further exploration!