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[...] a Florida-based organization calling itself Pluto One is looking to do just [...]
The Sky is Waiting.
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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.
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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.
Astronomy Video of the Week: Plutopalooza-The Wait is Over
Pluto snapping into focus!
Credit: NASA/JHU/APL/SW Research Institute
It has been over nine years.
On January 19th, 2006, NASA�s New Horizons spacecraft launched out of Cape Canaveral bound for Pluto. And in just over a week�s time, the key flyby window opens centered on July 14th. Moving over 14 kilometres per second, New Horizons won�t be stopping as it heads on an escape trajectory out of the solar system. Already, we�re getting some amazing views courtesy of New Horizons LORRI imager. Clearly, Pluto and Charon are brave new worlds like no other.
Sending spacecraft to other planets is one of the most amazing things that we as a species do, and we never seem to do enough of it. NASA recently released a promotional video highlighting the mounting excitement swirling around next week�s flyby of Pluto:
The human story of �The Wait� could be said to stretch even farther back to Clyde Tombaugh�s discovery of Pluto in 1930 from the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Clyde passed away in 1997, having never seen his discovery up close. An ounce of Clyde�s ashes ride with New Horizons, along with the �names of more than 430,000 supporters than made New Horizons happen.
And this comes as engineers rush to understand why the spacecraft went into safe mode briefly this past weekend. Full contact has been re-established, and safeguards will prevent the spacecraft from going into safe mode during the key encounter phase next week. New Horizons will be on its own on July 14th, as it won�t have time to spare for beaming data back to Earth while it is carrying out key science observations.
Get set for a wild ride!
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