BF2S Forums Astronomy Picture of the Day!

Ryan wrote:

Opportunity and sister robot Spirit have been probing the red planet since early 2004,

That was of course after the loss of the Mars Climate orbiter, Mars Observer, Deep Space 2 (to Mars), and the Mars Polar Lander .

http://www4.cnn.com/TECH/space/9911/10/orbiter.03/
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/331 … =1&c=y
http://barsoom.msss.com/mars/observer/p … oloss.html
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/pr … ?MCode=DS2

It makes you appreciate Phoenix and the rovers a little more.

Eye-GiZzLe wrote:

Kmarion wrote:

Ryan wrote:

Opportunity and sister robot Spirit have been probing the red planet since early 2004,

That was of course after the loss of the Mars Climate orbiter, Mars Observer, Deep Space 2 (to Mars), and the Mars Polar Lander .

http://www4.cnn.com/TECH/space/9911/10/orbiter.03/
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/331 … =1&c=y
http://barsoom.msss.com/mars/observer/p … oloss.html
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/pr … ?MCode=DS2

It makes you appreciate Phoenix and the rovers a little more.

Failure to convert English measures to metric values was the root cause of the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter, a spacecraft that smashed into the planet instead of reaching a safe orbit, a NASA investigation concluded Wednesday.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t92/ … CEPALM.jpg

Naaa .. . it was the the Galactic Ghoul don't ya know?

06/30/08
<sub>Right click > View Image for a larger picture

Clouds of glowing gas mingle with lanes of dark dust in the Trifid Nebula, a star forming region toward the constellation of Sagittarius. In the center, the three huge dark dust lanes that give the Trifid its name all come together. Mountains of opaque dust appear on the right, while filaments of dust are visible threaded throughout the nebula. A single massive star visible near the center causes much of the Trifid's glow. The Trifid, also known as M20, is only about 300,000 years old, making it among the youngest emission nebula known. The nebula lies about 9,000 light years away and part pictured above spans about 10 light years. The above image was created by the 0.8-meter IAC80 telescope on the Canary Islands of Spain.</sub>

TimmmmaaaaH wrote:

CommieChipmunk wrote:

This thread reminds me of the book "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan, which is the greatest book ever.

Mountain Dew is the best soda ever made.

(+1 to whoever gets the reference) :p

Carl Sagan's Cosmos for Rednecks
Family Guy

07/02/08
<sub>Right click > View Image for a larger picture

In the early morning hours of June 30th, ghostly clouds hovered in the east in this view of near dawn skies over western France. The noctilucent or night-shining clouds lie near the edge of space, reflecting sunlight from about 80 kilometers above Earth's surface. Usually spotted above the poles in summer, they are now seen with increasing frequency farther from the poles, in this case extending to the photographer's latitude of about 48 degrees north. The trend could be a telltale sign of global changes in the atmosphere. Another 400,000 kilometers away, the Moon's sunlit crescent shines brightly, its night side illuminated by Earthshine. Of course, as a bonus for early risers June's old crescent Moon was followed closely across the sky by the lovely Pleiades star cluster, surrounded by cosmic dust clouds and shining from a mere 400 light-years away.</sub>

Sorry ryan I needed to do it.

This is the NASA image of the day, not the APOD. Still cool enough to share .


An adult bald eagle rests near a pond at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Natural fishermen, bald eagles live near large bodies of open water such as lakes, marshes, seacoasts and rivers, where fish are plentiful, as are tall trees for nesting and roosting. While the eagles feed primarily on fish, they also eat small animals and occasional carrion.

As of 2007, there were a dozen eagle nests both in KSC and in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which surrounds the center. The refuge includes several wading bird rookeries, many osprey nests, up to 400 manatees during the spring, and approximately 2,500 Florida scrub jays. It also is a major wintering area for migratory birds. More than 500 species of wildlife inhabit the refuge, with 15 considered federally threatened or endangered.

Mek-Stizzle wrote:

Holy shit that nebulae looks just like a bald eagle!

That is no nebulae, thats the Death Star with the bald eagle skin.

07/03/08
<sub>Right Click > View Image for a larger picture

The strange-looking rock formations in the foreground of this skyscape are called hoodoos. Towers of weathered, eroded sedimentary rock, hoodoos are found in arid regions of planet Earth and are particularly abundant in an area known as Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah, USA. The more familiar night sky pictured here was recorded early Monday morning and includes bright star Capella, alpha star of the constellation Auriga, left of center. On the far right, a very over exposed crescent Moon dominates the sky in close conjunction with the sister stars of the Pleiades cluster. The curious shapes of the two tall, illuminated hoodoos suggest their popular monikers; Thor's Hammer (right) and The Temple of Osiris.</sub>

A giant booby.

Ryan wrote:

A giant booby.

With an inward nipple.

I wonder what it looked like to humans in the night sky in 1006. They probably went apeshit (moreso than was the norm at the time)

Ryan wrote:

Mek-Stizzle wrote:

I wonder what it looked like to humans in the night sky in 1006. They probably went apeshit (moreso than was the norm at the time)

It just mean's that it took 7000 years for the light to be visible from earth. When it finally arrived in the year 1006, that meant that it was now visible to humans. They probably couldn't have even seen it anyways.

Yeah

Wiki says they could

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1006

holy shit fireworks, comets and lightning

that picture, is incredibly awesome

almost as awesome as a T-rex flying an F-14