A colony of hot, young stars is stirring up the cosmic scene in this new picture from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The image shows the Orion nebula.  The young stars dip and peak in brightness due to a variety of reasons. Shifting cold and hot spots on the stars’ surfaces cause brightness levels to change, in addition to surrounding disks of lumpy planet-forming material, which can obstruct starlight. Spitzer is keeping tabs on the young stars, providing data on their changing ways.

Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/J. Stauffer (SSC/Caltech)

The European Southern Observatory consortium’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) in Paranal, Chile released the view of young stars in the Orion Nebula to demonstrate the compatibilities of the new telescope’s 13.5-foot-wide mirror.

Credit: ESO

This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Orion nebula, our closest massive star-making factory, 1,450 light-years from Earth. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Toledo

One of VISTA's first images shows the Flame Nebula, a spectacular star-forming cloud of gas and dust in the constellation of Orion Photo: EPA

This arcing, graceful structure is actually a bow shock about half a light-year across, created from the wind from the star L.L. Orionis colliding with the Orion Nebula flow. For more information on this image, see HubbleSite. Credit: NASA, The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

M27: Not a Comet Credit & Copyright: Matthew T. Russell

While hunting for comets in the skies above 18th century France, astronomer Charles Messier diligently kept a list of the things he encountered that were definitely not comets. This is number 27 on his now famous not-a-comet list. In fact, 21st century astronomers would identify it as a planetary nebula, but it’s not a planet either, even though it may appear round and planet-like in a small telescope. Messier 27 (M27) is an excellent example of a gaseous emission nebula created as a sun-like star runs out of nuclear fuel in its core. The nebula forms as the star’s outer layers are expelled into space, with a visible glow generated by atoms excited by the dying star’s intense but invisible ultraviolet light. Known by the popular name of the Dumbbell Nebula, the beautifully symmetric interstellar gas cloud is over 2.5 light-years across and about 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. This impressive color composite highlights details within the well-studied central region and fainter, seldom imaged features in the nebula’s outer halo. It includes narrowband images recorded using filters sensitive to emission from oxygen atoms, shown in blue-green hues, and hydrogen atoms in red.

In his own words

“This first episode is about saving the world from asteroid impacts. In most science TV shows on this topic they’re heavy on the death and destruction, but pretty light on what we can actually do about them. But if you’ve read my book Death from the Skies!you know I’m all about getting off our collective butts and doing something. So in “Bad Universe” we go step-by-step, looking into what can be done to keep an impact from ruining our whole day.”

Here is a sneak preview. Nightsky.ie wishes him lots of success.  More news about this here

This sums up for me what to expect from Phil. Cool stuff that’s really real….

Phil Plait: The Bad Astronomer

Jupiter Swirls Date: 5 Mar 1979 This close-up of swirling clouds around Jupiter's Great Red Spot was taken by Voyager 1. It was assembled from three black and white negatives. Credit: NASA/JPL

These color maps of Jupiter were constructed from images taken by the narrow-angle camera onboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 11 and 12, 2000, as the spacecraft neared Jupiter during its flyby of the giant planet. Cassini was on its way to Saturn. They are the most detailed global color maps of Jupiter ever produced. The smallest visible features are about 120 kilometers (75 miles) across.

North Polar: Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

South Pole: Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Jupiter Globe: Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

This true-color simulated view of Jupiter is composed of four images taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. These images were combined and the cylindrical map projected onto a globe in order to illustrate what Jupiter would look like if the cameras used to image this planet had a field-of-view large enough to capture the entire planet. The resolution is about 144 kilometers (89 miles) per pixel. Jupiter’s moon Europa is casting the shadow on the planet.

Magnetic field lines on the Sun, on August 20, 2010. Credit: NASA SDO/Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company

Source: Universe Today: “The Solar Dynamic Observatory shows this new image of the Sun’s magnetic field lines. This map is from data taken on August 20, 2010 by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager instrument (HMI). White lines show fields that are closed, not releasing solar wind, and gold lines show open fields, letting solar wind escape. Understanding these magnetic fields is important because it is thought that solar storms and flares, which can affect us here on Earth, result from changes in the structure and connections of these fields.

Coronal holes are large regions in the corona that are darker, less dense and cooler than surrounding areas. The open structure of their magnetic field allows a constant flow of high-density plasma to stream out of the holes. There is an increase in the intensity of the solar wind effects on Earth when a coronal hole faces.

During a solar minimum, such as the one from which the Sun is just emerging, coronal holes are mainly found at the Sun’s polar regions, but they can be located anywhere on the sun during solar maximum. The fast-moving component of the solar wind is known to travel along open magnetic field lines that pass through coronal holes.

Scientists are finding out that much of the structure of the Sun’s corona is shaped by the magnetic field. Although it varies over time and from place to place on the Sun, the Sun’s magnetic field can be very strong. Inside sunspots, the magnetic field can be several thousand times the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field.”

ESO/S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard)

Source, ESO VLT Picture of the week:

Despite the Perseids being best visible in the northern hemisphere, due to the path of Comet Swift-Tuttle’s orbit, the shower was also spotted from the exceptionally dark skies over ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. In order not to miss any meteors in the display, ESO Photo Ambassador Stéphane Guisard set up 3 cameras to take continuous time-lapse pictures on the platform of the Very Large Telescope during the nights of 12–13 and 13–14 August 2010. This handpicked photograph, from the night of 13–14 August, was one of Guisard’s 8000 individual exposures and shows one of the brightest meteors captured. The scene is lit by the reddened light of the setting Moon outside the left of the frame.

Although the comet debris particles are travelling parallel to each other, the meteors appear to radiate from a spot on the sky in the constellation of Perseus (here seen very low on the horizon and partly covered by the VLT enclosures). This effect is due to perspective, as the parallel tracks seem to converge at a distance. The apparent origin in Perseus is what gives the Perseid meteor shower its name.

NGC 4696 poses a question

To truly appreciate this picture you have to click to see the larger image. It represents an unusual shaped galaxy never before documented.  The galaxy is curling around itself like a question mark.

This picture was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. It is NGC 4696, the largest galaxy in the Centaurus Cluster. NGC 4696 is an elliptical galaxy lacking the complex structure and active star formation of other elliptical galaxies.

Most likely formed by collisions between spiral galaxies, elliptical galaxies experience a brief burst of star formation triggered as the interstellar dust and gas crash into each other, but which quickly leaves the young elliptical galaxies exhausted. With no more gas to form new stars from, the galaxies gradually grow older and fainter.

But NGC 4696 is more interesting than most elliptical galaxies.

The huge dust lane, around 30 000 light-years across, that sweeps across the face of the galaxy is one way in which it looks different from most other elliptical galaxies. Viewed at certain wavelengths, strange thin filaments of ionised hydrogen are visible within it. In this picture, these structures are visible as a subtle marbling effect across the galaxy’s bright centre.

Looking at NGC 4696 in the optical and near-infrared wavelengths seen by Hubble gives a beautiful and dramatic view of the galaxy. But in fact, much of its inner turmoil is still hidden from view in this picture. At the heart of the galaxy, a supermassive black hole is blowing out jets of matter at nearly the speed of light. When looked at in X-ray wavelengths, such as those visible from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, huge voids within the galaxy become visible, telltale signs of these jets’ enormous power.

The picture was created from images taken using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.

http://spaceweather.com promises full coverage of the shower, including a live meteor radar, a “fireball cam,” updated meteor counts and pictures from around the world.

Here’s how NASA’s Tony Phillips describes the annual “Perseid” meteor shower:

“The viewing will be clearer this year because lunar glare isn’t expected to be visible during the midnight-to-dawn period. Last week, astronomers got a peek of coming attractions when an asteroid turned into a fireball in the skies visible in the southeastern United States. Friday night stargazing may be the best time to take it all in as the crescent moon is expected to set before the finish of twilight, offering up a very dark sky to behold.

This map may help.

Sky Map to help you find the Persieds

Enjoy, and leave comments or share  links to any photos you come across….

This photo of a total solar eclipse was taken from the International Space Station on March 29, 2006. The photo was taken by a crew member of the Expedition 12 mission. The island of Cyprus and the coast of Turkey can be seen from the image.

Eclipsed Earth

 STS-29 Onboard photo – External Tank Separation

 This photo of the external tank after separation with the space shuttle Discovery was captured from the International Space Station during the STS-29 mission in 1989. The external tank or ET is an important component of a space shuttle flight since it supplies the fuel and oxidizer under pressure to the three space shuttle main engines.

STS-29 Onboard photo - External Tank Separation

This breathtaking photo moon and the earth’s atmosphere was taken from the International Space Station by an Expedition 10 crew member in October 2004. Expedition 10 crew members, Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov relieved the two Expedition 9 crew members, Mike Fincke and Gennady Padalka.

Moon Aglow

How similar in size are the Earth and the Moon? A dramatic visual answer to this question is found by combining photographs taken by the Mariner 10 spacecraft that headed out toward Venus and Mercury in 1973. The Moon can be seen to have a diameter over one quarter that of Earth, relatively large compared to its planetary companion. In our Solar System, only Pluto and Charon are closer together in size. Striking features of the Earth visible to the passing spacecraft include blue oceans and white clouds, showing the Earth to be truly a water world.

Earth & Moon

This amazing photo of the sunlit earth particularly portions of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean was captured by Apollo 17 in October 20, 1968. Apollo 17 is the eleventh manned space mission of the Apollo program.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

AUGUST 10, 2010: A long-exposure Hubble Space Telescope image shows a majestic face-on spiral galaxy located deep within the Coma Cluster of galaxies, which lies 320 million light-years away in the northern constellation Coma Berenices. The galaxy, known as NGC 4911, contains rich lanes of dust and gas near its center. These are silhouetted against glowing newborn star clusters and iridescent pink clouds of hydrogen, the existence of which indicates ongoing star formation. Hubble has also captured the outer spiral arms of NGC 4911, along with thousands of other galaxies of varying sizes. The high resolution of Hubble’s cameras, paired with considerably long exposures, made it possible to observe these faint details.

This natural-color Hubble image, which combines data obtained in 2006, 2007, and 2009 from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, required 28 hours of exposure time.

Source: Hubblesite.org