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Watching the skies is just part of the day, and night for some people. I am one of them. The first thing I do every morning is go outside and look up at the sky. The last thing I do before going to bed, each night, is to watch the sky for awhile. Sometimes, I even lay in bed and just look up through the window until it is morning. When I am not outside looking at the sky, often with a camera in my hand, I check in with my favorite websites to catch up on space weather and the new photos of sky watchers around the world.The sky is always changing, revealing itself in glimpses. I think that is why I find it so fascinating. Space is a mystery we will never stop discovering and its interaction with our earth’s atmosphere create some of the most spectacular sights we will ever witness.These are some of my favorite websites. I’ve been checking in with them for the last several years and everytime I go there, I am amazed at all the activity happening in space.My number one favorite website, Space Weather, has an incredible video up on its homepage right now that I highly recommend. It was taken by enthusiastic skywatcher and photograher, Laurent Lavendar in Bretagne, France showing Venus, Saturn, and the Moon rising together over a local marina. It is extremely romantic…..Space Weather keeps you up to date on solar wind, activity on the face of the sun, asteroids, comets, and all the movement happening in space. And believe me, there is more movement than you would ever expect! This is the weather station site for space, updated daily and globally.Space.com is a more polished site that provides information on NASA missions, satellite images, links to telescope stores, videos, and overall takes a non-specialized approach to space news. Space.com is the CNN of space, you get everything. Currently, on their site is a clip of U2 calling the astronauts in space and a plethora of interesting videos, including scientists monitoring potentially hazardous asteroids heading in our direction.And of course, we have the old standby at NASA.gov which, is obviously full of brilliant information. Catch up on space station news and find satellite and probe pictures here first. NASA.gov is where the most cutting edge and current space mission info can be found. NASA.gov is definitely space mission-centric but, also provide a wealth of information on the solar systems, galaxies, asteroids, star clusters, and anything else space related- you just have to do a little clicking around. Naturally, their deep space photos are first-rate. Right now, they are reminding us that Oct. 11-17th is Earth Science week and have provided a series of six short videos on the chosen topic of “Understanding Climate.” The six NASA videos complete a series called “Tides of Change,” which all focus on the ocean-climate connection. Each video features a specific component of the connection, such as marine life or the water cycle.While catching up on space news this past week, I was just blown away but, all that is happening. The new technology and photos are really making space less of a mystery and more of a place. I was reading about NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft has made it possible for scientists to construct the first comprehensive sky map of our solar system and its location in the Milky Way galaxy and so I decided I would try to comprehend a lightyear. Like, truly understand how far that is. I was never great at math, so the long equations were meaningless to me. I found some comparisons in this graph that finally made me understand. Hope you enjoy!Factor Value Item10-9 40.4 × 10?9 ly Reflected sunlight from the Moon’s surface takes 1.2–1.3 seconds to travel the distance to the Earth’s surface. ? 1.25 seconds)10-6 15.8 × 10?6 ly One astronomical unit. It takes approximately 499 seconds for light to travel this distance.[16]10-3 3.2 × 10?3 ly The most distant space probe, Voyager 1, was about 14 light-hours away from Earth as of 9 March 2007[update]. It took that space probe 30 years to cover that distance,[17] and will take over 18,000 years to reach one light-year at the same speed.100 1.6 × 100 ly The Oort cloud is approximately two light-years in diameter. Its inner boundary is speculated to be at 50,000 AU, with its outer edge at 100,000 AU2.0 × 100 ly Maximum extent of the Sun’s gravitational dominance. Beyond this is true interstellar space.4.22 × 100 ly The nearest known star, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.22 light-years away.[18][19]103 26 × 103 ly The center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is about 26 kilolight-years away.[20][21]100 × 103 ly The Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across.106 2.5 × 106 ly The Andromeda Galaxy is approximately 2.5 megalight-years away.3.14 × 106 ly The Triangulum Galaxy, at 3.14 megalight-years away, is the most distant object visible to the naked eye.59 × 106 ly The nearest large galaxy cluster, the Virgo Cluster, is about 59 megalight-years away.150 × 106 – 250 × 106 ly The Great Attractor lies at a distance of somewhere between 150 and 250 megalight-years.109 1.2 × 109 ly The Sloan Great Wall has been measured to be approximately one gigalight-year distant.46.5 × 109 ly The comoving distance from the Earth to the edge of the visible universe is about 46.5 gigalight-years in any direction; this is the comoving radius of the observable universe. This is larger than the age of the universe dictated by the cosmic background radiation; see size of the universe: misconceptions for why this is possible. 

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The dramatic appearance of a vortex shaped cloud formation hovering over Moscow in recent days has put the internet abuzz with UFO speculation. While the amazing footage seems to be surreal enough to be questioned as a hoax, it is in fact real.Additionally, there is no explaination for this seemingly supernatural formation. Witnessed by millions in Moscow who braced themselves for a close encounter, scientists and officials are saying that it is some kind of optical illusion. The halo can only be explained away as an anomoly of clouds due to a combination of differing air temperatures.UFOlogists and eyewitnesses have another answer, believing that it must be a space ship. Chemical weapons and pollution have been ruled out and in this case, it seems that no one has a good answer for the unusual sighting. The internet is flooded with images and video taken of the ominous formation by pedestrians and drivers, compelled to stop and marvel at its incredible appearance.The only thing we can say for sure, is that something very large and strange did appear over Moscow and there were many witnesses to this sky born vortex of light and clouds. While many are comparing it the appearance of the spacecraft in Hollywood movie, Independence Day, the only thing that everyone can agree on- is that this UFO like apparition, is real. 

Scientists using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope

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have discovered that there is an enormous ring outside of all of the other rings around Saturn. The ring is composed of widely diffused particles of dust and ice. The orbital Spitzer telescope, which “sees” in infrared, enabled scientists to spot the glow of the cooler dust against the warmer matter surrounding it. The ring really is absolutely ginormous; astronomer Anne Verbiscer from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville compares it to the size of Earth’s moon. “If you could see the ring, it would span the width of two full moons’ worth of sky, one on either side of Saturn.” Verbiscer and her colleague at the University of Charlottesville, Michael Skrutskie are co-authors of a paper in the journal Nature. In February of this year, under the theory that there might be a much larger, broader and more diffuse ring outside of the known rings and most of Saturns moons, the astronomers used the Spitzer’s ability to see in multiple bandwidths to scan regions near one of Saturn’s most distant moons, Phoebe. The ring, formed by accreting material from its surroundings, is 3.7 million miles away from Saturn, and is sharply tilted. The ring extends out another 7.4 million miles, encompassing Saturn’s moon Phoebe. Phoebe’s entire orbit is within the ring, and is more than likely the source of the material that forms the ring; material ejected for several thousand years. The discovery of the extra-large ring may also help to explain some of the anomalies associated with Iapetus, another of Saturn’s many moons. Iapetus has a strikingly noticeable bright side and a dark side; something that Giovanni Cassini spotted in 1671. The giant ring is circling in the same direction as Phoebe, while Iapetus and most of Saturn’s other moons are circling in the opposite direction. The dark side, named Cassini Regio in a nod at the astronomer, may have been created by material from the ring being drawn inward towards Iapetus, and smacking into the moon’s icy surface, thus rendering that half darker. I’ve linked to an artists’ representation of the ring in the image above; click it for a larger view. NASA’s official press release is here; there’s a good discussion of the discovery here at CNN, and more astronomical discussion here. The Nature article “Saturn’s Largest Ring” by Anne J. Verbiscer1, Michael F. Skrutskie and Douglas P. Hamilton is here, complete with charts and detailed analysis of the Spitzer telescope data.

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The Cassini spacecraft, which entered orbit around Saturn on June 30, 2004 has successfully observed and recorded and sent back all sorts of data about seasonal changes on Saturn, as the planet experienced its equinox. The main NASA / JPL Cassini site is here. Last month, on August 11, sunlight reaching Saturn hit the planet’s rings edge-on, essentially making them disappear in the planet’s equinox. Saturn has two equinoxes, much like Earth, during each of its “years” or orbits around the Sun. Each orbit takes 10, 759 Earth days, or 29.7 Earth years, so catching this equinox was a pretty big deal. There’s a good video here explaining, exactly, what’s happening to cause the equinox. Some of the most exciting data concerns new revelations about just how thick, and dense with ice and dust materials Saturn’s rings are; some have peaks that are comparable to the height of Earth’s Rocky mountains.Perhaps the most stunning images were those captured at the height of Saturn’s equinox, like the image above. Astronomer Phi Plait has by far the most easy to understand discussion of just what makes this so very very cool—and important. For those with broadband connections, the very very large, very detailed high resolution image of the picture above is here.

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This past May, the Hubble Space Telescope was equipped with a new imaging camera which has recently captured some impressive images including one of a large Butterfly Nebula. The new images are ushering in what many are calling a new beginning for the Hubble.
The Hubble Space Telescope was named for Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of astronomy. The Hubble was first put into orbit in April of 1990 after two decades of difficulties and delays. It is unique in many ways including the fact that it is the only telescope ever designed to be completely serviced while in space by astronauts who travel to the telescope to perform needed repairs as they did in May when the Hubble was fitted with new filters and a new camera.
One of the amazing images captured by the new camera on the Hubble Space Telescope is a magnificent view of a Butterfly Nebula which has a width of over 2 light years across the span of the “wings” of the nebula. Those “wings” contain massively heated gas that reaches temperatures in excess of 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In the center of the Butterfly Nebula is a dying star.
The Hubble camera also picked up other amazing images including a group of galaxies that exists in the constellation Pegasus known was the Stephan’s Quintet that is over 290 million light years from Earth and a star nursery over 7,500 light years away.
The Hubble will remain operational for at least another five years, capturing spectacular photographs of far off wonders.

Space is an exciting place these days. We’ve got an International Space Station that is bigger and better than ever before, the Hubble Telescope has been re-vamped and we now have crystal clear photos of galaxies 5 billion light years away, dark matter is on the move, repelling galaxies and solar systems apart at an ever increasing pace to our mystification and concern. Our understanding and exploration of space has been taken to the next level and the discoveries we are on the brink of making are highly thrilling.Another discovery was made, in an inner space, deep inside of the earth. The astounding discovery of a giant crystal cave in Naica, Mexico has yielded the largest crystals ever known. Weighing in at 55 tons a piece, some stretching to over 36 feet, this alien world was happened upon in 2000 by miners. Previously under water, the miners introduced water pumps which, uncovered the treasure contained therein. A recent expedition of scientists wearing astronaut like suits to protect them from the extreme heat and humidity, has produced some awe-inspiring and breathtaking images of these giant gypsum and selenite crystals.The magma flow under the cave has been cooking the mineral rich water for over 5 million years and the virgin cave of crystals remains a steamy 122 degrees farenheight and 90% humidity. Even wearing the special suits equipped with respirators containing chilled air, chilling packs, and a special medic teams on standby- the extreme heat is fatal. Explorers can only withstand 45 minutes at a time and if exposed to the elements, would be dead within 10 minutes.These amazing crystals are incredibly beautiful and their discovery is out of this world!

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nasa.gov 

This site, Hello from Earth is collecting

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short text messages to be transmitted to Gliese 581d, a planet outside our Solar System that, from what we can tell, might support life. It’s free to register and send a comment, but the deadline is 5pm Monday 24 August 2009 Sydney time. The Gliese 581 system has at least two potentially habitable planets and the most Earth-like planet discovered so far, Gliese 581d. The Gliese 581 system is one of the best candidates for life outside our Solar System. NASA will, after the 24th, transmit the messages to Gliese 581d using the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Tidbinbilla, Australia. Once the radio signal is sent, it will have to cross 20.3 light years, or 192 trillion km of interstellar space; it will take roughly until December 2029 to arrive, plus or minus a couple of months. That said, Gliese, the star that’s the “sun” of the Gliese 581 system, is one of the 100 stars that are closes to Earth. Hello from Earth is a joint project of COSMOS magazine, Australia’s Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, the CSIRO and NASA. It’s a celebration of National Science Week in Australia, and the International Year of Astronomy. The video below explains a bit about the project, and how it all works. I’m sending a message; why don’t you?

In the latest batch of images from the Cassini probe investigating Saturn, one

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of them shows, quite distinctly, a small object piercing the F ring of debris that surrounds Saturn. There’s a picture of the bifurcated ring to the left there; click it for a larger image. It looks very much as if something small has cut a path through the dust in Saturn’s F ring, moving through the ring from below, and leaving a trail of dust particles in its wake. The image in question is one of a number of spectacular images sent back as part of the data haul from Cassini’s Saturn Equinox mission. Other discoveries have included spotting a tiny moonlet in the dense dust of Saturn’s B ring; the moon was discovered by virtue of its shadow, an event that is itself tied to the Saturn’s August 11 equinox. Images have also revealed narrow but distinctly vertical structures in Saturn’s F ring. Because of the position of the sun—directly overhead at noon, from Saturn’s perspective—and the fact that we’re seeing the rings edge-on, far more detailed images are possible than usual, including very distinct shadows cast by otherwise unseen objects. These include not only the mysterious object cutting a swathe through the relatively narrow F ring, above, but two other vertical structures within the F ring objects. One of the vertical objects can be seen extending outward from the core of the F right, and a third casting a shadow that extend past the Roche division between the rings, and appearing on the A ring. The easiest to understand discussions of these new images are from Phil Plait here and here. The official press release from NASA is here.

Tonight is the “best” night, in terms of sheer numbers of visible meteors per hour,

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to see the Perseids. The Perseids are the dust and debris from the Comet Swift-Tuttle, and an annual August event. The moon will be fairly bright; it’s a 55% Gibbous moon, so you’ll want to avoid looking directly at the moon, since it’s just as much a distracting source of light pollution as city and traffic lights are. It’s a good night to find a quiet, safe, away-from-city lights spot, and spread a blanket on the ground, and watch for “shooting stars.” No particular patch of sky will be “better” than another, but a fair number will be meteors; you’ll see their “tails” pointing back at their source in the constellation Perseus, much as this diagram suggests. Around 9 to 11pm, your local time, both the moon and Perseus will be lower in the sky, to the North; that means that there will be less glare from the moon to distract you. At around 1am, the largest number of the Perseids are expected to be visible, as many as 80 to 200 an hour. Keep in mind that some of the streaks you’ll see are man-made communication and spy satellites; you can double check using the satellite tracking page here. Spaceweather.com has already started posting images taken by people of this year’s Perseid shower here. There are some viewing suggestions here.

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The total solar eclipse July 22, 2009 set a record for the longest and darkest of the 21st century. In eastern China and India today, the eclipse was watched in numbers under its trajectory across Southeast Asia. Reports of the day quickly becoming pitch black also accompanied by a drop in temperature, spooking zoo animals and inspiring reflection in onlookers. The eclipse lasted 6 minutes and 39 seconds and will not be surpassed in length until January 2132.The stunning spectacle in the sky was 2 of 3 total eclipses happening in a 1-month period. The third will occur August 6th.More information can be found at NASA’s eclipse bulletin board. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpubs/20090722/rp.html