Astronaut Tweets

The Mystic Mountain - HH 901

This is a NASA Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared-light image of a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby stars in the tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. The image marks the 20th anniversary of Hubble’s launch and deployment into an orbit around Earth.

The image reveals a plethora of stars behind the gaseous veil of the nebula’s wall of hydrogen, laced with dust. The foreground pillar becomes semi-transparent because infrared light from background stars penetrates through much of the dust. A few stars inside the pillar also become visible. The false colors are assigned to three different infrared wavelength ranges.

Credit: NASA, ESA

Jupiter’s storms /NASA

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Planet X came to join the party with a topic on earth like planets! Source: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/photos/10-nasa-images-of-planets-like-earth/more-discoveries-to-come#top-desktop

Here’s the orbital period of our solar system’s 8 major planets (how long it takes each to travel around the sun). Their size is to scale and their speed is accurate relative to Earth’s. The repetition of each GIF is proportional to their orbital period. Mercury takes less than 3 months to zoom around Sol, Neptune takes nearly 165 years.  

A Multi-Camera 360° Panoramic Timelapse of the Stars by Vincent Brady [VIDEO]

Just so you know, you can always watch the Earth live from the ISS. Its really relaxing to me (the music they play is soothing too)

Official video with credit where appropriate for the above images.

Saturn’s hexagonal storm system in it’s north pole

Long exposure of the sky over  Yunnan Province in Southwest China.

“ ...The lingering airglow is due to chemiluminescence, the production of light through chemical excitation. Originating at an altitude similar to aurora, it can found around the globe. The chemical energy is initially provided by the Sun's extreme ultraviolet radiation.” X

The scene reflects on the  Yuanyang rice terraces as Sirius  shines brightly above.

Credit to  Cui Yongjiang

The central bulge of our Milky Way Galaxy rises above a sea of clouds in this ethereal scene. An echo of the Milky Way’s dark dust lanes, the volcanic peak in foreground silhouette is on France’s Réunion Island in the southern Indian Ocean. Photo by Luc Perrot.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Spies Newly-Discovered Comet NEOWISE by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center