活跃太阳的黑子

活跃太阳的黑子

ByNASA中文

2023年7月11日 Sunspots on an Active Sun Image Credit: NASA, SDO; Processing & Copyright: Şenol Şanlı Explanation: Why is our Sun so active now? No one is sure. An increase in surface activity was expected because our Sun is approaching solar maximum in 2025. However, last month our Sun sprouted more sunspots than in any month during the entire previous 11-year solar cycle — and even dating back to 2002. The featured picture is a composite of images taken every day from January to June by NASA‘s Solar Dynamic Observatory. Showing a high abundance of sunspots, large individual spots can be tracked across the Sun’s disk, left to right, over about two weeks. As a solar cycle continues, sunspots typically appear closer to the equator. Sunspots…

新视野号的红外图像

新视野号的红外图像

ByNASA中文

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, just before closest approach on July 14, 2015. The image combines blue, red, and infrared images taken by the spacecraft’s Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC); the colors are processed to best highlight the variation of surface properties across Charon. New Horizons conducted a six-month-long reconnaissance flyby study of Pluto and its moons in summer 2015, helping us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system, then venturing deeper into the distant, mysterious Kuiper Belt – a relic of solar system formation. The spacecraft is now more than 5 billion miles from Earth and uses machine-learning AI software to make searches beyond the Kuiper Belt much faster and more productive….

NGC 6559的恒星、尘埃、与星云

NGC 6559的恒星、尘埃、与星云

ByNASA中文

2023年7月10日 Stars, Dust and Nebula in NGC 6559 Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Telescope Live Explanation: When stars form, pandemonium reigns. A textbook case is the star forming region NGC 6559. Visible in the featured image are red glowing emission nebulas of hydrogen, blue reflection nebulas of dust, dark absorption nebulas of dust, and the stars that formed from them. The first massive stars formed from the dense gas will emit energetic light and winds that erode, fragment, and sculpt their birthplace. And then they explode. The resulting morass can be as beautiful as it is complex. After tens of millions of years, the dust boils away, the gas gets swept away, and all that is left is a bare open cluster of stars….

在劫难逃的海山二

在劫难逃的海山二

ByNASA中文

2023年7月9日 Doomed Star Eta Carinae Image Credit & Copyright: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & License: Judy Schmidt Explanation: Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when – it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. Eta Carinae‘s mass – about 100 times greater than our Sun – makes it an excellent candidate for a full blown supernova. Historical records do show that about 170 years ago Eta Carinae underwent an unusual outburst that made it one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. Eta Carinae, in the Keyhole Nebula, is the only star currently thought to emit natural LASER light. This featured image brings out details in the unusual nebula that surrounds this rogue star….

史蒂克妮坑

史蒂克妮坑

ByNASA中文

2023年7月8日 Stickney Crater Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA Explanation: Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red Planet’s moons in 1877. Over 9 kilometers across, Stickney is nearly half the diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that blasted out the crater likely came close to shattering the tiny moon. This enhanced-color image of Stickney and surroundings was recorded by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed within some six thousand kilometers of Phobos in March of 2008. Even though the surface gravity of asteroid-like Phobos is less than 1/1000th Earth’s gravity, streaks suggest…

普赛克航天器的启动前处理

普赛克航天器的启动前处理

ByNASA中文

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is nearly complete as it rests in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers. Psyche is targeted to launch in October 2023. Image Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux 2023年6月26日，NASA位于佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心附近的天体科技太空运营中心，其普赛克航天器已接近完成，正在洁净室里休息。工程师和技术人员已经开始在赛克航天器上进行最后的组装、测试和发射操作，除了安装太阳能电池板和成像仪之外，航天器的组装几乎已经完成。赛克航天器计划于2023年10月发射。 影像来源：NASA/Frank Michaux

英仙双星团

英仙双星团

ByNASA中文

2023年7月7日 The Double Cluster in Perseus Image Credit & Copyright: Mårten Frosth Explanation: This pretty starfield spans about three full moons (1.5 degrees) across the heroic northern constellation of Perseus. It holds the famous pair of open star clusters, h and Chi Persei. Also cataloged as NGC 869 (top) and NGC 884, both clusters are about 7,000 light-years away and contain stars much younger and hotter than the Sun. Separated by only a few hundred light-years, the clusters are both 13 million years young based on the ages of their individual stars, evidence that they were likely a product of the same star-forming region. Always a rewarding sight in binoculars, the Double Cluster is even visible to the unaided eye from dark locations. Tomorrow’s picture:…

轨道日落的最后一缕光线

轨道日落的最后一缕光线

ByNASA中文

The last rays of an orbital sunset begin fading in Earth’s atmosphere silhouetting the cloud tops in this June 24, 2023, photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 271 miles above the southernmost tip of South America. The space station makes 16 orbits of the Earth in 24 hours, so astronauts on the orbital outpost see 16 sunrises and sunsets. Get more quick facts about the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA 2023年6月24日，国际空间站在南美洲最南端上空271英里的轨道上拍摄的这张照片显示，轨道日落的最后一道光线开始在地球大气层中消退，勾勒出云顶的轮廓。 国际空间站在24小时内绕地球运行16圈，因此空间站上的宇航员可以看到16次日出和日落。了解更多关于国际空间站的快速事实。 影像来源：NASA

烟火与超级月亮

烟火与超级月亮

ByNASA中文

2023年7月6日 Fireworks vs Supermoon Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Seeley Explanation: On July 4, an almost Full Moon rose in planet Earth’s evening skies. Also known as a Buck Moon, the full lunar phase (full on July 3 at 11:39 UTC) was near perigee, the closest point in the Moon’s almost monthly orbit around planet Earth. That qualified this July’s Full Moon as a supermoon, the first of four supermoons in 2023. Seen from Cocoa Beach along Florida’s Space Coast on July 4, any big, bright, beautiful Full Moon would still have to compete for attention though. July’s super-moonrise was captured here against a super-colorful fireworks display. Tomorrow’s picture: pixels in space 烟火与超级月亮 影像版权与提供: Michael Seeley 说明: 在7月4日，一轮几乎满相的月亮在地球的夜空中升起。亦名为雄鹿月的这轮明月，满相点（7月3日11:39 UTC）在近地点附近，也就是说，在为期将近一个月的绕地轨道上，月亮来到了最接近地球的位置。所以今年7月的满月是超级月亮，这也是2023年4个超级月亮中的第一个。于7月4日，从佛罗里达州太空海岸的可可亚海滩看出去，这轮美丽的满月尽管大又亮，却无法占尽风采。因为在拍摄这轮超级月亮东升之时，前景有无比缤纷的烟花表演。 （Buck Moon 雄鹿月） 明日的图片: pixels in…