保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
NASA的OSIRIS-REx航天器抵达小行星Bennu不久后，该任务的科学团队意外发现，这颗小行星可能是活跃的，或持续向太空发射粒子。正在对Bennu的研究及其最终将返回地球的样本可能会阐明这种有趣现象为何发生的原因。 1月6日，在航天器进入其Bennu的第一个轨道一周后，OSIRIS-REx探测器的导航摄像机拍摄到的图像中，首次观察到了粒子喷射事件。乍一看，这些粒子似乎是小行星背后的恒星发射的，但仔细观察后，研究小组意识到，这颗小行星正在从其表面喷出物质。在得出这些粒子不会危及航天器安全的结论后，任务小组开始了专门的观测，以便全面记录这些活动。 “在Bennu的许多惊喜中，粒子的喷射激发了我们的好奇心，我们在过去的几个月中一直在研究这个谜团。”图森亚利桑那大学OSIRIS-REx首席研究员丹特·劳雷塔塔（D...
2019 December 7 Lines of Time Image Credit & Copyright: Anton Komlev Explanation: In time stars trace lines through the night sky on a rotating planet. Taken over two hours or more, these digitally added consecutive exposures were made with a camera and wide angle lens fixed to a tripod near Orel farm, Primorsky Krai, Russia, planet Earth. The stars tra...
北京时间12月5日凌晨2时30分（美国东部时间12月4日13时30分），NASA召开媒体电话会议，宣布帕克太阳探测器首批研究成果，研究成果于12月5日凌晨2时发表在自然杂志。 帕克太阳探测器比以往任何探测器都接近太阳，意味着我们将以前所未有的方式理解太阳高能粒子和太阳风。太阳高能粒子是来自太阳的高能量粒子，对太空中的宇航员和卫星有害，太阳风是来自太阳的超高速等离子体流。以下简述下帕克太阳探测器的5个新发现。 帕克太阳探测器看到的宇宙尘埃（模拟图），在靠近太阳的地方开始变得稀少。 Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger 一，无尘区域，由于尘埃反射太阳光，我们在地球上就能看到它们的存在，所以我们很早就知道太空中充满了尘埃。...
2019 December 6 Pleiades to Hyades Image Credit & Copyright: Amir H. Abolfath (TWAN) Explanation: This cosmic vista stretches almost 20 degrees from top to bottom, across the dusty constellation Taurus. It begins at the Pleiades and ends at the Hyades, two star clusters recognized since antiquity in Earth’s night sky. At top, the compact Pleiades s...
Within the tempestuous Carina Nebula lies “Mystic Mountain.” This three-light-year-tall cosmic pinnacle, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 in 2010, is made up primarily of dust and gas, and exhibits signs of intense star-forming activity. The colors in this composite image correspond to the glow of oxygen (blue), hydrogen and nitroge...
2019 December 5 Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744 Image Credit & Copyright: Zhuokai Liu, Jiang Yuhang Explanation: Beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6744 is nearly 175,000 light-years across, larger than our own Milky Way. It lies some 30 million light-years distant in the southern constellation Pavo and appears as only a faint, extended object in small telescopes. We se...
Robots need a place to stay in space, too. NASA is attaching a “robot hotel” to the outside of the International Space Station with the upcoming launch of the Robotic Tool Stowage (RiTS), a protective storage unit for critical robotic tools. On Dec. 4, RiTS is slated to launch aboard the 19th SpaceX commercial resupply mission. Its first residents will be tw...
2019 December 4 Electric Night Image Credit & Copyright: Ivan Pedretti Explanation: It may appear, at first, like the Galaxy is producing the lightning, but really it’s the Earth. The featured nighttime landscape was taken from a southern tip of the Italian Island of Sardinia in early June. The foreground rocks and shrubs are near the famous Capo S...
Just after its close flyby of Jupiter on Nov. 3, 2019, NASA’s Juno spacecraft caught this striking view of Jupiter’s southern hemisphere as the spacecraft sped away from the giant planet. This image captures massive cyclones near Jupiter’s south pole, as well as the chaotic clouds of the folded filamentary region — the turbulent area betwee...
2019 December 3 M27: The Dumbbell Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Steve Mazlin Explanation: Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The first hint of our Sun’s future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier...