保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2021年10月16日 The Moona Lisa Image Credit & Copyright: Gianni Sarcone and Marcella Giulia Pace Explanation: Only natural colors of the Moon in planet Earth’s sky appear in this creative visual presentation. Arranged as pixels in a framed image, the lunar disks were photographed at different times. Their varying hues are ultimately due to reflected s...
With the Lucy spacecraft aboard, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is seen as it is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Lucy will be the first spacecraft to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. Like the mission’s...
2021年10月15日 NGC 289: Swirl in the Southern Sky Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby Explanation: About 70 million light-years distant, gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 289 is larger than our own Milky Way. Seen nearly face-on, its bright core and colorful central disk give way to remarkably faint, bluish spiral arms. The extensive arms sweep well over 100 tho...
美国国家航空航天局（NASA）和欧洲航天局（European Space Agency, ESA）正在开展一项活动，将火星样本送回地球。 9月1日，NASA的毅力号火星车展开了它的机械臂，将一个钻头放在火星表面，并向下钻了大约2英寸（6厘米），以提取一个岩石核心。火星车后来将岩芯密封在样本管内。这一历史性事件标志着航天器首次从另一颗行星收集岩石样本，这些样本可以由未来的航天器返回地球。 火星样本返回是一个多任务活动，旨在检索坚毅号将在未来几年内收集的岩心。目前处于概念设计和技术开发阶段，该活动是航天史上最雄心勃勃的努力之一，涉及多个航天器、多次发射和几十个政府机构。 “自20世纪80年代以来，从火星返回样本一直是行星科学界的优先事项，而最终实现这一目标的潜在机会释放出了一股创造力。”位于华盛顿NASA总部的NA...
NASA’s Lucy mission will explore a record-breaking number of asteroids, flying by one asteroid in the solar system’s main asteroid belt, and by seven Trojan asteroids. 美国宇航局的露西任务将探索破纪录的小行星，飞过太阳系主小行星带的一颗小行星，以及七颗特洛伊小行星。 This illustration is of the Lucy mission’s seven targets: the binary asteroid Patroclus/Menoetius, Eurybates, Orus, Leucus, Polyme...
2021年10月14日 NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Ignacio Diaz Bobillo Explanation: A mere seven hundred light years from Earth, toward the constellation Aquarius, a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula, typical of this final ...
2021年10月13日 NGC 7822: Cosmic Question Mark Image Credit & Copyright: Yizhou Zhang Explanation: It may look like a huge cosmic question mark, but the big question really is how does the bright gas and dark dust tell this nebula’s history of star formation. At the edge of a giant molecular cloud toward the northern constellation Cepheus, the glowing...
A violent and chaotic-looking mass of gas and dust is seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image of a nearby supernova remnant. Denoted N 63A, the object is the remains of a massive star that exploded, spewing its gaseous layers out into an already turbulent region. 在这张哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的附近超新星残余物的图像中，可以看到一团剧烈而混乱的气体和灰尘。这个天体被称为N 63A，是一颗大质量恒星的残骸，它爆炸后将其气态层喷出到一个已经很混乱的区域。 T...
这张2016年的照片显示了一条裂缝，在几个月内，裂缝进一步扩大，并从南极洲的拉森C冰架上释放出一座特拉华州大小的冰山。在裂缝的一侧可以看到mélange的粗糙表面。 影像来源：NASA/GSFC/OIB 随着南极洲冰架上被称为“mélange”的冰雪碎石融化，即使在寒冷的冬天，裂缝也会扩大，冰山也会断裂。 位于南加州的美国宇航局喷气推进实验室和加州大学欧文分校的研究人员发现了一个冰雪过程，可能导致一座特拉华州大小的冰山在2017年南半球的巨大拉森C冰架上断裂。这一发现表明，mélange——一种风吹雪、冰山碎片以及冰架内和周围的海冰的混合物——于将冰架固定在一起至关重要。这一发现意味着，由于气温上升，这些冰架的破裂速度可能比科学家预期的还要快。 冰架是延伸到海洋上的冰川漂浮的舌头，减缓了南极洲的冰川对全球海平面...
2021年10月12日 Fireball over Lake Louise Image Credit & Copyright: Hao Qin Explanation: What makes a meteor a fireball? First of all, everyone agrees that a fireball is an exceptionally bright meteor. Past that, the International Astronomical Union defines a fireball as a meteor brighter than apparent magnitude -4, which corresponds (roughly) to being brig...