保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2022年4月26日 Planet Parade over Sydney Opera House Image Credit & Copyright: Prasun Agrawal Explanation: The world is waking up to a picturesque planet parade. Just before dawn, the eastern skies over much of planet Earth are decorated by a notable line of familiar planets. In much of Earth’s northern hemisphere, this line of planets appears most ne...
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a batch of the company’s Starlink internet satellites lifts off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, on April 21, 2022. On the right, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard sits atop a mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, while on...
NASA钱德拉X射线天文台对100多个星系进行的一项新调查发现，有迹象表明，黑洞正在吞噬数千颗恒星，以增加其质量。图中所示的4个星系是样本中29个星系中的4个，这些星系显示了黑洞在其中心附近不断生长的证据。来自钱德拉（蓝色）的X射线被叠加在NASA哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的NGC 1385、NGC 1566、NGC 3344和NGC 6503的光学图像上。翻转图中出现的方框勾勒出正在萌芽的黑洞的位置。 这些新的结果表明，至少其中一些黑洞要达到现在的大小，经历了某种程度上暴力的方式——恒星毁灭的规模是前所未见。 天文学家对两类不同的黑洞进行了详细的研究。较小的种类是“恒星质量”黑洞，其质量通常为太阳质量的5到30倍。在光谱的另一端是生活在大多数大星系中间的超大质量黑洞，其质量达几百万甚至几十亿个太阳质量。近年来，也有证...
2022年4月25日 The Great Nebula in Carina Image Credit & Copyright: Ignacio Javier Diaz Bobillo Explanation: In one of the brightest parts of Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur. NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina, is home to massive stars and changing nebulas. The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324), the bright structure just bel...
2022年4月24日 Split the Universe Image Credit: NASA, Erwin Schrödinger’s cat Explanation: Just now, before you hit the button, two future universes are possible. After pressing the button, though, you will live in only one. A real-web version of the famous Schrödinger’s cat experiment clicking the red button in the featured astronaut image should transform that...
2022年4月23日 Messier 104 Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing & Copyright: Ignacio Diaz Bobillo Explanation: A gorgeous spiral galaxy, Messier 104 is famous for its nearly edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust lanes. Seen in silhouette against an extensive central bulge of stars, the swath of cosmic dust lends a br...
The crew aboard the International Space Station has a window on Planet Earth. In this image an orbital sunrise beams across Earth’s horizon revealing silhouetted clouds above the South China Sea. Every 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets. Learn More International Space Station Facts and Figure...
2022年4月22日 Planet Earth at Twilight Image Credit: ISS Expedition 2 Crew, Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, NASA Explanation: No sudden, sharp boundary marks the passage of day into night in this gorgeous view of ocean and clouds over our fair planet Earth. Instead, the shadow line or terminator is diffuse and shows the gradual transition to darkness...
We’re celebrating the Hubble Space Telescope’s 32nd birthday with a stunning look at an unusual close-knit collection of five galaxies, called The Hickson Compact Group 40. This eclectic galaxy grouping includes three spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy, and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy. Somehow, these different galaxies crossed paths...
2022年4月21日 Apollo 16 Moon Panorama Image Credit: Apollo 16, NASA; Panorama Assembly: Mike Constantine Explanation: Fifty years ago, April 20, 1972, Apollo 16’s lunar module Orion touched down on the Moon’s near side in the south-central Descartes Highlands. While astronaut Ken Mattingly orbited overhead in Casper the friendly command and service ...