保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2023年11月20日 The Horsehead Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Mark Hanson & Martin Pugh, SSRO, PROMPT, CTIO, NSF Explanation: Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by chance has assumed this recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is some 1,500 light-years distant, embedded in the vast Orio...
Born barely 20 years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight, Alan Shepard grew up to fly combat missions in World War II, test multiple new aircraft, become the first American in space, and ultimately hit the first golf shot on the Moon. Born on Nov. 18, 1923, Shepard lifted off in the Freedom 7 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 5, 1961, begin...
2023年11月19日 Space Station, Solar Prominences, Sun Image Credit & Copyright: Mehmet Ergün Explanation: That’s no sunspot. It’s the International Space Station (ISS) caught passing in front of the Sun. Sunspots, individually, have a dark central umbra, a lighter surrounding penumbra, and no Dragon capsules attached. By contrast, the ISS is a ...
2023年11月18日 Planet Earth from Orion Image Credit: NASA, Artemis I Explanation: One year ago a Space Launch System rocket left planet Earth on November 16, 2022 at 1:47am EST carrying the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis I mission, the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems. Over an hour after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center’s h...
2023年11月17日 Nightlights in Qeqertaq Image Credit & Copyright: Dennis Lehtonen Explanation: Light pollution is usually not a problem in Qeqertaq. In western Greenland the remote coastal village boasted a population of 114 in 2020. Lights still shine in its dark skies though. During planet Earth’s recent intense geomagnetic storm, on November 6 thes...
In this photo, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), carrying the Orion spacecraft, lifts off the pad at Launch Complex 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:47 a.m. EST on Nov. 16, 2022. Set on a path to the Moon, this officially began the Artemis I mission. Over the course of 25.5 days, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 mile...
Astronaut William R. Pogue, Skylab 4 pilot, recorded this wide scene of his crewmates, astronauts Edward G. Gibson (left), science pilot, and Jerry P. Carr (right), commander, on the other end of the orbital workshop on Feb. 1, 1974. Also in the frame are parts of three spacesuits, used on several EVA sessions during the third and final mission on the Skylab...
2023年11月16日 Daytime Moon Meets Morning Star Image Credit & Copyright: Katarzyna Kaczmarczyk Explanation: Venus now appears as Earth’s brilliant morning star, shining above the southeastern horizon before dawn. For early morning risers, the silvery celestial beacon rose predawn in a close pairing with a waning crescent Moon on Thursday, November 9....
2023年11月15日 M1: The Incredible Expanding Crab Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Jeff Hester (ASU), Allison Loll (ASU), Tea Temim (Princeton University) Explanation: Cataloged as M1, the Crab Nebula is the first on Charles Messier’s famous list of things which are not comets. In fact, the Crab Nebula is now known to be a supernova remnant, an expandi...
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility C-130 aircraft, shown in this image from Oct. 28, 2023, delivered the agency’s Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) payload to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. This was the first mission to Antarctica for the plane. The GUSTO mission, launching aboard a football-stadium-sized, zero-pressure scient...