所有人都在关注冰巨星
NASA的新视野号航天器计划在今年秋天从太阳系外围的遥远位置观测天王星和海王星，任务团队正在邀请全球业余天文爱好者一起参与，同时观测这两颗冰巨星，为太空科学做出真正的贡献。
新视野号的红外图像
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….
北落师门的尘埃碎片盘
2023年5月11日 Fomalhaut’s Dusty Debris Disk Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Processing: András Gáspár (Univ. of Arizona), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Science: A. Gáspár (Univ. of Arizona) et al. Explanation: Fomalhaut is a bright star, a 25 light-year voyage from planet Earth in the direction of the constellation Piscis Austrinus. Astronomers first noticed Fomalhaut’s excess infrared emission in the 1980s. Space and ground-based telescopes have since identified the infrared emission’s source as a disk of dusty debris surrounding the hot, young star related to the ongoing formation of a planetary system. But this sharp infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI camera reveals details of Fomalhaut’s debris disk never before seen, including a large dust cloud in the outer ring that is possible evidence for…
鸟神星与卫星
2022年12月31日 Moon over Makemake Illustration Credit: Alex H. Parker (Southwest Research Institute) Explanation: Makemake (sounds like MAH-kay MAH-kay), second brightest dwarf planet of the Kuiper belt, has a moon. Nicknamed MK2, Makemake’s moon reflects sunlight with a charcoal-dark surface, about 1,300 times fainter than its parent body. Still, in 2016 it was spotted in Hubble Space Telescope observations intended to search for faint companions with the same technique used to find the small satellites of Pluto. Just as for Pluto and its satellites, further observations of Makemake and orbiting moon will measure the system’s mass and density and allow a broader understanding of the distant worlds. About 160 kilometers (100 miles) across compared to Makemake’s 1,400 kilometer diameter, MK2’s relative size and contrast are shown…