挪威上空的蜂鸟极光
A snowy landscape sits below a star filled sky. Dominating the frame is a large aurora in red, green, yellow, purple, white. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
星空下是一片雪景。红、绿、黄、紫、白四色的大型极光占据了整个画面。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
寻找月球上的男人
Earth’s Moon is shown just beyond a rocky hill. The Moon is near full phase. On the hill the silhouette of a person looking through a telescope can be seen. A rollover darkens part of the Moon that looks to some like a human face. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
地球的月亮出现在一座岩石山丘的上方，月亮接近满月。在山丘上可以看到一个通过望远镜观测的人的剪影。月亮的一部分变暗了，看起来像是人脸。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
满月与舞动的掠鸟群
2022年1月22日 The Full Moon and the Dancer Image Credit & Copyright: Elena Pinna Explanation: On Monday, January’s Full Moon rose as the Sun set. Spotted near the eastern horizon, its warm hues are seen in this photo taken near Cagliari, capital city of the Italian island of Sardinia. Of course the familiar patterns of light and dark across the Moon’s nearside are created by bright rugged highlands and dark smooth lunar maria. Traditionally the patterns are seen as pareidolia, giving the visual illusion of a human face like the Man in the Moon, or familiar animal like the Moon rabbit. But for a moment the swarming murmuration, also known as a flock of starlings, frozen in the snapshot’s field of view lends another pareidolic element…
罗夏克墨渍极光
2021年10月30日 A Rorschach Aurora Image Credit & Copyright: Göran Strand Explanation: If you see this as a monster’s face, don’t panic. It’s only pareidolia, often experienced as the tendency to see faces in patterns of light and shadow. In fact, the startling visual scene is actually a 180 degree panorama of Northern Lights, digitally mirrored like inkblots on a folded piece of paper. Frames used to construct it were captured on a September night from the middle of a waterfall-crossing suspension bridge in Jamtland, Sweden. With geomagnetic storms triggered by recent solar activity, auroral displays could be very active at planet Earth’s high latitudes in the coming days. But if you see a monster’s face in your own neighborhood tomorrow night, it might just be…
阿方索与阿尔扎赫尔环形山
2021年7月16日 Alphonsus and Arzachel Image Credit & Copyright: Noel Donnard Explanation: Point your telescope at tonight’s first quarter Moon. Along the terminator, the shadow line between night and day, you might find these two large craters staring back at you with an owlish gaze. Alphonsus (left) and Arzachel are ancient impact craters on the north eastern shores of Mare Nubium, the lunar Sea of Clouds. The larger Alphonsus is over 100 kilometers in diameter. A low sun angle highlights the crater’s sharp 1.5 kilometer high central peak in bright sunlight and dark shadow. Scouting for potential Apollo moon landing sites, the Ranger 9 spacecraft returned closeup photographs of Alphonsus before it crashed in the crater just northeast (left) of its central mountain in 1965. Alpetragius,…
火星脸谱
2021年07月04日 The Face on Mars Image Credit: NASA, Viking 1 Orbiter Explanation: Wouldn’t it be fun if clouds were castles? Wouldn’t it be fun if the laundry on the bedroom chair was a superhero? Wouldn’t it be fun if rock mesas on Mars were interplanetary monuments to the human face? Clouds, though, are floating droplets of water and ice. Laundry is cotton, wool, or plastic, woven into garments. Famous Martian rock mesas known by names like the Face on Mars appear quite natural when seen more clearly on better images. Is reality boring? Nobody knows why some clouds make rain. Nobody knows if life ever developed on Mars. Nobody knows why the laundry on the bedroom chair smells like root beer. Scientific exploration can not…