Explore Space Together
This light-year-long knot of interstellar gas and dust resembles a caterpillar on its way to a feast. But the meat of the story is not only what this cosmic caterpillar eats for lunch, but also what’s eating it. Harsh winds from extremely bright stars are blasting ultraviolet radiation at this “wanna-be” star and sculpting the gas and dust into its long shape.
Here are some beautiful space photos and videos that have been posted on the Internet recently. Enjoy!
This is onboard video of our latest mission, The Centennial Flight, that carried your star name into space June 21, 2013 from Spaceport America, New Mexico. It shows what it would be like to be on board the rocket, looking down as the rocket flies into space. Toward the end of the video you’ll see a note indicating “Apogee … 119 km.” That’s the point where the spacecraft reaches its maximum altitude (about 74 miles).
The beautiful, ringed planet Saturn rules the night sky this month in the Name A Star Live constellation Virgo. You can use the Moon to find this astronomical jewel, and use just about any telescope to see its rings! August also presents the best meteor shower of the year, the Perseid meteor shower. Read about this year’s Perseids in a separate blog post.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is set,
And the grass with dew is wet,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the traveler in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see where to go
If you did not twinkle so.
In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark
Lights the traveler in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
The beautiful, ringed planet Saturn rules the night sky this month in the Name A Star Live constellation Virgo. You can use the Moon to find this astronomical jewel, and use just about any telescope to see its rings!
Here are some beautiful space photos and videos that have been posted on the Internet recently. Enjoy!
The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth’s night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. This sharp and colorful close-up of the dying star’s nebula was recorded in 2009 by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3, installed during the final shuttle servicing mission. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star’s dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).
This July Fourth the solar system is showing off some fireworks of its own.
Superficially resembling a skyrocket, comet ISON is hurtling toward the sun presently at a whopping 48,000 mph (77,00 kph).
Its swift motion is captured in this time-lapse movie made from a sequence of pictures taken May 8, 2013, by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. At the time the images were taken, the comet was 403 million miles (649 million kilometers) from Earth, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The movie shows a sequence of Hubble observations taken over a 43-minute span and compresses this into just five seconds. The comet travels 34,000 miles (55,000 kilometers) in this brief video, or 7 percent of the distance between Earth and the moon. The deep-space visitor streaks silently against the background stars.
Unlike a firework, the comet is not combusting, but in fact is pretty cold. Its skyrocket-looking tail is really a streamer of gas and dust bleeding off the icy nucleus, which is surrounded by a bright star-like-looking coma. The pressure of the solar wind sweeps the material into a tail, like a breeze blowing a windsock.
As the comet warms as it moves closer to the sun, its rate of sublimation (a process similar to evaporation in which solid matter transitions directly into gas) will increase. The comet will get brighter and its tail will grow longer. The comet is predicted to reach naked-eye visibility in November.
The comet is named after the organization that discovered it, the Russia-based International Scientific Optical Network.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., in Washington, D.C.
Except for the rings of Saturn, the Ring Nebula (M57) is probably the most famous celestial band. Its classic appearance is understood to be due to our own perspective, though. The recent mapping of the expanding nebula’s 3-D structure, based in part on this clear Hubble image, indicates that the nebula is a relatively dense, donut-like ring wrapped around the middle of a football-shaped cloud of glowing gas. The view from planet Earth looks down the long axis of the football, face-on to the ring. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from the dying, once sun-like star, now a tiny pinprick of light seen at the nebula’s center. Intense ultraviolet light from the hot central star ionizes atoms in the gas. In the picture, the blue color in the center is ionized helium, the cyan color of the inner ring is the glow of hydrogen and oxygen, and the reddish color of the outer ring is from nitrogen and sulfur. The Ring Nebula is about one light-year across and 2,000 light-years away.
“Existence A Time Lapse Project” Some beautiful imagery of the Milky Way as well as scenes from urban and remote locations.
Here are some beautiful space photos and videos that have been posted on the Internet recently. Enjoy!
Video of International Space Station commander Chris Hadfield singing David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ from the ISS.
Video of the May 10 solar eclipse as viewed from Australia!
The beautiful, ringed planet Saturn rules the night sky this month in the Name A Star Live constellation Virgo. You can use the Moon to find this astronomical jewel, and use just about any telescope to see its rings! But be sure to check out the elusive planet Mercury this month as June affords the best view of Mercury for 2013.
Saturn is an excellent telescopic object this summer. For those of you in the northern hemisphere of Earth (e.g., North America, Europe, Japan) Saturn will appear above your southern horizon after sunset. For those of you in the southern hemisphere (e.g., Australia, New Zealand, South America) Saturn will appear above your northern horizon after sunset.
Finding your star in the night sky
Stars are located within constellations, which are just areas of the night sky. Scorpius, Aries and Taurus are examples of constellations. Your Name A Star Live Star Certificate displays the name of your constellation. You can use our online World Constellation Guide to determine if you can see your constellation during the evening hours (between sunset and midnight). Of course, you’ll need a telescope to see your star. But you can see your constellation without the use of a telescope. You can also find your constellation by using our Virtual Planetarium™ astronomy software. A planisphere is another useful device.
Name A Star Live will launch the first ever fashion line to fly in space! We’ve partnered with the eco-fashion brand Teeki in an effort to help promote awareness of a more sustainable future and lifestyle for humanity. Along with our customers’ star names, we will launch the material from which eight pairs of special edition yoga pants will be made for the new Teeki line, “The Age of Aquarius.” The launch, known as The Centennial Flight, is scheduled for liftoff June 21, 2013 out of Spaceport America, New Mexico.
This “Earth Rise Service” mission will fly Teeki’s payload in UP Aerospace’s SpaceLoft™ XL SL-7 launch vehicle. After flying in the zero gravity environment of space, the spacecraft carrying the payload will safely return to Earth via parachute. Once recovered it will be retrieved and returned to Teeki, which will then use the material in manufacturing.
Teeki has joined us in supporting the exploration of outer space “because ultimately it is about a journey of discovery, sustainability, and making our Planet (our only precious habitat) a better and healthier place to live,” said Teeki owner/designer, Lindsay Hemric.
The replicas of these special edition yoga pants made their debut at the historic Vibiana Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday April 25th as part of the UPLIFT Yoga Bash, held by the non-profit organization Keep Friendship Alive to benefit middle school children. This exciting new clothing line was worn by about half of the approximately 700 people who attended the event, including aerial dancers and yoga instructors. In addition, Name A Star Live will launch personal messages and ‘aspirations’ collected by Teeki, along with Teeki’s material. These messages were collected, free of charge, from those in attendance at the Yoga Bash. Members of the public may submit message via Teeki’s website.
About Teeki
An eco-friendly fashion forward clothing manufacturer, located in Los Angeles, California. Teekly uses only recycled and sustainable materials to produce functional clothing and strives to create a sense of environmental awareness.
Here are some beautiful space photos and videos that have been posted on the Internet recently. Enjoy!
“Alchemy” — A time-lapse video that shows the beauty of the seasons, including some wonderful views of the Milky Way!
Looking like an apparition rising from whitecaps of interstellar foam, the iconic Horsehead Nebula has graced astronomy books ever since its discovery more than a century ago. The nebula is a favorite target for amateur and professional astronomers. It is shadowy in optical light. It appears transparent and ethereal when seen at infrared wavelengths. The rich tapestry of the Horsehead Nebula pops out against the backdrop of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies that easily are visible in infrared light. Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team
The Orion nebula is featured in this sweeping image from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.
This metaphor of a cosmic fire of creation is apt. The Orion nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged. It is one of the closest sites of star formation to Earth and therefore provides astronomers with the best view of stellar birth in action. Many other telescopes have been used to study the nebula in detail, finding wonders such as planet-forming disks forming around newly forming stars. WISE was an all-sky survey giving it the ability to see these sites of star formation in a larger context. This view spans more than six times the width of the full moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. In it, we see the Orion nebula surrounded by large amounts of interstellar dust, colored green.
Astronomers now realize that the Orion nebula is part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which also includes the Flame nebula. This complex in our Milky Way galaxy is actively making new stars. It is filled with dust warmed by the light of the new stars within, making the dust glow in infrared light.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages, and operated WISE for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The spacecraft was put into hibernation mode after it scanned the entire sky twice, completing its main objectives. Edward Wright is the principal investigator and is at UCLA. The mission was selected competitively under NASA’s Explorers Program managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah. The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
“We Are the Explorers” — a NASA video that provides a summary of NASA’s history and futuristic space technology. This almost 3-minute film has inspired the Aerospace Industries Association to produce a 30-second trailer about the U.S. space program — a trailer that will be shown before moviegoers who see the new Star Trek film, “Star Trek: Into Darkness” opening in theaters May 17.