The secrets of the universe

 

Journey to Mars

 

Want to travel the same trek from #TheMartian movie? Thanks to our #JourneyToMars, you can!: http://t.co/sfvZqasl7Q pic.twitter.com/362OGnq4fe

— NASA (@NASA) 2015년 10월 12일

On the night of Oct. 8, a photographer in Harstad, Norway captured this image of the dancing northern lights. Auroras are created when fast-moving, magnetic solar material strikes Earth's magnetic bubble, the magnetosphere. This collision rattles the magnetosphere in an event called a geomagnetic storm, sending trapped charged particles zooming down magnetic field lines towards the atmosphere, where they collide brilliantly with molecules in the air, creating auroras. Though many geomagnetic storms are associated with clouds of solar material that explode from the sun in an event called a coronal mass ejection, or CME, this storm was caused by an especially fast stream of solar wind. "Geomagnetic storms caused by high-speed solar wind streams aren't uncommon," said Leila Mays, a space physicist at our Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Near solar minimum-when solar activity like CMEs are less frequent-these fast streams are actually the most common cause of geomagnetic storms that create auroras." Image courtesy of Johnny Henriksen/Spaceweather.com #nasa #space #photography #aurora #spaceweather #nasabeyond #sun #earth #science

NASA(@nasa)님이 게시한 사진님, 2015 10월 10 오전 9:26 PDT

When stars that are around the mass of the sun reach their final stages of life, they shed their outer layers into space, which appear as glowing clouds of gas called planetary nebulae. The ejection of mass in stellar burnout is irregular and not symmetrical, so that planetary nebulae can have very complex shapes. In the case of this one, the nebula forms a winding blue cloud that perfectly aligns with two stars at its center. In 1999 astronomers discovered that the star at the upper right is in fact the central star of the nebula, and the star to the lower left is probably a true physical companion of the central star. For tens of thousands of years the stellar core will be cocooned in spectacular clouds of gas and then, over a period of a few thousand years, the gas will fade away into the depths of the universe. The curving structure of this planetary nebula resembles a last goodbye before the star reaches its final stage of retirement as a white dwarf. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Serge Meunier #nasa #nebula #stars #space #astronomy #nasabeyond #science #hubble #hst #hubble25

NASA(@nasa)님이 게시한 사진님, 2015 10월 9 오전 9:11 PDT

Scientists compared ground-based videos of pulsating auroras—a certain type of aurora that appears as patches of brightness regularly flickering on and off—with satellite measurements of the numbers and energies of electrons raining down towards the surface from inside Earth’s magnetic bubble, the magnetosphere. The team found something unexpected: A drop in the number of low-energy electrons, long thought to have little or no effect, corresponds with especially fast changes in the shape and structure of pulsating auroras. This image of a colorful aurora was taken in Delta Junction, Alaska, on April 10, 2015. All auroras are created by energetic electrons, which rain down from Earth’s magnetic bubble and interact with particles in the upper atmosphere to create glowing lights that stretch across the sky. Credits: Image courtesy of Sebastian Saarloos #nasa #aurora #earth #earthrightnow #science

NASA(@nasa)님이 게시한 사진님, 2015 10월 7 오후 3:23 PDT

Before drifting off to sleep, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (@stationcdrkelly) captured this images from the International Space Station and wrote, " Day 180. Moonlight over Italy. #BuonaNotte Good night from @ISS! #YearInSpace‬." Kelly is living and working off the Earth, for the Earth aboard the station for a yearlong mission. Traveling the world about 250 miles above the Earth, and at 17,500 mph, he circumnavigates the globe more than a dozen times a day. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #spacestation #space #earth #iss

NASA(@nasa)님이 게시한 사진님, 2015 10월 4 오후 4:35 PDT

The sun unleashed no less than five solar flares in five days this week all from the same dynamic active region (June 21-25, 2015). Many of these were associated with coronal mass ejections, most of which impacted Earth and generated beautiful auroral displays. The images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. Flares are the bright flashes you see, followed by spirals of magnetic field lines as the active region reorganizes itself. Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA #nasa #aurora #sun #solarflare #space #earth #science

NASA(@nasa)님이 게시한 동영상님, 2015 6월 26 오후 2:55 PDT

This is the expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago. Called the Veil Nebula, the debris is one of the best-known supernova remnants, deriving its name from its delicate, draped filamentary structures. The entire nebula is 110 light-years across, covering six full moons on the sky as seen from Earth, and resides about 2,100 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. This view is a mosaic of six pictures from our Hubble Space Telescope of a small area roughly two light-years across, covering only a tiny fraction of the nebula's vast structure. This close-up look unveils wisps of gas, which are all that remain of what was once a star 20 times more massive than our sun. The fast-moving blast wave from the ancient explosion is plowing into a wall of cool, denser interstellar gas, emitting light. The nebula lies along the edge of a large bubble of low-density gas that was blown into space by the dying star prior to its self-detonation. Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team #nasa #hubble #hst #hubble25 #space #astronomy #nebular #star #nasabeyond #science

NASA(@nasa)님이 게시한 사진님, 2015 9월 24 오후 3:20 PDT

Before drifting off to tonight, astronaut Scott Kelly (@stationcdrkelly) aboard the International Space Station posted this image and wrote, "Day 179. The #Nile at night is a beautiful sight for these sore eyes. Good night from @ISS! #YearInSpace." Kelly is living and working off the Earth, for the Earth aboard the station for a yearlong mission. Traveling the world about 250 miles above the Earth, and at 17,500 mph, he circumnavigates the globe more than a dozen times a day. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #space #iss #spacestation #earth

NASA(@nasa)님이 게시한 사진님, 2015 9월 22 오후 5:25 PDT

It's #BlackFriday, but for us, it's the 2nd annual #BlackHoleFriday. Today, we'll post pics & info about black holes. Not the right #BlackFriday shopping weather? In this artist's illustration, turbulent winds of gas swirl around a black hole. Some of the gas is spiraling inward toward the black hole, but another part is blown away. A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying. Because no light can get out, people can't see black holes. They are invisible. Space telescopes with special tools can help find black holes. The special tools can see how stars that are very close to black holes act differently than other stars. Artwork Credit: NASA, and M. Weiss (Chandra X -ray Center)

NASA(@nasa)님이 게시한 사진님, 2014 11월 28 오전 8:54 PST

It's #BlackFriday, but for us, it's the second annual #BlackHoleFriday. Today, we'll post pics & info about black holes. What Is a Black Hole? A black hole is a region in space where the pulling force of gravity is so strong that light is not able to escape. The strong gravity occurs because matter has been pressed into a tiny space. This compression can take place at the end of a star's life. Some black holes are a result of dying stars. Because no light can escape, black holes are invisible. However, space telescopes with special instruments can help find black holes. They can observe the behavior of material and stars that are very close to black holes. Pictured here is an artist's drawing a black hole named Cygnus X-1. It formed when a large star caved in. This black hole pulls matter from blue star beside it. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss #NASA #Space #Blackhole #blackholes

NASA(@nasa)님이 게시한 사진님, 2014 11월 27 오후 9:13 PST

This Hubble Space Telescope picture shows a galaxy named SBS 1415+437 (also called SDSS CGB 12067.1), located about 45 million light-years from Earth. SBS 1415+437 is a Wolf-Rayet galaxy, a type of star-bursting galaxy with an unusually high number of extremely hot and massive stars known as Wolf-Rayet stars. These stars can be around 20 times as massive as the sun, but seem to be on a mission to shed surplus mass as quickly as possible - they blast substantial winds of particles out into space, causing them to dwindle at a rapid rate. A typical star of this type can lose a mass equal to that of our sun in just 100,000 years! Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA #nasa hubble #hst #hubble25 #space #galaxy #astronomy #science

NASA(@nasa)님이 게시한 사진님, 2015 7월 3 오전 6:24 PDT