This photo, taken by the Cassini-Huygens Probe shows Saturn’s rings as we’ve never seen them. Taken from behind the planet while the Sun was eclipsed, the photo reveals that there are more rings than previously believed.
Funny things happen when you get the illumination coming from behind an object. Damsel once took a photo of Air Force One that gave the illusion of a transparent vertical stabilizer.
Read the whole story: NASA Finds Saturn’s Moons May be Creating New Rings
Over the next several days, Mars and Venus will converge on the Sun. This graphic (courtesy SOHO and NASA) is a movie of solar coronagraph pictures taken over the last few days. The outline of the Sun is the small white circle in the center. The dark circle is the solar shield in the imaging instrument. This allows images of the solar corona to be collected in spite of the bright light.
While not designed for this purpose, stars and planets are also frequently imaged. In the coming weeks planets Mars and Venus will pass behind and in front of the Sun, respectively. Neither planet will transit, or pass directly through the solar disk, but slightly above the ecliptic plane (defined by the orbit of the Earth).
Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are among the rarest of planetary alignments. Indeed, only seven such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope (1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882 and June 8, 2004). Venus will do an encore on June 6, 2012. After that, it will pass above or below the solar disk for another 105 years or so.
Slowly, this amazing instrument is becoming out-of-date, and things seem to be wearing out on it. Yet, because of backup systems, on-site repairs and remote engineering excellence, it keeps on ticking. Hopefully, it will remain functional until the James Webb Space Telescope becomes operational.
From NASA:
Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys Resumes Exploring the Universe
After a brief hiatus, the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, probing the far reaches of space in a quest to understand the true nature of the universe’s most dominant constituent: dark energy.
This is one of the first images of the universe taken after the ACS camera resumed science operation on July 4. The camera was offline for nearly two weeks as NASA engineers switched to a backup power supply after the camera’s primary power supply failed.
Image above: A cluster of galaxies with recent supernova. Image Credit: NASA.
I’ve written about solar phenomena and sunspots several times in our Global Warming category, but haven’t covered the man-made variety. This is from APOD:
Though it’s 93 million miles away, the Sun still hurts your eyes when you look at it. But bright sunlight (along with accurate planning and proper equipment!) resulted in this sharp silhouette of spaceship and space station. The amazing telescopic view, recorded on September 17, captures shuttle orbiter Atlantis and the International Space Station in orbit over planet Earth. At a range of 550 kilometers from the observing site near Mamers, Normandy, France, Atlantis (left) has just undocked and moved about 200 meters away from the space station.
Dr. Tony Phillips (NASA, SpaceWeather.com) has generated a vote and sign the petition webpage at PlutoPetition.org
You can vote either pro-planet or pro-discrediting-American-astronomers-who-discover-planets. As of this writing, Pluto-the-planet is winning.
Dr. Phillips also observes:
IS NEPTUNE A PLANET?
Consider this: According to the IAU, for a world to be a planet, it must “clear the neighborhood around its orbit” of competing bodies. How does a planet go about cleaning up? Simple. It uses its gravity to gobble up or fling away anything in its vicinity.
This is a problem for Pluto. Pluto’s “neighborhood” is cluttered with innumerable icy asteroid-like bodies called “Kuiper Belt Objects.” Pluto’s gravity is not quite strong enough to get rid of them. Thus, according to the IAU, Pluto is not a planet.
But wait! This is a problem for Neptune, too. Pluto itself crosses the orbit of Neptune. So, Neptune has not yet cleaned up its own neighborhood. Does this mean that Neptune is not a planet? Think about it.
Lately, I’ve been studying solar phenomena because I think the topic is so critical to understanding the natural processes that affect global weather and climate. An interesting segué from the weather aspect, however, is into the subject of auroras – Aurora Borealis in the North and Aurora Australis in the South. What causes them?
Occasionally, we see auroras in Southern California, but it’s an extremely rare sight. The last auroral display I can remember seeing was way back in 1962, although other people have seen them several times since then. The UCLA webcam on Mount Wilson near Los Angeles recorded the image to the right on March 30, 2001.
Anyhow, back to the topic of what causes these elusive Rainbow Curtains — from SOHO and NASA — Space Weather:
Continue reading…
UPDATE: Vote on Pluto’s planet status
Clyde Tombaugh must be turning over in his grave.
From AP via Forbes:
Astronomers Say Pluto Is Not a Planet – Forbes.com
Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.
Image: Pluto and moon Charon
After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is – and isn’t – a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.
[. . . ]
The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club.
For now, membership will be restricted to the eight “classical” planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Much-maligned Pluto doesn’t make the grade under the new rules for a planet: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a … nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”
Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s.
Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of “dwarf planets,” similar to what long have been termed “minor planets.” The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun – “small solar system bodies,” a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.
It was unclear how Pluto’s demotion might affect the mission of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which earlier this year began a 9 1/2-year journey to the oddball object to unearth more of its secrets.
Update: Thanks to HYSCIENCE for the trackback and kind words.
