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  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - Hubble's Messier 5

    10/30/2025 11:59:26 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 14 replies
    NASA ^ | 20 Jun, 2015 | Image Credit: HST, ESA, NASA
    Explanation: "Beautiful Nebula discovered between the Balance [Libra] & the Serpent [Serpens] ..." begins the description of the 5th entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous catalog of nebulae and star clusters. Though it appeared to Messier to be fuzzy and round and without stars, Messier 5 (M5) is now known to be a globular star cluster, 100,000 stars or more, bound by gravity and packed into a region around 165 light-years in diameter. It lies some 25,000 light-years away. Roaming the halo of our galaxy, globular star clusters are ancient members of the Milky Way. M5 is one...
  • NASA Spots a Glowing Blue Dune on Mars’ Surface

    10/29/2025 7:57:39 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 32 replies
    Daily Galaxy ^ | October 27, 2025 | Melissa Ait Lounis
    © Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizon ================================================================= A blue dune captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has raised new questions about wind, sediment, and geological diversity on the Red Planet. Though the coloring is artificially enhanced, the unique features of this formation, located in two distinct craters, are anything but ordinary. NASA scientists recently released two detailed images taken by the MRO’s HiRISE camera, showing separate dune fields inside Lyot Crater and Gamboa Crater. These images don’t just offer stunning visuals; they open a rare window into the complex interactions between Martian winds and surface materials. The unusually shaped and...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - NGC 2419: Intergalactic Wanderer

    10/29/2025 1:17:04 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 4 Jun, 2015 | Image Credit & Copyright: Bob Franke
    Explanation: Three objects stand out in this thoughtful telescopic image, a view toward the mostly stealthy constellation Lynx. The two brightest (the spiky ones) are nearby stars. The third is the remote globular star cluster NGC 2419, at distance of nearly 300,000 light-years. NGC 2419 is sometimes called "the Intergalactic Wanderer", an appropriate title considering that the distance to the Milky Way's satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is only about 160,000 light-years. Roughly similar to other large globular star clusters like Omega Centauri, NGC 2419 is itself intrinsically bright, but appears faint because it is so far away. NGC...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 4945

    10/28/2025 11:23:41 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 7 replies
    NASA ^ | 28 May, 2015 | Image Credit & Copyright: Petri Kehusmaa, Harlingten Atacama Observatory
    Explanation: Large spiral galaxy NGC 4945 is seen edge-on near the center of this cosmic galaxy portrait. In fact, NGC 4945 is almost the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Its own dusty disk, young blue star clusters, and pink star forming regions standout in the sharp, colorful telescopic image. About 13 million light-years distant toward the expansive southern constellation Centaurus, NGC 4945 is only about six times farther away than Andromeda, the nearest large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. Though the galaxy's central region is largely hidden from view for optical telescopes, X-ray and infrared observations indicate...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - NGC 6240: Merging Galaxies

    10/27/2025 11:40:29 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 11 replies
    NASA ^ | 21 May, 2015 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI / AURA), A. Evans (U. Virginia / NRAO / Stony Brook
    Explanation: NGC 6240 offers a rare, nearby glimpse of a cosmic catastrophe in its final throes. The titanic galaxy-galaxy collision takes place a mere 400 million light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. The merging galaxies spew distorted tidal tails of stars, gas, and dust and undergo fast and furious bursts of star formation. The two supermassive black holes in the original galactic cores will also coalesce into a single, even more massive black hole and soon, only one large galaxy will remain. This dramatic image of the scene is a composite of narrowband and near-infrared to visible broadband data from...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy

    10/26/2025 11:59:44 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 12 replies
    NASA ^ | 2 May, 2015 | Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh
    Explanation: Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper's bowl until you get to the handle's last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you might find this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula, the large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (right), NGC 5195. The pair are about 31 million light-years distant and officially lie within the angular...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - Trio Leo

    10/25/2025 1:08:05 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 5 replies
    NASA ^ | 9 May, 2015 | Image Credit & Copyright: Philippe Durville
    Explanation: This popular group is famous as the Leo Triplet - a gathering of three magnificent galaxies in one field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be introduced individually as NGC 3628 (left), M66 (bottom right), and M65 (top). All three are large spiral galaxies but they tend to look dissimilar because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our line of sight. NGC 3628 is seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across the plane of the galaxy, while the disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough to show...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - Charon: Moon of Pluto

    10/24/2025 12:55:05 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 10 replies
    NASA ^ | 6 Jul, 2018 | Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute, U.S. Naval Observatory
    Explanation: A darkened and mysterious north polar region known to some as Mordor Macula caps this premier high-resolution view. The portrait of Charon, Pluto's largest moon, was captured by New Horizons near the spacecraft's closest approach on July 14, 2015. The combined blue, red, and infrared data was processed to enhance colors and follow variations in Charon's surface properties with a resolution of about 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles). A stunning image of Charon's Pluto-facing hemisphere, it also features a clear view of an apparently moon-girdling belt of fractures and canyons that seems to separate smooth southern plains from varied northern...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - Ring Galaxy AM 0644-741 from Hubble

    10/23/2025 11:22:56 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 10 replies
    NASA ^ | 19 Apr, 2015 | Image Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA / STScI), J. Higdon (Cornell) ESA, NASA
    Explanation: How could a galaxy become shaped like a ring? The rim of the blue galaxy pictured on the right is an immense ring-like structure 150,000 light years in diameter composed of newly formed, extremely bright, massive stars. That galaxy, AM 0644-741, is known as a ring galaxy and was caused by an immense galaxy collision. When galaxies collide, they pass through each other -- their individual stars rarely come into contact. The ring-like shape is the result of the gravitational disruption caused by an entire small intruder galaxy passing through a large one. When this happens, interstellar gas and...
  • Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Heading Toward a Rare Encounter with NASA’s Spacecraft

    10/22/2025 1:06:38 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 16 replies
    Daily Galaxy ^ | October 22, 2025 | Lydia Amazouz
    Comet 3I/ATLAS is heading toward a rare encounter with NASA’s Europa Clipper, offering a unique opportunity to uncover secrets of the cosmos. © Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Shadow the Scientist NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, currently on its way to Jupiter, may soon encounter a unique scientific opportunity. The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is about to cross the path of the spacecraft’s trajectory, potentially showering it with charged particles from its ion tail. This rare alignment could provide the closest look yet at material from beyond our solar system, offering a glimpse into the distant star systems where such comets originated. A...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - Massive Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841

    10/22/2025 12:38:17 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 8 replies
    NASA ^ | 28 Apr, 2015 | Image Credit: Hubble, Subaru; Composition & Copyright: Roberto Colombari
    Explanation: It is one of the more massive galaxies known. A mere 46 million light-years distant, spiral galaxy NGC 2841 can be found in the northern constellation of Ursa Major. This sharp view of the gorgeous island universe shows off a striking yellow nucleus and galactic disk. Dust lanes, small, pink star-forming regions, and young blue star clusters are embedded in the patchy, tightly wound spiral arms. In contrast, many other spirals exhibit grand, sweeping arms with large star-forming regions. NGC 2841 has a diameter of over 150,000 light-years, even larger than our own Milky Way and captured by this...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - Layered Rocks near Mount Sharp on Mars

    10/21/2025 12:06:44 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 16 replies
    NASA ^ | 9 Feb, 2015 | Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS
    Explanation: What caused these Martian rocks to be layered? The leading hypothesis is an ancient Martian lake that kept evaporating and refilling over 10 million years -- but has now remained dry and empty of water for billions of years. The featured image, taken last November by the robotic Curiosity rover, shows one-meter wide Whale Rock which is part of the Pahrump Hills outcrop at the base of Mount Sharp. Also evident in the image is cross-bedding -- rock with angled layers -- which were likely facilitated by waves of sand. Curiosity continues to find many layered rocks like this...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - NGC 2903: A Missing Jewel in Leo

    10/20/2025 12:47:01 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 11 replies
    NASA ^ | 10 Apr, 2015 | Image Credit & Copyright: Tony Hallas
    Explanation: Barred spiral galaxy NGC 2903 is only some 20 million light-years distant. Popular among amateur astronomers, it shines in the northern spring constellation Leo, near the top of the lion's head. That part of the constellation is sometimes seen as a reversed question mark or sickle. One of the brighter galaxies visible from the northern hemisphere, NGC 2903 is surprisingly missing from Charles Messier's catalog of lustrous celestial sights. This colorful image from a small ground-based telescope shows off the galaxy's gorgeous spiral arms traced by young, blue star clusters and pinkish star forming regions. Included are intriguing details...
  • Texas Woman Sees a Parachute Above Her Farm, Ends Up Finding Missing NASA Equipment

    10/20/2025 7:22:30 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 33 replies
    Gateway Pundit ^ | October 19, 2025 | Bryan Chai, The Western Journal
    Everybody knows (or is) the one person in the friend group who could generously be described as an unreliable narrator. You know the type; tall tales, stories that never quite match up, and a weird fixation on arbitrary details are all telltale signs of such a friend. For one Texas woman, she’s going to have to work overtime to convince her friends that she does not fit that archetype after she tells them about what landed in her yard a couple of weeks ago. According to KHOU-TV, Ann Vincent Walter was at her Hale County farm north of Lubbock when...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - One-Armed Spiral Galaxy NGC 4725

    10/19/2025 1:45:28 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 10 replies
    NASA ^ | 16 Apr, 2016 | Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh
    Explanation: While most spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, have two or more spiral arms, NGC 4725 has only one. In this sharp color composite image, the solo spira mirabilis seems to wind from a prominent ring of bluish, newborn star clusters and red tinted star forming regions. The odd galaxy also sports obscuring dust lanes a yellowish central bar structure composed of an older population of stars. NGC 4725 is over 100 thousand light-years across and lies 41 million light-years away in the well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. Computer simulations of the formation of single spiral arms suggest that...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - M104: The Sombrero Galaxy (by request)

    10/18/2025 11:58:47 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 4 replies
    NASA ^ | 29 Mar, 2019 | Image Data: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing & Copyright: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (DeepSky
    Explanation: The striking spiral galaxy M104 is famous for its nearly edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust lanes. Seen in silhouette against an extensive central bulge of stars, the swath of cosmic dust lends a broad brimmed hat-like appearance to the galaxy suggesting a more popular moniker, The Sombrero Galaxy. Hubble Space Telescope data have been used to create this sharp view of the well-known galaxy. The processing results in a natural color appearance and preserves details often lost in overwhelming glare of M104's bright central bulge when viewed with smaller ground-based telescopes. Also known as NGC...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - Galaxy and Cluster Create Four Images of Distant Supernova

    10/17/2025 12:17:45 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 12 replies
    NASA ^ | 9 Mar, 2025 | Galaxy and Cluster Create Four Images of Distant Supernova Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and S. Rodney (J
    Explanation: What are the unusual spots surrounding that galaxy? They are all images of the same supernova. For the first time, a single supernova explosion has been seen split into multiple images by the gravitational lens deflections of intervening masses. In this case the masses are a large galaxy and its home galaxy cluster. The featured image was captured last November by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. The yellow-hued quadruply-imaged Supernova Refsdal occurred in the early universe far behind the cluster. Measuring the locations and time-delays between the supernova images should allow astrophysicists to recover the amount of dark matter...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy

    10/16/2025 11:27:13 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 8 replies
    NASA ^ | 11 Feb, 2015 | Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA - Processing & Licence: Judy Schmidt
    Explanation: Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately known as a grand design spiral galaxy. It is a large galaxy of over 100 billion stars with well-defined spiral arms that is similar to our own Milky Way Galaxy. One of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, M100 (alias NGC 4321) is 56 million light-years distant toward the constellation of Berenice's Hair (Coma Berenices). This Hubble Space Telescope image of M100 was made in 2009 and reveals bright blue star clusters and intricate winding dust lanes which are hallmarks of this class of galaxies. Studies of...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - NGC 4676: When Mice Collide

    10/15/2025 11:43:36 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 11 replies
    NASA ^ | 1 Feb, 2015 | Image Credit: ACS Science & Engineering Team, Hubble Space Telescope, NASA
    Explanation: These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as the "Mice" because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other. The long tails are created by the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy. Because the distances are so large, the cosmic interaction takes place in slow motion -- over hundreds of millions of years. NGC 4676 lies about 300 million light-years away toward the constellation of Bernice's Hair (Coma Berenices) and are likely members of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies. The above...
  • NASA unit JPL to lay off about 550 workers, citing restructure

    10/14/2025 2:51:22 PM PDT · by Angelino97 · 3 replies
    CNBC ^ | October 13, 2025 | Dan Mangan, Sarah Whitten
    The Jet Propulsion Laboratory unit of NASA said Monday that it will lay off about 550 employees — 11% of JPL’s workforce — as part of a restructuring. The job cuts “are not related to the current government shutdown,” JPL Director Dave Gallagher said in a message to the unit that was posted on the lab’s website. JPL is a research and development lab funded by NASA — the federal space agency — and managed by the California Institute of Technology. “While not easy, I believe that taking these actions now will help the Lab transform at the scale and...