breathtaking !

Explanation: This was just one more breathtaking view from the International Space Station. The Sun, a crescent Earth, and the long arm of a solar panel were all visible outside a window when the Space Shuttle Atlantis visited the orbiting outpost last week. Reflections from the window and hexagonal lens flares from the camera are superposed.

via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Explanation: Goodbye Earth. Earlier this month, ESA’s interplanetary Rosetta spacecraft zoomed past the Earth on its way back across the Solar System. Pictured above, Earth showed a bright crescent phase featuring the South Pole to the passing rocket ship. Launched from Earth in 2004, Rosetta used the gravity of the Earth to help propel it out past Mars and toward a 2014 rendezvous with Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Explanation: In the scene, recorded near the peak of the annual Leonid meteor shower (now subsiding) on November 17th, a meteor trails through the frigid predawn sky.

via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Gli asteroidi potenzialmente pericolosi per la Terra (PHA) per la loro traiettoria ora censiti sono 1079: il loro diametro è a partire da cento metri. Solo in questo mese di novembre ci sono undici asteroidi ben noti di questo tipo che arrivano ad una distanza tra 1,4 e 44,2 LD (Lunar Distance ) con diametri variabili tra 6 metri e 1,9 chilometri

From 20 degrees above the ring plane, Cassini’s wide angle camera shot 75 exposures in succession for this mosaic showing Saturn, its rings, and a few of its moons a day and a half after exact Saturn equinox, when the sun’s disk was exactly overhead at the planet’s equator. The images were taken on Aug. 12, 2009, at a distance of approximately 847,000 km (526,000 mi) from Saturn. (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

Saturn at equinox - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Scherza coi santi ma

SCHERZO - Ad organizzare il pesce d’aprile fuori stagione è stata la compagnia telefonica lettone Tele 2 che, come ha spiegato Janis Sprogis, direttore commerciale, intendeva «dimostrare al popolo che un’interessante storia è sufficiente per attirare sulla Lettonia gli occhi di tutto il mondo». Tele 2 si è detta pronta a pagare i danni, che ha quantificato in 4.000 dollari.

Lettonia: il presunto meteorite di Mazslaca era uno scherzo di Tele 2 - Corriere della Sera

Explanation: After undocking, the space shuttle Discovery crew got a memorable view of the developing International Space Station (ISS). Pictured orbiting high above Earth last month, numerous solar panels, trusses, and science modules of the ISS were visible.

via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Aurora settembrina in canada

Aurora Over Yellowknife
Credit & Copyright: Yuichi Takasaka (Blue Moon Promotions), TWAN

Explanation: Sometimes, after your eyes adapt to the dark, a spectacular sky appears. In this case, a picturesque lake lies in front of you, beautiful green auroras flap high above you, brilliant stars shine far in the distance, and a brilliant moon shines just ahead of you. This digitally fused panorama was captured earlier this month from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, and includes the Pleiades open cluster of stars just to the upper right of the Moon. Since aurora are ultimately started by solar activity, this current flurry of aurora is somewhat surprising, given the historic lack of sunspots and other activity on the Sun over the past two years. This time of year is known as aurora season, however, for noted average increases in auroras. The reason for the yearly increase is not known for sure, but possibly relates to the tilt of the Earth creating a more easily traversable connection between the Earth’s magnetic field and the magnetic field of the Sun’s changing wind streams.

via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Perseid Meteor Night Shoot 2008 • Beacon Rock with Star Trails and a Meteor or was it an Iridium Flare? (via victorvonsalza)

Andromeda regna

Ultraviolet Andromeda
Credit: UV - NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)
Optical - Bill Schoening, Vanessa Harvey/REU program/NOAO/AURA/NSF

Explanation: Taken by a telescope onboard NASA’s Swift satellite, this stunning vista represents the highest resolution image ever made of the Andromeda Galaxy (aka M31) - at ultraviolet wavelengths. The mosaic is composed of 330 individual images covering a region 200,000 light-years wide. It shows about 20,000 sources, dominated by hot, young stars and dense star clusters that radiate strongly in energetic ultraviolet light. Of course, the Andromeda Galaxy is the closest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, at a distance of some 2.5 million light-years.

via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

il moto della terra in questa splendida foto !

via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Una Terra - Un cielo

Durant les prises de vue, effectuées entre l’été 2008 et l’été 2009, les astres du système solaire se sont invités dans le champ infini des étoiles : les éblouissantes planètes Vénus, Jupiter et Saturne, ainsi que, plus discrètes, les lointaines Uranus et Neptune, et même une comète à l’éclat vert émeraude, perdue parmi des dizaines de millions d’étoiles, et que vous aurez probablement bien du mal à trouver…

(via Le Ciel de la Terre )

(via Repubblica )

Una foto impossibile

Explanation: This vacation included a sight to remember. Pictured above, a picturesque starscape capped a serene seascape as seen from Turkey this past August. In the above digitally stitched panorama, the Gelidonya Lighthouse shines in the foreground before a calm Mediterranean Sea. On the left, Jupiter is the brightest point in the image and since on the same side of the Sun as the Earth, was near its yearly brightest. Glowing just shy of magnitude -3, Jupiter was brighter than any star in the sky, and brighter even than Mars was during its famously bright opposition of 2003 August. On the right, the band of the Milky Way Galaxy fades into distant atmospheric haze above the Jupiter is nearing the closest part of its elliptical orbit to the Sun and so will appear even brighter during its next opposition in 2010 September.

è bene dirlo “digitally stitched”— questo è l’esempio di una foto impossibile da fare !

via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Re mi do DO SOL

Explanation: Was Devils Tower once an explosive volcano? Famous for its appearance in films such as Close Encounters, the origin of Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, USA is still debated, with a leading hypothesis holding that it is a hardened lava plume that probably never reached the surface to become a volcano. The lighter rock that once surrounded the dense volcanic neck has now eroded away, leaving the dramatic tower. High above, the central band of the Milky Way galaxy arches across the sky. Many notable sky objects are visible, including dark strands of the Pipe Nebula and the reddish Lagoon Nebula to the tower’s right. Green grass and trees line the moonlit foreground, while clouds appear near the horizon to the tower’s left. Unlike many other international landmarks, mountaineers are permitted to climb Devils Tower.

via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Explanation: Few auroras show this level of detail. Above, a standard digital camera captured a particularly active and colorful auroral corona that occurred last week above Alberta, Canada. With a shape reminiscent of a flower, the spectacular aurora had an unusually high degree of detail. The vivid green and purple auroral colors are caused by high atmospheric oxygen and hydrogen reacting to a burst of incoming electrons. Many photogenic auroras have been triggered from a solar wind stream that recently passed the Earth. The auroras were unexpected because the initiating Sun has been unusually quiet of late.

via antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov