tomorrow night, february 20th - 2008, a total lunar eclipse is occurring which will be very visible in north america (as well as south america). the moon will appear to change color & turn orange to blood red. for those in california/Pacific Standard Time zone, the partial lunar eclipse begins at 5:43pm, then moves into total eclipse at 7:01pm and out of total eclipse at 7:51pm, then out of partial eclipse at 9:09pm. that gives you about a 3 hour window to see some sort of lunar eclipse happening. so be sure to watch it! awesome lunar eclipse photo via mr.eclipse.com.
Tag Archive for 'astronomy'
a very mighty replacement to the hubble space telescope (hst) is planned for launch in 2013. behold nasa’s james webb space telescope (jwst)! this is exciting. even though the hubble had problems, it delivered (and still delivers) some really amazing images, discoveries, and insights into deep space. the james webb space telescope will be larger and more powerful than the hubble, with a much larger mirror and advanced imaging using pria near-infrared (IR) camera, a near-IR multi-object spectrograph, a mid-IR instrument, and a tunable filter imager.
astronomers have reported an unprecedented elongated double helix nebula near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. the double helix image was captured by the infared spitzer space telescope. The double helix ‘twist’ shape has formed due to magnetic forces at the center of the galaxy.
We see two intertwining strands wrapped around each other as in a DNA molecule,” said Mark Morris, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy, and lead author. “Nobody has ever seen anything like that before in the cosmic realm. Most nebulae are either spiral galaxies full of stars or formless amorphous conglomerations of dust and gas — space weather. What we see indicates a high degree of order.
more on the double helix nebula can be read at space.com and also in the march journal issue of nature.
hi everybody! my name is apophis, which in ancient egyptian means destroyer. i’m about 390 meters wide & weigh several hundred tons. i enjoy traveling at high velocity, astronomy, ranking high on the torino scale, and secrets! chances are i will be making to earth in about 31 years. so if you’re around and have some free time, let’s hook up!