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| Pinpoint Landing (November 20, 2009) |
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The Surveyor 3 spacecraft sits silently in a small lunar crater, with the Apollo 12 lunar module on the crater's rim in the background. Astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed just a few hundred feet from Surveyor 3 in November 1969 to test the precise landing techniques that would be needed for future missions. Surveyor 3 landed in 1967 and operated for about two months. Conrad and Bean snipped off several parts of the robotic lander, including its camera (the tall cylinder at the top right part of the lander) for analysis on Earth. [NASA] For more information, see our November 20 program. |
| Creation's Glow (November 18, 2009) |
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This map of the universe shows tiny variations in temperature a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. These variations allowed matter to begin clumping together to form the first stars and galaxies. The map was compiled from data from COBE, a satellite launched in 1989. It measured variations in the cosmic microwave background, the faint "afterglow" of the Big Bang, which fills the universe. The differences in temperature are only a few thousandths of a degree, but are exagerrated in this map, in which the warmest temperatures are in red. [NASA] For more information, see our November 18 program. |
| Leonid Meteors (November 15, 2009) |
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The Leonid meteor shower peaks on the night of November 16/17. Various experts say the number of meteors you can expect to see ranges from a dozen or so per hour to more than a hundred per hour. The meteors appear to "rain" into Earth's atmosphere from Leo, the lion. They can streak across any portion of the sky, however, so you don't need to look toward Leo to see them. [Tim Jones] For more information, see our 2009 Leonids page. |
| Battered Moon (November 12, 2009) |
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Mimas, one of the largest moons of Saturn, shows the scars of billions of years of impacts by rocky debris in this close-up view from the Cassini spacecraft, with Saturn's rings in the background. The largest impact crater, which is on the other side of the moon, inspired researchers to nickname Mimas the "Death Star Moon," because it resembles the giant space stations of Star Wars fame. The surface of Mimas is one of the most thoroughly battered in all the solar system, which tells geologists that nothing has happened on the moon itself, such as melting or volcanic eruptions, to erase the craters. [NASA/JPL/SSL] For more information, see our November 12 program. |
| Bursting with Starbirth (November 9, 2009) |
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Hyperactive stellar nurseries glow bright red in this recent Hubble Space Telescope view of the spiral galaxy M83. The nurseries are giving birth to hundreds of new stars. Some of the nurseries have already given birth to many hot, bright, blue stars, such as those in the clump at upper left. The galaxy's core is the bright knot at right, with spiral arms extending from both sides. The spiral arms contain vast clouds of dark gas and dust that collapse and fragment to give birth to new stars. [R. O'Connell (Univ. Virginia)/WFC3 Science Oversight Committee] |
| Martian Tattoo (November 2, 2009) |
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What looks like a bizarre tattoo or graffiti is actually a pattern of trails left by dust devils on the surface of Mars. The small "twisters," which are common in arid regions of Earth, lift small, light-colored grains of sand, exposing darker material below. They can serpentine their way across many miles of the Martian surface. This image was snapped by a camera aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is mapping the Martian surface in greater detail than ever before. [NASA/LPL (Univ. Arizona)] |
| Gamma-Ray Sky (October 28, 2009) |
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This view of the universe shows the brightest sources of gamma rays, which are the most energetic form of radiation in the universe. Most of the activity is clustered along the plane of our home galaxy, the Milky Way (red band across the center). Individual objects include the Crab Nebula and a star system known as Geminga (far right edge), and a galaxy about 233 million light-years away known as NGC 1275 (at left, below the band of the Milky Way). Gamma rays are produced by some of the most powerful objects in the universe, including exploding stars and superhot disks of gas around black holes. This image was compiled by the space-based Fermi telescope. [NASA/DOE/Fermi] For more information, see our October 28 program about the gamma-ray sky. |
| Peeking at a Planet (October 25, 2009) |
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Hubble Space Telescope captured some of the first pictures of a planet in another star system by monitoring Fomalhaut for several years. A small dot of light, which moved from 2004 to 2006 (inset), is a giant planet in a distant orbit around the planet. Fomalhaut is surrounded by a wide, thick ring of dust, which may have given birth to more planets. [NASA/ESA/P.Kalas (UC-Berkeley)] For more information, see our October 25 program. |
| Orionid Meteors (October 20, 2009) |
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The Orionid meteor shower should be at its best on the nights of October 20 and 21, with the best viewing for American skywatchers in the hours before dawn on the 21st. The meteors appear to "rain" into Earth's atmosphere from the direction of Orion (hence their name). However, a meteor can streak across any part of the sky, so you don't have to look toward Orion to see the "shooting stars." [Tim Jones/StarDate] |
| Veiling the Pleiades (October 19, 2009) |
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A thick cloud of dust around the Pleiades star cluster glows brightly in this false-color infrared image from Spitzer Space Telescope. The stars are lighting up the dust cloud, known as the Merope Nebula, as they pass through it. The stars and nebula are unrelated. [NASA/JPL/Caltech] For more information, see our October 19 episode. |
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