What may be even just as amazing is the fact that something 50 Billion Billion miles away is the NEAREST major galaxy to us. It's essentially in our backyard, astronomically speaking. The most distant object in the universe that has ever been spotted (thanks to Hubble) is 5,360 TIMES farther than Andromeda --- a staggering 80,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away!!! And that's just how far the light had to travel to reach us. Since this object is speeding away from us at fantastic speeds, it is presently about 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles(more than 32 Billion LY) from us. So, you can see, Andromeda really is pretty much like a next door neighbor in astronomical terms.

SF, I just wanted to report that I did shed some tears Friday morning as Cassini ended her mission.

 

However, death, even of a spacecraft, is inevitable. Cassini is now PART of the planet that it revealed so much about. It's really a very fitting end to a spectacular life.

SF, I just wanted to report that I did shed some tears Friday morning as Cassini ended her mission.

 

However, death, even of a spacecraft, is inevitable. Cassini is now PART of the planet that it revealed so much about. It's really a very fitting end to a spectacular life.

 

Friday was a sad morning. I've never had a friend disintegrate in the sky over Saturn before but I suspect it would feel similar to the way Friday felt. I clearly remember how excited I was the day Cassini launched from Earth. I never imagined that we would learn all the things we learned over the last twenty years. It was a astonishing and magnificent mission and spacecraft.

 

Thanks for posting, TB&G . I've missed you. You are an invaluable part of this thread.

If you are up before dawn Monday morning, look for three planets as well as Regulus. You will likely need binoculars to spot Mars, and possibly Mercury, near the horizon as pre-dawn darkness gives way to morning twilight.

 

Edited September 18, 20179 yr by Science Friction

Occultations Galore ... Count them --- All Four!!!

 

September 18,2017 will mark the first time since March of 2008 that three planets have been occulted by the Moon in a span of less than 24 hours. Mercury, Venus, and Mars will all be hidden by the Moon tomorrow, as will the bright star, Regulus. That's four occultations in one day!!!

 

While that's a pretty cool happening for space nerds like me(it won't happen again until 2034), don't get too excited. You will not likely see any of the occultations. You will likely have to settle for trying to spot the Moon , Venus, Regulus, Mercury, and Mars in the pre-dawn sky. Spotting the latter two planets will take a deliberate effort(and binoculars) because of their proximity in the sky to the increasing morning light.

 

Back to the occultations...

 

The moon will occult Venus first (1 UTC), the star Regulus next (5 UTC), then Mars (20 UTC) and finally Mercury (23 UTC). To see any one of these occultations, however, you have to be at just the right spot on Earth. Even at that, the occultations of Regulus, Mars and Mercury will be extremely hard to observe because they occur in a daytime sky. The occultation of Venus, will also occur during the day but will be observed only by sharped-eyed observers in the Southern Hemisphere.

 

So... cool phenomenon but not very practical viewing.

Mamaw, I miss hearing from you as well. You still reading ?

Here's the grand spiral galaxy , M81(also called Bode's galaxy after its discoverer,Johann Elert Bode) Because of its large size, its proximity to Earth, and its active galactic nucleus(there's a supermassive black hole at its center), M81 has been a source of extensive study by professional astronomers and a favored target of amateur star sleuths as well.

 

One of the brightest galaxies in our sky, M81 is similar in size to our Milky Way. Notice M81's bright yellow nucleus, blue spiral arms, and sweeping cosmic dust lanes. Hinting at a disorderly past, a remarkable dust lane actually runs straight through the disk, to the left of the galactic center, contrary to M81's other prominent spiral features. This dust lane may be the result of a collision between M81 and its smaller companion galaxy, M82. By studying variable stars in M81 , astronomers have determined the galaxy to be about 11.74 million light years from Earth. Enjoy!!!

 

If you are up before dawn Monday morning, look for three planets as well as Regulus. You will likely need binoculars to spot Mars, and possibly Mercury, near the horizon as pre-dawn darkness gives way to morning twilight.

 

[ATTACH]63875[/ATTACH]

 

This morning. Not sure if closeup shows Mars or Mercury.

 

 

This morning. Not sure if closeup shows Mars or Mercury.

 

[ATTACH]63883[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH]63884[/ATTACH]

 

 

Nice!!!!! Thank you for posting. It was a nice morning for viewing. Mars was especially tricky. Needed my high-powered binocs.

A dark nebula of gas and dust in the constellation Ophiuchus , the Rho Orphiuchi Cloud Complex is one of the closest star-forming regions to our solar system. It is located a distance of about 460 LY from us. The image below was taken from a farm in Namibia(south Atlantic coast of Africa) over a course of three nights.

 

Green Northern Lights over the Siberian forest tundra:

I don't think anyone could look at those last couple of images( the nebula and the Northern Lights) and say that our universe isn't stunningly beautiful.

Nacreous Splendor...

 

This amazing image was captured last New Year's Eve . A spectrum of color rolls across the sky over Norway in the form of nacreous clouds, also known as mother-of-pearl clouds due to their almost shimmering appearance. Formed over the Polar Regions in the stratosphere, when the Sun is just below the horizon at sunset it will illuminate the clouds from below.

 

If life exists anywhere within our solar system(outside of our own pale blue dot, of course), where would you think the most likely site would be? This is the topic that I am gonna take up very soon. Before I do so, I think I will talk first about a planetary system OUTSIDE of our solar system which may harbor life. Stay tuned to this space for some information about this planetary system, which features seven temperate terrestrial planets orbiting an ultra cool dwarf star. Three of the planets lie within the habitable zone. Interesting, huh?

The image below looks almost like some kinda strange creature that Jacques Cousteau might have encountered in the deep ocean. In fact, these wispy filaments are all that remains of a Milky Way star that exploded in a supernova about 7,000 years ago, leaving behind what we know today as the Veil Nebula.

 

At the time of the explosion, the expanding cloud was likely as bright as a crescent Moon, remaining visible for weeks to people living at the dawn of recorded history. Today, the resulting supernova remnant, also known as the Cygnus Loop, has faded and is now visible only through a small telescope directed toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus). The remaining Veil Nebula is physically huge, however, and even though it lies about 1,400 light-years distant, it covers over five times the size of the full Moon. The image below is a Hubble Space Telescope mosaic of six images together covering a span of only about two light years, a small part of the expansive supernova remnant.