Sharpless-308, Water Dolphin 

Milky Way at Dowerin, Western Australia

Nikon d5500 - 35mm - ISO 4000 - f/2.5 - Foreground: 5 x 20 seconds - Sky: 11 x 30 seconds - iOptron SkyTracker

NGC 253, Silver Coin

2020 March 25

Star Forming Region S106 Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing & Copyright: Utkarsh Mishra

Explanation: Massive star IRS 4 is beginning to spread its wings. Born only about 100,000 years ago, material streaming out from this newborn star has formed the nebula dubbed Sharpless 2-106 Nebula (S106), featured here. A large disk of dust and gas orbiting Infrared Source 4 (IRS 4), visible in brown near the image center, gives the nebula an hourglass or butterfly shape. S106 gas near IRS 4 acts as an emission nebula as it emits light after being ionized, while dust far from IRS 4 reflects light from the central star and so acts as a reflection nebula. Detailed inspection of a relevant infrared image of S106 reveal hundreds of low-mass brown dwarf stars lurking in the nebula’s gas. S106 spans about 2 light-years and lies about 2000 light-years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus).

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200325.html

Jupiter’s Equator via NASA https://ift.tt/2HEWcAo

NASA and SpaceX launch astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the International Space Station. [May 30th, 2020]

(via Voyager 2 is gathering science data again after recovering from a glitch in interstellar space | Space)

All five remaining instruments on NASA’s venerable Voyager 2 spacecraft are back to gathering science data after power overuse in late January interrupted the probe’s operations.

NASA made the announcement yesterday (March 3), over a month after the incident occurred. Troubleshooting for the spacecraft is a slow process because of its distance from Earth; it takes 17 hours for each command to reach the probe and for data indicating its efficacy to reach engineers.

Carina Nebula

I wonder how likely it would be for NASA to find another planet like ours that has CO2 emissions detected from Hubble. That would be evidence of civilization and people on another planet we could possibly make contact with. I wouldn’t be surprised if we sent over a little Hello package (sterile, of course, to prevent a fatal epidemic on their world or maybe we could send some chemicals that they could know).

When we get to that point, I know we’ll have that figured out. I just hope it’s within my lifetime. Humanity refuses to notice just how close we are to interplanetary travel and comminication. There are tens of millions of planets out there suitable for intelligent life. Will we ever get to meet them?

2020 March 1

A Hole in Mars Image Credit: NASA, JPL, U. Arizona

Explanation: What created this unusual hole in Mars? The hole was discovered by chance in 2011 on images of the dusty slopes of Mars’ Pavonis Mons volcano taken by the HiRISE instrument aboard the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars. The hole, shown in representative color, appears to be an opening to an underground cavern, partly illuminated on the image right. Analysis of this and follow-up images revealed the opening to be about 35 meters across, while the interior shadow angle indicates that the underlying cavern is roughly 20 meters deep. Why there is a circular crater surrounding this hole remains a topic of speculation, as is the full extent of the underlying cavern. Holes such as this are of particular interest because their interior caves are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life. These pits are therefore prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200301.html

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