Friday, February 18, 2011

Spiral Galaxy's Glowing Newborn Stars

New Hubble photo! A stunning display of newborn stars studding a galaxy like bright blue jewels.



The spiral galaxy is NGC 2841. It lies in the constellation Ursa Major, about 46 million light-years from Earth. Hubble's newest instrument, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), took the photo, in which newborn stars show up as bright blue clumps.


Enjoy in amazing display!

The galaxy NGC 2841 — shown here in a Hubble image — currently has a relatively low star formation rate compared to other spirals. It is one of several nearby galaxies that have been chosen for a new study, in which scientists are observing a variety of different stellar nursery environments and birth rates.
CREDIT: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; M. Crockett and S. Kaviraj (Oxford University, UK), R. O'Connell (Univ. of Virginia), B. Whitmore (STScI) and the WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee. 

Monday, February 14, 2011

Mars 500 Crew Landing on Fake Mars

Mars500 crewmembers testing their spacesuits out before a simulated journey to the Martian surface.
IBMP/ Oleg Voloshin

 An international crew of six volunteers - two from Europe, one from China and three from Russia, will take their first mock "Mars-walk" today (Feb. 14.) kicking their unprecedented 500 - day simulation of a mission to the Red Planet into a whole new gear. 

For the simulated landing, three members went through the motions of undocking a lander from their spaceship, plunging through Martian atmosphere and touching down on the planet's surface - and all that without leaving Earth.

They do this simulation - mission to Mars, from beginning to end, to better understand physical and psychological challenges "Marsonauts" will face on real deep space journeys. Mission started eight months ago, on June 3.


An exterior view of isolation facility at the Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. The facility is host to the Mars500 study that will help us to understand the psychological and medical aspects of long spaceflights. A 105-day Mars simulation was held between March and July 2009, a longer 520-day study began in 2010.
Credit: ESA

Sunday, February 13, 2011

International Space Station Everyday Updates

You can watch ISS everyday updates and find out what the crew done that day. I posted here the newest one, but here is the link where you can watch new update every day! 



ISS Update - Feb. 11. 2011

French - Italian Border At Night


On this amazing image you can see city lights at night along the France-Italy border. It was photographed by an Expedition 23 crew member in the International Space Station (ISS). 

The brightly lit metropolitan areas of Torino, Lyon and Marseille stand out amidst numerous smaller urban areas in this dramatic photograph. The sea is ont the top of the image and Alps (not shown) are down. The full moon reflects brightly on the water surface. That and many more details make this image amazing.