APOD 2.7

Double Eclipse

This is one of the coolest photographs I have ever seen in our solar system. This picture was taken during a partial solar eclipse. Well there was not only one eclipse, but two. There is a flying object projected on the Sun which happens to be the International Space Station. What also makes this an awesome photo is the detail in the Moon, and the ability to see its imperfects and craters. There are a couple Sun spots, one fairly large one to the bottom left, that could be estimated to be as large or larger than Earth. The photo was a hard one to take apparently due to the International Space Station only making an approximated one second transition across the Sun's pathway. The complete picture is stunning, and it is not often so many great sights are capture in one photograph withing our Solar system.

Bibliography 2, Nathaniel Bowditch

McAllister, Jim. "Salem Massachusetts - Salem Tales - Nathaniel Bowditch." Salem Massachusetts - The Comprehensive Salem Guide. Web. 06 Jan. 2011. <http://www.salemweb.com/tales/bowditch.shtml>.

"Nathaniel Bowditch." Hall of North and South Americans. Virtualology.com, 2001. Web. 06 Jan. 2011. <http://www.famousamericans.net/nathanielbowditch/>.

Nosotro, Rit. "Nathaniel Bowditch." HyperHistory.net. 2003. Web. 06 Jan. 2011. <http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b4bowditchn.htm>.

APOD 2.6

Black Hole

This is a computer generated image of what a black hole looks like. Black holes are so massive and effect the surroundings so much that they bend and pull light in so much, that you cannot see the light it is blocking. There is supposedly a ring that forms where more light is bent around the hole, reflecting towards the viewer. These are scary beasts. Hard to find, and supposedly at the center of all galaxies. We really should discover more about these though. Lets go NASA

APOD 2.5

Mono Lake

Life until this point was thought to have required phosphorous. It is now known that life can be made of arsenic, as seen in the picture of the arsenic base life in the upper left hand corner found in Mono Lake. Mono Lake gives us hope that life will be found on other planets. This could mean that life could also exist from many other kinds of elements, and that the search must begin. Life starts as bacteria, but in billions of years, arsenic based life might flourish. The discovery though was a little underwhelming. When studying for unknown life, you definitely want to find something larger than 10 picometers, but this is a good start.

APOD 2.4

 

Another day another APOD. Today I chose Sisters of the Dust Sky. This is a beautiful image of the Seven Sisters star cluster in the top left, which is extremely well know for its blue output, and the reflection nebula behind it. Something I have always wondered is just how close a star cluster can get. Just how close do all these stars get to each other, and how does it look when they collide? Well this APOD did not answer these questions, but it did talk of the massive dust cloud that encases the cluster. The cluster is sore of a beacon of hope in the cloud, sucking up large amounts of dust, as seen in a larger picture of the star cluster itself. LBN 777 can be seen in the middle of the photo, but is not extremely interesting from what I read. It actually seems to be just weirdly formed dust. Another APOD, another beautiful sight.

APOD 2.3

Thin Galaxy Is Thin

Quite an awesome sight to behold, this thin galaxy, also named NGC 4452, this galaxy is just another awesome reminder of the amazing range of objects in our night sky. This picture was taken by Hubble, and it was taken when the galaxy was nearly on edge. The whole galaxy extends 35,000 light years end to end. This is absolutely astonishing to me. How anything can be so dang large, and still have that much depth and detail. It is also amazing that it emits so much light, which is partially due to its low dust levels. At the center of the galaxy must be an enumerable amount of stars, and emits this really strong glow, that I personally even find hard to look at on a computer screen. The awesome thing about this picture thought is the galaxy's proximity to other galaxies. Maybe many thousands or millions of light years away, hundreds of galaxies can be seen in the background, some of which might even be looking back at us.

APOD 2.2

Sunset from the ISS

What a beautiful sight, and a great way to see why our sky is the colors it becomes. The Troposphere during sunset becomes a orange/yellow color. The Troposphere is where the majority of Earth's clouds can be found. It is what creates the majority of the beautiful colors we see during sunset. The Stratosphere is a light blue band, that when mixed with the troposphere creates all the pink colors. It is a thin layer, and contains some hefty bacteria. The Stratosphere is also where airplanes fly, I guess I might know this if I had ridden in a plane more than once... Above the Stratosphere are many other upper atmospheric layers which are thin and eventually become the emptiness of space. The APOD also stated that sunset for the ISS is no big deal because they can see it up to 16 times a day.