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Photo links 43
Web's Best Photo and Art LinksFrom Magic Mike
My collection of links to photos of
the best Hubble Space Telescope photos and other NASA photos,incredible landscapes, scenic wonders
and wildlife animals,
AND Art Masters of the 10th through
20th Centuries from World Museums.
Back
to the full photo list page.
Sun
Storm: A Coronal Mass Ejection (Smaller)Credit:
SOHO Consortium, ESA, NASA Explanation: Late last month another erupting
filament lifted off the active solar surface and blasted this enormous
bubble of magnetic plasma into space. Direct light from the sun is blocked
in this picture of the event with the sun's relative position and size
indicated by a white half circle at bottom center. The field of view extends
2 million kilometers or more from the solar surface. While hints of these
explosive events, called coronal mass ejections or CMEs, were discovered
by spacecraft in the early 70s this dramatic image is part of a detailed
record of this CME's development from the presently operating SOlar and
Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. Near the minimum of the solar
activity cycle CMEs occur about once a week, but as we approach solar maximum
rates of two or more per day are anticipated. Though this CME was clearly
not headed for Earth, strong CMEs are seen to profoundly influence space
weather, and those directed toward our planet and can have serious effects.
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply. A service of: LHEA
at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.
Saturn
At Night Credit: Voyager
Project, JPL, NASA Explanation: From a spectacular vantage point over 1.4
billion kilometers from the sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back toward
the inner solar system to record this startling view of Saturn's nightside.
The picture was taken on November 16, 1980, some four days after the robot
spacecraft's closest approach to the gorgeous gas giant. The crescent planet
casts a broad shadow across its bright rings while the translucent rings
themselves can be seen to cast a shadow on Saturn's cloud tops. Since Earth
is closer to the sun than Saturn, only Saturn's dayside is visible to Earth-bound
telescopes which could never take a picture like this one. After this successful
flyby two decades ago, Voyager 1 has continued outward bound and is presently
humanity's most distant spacecraft. The next spacecraft to approach Saturn
will be Cassini, on course to arrive in 2004. Authors & editors: Robert
Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris.
Specific rights apply. A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan
Tech. U.
The
Pipe Dark Nebula Credit & Copyright: Jerry Lodriguss Explanation:
The dark nebula predominant at the lower left of the above photograph is
known as the Pipe Nebula. The dark clouds, suggestively shaped like smoke
rising from a pipe, are caused by absorption of background starlight by
dust. These dust clouds can be traced all the way to the Rho Ophiuchi nebular
clouds on the right. The brightest star in the field is Antares. Many types
of nebula are highlighted here: the red are emission nebula, the blue are
reflection nebula, and the dark are absorption nebula. This picture has
been digitally enhanced. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.Zal
Patera on Jupiter's Moon Io Credit: Galileo Project, SSI, University
of Arizona, JPL, NASA Explanation: The Galileo orbiter's flyby of Io last
November captured an unusual part of Jupiter's volcanic moon. From 26,000
kilometers away, Zal Patera was found to be a cauldron of flowing lava,
gaseous vents, and tremendous peaks. Red lava can be seen in the above
picture erupting along the base of the volcanic caldera, while cooling
black lava lines the edge of a volcanic plateau. Shadow lengths indicate
that the top of Zal Patera towers nearly 5 kilometers over Io's molten
surface. Galileo zoomed past Io again last month, and has begun beaming
back images taken only 200 kilometers over Io's surface. Authors &
editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical
Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply. A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Nearer
To Asteroid ErosCredit: NEAR Project, JHU APL, NASA Explanation: As
the robot spacecraft NEAR lowers itself toward asteroid 433 Eros, more
surface details are becoming visible. Last week's maneuvers brought NEAR
to within 204 kilometers of the floating mountain's surface. With increased
resolution, NEAR's camera then documented Eros' unusual shape, craters
large and small, boulders, and mysterious grooves similar to asteroid Gaspra
and Martian moon Phobos. If you could stand on Eros, you would still be
too small to be visible on this recent image, which shows features as small
as 20 meters across. However, you would feel gravity only 1/1000 that on
Earth, so that you could easily jump over even this large 5 kilometer wide
crater. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell
(USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply. A service
of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.
M13:
The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (Small
Version) Credit & Copyright: Yuugi Kitahara - Explanation: M13
is one of the most prominent and best known globular clusters. Visible
with binoculars in the constellation of Hercules, M13 is frequently one
of the first objects found by curious sky gazers seeking celestials wonders
beyond normal human vision. M13 is a colossal home to over 100,000 stars,
spans over 150 light years across, lies over 20,000 light years distant,
and is over 12 billion years old. At the 1974 dedication of Arecibo Observatory,
a radio message about Earth was sent in the direction of M13. The reason
for the low abundance of unusual blue straggler stars in M13 is currently
unknown. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell
(USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Julius
Caesar and Leap Days Photo Credit & Copyright: Rune Rysstad - Explanation:
Even as leap days go, today is a remarkable one. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar,
pictured above in a self-decreed minted coin, created a calendar system
that added one leap day every four years. Acting on advice by Alexandrian
astronomer Sosigenes, Caesar did this to make up for the fact that the
Earth's year is slightly more than 365 days. In other words, the time it
takes for the Earth to circle the Sun is slightly more than the time it
takes for the Earth to rotate 365 times (we now know it takes about 365.24219
rotations). So, if calendar years contained 365 days they would drift from
the actual year by about 1 day every 4 years. Eventually July (named posthumously
for Julius Caesar himself) would occur during the northern hemisphere winter!
By adopting a leap year with an extra day every four years, the calendar
year would drift much less. This Julian Calendar system was used until
the year 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII added that leap days should not occur
in years ending in "00" except if divisible by 400, providing
further fine-tuning. This Gregorian Calendar system is the one in common
use today. Therefore, even though this year 2000 ends in "00",
it remains a leap year, and today is the added leap day. That makes today
the first leap day for a centurial year since year 1600 and the second
such leap day of the Gregorian Calendar. Authors & editors: Robert
Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris.
Specific rights apply. A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan
Tech. U.
The
Sombrero Galaxy from VLT Credit: Peter Barthel (Kapteyn Inst.) et al.,
FORS1, VLT ANTU, ESO Explanation: Why does the Sombrero Galaxy look like
a hat? Reasons include the Sombrero's unusually large and extended central
bulge of stars, and dark prominent dust lanes that appear in a disk that
we see nearly edge-on. Billions of old stars cause the diffuse glow of
the extended central bulge. Close inspection of the bulge in the above
photograph shows many points of light that are actually globular clusters.
M104's spectacular dust rings harbor many younger and brighter stars, and
show intricate details astronomers don't yet fully understand. The very
center of the Sombrero glows across the electromagnetic spectrum, and is
thought to house a large black hole. Fifty million-year-old light from
the Sombrero Galaxy can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation
of Virgo. Specific rights apply. A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC &
Michigan Tech. U.
Impact:
65 Million Years Ago Credit: courtesy V.L. Sharpton, LPI -Explanation:
What killed the dinosaurs? Their sudden disappearance 65 million years
ago, along with about 70 percent of all species then living on Earth, is
known as the K-T event (Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction event). Geologists
and paleontologists often entertain the idea that a large asteroid or comet
impacting the Earth was the culprit. In such a cosmic catastrophe, the
good(!) news would be that the impact would generate firestorms, tidal
waves, earthquakes, and hurricane winds. As for the bad news ... debris
thrown into the atmosphere would have a serious global environmental consequences,
creating extended periods of darkness, low temperatures, and acid rains
- resulting in a planet-wide extinction event. In 1990, dramatic support
for this theory came from cosmochemist Alan Hildebrand's revelation of
a 65 million year old, 112 mile wide ring structure still detectable under
layers of sediment in the Yucatan Peninsula region of Mexico. The outlines
of the structure, called the Chicxulub crater (named for a local village),
are visible in the above representation of gravity and magnetic field data
from the region. In addition to having the right age, the crater is consistent
with the impact of an asteroid of sufficient size (6 to 12 miles wide)
to cause the global disruptions. Regardless of the true cause of the K-T
event, it is fortunate that such impacts are presently believed to happen
only about once every 100 million years!Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. A service
of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.
Howdy
Neighbor! Neighboring Galaxy The
Large Magellanic Cloud, Small
Version - The
Large Version. (You'll need to resize this with PaintShop Pro or something.
It is too big for Lview's memory.) - Credit & Copyright: AURA/ NOAO/
NSF Explanation: The brightest galaxy visible from our own Milky Way Galaxy
is the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Visible predominantly from Earth's
Southern Hemisphere, the LMC is the second closest galaxy, neighbor to
the Small Magellanic Cloud, and one of eleven known dwarf galaxies that
orbit our Milky Way Galaxy. The LMC is an irregular galaxy composed of
a bar of older red stars, clouds of younger blue stars, and a bright red
star forming region visible near the top of the above image called the
Tarantula Nebula. The brightest supernova of modern times, SN1987A, occurred
in the LMC. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell
(USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan
Tech. U.
The
Virgo Cluster of Galaxies - Credit & Copyright: Digitized Sky Survey,
Palomar Observatory, STScI - Explanation: Pictured are several galaxies
of the Virgo Cluster, the closest cluster of galaxies to our Milky Way
Galaxy. The Virgo Cluster spans more than 5 degrees on the sky - about
10 times the angle made by a full Moon. It contains over 100 galaxies of
many types - including spirals, ellipticals, and irregular galaxies. The
Virgo Cluster is so massive that it is noticeably pulling our Galaxy toward
it. The cluster contains not only galaxies filled with stars but also gas
so hot it glows in X-rays. Motions of galaxies in and around clusters indicate
that they contain more dark matter than any visible matter we can see.
Notable bright galaxies in the Virgo Cluster include bright Messier objects
such as M61, M87, M90, and M100. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific
rights apply. A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.New
Shocks For Supernova 1987A. Credit: P. Challis and R. Kirshner (CfA),
P. Garnavich (Univ. Notre Dame), SINS Collaboration, NASA. Explanation:
In February of 1987, astronomers witnessed the brightest supernova of modern
times - supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Mysterious rings
of material surrounding the expanding stellar debris were soon emitting
a visible glow excited by intense light from the explosion. After fading
over the intervening years, the interior ring has just been seen to sprout
four new hotspots, as illustrated in these two versions of a Hubble Space
Telescope image recorded on February 2nd. The abrupt appearance of the
new features suggests that matter from the stellar blast wave itself has
begun to slam into the ring in earnest, shock-heating the gas and producing
the bright hotspots. The left-hand picture shows the glowing ring, initially
excited by light from the explosion, along with the shocked hotspots. The
right-hand picture has been further computer enhanced to emphasize the
hotspots. The brightest spot at the right was first observed in 1997, while
the four spots on the left half of the ring are new. Astronomers now eagerly
anticipate a dramatic rejuvenation of the glowing ring as the bulk of the
blast wave material, traveling at about 60 million kilometers per hour,
continues to plow into it. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU)
& Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights
apply. A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.Neptune
through Adaptive Optics Credit: AO Staff, Keck, LLNL Explanation: From
the Earth's surface, Neptune usually appears as a fuzzy blotch. The blurring
effects of the Earth's atmosphere deny clearer images. By distorting mirrors
in the telescope itself in time with the changing atmosphere, however,
these effects can be greatly reduced. Many of the world's largest telescopes
are now implementing these "rubber mirror" adaptive optics (AO)
systems to bring out the finest details that these telescopes can resolve.
Recently the 10-meter Keck II telescope in Hawaii came on-line with AO
capability. The above image of Neptune in three infrared colors demonstrates
the clarity of the new technique - as compared to an image of Neptune from
Keck II without AO. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.Fairy
Falls - Fairy Falls is on the Wahkeena Creek trail. It's about a 1
mile hike on a good path, but it's a fairly steep climb. A graduated neutral
density filter helped to bring out the moss-covered rocks. Ken Dietz, PhotoTripUSA.M106:
A Spiral Galaxy with a Strange Core. Credit: Ron & Beth Sharer,
Adam Block, AOP, KPNO, NOAO, NSF Explanation: What's happening at the center
of spiral galaxy M106? A swirling disk of stars and gas, M106's appearance
is dominated by two bright spiral arms and dark dust lanes near the nucleus.
Bright newly formed stars near their outer tips distinguish the spiral
arms in the above photograph. The core of M106 glows brightly in radio
waves and X-rays where twin jets have been found running the length of
the galaxy. An unusual central glow makes M106 one of the closest examples
of the Seyfert class of galaxies, where vast amounts of glowing gas are
thought to be falling into a central massive black hole. M106, also designated
NGC 4258, is a relatively close 25 million light years away, spans 30 thousand
light years across, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the
constellation of Canes Venatici. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. LHEA
at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.
Valentine's
Lilies. - Snap-Shot USA.
Buffalo
Grass And Quartz Mountain. - Michael Hardeman, PhotoTripUSA.Big
Beach on Maui, near Mekena, facing North. - Hawaiian Photo Tour.The
Fight of the Billionium. (small
version) - Galaxy Wars: M81 Versus M82. Credit & Copyright: Robert
Gendler Explanation: In the left corner, wearing a red nucleus surrounded
by blue spiral arms, is M81. In the right corner, sporting light stars
and dark dust lanes, is M82. These two mammoth galaxies have been locked
in gravitational combat for the past billion years. The gravity from each
galaxy dramatically affects the other during each hundred million-year
pass. Last go-round, M82's gravity likely raised circulating density waves
rippling around M81 resulting in the richness of M81's spiral arms. M81,
though, left M82 a messy pulp of exploded stars and colliding gas so violent
it emits bright X-rays. In both galaxies, colliding gas has created a recent
abundance of bright new stars. In a few billion years only one galaxy will
remain. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell
(USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply. A service
of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.
Clouds
In The Sky. - Image Database - Tripod
Einstein
Memorial. Washington D.C. - Kelson's Photos
Indian
Blankets, Red Rock Canyon State Park. - I grabbed this image of the
state flower nestled next to the orange-colored canyon walls of the park
one spring. OKLAHOMA - NATIVE WILDERNESS by Michael Hardeman - PhotoTripUSA.Waterfall,
Red Rock Canyon State Park. - On this trip, I was determined to get
wildflower images in the park, but there weren't any yet. There had been
a generous rain the night before and while looking for flowers, I heard
the sound of running water, which led me to this image. OKLAHOMA - NATIVE
WILDERNESS by Michael Hardeman - PhotoTripUSA.
Travertine
Creek, Chickasaw National Recreation Area. - This area used to be known
as Platte National Park, but when the adjacent lake was annexed, the Park
Service changed the name and Oklahoma now no longer has a national park.
The area is still a great place for a hike or a bike ride, and is a great
place to cool off in the summer. OKLAHOMA - NATIVE WILDERNESS by Michael
Hardeman - PhotoTripUSA
Snowstorm
on Planet Earth. Credit : SeaWiFS Project, GSFC, NASA - Explanation:
Earth is an ocean planet. From low Earth orbit, the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view
Sensor (SeaWiFS) instrument onboard NASA's SeaStar spacecraft globally
maps ocean color, tracking changes in the climate and biosphere of our
water world. Richly detailed SeaWiFS images can also follow color changes
in Earth's landmasses as illustrated in this close-up picture of the planet.
Taken on January 27, it covers the Great Lakes region and Atlantic coastal
areas of the North American continent. The space-based perspective splendidly
reveals the extent of fractal white seasonal solid phase H20 recently sprinkled
over the Northeastern and Midatlantic US. Unanticipated and intense, the
snowstorm delighted school children but caused serious disruptions in many
locales. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell
(USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply. A service
of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.
Natural
Falls State Park - This small park and it's 100-foot waterfall
puts me in mind of Horsetail Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. This place,
just west of the Arkansas border and an hour east of Tulsa, used to be
a privately-owned picnic area and was only made a state park 3 years ago.
Michael Hardeman - PhotoTripUSA.
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