M42 Orion Nebula in RGB + Narrowband (by Terry Hancock)
posts tagged "Space"
ScienceShots (via Star Gulp Gives Black Hole Indigestion)
A giant black hole in the constellation Draco bit off more than it could chew. On 25 March, NASA’s Swift satellite detected an x-ray flare when a black hole 3.9 billion light-years from Earth tore a passing star to shreds. The flare arose because friction and gravity roasted the star’s remains and made them glow brilliantly before the black hole swallowed them.The black hole in Draco resides at the center of a far-off galaxy and is about the same size as the 4-million-solar-mass black hole marking the Milky Way’s heart.
The Moon Seen from the International Space Station (by NASA: 2Explore)
ISS028-E-020073 (31 July 2011) —- Photographed by an Expedition 28 crew member onboard the International Space Station, this image shows the moon at center, with the limb of Earth near the bottom transitioning into the orange-colored troposphere, the lowest and most dense portion of the Earth’s atmosphere. The troposphere ends abruptly at the tropopause, which appears in the image as the sharp boundary between the orange- and blue- colored atmosphere. The silvery-blue noctilucent clouds extend far above the Earth’s troposphere.
iss028e033315 (by NASA: 2Explore)
City lights illuminate this night time view of southern California, Mexico’s Baja California and the Gulf of Cortez, as photographed by one the Expedition 28 crew members onboard the International Space Station flying at altitude of approximately 220 miles. A 15-mm focal length was used to capture the time lapse image. The thin line of Earth’s atmosphere is visible above the horizon.
Stunning photo shows colliding galaxies forming exclamation point in space
Collision provides a model for how the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will merge billions of years from now.
A reflection nebula by the name NGC 2023 is located a mere 1500 light years from Earth and manages to span 5 light years side to side.
NGC 4826 (Also M64) or more commonly the “Black Eye Galaxy” is a pretty neat spiral galaxy. The first really cool thing about it is how the dust that comprises most of galaxy absorbs light, giving it the dark, ominous appearance. The other REALLY super awesome thing about it is that unlike most spiral galaxies it doesn’t all rotate in the same direction, in fact the outer most edges rotate in the opposite direction to the rest of the galaxy and it’s believed that this gives rise to a high amount of star formation on the boundary.
This happy little chappy is a Tardigrade, or commonly known as a water bear, from the superphylum Ecdysozoa. They are microscopic little guys that inhabit pretty much most water sources in the world. But they are incredibly badass.
These guys have been found in hot springs, on the top of the tallest mountains in the world, the bottom of the ocean in sediment and under layers of solid ice…alive. They are special due to being able to reversibly suspend their metabolism and entering a special state of cryptobiosis called anhydrobiosis, thus enabling them to survive severe environmental conditions; such as desiccation. Instead of water, organisms in an ametabolic state use a sugar called trehalose to maintain their membranes and proteins structural integrity in high-stress situations.
In this state, Tardigrades can withstand;
-Temperatures of up to 151°C, and down to -200°C. They can survive at one degree above absolute zero (-272°C) for 5 minutes.
-6,000 atmospheres, which is approximately 6 times the pressure of that in the deepest ocean trench on Earth. They can also survive the vacuum of outer space, combined with solar radiation, for 10 days.
-They can exist for nearly 10 years in a dry state, with no water, with their body composition decreasing from 85% down to 3%. To put this into context, humans die if we lose 12% of our total body water. This lack of water is a preventative measure against freezing, as if the organisms tissues has no water, they cannot freeze.
-These biological-hardasses can also survive lethal doses of 5,000 Gy of gamma-rays, and 6,200 Gy of heavy ions. 5-10 Gy of either of these two would be fatal to a human.
In 2007 a large batch of these warriors were blasted off into space for 10 days. After being rehydrated back on Earth, over 68% of the subjects protected from high-energy UV radiation survived and many of these produced viable embryos, and a handful survived full exposure of solar radiation.
Basically, these guys are awesome, and revising them is an utter blast. Biology geek fo’lyfe.
