Pillar at Sunset

Reddened light from the setting Sun illuminates the cloud banks hugging this snowy, rugged terrain. Inspiring a moment of quiet contemplation, the sunset scene included a remarkable pillar of light that seemed to connect the clouds in the sky with the mountains below. Known as a Sun pillar, the...

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Space Shuttle Discovery's Last Flight

Climbing into cloudy skies, the Space Shuttle Orbiter Discovery (OV-103) took off from Kennedy Space Center Tuesday at 7 am local time on 17 April 2012. This time, its final departure from KSC, it rode atop a modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Following a farewell flyover of the...

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First Shuttle Launch

    A new era in space flight began on April 12, 1981, when Space Shuttle Columbia, or STS-1, soared into orbit from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Astronaut John Young, a veteran of four previous spaceflights including a walk on the moon in 1972, commanded the mission. Navy test pilot...

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Spring Fling: Sun Emits a Mid-Level Flare

The M6.5 flare on the morning of April 11, 2013, was also associated with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), another solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space and can reach Earth one to three days later. CMEs can affect electronic systems in...

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Starburst Galaxy M82

This mosaic image is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82. The galaxy is remarkable for its bright blue disk, webs of shredded clouds, and fiery-looking plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out of its central regions.Throughout the galaxy's center, young stars are being born 10 times faster than...

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A Sun Pillar over Sweden

Have you ever seen a sun pillar? When the air is cold and the Sun is rising or setting, falling ice crystals can reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light. Ice sometimes forms flat, six-sided shaped crystals as it falls from high-level clouds. Air resistance causes these...

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Out of This Whirl: the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and Companion Galaxy

The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust.This sharpest-ever image of the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys...

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Stars in NGC 602a

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbors. Even though it is a small, or so-called dwarf galaxy, the SMC is so bright that it is visible to the unaided eye from the Southern Hemisphere and near the equator. Many navigators, including Ferdinand...

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Alaskan Mountains Seen During IceBridge Transit

Alaskan mountains seen from high altitude aboard the NASA P-3B during the IceBridge transit flight from Thule to Fairbanks on March 21, 2013.NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice.Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/Christy Hansen...

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Herschel Sees Through Ghostly Pillars

This Herschel image of the Eagle nebula shows the self-emission of the intensely cold nebula’s gas and dust as never seen before. Each color shows a different temperature of dust, from around 10 degrees above absolute zero (10 Kelvin or minus 442 degrees Fahrenheit) for the red, up to...

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The Brightness of the Sun

The bright Sun, a portion of the International Space Station and Earth's horizon are featured in this image photographed during the STS-134 mission's fourth spacewalk in May 2011. The image was taken using a fish-eye lens attached to an electronic still camera. Image Credit: NASA...

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Churning Out Stars

W3 is an enormous stellar nursery about 6,200 light-years away in the Perseus Arm, one of the Milky Way galaxy’s main spiral arms, which hosts both low- and high-mass star formation. In this image from the Herschel space observatory, the low-mass forming stars are seen as tiny yellow dots...

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Building a Lunar Base with 3D Printing

Building a base on the Moon could theoretically be made much simpler by using a 3D printer to construct it from local materials.The concept was recently endorsed by the European Space Agency (ESA) which is now collaborating with architects to gauge the feasibility of 3D printing using lunar soil.“Terrestrial...

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Mammatus Clouds over Saskatchewan

Normal cloud bottoms are flat. This is because moist warm air that rises and cools will condense into water droplets at a specific temperature, which usually corresponds to a very specific height. As water droplets grow, an opaque cloud forms. Under some conditions, however, cloud pockets can develop that...

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Earth - The Water Planet

Viewed from space, the most striking feature of our planet is the water. In both liquid and frozen form, it covers 75% of the Earth’s surface. It fills the sky with clouds. Water is practically everywhere on Earth, from inside the rocky crust to inside our cells.This detailed, photo-like...

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Star-Forming Region S106

The bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel. The outstretched "wings" of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium.Sharpless 2-106, Sh2-106 or S106 for short, lies nearly 2,000 light-years from us. The nebula...

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The M106 Galaxy

Working with astronomical image processors at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., renowned astrophotographer Robert Gendler has taken science data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archive and combined it with his own ground-based observations to assemble a photo illustration of the magnificent spiral galaxy M106.Gendler retrieved...

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A cloud of ash above Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcano

Osorno, Los Lagos, ChileJune 5, 2011Image Credit & Copyright: Claudio Santana...

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Comet C/2011 L4 - PANSTARRS

Still looking for that comet? Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) naked-eye appearance in the northern hemisphere is described by successful comet spotters as a dim star with faint a tail. If you want to catch it the next few days could be your best bet. Start looking low and almost...

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Hubble Panoramic View of Orion Nebula Reveals Thousands of Stars

This dramatic image offers a peek inside a cavern of roiling dust and gas where thousands of stars are forming. The image, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, represents the sharpest view ever taken of this region, called the Orion Nebula. More...

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A cloud of ash above Puyehue Volcano

Osorno, Los Lagos, ChileJune 5, 2011Image Credit & Copyright: Claudio Santana...

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Quiet Interlude in Solar Max

Something unexpected is happening on the Sun. 2013 was supposed to be the year of "solar maximum," the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle. Yet 2013 has arrived and solar activity is relatively low. Sunspot numbers are well below their values from 2011, and strong solar flares have been...

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Ancient Mars Could Have Supported Life

An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA's Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon -- some of the key chemical ingredients for life -- in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an...

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NASA’s SDO Observes Earth, Lunar Transits in Same Day

On March 2, 2013, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) entered its semiannual eclipse season, a period of three weeks when Earth blocks its view of the Sun for a period of time each day. On March 11, however, SDO was treated to two transits. Earth blocked SDO’s view...

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Aurora over Kongsberg

Kongsberg, NorwayDecember 4, 2010Image Credit & Copyright: Odd Smedsrud...

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Sakurajima Volcano with Lightning

Why does a volcanic eruption sometimes create lightning? On this picture, the Sakurajima volcano in southern Japan was caught erupting in early January 2013. Magma bubbles so hot they glow shoot away as liquid rock bursts through the Earth's surface from below. This image is particularly notable, however, for...

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Aurora over Langesund

Langesund, NorwayOctober 10, 2012Image Credit & Copyright: Hugo Løhre...

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Summer Lightning near Keota

The Pawnee National Grasslands in Colorado is an exceptional place both to observe nature and to stargaze. Observers have a nearly unobstructed view of the horizon. During the summer months, lightning can be seen miles away, and the night sky is generally free of annoying light pollution.Image Credit: Robert...

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Tornado & Lightning

Lightning can serve as a natural sensing tool that allows scientists to understand what else could be happening in a stormImage Credit: F. Smith...

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The Milky Way Galaxy over Devils Tower

Was Devils Tower once an explosive volcano? Famous for its appearance in films such as Close Encounters, the origin of Devil's Tower in Wyoming, USA is still debated, with a leading hypothesis holding that it is a hardened lava plume that probably never reached the surface to become a...

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Eclipse over the Temple of Poseidon

What's happened to the Sun? The Moon moved to partly block the Sun for a few minutes in January 2010 as a partial solar eclipse became momentarily visible across part of planet Earth. In this single exposure image, meticulous planning enabled careful photographers to capture the partially eclipsed Sun...

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Earth's Shadow

The dark, inner shadow of planet Earth is called the umbra. Shaped like a cone extending into space, the umbra has a circular cross section that can be most easily seen during a lunar eclipse. For example, in August 2008, the Full Moon slid across the northern edge of...

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Shooting a Laser at the Galactic Centre

The sky above Paranal on 21 July 2007. Two 8.2-m telescopes of ESO's VLT are seen against the wonderful backdrop of the myriad of stars and dust that makes the Milky Way. Just above Yepun, Unit Telescope number 4, the Small Magellanic Cloud - a satellite galaxy of the...

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Sunrise over Cape Sounion

The Sun is a moving target. Its annual motion through planet Earth's sky tracks north and south, from solstice to solstice, as the seasons change. On December 21st, the solstice marking the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the south, the Sun rose at...

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Total Lunar Eclipse and Lightning

Icaria, GreeceJune 15, 2011Image Credit & Copyright: Chris Kotsiopoulos...

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Asperatus Clouds over New Zealand

What kind of clouds are these? Although their cause is presently unknown, such unusual atmospheric structures, as menacing as they might seem, do not appear to be harbingers of meteorological doom. Known informally as Undulatus asperatus clouds, they can be stunning in appearance, unusual in occurrence, are relatively unstudied,...

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Supercell

A supercell is a thunderstorm that is characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft. For this reason, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (supercell, squall line, multi-cell, and single-cell), supercells are the overall least common...

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Alaskan Moondogs

Moonlight illuminates a snowy scene in this night land and skyscape made on January 17, 2013 from Lower Miller Creek, Alaska, USA. Overexposed near the mountainous western horizon is the first quarter Moon itself, surrounded by an icy halo and flanked left and right by moondogs. Sometimes called mock...

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A Lenticular Cloud over New Zealand

What's happening above those mountains? Several clouds are stacked up into one striking lenticular cloud. Normally, air moves much more horizontally than it does vertically. Sometimes, however, such as when wind comes off of a mountain or a hill, relatively strong vertical oscillations take place as the air stabilizes....

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Sunrise Solstice at Stonehenge

This picture was taken during the week of the 2008 summer solstice at Stonehenge in United Kingdom, and captures a picturesque sunrise involving fog, trees, clouds, stones placed about 4,500 years ago, and a 5 billion year old large glowing orb. Even given the precession of the Earth's rotational...

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NASA's SDO Observes Fast-Growing Sunspot

As magnetic fields on the sun rearrange and realign, dark spots known as sunspots can appear on its surface. Over the course of Feb. 19-20, 2013, scientists watched a giant sunspot form in under 48 hours. It has grown to over six Earth diameters across but its full extent...

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