Messier 78 from the ESO

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ESO's look at M78. Click for larger. Image: ESO/Igor Chekalin

Wow, one of the nicest images I’ve seen in a while courtesy of the ESO. You can get wallpaper sized versions at the link below:

The ESO press release:

The nebula Messier 78 takes centre stage in this image taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, while the stars powering the bright display take a backseat. The brilliant starlight ricochets off dust particles in the nebula, illuminating it with scattered blue light. Igor Chekalin was the overall winner of ESO’s Hidden Treasures 2010 astrophotography competition with his image of this stunning object.
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JUICE

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ESA's JUICE mission. Credits: ESA/AOES

 

ESA sets its vision for future with its selection of a mission today in an announcement.  The mission is the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer or JUICE.  Check it out.

Sounds exciting, hopefully they can pull it off given the economy, which I’d hope would get better eventually.  The mission won’t launch until 2022 and reach Jupiter in 2030 and a lot can happen between now and then.

SpaceX Dress Rehearsal

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SpaceX engineers completed a dress rehearsal of the Falcon 9′s Merlin engines in preparation for the upcoming mission.  The mission will demonstrate the ability/readiness for private companies to launch cargo to the International Space Station.

The mission, now scheduled for May 7th will use the Falcon 9 rocket to put the Dragon capsule into space where it will show SpaceX’s ability to launch to and rendezvous with the ISS and then return to Earth.

To quote the US Vice President even if it is out of context: This is a big –>insert adjective<– deal!  It truly is.

Video

Supermoon 2012

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The 2011 Supermoon as photographed by Harry Mason. Click for larger. Image: Harry Mason

 

On May 5th, there will be a full moon.  This will be the brightest and biggest of the year about 16 percent brighter than you would normally see.

The moon is at perigee and by definition will be at the closest point to Earth it will be all year.  It’s still a fair piece away: 221,802 miles or 356,955 kilometers, so don’t expect anything in the way of extreme tides or the sci-fi earthquakes or anything like that.  This is not to say tides won’t be enhanced because they will to some degree on both low and high times.

What you will see is a very bright and somewhat larger moon particularly at moonrise or moonset and since you have objects to compare to those are the best times to look.  Otherwise you probably won’t be sensible of the difference. What are the rise and set times?  As a rule of thumb you can expect to have the full moon rise and set opposite the sun, so as the sun sets the moon should be rising and vice-versa.  Should you want this narrowed down a little go to this site by the US Navy Astronomical Applications Department and enter in your data and yes it will work for about any location in the world.

I’m hoping to get some pictures this time around I found my tripod for the camera so I want to try and get some shots wider than the telescopes will give for the sense of scale.

You can see more of Harry Mason’s photos here.

Looking inside Mars from Above

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Gravity Map of Olympus Mons. Click for larger. Image: ESA

The ESA Mars Express spacecraft and the MRO are looking into the interior of Mars. The process is pretty cool!

Five years of Mars Express gravity mapping data are providing unique insights into what lies beneath the Red Planet’s largest volcanoes. The results show that the lava grew denser over time and that the thickness of the planet’s rigid outer layers varies across the Tharsis region.

The measurements were made while Mars Express was at altitudes of between 275-330 km above the Tharsis volcanic ‘bulge’ during the closest points of its eccentric orbit, and were combined with data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The Tharsis bulge includes Olympus Mons – the tallest volcano in the Solar System, at 21 km – and the three smaller Tharsis Montes that are evenly spaced in a row.

The region is thought to have been volcanically active until 100-250 million years ago, relatively recent on a geological timescale.

The large mass of the volcanoes caused tiny ‘wobbles’ in the trajectory of Mars Express as it flew overhead; these were measured from Earth via radio tracking and translated into measurements of density variations below the surface.

Read the rest at ESA.