NGC 1360: The Robin's Egg Nebula

This pretty nebula lies some 1,500 light-years away, its shape and color in this telescopic view reminiscent of a robin's egg. The cosmic cloud spans about 3 light-years, nestled securely within the boundaries of the southern constellation Fornax. Recognized as a planetary nebula, egg-shaped NGC 1360 doesn't represent a beginning though. Instead it corresponds to a brief and final phase in the evolution of an aging star. In fact, visible at the center of the nebula, the central star of NGC 1360 is known to be a binary star system likely consisting of two evolved white dwarf stars, less massive but much hotter than the Sun. Their intense and otherwise invisible ultraviolet radiation has stripped away electrons from the atoms in their mutually surrounding gaseous shroud. The predominant blue-green hue of NGC 1360 seen here is the strong emission produced as electrons recombine with doubly ionized oxygen atoms.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230805.html ( August 05, 2023)

ISS Daily Summary Report – 8/03/2023

 

Payloads: Food Physiology: The crew participated in a Food Physiology diet briefing with the science team on the ground. The Integrated Impact of Diet on Human Immune Response, the Gut Microbiota, and Nutritional Status During Adaptation to Spaceflight (Food Physiology) experiment is designed to characterize the key effects of an enhanced spaceflight diet on immune … ...

August 03, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/08/03/iss-daily-summary-report-8-03-2023/

Hubble Glimpses a Glitzy Galactic Cluster

The glittering, glitzy contents of the globular cluster NGC 6652 sparkle in this star-studded image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubble-glimpses-a-glitzy-galactic-cluster
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Moonrays of August

A Full Moon rose as the Sun set on August 1. Near perigee, the closest point in its almost moonthly orbit, the brighter than average lunar disk illuminated night skies around planet Earth as the second supermoon of 2023. Seen here above Ragusa, Sicily, cloud banks cast diverging shadows through the supermoonlit skies, creating dramatic lunar crepuscular rays. The next Full Moon in 2023 will also shine on an August night. Rising as the Sun sets on August 30/31, this second Full Moon in a month is known as a Blue Moon. Blue moons occur only once every 2 or 3 years because lunar phases take almost a calendar month (29.5 days) to go through a complete cycle. But August's Blue Moon will also be near perigee, the third supermoon in 2023.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230804.html ( August 04, 2023)

Baghdad from the International Space Station

United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi captured this image of the city lights of Baghdad, Iraq, and the Tigris River on July 18, 2023, as the International Space Station orbited 261 miles above the Middle Eastern nation.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/baghdad-from-the-international-space-station
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The Falcon and the Redstone

In a photo from the early hours of July 29 (UTC), a Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule are on display at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5. Beyond the Redstone, the 8 minute long exposure has captured the arcing launch streak of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The Falcon's heavy communications satellite payload, at a record setting 9 metric tons, is bound for geosynchronous orbit some 22,000 miles above planet Earth. The historic launch of a Redstone rocket carried astronaut Alan Shepard on a suborbital spaceflight in May 1961 to an altitude of about 116 miles. Near the top of the frame, this Falcon rocket's two reusable side boosters separate and execute brief entry burns. They returned to land side by side at Canaveral's Landing Zone 1 and 2 in the distance.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230803.html ( August 03, 2023)

NASA’S SpaceX Crew-7 Members Prepare for Their Mission

On April 28, 2023, the Crew-7 members (from left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa) took a moment to snap a photo atop an emergency egress vehicle at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-s-spacex-crew-7-members-prepare-for-their-mission
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Why is the Cigar Galaxy billowing red smoke? M82, as this starburst galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81. This doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly expanding gas and dust, however. Evidence indicates that this gas and dust is being driven out by the combined emerging particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic superwind. The dust particles are thought to originate in M82's interstellar medium and are actually similar in size to particles in cigar smoke. The featured photographic mosaic highlights a specific color of red light strongly emitted by ionized hydrogen gas, showing detailed filaments of this gas and dust. The filaments extend for over 10,000 light years. The 12-million light-year distant Cigar Galaxy is the brightest galaxy in the sky in infrared light and can be seen in visible light with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Great Bear (Ursa Major).

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230802.html ( August 02, 2023)

Terra Observes Shark Bay, Australia

Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve, seen here in an image from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on the Terra spacecraft on Dec. 30, 2010, is a special site.

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/terra-observes-shark-bay-australia
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ISS Daily Summary Report – 7/31/2023

 

Payloads: Immunity Assay: The crew collected and processed various biological samples in support of the multi-day experiment session. The Monitoring the Cellular Immunity by In Vitro Delayed Type Hypersensitivity (DTH) Assay on the ISS (Immunity Assay) investigation aims to monitor the impact of spaceflight stressors on cellular immune functions in a blood sample, with the … ...

July 31, 2023 at 12:00PM
From NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2023/07/31/iss-daily-summary-report-7-31-2023/