Space and astronomy news
We’ve written often about how pareidolia — the human tendency to see faces or other features in random images — works its magic across the cosmos. There’s the famous face on Mars, Bigfoot on Mars, and even Han Solo on Mercury.
But now, just in time for Halloween, here’s a monster in a picture from the Spitzer Space Telescope. One astronomer sees Godzilla … or is it Cookie Monster?
Continue reading “Apparently, This Nebula Looks Like Godzilla. Do you see it?”
Are spirits amongst the clouds of Jupiter? The answer might be yes! A recent publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets has identified what appear to be “Sprites” in the Jovian Atmosphere.
In European Folklore, ‘Sprites’ (derived from Latin ‘spiritus’ or spirit) were elemental and ethereal beings visiting Earth. The term is fitting for “lightning sprites”, a natural meteorological phenomenon with many eye-witness testimonies but not captured on camera until 1989. Created by lightning discharges in Earth’s atmosphere, sprites are part of larger family of phenomena called TLE’s, or “Transient Luminous Events”, that last for only fractions of a second.
Continue reading “Are the Clouds of Jupiter Haunted?”
Every workplace should have this much fun! A group of engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory held their sixth annual pumpkin carving contest, and this year’s entries did not disappoint. Using a combination of engineering savvy and creative license, the JPL engineers carved up several different types of themed pumpkins, including a cow abduction by aliens, a geyser-spewing Europa, unique depictions of several different space missions and much more.
Halloween is actually a special holiday at JPL because October 31, 1936 was the beginning of JPL’s history, when several grad students studying at Caltech and some amateur rocket enthusiasts drove out to a dry canyon tested out a liquid rocket engine. To celebrate JPL’s 80th anniversiary, here’s a link to a gallery of images pairs that shows vintage views from JPL’s history with images that show what the lab looks like today.
In addition, JPL held a Halloween costume contest that really was out of this world. See all the fun below:
This pumpkin was turned into a spooky alien abduction scene:
A pale pumpkin Europa, complete with geysers. Behind it, Juno orbits Jupiter.
Wheee! A Halloween carnival:
JPL’s Starshade was turned into a chainsaw massacre.
Need last minute ?pumpkin? carving tips? Check out what some of our employees came up with this year. Full gallery: https://t.co/jzPuMyIE1G pic.twitter.com/6eTtXsQmc2
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) October 28, 2016
The pictures of the costume contest are courtesy JPL mechanical engineer Aaron Yazzie’s Twitter feed:
1st Place Winner: Mars Attacker! #NASACostume pic.twitter.com/0sqhI4kKpc
— Aaron Yazzie (@YazzieSays) October 31, 2016
2nd Place Winner: NASA Mission Hats! (Including the one and only @PlanetaryKeri !) #NASACostume pic.twitter.com/zutOi4W6sd
— Aaron Yazzie (@YazzieSays) October 31, 2016
3rd place winner: Meteor Shower! #NASACostume pic.twitter.com/u4PnMQ9XVk
— Aaron Yazzie (@YazzieSays) October 31, 2016
Boo! Here’s a great shot of the Witch Head nebula, so named because it resembles the profile of a wicked witch. This nebula’s ‘official’ name is IC 2118, and it is just a cloud of interstellar gas and dust — nothing to be afraid of! The eerie shape is sculpted in part by radiation from the supergiant star Rigel, the brightest star of Orion. In fact, Rigel illuminates the nebula by reflecting off the dust grains, making it glow. Inside the nebula, young stars are being born. This image was taken by a former NASA scientist/engineer Fred Herrmann of the Owl Mountain Observatory near Huntsville, Alabama — ftherrmann2012 on Flickr. You can see an infrared image of this same nebula taken by the WISE spacecraft.
You can see more great images on Universe Today’s Flickr group page (click here to access, or see the new “Photos” tab at the top of our page) and feel free join the group and upload any astronomical images you have taken.
Happy Halloween from all of us here at Universe Today!
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Dark shadows and dust in VdB 4. Credit: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
It’s the Case of the Phantom Phalanges! Spooky fingers reach up from the dark realms of space in this new image from Adam Block of the Mount Lemmon Sky Center. The image shows a ghostly view of VdB 4, which is a reflection nebula associated with a young open star cluster NGC 225, often called the Sailboat Cluster. Click here to see the entire field of view — which includes a dark area that looks like a spooky Halloween spider. This image was taken in October, 2012 with the 32-inch Schulman Telescope (RCOS) at Mount Lemmon, using a SBIG STX16803 CCD Camera. Thanks to Adam Block for sharing this eerie image!
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
Need some inspiration for carving your Halloween pumpkin? Look no further. Last year we featured some amazing feats of Halloween pumpkin carving, and this year the field is just as impressive. And what could be scarier than seven minutes of terror and Dragons? This year many carvers went with a Mars Science Laboratory theme, as did Will Gater, who brandished his carving knife in this outstanding re-creation of Curiosity being lowered by the Skycrane.
See more, below:
Liz Warren (@spasmunkey) carved an eery view of Curiosity on Mars.
Curiosity lasering a rock “for science!” said carver and planetary scientist Dr. Sarah Horst (@PlanetDr)
Someone at Johnson Space Center (@NASA-Johnson) is pretty handy with a pumpkin carving knife and deftly paid tribute to SpaceX’s recent success with the Dragon capsule visiting the International Space Station and safely returning cargo and experiments.
And here’s a timelapse video of a pumpkin artist creating a tribute to the recent Red Bull Stratos jump from the stratosphere:
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Did you see ghosts and goblins last night for Halloween? Jason Ahrns of Chatanika, Alaska saw a dark shadow of a spooky ghost in the middle of a green aurora stream during his observing run on October 31, 2011. He used a Nikon D5000 to snap this eerie image.
See more from Jason at his Flickr page.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group, post in our Forum or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
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When it comes to Halloween, there are some very creative people out there. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them, but I’ve been enjoying some incredible space-themed Jack-O-Lanterns that people on Twitter have been sharing. Above is an amazing re-creation of the Moon by astronomer and science writer Will Gater (@willgater) which shows the maria, craters and the rays from Tycho crater.
Below, a group of Space Tweeps got together and had a “Space-o-lantern” carving party: take a look!
Here’s Yuri Gagarin in intricate detail in the “Gargarkin” created by Rachel Hobson, @avgjanecrafter on Twitter. See more at Rachel’s blog, Average Jane Crafter
Liz Warren (@spasmunkey) specializes in space-o-lanterns of various space shuttle mission patches. Above in the STS-130 patch and below is STS-120.
And here’s a planetary pumpkin from Jen Scheer (@flyingjenny).
These creative Space Tweeps declared the First Ever World-Wide Space-O-Lantern Carving Day on October 28, 2011, and you can see more at their Flickr page. Create your own Space-O-Lanterns and upload to the group!