Arte-non-Vi

Tag: Deep Space

  • The Star that lit the Universe

    The Star that lit the Universe

    Consider the pursuit and acquisition of knowledge.

    Ninety-four years ago today, the modern universe “appeared”

    When my father was born in 1916, the world still maintained a Copernican understanding of our galaxy. In essence, the conventional wisdom was that the universe was made up of just one galaxy – our own Milky Way galaxy.

    By 1923, [virtually overnight, our entire perception of the universe changed]. The discovery of a single star heralded our modern understanding of the universe!

    On October 5, 1923, Edwin Hubble discovered a Cepheid variable star in what was then known as the Andromeda Nebula.

    Hubble Var1
    [Var! – Edwin Hubble | Source Carnegie Observatories ]

    So by the time my mother was born in 1925, the Universe went from a single [Milky Way] Galaxy, to literally hundred of Millions…

    Hubble determined that this object was 1 million light-years away, more than three times the then-calculated Milky Way diameter. (Better measurements today put Andromeda at more than 2 million light-years away.)

    Hubble Deep Field

    Hubble Deep Field
    [Source: 2004 NASA Hubble Deep Field ]

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  • First Sunlit Earth

    First Sunlit Earth

    Awe-inspiring.

    A NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite has returned its first view of the entire sunlit side of Earth from one million miles away.

    The color images of Earth from NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) are generated by combining three separate images to create a photographic-quality image. The camera takes a series of 10 images using different narrowband filters — from ultraviolet to near infrared — to produce a variety of science products. The red, green and blue channel images are used in these Earth images.

    EPIC Earth View
    [ SUNLIT Earth NASA – Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) 1 Million Miles
    Reminiscent of the The Blue Marble which is the famous photograph of the Earth, taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft, at a distance of about 45,000 kilometers (28,000 miles)

    Blue Marble
    [Blue Marble – Corrected “North” – Apollo 17 ]
    The geographer in me thinks it is always worth noting that the original image/perspective of the three astronauts, Harrison H. Schmitt, Eugene A. Cernan and Ron Evans when the photo was taken,was with the earth-view decidedly “down-under” in orientation!

    Blue Marble Original
    [Blue Marble – Original – Apollo 17 ]

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  • because we can…

    Orion