latest news melbourne: Weekly Impressive Space Photos: July 3

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Weekly Impressive Space Photos: July 3 - Education

The photos of sunrise shadows on the moon's Tycho crater, a black hole spewing jets of radiation and the eruption of Nabro volcano are some of the previous?week impressive space photos.

The NASA robotic spacecraft Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter angled its path 65 degrees to the west during the sunrise on June 10 in order to help the craft to get the long shadow of the central peak inside Tycho, the most conspicuous crater visible of the Moon.

LRO was launched in June 2009 in order to take photographs of the moon in unprecedented detail and scout potential landing sites for future manned missions.

The Tycho crater stretches some 82 km in diameter and is visible from Earth with the bare eye. The crater is a popular target for amateur astronomers.

The new photo of sunrise shadows on the moon's Tycho crater was taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The new photo of sunrise shadows on the moon's Tycho crater was taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Nabro volcano in a remote region near the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia spews massive plumes of ash into the sky. The eruption caused many people to evacuate and local flight disruptions.

The photo of the eruption of Nabro volcano was photographed by a NASA satellite

The photo of the eruption of Nabro volcano was photographed by a NASA satellite

The thin rings of Saturn, the second largest planet in the Solar System, seem to slice through its largest moon Titan. Different from Earth?s moon, Saturn?s moon Titan is enveloped in a thick atmosphere which is made mostly of nitrogen, methane and other organics.

The photo of Saturn's thin rings and its moon Titan was taken by NASA's Cassini orbiter on June 27

The photo of Saturn's thin rings and its moon Titan was taken by NASA's Cassini orbiter on June 27

A black hole two billion times as huge as the sun spews jets of radiation in an impression of the quasar ULAS J1120+0641, the most distant quarter ever found.

Quasars are very energetic, extremely luminous and distant galaxies that are thought to have actively feeding supermassive black holes at their hearts. The quasar ULAS J1120+0641 is considered as the brightest object seen so far in the universe. The quasar is said to emit the light observed on Earth today less than 770 million years after the Big Bang, about 13 billion years ago.

A black hole spews jets of radiation

A black hole spews jets of radiation

The nebula Messier 78 also known as M 78 or NGC 2068 in the constellation Orion is partially covered by dark tendrils of dense dust. However, with the infrared eye, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope can look through this dust and shows off the glowing clouds of star-forming material inside.