Aug. 29, 2016 King George III’s British army was forced to evacuate Boston. They headed to New York. General George Washington responded by moving American troops to New York and fortifying Brooklyn Heights. Enthusiasm was high as Washington’s ranks swelled to nearly 20,000. Before long, hundreds of British ships filled New York’s harbor, carrying 32,000 […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA] How big is Jupiter’s moon Io? The most volcanic body in the Solar System, Io (usually pronounced “EYE-oh”) is 3,600 kilometers in diameter, about the size of planet Earth’s single large natural satellite. Gliding past Jupiter at the turn of the millennium, […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Apollo 15, USGS, NASA] On July 31, 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts Jim Iwrin and Dave Scott deployed the first Lunar Roving Vehicle on the Moon. Using it to explore their Hadley-Apennine landing site they spent nearly three days on the Moon while Al Worden orbited above. This digitally stitched […]
Aug. 1, 2016 [CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute] What’s behind Saturn? The first answer is the camera itself, perched on the Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting behind the planet with the most grand ring system in our Solar System. The unusual perspective places Cassini on the far side of Saturn from the […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Dean Fournier; Inset: ESA/Hubble & NASA] M13 is one of the most prominent and best known globular clusters. Visible with binoculars in the constellation of Hercules, M13 is frequently one of the first objects found by curious sky gazers seeking celestials wonders beyond normal human vision. M13 is a […]
July 15, 2016 The first mission to fly around the moon was Apollo 8 in 1968. … As they successfully went into lunar orbit, astronaut William Anders snapped the famous Earthrise photo that was printed in Life Magazine. As Apollo 8’s three man crew looked down on the earth from 250,000 miles away on Christmas […]
July 6, 2016 [CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, CHART32 Team, Processing – Johannes Schedler] [This telescopic view] features a trio of interacting galaxies almost 90 million light-years away, toward the constellation Virgo. On the right, two, spiky, foreground Milky Way stars echo the trio galaxy hues, a reminder that stars in our own galaxy […]
July 4, 2016 [CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION] NASA’s Juno spacecraft was to fire its main rocket engine late Monday to slow itself down from a speed of 150,000 mph (250,000 kph) and slip into orbit around Jupiter. With Juno on autopilot, the delicately choreographed move comes without any help from ground controllers. The […]
After nearly a five-year journey, Juno enjoys a perspective on Jupiter not often seen, even by spacecraft from Earth that usually swing by closer to Jupiter’s equator. Looking down toward the ruling gas giant from a distance of 10.9 million kilometers, the spacecraft’s JunoCam captured this image with Jupiter’s nightside and orbiting entourage of four […]
[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Laurie Hatch] A Full Moon sets as the Solstice Sun rises in this June 20 dawn skyscape. Captured from a nearby peak in central California, planet Earth, the scene looks across the summit of Mount Hamilton and Lick Observatory domes on a calendar date that marks an astronomical change […]
