Outer Space 🚀

2023-05-03 14:00:53 Sea Launch launches Changzheng-11 with five Earth observation satellites

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) launched the 13th launch of the Changzheng-11 launch vehicle to deliver five Jilin-1 Gaofen Earth observation satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit.

This launch was the third launch of the CZ-11 (CZ-11H) from an offshore launch platform off the coast of China. CZ-11H Y3 was launched April 30 at 03:30 GMT from the Tai Rui launch platform off China's coast.

The rocket itself is 20.8 meters high with a diameter of 2.0 meters. CZ-11 has two additional fairings measuring 1.6 meters and 2.0 meters. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-05-02 21:00:38 NGC 2359 is a helmet-shaped cloud with wing-like appendages, popularly referred to as "Thor's Helmet".

The helmet is actually quite similar to an interstellar bubble, blown by a fast wind from a bright, massive star near its center, which blows up the area in the surrounding molecular cloud.

The central Wolf-Rayet star is an extremely hot giant at a short, pre-surface evolutionary stage. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-05-02 14:00:53 Incredible video

It was filmed with the Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA's space observatory for studying the Sun. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-04-29 14:00:47 Edwards Air Force Base, California

All these people gathered to watch the landing of the shuttle Columbia (mission STS-5), November 16, 1982. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-04-28 21:00:35 Why would the compass fail to work on Mars?

Mars lacks a complete planetary magnetic field. There are only small magnetic anomalies, where the field is about 500 times weaker than on Earth. They are generated by magnetized rocks in the crust of Mars, not by the magnetic dynamo in the planet's core, as in the case of Earth.

Zones of magnetic anomalies are located irregularly, so that even a very sensitive compass capable of picking up their weak fields will not indicate a certain geographic direction. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-04-28 14:00:48 Where does the surface of a gas planet end and its atmosphere begin?

Gas planets consist mainly of hydrogen and helium. Their atmospheres are considered to be at a depth where the atmospheric pressure is equal to the normal terrestrial pressure. At that, there is no solid or at least liquid surface at such a boundary.

As one plunges deeper into the planet, the pressure increases and, when it reaches 12 atmospheres, hydrogen becomes a supercritical liquid, for which the difference between a gas and a liquid simply disappears.

That is, under the layers of gas there is an ocean of conditionally liquid hydrogen and helium - between this ocean and the gas shell there is no clear border, it is stretched for many kilometers of smooth transition. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-04-27 21:00:40 To get this composite and incredibly clear shot of the Moon, the photographer needed to combine 24,000 frames Открыть/Комментировать

2023-04-27 14:00:55 A stunning image of the Witch's Head Nebula

This is a reflecting nebula located in the constellation Eridanus, close to Orion, also known as IC 2118 or NGC 1909.

It is about 1,000 light years away from Earth. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-04-26 21:00:47 Rishat structure

That’s a unique geological formation in the western part of the Sahara Desert, perfectly circular rings of enormous size with a flat surface.

The outer diameter of the structure is 50 km. Presumably the result of a meteorite falling 600 million years ago.

Photo taken by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet from the ISS during the expedition 65, 2021. Открыть/Комментировать

2023-04-26 14:00:57 Photograph of Saturn taken at the Lowell Observatory in September 1909

At the same observatory, 21 years later, Clyde Tombaugh would discover Pluto Открыть/Комментировать