Using The Advanced Adaptive Optics System On The Gemini South Telescope, Astronomers Have Imaged A Beautiful

T-2 hours - JASON-3 and Falcon 9 stand tall on the west coast. For the second time in its history, a SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket stands at Vandenberg Air Force Base’s SLC-4E ready for launch. The 224 foot tall rocket will carry the joint NASA/NOAA JASON-3 satellite to study Earth’s oceans. Of the 20 flights of the Falcon 9 to date, all but one has occurred from Cape Canaveral’s SLC-40. The inaugural flight of Falcon 9 v1.1, Cassiope in September 2013, was also the debut of the vehicle on the west coast. The JASON-3 mission will see the final v1.1 Falcon 9 performing the vehicle’s second west coast flight. Liftoff will occur in the middle of a 30-second launch window, at 1:42 pm EST (10:42 am PST). NASA TV coverage started at 11 am EST. Watch the launch live here. p/c: SpaceX/NASA

Psychedelic Pluto : New Horizons scientists made this false color image of Pluto using a technique called principal component analysis to highlight the many subtle color differences between Plutos distinct regions.

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Pluto’s heart

This high-resolution image captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows the bright expanse of the western lobe of Pluto’s “heart,” or Sputnik Planitia, which is rich in nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane ices.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

“We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down, and worry about our place in the dirt.”

Watch: Leonardo DiCaprio calls to end climate change in Oscar acceptance speech.

M7, Open Star Cluster 

This is the coolest outer space animation ever. It shows the Crab Supernova explosion, happened in 1054, and its evolution into the remnant it is now - called the Crab Nebula. Basically a thousand years speeded up into less than a minute.

Modern understanding that the Crab Nebula was created by a supernova, an explosion of a massive supergiant star, dates to 1921 when Carl Otto Lampland announced he had seen changes in its structure. This eventually led to the conclusion that the creation of the Crab Nebula corresponds to the bright SN 1054 supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in AD 1054. There is also a 13th-century Japanese reference to an appearance of a new or “guest” star in Meigetsuki. It was then so bright it was visible during the daytime for 23 days.

animation credit: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

About to do some comet observing.

Southern Cross by Carlos Fairbairn

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