Return to home page.
Most Popular | Venus | Earth | Mars | Jupiter | Saturn | Neptune | Stars | Galaxies | Nebula | Spacecraft | Art



Illustrations of Spacecraft and the Cosmos
Sedna mystery deepens as Hubble offers best look at farthest planetoid  This is an artist's impression of noontime on Sedna, the farthest known planetoid from the Sun. Over 8 billion miles away, the Sun is reduced to a brilliant pinpoint of light that is 100 times brighter than the full Moon. (The Sun would actually be the angular size of Saturn as seen from Earth, way too small to be resolved with the human eye.) The dim spindle-shaped glow of dust around the Sun defines the ecliptic plane of the solar system where the major planets dwell. To the left, the hazy plane of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, stretches into the sky. The background constellations are Virgo and Libra. Oxygen and carbon discovered in exoplanet atmosphere ‘blow-off’  This artist’s impression shows an extended ellipsoidal envelope - the shape of a rugby-ball – of oxygen and carbon discovered around the well-known extrasolar planet HD 209458b.<BR><BR>An international team of astronomers led by Alfred Vidal-Madjar (Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, France) observed the first signs of oxygen and carbon in the atmosphere of a planet beyond our Solar System for the first time using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.<BR><BR>The atoms of carbon and oxygen are swept up from the lower atmosphere with the flow of escaping atmospheric atomic hydrogen - like dust in a supersonic whirlwind – in a process called atmospheric ‘blow off’. VLT and Hubble  Collage of the Hubble Space Telescope above the worlds largest optical/infrared telescope, the Very Large Telescope (VLT).
The Heliosphere is Tilted and the Bow Shock Really Exists  This artist's impression depicts the local region of space around the Solar System reflecting new discoveries by European scientists using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and Voyager. Gas Cloud near Eta Carinae  This is an artist's concept of a gas cloud (left) that acts as a natural ultraviolet laser, near the huge, unstable star Eta Carinae (right) -- one of most massive and energetic stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. Hubble gets revitalised in new servicing mission  
Artist's Concept of Rover on Mars  An artist's concept portrays a NASA Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. Two rovers have been built for 2003 launches and January 2004 arrival at two sites on Mars. Each rover has the mobility and toolkit to function as a robotic geologist. Out of the Dust, A Planet is Born  In this artist's conception, a possible newfound planet spins through a clearing in a nearby star's dusty, planet-forming disc. This clearing was detected around the star CoKu Tau 4 by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers believe that an orbiting massive body, like a planet, may have swept away the star's disc material, leaving a central hole. Wild 2: If You Were There  This is an artist's concept depicting a view of comet Wild 2 as seen from NASA's Stardust spacecraft during its flyby of the comet on Jan. 2, 2004.
A planet outside our Solar System  An international team of astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to help make a precise measurement of the mass of a planet outside our solar system. Artist's concept of Galaxy Evolution Explorer   Gravitational Lensing  Just as a wanderer in the desert can experience mirages, when light from remote objects is bent by the warm air hovering just above the sand, we may also see mirages in the Universe. The mirages we see with a modern telescope like the Hubble Space Telescope do not arise from oases, but instead from remote clusters of galaxies - huge concentrations of mass.
Click on an image to enlarge
Next

© 2006, 321Space.com  All rights reserved. Wallpapers are free to download for non-commercial use on your own computer.   Privacy Policy | Site Map | Contact us