This is a list of selected astronomy and space videos that have previously appeared on the home page. Top the most recent…
Comet Lovejoy Survives A Brush With The Sun Come on Sun give me all you got, I can take the heat !! In this video Comet Lovejoy keeps itself together as it passes just 75,000 miles from the raging solar surface to emerge relatively unscathed. As the comet approaches the Sun notice its tail rippling due to the solar wind, making it almost resembling the movements of a fish. Only Lovejoy’s tail seems to have been disrupted by the encounter, the comet seeming to leave part of it behind. This tough space snowball defies the mighty centre of the solar system to casually emerge from behind the right side of the Sun to resume its travels. This video was taken from the Nasa Solar Dynamics Observatory
Curiosity Blasts Off For Mars This was the launch on Saturday 26th of November of the the next rover to Mars. “Curiosity”, also named the Mars Science Laboratory. is the largest, heaviest, and most advanced rover ever sent to the red planet, and will hopefully be touching down in the huge the 92 mile wide Gale Crater in August 2012. Gale Crater has a three mile high mountain near its centre, and from Mars orbiting spacecraft the whole area looks to have been soaked in water billions of years ago. The impact that created Gale has revealed layered sedimentry type rock, perfect hunting ground for the Curiosity Rover in its search for the conditions of past or present life.
The Nasa Juno Spacecraft, on its way to a world of colossal storms and deadly radiation belts Nasa’s Juno Spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on August 5th for its 5 year journey to Jupiter, the most massive planet in the solar system. Juno will arrive in July 2016 to spend a year orbiting the gas giant to study its stormy atmosphere, temperature, composition, and how much water exists there. Jupiter’s magnetic field, and gravitational field will also be under scrutiny to reveal Jupiter’s structure. The northern and southern lights, will also be studied to see just how the magnetic field affects Jupiter’s atmosphere. The Nasa Juno Spacecraft will complete 33 orbits before de-orbiting into Jupiter…and yes, that means a dramatic death for the spacecraft as it is eventually send headlong into the Jovian cloud system. Juno’s ultimate destination is blazing in the sky right now before midnight as it rises from the east, so you can see it for yourself .
Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught this monster eruption from the Sun on 7th June 2011. The coronal mass ejection exploded from our star at speeds topping 1,600 kilometres per second. This is one of the most spectacular ever observed, as large amounts of the material can clearly be seen falling back onto the Sun’s surface. The Sun always looks sedate in the sky and doesn’t look like it ever really does much (never look at it directly), but in fact it’s extremely violent and its power is terrifying.
You have to see this new time lapse video taken from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. Our stunning Galaxy is laid out in all its glory as it turns across the sky through the evening. We both know of course that it’s really us that’s turning, on our little rock in the vastness. (Check this out for a slightly different perspective). Notice too the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, as two bright patches that look like bits of the Milky Way that have broken off. They’re actually satellite dwarf galaxies of our Milky Way, captured in its gravitational clutches, and can actually be seen in the southern hemisphere as naked eye objects. See how the galactic bulge stands out as the thickest and densest concentration of stars gas and dust, marking the Galaxy’s centre…awesome stuff !!
Check out this video from Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, it shows a great view of our star. But something that’s not normally in the SFO’s cameras makes a pass in front of the Sun…the Moon
This year marks the Hubble Space Telescope’s 21st anniversary of gazing at the universe, and bringing incredible cosmic vistas to our screens. Interacting galaxy pair ARP 273 was picked for for the occasion, and so Hubble went to work to bring us jaw a dropping view of these two galaxies, locked together in a galactic dance spanning hundreds of millions of years. Remember that every single tiny grain of light in the galaxy’s arms, even the very smallest particle you may or may not even be able to decipher is a sun in its own right, so each could be the centre of an entire solar system. The Nasa/Esa Press release
April the 21st 2011 marked the first year of stunning images from Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. This amazing piece of hardware that brings us views of our star in a resolution never before seen prior to its launch in 2010. It produces enough data to fill a CD every 36 seconds, and is part of Nasa’s living with a star program
This is an animation of the planned landing on Mars of the next rover “Curiosity”, also named the Mars Science Laboratory. It will be launched on 25th November 2011, and hopefully touching down on the red planet on 6th August 2012. It shows the ingenious method of getting this new rover onto the Martian soil by way of the “Sky crane”. Curiosity is larger and more than 5 times heavier than the other rovers Opportunity and Spirit on Mars right now. This new rover will search for the conditions of past or present life.
This is a colossal flare that erupted from the Sun on February 24th 2011, and caught by the cameras of Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. It lasted for 90 minutes, as seen in extreme ultra violet light. Place the Earth in the scene, and apart from us all being fried to a crisp, we would be very small compared to this flare. This video clip is addictive, and very attractive to watch. Enjoy!
