Into the Sun

Just thought I’d share a couple of super-cool image of the Space Shuttle silhouetted against the sun on its way to service to the Hubble Space Telescope. The fist image shows a clear shot of the Shuttle silhouetted against the sun, and the second image shows the Shuttle (the larger black dot) as it approaches the Hubble Space Telescope (the smaller black dot). Pretty cool!

Can’t wait to see new images from deep(er) space from the upgrades performed on the space telescope by the Shuttle crew.

Images captured by award winning French astro-photographer Thierry Legault.

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Cosmic Dance Wednesday April 11, 2007

Venus and the Pleiades are converging for a
close encounter on Wednesday, April 11th.

At closest approach, the planet and the star cluster will be about 2 degrees apart, tight enough to fit behind your upturned thumb held at arm’s length. They’re an odd couple. Venus is extravagantly bright while the Pleiades are faint and delicate, yet together they make a pretty ensemble suitable for photography, binoculars or simple naked-eye viewing.

Watch the western sky after sunset in the nights ahead to see them drawing together.

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The Cassini Spacecraft has managed to get a better glimpse of an interesting phenomenon occurring over the entire north pole of the planet Saturn.

A Hex on Saturn?

A hexigonal shape circles Saturn’s north pole and has deeply piqued scientists’ interest.

NASA Excerpt:

The hexagon appears to have remained fixed with Saturn’s rotation rate and axis since first glimpsed by Voyager 26 years ago. The actual rotation rate of Saturn is still uncertain.

SpaceWeather.com

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Now it has passed behind the sun, and so it is viewable in the southern hemisphere. Great shots are coming out of Australia.

Have a look at the photo galleries. Amazing stuff. The comet got so big and bright as it approached the sun that it was quite easy to see it with the naked eye in broad daylight.

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