Read more: https://bbloggertutorials.blogspot.com/2013/09/how-to-add-shining-css3-horizontal-menu.html#ixzz4uhhImntN

SPACEX SPACESHIPS ON MARS

SpaceX Future Concept of Landed Spaceships (Big Falcon Rocket) on Mars

MILKYWAY GALAXY

Wonderful View of Our Milkyway Galaxy

MOON BASE - ALPHA BY SPACEX

Artist Concept of Moon Base Alpha led by Elon Musk (SpaceX)

MAGNIFICENT VIEW OF GAS NEBULAE

Hubble Space Telescope Updates

ORION NEBULAE

Wonderful Image of Orion M42 Gas Nebulae

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Explore Our Solar System with Multiple Spacecrafts

MARS BASE ALPHA SPACEX

Elon Musk Concept of Mars Base with Big BFR Rockets

NEW HORIZONS TO A NEW TARGET FLYBY

Explore Beyond Solar System

WHITE CLOUDS OF GAS NEBULAE

Hubble Space Telescope Photographs

ANDROMEDA GALAXY

Our Nearest Galaxy to Observe

HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGE OF HUBBLE

NASA'S Hubble Space Telescope Photographs

VOYAGER 1 AND VOYAGER 2

Spacecraft Leaving Our Solar System

TRAPPIST-1 SOLAR SYSTEM

Amazing Discovery of NASA

GIANT GAS NEBULAE

These Nebulae mostly consist of Hydrogen Gases

UNIVERSE IS EXPANDING AND ACCELERATING

Universe is not only Expanding but Accelerating

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Total Lunar Eclipse 2018

Super blood moon 2018

What is lunar eclipse?

       Lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes into the earth's dark shadow region called umbra. At the time of eclipse the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned in a pattern called Syzygy. ( The light from the Sun falls on Earth and the shadow of earth falls on the Moon. Lunar eclipse was first noted on 29 February 1504 by Christopher Colombus.

How total lunar eclipse occurs?

How long the lunar eclipse occurs?

     The duration of the lunar eclipse depends on the orbital location of moon and the earth. The longest distance from the earth and the moon is apogee and the shortest distance is called perigee. The longest total lunar eclipse occurs every 11 years and that was early noted on 21 December 2010 that lasted for about three hours and twenty eight minutes.

Why the lunar eclipse is red coloured and bloody?

     During the lunar eclipse, the light from the sun is completely blocked by the earth. Whatever the light get refracted from the earth falls on moon. That is red in colour and sometimes blue due to the Rayleigh scattering, the red colour is similar to the colour of sky during the sunset. So, the total lunar eclipse was sometimes called super blood moon.

Timeline of Lunar eclipse:
  • 29 February 1504
  • 08 August 1998
  • 31 January 1999
  • 28 July 1999
  • 21 January 2000
  • 16 July 2000
  • 09 January 2001
  • 05 July 2001
  • 30 December 2001
  • 24 June 2002
  • 26 May 2002
  • 20 November 2002
  • 16 May 2003
  • 09 November 2003
  • 04 May 2004
  • 28 October 2004
  • 24 April 2005
  • 17 October 2005
  • 14 March 2006
  • 07 September 2006
  • 03 March 2007
  • 28 August 2007
  • 21 February 2008
  • 16 August 2008
  • 09 February 2009
  • 06 August 2009
  • 07 July 2009
  • 31 December 2009
  • 26 June 2010
  • 21 December 2010
  • 15 June 2011
  • 10 December 2011
  • 04 June 2012
  • 28 November 2012
  • 25 April 2013
  • 25 May 2013
  • 18 October 2013
  • 15 April 2014
  • 08 October 2014
  • 04 April 2015
  • 28 September 2015
  • 23 March 2016
  • 16 September 2016
  • 18 August 2016
  • 11 February 2017
  • 07 August 2017
  • 31 January 2018
Next Expected eclipse:

      Scientists predict that next total lunar eclipse can be seen on 27 July 2018 . Every year we can see 2 lunar eclipse and many as 5. If one knows the exact date and time, so we can focus the sky and moon to see this event. The lunar eclipse is measured in Dajon scale.

Credits:
Image credit : NASA
Text credit : Team Fornax


Sunday, January 28, 2018

Super Blue Blood Moon

Third Series of Super Blue Moon:

     On 31st January 2018, we will have a chance to see "super blue moon" as announced by space agencies around the world. It is the third in the series of super moons. Moon will be very closer to earth and it will be so bright that is 14 percent brighter than usual. It is the second super moon of this month and commonly called as "Blue Moon". It will pass along the earth's shadow looking like a reddish tint known as " Blood Moon".

Visibility Schedule:
  • People's of North America, Alaska and Hawaii can see the eclipse on 31st Jan, just before the sunrise.
  • People living in Middle East, Asia, Russia, Australia and New Zealand can see during the moon rise in the evening on 31 Jan.
More Information:
  1. Download Video of NASA Super Moon 360
  2. Super Moon will be foretasted live on NASA Lunar Website
  3. NASA Science Cast video live
  4. Moon Phase calendar and calculator
  5. Printable Moon Calendar 
Credits: NASA

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

What is Space?

What is Space?

Space-Universe

     Space is a zone or place extended over millions of kilometers above our earth's surface. It consists of millions of stars, planets, asteroids, comets, meteors, suns, galaxies and many solar system. In technical term, space is a vaccum. i.e sound cannot travel. It also have dark matters and dark energies that occupies 70 percent part of the universe. It also have black holes, supernova, binary stars, pulsars and giant gas nebulae.

Can life is possible in Space?

    Yes, life is possible. As per modern discoveries life is possible only in earth.Because it lies in the habitable zone and minimal distance from sun, so that it can maintain moderate temperature for life forms. But scientists predict that life can be possible in space beyond earth. Because the vast universe have multiple number of solar system and some planet may lie in the habitable zone like our earth.

Difficulties to live in space:

     Space is a blank area where we cannot breathe as there is no air and atmosphere. we cannot live in those blank space, because the pressure is very low as compared to the pressure of blood inside our body which results in burst of body and death. It does not have sufficient platform to stand and move our body parts, so we won't be stable in one place. we keep on moving towards any direction into the cosmos. It doesn't have plants to provide sufficient oxygen for individual human to breathe and there is no water to drink. One of the major problems is the exposure to radiation. Cosmic radiation comes from deep space can cause health problems like cancer and may leads to death.Similarly, there are many challenges for human beings to survive.

How universe is formed?

Universe

     The answer for "how the space and universe is formed?" is a still a hypothesis (unproven or may be proved in future) and a very difficult question to be explained by the scientists. The science of astronomy and astrophysics born in around 4th century at the time of Greek period. To answer this question, hundreds of scientists and astronomers are working day and night for proposing a model to explain the birth of universe. Finally in early 1927, one of the famous Belgian scientist of 20th century Georges Lemaitre first proposed an "expanding model of the universe" by which he formulated Hubble Law. Later, it became a key for the "Big Bang Theory" developed by Friedmann, Lemaitre, Robertson and Walker. 

What is Big-Bang Theory?

Big-Bang Theory model
     Big-Bang is a giant explosion of energetic particles and dark matter due to the action of gravity, which resulted in the formation of universe. The explosion include nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. Due to huge explosions matters started to expand and spread over the universe, these particles get collided  and combined to form stars, galaxies, solar systems and planets. Some of the small parts from the explosive became asteroids and comets. The formation took billions of years and the current age of the universe is about 4.6 billion years. Major contribution to this big-bang theory was made by American scientist "Stephen Hawking".

Black Holes:


Black Holes
     Black holes is otherwise called worm hole, which are formed by the collapsing of stars white dwarf. It have high gravitational field inside from which nothing can be escaped including light which travels at 300,000 km/sec. It is a mystery that what is inside the black hole? Research works are going on by several observatories around the world

Gravitational Waves:

Gravitational Waves
   Gravitational waves are ripples in space fabric. It was predicted by Albert Einstein in the last century but it was finally detected in 2017. It was detected by LIGO Observatory in Livingston. LIGO stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory. The waves was discovered by three noble laureate's (Kip.S.Thorne et al, 2017). It was detected three times over two years in 2015 and 2016. Research papers were published about the discovery and detection of gravitational waves.

Planets and Moon:

Our Solar System
     Planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the dwarf Pluto were formed from the Sun. They were a part of burning sun. After few billion years, they started to cool shaping to a beautiful planet. The moons which are moving around every planets also formed from part of every planet. They process of geo-dynamic cooling prevailed for billion years. It made a change in the planetary surface of earth for the birth and origin of life.

Asteroids:

Asteroid
      Asteroids are nothing but the minor planets existing inside our solar system. The larger asteroids was called planetoids. They never grew to large one to become a planet. The are millions of asteroids revolving around the sun. They are densely gathered in a region called asteroid belt, which lie between planet Mars and Jupiter. Sometimes many small asteroids were used to fall on the surface of Earth and Mars, Jupiter was used to impacted by many asteroids from the asteroid belt.The first ever asteroid discovered was Ceres.

Comets:


Comets
   Comets are icy bodies coming from outer solar system. They are mostly made up of icy gases and used to come to our solar system after a certain cycle of time. They tend to melt and release gases when they pass close to our sun due to the action of heat. It melts completely and finally disappears. They are very popular and rare object in the sky to observe during life time. Some of the near earth comets were Encke's comet, Halley comet etc.. In our lifetime we can able to see both the comets mentioned earlier. We can see Encke comet in June 2020 and Halley's comet in July 2061 as expected by the astronomers.

Conclusion:


Imaginative Image of Earth and Asteroids
    Our space and universe is a beautiful creation ever made. Our knowledge about the universe is just 10% and still there are many things to know. Exploring and expanding the knowledge about the universe is a human nature. we will be having wonderful and mysterious discoveries in the future. Space is, that cannot be imagined simply in our brain.

Credits:
Image Credit : NASA
Text Credit: Team Spacexpress
Post Source: https://www.indianspacexpress.blogspot.in/

Saturday, January 20, 2018

GSAT-17

GSAT-17 Animated Image by ISRO

Geostationary satellite GSAT-17 is a India's latest communication satellite launched from Kourou, French Guiana. It was carried by Ariane-5 VA-238 rocket on 29 June 2017. It has onboard payload for better communication and it also has meteorological data relay satellite.

Payloads for communication:

  • Normal C-band
  • Extended C-band
  • S-band
Launch:
GSAT-17 Launch from Ariane Flight Center
The satellite was transferred into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. After its injection it master control was maintained by ISRO's Mater Control Facility located at Hassan. The satellite has a mass of 3477 kg with 15 years of extended mission life. It was designed and manufactured by Indian Space Research Organisation.

  GSAT-17 is the 21st satellite from ISRO. It is a current fleet of 17 operational telecom satellites. It has the capability to provide Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) in normal C-band and extended C-band. It also provide Mobile Satellite Services(MSS) in S-band and data relay and search & Rescue services in Ultra High Frequency.

Mission Overview:

  1. Launch Mass - 3477 kg
  2. Mission Life - 15 Years
  3. Rocket carried - Ariane-5 VA-238
  4. Satellite Type - Communication
  5. Manufacturer - ISRO
  6. Owner - ISRO
  7. Application - Communication
  8. Orbit Type - Geostationary Transfer Orbit
More Information:

GSAT-17 Launch Video from Ariane Space Flight Center, Kourou:


Mars Colour Camera - Mangalyaan Updates

Volcanic Summits:
The image shows volcanic summits located in the Tharsis region . It covers volcanoes like the largest volcano in the solar system called Olympus Mons, Arisa mons, Pavonis mons and the Ascraeus mons. It was taken at a altitude of 42,433 km and the colour has been corrected by image processing centre at Indian Space Research Organisation. The cloud formation can be seen in the image shown by arrow marks.


Three linked craters:

The image shows Margaritifer quadrangle of Mars and it covers three craters. It was taken by Mars Colour Camera onboard payload of Mangalyaan spacecraft on 26 December 2016 from an altitude of 534 km.

Corporate Region:

 The image provides details of Terrain on the surface of Mars. It was taken by MCC on 23 November 2016 from an altitude of 564 km.

Tyrrhenum quadrangle:
The image shows Tyrrhenum quadrangle of Mars having a impact crater at bottom called Muller. The crater Muller is about 120 km wide. The image was taken on 15 March 2017 from an altitude of 2812 km.

Eridania quadrangle:

The image covers Eridania quadrangle of Mars showing Cimmerium of Mars at right and Muller crater in left in the southern hemisphere of areographic region. This image was taken on 15 March 2017 from an altitude of 3072 km. 

     
Credits:

Text credit: Indian Space Research Organisation.
Image Source : https://www.isro.gov.in
Image credit : Mars Colour Camera | Mangalyaan | ISRO

Friday, January 19, 2018

SBRIS-GEO-4 Mission launch

Atlas-V getting ready for launch in Cape Canaveral AFS

Mission Name      SBIRS-GEO-4
Launch Site         Cape Canaveral Air Force Station 
Launch Date        19 January 2018
Time in EST         19:48:00 EST
Launch Vehicle    Atlas V Version.411
Owner                   United Launch Alliance
Mission Type       Warning Satellite
Application          Warning Purpose

About Mission:


     SBIRS-GEO-4 is a early warning satellite,this will be launched under United Launch Alliance on Thursday at 19:48:00 European Standard Time. It is ULA's 75th launch. This satellite is fourth geostationary satellite which uses Space based infrared system to detect and track missile launches.

Origin:

     This satellite is constructed by Lockheed Martin Space Systems . It carries two infrared sensors and a scanning sensor to detect smaller range missiles. This satellite has a mass of 4500 kilograms and it was planned to be in operational for about 12 year mission. SBIRS was a third geostationary satellite.

Cooperative Work:

     This SBIRS-GEO-4 satellite will join another three existing geostationary satellite for a cooperative work for the detection of missiles. Previous satellites were launched and deployed in May 2011, March 2013 and January 2017. And two more GEO Satellites were aimed to launch in 2020s.

SBIRS-GEO-4 Live Launch:



Bow-Tie Nebula

NGC-40 (Bow-Tie Nebula) imaged by National Aeronautics Space Administration

New General Catalogue-40

     NGC-40 is a planetary nebula which was first discovered by famous astronomer William Herschel , during his observation into the dark sky on 25th November 1788. It was also called as Bow-Tie Nebula. He argued that the planetary nebula is composed of a dying star surrounded by hot gases. The star had already ejected its outer gas layer and the smaller star remains with a surface temperature of 50,000 degree Celsius. The temperature of the surrounding gases is about 10,000 degree Celsius which was heated by the radiation emitted from the star. Its width is about approx. 1 light year and it lie at a distance of 3500 light years away from our earth. Scientists predict that the star will fade away by leaving a small white dwarf after 30,000 years. The size of the white dwarf is equal to the size of the earth.

     This nebula is too far and it cannot be seen through our naked eye. It can be seen using extremely large telescopes and it can be located in the constellation of Cepheus. Its sister designations were Bow-Tie Nebula and Caldwell-2 as mentioned in SIMBAD Astronomical Database.
NGC-40 imaged by Hubble Space Telescope

More Information:

Sunday, January 7, 2018

5th Jan Juno Updates 2018

Jupiter Image taken by Juno - Juno Mission updates   Image credit : NASA / JPL / JUNO
Description about Image:

    Juno spacecraft took this image on 16 December 2017 at exactly 09:43 PM according to European Standard Time from a distance about 13,345 kilometers. It was taken above the Jupiter's top clouds at a latitude degree of 48.9. The spatial image resolution is 9.3 kilometers/pixel.

Image Processing:

     The raw image from Juno was processed by NASA's citizen scientists Gerald Eichstadt & Sean Doran by using data from JunoCam Imager.

JunoCam Imager:

     JunoCam is a onboard payload of Juno spacecraft installed to take image of Jupiter. It has the capability to take image through the dense clouds of Jupiter.

Juno Image to Public:

    JUNO's raw and processed image are openly available for public and their use. This can be available at www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam

More Information:

    To know more about Juno spacecraft, it can be located at 

How much it elapsed since Juno arrival?

     It elapsed 1 Year 185 days 23 hours 35 minutes as on 07 Jan 2018 at 08:24 AM (GMT +05:30 hours India).

Credits:

Image Credit : NASA/JPL Caltech

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Thermal Emission Imaging System

THEMIS Image 
Thermal Emission Imaging System - Payload - 2001 Mars Odyssey Spacecraft

     The thermal emission imaging system is a onboard payload installed in the Mars spacecraft known as 2001 Mars Odyssey. It was capable of imaging the infrared and visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is used to determine the surface temperature and mineral distribution on the surface of Martian body.It runs on 14 watts of power.

Manufactured and Management:

     The THEMIS was manufactured by Santa Barbara Remote Sensing . The control and management of this payload was undertaken by Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University.

THEMIS and TES Comparison:

     The processced image of THEMIS is very clear as compared to the Thermal Emission Spectrometer. THEMIS detects the minerals and temperatures at nine different wavelengths. Eight of these wavelength range from 6 to 13 micrometers and the ninth one is about 14.9 micrometers.

Achievements:

     Thermal Emission Imaging System discovered variety of rocks and minerals. Some of them are:
  1. Low-Silica Basalts
  2. High Silica Dacite
  3. Olivine
  4. Ultramafic basalts
  5. Quartz
  6. Magmas
  7. Mantle
  8. Granitoid Rocks
More Useful Links:

Kepler Space Telescope

Kepler Space Telescope 

Introduction:

     Kepler spacecraft / Kepler Space Telescope / K2 mission, is a space telescope launched by National Aeronautics Space Administration to discover earth seized exoplanets existing beyond solar system. This was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a part of "Discovery Program" It was launched on March 2009, it has a instrument called "Photometer" which continually monitors the brightness and intensity of stars in the Milky way galaxy. It was also aimed to count the number of stars in the milky way galaxy and also to find the exoplanets lie in the habitable zone. Kepler mission was named after a famous astronomer Johannes Kepler. This spacecraft is contributing more in major discoveries like the Trappist-1 system and many other exoplanets discoveries. After its major discoveries, NASA released a catalogue on "exoplanet discovery".

Spacecraft:

     The spacecraft's total mass is about 1039 kilograms, major instruments were camera, mirror and photometer, the telescope used to orbit in earth's heliocentric orbit. The diameter of the primary mirror is 0.95 meter. Its primary mirror has soft focus technology that provides excellent photometry with a range from 20 ppm to 84 ppm brightness.

Launch and Orbital Insertion:

Kepler Mission launch on 7 March 2009
    Kepler mission started with the launch on 7 March 2009 at 03:49:57 UTC, carried by Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station located in Florida. It was injected into earth's heliocentric orbit on 7 April 2009, and the image taking process began on 8 April 2009. It completed its first mission phase on 13 May 2009.

Applications and Objectives:
  • determine the number of planets lie in the habitable zone beyond earth
  • determine the geometry of multiple planets in multiple-star system
  • determine the orbital period and luminosity of stars
  • determine the planetary systems and their members
  • determine the properties and systems of giant planets
Outcomes upto till date:

  1. 2009 - It determined 7,500 stars list from the milkyway galaxy
  2. 2010 - It discovered 400 exoplanets and released data on that candidates
  3. 2011 - It found 1235 planet candidates and 997 hot stars
    1.  68 exoplanets = earth seized planet
    2. 288 exoplanet  > earth
    3. 662 exoplanet = Neptune seized
    4. 165 exoplanet = Jupiter seized
    5. 19 exoplanet = 2 x Jupiter seized planets
    6. 54 exoplanets lie in the habitable zone out of 1235 exoplanets
  4. 2012 - It reached to a discovery of 2,321 exolanet candidates
    1. 207 = Earth seized planets
    2. 680 > Earth seized planets
    3. 1,181 = Neptune seized planets
    4. 203 = Jupiter seized planets
    5. 55 > Jupiter seized planets
    6. 48 = Lie in the habitable zone 
  5. 2013 - It discovered the existence of 400 billion exoplanets
  6. 2014 - It discovered a additional of 530 exoplanet candidates etc.. 
  7. 2015 - It discovered more than 1000 planets and 16000 stars
  8. 2016 - 1284 new exoplanets
Sister Mission:


     In November 2013, a sister mission called Kepler-2 the "Second Light" was presented for the extension of first mission. It would have renaming capability and more photometric precision than Kepler - 1 mission for the study of supernova explosions, star formations and solar-system bodies that include comets and asteroids.

Kepler Data Releases:

Graph of Kepler Discoveries

     Scientists planned to release the one year observation data, but this plan was terminated as they wished to release three year data on exoplanet candidates. This catalogue will include the discovery and naming of the planet, radial velocity and habitable planets.  Some of the confirmed exoplanets that lie in the habitable zone were listed below,
    • Kepler-62e
    • Kepler-62f
    • Kepler-186f
    • Kepler-296e
    • Kepler-296f
    • Kepler-438b
    • Kepler-440b
    • Kepler-442b
Conclusion:

    Kepler space telescope contributed to the new world of exoplanet discoveries. It discovered more than thousands of exoplanets and habitable planets including planetray systems. It latest and major work known to be the discovery to Trappist-1 planetary system. NASA had already extended the mission upto 2018 and it will discover the undiscovered, it is expected that the list of exoplanet would cross billions.We dont know how big the universe is, so we can accurately say the number of stars and planets in our galaxy and universe. Human beings are very much interested to know the existence of life beyond solar system.

Helpful Links to know more:

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Falcon-9 Zuma Launch

Falcon-9 standing on launch pad

About Mission:

     Space-x scheduled to launch "Zuma" mission using Falcon-9 version 2.0 on 4th January 2018 at 08:00 PM. The rocket will be launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. After, transferring the satellite into transfer orbit, the reusable falcon-9 first stage will attempt landing at landing zone-1 which is located near Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Zuma Satellite:

     Zuma is a secret mission undertaken by United States government. It is considered to be Aerospace and defense satellite, but still it is unclear with the mission.

Launch Window:

Falcon-9 successful landing during past missions
    Space-x has planned to launch this satellite in a two hours window on Thursday evening at 8 pm as per European Standard Time. But the weather issues made delay in countdowns. The launch window for this mission launch is between 01:00 GMT to 03:00 GMT. Zuma had earlier launch, scheduled on 15 November 2017, but the company announced the delay of launch of Zuma mission.

Target for Transfer Orbit:

    Zuma satellite will be injected into earth's LEO which commonly called low-earth orbit. The LEO is about 2000 kilometers from the earth's surface and all the satellites orbit earth in every approx. 90 to 120 minutes, which determines their altitude from the surface.

Falcon-9 Rocket Launch:

     This video shows the launch of Iridium, falcon-9 rocket developed by space-x


Zuma Launch Live Cast:

    You can see the live of Zuma launch on space-x official youtube channel.