Author Archives: Chompsky

Despite its impressive name and the fact that it’s the largest moon of the second largest planet in the solar system, Titan is very hard to see. To wit:

Small particles suspended in the upper atmosphere cause an almost impenetrable haze, strongly scattering light at visible wavelengths and hiding Titan’s surface features from prying eyes. But Titan’s surface is better imaged at infrared wavelengths where scattering is weaker and atmospheric absorption is reduced. Arrayed around this visible light image (center) of Titan are some of the clearest global infrared views of the tantalizing moon so far. In false colour, the six panels present a consistent processing of 13 years of infrared image data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini spacecraft. They offer a stunning comparison with Cassini’s visible light view.

(Image: VIMS Team, U. Arizona, U. Nantes, ESA, NASA)

apod

A multi award-winning graduation short by Veronica Solomon of the Film University Babelsburg. To wit:

What would you be willing to do for them to love you? LOVE ME, FEAR ME is a reflection on the roles we play and the shapes we take, the stages we chose, the audience we try to impress and the price of acceptance.

curiousbrain

Like the Earth, the sun rotates, as it does, it changes in both subtle and dramatic ways. To wit:

In the featured time-lapse sequences, our Sun — as imaged by NASA‘s Solar Dynamics Observatory — is shown rotating though an entire month in 2014. In the large image on the left, the solar chromosphere is depicted in ultraviolet light, while the smaller and lighter image to its upper right simultaneously shows the more familiar solar photosphere in visible light. The rest of the inset six Sun images highlight X-ray emission by relatively rare iron atoms located at different heights of the corona, all false-coloured to accentuate differences. The Sun takes just under a month to rotate completely — rotating fastest at the equator. A large and active sunspot region rotates into view soon after the video starts. Subtle effects include changes in surface texture and the shapes of active regions. Dramatic effects include numerous flashes in active regions, and fluttering and erupting prominences visible all around the Sun’s edge. Presently, our Sun is passing an unusually low Solar minimum in activity of its 11-year magnetic cycle. As the video ends, the same large and active sunspot region previously Video Credit: SDO, NASA; Digital Composition: Kevin M. Gill mentioned rotates back into view, this time looking different.

(Video: SDO, NASA; Digital Composition: Kevin M. Gill)

apod