This Is Not Just An Incredible View Of Earth, It’s Also A Fantastic Illustration Of The Terminator.

Have a nice Pi-Day! In memory of Stephen Hawking!

A Descoberta de Urano - 13 de Março de 1781

No dia 13 de Março de 1781, William Herschel descobria Urano, o sétimo planeta do Sistema Solar, o primeiro descoberto por um telescópio, veja aí, um resumo da bela história da descoberta desse planeta.

Viva São Vicente De Paulo! 💚

🤩 Estão preparados para mais um eclipse lunar?!

Feliz Natal pra vocês!

🎶 Vimos sua estrela no Oriente

E assim vimos adorar o Rei da gente 🎶

Solar System: Things to Know This Week

Here are a few things you should know about our solar system this week:

1. Gearing Up for a Grand Finale

There’s just a year left until the Cassini mission begins its Grand Finale – the final phase of its mission, during which the spacecraft will dive repeatedly between the planet and the rings. To get ready, the Cassini team has launched an enhanced, mobile device-friendly version of the mission website. The site includes information about Cassini, Saturn, the moons and the rings – but it also tells the human stories behind one of the most ambitions expeditions of all time.

2.Caught in Transit

On Monday, May 9, the planet Mercury will cross directly in front of the sun, an event that hasn’t occurred since 2006 and won’t happen again until 2019. Find out how to watch HERE.  

3. A Moon for Makemake

Our Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a small, dark moon orbiting Makemake (pronounced “MAH-kay MAH-kay). Make make is the second brightest icy dwarf planet – after Pluto – in the faraway Kuiper Belt.

4. The Age of the Aquarids

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower is the first of two showers that occur each year as a result of Earth passing through dust released by Halley’s Comet. This year, it should peak on the night of May 5/6. Get tips for watching HERE.

5. The Southern Lights of Saturn

On May 4, Cassini will reach periapse, the closest point to Saturn in the spacecraft’s orbit. At about this time, Cassini’s cameras will monitor Saturn’s south polar aurorae, and also image the bright limb of the planet to better understand its upper haze layers.

Want to learn more? Read our full list of the 10 things to know this week about the solar system HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Será que já começou a chuva da Perseidas de 2015? Bela imagem mostra alguns meteoros relacionados com a chuva!!!

What’s Up for June 2016?

What’s Up for June? Saturn at its best! Plus, good views of Mars, Jupiter and Jupiter’s moons continue from dusk to dawn.

You don’t have to stay up late to see Jupiter, Mars and Saturn this month, because they’re all visible soon after sunset. Jupiter is the brightest of the three, visible in the western sky all evening. 

The four Galilean moons are easily visible in binoculars or telescopes. If you think you’re seeing 5 moons on June 10th, you’re not. One of them is a distant star in the constellation Leo.

For telescope viewers, the time near Mars’ closest approach to Earth, May 30th this year, is the best time to try to see the two moons of Mars: Phobos and Deimos. It takes patience, very steady skies and good charts! Mars is still large and bright in early June, but it fades as speedy Earth, in its shorter orbit around the sun, passes it.

Saturn has been close to Mars recently. This month Saturn reaches opposition, when Saturn, Earth and the sun are in a straight line with Earth in the middle, providing the best and closest views of the ringed beauty and several of its moons. You’ll be able to make out cloud bands on Saturn, in delicate shades of cream and butterscotch. They’re fainter than the bands of Jupiter. Through a telescope you’ll see Saturn’s rings tilted about as wide as they get: 26 degrees.

You’ll also have a ring-side view of the Cassini division, discovered by Giovanni Domenico Cassini, namesake of our Cassini spacecraft, orbiting Saturn since 2004 and continuing through September 2017. When you look at Saturn through a telescope, you can’t help but see several of its 4 brightest moons, and maybe more. If you just see one, that’s Titan, 50% larger than our own moon. A telescope can also reveal more moons, like Saturn’s two-colored moon Iapetus. It takes 3 months to orbit Saturn, and it’s fairly easy to see.

There’s a bright comet visible this month, Comet PanSTARRS. It’s best seen from the southern hemisphere, but it’s also visible from the U.S. low in the morning sky. Comet PanSTARRS can be seen through a telescope near the beautiful Helix Nebula on June 4, but it is visible all month.

Watch the full June “What’s Up” video for more: https://youtu.be/M7RtIa9zBYA

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Por mais de duas décadas, desde a descoberta do primeiros exoplaneta, os astrônomos já descobriram mais de 3200 desses objetos pelo universo.

Exoplanetas de todos os tipos já foram descobertos, super-terras, júpiteres-quentes, parecidos com Netuno, orbitando, 2, 3 e até 4 estrelas, sistemas com 1, 2 e até 6 planetas. Mas nesse tempo todo, o Proxima b, que estava aqui do nosso lado, nunca tinha sido descoberto, por que?

Não foi por falta de tentar, desde o ano 2000 eles procuram por algum planeta por ali, mas sempre a resposta foi negativa.

Já tentaram encontrar o Proxima b por meio do trânsito e nada, tentaram aplicar a mesma técnica de agora e nada novamente.

Até que em 2013 anunciaram essa descoberta, do exoplaneta mais próximo da Terra. Porém, semanas depois tiveram que voltar e retirar a descoberta, pois não tinham elementos para concluir de forma definitiva que era um exoplaneta.

Por que essa dificuldade?

A estrela Proxima Centauri, é uma estrela do tipo anã vermelha, uma estrela pequena, mas muito ativa, ela tem muitas erupções, gera muito vento estelar e tudo isso acaba criando um ruído nas medições feitas através da técnica do efeito doppler ou da velocidade radial, que confundem os astrônomos.

Era preciso mapear esses fenômenos intrínsecos da estrela, para que eles fossem retirados dos dados e então o exoplaneta poderia aparecer.

Para isso os astrônomos montaram uma campanha inteiramente dedicada a observação da Proxima Centauri, com muitos telescópios, durante um período de 60 dias, além de buscarem dados antigos da estrela.

Com isso, conseguiram confirmar a presença do Proxima b.

Agora, é esperar novas observações, novos dados, novas pesquisas sobre esse que até o momento é o exoplaneta mais esperado da história da astronomia.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT6y8cwTURs)