The ancient Egyptians believed that Sirius was an important part of calendar preservation. Astrologers have been searching for the meaning of human beings in the stars since at least the 3rd century BC. Albert Einstein believes that space and time are intertwined in an infinite network, extending in all directions.
From a macro point of view, our exploration of the world outside the earth's atmosphere has only recently begun. July 29th, 20021is the 63rd anniversary of the founding of NASA. In addition, more than 60 years later, we still make new discoveries about our universe every day.
With a small group of spacecraft and the most powerful telescope in the world, NASA has taken some very beautiful photos of outer space.
It's time to explore the universe ...
Floating in the Bahamas
US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
From 198 1 to 20 1 1, the space shuttle plans to slide a lot of energy into (or out of) Earth orbit. The space shuttle helped build the International Space Station, launched the Hubble Space Telescope and took the interstellar probe out of the Earth's atmosphere.
Here, astronauts from the International Space Station took a picture of the space shuttle Atlantis floating over the Bahamas. This mission, the last in the space shuttle program, was launched on July 8, 20 1 1.
faraway place
The Juno spacecraft of NASA arrived at the gas giant planet Jupiter in 20 16, and it is still active. The unmanned probe captured this image of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere.
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Its atmosphere mainly contains molecular hydrogen and helium.
wild horse
This amazing image of the Horsehead Nebula in Orion was taken by a telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.
This dense dust cloud formed about 1 375 light-years away from the earth.
Panoramic view
NASA cooperated with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to build Cassini, a space probe to study Saturn and its systems.
The probe entered Saturn's orbit in July 2004, and spent 65,438+03 years studying the ring planet, taking pictures of Saturn's satellites, rings and this amazing panoramic image.
On the brink of destruction
Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Carina Silver, one of the brightest stars in the Milky Way.
The star is surrounded by a ring of dust and gas. Scientists believe that this huge nebula appeared after one or more big explosions about 10000 years ago. The nebula itself is 5 light-years wide, which is about the distance between the earth and our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri.
The explosion of color
A supernova is a large-scale explosion at the end of a star's life. Chandra X-ray Observatory is a complex space telescope, which captured the consequences of Cassiopeia explosion.
This photo shows the X-ray radiation emitted by Tycho supernova remnant, which was first discovered in 1572.
2021March 18, Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Nakamura discovered a new one in Cassiopeia (which is a new star for us earthlings anyway). It is called the new star Cas 202 1.
Friend system
Hubble's wide-angle camera spotted these two galaxies in the perseus cluster.
The cluster consists of thousands of galaxies and is one of the largest celestial bodies in the known universe.
The center of the universe
The infrared camera of Spitzer Space Telescope captured this crowded galaxy core image.
Scientists believe that there is a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A in the center of our galaxy.
Proliferating jellyfish
Hubble took a combined image of Medusa, a pair of interacting galaxies in Ursa major.
Nicknamed the Eye of Medusa, the center is a gas-rich and 500 light-years wide extreme star-forming region.
Pillar of creation
The Eagle Nebula, also known as messier 16, is the location of another region rich in star formation, and is appropriately called the pillar of creation.
This image combines the X-ray imaging of Chandra X-ray Observatory and the optical data of Hubble Space Telescope.
Light of Scorpio
This is globular cluster NGC 6380, located in Scorpio, about 35,000 light years away from the Earth.
The bright star in the foreground is HD 159073, which is a star 4000 light years away from our planet.
Atmospheric light show
Aurora on the earth is a beautiful scenery from the ground, but they are also very eye-catching in space.
This is what they look like from the orbit.
Intimate and personal
This is a series of images of Juno's eighth flight over Jupiter.
In June, 20021,the probe flew over the earth at close range for the 34th time.
Kaleidoscope gas
This is another photo of Jupiter taken by NASA's Juno probe.
This photo shows the southern hemisphere where the earth rotates.
home furnishing
This is an impressive sight of a couple walking in space.
In the picture, Shane kimbrough (left) of NASA and Thomas Pesque of the European Space Agency installed a new solar panel outside the International Space Station.
prime time
Our little blue space marble looks impressive from more than 250 miles away.
Here, the Indian Ocean reflects golden sunlight.
Mechanical tentacle
The space technology company Northrop Grumman sent the Cygnus space cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station.
The robotic arm is one of Canada's contributions to the space station. The mechanical arm performs maintenance, moves equipment, captures visiting vehicles, such as this cargo ship, and escorts them to the berth.
Luminous gas
NGC 23 13 is an emission nebula-a mass of ionized gas that emits light by itself-located in the constellation Unicorn, about 3756 light years away from the Earth.
The Hubble Space Telescope discovered this luminous layer.
Here comes the opportunity.
NASA's Mars probe Opportunity took photos of the open terrain on this red planet.
Opportunity landed on the surface of Mars in 2004. NASA lost contact with the spacecraft in June 20 18, when it was buried by a sandstorm covering the whole of Mars.
selfie
The lander of Insight landed on 20 18 1654381October 26th in the Erucia region of Mars. This selfie is one of the earliest messages sent back to Earth.
The name of the lander is actually an abbreviation for internal detection using seismic survey, geodesy and heat transfer. Its mission is to study the deep interior of Mars.
Ripples on Mars
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of ripples on the surface of Mars.
But this is not a liquid. Those ripples are patterns carved in the sand by the wind.
Venus flies by
The unmanned sailor 10 spacecraft was launched in 1973 to collect data on the atmospheric, surface and physical characteristics of Mercury and Venus.
This photo shows that Venus is covered with thick clouds.
gravitation
This formation is caused by the gravitational energy of the supermassive black hole at the core of Wuxian A galaxy.
This picture is a combination of visible light information of Hubble Space Telescope and radio data of Very Large Array Radio Observatory in New Mexico.
space walk
This is another perspective for spacewalker Shane kimbrough to install solar panels on the International Space Station.
Kimbrough was appointed as the commander of the Crew-2 international space station mission of NASA Space Exploration Technology Company, which is scheduled to return to Earth in the autumn of 20021.
Watch the sunrise from above
Thomas Pesque, astronaut of ESA, took this photo of sunrise in the Indian Ocean from the International Space Station.
Because the space station orbits the earth once every 90 minutes, the astronauts stationed there can see the sunrise of 15 every day.
Sunrise and sunset
In 2003, the crew of Expedition 7 captured this impressive sunset on the International Space Station.
That's the Pacific Ocean visible under the clouds.
Among the stars
And the night sky doesn't look too shabby.
Astronaut scott kelly posted this photo on Twitter on August 9th, 20 15 during his one-year mission on the International Space Station.
Yilu road uphill
This is the last time we saw the International Space Station before returning to space.
You can see the South Atlantic Ocean 273 miles underwater.
Toes are in the sand.
NASA's Curiosity rover landed on the surface of Mars on August 20 12. As of press time, the rover is still running.
Its task is to find conditions conducive to microbial life, and study the habitability of planets to prepare for human exploration.
The desert next door
Curiosity Rover also took this photo of Kimberly formation, with mount sharp in the distance.
The dry sand landform is similar to some vast deserts on the earth.
Storm brewing
Juno took this photo of the rotating cloud when he flew over Jupiter's surface at close range on 20 18.
The white oval near the top of the picture is a storm.
Star kindergarten
Messier 33, or triangle galaxy, is located in the triangle galaxy, 2.73 million light years away from the Earth.
This slender region of the Milky Way is one of the regions where fast stars are born. Scientists believe that there are about 200 young stars living in this area.
sparkling
This is another example of the emission nebula-the name of this nebula is very obscure-NGC 2313-which brightens the sky with silver light in front of the bright star V565.
The Hubble Space Telescope took this photo.
Another blue planet
The Voyager 2 spacecraft made people first see Neptune in 1989.
Neptune's mass is 17 times that of the earth, and it orbits the sun once every 164.8 years.
Earth-like
Scientists believe that the earth and Saturn's largest moon Titan have some important qualities. According to NASA, there is no "land" liquid activity on the surface of the solar system.
But there are some problems for those who want to start a new life on the distant moon. First of all, Titan's surface is about minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit, and compared with the earth's surface, it only receives 1% sunlight. Perhaps more importantly, the liquid that makes up Titan's lakes, rivers and oceans is a mixture of methane and ethane.
Infrared information
The infrared camera on Cassini collected the surface data of 13 years during Titan's flyby.
Observing the surface of this satellite may be tricky because the thick atmosphere scatters most visible light, but these infrared images seem to show complex geological and marine characteristics.
Many satellites
20 1 1 year, Cassini photographed five Saturn satellites in one picture.
From left to right, these satellites are Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Mimas and Rhea.
Close-up of moon
In this photo, also from the Cassini mission, Saturn's largest moon Titan is clearly visible outside the smaller planet Tethys.
Scientists believe that Tethys is almost entirely composed of water ice, with only a small amount of rocks.
dione
Saturn has 82 satellites, 53 of which have official names.
This is Dione. It is the fourth largest satellite on earth, 234500 miles away from Saturn. This is roughly equivalent to the distance from the earth to the moon.
The moon of the earth
The crew of Expedition 10 took this photo of the full moon from the International Space Station.
Our moon is the fifth largest satellite in the solar system and the largest relative to the planets around it.
Signs of life
Lights from European and African cities can be seen from outer space.
If you look carefully, you can even see the ribbons on the city streets.
Texas, from above.
This photo was taken by the crew of Expedition 36 on the International Space Station in 20 13, showing some population centers in Texas.
Houston, where NASA Johnson Space Center is located, is located at the lower part of the picture, near the center.
Latest weather report
The Hubble Space Telescope took this picture of Jupiter in August 2020.
This ultra-clear image shows fresh air storms and atmospheric turbulence on this gas giant planet.
Gaze at the sun
This 20 15 solar image was synthesized by three different spacecraft measuring three different energies.
The high-energy X-rays tracked by NASA's NuSTAR telescope are blue. The low-energy X-rays collected by Japanese sunrise spacecraft are green. Ultraviolet rays measured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory are red and yellow.
Saturn in the sun
This is what Cassini saw from Saturn's orbit in 20 10.
Like Jupiter, Saturn's atmosphere is rich in hydrogen and helium.
Hello, Pluto.
Pluto has always been called the ninth planet in the solar system, and it was downgraded to a dwarf planet in 2006.
This infrared image shows the glaciers on the surface of this dwarf planet. Pluto is about half the size of the earth's moon.
Pluto's Moon
10, NASA's new horizons space probe began to approach Pluto and its five satellites.
This photo of Ka Rong, Pluto's largest moon, shows a rust-colored spot made up of an organic compound called Tolin. Scientists believe that these Tolins are the products of methane, nitrogen and other gases released by Pluto's atmosphere deposited on the moon.
Lagoon nebula
This stratum about 4,000 light years away from the Earth has many names: NGC 6523, Lagoon Nebula or messier 8.
A huge interstellar dust cloud is located in Sagittarius.
Rats in space?
Last but not least, this is a photo of a crater on Mercury, which looks like Mickey Mouse, the mascot of Disney.
This photo was taken by NASA's Messenger probe in 20 12.