Create accountLogin

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Only available when logged in.
toad.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
Mastodon server operated by David Troy, a tech pioneer and investigative journalist addressing threats to democracy. Thoughtful participation and discussion welcome.

Administered by:

Server stats:

335
active users

toad.social: AboutProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.3.7

#Astrodon

51 posts38 participants3 posts today
Continued thread
Public
Daniel Pomarède

Boxwork Ahoy!

This Sol 4527 mosaic ⤴️ captures the boxwork structures, where the smooth terrain is criss-crossed by ridges, below the hilltops.

ℹ️ science plan science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-452
ℹ️ more insights on the formation of boxwork structures photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cata

A grayscale photograph of the Martian surface from the Curiosity rover shows a field of rough and jagged rocks covering the surface from the foreground extending to hills in the background, all medium to dark gray. The hills appear smoother overall, but have horizontal folds on their sides leading up to their peaks.
NASA Science · Sols 4527-4528: ‘Boxwork Ahoy!’By Mars Science Laboratory Mission Team Members
#Mars#Curiosity#rover
Public
ESO

There is an impostor in this nebula! 🤨

Captured by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at Paranal Observatory, this image shows nebula Sh2-46. You see that big blue-white star? 🌟 It's responsible for the striking red tones around it, but it should not be there!

A bow shock next to the star suggests that it is plunging through the cloud. But the star may have in fact been born somewhere else: in the nearby Eagle Nebula.

Read more: eso.org/public/images/potw2518

📷 ESO/VPHAS+ team

The image shows a giant red nebula in space. Behind the nebula there are countless stars of different colours and sizes. Most stars are small and have a white to pale blue hue. Overall, the nebula is round and appears to change from diffuse to concentrated towards the centre of the picture. Its colour also changes from a dark red to a vibrant orange. Within the centre of the picture, inside the brightest region of the nebula, lies a large, white to pale blue star.
#astrodon#astronomy#astrophysics
Public
Andrea Luck

Another cool Martian cloud spotted by CNSA Tianwen 1...

and yes, Mars does have clouds!

Full size & info: flic.kr/p/2r2HXah
Image Processing: Andrea Luck
Raw data: CNSA/CLEP/PEC/MoRIC

Mars, Protonilus Mensae - March 1, 2022

Mosaic of 3 images created using data processed from moon.bao.ac.cn

Mission: CNSA Tianwen 1
Camera: MoRIC
Time: 2022-03-01T23:50:27.510000Z
Longitude: 39.206461
Latitude: 46.255012
Altitude: 394 km

An orbital image of the Martian surface taken by Tianwen-1, showing the region of Protonilus Mensae in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle. The landscape features a mix of rugged, eroded mesas and numerous impact craters. Near the bottom, an eroded landform resembles the shape of an ancient riverbed. The terrain varies in colour from warm rusty reddish tones to more brownish, with contrasting light and dark shading that reveals surface textures and elevation changes. Very light cloud cover is visible near the top of the image, softening the details in that region. Toward the right side, a distinct, bright white cloud casts a soft shadow, standing out sharply against the rusty ground. The overall scene conveys the dry and rocky, yet ancient and geologically complex nature of the Martian terrain.
#Mars#Solarocks#Space
Public
Enrique Boeneker

Regarding T CrB, the star behaves in the same manner as in recent months. So we have no real clue when its outburst will happen.
These are my most recent photometric observations of this recurrent nova star (Fig. 1).

I am complementing my observations with a comparison of the spectra with data from AAVSO’s observer PROI (Fig. 2).

The blue spectrum corresponds to when T CrB was close to its peak brightness at the end of March. The red spectrum was captured three days ago, when this star seemed less bright.

The graph shown is called a light curve. It plots the changes in brightness of a star over time. Each point means an observation. The blue points are observations made with a blue photometric filter; the green points represent the observations made with a "visual" filter. By analyzing the shapes of the light curves, we can derive many properties of a particular star or star system.
Here's another "plot". This one is called a spectrum. It features two spectra, each one taken at a different time. Spectra show the energy a body emits at each wavelength of light. The idea is to compare how intense (how high) the peaks of the spectra are. This could give hints about the behavior of this star system known as T CrB.
#Astrodon#Astronomy#TCrB
ExploreLive feeds
About