Image of Storm on Jupiter Enhanced with Exaggerated Colors

This image of a storm on Jupiter is based on data obtained by the Juno Jupiter orbiter and then enhanced with exaggerated colors to provide depth and detail.

Image of storm on Jupiter enhanced with exaggerated colors
Image of storm on Jupiter enhanced with exaggerated colors

According to NASA,

Beyond being beautiful art these types of color enhancement are also useful for scientific analysis. Enhanced and exaggerated colors draw the eyes to features that are observable in the unprocessed images, but not obvious. High hazes obscuring cloud decks below can be seen in the enhanced color version provided by Dorán. Subtle curves and structures are suddenly clearly areas of turbulence in exaggerated color. The small bright pop-up clouds leap from the artists’ canvas.

The original JunoCam image used to produce this view was taken on July 21, 2019, during Juno’s 20th science pass from an altitude of about 9,200 miles (14,800 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt, Sean Dorán, and a contributor identified as MEO_23 processed the image to enhance and exaggerate the color and contrast.

NASA Day of Remembrance, 2021

NASA holds a Day of Remembrance each year to honor the crews of Apollo 1, space shuttles Challenger and Columbia who lost their lives “while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery.”

For 2021, that day was today, January 28, and included a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Hubble Image of Cygnus Supernova Blast Wave

According to NASA press release,

While appearing as a delicate and light veil draped across the sky, this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope actually depicts a small section of the Cygnus supernova blast wave, located around 2,400 light-years away. The name of the supernova remnant comes from its position in the northern constellation of Cygnus (the Swan), where it covers an area 36 times larger than the full Moon. 

The original supernova explosion blasted apart a dying star about 20 times more massive than our Sun between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. Since then, the remnant has expanded 60 light-years from its center. The shockwave marks the outer edge of the supernova remnant and continues to expand at around 220 miles per second. The interaction of the ejected material and the low-density interstellar material swept up by the shockwave forms the distinctive veil-like structure seen in this image.

Hubble Image of Cygnus Supernova Blast Wave
Hubble Image of Cygnus Supernova Blast Wave

NASA’s Halloween Posters–Galaxy of Horrors

NASA released some clever Halloween posters highlighting the more dangerous aspects of our universe. The website includes some very high resolution versions of these posters suitable for printing.

NASA Halloween Poster - Galactic Graveyard
This chillingly haunted galaxy mysteriously stopped making stars only a few billion years after the Big Bang! It became a cosmic cemetery, illuminated by the red glow of decaying stars. Dare to enter, and you might encounter the frightening corpses of exoplanets or the final death throes of once-mighty stars.
NASA Halloween Poster - Dark Matter
Something strange and mysterious creeps throughout the cosmos. Scientists call it dark matter. It is scattered in an intricate web that forms the skeleton of our universe. Dark matter is invisible, only revealing its presence by pushing and pulling on objects we can see. NASA’s Roman Space Telescope will investigate its secrets. What will be revealed?
Continue reading “NASA’s Halloween Posters–Galaxy of Horrors”

NASA Flyover and Tour of Asteroid Bennu

NASA has created a couple of flyover/tour animation videos of asteroid Bennu, which was explored by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

When NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at asteroid Bennu in December 2018, its close-up images confirmed what mission planners had predicted nearly two decades before: Bennu is made of loose material weakly clumped together by gravity, and shaped like a spinning top. This major validation, however, was accompanied by a major surprise. Scientists had expected Bennu’s surface to consist of fine-grained material like a sandy beach, but instead OSIRIS-REx was greeted by a rugged world littered with boulders – the size of cars, the size of houses, the size of football fields.