Cosmic Log : Images

Play the galactic slots

Alan Boyle — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

NASA / STScI

The galaxies NGC 2207 (left) and IC 2163 are entangled in a picture from the
Hubble Space Telescope. Such mergers are the focus of Galaxy Zoo's latest project.

Galaxy Zoo's latest online research project is a "cosmic slot machine" that asks users to match up simulations of galactic smash-ups with pictures of the real things. The payoff? That comes in the form of citizen science.

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Chair floats to final frontier

Alan Boyle — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:45:00 GMT

Toshiba UK

Click for video: An armchair floats to the edge of space in Toshiba's "Space
Chair Project" commercial. Click on the image to see Toshiba's video on YouTube.

Space ballooning hits new heights in an HDTV commercial showing a simple armchair floating against the backdrop of our curving planet, almost 100,000 feet above the ground. When you watch the video, the first thought that comes to mind is, "Wow, that's cool!" And the second thought is probably, "How the heck did they do that?"

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Big pictures of tiny wonders

Alan Boyle — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:10:00 GMT

	Jan Michels
	Click for slideshow: Feast your eyes on Olympus BioScapes winners for 2009.

Who would have thought that a water flea, diseased neurons and poisoned algae could be so beautiful? It's just a matter of having the right perspective.

The flea, the neurons and the algae are among the stars of the show in this year's Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition. The contest is just one of several conducted annually to highlight scientific imagery that puts a fresh perspective on subjects that, under other circumstances, might seem commonplace or even repellent.

Take the water flea, for example.

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X marks the galactic spot

Alan Boyle — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:44:00 GMT

NASA / ESA

An ethereal "X" or boxlike structure marks the chaotic center of the edge-on
galaxy NGC 4710. Click on the picture for a larger version.

One of the "X-Files" that astronomers keep in their filing cabinets relates to the mysterious X shape seen at the center of some galaxies — but this particular mystery may be close to being explained.

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Stellar views of meteor show

Alan Boyle — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:45:00 GMT

Malcolm Park

A fireball seems to shoot right through a house in Grafton, Ontario. Malcolm Park
captured the image as he was setting up to photograph meteors on Monday night.

This week's Leonid meteor shower may not rise to the level of a shooting-star storm, but it's certainly producing a flurry of fine-looking pictures.

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Triple delight in the Milky Way

Alan Boyle — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:30:00 GMT

NASA / ESA / SSC / CXC / STScI

Click for video: Color-coded images from NASA's three Great Observatories —
the Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes — are combined to produce this
spectacular view of the Milky Way galaxy's central region. Click on the image to
watch a video about the image from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

NASA has blended three views of our home galaxy's turbulent core to produce a picture filled with scientifically significant snap, crackle and pop. And the deeper you go into the image, the more you learn.

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How the Maya lived

Alan Boyle — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:56:00 GMT

Courtesy of Nat'l Academy of Sciences / PNAS

The southeast corner of a painted pyramid excavated at a site in Mexico shows
scenes from everyday Maya life in the A.D. 620-700 time frame.

Murals found on a buried Mexican pyramid reveal how the average Maya lived about 1,350 years ago - shedding light on aspects of Maya society that are "virtually unknown," researchers say.

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See starbirth up close

Alan Boyle — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:05:00 GMT

NASA / ESA / U. of Va. / STScI / ANU

Click for video: Hubble's new Wide Field Camera 3 captures a detailed view of
starbirth in the spiral galaxy M83. Click on the image to watch a zoom-in video.

The Hubble Space Telescope's new wide-field camera has sent down a picture showing how the "assembly line" of starbirth works in a nearby spiral galaxy.

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Jewels from space

Alan Boyle — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:28:00 GMT

NASA / ESA / IAA

The Hubble Space Telescope's closeup view of the "Jewel Box" star cluster NGC
4755 reveals sapphire blue supergiant stars, one ruby-red supergiant and other
stellar gems. Click on the picture for larger views from the European Hubble team.

An antique "Jewel Box" in the night sky takes on a new shine in imagery from three of the best telescopes in the world and in space.

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Inside the spaceport

Alan Boyle — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:50:00 GMT

Alan Boyle / msnbc.com

Steve Landeene, the New Mexico Spaceport Authority's executive director, points
toward Spaceport America's vertical launch site from a simulated lunar lander pad.

Is Spaceport America ready to become New Mexico's newest tourist attraction? Mmm, not quite yet. But there's lots of wide open space, lots of potential and lots of hope that the spaceport will spark a domino effect of development and tourist activity.

If the plans succeed, Spaceport America and its surroundings could become a multibillion-dollar center for tourism as well as spaceflight - something akin to Florida's Space Coast with a Wild West twist. If the plans totally flop, the locale could wind up as a $198 million ghost town.

It's up to Steve Landeene, the New Mexico Spaceport Authority's executive director, to make sure those plans don't flop. "You've got to have a lot of vision here," he said.

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