APOD 4.7

This is a breathtaking picture of the Trifid Nebula, also known as M20, which lies about 5,000 light-years away by the constellation Sagittarius. A star forming region, the nebula contains three different nebula: red emission nebulae, blue reflection nebulae, and dark nebulae. The bright red emission that is separated into three sections by the dark dust lanes lends the nebulae to its name. The Trifid Nebula is about 40 light-years across.

APOD 4.6

I chose to do a picture on Jupiter's Great Red Spot because I really like it and I haven't done a picture of it yet this year. The Great Red Spot is basically a giant hurricane, a hurricane that is twice the size of the Earth. It is an astronomical anomaly: neither predicted nor initially understood, with no visible signs of slowing. Even today, details on the spot's size, shape, and color remain a mystery. If we better understand the weather conditions on Jupiter it could lead to a more comprehensive understanding of our weather here on Earth.

APOD 4.5

This is two galaxies that have collided! They are located in the southern constellation of Corvus, aka Crow :). The two galaxies seen here are NGC 4038 and NGC 4039. This event actually lasts hundreds of millions of years, but even so in the entire event the stars do not collide. Instead their clouds of molecular gas and dust do, triggering star formation near the center of the collision. This spans approximately 500 light-years across, and is aptly named "Antennae" due to its long shape. And the matter that is far from the center were flung there by gravitational tidal forces.

APOD 4.4http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3805620845326069297

This is called CAT'S EYE. I LOVE CATS! This nebula lies about 3,000 light years away from Earth. This planetary nebula represents a final, brief phase in the life of a sun-like star. The dying central star in the nebula produced the outer pattern of dusty, concentric layers by shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. The eye of this is about half a light-year across. This is approximately the phase our sun will be in in about 5 billion years.

APOD 4.3

This is a view of the emission nebula IC 410 in false color. The two clouds of dust and gas in the top left, a part of the "cosmic pond," are the tadpoles.The nebula itself actually surrounds a cluster of stars, NGC 1893, which energizes the glowing gas. The reason for the tadpole shape of the clouds is that they were "sculpted" so to speak by the wind and radiation from the stars. IC 410 lies approximately 12,000 light years away, by the constellation Auriga.

Zooniverse

On Zooniverse I'm doing MoonZoo. I basically just find craters, mounds, boulders or anything irregular to label. So far I haven't seen anything irregular at all, and if I see anything, it's usually just mounds.

APOD 4.2

THIS IS SO COOL. I realize that it's only an artist's rendition, because we have never actually been on Titan's surface, but this image of it is so neat. I chose this picture because it's so neat to think that there's weather on other planets/moons, not just Earth. However, there are major differences, obviously, between our storms and theirs. Since the temperature of Titan is consistently about -290 degrees Farenheit, the storms, cycle of evaporation, cloud formation, and rain, is not water but liquid methane. Thunderstorms like this are seasonal on Titan's surface, more along the equatorial regions. However, the lightning drawn in this picture is not confirmed, just theorized. It is thought that it could exist due to the thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere.