In a recent significant finding, scientists find that Europa’s icy shell has “chaos terrains” which means the water underneath may be more habitable for life.
(Source: reddit.com)
cwnl:
Cosmic Web of The Tarantula Zone
Distance: 163,000 Light Years
The Tarantula Nebula is more than 1,000 light-years in diameter — a giant star forming region within our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). That cosmic arachnid lies left of center in this sharp, colorful telescopic image taken through narrow-band filters. It covers a part of the LMC over 2,000 light-years across.
Credit & Copyright: John P. Gleason
Today I Learned: Earth Doesn’t Orbit the Sun
It orbits the barycenter: everything in any orbital system orbits the center of mass of the system (called the barycenter), not the star(s) itself. This is what causes our sun to “wobble”. In a single star system, most of the time (but not always), the barycenter is located at some point within the radius of the star itself. It also constantly changes, though, as massive objects orbit the star, so if an unusual alignment happens where more mass is all on one side of the star, the barycenter might be well outside of the star’s radius. In a binary solar system, the barycenter will most likely just be at some point between the two stars. If the stars aren’t of the same mass, it will just be closer to the more massive one.
(Source: reddit.com)
What does it feel like to fly over planet Earth?
A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica.
