From up close & from afar
People have always gazed up at the night sky in wonder, curiosity and awe. Today, the hidden secrets of celestial bodies are exposed using state-of-the-art telescopes, space vehicles and advanced methods of photography. These tools allow us to study their nature from up close, and admire their beauty from afar.
Galaxy
Average diameter: 1020 Meters
The Milky Way Galaxy looks like a bright trail across the night skies encircling the Earth. Our sun is but one star among billions of stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way is very similar in shape and size to Andromeda. The center of the Milky Way Galaxy lies beyond the constellation Sagittarius, at a distance of 25,000 light years.
A galaxy is a large gathering of stars held together by mutual gravity. The Andromeda Galaxy is our closest neighbor at a distance of 2.5 million light years. It is a flat, spiral galaxy composed of approximately a trillion (1012) stars. The galaxy is 200,000 light years across.1 Light year = 9.46*1015 meters. The distance that light travels in one year.
This video is an illustration
The Sun
Average diameter: 1,391,684,000 Meters
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory space telescope allows us to observe the sun in ultra-violet. Sun spots appear in these pictures as bright dots which are connected by arches. These arches are composed of sub-atomic particles that spiral along the powerful magnetic fields which emanate from the sun spots. The particles collide with each other and radiate ultra-violet light.
Viewed from the Earth, the sun looks like a blinding ball of fire, which is why it is difficult for us to look at it and notice details. When the sun is photographed through a dark optical filter, darker objects can be discerned, such as sun spots, which appear in 11-year cycles. The video shows the planet Venus as it transits across the sun (near the upper edge), and a passing airplane that leaves a trail of smoke across the solar disc.
Meteor
Average diameter: 0.01 Meters
A meteorite is a stone that arrived as a meteor, survived the passage through the atmosphere and hit the ground. The Hoba meteorite in Namibia is the largest meteorite discovered so far. It is composed of iron, which gives it its reddish, rust-like color. There are also rocky meteorites whose composition is similar to that of the early solar system.
Meteors are products of small slivers of rock that enter the atmosphere at high speed, then heat up and evaporate. A meteor shower occurs when Earth passes through the remains of a comet. This picture is a layered set of exposures taken during a meteor shower that took place when Earth passed through the trajectory of comet P109. This comet had last crossed Earth’s orbit in 1992, and has a 133 year period.
kenneth Brandon, 2013 California
Eugen Zibiso ,2013, Namibia
Comet
Average diameter: 3,000 Meters
Rosetta, a European space agency space probe, reached comet P67, and captured this image taken in August 2014. In November 2014, a space probe lander named Philae separated from the Rosetta and landed on the comet's surface. This was the first time a robotic space probe successfully landed on a comet.However, the lander was not able to collect light needed for recharging its battery and contact with it was lost after two days.
Comets are large objects composed of ice, frozen carbon dioxide and rock. Comets have an elliptical orbit around the sun and reappear every few years. The picture shows comet C/2006 P1 evaporate as it nears the sun, leaving behind a tail of fumes and dust millions of kilometers long, which is illuminated by the sun. A plane with a flashing light crossed the comet’s tail as the picture was being taken, but the comet’s progress across the sky is slow, like that of the moon, and we do not notice it.
Richard Ball, Hout Bay, South Africa, 2007
This video is an illustration
Solar wind particles
Average diameter: 3,000 Meters
When particles from the sun meet the Earth’s magnetic field, they are channeled to the magnetic poles. They enter the atmosphere in a spectacular show of colored lights known as the Northern or Southern Lights (Aurora). Similar phenomena occur in other planets with magnetic fields, but the green color is typical to Oxygen and Nitrogen of which Earth’s atmosphere is composed.
During a total solar eclipse, the moon occults the sun. It is then possible to see the Corona - an aura of speedy sub-atomic particles that surround the sun following the shapes of the solar magnetic field. These particles are emitted from the sun in strong outbursts (Shown in pink), causing them to spread across the solar system as solar wind.
The Moon
Average diameter: 3,477,000 Meters
Astronaut Michael Collins photographed the Eagle landing vehicle upon its return from the lunar surface to the mother ship - Apollo 11. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin piloting, the landing vehicle, were the first humans to land on the moon in 1969. Earth’s illuminated half can be seen over the horizon in blue and white.
Six of the eight planets in our solar system have moons orbiting them. In the picture, our moon is seen as photographed from the international space station orbiting Earth. The moon orbits the Earth during a lunar month of 29.5 days, always showing us the same half. The sun shines its light on half the moon, but the illuminated half changes it's orientation over a period of a month. As a result, the moon changes its daily phase, depending on the angle created between the Earth, the moon and the sun.
Planet Mars
Average diameter: 6,779,000 Meters
The American space probe Curiosity has been traveling the Martian surface since November 2011, studying the planet’s properties. The probe’s mission includes drilling in rocks and collecting evidence which may indicate past existence of liquid water and possibly even remains of ancient life on the planet. The picture is a ‘selfie’, composed of a collage of many pictures taken by the space probe’s photographing arm (which is not seen in the collage). A drill hole surrounded by gray dust can be seen in front of the probe.
The Indian mars orbiter Mangalyaan, photographed Mars in 2014, while advancing towards it. One can see the dark craters, differently colored terrain, white stains created by ice that accumulates at the poles, and light dust clouds that obscure the surface beneath them.