Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 31 - The First Explorer

The First Explorer 
Image Credit: NASA

Explanation: Sixty years ago, on January 31, 1958, the First Explorer was successfully launched by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency on a Jupiter-C rocket. Inaugurating the era of space exploration for the United States, Explorer I was a thirty pound satellite that carried instruments to measure temperatures, and micrometeorite impacts, along with an experiment designed by James A. Van Allen to measure the density of electrons and ions in space. The measurements made by Van Allen's experiment led to an unexpected and then startling discovery of two earth-encircling belts of high energy electrons and ions trapped in the magnetosphere. Now known as the Van Allen Radiation belts, the regions are located in the inner magnetosphere, beyond low Earth orbit. Explorer I ceased transmitting on February 28, 1958, but remained in orbit until March of 1970.

@naagaoshi - Imagens do Inverno no Japão - (3) - Fotografia

Imagens do Inverno no Japão

@naagaoshi - Imagens do Inverno no Japão - (2) - Fotografia

Imagens do Inverno no Japão

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 30 - Venus at Night in Infrared from Akatsuki

Venus at Night in Infrared from Akatsuki
Image Credit: JAXA, ISAS, DARTS; Processing & Copyright: Damia Bouic

Explanation: Why is Venus so different from Earth? To help find out, Japan launched the robotic Akatsuki spacecraft which entered orbit around Venus late in 2015 after an unplanned five-year adventure around the inner Solar System. Even though Akatsuki was past its original planned lifetime, the spacecraft and instruments were operating so well that much of its original mission was reinstated. Also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki'sinstruments investigated unknowns about Earth's sister planet, including whether volcanoes are still active, whether lightning occurs in the dense atmosphere, and why wind speeds greatly exceed the planet's rotation speed. In thefeatured image taken by Akatsuki's IR2 camera, Venus's night side shows a jagged-edged equatorial band of high dark clouds absorbing infrared light from hotter layers deeper in Venus' atmosphere. The bright orange and black stripe on the upper right is a false digital artifact that covers part of the much brighter day side of Venus. Analyses of Akatsuki images and data has shown that Venus has equatorial jet similar to Earth's jet stream.

Imagenes del Mundo - Volcán Mayon - Filipinas

Vista del volcán Mayon desde la ciudad de Legazpi (Filipinas).

@naagaoshi - Imagens do inverno no Japão (1) - Fotografia

Imagens do inverno no Japão

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 29 - The Spider and The Fly

The Spider and The Fly 
Image Credit & Copyright: Joe Morris

Explanation: Will the spider ever catch the fly? Not if both are large emission nebulas toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga). The spider-shaped gas cloud on the left is actually an emission nebula labelled IC 417, while the smaller fly-shaped cloud on the right is dubbed NGC 1931 and is both an emission nebula and a reflection nebula. About 10,000 light-years distant, both nebulas harbor young, open star clusters. For scale, the more compact NGC 1931 (Fly) is about 10 light-years across.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 january 28 - A Total Lunar Eclipse Over Tajikistan

A Total Lunar Eclipse Over Tajikistan 
Video Credit & Copyright: Jean-Luc Dauvergne (Ciel et Espace); Music: Valère Leroy & Sophie Huet (Space-Music)

Explanation: If the full Moon suddenly faded, what would you see? The answer during the total lunar eclipse in 2011 was recorded in a dramatic time lapse video from Tajikistan. During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth moves between the Moon and the Sun, causing the moon to fade dramatically. The Moon never gets completely dark, though, since the Earth's atmosphere refracts some light. As the featured video begins, the scene may appear to be daytime and sunlit, but actually it is a nighttime and lit by the glow of the full Moon. As the Moon becomes eclipsed and fades, the wind dies down and background stars can be seen reflected in foreground lake. Most spectacularly, the sky surrounding the eclipsed moon suddenly appears to be full of stars and highlighted by the busy plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. The sequence repeats with a closer view, and the final image shows the placement of the eclipsed Moon near the Eagle, Swan, Trifid, and Lagoon nebulas. Nearly two hours after the eclipse started, the moon emerges from the Earth's shadow and its bright full glare again dominates the sky. This Wednesday another total lunar eclipse will take place -- but this one will be during a rare Super Blue Blood Moon.

Maya Vronsky - "Cidade em Aguarela" - Aguarela

"Cidade em Aguarela" 

Christian Fringe - "Manhã rústica" - Aguarela

"Manhã rústica" 

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 27 - Laguna Starry Sky

Laguna Starry Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn (Weather and Sky Photography)

Explanation: Staring toward the heavens, one of the many lagunas in the Atacama Desert salt flat calmly reflects a starry night sky near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, planet Earth. Cosmic rifts of dust, star clouds, and nebulae of the central Milky Way galaxy are rising in the east, beyond a volcanic horizon. Caught in the six frame panorama serenely recorded in the early morning hours of January 15, planets Jupiter and Mars are close. Near the ecliptic, the bright planets are immersed in the Solar System's visible band of Zodiacal light extending up and left from the galactic center. Above the horizon to the south (right) are the Large and Small clouds of Magellan, satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.

Toshiyuki Abe - "Pintura do sol" - Aguarela

"Pintura do sol" 

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 26 - Selfie at Vera Rubin Ridge

Selfie at Vera Rubin Ridge 
Image Credit: Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS - Panorama: Andrew Bodrov

Explanation: On sol 1943 of its journey of exploration across the surface of Mars, the Curiosity Rover recorded this selfie at the south rim of Vera Rubin Ridge. Of course a sol is a Martian solar day, about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. Curiosity's sol 1943 corresponds to Earth date January 23, 2018. Also composed as an interactive 360 degree VR, the mosaicked panorama combines 61 exposures taken by the car-sized rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). Frames containing the imager's arm have been edited out while the extended background used was taken by the rover's Mastcam on sol 1903. At the top of the rover's mast, sitting above the Mastcam, the laser-firingChemCam housing blocks out the distant peak of Mount Sharp.

Liu Yi - "A mágica do balé" - Aguarela

"A mágica do balé" 

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 25 - Cartwheel of Fortune

Cartwheel of Fortune 
Image Credit: ESA, NASA

Explanation: By chance, a collision of two galaxies has created a surprisingly recognizable shape on a cosmic scale, The Cartwheel Galaxy. The Cartwheel is part of a group of galaxies about 500 million light years away in the constellation Sculptor. Two smaller galaxies in the group are visible on the right. The Cartwheel Galaxy's rim is an immense ring-like structure 150,000 light years in diameter composed of newly formed, extremely bright, massive stars.When galaxies collide they pass through each other, their individual stars rarely coming into contact. Still, the galaxies' gravitational fields are seriously distorted by the collision. In fact, the ring-like shape is the result of the gravitational disruption caused by a small intruder galaxy passing through a large one, compressing the interstellar gas and dust and causing a a star formation wave to move out from the impact point like a ripple across the surface of a pond. In this case the large galaxy may have originally been a spiral, not unlike our own Milky Way, transformed into the wheel shape by the collision. But ... what happened to the small intruder galaxy?

Sesimbra, Portugal - Fotos

Sesimbra, 30-03-2017

JoanMira

Joe Francis Dowd - "Caminhos" - Aguarela

"Caminhos" 

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 24 - The Tadpoles of IC 410

The Tadpoles of IC 410 
Image Credit: Juan Ignacio Jimenez

Explanation: This telescopic close-up shows off the otherwise faint emission nebula IC 410. It also features two remarkable inhabitants of the cosmic pond of gas and dust below and left of center, the tadpoles of IC 410. Partly obscured by foreground dust, the nebula itself surrounds NGC 1893, a young galactic cluster of stars. Formed in the interstellar cloud a mere 4 million years ago, the intensely hot, bright cluster stars energize the glowing gas. Composed of denser cooler gas and dust, the tadpoles are around 10 light-years long and are likely sites of ongoing star formation. Sculpted by winds and radiation from the cluster stars, their heads are outlined by bright ridges of ionized gas while their tails trail away from the cluster's central region. IC 410 lies some 10,000 light-years away, toward the nebula-rich constellation Auriga.

Myo Win Ong - "Segredos do Oriente" - Aguarela

"Segredos do Oriente" 

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 23 - Ribbons and Pearls of Spiral Galaxy NGC 1398

Ribbons and Pearls of Spiral Galaxy NGC 1398 
Image Credit: European Southern Observatory

Explanation: Why do some spiral galaxies have a ring around the center? Spiral galaxy NGC 1398 not only has a ring of pearly stars, gas and dust around its center, but a bar of stars and gas across its center, and spiral arms that appear like ribbons farther out. The featured image was taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile and resolves this grand spiral in impressive detail. NGC 1398 lies about 65 million light years distant, meaning the light we see today left this galaxy when dinosaurs were disappearing from the Earth. The photogenic galaxy is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Furnace (Fornax). The ring near the center is likely an expanding density wave of star formation, caused either by a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, or by the galaxy's own gravitational asymmetries.

Joseph Zbukvich - "Tardes calmas" - Aguarela

Tardes calmas 

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 22 - An Immersive Visualization of the Galactic Center

An Immersive Visualization of the Galactic Center 
Video Credit: NASA, CXC, Pontifical Catholic Univ. of Chile, C. Russell et al.

Explanation: What if you could look out from the center of our Galaxy -- what might you see? Two scientifically-determined possibilities are shown in the featured video, an immersive 360-degree view which allows you to look around in every direction. The pictured computer simulation is based on infrared data from ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile and X-ray data from NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. As the video starts, you quickly approach Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center. Then looking out, this 500-year time-lapse simulation shows glowing gas and many points of light orbiting all around you. Many of these points are young Wolf-Rayet stars that have visible hot winds blowing out into surrounding nebulas. Clouds approaching close become elongated, while objects approaching too close fall in. Toward the video's end the simulation repeats, but this time with the dynamic region surrounding Sgr A* expelling hot gas that pushes back against approaching material.

Thierry Duval - "O Charme de Paris" - Aguarela

O Charme de Paris

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 21 - The Upper Michigan Blizzard of 1938

The Upper Michigan Blizzard of 1938 
Image Credit: Bill Brinkman; Courtesy: Paula Rocco

Explanation: Yes, but can your blizzard do this? In Upper Michigan's Storm of the Century in 1938, some snow drifts reached the level of utility poles. Nearly a meter of new and unexpected snow fell over two days in a storm that started 80 years ago this week. As snow fell and gale-force winds piled snow to surreal heights; many roads became not only impassable but unplowable; people became stranded; cars, school buses and a train became mired; and even a dangerous fire raged. Fortunately only two people were killed, although some students were forced to spend several consecutive days at school. The featured image was taken by a local resident soon after the storm. Although all of this snow eventually melted, repeated snow storms like this help build lasting glaciers in snowy regions of our planet Earth.

Arusha Votsmusha - "Fantasia" - Aguarela

"Fantasia"

Imagens do Mundo - Argentina - Cataratas del Iguazú - Garganta del Diablo

Cataratas del Iguazú - Garganta del Diablo

Artigo - Une comédie musicale pour les touristes fait salle comble à Lisbonne

Une rivalité entre les illustres poètes Luís Vaz de Camões et Fernando Pessoa, une partie de poker entre l’ancien dictateur António de Oliveira Salazar et James Bond, ou encore la chanteuse de fado Amália Rodrigues œuvrant dans une ruelle du célèbre quartier de l’Alfama à Lisbonne : ce sont quelques-unes des scènes qui émaillent The Portuguese (Les Portugais), une comédie musicale destinée aux touristes.

Joué entièrement en anglais par des acteurs portugais, le spectacle affichait complet pour sa première, samedi 13 janvier, au Casino de Lisbonne. Il revisite l’histoire du Portugal de manière “totalement absurde”, assument dans le quotidien Público ses deux auteurs, Rui Cardoso Martins et Filipe Homem Fonseca. L’idée de cette comédie musicale a germé chez eux il y a deux ans, alors que le pays connaissait un boom du tourisme qui s’est poursuivi depuis.

La bande-son s’étend du fado aux Spice Girls

L’intrigue est simple : un couple d’étrangers arrive à Lisbonne et embarque pour une aventure à travers la ville, où des figures marquantes vont leur raconter les événements historiques les plus importants du pays. La mise en scène, volontiers humoristique, s’accompagne d’une bande-son éclectique, qui va du fado aux Spice Girls, en passant par Abba.

Le projet est né de “la volonté de montrer le Portugal au monde”, assure, toujours dans Público, Ana Brito e Cunha, qui met en scène le spectacle avec Sónia Aragão. “On révèle un petit peu de nous. On porte un regard sur les Portugais avec humour, plutôt qu’à travers lasaudade [une forme de nostalgie typiquement portugaise] et la tristesse.” La comédie musicale se veut aussi porteuse de l’idée selon laquelle le Portugal est le champion de la desenrasca (débrouille), que les auteurs ont pris le parti de traduire par un néologisme, “to desenrascate”, in english.

Courrier International - France

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 20 - Old Moon in the New Moon's Arms

Old Moon in the New Moon's Arms 
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)

Explanation: Also known as the Moon's "ashen glow" or the "Old Moon in the New Moon's arms", earthshine is earthlight reflected from the Moon's night side. This stunning image of earthshine from a young crescent moon was taken from Las Campanas Observatory, Atacama Desert, Chile, planet Earth near moonset on January 18. Dramatic atmospheric inversion layers appear above the Pacific Ocean, colored by the sunset at the planet's western horizon. But the view from the Moon would have been stunning, too. When the Moon appears in Earth's sky as a slender crescent, a dazzlingly bright, nearly full Earth would be seen from the lunar surface. A description of earthshine, in terms of sunlight reflected by Earth's oceans in turn illuminating the Moon's dark surface, was written 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci.

Ching Lin Che - Aguarela na chuva

Aguarela na chuva

Cidades de Portugal - Amarante - Ponte, Igreja e Convento de São Gonçalo

Ponte, Igreja e Convento de São Gonçalo

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 19 - Clouds in the LMC

Clouds in the LMC 
Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis, Don Goldman

Explanation: An alluring sight in southern skies, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is seen in this deep and detailed telescopic mosaic. Recorded with broadband and narrowband filters, the scene spans some 5 degrees or 10 full moons. The narrowband filters are designed to transmit only light emitted by hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. Ionized by energetic starlight, the atoms emit their characteristic light as electrons are recaptured and the atoms transition to a lower energy state. As a result, in this image the LMC seems covered with its own clouds of ionized gas surrounding its massive, young stars. Sculpted by the strong stellar winds and ultraviolet radiation, the glowing clouds, dominated by emission from hydrogen, are known as H II (ionized hydrogen) regions. Itself composed of many overlapping H II regions, the Tarantula Nebula is the large star forming region at the left. The largest satellite of our Milky Way Galaxy, the LMC is about 15,000 light-years across and lies a mere 160,000 light-years away toward the constellation Dorado.

Steve Hanks - "Realismo emocional" - Aguarela

Realismo Emocional

Cidades de Portugal - Almada - Cristo Rei

Almada - Santuário Nacional de Cristo Rei

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 18 - Blue Comet in the Hyades

Blue Comet in the Hyades 
Image Credit & Copyright: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (Deep Sky Colors)

Explanation: Stars of the Hyades cluster are scattered through this mosaic spanning over 5 degrees on the sky toward the constellation Taurus. Presently cruising through the Solar System, the remarkably blue comet C/2016 R2 PanSTARRS is placed in the wide field of view using image data from January 12. With the apex of the V-shape in the Hyades cluster positioned near the top center, bright Aldebaran, alpha star of Taurus, anchors the frame at the lower right. A cool red giant, Aldebaran is seen in orange hues in the colorful starfield. While the stars of the Hyades are gathered 151 light-years away, Aldebaran lies only 65 light-years distant and so is separate from the cluster stars.On January 12, C/2016 R2 was over 17 light-minutes from planet Earth and nearly 24 light-minutes from the Sun. Its blue tinted tail largely due to CO+ gas fluorescing in sunlight, the head or coma of the comet appears with a slightly greenish hue, likely emission from diatomic carbon.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 17 - In the Valley of Orion

In the Valley of Orion 
Visualization Credit: NASA, ESA, F. Summers, G. Bacon,
Z. Levay, J. DePasquale, L. Frattare, M. Robberto, M. Gennaro (STScI) and R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)

Explanation: This exciting and unfamiliar view of the Orion Nebula is a visualization based on astronomical data and movie rendering techniques. Up close and personal with a famous stellar nursery normally seen from 1,500 light-years away, the digitally modeled frame transitions from a visible light representation based on Hubble data on the left to infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope on the right. The perspective at the center looks along a valley over a light-year wide, in the wall of the region's giant molecular cloud. Orion's valley ends in a cavity carved by the energetic winds and radiation of the massive central stars of the Trapezium star cluster. The single frame is part of a multiwavelength, three-dimensional video that lets the viewer experience an immersive, three minute flight through the Great Nebula of Orion.

Paisagens de Portugal - Linha do Douro - Alijo/Carrazeda de Ansiães

Viajando pela Linha Ferroviária do Douro, desde a estação de Pinhão (Alijó) até à estação de Foz Tua (Carrazeda de Ansiães)

Cidades - Alcochete - Rio Tejo - Marginal de Alcochete

Rio Tejo - Marginal de Alcochete

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 16 - An Elephant's Trunk in Cepheus

An Elephant's Trunk in Cepheus 
Image Credit & Copyright: Processing - Robert Gendler, Roberto Colombari
Data - Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Robert Gendler, Adam Block

Explanation: With image data from telescopes large and small, this close-up features the dusty Elephant's Trunk Nebula. It winds through the emission nebula and young star cluster complex IC 1396, in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus. Also known as vdB 142, the cosmic elephant's trunk is over 20 light-years long. The colorful view highlights bright, swept-back ridges that outline the region's pockets of cool interstellar dust and gas. Such embedded, dark, tendril-shaped clouds contain the raw material for star formation and hide protostars within. Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the relatively faint IC 1396 complex covers a large region on the sky, spanning over 5 degrees. This dramatic scene spans a 1 degree wide field, about the size of 2 Full Moons.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 15 - Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula

Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula 
Image Credit & Copyright: Mario Cogo (Galax Lux)

Explanation: By starlight this eerie visage shines in the dark, a crooked profile evoking its popular name, the Witch Head Nebula. In fact, this entrancing telescopic portrait gives the impression that the witch has fixed her gaze on Orion's bright supergiant star Rigel. More formally known as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula spans about 50 light-years and is composed of interstellar dust grains reflecting Rigel's starlight. The blue color of the Witch Head Nebula and of the dust surrounding Rigel is caused not only by Rigel's intense blue starlight but because the dust grains scatter blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes Earth's daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers in Earth's atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. Rigel, the Witch Head Nebula, and gas and dust that surrounds them lie about 800 light-years away.

Cidades de Portugal - Alcácer do Sal - Santa Susana - Igreja

Alcácer do Sal - Santa Susana - Igreja

Astronomy picture of the day - 2018 January 14 - Three Galaxies and a Comet

Three Galaxies and a Comet 
Image Credit & Copyright: Miloslav Druckmuller (Brno University of Technology)

Explanation: Diffuse starlight and dark nebulae along the southern Milky Way arc over the horizon and sprawl diagonally through this gorgeous nightscape. The breath-taking mosaic spans a wide 100 degrees, with the rugged terrainof the Patagonia, Argentina region in the foreground. Along with the insider's view of our own galaxy, the image features our outside perspective on two irregular satellite galaxies - the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The scene also captures the broad tail and bright coma of Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007.

Tragédia em Tondela : pelo menos oito mortos

Um incêndio numa associação de Vila Nova da Rainha, no concelho de Tondela, provocou oito mortos e 34 feridos, um número confirmado pelos bombeiros. No edifício estariam cerca de 70 pessoas que participavam num torneio de sueca ou assistiam ao jogo de futebol entre o Sporting de Braga e o Benfica.

Os feridos foram levados para os hospitais de Coimbra e Aveiro, avançou o comandante da Proteção Civil que disse ainda aos jornalistas que está a ser feito uma perícia à zona envolvente da associação recreativa.

José António Jesus, presidente da Câmara Municipal de Tondela, avançou aos jornalistas que o incêndio terá tido origem numa explosão da salamandra no teto falsos da cobertura, apesar de estar ainda a ser feita a perícia ao local. "De facto uma tragédia que se verificou", referindo-se ao número elevado de vítimas. "Estávamos num segundo piso, a grande quantidade monóxido de carbono" foi responsável pela desorientação na fuga, uma vez que "as pessoas tivessem noção onde estavam".

"Maioritariamente são pessoas adultas deste concelho", afirma o presidente que não nega a possibilidade de estarem ainda cidadãos de concelhos vizinhos que participavam no torneio.

A região de Tondela foi também uma das zonas fustigadas pelos incêndios de 15 de outubro.

Ionline - Portugal