Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 June 11 - The Fornax Cluster of Galaxies

The Fornax Cluster of Galaxies 
Image Credit: European Southern Observatory
Acknowledgment: Aniello Grado and Luca Limatola

Explanation: Named for the southern constellation toward which most of its galaxies can be found, the Fornax Cluster is one of the closest clusters of galaxies. About 62 million light-years away, it is almost 20 times more distant than our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy, and only about 10 percent further than the better known and more populated Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Seen across this two degree wide field-of-view, almost every yellowish splotch on the image is an elliptical galaxy in the Fornax cluster. A standout barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is visible on the lower right as a prominent Fornax cluster member. The spectacular image was taken by the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory.

Ja "começou" o Euro 2016 com confrontos entre ingleses e franceses!

Cerca de 250 adeptos ingleses envolveram-se em confrontos com a polícia na zona do Porto Velho de Marselha, com a polícia a ser obrigada a usar gás lacrimogéneo, detendo um inglês de 24 anos. Também se verificaram incidentes com um grupo de jovens franceses, com um inglês a ter de ser transportado a um hospital por ter sido ferido sem gravidade. No sábado, a Inglaterra vai defrontar a Rússia, na primeira jornada do grupo B do Euro2016, que se inicia hoje com o França-Roménia, em Paris. O encontro, considerado de "alto risco", vai envolver cerca de 1800 polícias, distribuídos pelo interior e exterior do estádio.

Ler mais em: http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/desporto/euro_2016/detalhe/federacao_inglesa_critica_confrontos.html

Fotos - Passeando por Trinidad (Cuba) - 02-11-2010

"Trinidad"

Cuba, 02-11-2010

JoanMira

Imagens do Mundo - Sitios lindos de Portugal - Estremoz

O seu castelo transformado em pousada, a sala de audiências do rei D. Diniz, a muralha construida no século XVII, são trunfos de Estremoz.

TOLO BALAGUER/AGE

L'image du jour - 2016 June 10 - NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula

NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula 
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Miller, Jimmy Walker

Explanation: NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This sharp telescopic portrait uses narrow band image data that isolates light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the wind-blown nebula. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the detailed folds and filaments. Visible within the nebula, NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years. The nebula's complex structures are likely the result of this strong wind interacting with material ejected in an earlier phase. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of its stellar life this star should ultimately go out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion. Found in the nebula richconstellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years away.

Imagens do Mundo - Sitios lindos de Portugal - Obidos

Um lugar encantado. Terra da grande pintora Josefa de Obidos, cercada por muralhas do século XV.

CARLOS CAETANO/ISTOCK

Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 June 9 - Pluto at Night

Pluto at Night 
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute

Explanation: The night side of Pluto spans this shadowy scene. The spacebased view with the Sun behind the distant world was captured by New Horizons last July. The spacecraft was at a range of over 21,000 kilometers, about 19 minutes after its closest approach. A denizen of the Kuiper Belt in dramatic silhouette, the image also reveals Pluto's tenuous, surprisingly complex layers of hazy atmosphere. The crescent twilight landscape near the top of the frame includes southern areas of nitrogen ice plains informally known as Sputnik Planum and rugged mountains of water-ice in the Norgay Montes.

Imagens do Mundo - Sitios lindos de Portugal - Vila Franca do Campo

Ilha de São Miguel, Um paraiso no Arquipelago dos Açores.

THOMAS STANKIEWICZ/AGE

Fotos - Leblon - Rio de Janeiro - 19-03-2012

"Leblon"

Rio de Janeiro, 19-03-2012

JoanMira

Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 June 8 - The Horsehead Nebula in Infrared from Hubble

The Horsehead Nebula in Infrared from Hubble 
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Explanation: While drifting through the cosmos, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud became sculpted by stellar winds and radiation to assume a recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is embedded in the vast and complex Orion Nebula (M42). A potentially rewarding but difficult object to view personally with a small telescope, the above gorgeously detailed image was taken in 2013 in infrared light by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescopein honor of the 23rd anniversary of Hubble's launch. The dark molecular cloud, roughly 1,500 light years distant, is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is seen above primarily because it is backlit by the nearby massive star Sigma Orionis. The Horsehead Nebula will slowly shift its apparent shape over the next few million years and will eventually be destroyed by the high energy starlight.