"Retrato de Madame Claude Monet" (c. 1872-74), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
2016-10-17
Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 October 17 - An Atlas V Rocket Launches OSIRIS-REx
Video Credit & Copyright: United Launch Alliance, NASA
Explanation: Have you ever seen a rocket launched into the Solar System? Last month a large Atlas V rocket blasted off from Launch Complex 41 in Florida carrying the ORISIX-REx spacecraft. This robotic spacecraft will attempt to land on Asteroid Bennu and return some of its soil to Earth. Asteroid 101955 Bennu orbits the Sun near the Earth, spans about 500-meters, is dark because its surface is covered with carbon, and has about a 1 in 2500 chance ofstriking the Earth in the next few thousand years. The exciting 2.5-minute video shows the Atlas V rocket being rolled out, prepared, and launched -- complete with a clip of side-boosters separating. If things go according to plan,ORISIS-REx will reach Bennu in 2018 and return samples to Earth in 2023. One science goal of OSIRIS-REx is to better determine whether ancient collisions between Earth and carbonaceous asteroids like Bennu provided Earth with a significant amount of the water and organic molecules necessary for the development of life.
2016-10-16
Imagens de Lisboa - Interiores secretos - Capela da Universidade Lusíada
A noble residence, built in 1740 on Rua da Junqueira in the Belém district, is now occupied by Lusíada University. It maintains a small chapel from 1740, with beautiful tile panels depicting Christ's crucifixion, and four stucco medallions on the ceiling with the images of the four Evangelists. In order to see these works of art that very few get to see, join the Thursday Mass at 1:10PM.
Uma casa nobre na Rua da Junqueira em Belém, construída em 1740, é hoje ocupada pela Universidade Lusíada. Mantém uma pequena capela, de 1740, com belíssimos painéis de azulejos ilustrando a crucificação de Cristo, e quatro medalhões no teto com as figuras em estuque dos quatro Evangelistas. Para poder admirar estas obras que muito poucos conhecem, assista à missa às quintas-feiras, às 13H10.
Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 October 16 - Cylindrical Mountains on Venus
Image Credit: Magellan Spacecraft Team, USGS, NASA
Explanation: What could cause a huge cylindrical mountain to rise from the surface of Venus? Such features that occur on Venus are known as coronas. Pictured here in the foreground is 500-kilometer wide Atete Corona found in a region of Venus known as the Galindo. The featured image was created by combining multiple radar maps of the region to form a computer-generated three-dimensional perspective. The series of dark rectangles that cross the image from top to bottom were created by the imaging procedure and are not real. The origin of massive coronas remains a topic of research although speculation holds they result from volcanism. Studying Venusian coronas help scientists better understand the inner structure of both Venus and Earth.
2016-10-15
Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 October 15 - Herschel's Orion
Image Credit & Copyright: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE
Explanation: This dramatic image peers within M42, the Orion Nebula, the closest large star-forming region. Using data at infrared wavelengths from the Herschel Space Observatory, the false-color composite explores the natal cosmic cloud a mere 1,500 light-years distant. Cold, dense filaments of dust that would otherwise be dark at visible wavelengths are shown in reddish hues. Light-years long, the filaments weave together bright spots that correspond to regions of collapsing protostars. The brightest bluish area near the top of the frame is warmer dust heated by the hot Trapezium cluster stars that also power the nebula's visible glow. Herschel data has recently indicated ultraviolet starlight from the hot newborn stars likely contributes to the creation of carbon-hydrogen molecules, basic building blocks of life. This Herschel image spans about 3 degrees on the sky. That's about 80 light-years at the distance of the Orion Nebula.
2016-10-14
Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 October 14 - Galaxies from the Altiplano
Image Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Guisard (Los Cielos de America, TWAN)
Explanation: The central bulge of our Milky Way Galaxy rises over the northern Chilean Atacama altiplano in this postcard from planet Earth. At an altitude of 4500 meters, the strange beauty of the desolate landscape could almost belong to another world though. Brownish red and yellow tinted sulfuric patches lie along the whitish salt flat beaches of the Salar de Aguas Calientes region. In the distance along the Argentina border is the stratovolcano Lastarria, its peak at 5700 meters (19,000 feet). In the clear, dark sky above, stars, nebulae, and cosmic dust clouds in the Milky Way echo the colors of the altiplano at night. Extending the view across extragalactic space, the Large and SmallMagellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, shine near the horizon through a faint greenish airglow.
2016-10-12
Imagenes del Mundo - Un ciervo en el parque Richmond en Londres
Un ciervo durante la época de celo en el parque Richmond en Londres (Reino Unido).
TOBY MELVILLE REUTERS
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