Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 December 4 - Orion and Official Star Names

Orion and Official Star Names 
Image Credit & Copyright: Rogelio Bernal Andreo

Explanation: Familiar stars in Orion and constellations across the sky now have official names. Over the past year, the International Astronomical Union, the only body officially tasked with naming stars, approved names already in common use for 227 of the brightest stars, including the most famous stars on the sky Sirius, Polaris, and Betelgeuse. Pictured, the constellation of Orion is shown with several of these now-official star names superposed. Spanning about 30 degrees, this breath-taking vista stretches across the well-known constellation from head to toe (left to right) and beyond. The common names for all three stars in Orion's belt are also now official. At 1,500 light years away, the Great Orion Nebula is the closest large star forming region, here visible just right and below center. Also visible are famous nebulae including the Horsehead Nebula and the Witch Head Nebula. Of course, the Orion Nebula and bright stars are easy to see with the unaided eye, but dust clouds and emission from the extensive interstellar gas in this nebula-rich complex, are too faint and much harder to record. In the featured mosaic of broadband telescopic images, additional image data acquired with a narrow hydrogen alpha filter was used to bring out the pervasive tendrils of energized atomic hydrogen gas like in the arc of the giant Barnard's Loop.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 December 3 - Galaxies in Pegasus

Galaxies in Pegasus 
Image Credit & Copyright: Péter Feltóti

Explanation: This wide, sharp telescopic view reveals galaxies scattered beyond the stars of the Milky Way at the northern boundary of the high-flying constellation Pegasus. Prominent at the upper right is NGC 7331. A mere 50 million light-years away, the large spiral is one of the brighter galaxies not included in Charles Messier's famous 18th century catalog. The disturbed looking group of galaxies at the lower left is well-known as Stephan's Quintet. About 300 million light-years distant, the quintet dramatically illustrates a multiple galaxy collision, its powerful, ongoing interactions posed for a brief cosmic snapshot. On the sky, the quintet and NGC 7331 are separated by about half a degree.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 December 2 - A Triple Star is Born

A Triple Star is Born 
Image Credit: Bill Saxton, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NRAO/AUI/NSF - Publication: John Tobin (Univ. Oklahoma/Leiden) et al.

Explanation: A triple star system is forming, enshrouded within this dusty natal disk some 750 light-years away in the Perseus molecular cloud. Imaged at millimeter wavelengths by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array(ALMA) in Chile, the extreme close-up shows two protostars separated by a mere 61 AU (1 AU is the Earth-Sun distance) with a a third some 183 AU from the central protostar. The ALMA image also reveals a clear spiral structure indicating instability and fragmentation led to the multiple protostellar objects within the disk. Astronomers estimate that the system, cataloged as L1448 IRS3B, is less than 150,000 years old. Captured at an early phase, the starforming scenario is likely not at all uncommon, since almost half of all sun-like stars have at least one companion.

Joe Cocker - "Now that you're gone" - Video - Music

"Now that you're gone"

Expressões populares portuguesas - Ave de mau agouro

Significado: Diz-se de pessoa portadora de más notícias ou que, com a sua presença, anuncia desgraças.

Origem: O conhecimento do futuro é uma das preocupações inerentes ao ser humano. Quase tudo servia para, de maneiras diversas, se tentar obter esse conhecimento. As aves eram um dos recursos que se utilizava. Para se saberem os bons ou maus auspícios (avis spicium) consultavam-se as aves. No tempo dos áugures romanos, a predição dos bons ou maus acontecimentos era feita através da leitura do seu voo, canto ou entranhas. Os pássaros que mais atentamente eram seguidos no seu voo, ouvidos nos seus cantos e aos quais se analisavam as vísceras eram a águia, o abutre, o milhafre, a coruja, o corvo e a gralha. Ainda hoje perdura, popularmente, a conotação funesta com qualquer destas aves.

Palacios cariocas - Palácio Amarelo

Localizado no centro histórico da cidade de Petrópolis, na praça Visconde de Mauá, o Palácio Amarelo foi construído em meados do século XIX e, desde 1897, abriga a sede da Câmara Municipal de Petrópolis.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 December 1 - Flaming Star Nebula

Flaming Star Nebula 
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, Univ. Arizona

Explanation: A runaway star lights the Flaming Star Nebula in this cosmic scene. Otherwise known as IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula's billowing interstellar clouds of gas and dust lie about 1,500 light-years away toward the constellation of Auriga. AE Aurigae, the bright star at upper left in the frame, is a massive and intensely hot O-type star moving rapidly through space, likely ejected from a collision of multiple star-systems in the vicinity of the Orion Nebula millions of years ago. Now close to IC 405, the high-speed star's ionizing ultraviolet radiation powers the visible reddish glow as the nebula's hydrogen atoms are stripped of their electrons and recombine. Its intense blue starlight is reflected by the nebula's dusty filaments. Like all massive stars AE Aurigae will be short-lived though, furiously burning through its supply of fuel for nuclear fusion and exploding as a supernova. The colorful telescopic snapshot spans about 5 light-years at the estimated distance of the Flaming Star Nebula.

Rui Veloso - "Benvinda sejas Maria" - Video - Musica

"Benvinda sejas Maria"

Palacios cariocas - Palácio Imperial

O Palácio Imperial, localizado no centro histórico de Petrópolis, é o antigo Palácio de Verão do imperador brasileiro Dom Pedro II e, hoje em dia, funciona como Museu Histórico.

Uma curiosidade sobre este Museu, Dom Pedro mandou trazer mais de 100 espécies de árvores e flores de diversas regiões do mundo para o seu jardim, construído em torno do ano de 1850, e boa parte deste acervo se conserva até hoje, sendo uma atração à parte.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 November 30 - Milky Way over Shipwreck

Milky Way over Shipwreck 
Image Credit & Copyright: Sergio Montúfar (Planetario Ciudad de La Plata)

Explanation: What happened to this ship? It was carried aground by a giant storm that struck the coast of Argentina in 2002. The pictured abandoned boat, dubbed Naufragio del Chubasco, wrecked near the nearly abandoned town of Cabo Raso (population: 1). The rusting ship provides a picturesque but perhaps creepy foreground for the beautiful sky above. This sky is crowned by the grand arch of our Milky Way and features galaxies including the Large andSmall Magellanic Clouds, stars including Canopus and Altair, planets including Mars and Neptune, and nebulas including the Lagoon, Carina, and the Coal Sack. The mosaic was composed from over 80 images taken in early September. A 360-degree interactive panoramic version of this image is also available. The adventurous astrophotographer reports that the creepiest part of taking this picture was not the abandoned ship, but the unusual prevalence of black and hairy caterpillars.