File:Love and Joy for the New Year - NASA Earth Observatory.jpg
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[edit]DescriptionLove and Joy for the New Year - NASA Earth Observatory.jpg |
In November and December 2011, professional and amateur astronomers reveled in observing a sun-grazing comet that dove close to the Sun and survived for a return flight back to the outer solar system. Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) enjoyed their own surreal view of the comet as it appeared on Earth’s horizon on the day of the solstice. ISS Commander Dan Burbank captured a series of digital photographs of Comet Lovejoy on December 21, 2011, as it rose above Earth’s limb. The ISS was passing from eastern Australia southeast toward New Zealand, between 17:35:50 to 17:43:02 Universal Time (6:35 to 6:43 a.m. local time on December 22). Those still images were compiled into a time-lapse video that you can view here. In an interview with WDIV-TV, Burbank described the moment as “the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space.” Note how the tail of the comet points away from the Sun even as the comet itself is moving in the same direction, away from our star. Every comet has two tails, one of ice and dust, the other of ions, or charged particles. The heat and pressure of sunlight sloughs off the ice and dust, pushing it away from the Sun. Likewise, the solar wind strips ions off of the comet surface, though not necessarily in the same direction as the tail of debris and ice. The ion tail is not visible in this image. The comet, officially designated C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), was discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy on November 27, 2011. It belongs to a group of comets known as the Kreutz sungrazers, which are thought to be pieces of a much larger comet that broke up centuries ago. The comets are termed sungrazers because their orbits take them quite near—and often into—the Sun. Comet Lovejoy is remarkable for diving through the superheated solar corona (atmosphere) to within 120,000 kilometers of the Sun’s surface and surviving the encounter. The event was recorded by five NASA and European spacecraft. In the ISS image above, you can also see green and yellow airglow paralleling the Earth’s horizon line (or limb) before it is overwhelmed by the light of the rising Sun. Airglow is the emission of light by atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere after they are excited by ultraviolet radiation. In the video, small intermittent flashes of white lightning discharges also are visible over Earth’s surface. Astronaut photograph ISS030-E-015491 was acquired on December 22, 2011, with a Nikon digital camera, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 30 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Michael Carlowicz, NASA Earth Observatory, and Melissa Dawson and William L. Stefanov, Jacobs/ESCG at NASA-JSC at NASA-JSC. The Earth Observatory's mission is to share with the public the images, stories, and discoveries about climate and the environment that emerge from NASA research, including its satellite missions, in-the-field research, and climate models. Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Add us to your circles on Google+ |
Date | |
Source | Love and Joy for the New Year |
Author | NASA's Earth Observatory |
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by NASA Earth Observatory at https://www.flickr.com/photos/68824346@N02/6620255181. It was reviewed on 2 July 2012 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0. |
2 July 2012
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current | 17:15, 2 July 2012 | ![]() | 2,128 × 1,416 (341 KB) | Dzlinker (talk | contribs) | == {{int:filedesc}} == {{Information |Description=In November and December 2011, professional and amateur astronomers reveled in observing a sun-grazing comet that dove close to the Sun and survived for a return flight back to the outer solar system. A... |
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Camera manufacturer | NIKON CORPORATION |
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Exposure time | 4/5 sec (0.8) |
F-number | f/2.8 |
ISO speed rating | 12,800 |
Date and time of data generation | 17:39, 21 December 2011 |
Lens focal length | 38 mm |
User comments | NASA#2007934 |
Width | 4,256 px |
Height | 2,832 px |
Bits per component |
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Pixel composition | RGB |
Orientation | Normal |
Number of components | 3 |
Horizontal resolution | 120 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 120 dpi |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop CS5 Macintosh |
File change date and time | 13:43, 28 December 2011 |
Exposure Program | Manual |
Exif version | 2.21 |
Date and time of digitizing | 17:39, 21 December 2011 |
APEX shutter speed | 0.321928 |
APEX aperture | 2.970854 |
APEX exposure bias | 0 |
Maximum land aperture | 3 APEX (f/2.83) |
Metering mode | Pattern |
Light source | Unknown |
Flash | Flash did not fire |
DateTime subseconds | 00 |
DateTimeOriginal subseconds | 00 |
DateTimeDigitized subseconds | 00 |
Color space | sRGB |
Sensing method | One-chip color area sensor |
File source | Digital still camera |
Scene type | A directly photographed image |
Custom image processing | Normal process |
Exposure mode | Manual exposure |
White balance | Auto white balance |
Digital zoom ratio | 1 |
Focal length in 35 mm film | 38 mm |
Scene capture type | Standard |
Scene control | High gain up |
Contrast | Normal |
Saturation | Normal |
Sharpness | Normal |
Subject distance range | Unknown |
Serial number of camera | 2007934 |
Lens used | 28.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 |
Date metadata was last modified | 08:43, 28 December 2011 |
Rating (out of 5) | 0 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:80E24775BC2CE111B34696979CA0AF21 |
IIM version | 4,505 |