The most spectacular timelapse of Earth, ever.

NASA Hubble captures merging of two galaxies for the first time ever

For the first time ever, NASA’s iconic Hubble telescope has captured merging of two galaxies nearly 230 million light-years away from the Earth, in the constellation of Hercules. The stunning image was acquired using the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 aboard NASA/ ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Seeing the image for the first time, scientists thought it to be an abnormal shaped galaxy, however, further analysis revealed that they are witnessing live merging of two galaxies — a process which will give birth to a new child galaxy. It was reported that major galaxy is named NGC 6052.

While explaining, NASA scientists said that earlier they were two separate galaxies, however, due to gravitational pull they attracted each other and eventually collided with each other. The process will force stars to change orbits and select a new path. Some stars might collide in the process emitting massive bright light which humans can track via telescopes.

It is a process of millions of years until both the galaxies become stable and give birth to a new galaxy. Also, the newly formed galaxy will not resemble any of the two parent galaxies, it will have its own striking, size shape features.

“It would be reasonable to think of this as a single abnormal galaxy, and it was originally classified as such. However, it is in fact a ‘new’ galaxy in the process of forming,” the space agency said in a statement. “Eventually, this new galaxy will settle down into a stable shape, which may not resemble either of the two original galaxies.”

Moreover, Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, and remains in operation. With a 2.4-meter (7.9 ft) mirror, Hubble’s four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared spectra. The telescope is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble. Since, Hubble orbits outside the distortion of Earth’s atmosphere, it enables the telescope to capture some mind blowing and detailed images and reveals information like no other telescope.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/68413...

ASTRONAUT Tim Peake is about to become the first Brit to embark on a spacewalk to repair the International Space Station next week.

He has been preparing for the new mission which will see him tackle the faulty power unit outside the space station wearing a spacesuit.

The 43-year-old will float out of the safe-zone with Tim Kopra in the morning of the 15 January.

The facts behind the most common misconceptions about space
The actual science is way cooler than the myths.
BEC CREW

Space is big – no one’s going to fight you on that fact – but the enormity of our cosmic backyard and the crazy physics that govern everything beyond it can be tough to comprehend. So tough, the unofficial rule is if you think you’ve got it all figured out, you probably understand very little. It’s no wonder that misconceptions about space are so easily spread among us, but do you want to know the best thing about getting the facts straight? The actual science is far more fascinating than those myths will ever be.

In the episode of Mental Floss above, Elliott starts off with a really basic fact that so many of us get wrong, mostly because we don’t really think about it that much – the Sun might look like a burning ball of flames, but it isn’t actually on fire.

Our favourite giant ball of gas is actually burning thanks to the process of nuclear fusion that goes on in its core, where 600 million tonnes of hydrogen gas are being converted into 596 million tonnes of helium every single second. This allows it to emit light and heat, but there’s no actual fire involved because for that you need a whole lot of oxygen, which doesn’t exist.

Speaking of the Sun, it seems like common sense to say that Mercury is the hottest planet in our Solar System because it’s the closest to the Sun, but that honour actually goes to Venus – the second closest planet to the Sun.

As the video explains, proximity to the Sun actually has little to do with a planet’s average temperature. Venus is the hottest planet not because of the distance between it and the Sun, but because of its extremely thick atmosphere. This means that the surface of Venus maintains temperatures of about 462 degrees Celsius, while the surface temperature of Mercury fluctuates dramatically, and often drops to -173 degrees Celsius at night.

NASA gets a pretty bad rap when it comes to space pens – you might remember an episode of The West Wing where they talk about how NASA spent millions of dollars in the 60s developing a pen that would work in microgravity, while the Soviet Union just gave their cosmonauts pencils. This isn’t actually true, and NASA has the receipts to prove that they too were using mechanical pencils at the time. Later, an anti-gravity space pen was developed for around US$1 million, but this was used by both the US and Russians.

Space is a vast, inhospitable wasteland full of things that would kill you a million times over without the correct protective gear, but contrary to popular opinion, you won’t explode if you somehow end up in orbit without a spacesuit, and you won’t get sucked in by the vacuum of a black hole if you find yourself in the vicinity of one.

I’ll let Elliott explain why in the video above, but let’s just say you’d get seriously wrecked if you ended up in either of these situations, but not in the ways you might be imagining. That might be cold comfort if someone pushes you out of a spacecraft without your suit one day, but at least you’ll know what’s coming.

http://www.sciencealert.com/watch-the-facts-beh...

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