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Thank you to my new friend Kit Miller of The Astrology News who made the suggestion that the Healing Rays that I work with are also associated with Planetary Energies. Very cool! Here is my intuitive take on them.

Emerald Ray = Jupiter (Kit got me started, as this was her suggestion. This makes perfect sense as Jupiter is associated with the healing AA Raphael, and also with the Guru.)

Violet Flame = Venus (Kwan Yin is associated with this Ray, so that also connects very nicely.)

Indigo Ray = Saturn (not exactly sure why, but it fits. It has to do with focus and discipline.)

Crystal Ray = Uranus (for it's lightning fast and innovative nature.)

Blue Ray = Neptune (for it's healing and empathic nature. Neptune is also associated with Pisces and the color blue.)

Diamond Heart/Ray = Pluto (for getting to the "heart" of the matter; and also for its transmutational properties, as diamonds are created out of compressed denser materials.)

Bron: https://www.facebook.com/starsandvibes

Solar System.

Solar System

The Whole Story

Copy credit : Marcus Chown

Bron:

https://www.facebook.com/Milky way scientists

Flocculent spiral NGC 2841

Bron: http://spacetelescope.org/news/heic1104/

Standing out from the Crowd.

The compact nature of globular clusters is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, having so many stars of a similar age in one bundle gives astronomers insights into the chemical makeup of our galaxy in its early history. But, at the same time, the high density of stars in the cores of globulars also makes it difficult for astronomers to resolve individual stars.

The core of NGC 6642, shown here in this Hubble Space Telescope image, is particularly dense, making this globular a difficult observational target for most telescopes. Furthermore, it occupies a very central position in our galaxy, which means that images inadvertently capture many stars that don’t belong to the cluster — these “field stars” just get in the way.

However, using Hubble’s powerful Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), astronomers can identify and remove such distracting field stars, and resolve the cluster’s dense core in unprecedented detail. Using Hubble’s ACS, astronomers have already made many interesting finds about NGC 6642. For example, many “blue stragglers” (stars which seemingly lag behind in their rate of aging) have been spotted in this globular, and it is known to be lacking in low-mass stars.

This picture was created from visible and infrared images taken with the Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The field of view is approximately 1.6 by 1.6 arcminutes.

Credit:

ESA/Hubble & NASA

Stars - Peaceful Music

http://youtu.be/peRwo-jbL5M

Foto's

Butterfly emerges from stellar demise in planetary nebula NGC 6302.

This celestial object looks like a delicate butterfly. But it is far from serene.

What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to nearly 20 000 degrees Celsius. The gas is tearing across space at more than 950 000 kilometres per hour — fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 24 minutes!

A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the centre of this fury. It has ejected its envelope of gases and is now unleashing a stream of ultraviolet radiation that is making the cast-off material glow. This object is an example of a planetary nebula, so-named because many of them have a round appearance resembling that of a planet when viewed through a small telescope.

The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), a new camera aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, snapped this image of the planetary nebula, catalogued as NGC 6302, but more popularly called the Bug Nebula or the Butterfly Nebula. WFC3 was installed by NASA astronauts in May 2009, during the Servicing Mission to upgrade and repair the 19-year-old Hubble.

NGC 6302 lies within our Milky Way galaxy, roughly 3800 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius. The glowing gas is the star's outer layers, expelled over about 2200 years. The "butterfly" stretches for more than two light-years, which is about half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri.

The central star itself cannot be seen, because it is hidden within a doughnut-shaped ring of dust, which appears as a dark band pinching the nebula in the centre. The thick dust belt constricts the star's outflow, creating the classic "bipolar" or hourglass shape displayed by some planetary nebulae.

The star's surface temperature is estimated to be over 220 000 degrees Celsius, making it one of the hottest known stars in our galaxy. Spectroscopic observations made with ground-based telescopes show that the gas is roughly 20 000 degrees Celsius, which is unusually hot compared to a typical planetary nebula.

The WFC3 image reveals a complex history of ejections from the star. The star first evolved into a huge red giant, with a diameter of about 1000 times that of our Sun. It then lost its extended outer layers. Some of this gas was cast off from its equator at a relatively slow speed, perhaps as low as 32 000 kilometres per hour, creating the doughnut-shaped ring. Other gas was ejected perpendicular to the ring at higher speeds, producing the elongated "wings" of the butterfly-shaped structure. Later, as the central star heated up, a much faster stellar wind, a stream of charged particles travelling at more than 3.2 million kilometres per hour, ploughed through the existing wing-shaped structure, further modifying its shape.

The image also shows numerous finger-like projections pointing back to the star, which may mark denser blobs in the outflow that have resisted the pressure from the stellar wind.

The nebula's reddish outer edges are largely due to light emitted by nitrogen, which marks the coolest gas visible in the picture. WFC3 is equipped with a wide variety of filters that isolate light emitted by various chemical elements, allowing astronomers to infer properties of the nebular gas, such as its temperature, density and composition.

The white-coloured regions are areas where light is emitted by sulphur. These are regions where fast-moving gas overtakes and collides with slow-moving gas that left the star at an earlier time, producing shock waves in the gas (the bright white edges on the sides facing the central star). The white blob with the crisp edge at upper right is an example of one of those shock waves.

NGC 6302 was imaged on 27 July 2009 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in ultraviolet and visible light. Filters that isolate emissions from oxygen, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur from the planetary nebula were used to create this composite image.

These Hubble observations of the planetary nebula NGC 6302 are part of the Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Early Release Observations.

Credit:

NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

Bron: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0910h/

Solar Prominence Eruption (JHelioviewer/ SDO AIA)

wonderful telescope!!!

wonderful telescope!!! 
www.officinastellare.com

Mooie foto's.

The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft is seen as it arrives at the launch pad Monday, Dec. 13, 2010 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz is scheduled to launch the crew of Expedition 26 Wednesday at 2:09 p.m. EST.

Answer to Cities from Space Challenge #2: Hahah Scott Poovey is right! It is London!

NASA Image of the Day: Galaxy Triplet ARP 274
On April 1-2, the Hubble Space Telescope photographed the winning target in the Space Telescope Science Institute’s 'You Decide' competition in celebration...http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html

Projecy Mercury Explained

Less than a year after its birth, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency announced its first astronaut class, the Mercury Seven, on April 9, 1959. Project Mercury proved that humans could live and work in space, paving the way for all future human exploration.

This cutaway drawing of the Mercury capsule was used by the Space Task Group at the first NASA inspection, on Oct. 24, 1959.

Love this Cassini pic of Saturn! How cool is that? It's from Astronomy Pic of the Day.

Love this pic of the Space Station taken by the departing STS-119 crew. Had to share!

Hubble Museum: de collectie

Twintig jaar geleden werd de Hubble ruimtetelescoop gelanceerd, namelijk op 24 april 1990. Nu, twintig jaar later, kijken we terug op een mooie tijd vol hoogtepunten. Welkom in het Hubble Museum. Hier ziet u een collectie van de mooiste foto’s van de ruimtetelescoop. Toegang is gratis.

Koninklijke hoed (2003, Hubble)
Het Sombrerostelsel (of Sombreronevel) lijkt op een Mexicaanse hoed en is 28 miljoen lichtjaar van de aarde verwijderd. In de donkere band om het sterrenstelsel schuilen veel jonge en heldere sterren. Het gloeiende centrum van M104 bevat bijna 2.000 bolvormige sterrenhopen. Deze bolvormige sterrenhopen bestaan uit duizenden sterren.

Zonsopgang in Eenhoorn (2002, Hubble)
De Kegelnevel was één van de eerste foto’s die in 2002 werd gemaakt met de Advanced Camera for Surveys. De Kegelnevel is 2.500 lichtjaar verwijderd van de aarde en bevindt zich in het sterrenbeeld Eenhoorn. In de gas- en stofzuilen van NGC 2264 vormen nieuwe, jonge sterren.

Stellaire eitjes (1995, Hubble)
De zaden in de gaszuilen van de Arendnevel (M16) staan te popelen om uit te komen. In deze drie torens van koud waterstofgas worden veel nieuwe sterren geboren. De Arendnevel is 6.500 lichtjaar van de aarde verwijderd. De foto is gemaakt in visueel licht en dan is het onmogelijk om door de stoffige torens te kijken.

Vluchten kan niet meer (2002, Hubble)
Een kikkervisje in de ruimte. Beter is UGC 10214 niet te omschrijven. De staart op de foto heeft een lengte van meer dan 280.000 lichtjaar. Waarschijnlijk is het sterrenstelsel op een ander stelsel gebotst en probeert hij vlug de scene te verlaten, net als een automobilist die doorrijdt na een ongeluk. Er is één groot verschil: een automobilist laat nauwelijks sporen achter, UGC 10214 wel.

Festival van licht (2007, Hubble)
Op dit schilderij is een festival van lichtjes te zien. Het nabije sterrenstelsel M74 is te zien. Dit spiraalstelsel bevindt zich op een afstand van 32 miljoen lichtjaar bij de aarde vandaan. Het sterrenstelsel is niet erg helder, dus daarom is het voor amateur-astronomen moeilijk om M74 waar te nemen. Hubble heeft er vanzelfsprekend geen moeite mee.

Dood en verderf (2003, Hubble)
De Helixnevel ziet er prachtig uit. Toch is de nevel het nalatenschap van een stervende ster. Deze witte dwerg is te zien in het centrum van de Helixnevel. De ster heeft haar gaslagen afgestoten en deze gloeiende gassen dijen langzaam uit. Als gevolg zien wij een ronde nevel.

Flits in een grot (2004, Hubble)
De ster V838 Monocerotis is een raar object. De rode superreus in het centrum van de nevel produceert genoeg energie om de omliggende stofwolken te verlichten. Deze stofwolken zijn in het verleden door de ster afgestoten. Hubble houdt V838 Monocerotis nauwlettend in de gaten en ziet hoe de nevel groeit.

Kinderen in de verte (2010, Hubble)
De oudste sterrenstelsels zijn op dit schilderij te zien. 13,7 miljard jaar geleden ontstond het heelal. Sommige sterrenstelsels op de foto zijn 600 tot 800 miljoen jaar na de oerknal gevormd, oftewel zo’n dertien miljard jaar geleden. Door te kijken naar deze sterrenstelsels leren astronomen meer over hoe deze constructies ontstaan. Ooit is het Melkwegstelsel ook als zo’n klein hoopje sterren geboren.

Lord of the Rings (2007, Hubble)
Op dit schilderij is het sterrenstelselcluster CI 0024+17 te zien. Wat bijzonder is aan deze foto, is de ringachtige structuur in de cluster. Deze ring is mogelijk een bewijs dat donkere materie bestaat. Ondanks dat het bestaan van donkere materie niet zichtbaar kan worden aangetoond, zijn de effecten van donkere materie wel zichtbaar, zoals op deze foto.

Rode bol (2007, Hubble)
Toen Mars in 2007 het dichtst bij de aarde stond, maakte Hubble een foto van de rode planeet. Natuurlijk komt de kwaliteit van de foto lang niet in de buurt van foto’s van ruimtesondes als de Mars Express en de Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, maar dat is natuurlijk logisch. Hubble draait immers niet om Mars, maar om de aarde. De afstand tussen Hubble en Mars is 88 miljoen kilometer.
Bronmateriaal: HubbleSite