Fraser Cain, Author at Universe Today

January 29, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Pictures of Rockets

Here are some cool pictures of rockets.

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This is an image of the Gemini-Titan 11 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in 1966. This was the 9th manned flight as part of the Gemini program, carrying Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon into space.

This is an artist’s illustration of the Ares V rocket, currently under development by NASA. This enormous rocket will be the lifter that carries equipment into space for future human Moon missions.

This is an image of the space shuttle’s external fuel tank coming out of a hanger. The tank is filled with liquid hydrogen and helium, which feeds the space shuttle’s main engines at the tail of the spacecraft. It’s covered with an orange foam to keep the cold liquids insulated.

The Voyager 2 mission — the Voyager 2 mission

This is an image of NASA’s Voyager 2 launch atop a Titan III rocket. Voyager 2 went on to explore all of the outer planets in the Solar System, sending back the first ever images Uranus and Neptune.

This is an image of a Delta II rocket blasting off with one of the Mars Exploration Rovers on board.

We’ve written many articles about rockets for Universe Today. Here’s an article about rockets launched by India to monitor an eclipse, and here’s an article about how rockets work.

If you’d like more info on rockets, check out NASA’s Rockets Educator Guide, and here’s a link to the Beginner’s Guide to Rockets.

We’ve recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about rockets. Listen here, Episode 100: Rockets.

January 28, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Australia Pictures

One of the best ways to appreciate Australia is to see it from space. Here are some cool Australia pictures captured by satellites.

This is an image of Australia captured by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft as it was speeding away from Earth towards its final destination of Jupiter.

Here’s a photo of the West Coast of Australia captured by the MODIS sensor on board NASA’s Terra satellite. This image shows how Australia can have red deserts, agricultural regions and spectacular coastlines.

This is an image of Southwest Australia captured by NASA’s Terra satellite. It shows the continent’s deserts but also its old growth forest near the coast.

This is a photo of South-Central Australia, which is home to several of the continent’s many deserts. The white regions in this photograph are some of Australia’s dry salt lake beds.

This is a photograph of Spider Crater in Western Australia. Scientists think the crater was formed between 600 and 900 million years ago.

We’ve written many articles about Australia for Universe Today. Here’s an article about a giant iceberg that was headed for Australia, and here’s an article about a huge river of dust above Australia.

If you’d like more info on Australia, check out the site for NASA’s radio telescope in Australia, and here’s and article about bushfires in Australia.

We’ve recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast about Earth. Listen here, Episode 51: Earth.

January 28, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Antarctica Pictures

Antarctica is one of the most remote places on Earth, and extremely difficult to visit. But there are many spacecraft constantly watching the southern continent, studying its climate and geography. Here are some amazing Antarctica pictures from space.

Here’s a picture of the entire continent of Antarctica seen from space. It was captured piece by piece by several spacecraft, and then stitched together into this amazing mosaic image.

This is a close up view of Victoria Land, in Antarctica. It’s a region of the continent that’s bounded by the Ross Sea, and it was discovered by James Clark Ross.

This is a photo of Don Juan Pond, a tiny, extremely salty lake in Antarctica. It has a greater salinity than the Dead Sea or Lake Assal. It’s estimated to be about 30 times saltier than the ocean. It’s the only lake in Antarctica that never freezes.

This is an image of the Bellingshausen Sea in Antarctica. It’s hard to see which parts of this image are over the ocean, and which parts are over the land.

This photograph shows the break up of the Larsen Ice Shelf in 2001.

We’ve written many articles about Antarctica for Universe Today. Here’s an article about an unusual micrometeorite found in Antarctica, and here’s an article about an extremophile hunt in Antarctica.

If you’d like more info on Antarctica, check out the LIMA Mosaic Images of Antarctica site, and here’s a nice photo of the entire continent.

We’ve recorded several episodes of Astronomy Cast about Earth. Listen here, Episode 51: Earth.

January 28, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Amazon Rainforest Pictures

Here are Amazon forest pictures from space. Satellite observation of the Amazon is the best way to keep track on the ongoing deforestation of the region.

Here’s a cool picture that shows how the Amazon has a dry period too, where the skies have nice fluffy clouds. The Amazon River is up at the top of the image, with some of its other tributaries further down in the picture.

The next of our Amazon pictures was captured by NASA’s Terra satellite. It’s mostly untouched forest, but you can see regions of deforestation near the top center. The red dots in the image are fires, likely used to clear forested land.

This is a photograph of the Mato Grosso region of the Amazon forest. Officials in Brazil think that almost 50% of the deforestation in the Amazon in recent years occurred in this region.

Here’s a beautiful image of the Amazon captured by the crew of the space shuttle. You can see large clouds of smoke coming from deforestation activities in the region, as farmers clear land for cattle.

Here’s an image that shows the amount of deforestation going on in the Amazon rainforest. You can see the alternating strips of forest and clearcuts as farmers expand deeper into the forest.

We’ve written several episodes about the Amazon rainforest for Universe Today. Here’s an article about the world’s widest river, and here’s a story about how deforestation in Brazil is affecting the local climate.

If you’d like more info on the Amazon, check out this article on Amazon deforestation from NASA, and how the Amazon is very resilient to drought.

We’ve recorded several episodes of Astronomy Cast which are on this topic. Check out Episode 151: Atmospheres.

January 23, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Pictures of Alaska

Here are some pictures of Alaska, taken from space by a variety of Earth observation satellites. These satellites capture images of Alaska to help scientists understand the natural processes that shape our planet. But, in our case, they also make for really pretty pictures.

This is a picture of Alaska; the Brooks Range in Northern Alaska. This picture was taken by the true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on board NASA’s Terra satellite, which was launched in 1999. The Beaufort Sea is at the top of the image.

This is an image of the point between Alaska and Northwest Canada. You can see the sea ice off the coast of Northern Alaska. This image was taken in Spring, as the northern tundra is just starting to be visible under the melting snow.

This is a photograph of Eastern Alaska. You can see the Aleutian Islands and Kodiak Island, as well as the Yukon River. The cloud bank is hiding a plankton bloom in Bristol Bay.

This is a satellite photo of the Coast of Alaska. Perhaps the most famous feature is Prince William Sound, the site of the Exxon oil tanker spill. The lighter colors in the ocean comes from sediment coming off the ground and being carried into the ocean by currents.

Of course, one of the most famous features of Alaska are the spectacular Northern Lights. This image was captured by Joshua Strang at an air base in Alaska. We see the Northern Lights when particles from the Sun’s solar wind are channeled by the Earth’s magnetic field, creating ionized particles in the upper atmosphere.

We’ve written many articles about Alaska for Universe Today. Here’s an article about the recent eruption of Alaska’s Redoubt volcano, and more information about ice loss in Alaska.

If you’d like more Alaska photos, check out Visible Earth Homepage. And here’s a link to NASA’s Earth Observatory.

We’ve also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about planet Earth. Listen here, Episode 51: Earth.

January 22, 2010 by Fraser Cain

Nancy Atkinson’s Blog… Lives

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that our Universe Today senior editor, Nancy “The Space Encyclopedia” Atkinson has her own blog. She’s been twittering and blogging here, but now she’ll have another outlet for all that space news. Check it out and add her to your RSS feeds and blogrolls.

The Nancy Atkinson blog.

Since she’s already doing full time writing for Universe Today, producing Astronomy Cast and project managing 365 Days of Astronomy, I believe she’s opened up a portal to a parallel universe, and enlisted the help of a duplicate Nancy Atkinson with a little spare time to help her keep track of it all.

January 21, 2010January 4, 2019 by Fraser Cain

Universe Today Guide to the Messier Objects

Well, Tammy’s done it again. Remember the Universe Today Guide to the Constellations? Well now Tammy has completed another monster volume. The Universe Today Guide to the Messier Objects. This is a guide to all 110 Messier Objects, from M1 (the Crab Nebula) to M110 (a satellite galaxy to Andromeda), and everything in between.

In addition to descriptions of the individual Messier Objects, there’s also a nice introduction to the Messier Objects, a guide to doing a Messier marathon, and suggestions for stretching your Messier marathon out to a week.

If you’ve got any questions, comments or feedback, please let us know. I’m sure there are going to be some bugs in there.

Thanks. And thanks again to the wonderful Tammy Plotner for grinding through this monster project.

M1 – M2 – M3 – M4 – M5 – M6 – M7 – M8 – M9 – M10 – M11 – M12 – M13 – M14 – M15 – M16 – M17 – M18 – M19 – M20 – M21 – M22 – M23 – M24 – M25 – M26 – M27 – M28 – M29 – M30 – M31 – M32 – M33 – M34 – M35 – M36 – M37 – M38 – M39 – M40 – M41 – M42 – M43 – M44 – M45 – M46 – M47 – M48 – M49 – M50 – M51 – M52 – M53 – M54 – M55 – M56 – M57 – M58 – M59 – M60 – M61 – M62 – M63 – M64 – M65 – M66 – M67 – M68 – M69 – M70 – M71 – M72 – M73 – M74 – M75 – M76 – M77 – M78 – M79 – M80 – M81 – M82 – M83 – M84 – M85 – M86 – M87 – M88 – M89 – M90 – M91 – M92 – M93 – M94 – M95 – M96 – M97 – M98 – M99 – M100 – M101 – M102 – M103 – M104 – M105 – M106 – M107 – M108 – M109 – M110

P.S. If you want to use any part of this information for any reason whatsoever, you’ve got my permission. Be my guest. Print them off for your astronomy club, turn it into a PDF and give it away from your site. Republish the guides on your own site. Whatever you like. All I ask is that you link back to Universe Today and the specific page, so people can find out where it came from.

January 21, 2010March 25, 2012 by Fraser Cain

Misbehaving Mobile Edition

Hey everyone, I updated the design of Universe Today to support mobile devices, but it sounds like it was a little overaggressive and displayed the mobile version to regular browsers. I’ve stripped it back so it should be displaying to iPods, iPhones and Android browsers right now.

If you’re seeing the mobile edition and don’t want to see it, please let me know. And if you’ve got a mobile device and want to see that instead of the regular webpage, let me know as well.

Only email me if you’re seeing the opposite of what you want to see. (Or if you’re a Nigerian prince who wants some help getting money out of the country.)

[email protected]

Thanks!

Fraser

January 13, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Nebula Wallpaper

Want a nebula wallpaper to put as the background image of your computer desktop? Here’s a handful of nebula images. To make any of them your computer’s background image, just click on the image to see a larger version. Then right-click on the image and choose to set the image as your desktop background.

The nebula wallpaper is the Flame Nebula, captured by the European Southern Observatory. Also known as NGC 2024, it’s a famous nebula located about 1,500 light-years away in the constellation of Orion. The bright star at the top of the image is Alnitak, one of the belt stars of Orion.

This is a wallpaper image of the Crab Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Also known as M1, the Crab Nebula is the results of a supernova explosion that occurred almost 1000 years ago. Astronomers in 1054 AD reported a star brighting in the sky, and lasting for a few weeks before it dimmed again. That was the supernova that went on to create the Crab Nebula.

This is a wallpaper of the Butterfly Nebula (or NGC 6302) captured by Hubble. This is a planetary nebula, the result of a dying star blasting out its outer layers into space. This is what our own Sun might do in about 7 billion years from now after it becomes a red giant star.

This is Hubble Space Telescope image of the Ring Nebula, also known as M57. It’s actually a planetary nebula, where the outer layers of a dying star are puffed out into space. The Ring Nebula is located about 4000 light-years away, and measures about 500 times larger than the Solar System.

This is the Carina Nebula, photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. This is just one pillar of gas and dust in the nebula, measuring 2 light-years across. It’s located about 7,500 light years from Earth.

We’ve written many articles about nebulae for Universe Today. Here’s an article about dust in the Iris Nebula, and here’s an article about Hubble images of the Helix Nebula.

If you’d like more information on nebulae, check out NASA’s Photo Gallery of Nebulae, and here’s a link to the Hubblesite Homepage for recent stories and images.

We’ve recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about nebulae. Listen here, Episode 111: Nebulae.