Solar System Scope WorldWide Telescope WorldWide Telescope (WWT) enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky, blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich immersive experience. WorldWide Telescope is a collaborative effort between Microsoft Research and a variety of academic and governmental agencies. Microsoft Research is making WorldWide Telescope available as a free resource to the astronomy and education community with the hope that it will inspire and empower people to explore and understand the universe as never before. New Features WorldWide Telescope now brings viewers the largest and clearest image of the night sky ever produced. Another recent development, interactive images and an exciting new NASA data set now enable viewers to explore the features of Mars virtually. WorldWide Telescope Developer Programs Developers can customize the use of WorldWide Telescope to get their own message across in several different ways. Highlights include:
openuniverse 12 Must-See Skywatching Events in 2012 | 2012 Skywatching Events Guide &... This story was updated on Jan. 2. As the year 2011 comes to a close, some might wonder what is looming sky-wise for 2012? What celestial events might we look forward to seeing? I've selected what I consider to be the top 12 "skylights" for this coming year, and list them here in chronological order. Hopefully your local weather will cooperate on most, if not all, of these dates. Jan. 4: Quadrantid meteor shower peaks This meteor shower reaches its peak in the predawn hours of Jan. 4 for eastern North America. From the eastern half of North America, a single observer might count on seeing as many as 50-to-100 "Quads" in a single hour. The first major meteor shower of 2012 takes place on the night of Tuesday, Jan. 3 and the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 4. Feb. 20 to March 12: Best evening apparition of Mercury In February and March, the "elusive" innermost planet Mercury moves far enough from the glare of the sun to be readily visible soon after sunset. March 3: Mars arrives at opposition
Asteroid Watch Recent News February 5, 2015NASA's Dawn spacecraft, on approach to dwarf planet Ceres, has acquired its latest and closest-yet snapshot of this mysterious world. › Read more January 27, 2015NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned the sharpest images ever seen of the dwarf planet Ceres. › Read more January 22, 2015There has been a significant increase in the amount of water "pouring" out of the Rosetta mission's comet. › Read more › More news Next Five Close Approaches Average distance between Earth and the moon is about 239,000 miles (385,000 kilometers). The Asteroid Watch Widget tracks asteroids and comets that will make relatively close approaches to Earth. The Widget displays the next five Earth approaches to within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometers or 19.5 times the distance to the moon); an object larger than about 150 meters that can approach the Earth to within this distance is termed a potentially hazardous object.
Eyes on the Earth From the unique vantage point in space, NASA collects critical long-term observations of our changing planet. NASA applies ingenuity and expertise gained from decades of planetary and deep-space exploration to the study of our home planet. The Earth Science Division operates more than 20 satellites in orbit, sponsors hundreds of research programs and studies, and funds opportunities to put data to use for societal needs. We develop new ways to observe the oceans, land cover, ice, atmosphere, and life, and we measure how changes in one drive changes in others over the short and long term. While listening to and collaborating with industry leaders, international partners, academic institutions, and other users of our data, we deepen knowledge of our planet, drive innovations, and deliver science to help inform decisions that benefit the nation and the world. Wildfires and Climate Change Learn More about Wildfires and Climate Change How Do We Know Climate Change is Real?
Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Reviews - StumbleUpon WFCAM Science Archive UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey (GPS) Mosaic - DR7 The main window below displays a 6 billion pixel (1 arcsec pixels) mosaic of the GPS (centre: l=52, b=0 (109 > l > 0 ,360 > l > 355 and -2.5 < b < +2.5). Use the controls in the main window or the mouse (click&drag ) to move around the image and zoom in and out. Click on the small images on the left to move to that point in the mosaic. Other versions: dr6 release dr4 release dr3 release dr2 release Details on the mosaic and its constructionWSA home Credits: The underlying blocks used to construct the mosaic were made using TERAPIX software, namely SWarp and STIFF (Emmanuel BERTIN). of Philosophy&-&Philosophy - the best subject in the world The first reason why Philosophy is the best and most important subject in the world, is because it gives us the opportunity to think more deeply about the subjects that really matter to us as individuals and to societies, nations and humanity itself. These include such questions as: Everyday life often seems so full of pushes and pulls that it can be hard to address such matters in as full a way as we might wish. Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young, nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the benefits of philosophy. (Letter to Menoeceus) The second reason why philosophy is so important as a subject is because it deals in the realm of causes and ideas which govern human life. For example Plato lived over two thousand years ago and what he said about such subjects as the nature of truth, justice and beauty have formed the starting point for so much of western thinking since that time.