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November 16, 2015 - The Eagle Has Risen

The Eagle Has Risen  Appearing like a winged fairy-tale creature poised on a pedestal, this object is actually a billowing tower of cold gas and dust rising from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula. The soaring tower is 9.5 light-years high, about twice the distance from our Sun to the next nearest star.  Stars in the Eagle Nebula are born in clouds of cold hydrogen gas that reside in chaotic neighborhoods, where energy from young stars sculpts fantasy-like landscapes in the gas. The tower may be a giant incubator for those newborn stars. A torrent of ultraviolet light from a band of massive, hot, young stars (off the top of the image) is eroding the pillar. Ghostly streamers of gas can be seen boiling off the tower’s rough surface in this image taken by the Hubble Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Image credit: NASA / ESA / The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA)

Weekly Calendar

November 16-22, 2015

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

 

Moon phase Monday 16

1962: Saturn SA-3 launched
1973: Skylab 4 crew launched on 84-day mission
1974: Interstellar message broadcast from Arecibo radio telescope
2009: STS-129 Atlantis launched

Moon phase Tuesday 17

Mercury in superior conjunction
Vesta
appears stationary
Leonid meteor shower

1970: Luna 17 lands on Moon; Lunokhod 1 rover becomes first wheeled vehicle on Moon

Moon phase Wednesday 18

Neptune appears stationary
Leonid meteor shower

1923: Alan Shepard born
1989: Cosmic Background Explorer launched
2013: MAVEN spacecraft launched to Mars

Moon phase Thursday 19

First Quarter Moon 1:27 AM ET
Neptune 3° south of Moon

1969: Apollo 12 makes second lunar landing
1996: STS-80 Columbia launched
1997: STS-87 Columbia launched
2005: Hayabusa spacecraft makes first liftoff from an asteroid

Moon phase Friday 20

1889: Edwin Hubble born
1998: Zarya module launched, first element of International Space Station
2002: First Delta IV launched
2004: Swift spacecraft launched

Moon phase Saturday 21

Moon phase Sunday 22

Uranus 0.9° north of Moon

1989: STS-33 Discovery launched  

Suggestions for new history dates or better links? Corrections for errors on this page? Please e-mail me.