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Full Moon above Stuttgart

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Nightfall in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Copyright: Luiza Whitaker

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Triton: The Outer Most Ocean in The Solar System

A new day dawns on Triton. It’s going to be a cold one, much like the last. And the one before that… and every day since the moon settled into its present orbit around Neptune. Even the volcanoes here spew out cold gases and liquid water rather than hot magma. But below the frigid surface, which registers a temperature of -235 °C, there’s something more clement: a liquid ocean.

At first glance, Triton seems to be just another icy moon – a featureless, barren world spinning around Neptune, the outermost planet of our solar system. But Triton is different.

For one thing, it orbits Neptune backwards, moving in the opposite direction to Neptune’s rotation. It’s the only large moon in the solar system to do so. Satellites can’t form in these “retrograde” orbits, so Triton must have begun life elsewhere before being captured by the gas giant. It looks a lot like Pluto, and probably came from the same place – the inner edge of the Kuiper Belt, close to Neptune.

The Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past Triton in 1989, sending back images of the moon’s frozen surface. They revealed signs of cryovolcanism – the eruption of subsurface liquids which quickly freeze when exposed to the cold of the outer solar system. As such, Triton joins a short list of worlds in the solar system known to be geologically active.

Its surface ice is unique, too: largely composed of nitrogen, with some cantaloupe-textured terrain, and a polar cap of frozen methane.

Continue..

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Moon Between the Stones

by Philip Perkins

Despite clouds and rain showers astronomer Phillip Perkins managed to spot a reddened, eclipsed Moon between the stones of this well known monument to the Sun during May’s total lunar eclipse, from Stonehenge, England.

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Moon, Venus, & The Sun

“The Moon and Venus displayed very similar phases yesterday (23 May) almost looking like twins, one heading for the Sun, the other having just performed a remarkable transit wich resulted in the annular eclipse 2 days ago.

The Moon (30’) is still 2 arc minutes smaller than the Sun (32’). The sizes of the 3 bodies are correct but of course not their relative positions. Everything is shot in daylight so I have enhanced the contrast for the Moon and Venus.” — Peter Rosén

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Venus Near the Moon

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Eclipsed Moon Montage

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Moon & Pleiades

by Laurent Laveder

A conjunction of the crescent Moon and Pleiades or the seven sisters star cluster in early morning sky.

[A fascinating time-lapse AVI video of the same scene is available here.]

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Astronomy & Energy

“During the next hours the moon moved over the caloric power plant Mellach, Austria.” — Robert Pölzl

tumblrpigeon:

A Partial Eclipse Over Manila Bay

(via ikenbot)

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Waning Crescent Moon from Pic of the Sacred Heart, Paris

by VegaStar Carpentier

(via ghostnineone)

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Moon Craters

by Veerayen Mohanadas

fuckyeahspaceexploration:

Photographers always talk about perspective. It doesn’t get more perspective than this: first ever photo of the Earth and the Moon in the same frame, 1977. Taken by Voyager 1.

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Midnight in Paris

by Babak A. Tafreshi

This single-exposure image has captured the setting moon over the Arc de Triomphe (Etoile) and the well-known Champs-Elysees avenue.

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Setting by The Alps

by Stefano De Rosa

Full Moon setting behind the Alps and the Sacra of San Michele.