npr:

timelightbox:

Jay Nemeth—Red Bull/Getty Images

March 15, 2012. Pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria is seen before his jump during the first manned test flight for Red Bull Stratos, based in Roswell, New Mexico.

From the conflict in Afghanistan and a tragic bus accident in Switzerland to Purim celebrations in Israel and the one-year anniversary of the Japanese tsunami, TIME’s photo department presents the best images of the week. See more here.

Too cool -Savy

Almost.

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6 Martian sunrises, as seen by the HiRISE orbiter. 

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graceae:

The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland

illustration by Señor Salme.

n-a-s-a:

NGC 6302: Big, Bright, Bug Nebula

Credit: A. Zijlstra (UMIST) et al., ESA, NASA 

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artist-likes-artists:

Something new and of course awesome from Donato Giancola

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opulantpetrichor:

During the middle of the 19th century, a star system known as Eta Carinae suddenly became the second-brightest star in the night sky, then gradually faded again. Known as the Great Eruption, this event released about 10 percent of the energy that would have been liberated if the star had gone supernova, and caused the star to shed approximately 10 Suns’ worth of mass. Yet somehow, Eta Carinae survives to this day. Understanding the behavior of Eta Carinae (which is estimated to still hold at least 100 times the mass of our Sun) will provide astronomers with knowledge of the end-stages of very massive stars, and allow them to distinguish between eruptions and supernova explosions.

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the man

Comet Garradd and M92 
Image Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri (CARA Project, CAST)

Explanation: Sweeping slowly through the constellation Hercules, Comet Garradd (C2009/P1) passed with about 0.5 degrees of globular star cluster M92 on February 3. Captured here in its latest Messier moment, the steady performer remains just below naked-eye visibility with a central coma comparable in brightness to the dense, well-known star cluster. The rich telescopic view from New Mexico’s, early morning skies, also features Garradd’s broad fan shaped dust tail and a much narrower ion tail that extends up and beyond the right edge of the frame. Pushed out by the pressure of sunlight, the dust tail tends to trail the comet along its orbit while the ion tail, blown by the solar wind, streams away from the comet in the direction opposite the Sun. Of course, M92 is over 25,000 light-years away. Comet Garradd is 12.5 light-minutes from planet Earth, arcing above the ecliptic plane.